From time to time we find ourselves still fuming from last year’s airport experience when we tried to visit the States. Certainly we would never have to endure anything that horrible again, we thought. But then we found ourselves in the middle of this last week.
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When Shawn first asked me if I wanted to go to Tallinn for my birthday, my first thought was: “Where’s Tallinn?” (I’m not so good at world geography.) When he told me it was in Estonia, my next thought was: “Where exactly is Estonia?” (Okay, I’m not good at all at world geography.) When his next statement was that he found flights for $200, my reaction was: “Whoo! We’re going to Tallinn!” (Most flights to Europe from Kyiv are hard to get for under $400.) Between the time we got the tickets and our actually departure, we talked to approximately 130 people who all said that they had never been to Tallinn themselves, but had heard that it was really nice. So I had hopes, but very few expectations - it was occupied by the Soviet Union at one point, so that throws any hope of it being too nice out the window for me.
So after being back in Kyiv for just under a week, our vacation seems, well, so last week. But I thought I’d share some photos and highlights.
We’re back from our luxurious vacation to Thailand. Unfortunately the sun couldn’t come to Kyiv with us. I promise to write more about the trip after I finish sorting through all 144 photos. (Sometimes digital cameras can be a curse…) For now I will leave you with a view of what I’m already missing:
After the most harrowing experience trying to leave Ukraine, we have returned from our brief trip to the US. We brought back with us: a few extra pounds from fast food and American-sized portions and a few hundred dollars worth of merchandise as we did our best to boost the economy. And two days ago, when we first returned, I would have said I came back well-rested, but after two nights of jet lag, I’m just feeling tired and cranky.
So one of the negatives of living overseas is lack of access to healthcare at an American level. Don’t get me wrong, we do have a great medical office here at the Embassy, but they just don’t have the facilities and equipment to handle everything. The State Department compensates for this by paying for medical evacuations when it is deemed necessary. Last week I had my first experience as a medical evacuee.
photos! We (well, me, mostly) finally succeeded in getting reliable (so far) internet access at home. Of course, access works a little different here than in the US. Our limit is not a matter of time, but a matter of how much downloading/uploading we do. So I’m starting out slowly with the photos in an attempt to not go over our limit within the first week. However, I know you’ve all been dying to see what our new life looks like, so here’s a glimpse.
What is Ukraine? Is it more European or more Russian? This is a question I have been pondering since our arrival here. And I think I finally got my answer this week - it’s stuck somewhere in the middle.
One week to go. This is the part of the move I hate the most (I think…). The main thing that’s left to do is divide all of our belongings into different shipments. But it’s still too early to do that. And that means I’m just left thinking about what to pack and waiting to do it.
So things are finally happening…Shawn got his travel orders this week. For those of you outside the Foreign Service community, travel orders are the bureaucratic ticket to everything. You must have your travel orders to get your plane tickets, ship your stuff, and do pretty much anything else required to get ourselves from here to Kyiv. After weeks of begging and bribing people to get these orders, we finally have them and are on track to actually leave the US.