Welcome to Ukraine

So after I arrived in Ukraine, jet-lagged and in desperate need of a shower, I encounter the one fear I had on this trip. Ukrainian customs. May I add here I smelled like I had just swam in a bottle of Vodka because EVERYONE on the plane except myself and the Jewish men had multiple drinks with their carrot stick raisin sandwiches. Praise our merciful God for Dramamine!

While I am sure customs is usually bad, I chose to arrive on September 15th. Who knew this is the same day 25,000 Jews were making their annual pilgrimage to Kiev in celebration of Rosh Hashanah. So Ukrainian customs + hundreds of Jewish men + no air-conditioning.

It actually went smoothly for a while, but they closed my line for ten or so minutes until the throng of people around me were ready to storm the gates.

They finally reopened our lines and we started to move again. I began to really worry when the woman in front of me had filled out her card wrong and was sent to the back of the line. Agh! However, Erin gave me very good advice in dealing with customs:

I handed him my passport, did not smile, and let him try to stare me down. He then asked a question (in Russian) to which I put on most "I'm a confused American" face a said "What?" He then grumbled, stamped my passport and sent me through. Yay!

After a little difficulty finding my bag, I walked into the main lobby. It would have been hard to find Erin in the sea of people, (it was packed!) however I quickly picked out the ONLY smiling face in the crowd. It was SO great to finally see Erin after so long and to know I didn't have to get on any other planes.

We had dinner in Kiev, but our fun was cut short as we had to get up at like 4:30 am to catch the train to Poltava. Also, Erin was so sweet and brought me a customary Ukrainian necklace as a welcome treat. They have large, red wooden beads, and I will see if I can get a stylin picture on here soon ;)

Much love...