In 1998 our favorite saying was "What have we done?" We started out the year as regular California folks; two jobs, two cars, nice home, big mortgage, full schedule, family nearby, etc. We ended the year7,000 miles away in a small apartment in a frozen city where we could not understand the alphabet, much less the languages. Eventually, Kyiv became our home and we loved it, but not in 1998.

(By the way, we try to use the Ukrainian spelling for our city - Kyiv - although the "international" spelling follows the Russian version: Kiev. And it's "Ukraine", not "The Ukraine". And it's not a part of Russia. All these are sensitive matters after the fall of the Soviet Union and the creation of this large new country.)