March 11 in Kiev

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Let me just say that Peter and Trish are amazing. They planned out our day on Friday like professional tour guides. This is friday. The day before their wedding.

They picked us up at our hotel and walked us to the subway. They bought our subway tokens and explained how to get through the turnstiles. They explained how to get on and off the train. They shepherded us -- one in the front and one in the back at all times. They got all 9 of us to Kiev Pechersk Lavra -- piece of cake.

First we went to the see the Obelisk -- a monument to the Second World War. There is also an eternal flame there -- in honor of the unknown soldier. Peter says that there are eternal flames like this all over the former Soviet Union. There are also monuments to generals who died in the war and a museum honoring the millions (an estimated 7 to 11 million) people who starved in 1933 in a famine deliberately engineered by Stalin.

We walked from there to Kiev Pechersk Lavra monastery, where we met up with more of Trish's family. Now Peter and Trish were herding a group of 13.  Trish's mother's family is Ukranian-American. Lasha and her sister Helen went to Ukranian schools in the US, and speak some Ukranian. People  here are bilingual and speak Russian most of the time. They can't imagine anyone speaking Ukranian who doesn't also speak Russian. So when Lasha and Helen speak Ukranian,  they often get answered in Russian -- which they don't speak. It's a dynamic they didn't expect.

At the monastery -- Peter again bought our tickets and arranged for an English-speaking guide. Our guide Irina walked us through the complex of churches and other facilities that were first built in 1008. Much of the complex now functions as a museum, but all of the churches still have mass every day. The lower parts of the complex are still a monastery, and we saw monks and monks-in-training going about their business. But you can also tour the caves the original monks lived in when they founded the monastery. The caves now hold the "relics" of those original monks. We had to buy candles for for 4 Hrivnas each to get into the caves. I didn't realize until we got deeper in that the candles weren't just for prayer -- they were also the entire lighting system. Each person had to light their own way.

We hurried from there to catch the double decker tour bus that Peter booked us on. The best part of the tour bus was that they gave each of us a blanket. It was really quite cold! The tour bus took us through the old part of town; with a guide explaining all we passed in English. But there was such terrible traffic that  for big chunks of time we barely moved. Eventually the guide brought us all tea and apologized for the slow progress. We didn't mind. We had the bus to ourselves and we were warm and cozy. No worries.

We went back to our hotel for a rest, with orders to meet at 7pm for the groom's dinner.

Rick, Libby, Lowell, Jan and I met at 5pm and walked to a local brewery to taste local beer. The wait staff spoke English and were very gracious with us. It was our first time venturing out without Peter, and we were proud to manage just fine. We even found our way on to the restaurant without hitches.

The dinner was at Jean Claude, a new French restaurant in a very stylish part of downtown. Again -- Peter and Trish outdid themselves -- really over the top wonderful. There were 20 of us, and I think we had 4 waiters dedicated just to us. They had selected a menu with a few options for each course that we could choose from. And this was slow food. The waiters purposefully waited to bring each course. We met at 7pm, and finished our tea at close to 11pm. All the while, a jazz combo played on stage. Rick and Libby demonstrated their fabulous dancing skills, and even got Peter and Trish to take a break from hosting long enough to have one romantic dance.

The food was absolutely wonderful and it was such a treat to get to know some of their friends. Trish works for the US Department of Defense in Stuttgart, Germany. Many of her colleagues were with us last night. We sat with a couple from Connecticut who helped us plan the Czech Republic part of our trip. And really fun was to meet Jeremy, from Apple Valley, MN who worked for Senators Dayton and Wellstone before he went to work for the DOD. We had great political and philosophical discussions with him. It really is a tiny world.

All-in-all our first full day in Kiev was amazing. We are resting up a little now before all the actual wedding day festivities begin. And at the same time -- we continue to be so concerned about all happening in Japan and other affected areas.