We Made It! We are officially Ukrainians.

We got to Kerch at about 3pm local time (6am MST) after almost 48 hours of travel.  Most of you know about the route we took so I will try to make my trip summary short.

The first surprise occured in Denver when we walked passed a large group of kids speaking Russian.  We later learned that they were Ukrainian orphans from the Kherson Region of southern Ukraine who had been given a gift of mini-tour of the US for Christmas and would join us for the flights to Munich and then to Kiev.  A few were captivated with Campbell and were constantly plying him with chocolate and gifts.  We definitely enjoyed their company and their talent in distracting Cam during those long times sitting on planes and in airports.

Munch was as German as expected - organized and expensive.  I exchanged $40 for Euros and had just enough for 2 ham and cheese sandwiches and a pair of Fantas, which though tasty, did not constitute a $40 meal.

In Kiev we were saved by a very kind security officer who TWICE let us jump to the front of the immigration line (I didn't have the form completed correctly the first time).  We were picked up right on time by Maxim, the same person that worked with us when I was there in June.  He speaks English better than most Americans and is a heck of driver to boot.  He got us and our luggage to the grocery store and the train station perfectly while giving a pretty good tour of Kiev on the way.  We boarded our train at about 7:30pm local time and were passed out by 9.  I love those train compartments after all the flying.  With only 1 break to watch a movie in the middle of the night, we slept until 10:30 the next morning when the attendant let us know Simferopol was the next stop.

The train had barely stopped when we say Andrey Shpygunov waving at us from the platform.  After a slight detour to pick up Sergey the lifeguard (he has many other more important tasks, but this was his original job at the Hope Center and the moniker stuck), we were on our way to Kerch.

I know all of you are wondering what it's like in the "Great White North" in December.  Well, it isn't Siberia (we're not that far north) and Ukraine actually has a Mediterranean climate for the most of the year.  That said, it's pretty chilly.  Strangely, since Crimea was in the midst of a 5 months without rain last time I was here, it's actually GREENER now than it was in June.  We'll try to get some pictures of the camp up tomorrow, but until then, here are a few shots of the trip.

As a kid who likes machines more than people, Campbell was in heaven traveling by planes, trains and automobiles.
This is us in Munch posing next to the chair that hit my funny bone so hard that I couldn't feel my right hand for half an hour.
I love the feeling of disappointment these 2 shots convey..."Yeah, we're going to Ukraine!", followed by......
"No one told me they didn't have the sun here!"
How Soviet does this look?