Exams?

The moment I was reunited with Malvina, it was obvious she had matured into a gorgeous young woman.  I'm amazed at how graceful and powerful she is while playing volleyball, and I know she loves playing ping pong, so it's easy to see she's very athletic and coordinated.  What I hadn't anticipated is how important doing well in school is to her.

After watching her do hours of homework every night, I asked her how she'll feel about missing the final exams in the middle of May.  Instead of shouting for joy like my boys did, she asked why she'll miss them.  I explained we would be in Simferopol waiting for her passport (with nothing to do except for one really awesome day trip to Ay-Petri), but maybe we could wait in Feodosiya so she could finish school once her passport picture is taken.  She said, "I know education is very important to a good future, and I would like to take my exams."  Wow!  I hope her attitude rubs off on the boys.  And I hope we can use some of these credits toward 9th grade which she'll probably skip.  She's currently in 8th grade, but turns 16 on June 12th.

So now we're going to stay 4 or 5 days longer than we have too---because we WANT to stay here longer.  Did I really just say that?  We could probably have left on May 19th, but now we'll wait til May 23rd or maybe even May 29th when our original tickets are booked for.  The boys would be happy staying all summer.

Have any of you gone to Pirogovo, the outdoor museum in Kiev?  How much time would you want to spend there, and how much did you like it?

Watching a late night movie on the iPhone

Christina dancing

Practicing for the program