We have the passport!!!

We have the passport!!! This means that tomorrow will be spent at the US Embassy doing a medical exam of Katya in the morning and applying for the visa in the afternoon (or so I am told that this is the plan). Then, we will receive the visa on Friday and be out of here on Saturday. The travel agent had a hard time finding us a flight on Saturday but he did it and we are set to arrive sometime around 10:30 pm (I don't have flight info yet but will post it when I get it).

Today we spent the day souvenir shopping. Katya was not very nice, I have to say. She complained the whole time and then she kept wanting me to buy her all these junkie little things, to which I kept saying no. I finally agreed to buy her this bag and when I gave it to her to carry, she wouldn't carry it. So, I was putting it in the diaper bag and she apparently didn't want it in there and wanted me to carry it. I had Tony in the baby carrier and there was no way I was going to carry it so I told her, in a not-so-nice tone, that it was going in the diaper bag or she was carrying it. I don't think she really understood me but she understood enough that she better leave the bag in the diaper bag :)

Then, we got lost. We had Irena drive us there, because it was a pretty long walk and would have been uphill all the way there but I figured we could walk downhill back. Besides, I didn't want Irena waiting for us. Irena is a pretty gruff person and honestly not my favorite person here and it would have been very annoying to have her rushing us along. I thought I could remember my way back, as I had tried to notice the landmarks on the way there. On one corner there was a "Safari" store and on another corner there was a cafe with a blue and red sign. I am the worst at navigating around. I am embarrassed to admit that I once got lost in the Gateway parking lot. I couldn't remember where I parked my car and Allie was with me and we had to have the guy drive us around to find our car. Allie thought it was pretty funny! I went wrong this time when I had us turn on the street right after the church and we walked all the way down the hill only to end up at Independence Square. We stopped at McDonalds and had a "Big and Nasty" (which is what my mom called Ukraine's version of the "Big and Tasty") and then called Elena who called Irena to find out where we were staying. We were instructed to walk all the way back up the hill we had come from. She gave Katya directions and good 'ole Katya got us home. Katya kept asking people as we were walking along if they knew where "Pushkinska" street was so that we knew we were going in the right direction. We turned left at the street with the Safari (See - I really had tried to pay attention!) and left again at the street with the red and blue sign and we made it home. We got caught in a down pour on the way home. The weather here reminds me of Florida - it will just start downpouring with very little notice, rain for about five minutes and then stop.