Lines

In the Ukraine, they don't stand in lines like normal people. Normally in a line, the line goes in the order in which people got there. Here, they basically have a line buddy. I am after the girl in the red shirt, who is after the man in the white shirt, who is after the lady in the black dress and so forth...

Today we had to go and get the birth certificate and adoption decree legalized. Usually, I would not have to be involved in this. However, because of the whole "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day", Oksana was unable to do this. Apparently if I go and do this, we can get the documents legalized the same day whereas it takes a week if Oksana or Irena do it. So Katya and I left at 10:30 am and went with Irena and her son to the "Ministry of ?" and stood in line - or rather Irena stood in line and I just went and joined her a little before it was our turn. While I was standing there, a lady was recounting to another lady the line order and pointing, in a zig-zag pattern, who was after who, etc. The line for two offices both fall in the same short, narrow hallway so the people just pack in there and move ever so slightly for you when you need to leave. We needed something from both offices, so once we were through with the first office we got right back into line for the second. A man with a little girl butted in line. I couldn't understand what he said but I think he gave the people the story that his wife worked there and he was just going to see her but when he came out and they could tell that he lied, the people were mad. When another man tried to butt, Irena played line back. For those of you who know Irena, she is a large woman and she stood in front of that door like she would tackle the man if he tried to enter. As we were leaving, I could hear the people still arguing with the man that was trying to butt. Since he wasn't the next one to leave, my assumption is that his "butting" attempt was not successful.

We had to go stand in line again at 4 pm to pick up the documents. The same people were there again - the lady with the white shirt and shoes with shiny silver heels, the man with the little girl that butted in line, the lady with the broad face and white capris (only she was wearing a different shirt), and the girl with the jeans with holes in them. Katya came with me again because she wanted to (I told her that she could stay with Grandma, but she wanted to come). When she started complaining about the wait, I reminded her that it was her choice to come. Besides, she was playing games on my phone while I had to just sit there! As we were sitting there, I heard the phrase, "Tomorrow is Wednesday" in the middle of someone's conversation. "Yes", I thought to myself. "Today is Tuesday, tomorrow is Wednesday, and I really want to go home on Friday." Then I realized that someone was speaking English. Oh - what a wonderful sound! I looked over to see who it was and I think it was a translator because later in the conversation he spoke another language.

The bad news today was that we aren't getting the passport tomorrow. I was still clinging to the hope that we might be able to fly out of Friday. But alas that hope is gone. According to Irena, once we get the passport, we can do the medical exam and the visa application the same day and then the next day we will receive the visa. When I found out we weren't getting the passport tomorrow, I was thinking in my head, "If we get it Thursday, we will get the visa on Friday and still be able to fly out on Saturday. But if we don't get it until Friday, we will be stuck her until Monday". However, Irena assured me that we can get the embassy to issue the visa the same day so we will be able to fly out on Saturday. I feel about 80% confident that this is the case, so I really hope that we get the passport on Thursday. I need to get out of here. If we have to stay over the weekend I am seriously going to cry.