And Finally....Russia!

So, tomorrow Julie and I board a plane that will take us to Russia. I am so excited! It will be exactly four months to the day that we were supposed to leave for Khabarovsk. Plans have changed, and now we're not going to Khabarovsk anymore, but I know that the Father had a reason for this change. Already we've seen reasons on why we were delayed and sent through Ukraine. We've been joking that we had a long layover...just a couple of months!

Ending language school was sad, yet good because it was another thing that we've accomplished while being on this journey. Yes, I do have more school that awaits me when we get to Russia, but I can't wait for just Russia in general! I've wanted to go to this country for so many years now, and tomorrow this dream becomes a reality.

The last day of language school, I found myself in an awkward situation. One of the janitors at the school is always saying hi to us. He's this older man, probably my grandparents age, and he's very nice and speaks just a little English. Well, he's always said hi to us, and so one day he didn't say hi, so I initated the greeting and said hi to him. Ever since then, he's acted strange to me.

The very last day of language school we took our break as normal. We had our snacks and was sitting outside on the bench when the janitor walked up. He was carrying a bucket full of water and cucumbers. He sat the bucket down a few feet in front of me and then stepped infront of it. He kept saying things to me, and I kept telling him in my little amount of Russian, I don't understand. Then he would take a step closer. Then he would say the same thing in Russian, and I would said again in Russian, I don't understand. Then he would take another step closer. Okay, but this time, I'm kind of getting nervous here. I look over at one of my friends and she's got this nervous look on her face and just kind of laughs and shrugs her shoulders. So the guy says something again to me, and I said again I don't understand. This time was he steps closer he reaches out and touches my nose. But it's not just a little touch, he like grabs the end of it. I'm kind of shocked that he's touching me, and I don't really know what to say so I just say, I don't understand. Then he releases my nose and repeats whatever he was saying, again and then he touches my nose, steps back and then picks up a cucumber from the bucket. I look at it and laugh a nervous laugh and say, oh cucumber. He repeats me. Then he picks up the bucket and walks over to this drain.

Right after that, I decide that I've had enough excitement for one day so my friend Jamie and I decide to head inside. Of course to get inside we had to walk past cucumber nose guy, and as we walk by, he pulls his hands out of the cucumber water and starts splashing us. We thankfully were able to run inside where his cucumber water couldn't reach us.

Wow what a way to end language school in Ukraine! I still have no idea what he was saying, and I'm not really sure that I want to know. I've seen and have been told that older men like to marry really, really younger women. For all I know that could have been the Ukrainian way of asking a girl to marry you! Ha! I'm just thankful I didn't say yes or no, and that I just stuck with my, "I don't understand".

So, I know that I will miss Kiev with all of it's experiences, but I am ready for what awaits me in Russia. I have a feeling that I will have more stories, oh how I wish each of you were able to experience them with me first hand!