Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine

This was the final stop on our trip. I had eaten some sketchy chicken in the airport, and I started to feel sick. I'm not sure if it was the chicken or something else, but I really started to feel under the weather the day we got there. And I felt sick for months afterward, actually. It was enough that I went to the doctor and had all kinds of tests that came back telling me nothing. After about six months or so I finally felt normalish again. 2013 was the year of unhealthiness for me. I'm glad that's over.

Photos:

This is the bed where I ended up sleeping a lot. I seriously slept a lot because I was feeling so sick. We stayed at Roxanne's parents' apartment. They were so nice to let me sleep there.


Other than sleeping, we walked a lot. We walked a lot around the city.

 

On any normal day I would have been all about riding this, but I just didn't feel up to it. Looks cool, though!

 

We also saw a bunch of statues.



And went to parks. We even ran into missionaries in this one.


There was even a church in the middle of this park. I thought that was pretty cool.


And there were a lot of tanks and missiles around. Here are some of the photos.



Here's the inside of a school building. I thought it looked pretty cool. We don't have very many old structures where I live, so it's cool to see these styles.


 And of course there were the potato chip flavors. It seems like a lot of countries have crab-flavored chips. I guess it's not that popular in the U.S. because I've never seen it here, but I've seen it in plenty of other countries. I also enjoyed that they have bacon-flavored chips!

 

And McDonald's had some different stuff, too. They had some pita-wrap-type stuff. I didn't look too closely. Food was unappetizing to me at this point, so I can't tell you much about the food.


One of my favorite experiences was going to a baptism and then going to church the next day. When we walked into church I thought that there was a girl that was staring at me and looked kind of familiar. After sacrament meeting she came up to talk to me, and it turned out that we did know each other! We went to the same university, and she was friends with my sister and other friends. She was there in Ukraine with her husband to adopt a child. It's crazy what a small world the church is. It's amazing how many times I have run into people I know at church in other countries.

I could go back to Ukraine. I was glad to go, and it seemed pretty cool, but unfortunately, I really wasn't feeling well at all while we were there, and that's too bad. I wondered if it could have been the yogurt I ate after arriving? I'm just glad I finally started feeling better. It had me worried for a while. I learned that I should take a little more time to plan my vacations and make sure I'm preparing myself sufficiently for any medical needs that could arise. I didn't even look to see if I should take any medications prior to going. When we went to Tanzania, we went to the health department and consulted with them and made sure we took vaccinations and suggested medications. I should have done this on this trip, as well.

The entire trip was fun, and I was glad to continue my adventures in the world!

2 comments:

dub said...

It's horrible enough being sick like that, but being sick while in a foreign country is especially awful. I am glad that you finally are feeling better! And what a small world it is.

tearese said...

That sucks that you were sick on the trip. I find that true too, about meeting people at church that you know from somewhere else....like the guy who spoke in your ward that had visited our Branch! In Seattle, there were several people who had attended SUU and I'd seen before, and a couple that regularly visits us here had Bishop Hugh from Cedar as his mission president.