Heading Home!

Well, Dave and I leave for the airport at 3:30 am for a 6am flight out of Kiev. It's the final leg of this journey and in less than 30 hours I'll be home. I'm going to miss the new friends I've made here in Ukraine and I'll always remember the fun we've had here. The past few days have been filled with laughing, telling stories, and lots of hanging out.

I'm going to miss the food too. I say that having previously come from India where your choices of food are spicy chicken and rice, hot spicy chicken and rice, or very hot spicy chicken and rice. (Ok, so it might not be as bad as I'm letting on but it's close. Just ask my friend Rich Yoder.)

The Ukrainians really enjoy there food though and take it seriously. For breakfast it's cereal, yogurt, bread, meat, cheese, and chocolate cheesecake bars. For lunch, it's some kind of soup, bread, salad and chocolate candies. For dinner, some form of potatoes, meat, bread, pasta, and yet another kind of chocolate cookie or candy. The common theme here is chocolate just in case you missed it. They love their chocolate and frankly so do I. It's the kind of cultural adjustment I think I could make without too many problems.

In case you doubt the value of chocolate here, let me tell you about my trip to the grocery store the other night. It wasn't unlike an American grocery store in it's size. It's content was much different though. Imagine if you will an aisle that is about 30 feet in length. Shelving units extend from the floor up to a 7 foot height down both sides of the aisle. Now imagine if you will that their are two complete aisles of this description that having nothing but various types of chocolate bars, chocolate cookies, and chocolate candies. You wouldn't be imagining it if you were in the same store that I was in two days ago. Oh, and as a side note, there was an equal portion of the store dedicated to alcohol.

As I leave chocolate land, I am heading for Oregon. I will be home for 4 days and then I'll be heading out for Bangladesh so you can keep checking back for more trip updates. The fun isn't stopping yet. In case you are wondering, I have uploaded my photos from Ukraine into the gallery so have fun checking them out!