Of course, this is the first international move we’ve done. And because there’s no Target in Kyiv, I’m feeling the need to purchase a lot of things before we go. In fact, that was a big part of this week’s crisis. How many rolls of toilet paper do we need to buy? We have to get another set of towels. And there’s no way they’re going to have shoes that I like there…better get a pair of dress and casual in black, brown, and navy. You can see how this can get out of hand really quickly. I’m currently working on taking deep breaths and telling myself that it’s okay if I don’t get everything on my endless list.

On the upside, this week was my first without Russian class. I had originally planned to stick it out a little longer, but I was just tired day after day and, besides, I needed to get to work on my lengthy “to do” list. I did force myself to study on my own for an hour or two each morning this week and Shawn and I try to converse in Russian in the evenings. And I’ve always got my trusty flashcards to help enhance my vocabulary.

By the way, some of you eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that I added another blog link to the side of my homepage. Carolyn was in my original Russian class and she and her husband are currently in Moscow. We always joked that we made a good team in class (her strength was vocab and my strength was grammar), and we’re going to get to test that theory out in a few months when she’s coming to Kyiv for a visit! I’ll let you know how it goes.

Unfortunately, not every detail of our departure is a pleasant one. This week we had to give away two of our beloved pets. Gaz and Gigi really wanted to come along for the adventure, but for some reason you aren’t allowed to take rats on airplanes in this country. And even if we put them in a box and poked a couple of holes in the top and tossed it in the mail, Ukraine frowns upon the import of rodents. I don’t think even diplomatic immunity could get us past that one.

So we were lucky to find a really nice woman online who already had a few rats of her own and was happy to take our girls. She has rescued rats from breeders in the past and is currently fostering a dog. It was reassuring to us that she shares our love and concern for animals. And she’s going to keep us updated on how Gaz and Gigi are doing.

On a more upbeat note, Shawn’s birthday was last week and we spent a beautiful day at Mount Vernon. I didn’t realize exactly how close it is to Washington. Hopefully we’ll have a chance in the future to go during the spring or summer when all the trees and gardens are in bloom, but we had a great warm day to walk around the grounds. And we learned a little history while we were at it.