We didn’t get together with Karina until the afternoon today because she needed to study for her geography final. When we picked her up, even though it was raining, we set out on a mission to find a pair of shoes. Even though we looked a little yesterday, I had no idea how difficult this would turn out to be. It turns out that Karina has a rather large foot for a Ukrainian woman. It’s a European size 40 or I am guessing about a 9 or 10 American size. 40 is the largest size a woman’s shoe comes in here and when you get into this size, there are not many choices. Karina grew increasing discouraged. Since our wonderful translator was with us, Kate, she explain to Karina that this will not be a problem once we get to America. American woman have large feet because, well…….basically we grow them big in America. We finally found a pair to tied us over until we get home. Then we will have to go shoe shopping in the US. This should be fun since shoe shopping her is stressful for her and not enjoyable. Plus because it was raining, we were going inside and out and even though we had umbrellas, the roads had puddles everywhere (Potholes) and literally gushing streams of water running down the roads. Thankfully we were all wearing sandals because our feet were soaked.
We also set out on a mission to find a “real” bible. We found a kids bible but not a real translation. Amazingly enough, when we went to that large bookstore the other day looking for translation books and dictionaries, THERE WAS NO BIBLE TO BE FOUND IN THE ENTIRE STORE. A bookstore!? This really amazed me. I am not sure what that means. We ended up going to a flea market of sorts but there was no bible there also. Finally Kate took us to a little store outside a local church. They had a fabulous full bible for approximately $16 US. Evan has been asking for this for awhile so I bought two, one for him and one for Karina. I am hoping they don’t throw my luggage weight over the top since they are rather heavy. :o) I might have to buy one more piece of luggage so I don’t have to pay a fine. :o)
Here are some interesting observations about Ukrainian I thought you might enjoy:
1. There must not be a dog pound because there are stray cats and dogs everywhere. This has been quite upsetting to the kids. We have decided to collect our straps and save them for the dogs as we leave for the day.
2. I am not sure if I mentioned this or not but having a washing machine is a luxury here. A luxury that I am happy our apartment comes with. However, there is no such thing as a dryer. We are doing laundry every other day and drying it on a rack. Spoiled Americans!
3. They have the best instant coffee I have ever had here. I might bring some back. It’s amazing.
4. The roads and sidewalks are an American Lawyers dream come true. It doesn’t seem to bother anyone. Even building entrances and steps are not what I would call up to American code. You really need to watch her step everywhere here.
5. There is no tax on anything so far. This might explain the roads and sidewalks. :o)
6. The woman here dress to the “9’s” all the time. 3 to 4 inch heels, dresses, hair, nails. Not sure where they get the money to do all of this.
That’s all the observations I can think of at the moment. I’ll post some more later. We are off to celebrate Angel’s birthday at a local amusement park. It should be interesting.
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