Something else to check off our list...

I (annie) am officially graduating this weekend from Dominican College with my Master's in Occupational Therapy. It has definitely been a long and hard journey, and I still have 5 more weeks of my internship left, but I am very excited about celebrating this weekend!
What I am thankful for:
1. Making it through graduate school with NO debt- Thank God!
2. Officially being able to move on with our lives and have more freedom to serve God.
3. A very encouraging and supportive husband (with a degree in English) who proofread all of my papers.

Hopefully, if our camera cooperates, we will have pics to post!

Here we are.

                                                                               

Picture of us standing on the pedestrian bridge that spans the river in Uzhgorod, Ukraine.

Slowly getting ready for departure...

Nothing too major has taken place since our trip to the Ukrainian Consulate, but we have been moving along, doing little things to get ready for our departure:
1. Had our visa pictures taken at Staples at the Newburgh Mall (not bad, $7 for 2 pics)
2. Visited 3 storage facilities near our penthouse to get their rates and see how much room we might need to store our things in while we are gone. (Ruled out one place that was closest to us secondary to creepiness)
2.5 Beginning to decide what we will take and what we will leave behind.
3. Finished our first official newsletter to send out to friends and family. (Just waiting on one pretty huge detail before we can officially mail them)
4. Gave official announcement to everyone at the church service last Sunday pertaining to our departure. (Chatted with pastors and leadership prior to this)
5. Confirmed with yet a few more people that, yes- we are having a baby, yes- we are still planning on going to Ukraine, and yes- the baby will be coming with us. This baby will enjoy flying.

This months picture is about our favorite Ukrainian food:


Dumplings that can be filled with potatoes, farmer's cheese, cabbage, cherries, meat, or mushrooms. They are boiled, tossed with butter and cooked onions (except the cherry ones), and served with sour cream on the side. Very good.

-a

The Trip to the Ukrainian Consulate, Part 1

A much belated follow-up to our trip to the Ukrainian consulate last, last week.
Well, after being stuck in traffic on the FDR for 1.5 hours, we managed to pull up to the consulate at 12:30pm- exactly 30 minutes before closing time. And... there was a parking space right in front of the door!In Manhattan. Amazing. It only cost us $95. The street signs down there can be confusing... but, that is another story.
So, we walk through the consulate door and into a tiny, dark room- about 15 square feet. There were 4 other people in the "waiting room", and a very sullen young man sitting behind a shield of bullet-proof glass with a pained expression on his face and the number '1' on his window. It was the only window.
 So, we look around, play it cool for a couple of minutes and then cautiously approach the bullet-proof glass window #1, and this young man, and Mike begins to explain our situation to him. He needs several versions of our questions to understand exactly what we are asking, a quick scan of our official letter of invitation written in Ukrainian, and then disappears to 'the back' through a secret door behind the bullet-proof glass. After about 5 minutes, he returns (perhaps he was chatting with Serhii)  and explains that the kind of visa we need to apply for is a 'Business Visa'- even though we will not be employed there. It's a 5 year visa, $140 a person, and the application is 4 pages long. Apparently, we also will not have to travel out of the country every 3 months with this visa as we had anticipated.
Seems like a good deal so we'll be applying soon. Then, after the bambino comes, we must get their passport first and then apply for their visa.
I pray this whole visa process goes very quickly and that we all get our visas on time. Perhaps I will send Serhii a fruitcake along with our visa applications...
All in all, it was a very good trip and we had our questions answered. This is the very short version. Perhaps Mike will write his side of the story and include more details about our expensive parking space, having to walk back into the consulate after we left, and chicken quesadillas.
On a lighter note, I went to the dentist this evening.
-a

ребенок hallenback

Introducing Baby Hallenback.

Coming Soon: August 29

Will emerge speaking Russian as I listen to my Russian teaching tapes on my hour long commute to work. (Sorry, Mike- but Russian is cooler.)

- a

Visa Time and Introducing Serhii Pohoreltsev

Next Friday (4/15/11), we will officially be traveling to the Ukrainian Consulate in Manhattan to inquire about, and possibly obtain, our visas for next January. Why not just call, you ask? Well, after numerous attempts by Mike, it became apparent that they simply do not answer their phones; nor do they check their email. Therefore, we must travel down there to see if this Consulate actually exists.
I hope to run into this man:

 

He is the Consulate General of Ukraine in New York. His name: Serhii O. Pohoreltsev.

I would like to say to him, "Serhii, why do you not answer your phones here?" (I will use my best Russian accent to make him feel comfortable). If I see him, I will let you know. On another note, an interesting fact about Serhii is that he also speaks Spanish. Hm.

 

 

This is a street view of the Consulate- thank you Google. It must exist if Google found it.

So- we would greatly appreciate all prayers about this subject:

1. That the Consulate does exist and we will be able to find it.

2. That they will be open on that Friday like their website says they will be. We would call, but...

3. That they (perhaps Serhii) can direct us to the right person to speak with.

4. That God would give us favor with all the Ukrainian officials at the consulate.

5. That we will leave knowing exactly what needs to be done in order to obtain visas for ourselves and the bambino.

 

Thank you.

-a

Mmmmm...Kvas!

  One of the ubiquitous kvas wagons which appear when the weather turns mild. I (Mike) must admit that I really love this wonderful beverage, although to most Americans, it's an acquired taste. (It's definitely a taste which Annie hasn't acquired!). This kvas wagon and its proprietress were photographed in the center of Khust.
  What, you ask, is kvas? Check out what the folks at Wikipedia have to say: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kvass
  If you have a Ukrainian or Russian grocery store near you, you may find something called kvas in plastic bottles. It's okay, but definitely not as good as the real thing, and is usually much sweeter, bubblier and more chocolately tasting. (Still worth a try, though, especially if you can find "L'vivs'ky" or "Danylo" brand kvas).
~ m