Friday in Pictures

Celebrated our visa victory with coffee. (It was cafe americano, Freddie. Sometimes the espresso is just too much to handle.)

Went back to our room to pack and give S a nap. She wasn't having it- so we gave her some oranges to play with.

Fun at IKEA with Mary Jill! The following pictures involve Mike and Solomiya trying out the merchandise.

You can see they were both having a lot of fun.

S really liked that hammer...

Solomiya was very happy with her first IKEA experience.

The best part: 50 cent ice cream cones.

Solomiya trying a spoonful.

Friday

From Mike's Facebook post:
"Got our visas today, which will allow us to apply for residency within 45 days! Praise God! Next step, is to get registered back in Uzhhorod ASAP. Then, get Solomiya her permit.
Spending the night here in Budapest with our friend Mary Jill Callery tonight, then taking the train back home on Saturday. :-)"

Had an awesome afternoon with Mary Jill; went to IKEA and a HUGE grocery store! Pictures to come!
Taking the 3:23pm train today from Budapest to Zahone, Hungary. Then, hopping on another train from Zahone to Chop, Ukraine. Then, taking a taxi from Chop to Uzhhorod. Should arrive home around 10:30pm (1 hour time difference included).

Thursday

Went to the train station this afternoon with our friend Tanya to purchase our return tickets to Ukraine. Apparently, Monday and Tuesday are holidays, so all of the trains tomorrow are completely full. We were able to purchase tickets for Saturday though.
Even though we really wanted to get back to Ukraine ASAP, we are thankful for:
1. Going to the train station today (instead of tomorrow with all of our luggage and baby and finding out their were no trains available)
2. Getting to hang out and have dinner with the Person family tonight AND Mary Jill who arrived back in Budapest this morning
3. Going on an IKEA adventure with Mary Jill tomorrow
4. Awesome sunny days and warm temperatures
5. Solomiya taking a 2 hour nap this afternoon (she averages about 30-45 minutes)

Tomorrow morning we head back to the Ukrainian Embassy to have the visas placed in our passports.



Szeretem vásárlás IKEA.

Wednesday

Enjoyed some beautiful weather today and did a lot of walking!
First, we walked to this place called 'Mom Park'- which is actually a business park and a mall with 3 levels. It contained very expensive stores, but they did have a really nice McDonalds inside. So we grabbed some lunch and did a little homework. (The cheeseburger was heavenly.)
Solomiya was not really into the mall, so we walked back to our room so she could take a nap. Then in the afternoon, we ventured out again and walked across the river to the Pest side of the city. Mike wanted to check out the Iron Market and to look for langos.
*Visitor's Guide*
"The market hall on Fovam Square, locacted on the Pest side of Liberty Bridge, has served customers and traders since 1897. You can find special goods on each floor of the multi-story hall: mainly seafood and game in the basement, classic vegetable, fruit and meat products on the ground floor, and eateries and gift shops on the first floor. If you are ready for the deep fried dough known as langos, a very popular market food, then the only thing you have to decide after you have dabbed it with garlic using a brush, placed on the counter in a small bottle, is whether you want to top it with sour cream and cheese. It is not an easy ride, but an experience hard to forget."

After this, we walked back to the Buda side of the bridge and went to a park. We tried to get some good photos of us with the city in the background.

Langos at the Iron Market. Pretty tasty, but I don't think I will ever eat one again.

Decided to go hardcore and add sour cream and cheese. Mike also topped his with some Hungarian pepperoni and fresh tomatoes.

Solomiya kept trying to take a bite

First floor of the Iron Market

Cutest picture ever.

Today, we are meeting up with Tanya and 3 of her kids. She is going to the train station with us to help us buy our return tickets to Chop, Ukraine.
We also have to buy bus tickets for tomorrow morning. We are going to ride it to the Ukrainian Embassy to pick up our visas.
Other than that, our day will include: Solomiya taking 1-2 naps, homework, walking around the park and staying away from langos or anything that looks like langos.

Monday & Tuesday Pictures

Hungarian Ewok

Lilacs blooming EVERYWHERE! It smells awesome.

The Ukrainian Compound Embassy fenced in. The small tan building to the left is the Polish and also the Saudi Arabian Embassy. (?)

The Embassy was high up on this hill. You can see houses in the distance and this really cool road made of slabs of rock.

Kickass cafe.

oh how cute.

Road Trip: Monday & Tuesday

Jim & Laurie picked us up at about 9am Monday morning. We loaded our bags into their pickup, climbed in and headed to the border. It took us one and a half hours to get through (not too bad!). We arrived in Budapest around 2:00pm. Mike & Jim navigated the busy, twisty and confusing streets until we arrived at the American Embassy at 2:30pm. Jim & Laurie had an appointment there to get some documents for their vehicle. Mike, Solomiya and I walked around a bit, found an ATM to get some Hungarian currency in our pockets and had bowls of Hungarian goulash soup. We met back up with our fellow Americans, once again navigated the streets of Pest and crossed the river to Buda (where we were all staying). After some dinner, a walk across the bridge (over the Danube), and a wonderful time talking and hanging out with Jim & Laurie- we all went to bed.
Tuesday morning: up at 7am to get ready for our 8:45am taxi pickup. The taxi took us to the Ukrainian Embassy. We were taken into the compound presented all of our paperwork, letters of invitations, pictures, applications and passports to the very nice young woman behind the glass. After she looked everything over, she told us we had to go to a certain bank, pay the fee for the visas there and return to the Embassy before 12pm with the receipt.  Mike was very brave and hopped on the public bus outside of the Embassy to take care of this. Solomiya and I took a walk on the streets outside of the Ukrainian compound (we were told that the bus cost 340 ft a person and we did not have enough small change for all 3 of us- but that was okay because while we were walking and waiting for Mike, we saw an Ewok - pictures coming soon). Met Mike at the bus stop after 40 minutes (he had completed the mission successfully), went back to the Ukrainian compound to give the lady the receipt and were told to come back Friday morning! Yay!
After this, we walked down the road a bit to see if we could find a taxi or a public phone- did not find either. So... as we were contemplating as to how we would get back to the hotel, we decided to stop at a small cafe and look over our maps (thinking we would just walk). Ended up having a kickass lunch (I'm sorry- but it was.) and the waiter called a taxi for us. Arrived at hotel, Solomiya (and I ) took a nap and the Person family contacted us (they have been missionaries based in Budapest for a while- maybe 7 years?). Tanya picked us up and we went to their house for dinner. They grilled hamburgers! Haven't had one of those in a while :) We had a lovely time hanging out with Jim & Tanya and their 3 kids.
Tomorrow we plan on doing some language homework, taking a walk through a park and Solomiya wants to look at the new Summer 2012 collection at H&M. It is so rare that she asks anything of us, so we simply must take her.

Visa Update

Headed to Budapest, Hungary this Monday (April 23rd) to apply for our long-term visas at the Ukrainian Consulate.







Looking forward to a stop here:

Easter 2012 (Ukrainian Style)

The Blessing of the Easter Baskets 2012.
This took place at 12am on Easter Morning. The crowd gathered around the priest performing the mass in front of a store. We were originally going to go to the service outside of a huge Orthodox church closer to the center of town, but when we left our apartment and started walking we noticed other people walking to this location. So... we followed them (for fun) and ended up here. It turned out good as it was less than 1 mile from our apartment. Hundreds of people were at this "satellite location".

The priests performing the mass. This mass turned out to be Catholic. The Orthodox churches were also holding services.

The service was about an hour long. When we arrived at 12am, there were already SO many people lined up along the sidewalk with their Easter Baskets.

At a certain point during the service, everyone lit the candle in their basket. This is the view to the left of where we were standing...

... and to the right of where we stood. It was very beautiful to see all the candles lit. The next day, when we walked to church, we saw spots of melted wax all along the sidewalks and some streets.

The priest beginning his procession down the sidewalk. He had this long stick-like-broom-thing that he dipped in a bucket of Holy water and sprinkled on the people and their baskets.

Our basket to the left. Our neighbors 2 baskets on the right.

Neighbor's basket: bread, sausage, cheese, eggs, apples, pears, bananas, walnuts, chocolate, wine, etc...

Our basket: bread, chocolate bunny

Mission accomplished: Able to see first-hand some very unique cultural traditions. After this service, people go home and eat the different foods in their baskets. When we got home we went to bed.

Solomiya held up really well throughout the service. She was awake the whole time: 11:30pm - 1:30am!

And... she still managed to look great for church on Easter Sunday! Here she is wearing a traditional Ukrainian shirt and a pink Easter bow!



Untitled

Solomiya did not enjoy getting her picture taken on the plush, 80's living room furniture. She's all about style and requested a more modern, aka millennium, background for future shots.

A serious post.

Just wanted to give an update on what we are up to.
Annie has a patient (44 year old man with a stroke) that she sees 2 nights a week. We ran into Dr Kolesnyk a few weeks ago while out walking to the bazaar. He mentioned that he could really use Annie's help because he had a young patient who had suffered a pretty severe stroke.
Annie has been working with this man for about 3 weeks. His wife is a pediatrician and his daughter is a medical student at the University. His daughter speaks English well, so she has been Annie's translator during the treatment sessions. This man has made good progress in his expressive speech and has regained some movement in his right arm since Annie first saw him. His family is very involved in his care and they make sure he completes the exercises and homework Annie gives him each week.
During the first session, this man's daughter asked Annie at the end of the session what they owed her for the evaluation and treatment. Annie was able to explain to them that it was free. She was able to tell them that God had sent her and her family to Ukraine to be a blessing to the people there. I know 'blessing' may be an odd word to use, but it seems to describe what we want to do here well.

bless·ing

   /ˈblɛsɪŋ/ Show Spelled[bles-ing] Show IPA

noun

1.

the act or words of a person who blesses.

2.

a special favor, mercy, or benefit: the blessings of liberty.

3.

a favor or gift bestowed by God, thereby bringing happiness.

4.

the invoking of God's favor upon a person

 

They were definitely surprised by this- which was pretty cool. Annie has really enjoyed getting to know this family.

This weekend she will be making a universal cuff for this man to, hopefully, enable him to do more things with his right arm independently (like eating):

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to you all!
Here in Ukraine, Easter will be celebrated on the 15th of April because they follow the Julian calendar. Here is some information concerning this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendar
Actually, we have asked some locals about this and here is the run down:
In Ukraine, if you are Roman Catholic, you will celebrate Easter on the 8th of April (following the Gregorian calendar). If you are Greek Orthodox, you will celebrate on the 15th (following the Julian calendar). If you are neither, as in our case, you just follow what your Pastor suggests. At New Testament church, the pastor alternates each year which day the church will celebrate- just so they do not get tied down to one or the other. So, the 15th is the day we will celebrate!
Also, it seems that many people here in Ukraine will celebrate on both Sundays.

It is also tradition for Ukrainians to make Paska bread: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paska_(bread)
The following is from Wikipedia- just thought it was interesting...

"Paska is an Easter bread eaten in Eastern European countries including Poland, Ukraine and Slovakia. It is also eaten in other countries with immigrant populations from Eastern Europe, including the US, Canada and the UK. Paska is made with milk, butter, eggs, powder and sugar. An egg and water mixture is used as a glaze.
The Christian faithful in many Eastern Orthodox countries eat this bread during Easter. Christian symbolism is associated with features of paska type breads. The inside of paska can be a swirl of yellow and white that is said to represent the risen Christ in Christian faith, while the white represents the Holy Spirit. A version is made with maraschino cherries added to symbolize royal jewels in honor of the resurrection of Jesus.^[1]
Paska is eaten with "hrudka", also called syrek, a bland sweet custard similar to cheese made from separated eggs and milk and beets mixed with horseradish (chren/hrin) and kielbasa (in Polish) or kovbasa (in Ukrainian)."

And here is a picture:


And a close-up shot:


This seemed way to difficult to make, so I made matzah instead- and it was quite good.

Behold the matzah:

Behold Solomiya in a cabbage-leaf Easter hat:

Yes, of course, it was Mike's idea. He is quite creative.
It really fit her head perfectly.