Our trip - from Allie's perspective

We have been having Allie write in her journal about the stuff she is doing and I thought it would be cute to post what she had written. So, here it is!

Kiev is different than Utah. There are so many hills and apartments. There are two shopping centers that we can walk to. The food is very different from American. You can park on the sidewalk here. There aren't many houses here. There are a lot of old buildings here. There is a cat somewhere and an opera singer somewhere. Ann's comment: The cat would sit outside of our apartment and yowl in the middle of the night and the lady in the apartment liked to practice her opera singing (also in the middle of the night!).

Today we went to McDonald's and it's in Independence Square. It's very famous in Kiev. We went shopping. The shoes are very expensive here. I got ice cream and I thought it was vanilla but it was lemon - it was disgusting! I took the longest nap today. After lunch I fell asleep and when I woke up it was dinner time. I pulled out my own tooth and I got ten dollars for it and I found two one cent coins (Ukraine coins). To get across the street you walk under it and there are small shops down there. Ann's comment: Alex thought I should let everybody know that Allie's tooth had been loose for a couple of weeks and that she didn't pull her tooth out in frustration! Also, initially we had hinted that the tooth fairy might pay her for her tooth in Ukrainian money. However, later that night we realized the smallest bill we had was a 200 grivnas bill and we didn't think the tooth was worth $26 - even in the Ukraine. So, we gave her $10 and then she got to go and exchange it for grivnas. That was probably more fun anyway!

We are now at the next city. It is not as nice as Kiev. We saw Katya and we took her around the town. We found a park. It was cool. The only thing I would change about it is the cement - someone is going to get hurt. Ann's comment: The cement is much like the streets - filled with great big potholes!

Today Katya walked us all to a church and we lit candles and put them in a candle holder by a picture. On the way back, we ate at the Potato House. The pizza was delicious and then we went back to the domo (Russian for house) and we made cookies. Ann's comment: It is actually doma, I think. SShhh! Don't tell that we let Katya into the house! Then we went to the orphanage and I played with the girls. We played a game called "Mouse House". Then we played "Buddy Tag". It was fun.