We have arrived in Ukraine!

Julia and I arrived early this afternoon in Kiev. Our translator met us at the airport and we took a taxi to the apartment. This apartment isn't as updated as some of the others we have stayed in, but it will work. The nice thing is that it is within a few hundred yards of the main square in Kiev. We are really tired from traveling, but we are trying to stay awake and active and fight the temptation to sleep until later tonight. We are going out for some Ukrainian food tonight. We will try to get a good night sleep tonight and do some sightseeing tomorrow before our appointment on Thursday morning. We called Katya from the airport. She was excited to hear that we were actually here.

One of the first things we did was buy $30 worth of stamps at the first post office we found. The post offices don't carry a large inventory of international stamps, so we will buy them every chance we get so that my mom's airmail adoption program will have enough.

The parliamentary elections were just held so there is a lot of political acitivity in the square downtown. There are lots of people with banners and flags of their parties. It is good to see that Ukrainians are active politically despite being somewhat let down with Yushenko's parties infighting after the incredible protests just over a year ago that created a rerun and subsequently fair election process.

More later.....

Wade and Julia