Images from the last week....
Gio and I head to the US on Friday morning (starting with a 3:30 AM taxi ride!). It has been nearly 8 months since we have been on US soil and I know the 2.5 weeks we will spend there will go by in a flash. We are going to begin the preschool admissions process, which is a crazy exercise on its own in DC, but adding to the nuttiness factor is the fact that we are not at all sure we are returning to DC next year. But since the applications are due before we know anything about our next destination, off we go to get started. Poor Gio has quite a schedule ahead with school visits, dentist, pediatrician, and an intelligence test to take (required by many DC schools for admission!). In between all of this business we will fit in visits with family, his godpappas, friends, Halloween, and touring all of our favorite spots like the Natural History Museum, the zoo and 5 Guys for fries and burgers.
Perhaps the following list will only make sense to my fellow expats, but here are the places, things and experiences I have been missing during these last 8 months out of the US....
Wandering the aisles of Trader Joes, Safeway & Whole Foods. The choices, the choices!!
Having a friendly person at checkout who does not glare at me AND actually bags the groceries for me
Being able to eavesdrop again
Hearing only English on TV & radio
Fewer clouds of cigarette smoke to pass through
Ice cream that actually melts
Not having to hoard Smuckers Natural peanut butter
Brown sugar
Freedom from dill.
Smiles
Big black SUVs driven by soccer moms rather than by terrifying, furious bullies.
Road signs I can read.
Cheap gas (yes, you whiners in the US, your gas is CHEAP!)
Amazon Prime and internet shopping in general
Not worrying about whether produce, meat & dairy products are coming from areas near Chernobyl
Much more variety in the produce aisle
Surfside
5 Guys
Baked & Wired
Starbucks
Halloween Candy
Strolling around Georgetown and running into familiar faces
Hearing Gio greet strangers and having them actually reply
No grumpy babuskas
Not feeling so out of place in my "sensible" shoes
And as a counter balance, things I will miss while I am away from Kyiv....
Paolo (he will join us for our final week in DC!)
Enzo and Tigre/Cat
My many wonderful friends
Gio's school and his teachers
Having a full-time nanny (yes, being an expat has its perks!)
The rumble of the metro under our building- I have come to like this sound.
The dog walking gang at the park
Our fabulous gigantic bathroom- best we'll ever have, I expect!
Not worrying that people understand what Gio is saying (last week's example, said very loudly while walking in the park: "If girls do not have a penis, how do they pee???")
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| Enzo and Tigre are becoming friends....slowly. |
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| Tigre sleeps and eats A LOT. |
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| This funny ad campaign outside of our building is attracting quite a bit of attention. It is a real car (or so it seems!) somehow placed on a balcony. Yes, parking is a challenge in Kyiv, so I suppose the gist of the message is that this car can fit into any space.... |
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| Yesterday we visited an outdoor museum called Paragova where a replica of a Ukrainian village from 100 years ago is set up to explore. Here is Gio emerging from the church where he attempted to blow out all of the candles. |
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| Of course, this being Gio, his primary activity at the museum was to chase and capture kittens to cuddle. We are not sure he really absorbed all there was to learn about living in 19th century Ukraine.... |
Gio and I head to the US on Friday morning (starting with a 3:30 AM taxi ride!). It has been nearly 8 months since we have been on US soil and I know the 2.5 weeks we will spend there will go by in a flash. We are going to begin the preschool admissions process, which is a crazy exercise on its own in DC, but adding to the nuttiness factor is the fact that we are not at all sure we are returning to DC next year. But since the applications are due before we know anything about our next destination, off we go to get started. Poor Gio has quite a schedule ahead with school visits, dentist, pediatrician, and an intelligence test to take (required by many DC schools for admission!). In between all of this business we will fit in visits with family, his godpappas, friends, Halloween, and touring all of our favorite spots like the Natural History Museum, the zoo and 5 Guys for fries and burgers.
Perhaps the following list will only make sense to my fellow expats, but here are the places, things and experiences I have been missing during these last 8 months out of the US....
Wandering the aisles of Trader Joes, Safeway & Whole Foods. The choices, the choices!!
Having a friendly person at checkout who does not glare at me AND actually bags the groceries for me
Being able to eavesdrop again
Hearing only English on TV & radio
Fewer clouds of cigarette smoke to pass through
Ice cream that actually melts
Not having to hoard Smuckers Natural peanut butter
Brown sugar
Freedom from dill.
Smiles
Big black SUVs driven by soccer moms rather than by terrifying, furious bullies.
Road signs I can read.
Cheap gas (yes, you whiners in the US, your gas is CHEAP!)
Amazon Prime and internet shopping in general
Not worrying about whether produce, meat & dairy products are coming from areas near Chernobyl
Much more variety in the produce aisle
Surfside
5 Guys
Baked & Wired
Starbucks
Halloween Candy
Strolling around Georgetown and running into familiar faces
Hearing Gio greet strangers and having them actually reply
No grumpy babuskas
Not feeling so out of place in my "sensible" shoes
And as a counter balance, things I will miss while I am away from Kyiv....
Paolo (he will join us for our final week in DC!)
Enzo and Tigre/Cat
My many wonderful friends
Gio's school and his teachers
Having a full-time nanny (yes, being an expat has its perks!)
The rumble of the metro under our building- I have come to like this sound.
The dog walking gang at the park
Our fabulous gigantic bathroom- best we'll ever have, I expect!
Not worrying that people understand what Gio is saying (last week's example, said very loudly while walking in the park: "If girls do not have a penis, how do they pee???")
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