Murses, Salo & Contraband Caterpillars

We have been back in Kyiv a little over a week.  Gio returned to school very happily but I suffered through my first ever bout of jet lag.  Yes, we have lived overseas for over 5 years yet this was my first time succumbing.  Perhaps it has something to do with being in my 3rd trimester of pregnancy.  Anyway, last week was a complete fog for me.  Here is what has been going on in the lives of the Bellis lately....

Gio and I ate our customary final meal in the USA at Five Guys. 

Happily filled with fries and our last taste of beef for a while, Gio fell asleep quickly after boarding our 10PM flight to Munich.  As a rare treat we were sitting in what Gio named the "fancy seats" (i.e. Business Class).  Once his chair became a bed he fell fast asleep (yes, I brought his beloved comforter on board) and stayed that way for 8 straight hours.  In fact, it took two flight attendants and me to lure him awake once we landed.  Chocolate got involved at one point. 

Once back in Kyiv the first thing we checked in our luggage was our 8 caterpillar larvae.  They all made it!  In fact, the first day we were home they all climbed to the roof of their jars and began to form chrysalides. It seems the 24+ hours they spent trapped in my luggage had no ill-effect.

Gio returned to school with his new "big boy" scooter.  So many children now bring their scooters to school that Mr. Mark set up a parking space for each.  Here is Gio's spot.

A terrible picture of the chrysalides. Time to transfer them to the "butterfly garden." 

I bought Paolo a new lunchbox.  I think he was very pleased with my selection.

Friday brought the area all around Gio's school into the center of town to a complete standstill.   Ukrainian officials, in their unending attempt to boggle my mind, decided it would make perfect sense to organize an international bike race on the busiest traffic day of the week, shutting down every major road between school and our apartment.  Things got ugly and there I was in the middle of it all.  Good times.  Jet lagged and cranky, this was a day I was longing for the tame and relatively mild traffic jams of DC (yes, those of you who have never experienced traffic in developing countries, count yourself lucky!).

So here is what happens when you have lived overseas as long as we have.... You discover a new familiar product at your local store and FREAK OUT.  Have I ever bought Miracle Whip in the USA?  No way.  Did I buy this jar out of sheer delight and homesickness?  You bet I did. 

Sunday we walked the ten minutes from our apartment to the giant stadium (have I mentioned the pluses of living smack dab in the city center?) to watch the final game of the local soccer (sorry, Paolo, FOOTBALL) team, Kyiv Dynamo.  

Although he looks intent on the game here, Gio was really mostly interested in the wild colors of the players' shoes. 

Though how he could see the colors from our "nose bleed" seats, I have no idea.
 Yep, I bought the cheap tickets.  

At halftime we snuck into the nicer section to visit with Gio's beloved teacher, Mr. Mark.  We are certain he was delighted for more Gio time on his weekend off from preschoolers. 

We finally transferred the chrysalides into the butterfly garden and the wait continued.....

The following series of photos were taken today as a glimpse into a typical day for Gio and me.  I was also inspired by my good friend Merilee's blog.  She is a master at capturing Ukrainians and their unique look.  For some fun, take a look at her latest entry...http://mcdougalfamilyoverseas.blogspot.com/2013/05/kievs-morning-commute.html

As an addendum to Merilee's expose, I thought I would show you the summer look of the unique species that is the Ukrainian man.  The most common denominator of this look is the MURSE (that is, male purse)....

 On the metro to school this morning.  Male uniform: white/gray/tan pants, sandles (often with black socks) and, of course, the murse.

I enlarged this one just so you can really savor it.  I walked through one of our local markets after school drop off this morning.  Yum.  Unwrapped meat on an 80F day.  Mmmmm.  The whitish chunks about 5 meats down the row? Salo.  Look it up and salivate.  It is wildly popular here.  I just cannot embrace it.  

This morning I discovered that our first butterfly had emerged.  It was the first school morning EVER that I was able to get Gio to leap out of bed.  We sliced up oranges for our new pet and doused some flowers with sugar water.  When I came home mid-morning 3 more had emerged.   

On the metro back to school to pick up Gio I found another fine example of the male Ukrainian.  Here are the alternative option to the sandle- the white woven shoe. Often the toe is also very pointed and curled upwards.  I wonder if I could ever get Paolo into a pair of those?  Note the murse.  

Even the familiar shorts-t-shirt-flip-flop look is accentuated with the male purse. Why has this not been embraced in the US, I wonder??  

On the walk from the metro to school- a very typical Ukrainian apartment building.  When people say to me, "Oh, I hear Kyiv is a beautiful city," my mind cannot help but think that, yes, there are gorgeous spots, especially in the city center, but the vast majority of Ukrainians live in the depressing Soviet-style apartment blocks far from the center of town.  

I was a bit early for school pickup so I stopped at a favorite coffee shop .  Yes, that is her dog sitting in the chair next to her.  Am now thinking of bringing Enzo along for my next tea break.   

School pickup usually involves a bit of extra time on the playground.  Here is Gio with his long-time best buddy Josh.   

Josh will be moving up to Kindergarten next year (he is a bit older than Gio).  Luckily they can still have lunch together next year and a shared recess!

More murse action (and the denim-on-denim look captured so well on Merilee's blog)

A new shop has opened across the street from our building.  Shiny striped suits in abundance.  Another male fashion must around here. We really need to leave Ukraine before Paolo adopts THAT look. 

Once home Gio was delighted to find 6 butterflies in our habitat.  We are watching the last two chrysalides hoping to actually get to witness one emerge.  For anyone in the US who wants to do this fabulous activity, I highly recommend it.  A link: http://www.insectlore.com/

Reunions, Blue Ice Cream & Final Days in DC...

Last weekend we headed up to my boarding school reunion in Groton, MA.  (I attended Groton School from ages 14 to 18.) It was my first ever reunion and now I wish I had been brave enough to attend all of the earlier ones.  I loved seeing so many of my former classmates and teachers, and I think Paolo was pleasantly surprised by his visit.  He arrived thinking the idea of boarding school was cruel (remember Italians usually stay at home until they are in their 20s!) and came away after the weekend thinking it would be a great place to send Gio (I did "neglect" to tell him what the tuition is these days!).

Once back in DC we said goodbye to Paolo who returned to Kyiv to reunite with Enzo and with the stack of work awaiting him in his office.  Gio and I have enjoyed a relaxed week visiting friends, playing baseball, frequenting our favorite restaurants (Surfside & 5 Guys) and spending as much time as we can with my beloved great aunt and uncle, Joan & Ev Shorey.  Uncle Ev has not been feeling well lately so we are trying our best to cheer him up.

We head back to Kyiv late Sunday night (the oh-so-fun 10PM flight out of DC to Munich and then a Monday flight to Kyiv).  Not sure Gio will make it back to school on Tuesday so his attendance record will surely earn us another stern letter from his principal.  We will be in Kyiv for less than 4 weeks before we begin the drive to Italy for the summer!

First thing to do on our drive from Logan Airport to Groton?  Stop at Friendly's, of course, for cotton candy ice cream topped with Reese's Pieces.  Even my rock-solid sweet tooth was rather disgusted with this choice.  

Arrival at Groton.  Gio was immediately on the look-out for other kids.  

When we drove onto the campus Paolo asked first thing if I would show him where to find the chapel.  I told him it would be hard to miss. 

A rare photo of me- it may be the only one you ever see of me pregnant! 

I somehow managed to take NO other pictures of the reunion (the weather was also quite horrible the next two days).  I will not bore you with all of the details but I will say I loved being there and it was a lot of fun to see all of my grown-up classmates acting like teenagers again.  As the sole pregnant lady I offered a useful role as a designated driver!

Post reunion.  Even Gio had a "hangover" to sleep off.  A certain 4-year-old got to spend two nights swimming in the hotel pool after 10PM with his papa! 

We spent Paolo's final evening in town with the Shorey clan.  My wonderful cousin Rachel knitted this sweater for our August arrival.  She recycled the yarn from an old sweater and hand-dyed the wool.  Wow.  

Gio in Uncle Ev's hat.  Yep. His head circumference has always been off the charts!

CUPCAKES!  Gio has done a full survey of all of the cupcakes in Georgetown: Sprinkles, Baked & Wired  and Georgetown Cupcake.  He agrees with me that B&W's are the best!

We have done a tour of all of his favorite parks around town: Rose, Montrose,  Guy Mason and Turtle.  Hard to pick the best but our morning spent here at Turtle with his buddy Caden was certainly a good one! 

Today the weather finally warmed up enough to hop into the Shorey's pool.
5 hours later Gio emerged looking a bit like a raisin.   

We will be back again tomorrow.

May Holidays, Belli-style

May is filled with endless holidays in Ukraine.  What is already a glorious month is vastly improved by all of the vacation time.  We, of course, decided to take advantage and hopped on a flight to Italy even before the month began. As many of you already know, we are expecting Gio's baby sister to arrive in early August, so this is my last chance to fly before our family expands.

Hard to believe that this was our life only a month ago. 

On Gio's last day of school before a 3-week break (oops...more absences racking up on his transcript.  Bad parents. Bad parents), Gio is showing of his plumber look. 

Our 4-year-old has completely outgrown his size 5 clothing but the 6-7s are still a bit large.  He fits in now with all of the high school boys, at least. 

Before going to the US we took a chance to spend a few days in Italy first.  On the way there, through Munich, we found this fabulous airport playground.  It had slides and even a boarding gate that led to a control tower.  Have I mentioned how much we love this airline??

And, as always, Gio spent all of his time on the airplanes awake.  Only cars are for sleeping.  

We had gotten up at 3:30 AM to catch our 6AM flight out of Kyiv, so this nap in the car lasted long after we arrived at our house.  We left him out in the driveway for 2 more hours (and even did a few errands with him happily snoring away).  

The next day our wonderful friends the Mcdougals arrived from Kyiv to spend some time with us in Italy.  We visited the local cheese factory (and its resident pouch)...

....ate A LOT (look closely to see how Gio managed to destroy an entire basket full of bread)

Shared bedtime stories with Xavier (McDougal crew includes three children, ages 10, 7 and almost 6 so Gio was in heaven with so many big kids around!)...

...and did A LOT of jumping....

....in PJs, of course.  For more on the McDougal's visit, see Merilee's blog: http://mcdougalfamilyoverseas.blogspot.com/

We celebrated Paolo's birthday and then had to say goodbye to the Mcdougals as we headed back to Bologna for our trip to the USA.... 

....which did not happen as planned.  The plane that was supposed to take us to Munich never arrived in Bologna as it had to make an emergency landing in Verona.  While we waited to fly instead to Frankfurt (where we would have to spend the night), Gio befriended this adorable boy named Lorenzo.  The two of them terrorized the airport for quite a while.  Lorenzo was on his way to San Francisco as his father is the skipper for the Italian boat in the America's Cup race.  Paolo and I were a bit start struck.  Gio was just happy to have a fun companion for the boring wait at the gate.  

Our flight to DC the next day was an easy one.  How did anyone fly with children before in-flight entertainment and iPads existed??  I know card games, stickers and books are great, but who can do that for 8-9 hours??? Better parents than I, I suppose.  

For anyone who feels ho-hum about living in such a fabulous place as Washington, go live in Kyiv for a while and then get back to me.  For us, the glorious chance to play on clean playgrounds, visit farmer's markets (and not worry about how close Chernobyl is to your food supply), eat cupcakes, maneuver around on streets with polite drivers (YES, to us DC drivers are exceedingly courteous!) and be understood wherever we go are glorious treats.  When asked on the trip here what he was most looking forward to in DC, Gio replied, "Everyone speaks English there!"  

We finally came clean about my expanding Belli belly.  Hard to hide it anymore.....

Our first full day in Washington involved a LOT of swinging...

and a visit to the Dupont Farmer's Market.  

No need to slice it up....

And then back to Rose Park for a few hours in the giant sand pit.   Not a piece of trash, beer bottle or angry babushka in sight.  

Happy to be here.  Hope to see a few of you while we are around.  And for my Kyiv friends, we will also be happy to return in a few weeks.  We miss you.  Hugs to all.