Over the river and through the woods, to the town of Artemovsk I go....

Okay how many of you did I just catch singing that title out loud?!?!?! Be honest!! ;) hehe

In the spirit of Mother Ukraine and her daughter 'the song' I gave today's post a musical title. In all the history books you read about Ukraine you will learn about the may folk songs and nursery rhymes that the people lovingly memorize and pass down from generation to generation.

-side note, the rhymes and songs have also been a good way for me to learn the language since they use simple words, merely adding to my feeling that I am somewhat like an infant here needing constant supervision and attention-

Today is monday and the first day I have had access to a computer and internet for longer than 10 minutes so I am sorry for the delay in this posting. Again in reference to my musical title, the past few days have been a journey in both the figurative and literal sense. I left St. Louis on wed. afternoon to fly first to Chicago (where I had my first experience of having to run to my connection gate to catch it since our flight was delayed by weather and the O'Hare airport is bigger than I remember). I then flew on a huge plane (another first, this one actually had two levels and a staircase separating the levels....the only thing downstairs was the row of bathrooms but I had to stifle a giggle as I walked down them and remembered the scene from The Wedding Singer where Sting and Adam Sandler and the whole plane serenade Drew Barrymore...ha!
I didn't get much sleep on that plane ride or any of the others but I did get to watch a whole bunch of movies!! Thank you Lufthansa for having blockbuster films....anyone not see All About Steve (Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper) because it looked silly and crazy? I thought it would be but it was actually smart, witty, sad, heartwarming and very well made....that is my cinematic recommendation from the other side of the world :)
After arriving in Germany I had a short layover and then headed for Kyiv...On this flight I had my first taste of Ukrainian hospitality and chivalry as men were literally lined up to help me lift my bag into the overhead compartment (I was happy to oblige since my muscles were screaming after lugging around two huge bags).

This is far from the end of the story but I will have to postpone the rest until another day...my internet time has run out ceechas (new russian word...it means 'now' pronounced see-chaas).

until then, all my love!