Arrival Day

We took off for Chicago at 7:30 am. The Illinois road report said roads were not completely clear of snow and ice....but they were fine. Stopped to shop a bit but still arrived 2 hours early. And then the plane was delayed an hour and fifteen minutes. Hint: you will not want to wait in the winter time in Terminal 5 at O'Hare. It is cold because the doors let the cold wind into the terminal and it is difficult to stay warm. Deborah and I went upstairs to departures to sit in the food court to wait.

The plane landed at 4:35 pm and it took two hours for customs to clear the kids. It must have been dreadfully long for the kids who had already been traveling 24 hours or so. Many had long train trips to get to Kiev and then a connecting flight before their flight to the USA. They all looked very nervous before they walked out into the arrival area to greet us.

Sergiy seemed nervous and shy. We got to the car and he was pretty quiet for the first hour. No, he doesn't speak a lot of English. After an hour we stopped to eat at a McDonald's (even though he told us he wasn't hungry). But we weren't sure if he was being agreeable, polite, or we just didn't understand. We had brought a Russian-English dictionary in the car, he found it and brought it in with him. We were able to use our Iphone translators. Eating and visiting a bit broke the ice. And no, he wasn't hungry...but he did like the french fries, and he knew what "coca-cola" was.

I showed him a video game on my phone when we got back into the car and he started playing that. It wasn't long and he fell asleep and slept the rest of the 4 hours home to Iowa.

When we got home at 12:30, I gave him a quick tour of the house, showed him how the shower works and that our hot water is really hot (be careful!) and how to get the shower to come one, etc. I encouraged him to take a shower and he needed one. Well, he thought I meant that he was to wash his feet. So back to the translator and I explained not just your feet but you head and hands as well (Gee does that sound sort of familiar). I explained shampoo and soap and explained to wash everything. He then understood and took a shower and put on clean clothes. He said he was tired and wanted to go back to bed. He went back to sleep around 1:30 and is still sleeping (it's 8:30)

He has a very sweet spirit about him. I think today will be easier for him and he won't be so nervous. I have found a program online where he can type in Russian and translate to English so that should help us to talk to each other a bit more until his English skills improve.