Sundays with Laurie

...Sounds like a good Movie title, hugh?  Tuesdays with Maurey, Sundays with Laurie! :)
We met Laurie and Bryan this morning at the McDonald's and headed for church.  It is so nice to be able to have a tangible American to talk to.  Although we have experienced Ukraine adoption before, we have not experienced K**ov life as long as the Maddex's have, so it is nice to know someone who has figured out the town.

Laurie and Bryan knew of a family and church through acquaintances from home, and have attended the church last week.  The assistant pastor is originally from Cleveland, Ohio.  What a small world!  The service was translated into English so we could follow the sermon and read along in our bibles.  There were even several worship songs that they had translated into English!  (and I understood a word here and there of the ones that were sung in Russian.)

After church we talked with Nate (the assistant pastor, originally from Ohio) and his wife Deanna, who is from Ukraine.  (She translated the service, so speaks fluent English).  It was nice to hear Nate talk about the differences in cultures and how he adjusted to life in Ukraine. 

A late lunch with Laurie and Bryan at Pizza Bella--one of the places Laurie and Bryan have figured out that have English menus.  As we looked at pizza options, we assumed that the "Bella" pizza had cheese, ham, pineapple, and banana peppers on it, even though it said 'bananas', it had to be something that got lost in translation.  WELL....when Doug and Brian's pizza came out, it had BANANAS on it.  Not exactly what the boys were hoping for.  But, when in Ukraine, do as Ukrainians would do....and eat it.  Well, Doug ate it.  Poor Bryan can't eat bananas, so he ended up with a pile of banana slices on the side of his plate.
We walked back to our apartment to see if Bryan could get the internet figured out on our laptop.  After trying with no success, we set out for an cell phone shop.  We got on the Metro (an underground railway system) that Laurie and Bryan are quite good at navigating, to get to the shop.
We were able to purchase a cell phone modem that hooks into the USB drive of our laptop, so we have internet again. (I feel like a real person again!)
We said goodbye to Laurie and Bryan and headed back to the Metro, hoping we could navigate our way back home by ourselves.  We got on the correct Metro and knew we needed to go one stop and then transfer trains.  Well, when we got to the bottom of the second platform, Doug thought we needed to get on one train and I thought another.  Here was my rationalization (which turned out to be wrong in a sense)--we came from this direction and the strairway was on our left, so we need to go on this train (this was the part that was correct), plus I remember coming in on a yellow& red train, and the other one is blue, so we obviously need to go that way. (that part was wrong--many color trains are on the tracks!)  The important part is we made it back!
We got home, were able to skype with the girls and with my sisters, nieces, and parents who were all together for Sunday lunch.
Tomorrow, back to the orphanage to visit our boy!