Golfing at the Yalta Country Club and the Prime Minister

Well, it could only happen to Matt. Here we are in Ukraine, and he finds a way to play golf.

I'm serious. While we were in the open market last week, a man approached Matt and my Dad because he heard them speaking English. Turns out he lived in Miami for ten years and came back here to open this club. So, yesterday we all went up to "the club" for lunch and so Matt could hit a bucket of balls. It was absolutely hysterical. Dad was betting it was a tee set up on the edge of one of the cliffs and that was the driving range. It wasn't even that much. We knew there was NO WAY it would be a real golf course, and sure enough, it was less than a pitch and putt- but we had many, many, many very much needed laughs and got some funny pictures as well as souvenirs for the guys back home. The "club house" was actually very, very nice with a huge fireplace and um, modern conveniences if you know what I mean- which goes a long way here in making us happy. We're hoping to return before we leave Yalta to have dinner there.

Today, we went for our usual visit with Natasha. While we were playing with her on the playground, I noticed a few uniformed police officers walking around. There have been lots of people coming and going as this is the time of year that everyone likes to make donations to local orphanages, so I didn't think too much about it. After a few minutes we noticed police cars and vans driving up to the orphanage and even more uniformed police walking around. Now, normally a large police presence would make me feel safer- for some reason, it just doesn't do that for me here- when I noticed the guys in suits walking around with headsets on and they took the bomb sniffing dog through the playground, I really started to get, um, curious.

So, I walk up to one of the KGB, I mean, security guys and put on my biggest smile. Big surprise, he didn't speak any English. I told Matt that whoever was coming here and attracting that much security really didn't make me want to be out in the open with the baby. So, we packed her up and now started walking toward all of them. This didn't make them too happy, but I told Matt to wait downstairs and I took Natasha upstairs and got her changed. Once Matt cleared the cavity, I mean, security check to get through, he came upstairs and asked one of the very nice ladies what was going on. She pulled him aside and whispered "Yanukovitch" If you say this to yourself in your best Boris and Natasha/Bullwinkle cartoon accent, it's REALLY very funny. I heard that and could not get my American butt-sky outta there fast enough. Apparently, the Prime Minister sent a very generous gift of a flat screen LCD TV and some other electronic goodies for the orphanage and I guess someone smelled a photo op. Just hope they don't use my Natasha to sit on his lap- I was for the other guy, Yushenko :)

So, as you can see, each day brings something new to enjoy. At least our sense of humor is intact. New Year's Eve is a huge celebration here, and there are all kinds of "interesting" people walking around the city, taking pictures of shop window displays, standing in front of McDonald's funny, no one seemed to be posing for any in front of the huge monument to Lenin, ah, maybe they're all waiting until tonight when they're REALLY dressed up.

Yes, that's sarcasm you're reading..........

Anyway, thanks to everyone who e-mailed me to tell me our girls our gorgeous, I happen to think so too. We can't wait to get home, and Matt and I wish all of you a VERY happy, and healthy New Year!!

xxoo
Lisa and Matt