So….it’s been a while. But here are my totally valid excuses:
1. I started a new job. It’s not quite full time, but it’s more hours per week than I’ve spent working for at least the past five years. Bye, bye free time.
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Oops. I see it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. Things have been unusually hectic for the past few weeks. First of all, I changed jobs. It’s a good change, but it’s always a little exhausting to learn how a new office works and what all of my new responsibilities are. Secondly, we’ve been on a couple short trips during that time.
Our first 2 1/2 weeks back in the US have basically been a blur. We’ve done a lot of driving - our families live about 2 hours apart, in the same state, but different time zones (thank you, Indiana!). And we’ve done some serious work on stimulating the economy - purchasing a new car, a fancy camera, and a laptop.
Nearly three years ago, when we learned that Shawn was posted to Embassy Kyiv, we started doing all the research we possibly could about Ukraine. From everything we read, we soon decided that Lviv was one place that we definitely had to go. Now finding ourselves 22 months into a 24 month tour, last weekend we finally made the trip to western Ukraine to see what all the hype was about.
Bottom line of our vacation: the weather was great, the food was amazing - once we got used to the Spanish schedule of lunch at 3pm and dinner at 10pm, and the people were friendly. That’s really about all it takes for me to have a good vacation. But I made a few notes about what we did every day anyway. And, of course, took lots of pictures.
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.
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.
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