Mariupol & Me - The Great Clash

We are back in Mariupol. I don't know what it is about this place (well, I do - but I'm trying to be optimistic), we just clash.  I swear to you the train arrived this morning in sunny Donetsk & the closer we got to Mariupol (I had forgotten about the two-hour car ride - after the 17-hour train ride!) the more overcast it got until we arrived to no sunshine at all & it was that way for the rest of the day.

So I have 11 days to make my peace with this place. Either way, I will leave here on May 9th with my lil' prize! In the mean time, being the good-natured, open-minded foreigner that I am, I check out the internet to learn a little bit about Mariupol & what I might do to pass the time here more enjoyably. Pretty much...it's a steel mill city. With industrial emissions problems. You think? Otherwise the only really favorable claim about the city is that it is a popular sea resort (which I have not seen & do not even know how this could be possible since the city always seems to be under a cloud of smog). It's LA on steroids but without the eye candy & absurdly rich. Which basically means I do not know yet what I am going to do to pass the time pleasantly while here for the next 11 days…

We've now survived the third of four overnight train rides. Last night's was *very* long (over 17 hours with stops it seemed like every 20 minutes!). It ranked in between the two other overnight train rides (wasn't the worst, wasn't the best). We weren't next to the bathroom but still smelled lots of cigarette smoke. There are 'no smoking' signs (they are a cigarette with a circle around it & a line through it - so I know for a fact there is nothing lost in translation on this!) in the sleeper cabins & bathrooms. I guess that makes the hallway outside my door the designated smoking area. And it was HOT (the only way to get air is to open the door & I don't need to describe *that* for you...).

Yesterday in Odessa (which I ALREADY MISS!) I saw a bus with advertisements for houses on it. The houses were *exactly* like our houses in NC (traditional, brick-front, track-built, you know the ones...) and I thought 'I have NOT seen & cannot even imagine seeing a house like that in Ukraine'. It doesn't even phase me. In fact, I don't even believe it. I'd give a hundred grivna to see that house in Ukraine. And I'd give another hundred grivna to see *inside*!! Wish I coulda read the print on that ad... Maybe it was for America! Wouldn't that be a hoot?!

Even being back in Mariupol, I am less culture shocked than before (maybe I finally found my big girl panties!). Nothing is really new to me anymore. I've seen it before, heard it before, smelled it before. I know (to a degree) what to expect. And I know how to let people who are not going to stop talking to me in Russian anyway just keep talking; like the train attendant who had just locked the bathroom when I needed to go. She unlocked it for me & rattled off all kinds of information or instructions or scolding. I don't know... For all I know she coulda been telling me not to flush the toilet or else the whole train would explode. I just nod, say 'spaseeba' (even if it doesn’t make any sense), & take my chances.

What I have not adjusted to is grocery shopping. Have I mentioned that not only is everything in Russian, they don't eat the same foods we do? I'm tired of buying red sauce thinking it's pasta sauce & it's really cocktails sauce (or at least that's what I think it is - admittedly, I really don't know! I just know it's NOT pasta sauce). It completely ruins dinner plans. At least in the apartment we are in, we have an oven we know how to use ('cause that's a whole 'nother story!) so we can fall back on plan B & have a frozen pizza.

I am not even close to exaggerating when I say that shortbread cookies (which are AWESOME here!) have sustained us. We bought them on our first grocery trip & it is the one thing we are never without (even if we have to reload at a convenience store)! I believe with all of my being that were it not for these cookies, we would both be dead by now.

I can hardly wait until the morning to see if the *milk* I got this time is really *milk*. We haven't had cereal for breakfast in WEEKS! Because last time I bought the wrong thing even though it had a cat on the label (which, I do realize, doesn't at all line up with the American way of thinking)...

I was very excited to see our sweet, bright blue-eyed guy today!! I have not a single doubt that in 11 days, we all will be more than ready to leave the orphanage thing behind us. Without going into detail, let's just say today was stressful & it had nothing to do with any of the three of us. Breaks my heart for the little guy that he was stuck in the middle... Just one more reason to count down the days…

Speaking of counting down the days, I previously conservatively projected we would be coming home by the 21st. Well, I was WRONG! If everything falls into place, we will actually leave on the 18th!! Oh happy dance!!

I will spend the next 19 days reminding myself that God brought me here and I cannot take over now… My “impossible” lesson!