The bathroom in our apartment

I wanted to write a little about our bathroom. I want our children to appreciate what we have at home and not think that we are living it up here in Ukraine. Now before I start, I don't want you to think that I am complaining in any way. I like this bathroom more than the apt in Kiev. I am just going to tell it like it is.

The bathroom floor is about 3 1/2 feet by 41/2 feet not including the bathtub. The toilet is modern (it flushes and has a seat) but the water heater is mounted on the wall just above the toilet and so if you want to get nervous that it may fall on you and kill you if you sit down, the thought could definitely cross your mind.

The sink is a pedestal sink and the faucet drips constantly. It kind of drives Dave crazy and he worries that so much water is being wasted with the constant running of the water that he turns the water main off so we don't have water at all unless we turn it back on when we need it. We do have hot water here most of the time which is better than Kiev. Dave is nervous because the faucet is already rusting because of the water condensation. They may put in a new faucet but we are happy to have running water even though we can't drink or brush our teeth with it or we will get deathly ill.

The shower is interesting. It doesn't have a shower up by the head it is all down at knee level with a hand shower thing that you can shower off with but you have to be careful because the walls in the shower have wall paper and are not waterproof and so you have to make sure that you point the water toward the curtain and not the wall. When we first got here the water would seep under the tub and out on the floor and that was not good but they came and caulked it and so that is better. We usually get wet then turn the water off and then lather up and then turn the water on and shower off. We would like to take a bath but there isn't a plug for the tub. We asked the landlord where we could buy a plug and he said "make your own" so we are working on that one.

The towels here are kind of weird too. They are thin and crispy (like a pizza) and we bought some at the ATB because we didn't want to use the same one for a whole month but the ones we bought are made of plastic because they don't really dry you they just push the water off of you. I know it is plastic because I used one as a hot pad to take something out of the oven and it burned a big hole right in the middle and it looks like melted plastic. So we shower quick and cautiously and then sweep the water off and go on with our day.

One good thing is that the toilet paper here is scented. The yellow paper smells like Pez candy. The red (dave calls it pink) smells like cherry. It is something to look forward to and take your mind off of being crushed by the water heater.

The shower curtain is hung by a string held tight by 2 of those screw in hooks. It is actually a good idea if you need to hang a curtain and don't have a rod handy. Enough about the bathroom Tyler needs the laptop to watch a movie in Russian to help him keep his language. He has been learning Spanish on this trip and he doesn't want to forget his 2nd language.

While we are thinking about it.

Dave wants to know if anyone else has any offers to put on the table for Tyler. He wants to know all of his options before making a final decision. Tyler thought that after his mission that he would have to search for a wife but this could be rather easy afterall.