April Fool's Day!!

Thankfully my fam didn’t April Fool’s me. They arrived at 11:44 and I finally saw them coming through the double doors around 1. Evidently there were some customs challenges.

We immediately went to the apt we had leased from Igor on Sofiyska. Great location off Maydan. We took them to lunch at the Crimean Tatar place very close to Maydan and grabbed some coffee afterwards at the underground. It was raining so we got a little bit of a slow start. We immediately walked to St. Sophia, where the church was closed AGAIN. I’ve been there three times and it has been closed each time. URGH.
So we walked around the monastery.

Then we headed to St. Michael’s. I loved seeing Sandy and Britt’s faces as they walked into the church and saw the monks walking around.

Then we walked over to St. Andrews and down Andriyivsky Uzvuz. Mom bought a painting of St. Andrews…she liked it a lot after I told her that the Italian architect Rastrelli, who also designed the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, had designed St. Andrews in 1754. While walking down AU, someone said, “Oh, that’s so cute.” One of the guys working at the stalls understood English well and loved the accent. Mom looked over and he was laughing his head off. Ha!

They loved seeing the nesting dolls, paintings, WWII stuff, and fur hats. We talked a lot about the Orthodox Church and how cold it has been, when the snow melted, the condition of some of the buildings here, etc.

Then we dropped some things off at the apt and it was time for my surprise. I had bought tickets to Swan Lake at the National Opera Theatre. They were so excited, and I have been SO excited about surprising them. Tickets, once again, were $2.40 USD each.

We stayed for a little over an hour and left after the second act bc I had the Fulbright people make a reservation at Garbuzyk at 8:30. We ordered a bunch of Ukrainian traditional foods and all shared the dishes…corn porridge, varenyky, deruny, kvas, uzvar, holubsi, and pancakes with bananas and apples and hot chocolate. Britt and I all shared a shot of vodka and of course everyone had a shot of the red sweet horilka before we left. Have to, right?

Took a cab back to Sofiyska and heading to sleep. Britt enjoyed a mean game of chess tonight.

Great day and it is so great to have them all here!!!