Day Trip

St. Catherine's

This last weekend we went to Chernigov to do some shopping for practical household items and to show the girls around a bit. We took the train and rode a bus to the store once we got to town. As usual, it was too hot. I’m sure in the middle of winter I will be saying the opposite, but for now, this is my reality. The girls were little troopers, they were interested in seeing St. Catherine’s church (Rylie thought it looked like Jasmine’s castle) and we went to Rampart park which is where all the cannons are. Since it was Saturday there were many wedding parties visiting the monuments getting pictures taken and toasting with Vodka to the event. We must have passed at least 4 or 5 beautiful brides. I can only imagine how hot they must have been. There is a point that you just get used to constantly glistening; the bad part is when is step inside a stifling building, what was glistening before turns into an all out sweat fest inside. I know it sounds lovely, but I’m sure we lose several pounds of water weight in just an hour!  In fact, Tony probably lost more that day since he had to carry nearly 60lbs of stuff from the store in his backpack all day (don't worry, I have been rubbing his shoulders and back for his hard work)! I did discover that at the end of a sweaty day all I need to do is rub my hands over my arms and face and I have my own natural salt rub! Fantastic (ha)! Who needs an expensive spa day when I can have it for free just walking around town?

We took the children to McDonald’s, which was great for them, but Tony and I are still not big fans. We didn’t eat at McDonald’s in the States so it’s just not a piece of home for us. We’ll stick with the ice-cream cones. The food was the same as home, but the menu options were a little less. We couldn’t get a diet cola and the girls could not get apples and milk like they normally would. Oh well. The most fun we had that day was watching the girls enjoy some activities at the park on main street. They had a trampoline with the bungie cords that attach to you and you jump 20ft in the air, both girls did that but neither were willing to flip. The giant blow up slide was a lot of fun! The best was the huge exercise ball on the water; it blows up and is 7 feet in diameter, one kid climbs in they fill it with air and seal it, then they try and run in the ball on top of the water. It’s hilarious and the girls had a blast!

We rode the bus home and I made some pretty darn good pizzas for dinner. So far I can make two meals from home (sigh). The next night we discovered that some of the spiders here are big enough to eat my toe for lunch! Ellie noticed something big and black scamper across the floor; now lets just think about that for a minute; mice, gerbils, they scamper across a floor, a spider is not supposed to be large enough to scamper! We asked Ellie, “how big?” Her eyes were big and round and she said¸ “I don’t know…, really big!” Sure enough, we crept around the corner and discovered a man eating spider! I mean a spider at least the size of a silver dollar! I’m telling you, it was abnormally big, maybe there is something to the radiation around here?! (tee hee) The big guy scampered fast but Tony got him with the shoe, and it was quite a mess to clean up afterwards, yuck!

We’ve been told that they do not have any poisonous spiders here, but I’ll be looking for spider spray for all doors and windows ASAP!