Outdoor dining: They really seem to get the joy of outdoor dining. The sidewalks are full of tent like structures with tables or couches to dine on. Many have space heaters and bring blankets if it's chilly.
Retail & wine: After suffering through 3 1/2 weeks of sub-mediocre Maldovian wine taste offs, we wandered into a place called "Good Wine", and from my point of view, it's fab! All kinds of wines from places where you assume they know what they are doing (France, Italy), German beer and a great deli counter to boot. I got nearly teary eyed at the USA section (despite the fact that the Copolla that is $12 as Costco was around $30 here).
Grass: Quincy has been petitioning for grass in our yard for years. We've resisted given that our yard was maybe 10'x10' and out of fear of maintenance. Given our small, woodchipped Chicago yard as their frame of reference, the kids think we live in a park now that our Kiev yard has maybe 20'x30' of grass AND even has a (very) small hill to roll down.
Swimming till exhausted: Quite a few of the houses we looked at had pools, but this was the only one with an indoor one. Honestly I am not sure which of us love this the most. The kids can play like mad, splash water everywhere and get exhausted. They beg us to throw them as far as we can (an acceptable way to deal with frustrations of parenting!) and entertain us all with semi-acrobatic, mostly-spastic jumps. The indoor part means they can do this despite rain, there are very few dead bugs floating around and best yet - NO NEED TO APPLY SUNSCREEN! (Xavier pictured jumping over his lovely assistant Zoe)
Cheap Street food: Thanks to Carol for pointing us to the Ukraine episode of "No Reservations", we discovered the Peripechkas - aka 'hot dog donuts'. Just like they sound, a giant fluffy donut with a hot dog in the middle. And all that heart clogging goodness for less than $1! Sold from a window that always has a line down the street - but moves quickly. Quincy and I agreed next time we are bringing our own sugar to sprinkle on them to enhance the experience.....will keep you posted
So here's to finding the joy!
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