SDA appointment day -1 adventures

First, a couple words about jet lag.  Prayer really helps.  I talk to God about it, ask him for strength, and then I sleep.  I wake up every couple hours during the night, and last night, a total of 5 1/2 before I decided to get up and work on stuff.  I feel really good.  I think the key for us is we're treating our first week here like vacation.  If I cannot sleep, no problem, I'll just read a novel or watch a movie, or play a game.  Treating it like no big deal, with prayer, really has worked.  Thank you Jesus.

After learning about the foibles of hard line internet disconnects and reboots to acquire the internet signature, called an IP address, we decided to disconnect and bring our home wireless network, the one our computers will automatically connect to if it is up.  Well, two days ago I plugged in our power supply to an adapter, put it in the wall, and zap!  The power supply blew.  So we went to Maidan to the underground mall (a 10 minute walk) and found a guy in a cell phone booth store who had an adapter, Euro style, that plugs in nicely, for 120 Grivna ($15.00). I bought it, used the settings he recommended, and voila, it works!

But the cable internet was not working.  So I call Igor and ask if I can move it to the living room, and he says "sure".  So I move it, and nothing works.  I call Igor and say "no network" (it is now 9:30 pm at night).    Igor calls back and says he is sending a repair guy in 40 minutes.  I decide to move the router and cable modem back to the original location, plug it all in, and voila, suddenly, for the first time in two days, my wireless network starts working.  I call Igor and say all is well, and he chuckles, saying he'll call the cable guy.  Five minutes later, and the cable guy is here, and good thing, because it had crashed again.  This guy, "Sasha", was a whirlwind of expertise.  He cuts the cable, puts in a new piece, shows me the problem, fixes the cable to the TV in  the living room (that wasn't working), and patiently shows me how to use the remote (don't laugh).  I heard him chuckling to someone on his cell phone about how easy it was of a fix.  Well, the guy was amazing. He did more with the network than I could have done in one week.  Here's to Sasha.  Well worth the 120 Grivna.

Photo #1 above is the nice store our driver took us to.  Two items in the store cost the most.  One was a can opener.  I think that was $9.00.  The other was laundry detergent $10.00.  If you bring these things with you, the food itself is really cheap, and the frozen veggies are the best I've tasted.  I get the idea that manufactured goods are a real premium here, but local grown is where the value is.

Photo #2 is Matthias landing a well deserved shot to my left cheek.  I had taken the form of an ornery bear all day, and poor Matthias was getting growled at (this photo is a joke, obviously).  But I'll have to make it up to him.

Photo #1 above drew a comment from a passerby.  It sounded like the girls were saying Zach was a doofus.  Pretty funny, really.  Photo #2 is Nellie standing in front of a large open sidewalk with beautiful older buildings lining the streets. These structures actually are all around you...the architecture is really preserved here.  We now see why in the US, heritage preservation has become something embraced.  These buildings are really amazing to look at.