The Ukrainian airport gave us our first taste of the language both written and spoken.

We landed on a dreary day, the skies were dark, and it was pouring down rain.  After dismebarking the plane, we were shuttled to the terminal where we had to clear through customs.  While waiting in line, so many conversations were happening around me, and I had not idea what was being said.  It has been a long time since I have been in a country where I do not understand the conversations of those around me, and I can honestly say I was not enjoying it.  If I was feeling frustrated, I can only imagine how my teammates were feeling.  We were the last from our flight to go through customs, which was an experience in itself.  Some of the team was questioned heavily about our stay in the Ukraine, while others were cleared right away.  I think I speak for the whole group when I say this, the stamps in our passports were well worth the trip.  After gathering all of our bags, we were put through what my family would call, the kabooky dance.  There were two gates we could walk through in order to enter the reception area, we all made it through one gate only to be told we had to turn around and go through the other, we we were once again told, no the other gate.  After finally making it to the reception area, we were met by our mission commander, his interpretor, and a commander from the Ukrainian Army.  We had a brief introduction and then loaded a bus to our hotel for the night. 

The bus ride was short yet also an eye-opening ride.  While the bus driver turned sharped corners, raced to stop signs, and tailgated other drivers, we were all staring out the windows.  The streets were small, the buildings old and dilapidated, some with elaborate stone work, others with graffiti on the walls.  I do not know what we were expecting but what I do know is that what we saw was not what we had expected.  Although I was exhausted and ready to plop down onto a bed, I was sad for the end of the bus ride, I was enjoying seeing the city.  The hotel we pulled up to was adorned with many flags from around the world, exuding an international-welcome to its guests.  Once we received our room keys, we made our way up to our rooms, where we dropped our stuff down and left a few minutes later to get a snack downtown.  One of our interpretors walked us downtown through a park that reminded me much of Central Park, except that the paths were brick.  While I was anxious to try some Ukrainian food, we were led to a New York-styled pizza place.  It was good and very filling.  We walked back to the hotel, enjoying the park once more.  Finally, we had time to sleep, but only for a little bit before we met up again to get dessert.  While I knew I would regret taking a nap at six in the evening local time, it felt good not to be sleeping while sitting.  Dessert was good, but by the end of it, I was about ready to go to sleep at the table.  The day had been one of my longest, being up for more than thirty hours straight, travelling over 6,000 miles, and I was ready to close my eyes for a night's rest.  The day on which so many new experiences had been had was over