How to celebrate a birthday

Today we got a call from our friend Dima, who just happens to look like Owen Wilson. He called to invite us to celebrate his daughter's 14th birthday with the family and some friends. (If you are not sure who this friend is, he is a Ukranian friend who lives here in Kiev and is starting a work with youth.) So, we continued on with our plans for the day, waiting for his call at 4pm with the details.

4pm came and Dima called. We would meet the family in the center of town at 5:30pm, and hang out together and proceed on to a McDonalds for a birthday dinner.

Now, we just love the fact that we are getting around town on public transportation. At this time of day, "Chas peak" rush hour, you basically stand next to the subway and you are literally pushed into the wagon just by standing near the door. Your body is squished by people on all sides, so, you don't have to worry about hanging on to the handrails, you can't reach them anyway, you stand supported without fear of falling.

We met our friends, and waited for the others to arrive. It was a chilly night, right about 32*F. Dasha, the birthday girl really wants a skateboard for her birthday. Her parents wanted to search the center of town to find one at a good price. So, our party proceeded to search for it. In the process, I found a whole new world of stores, I never knew were there! There is a network of underground mall under the center of town. What fun it was walking around, looking at all the places that I can spend the cold winter days!

We finally found the store that sold skateboards. We found that the cost was too much for the family at the moment. A little knowledge for you who like me, don't know anything about skateboarding....you have to buy skateboards, the wheels, and the axels all sepatately. But, we all had fun in the process.

We all got on the subway and rode the train to a special McDonalds, where there was a 3 story fun-land for Dasha's little brother. We got there at about 7:30pm, we waited and waited for a table big enough for 8 people. We finally got 2 tables close to each other. We sat around and talked and told funny stories about Dasha and ourselves.

All in all, it was a very fun night out, and we enjoyed ourselves and enjoyed celebrating Dasha's birthday too.

So. happy birthday Dasha!

Happy night!