7 AM, and I wake to the sunlight penetrating through the bedroom window. Hustling to wash, am already reflecting the past 5 days. Packing all the presents given to me by everyone is a concern of mine, as only had brought 2 carry on bags. Somehow managed to stuff all my belongings into these two bags, but the weight of one bag is considerably more than the other.

Mom and Hannah are busy in the kitchen preparing breakfast, and to my surprise the volume of the food is considerably less that previous days, gee.... I wonder, now have finally trained them not to cook so much for me, but now am leaving this day.

At the breakfast table we chat about the last few day's events, cannot help but notice the redness in Hannah's mom's eyes. What a wonderful person Hannah's mom is; she has treated me, almost a total stranger, as family for the past 5 days. Time has come and Max will be waiting for us in his car at 9AM. Making sure I have not forgotten anything, give Hannah's mom one last hug as we depart, and her tears start to show. Am thinking maybe these are tears of joy that I am finally out of their hair (chuckle).

Max is waiting in his car, as we start to climb in, Hannah's mom has gotten our attention from their 5th floor balcony, she blows me a kiss and waves goodbye, and looking at Hannah, can see her eyes with some tears. Max is not so jovial this morning, as he comments to Hannah that he already will miss my presence. I had noticed over the past few days that Max seemed to stay close to me and listen very intensely to the words I have said in the past few days. Am hoping that the words I spoke these past few days have been a true representation of myself, my family, and also of my country. Max is a really good person, a proud father, and a hard working individual.

As we arrive at Ariadna's apartment at 10 AM, finally muster up the nerve to ask Max why no one has mentioned anything about my other aunt, Aunt Daria, or even offered to take me to visit her, as she is still alive. Can really see the tension on Max's expression as he struggles to produce an answer. Although having somewhat of an idea, was a bit dismayed that my relatives made no mention of Aunt Daria. Remembering from my father's words, that it seems Daria and Olha were always at odds with each other. Olha married, and Daria never did. My father also mentioned that Daria was sort of a "spinster" and after Max's answer, this was confirmed.

Max had told me that Daria had retreated away from people many years ago, and felt more at home with animals, than humans. She is doing in fairly good health and sound mind, no major concerns. The reason they did not suggest to go visit Daria in her home is that Daria currently has very many cats and dogs that live with her inside and outside her home. Well, this confirmed why my father jokingly called Aunt Daria a "spinster". My main concern was that my mother had not heard from Daria in a year or so, and was worried that something could be wrong. So with this answer, was content with the information, but inside was feeling sorry for Aunt Daria and the life she had chosen to lead, away from people.

As we enter the building, am reflecting that this is the last time we will have to use the elevator. It's quite apparent that there must not be any regulations in regards to proper elevator inspections and maintenance. We enter Ariadna's apartment for the final time, and Ariadna greets us with tears in her eyes, as she knows soon we will part company this day. Ariadna has prepared something for us to eat, but to my surprise she makes special note to me that she has not cooked so much, YES YES YES! Am elated that finally she understands that it is not necessary for me to each so much. I asked Ariadna if she ever did finally telephone Aunt Olha, and she laughed, and said yes she did this morning. Seems as if Aunt Olha has been the topic of interest in her town of Sambir, seems as if many people were calling her to find out about this person from the USA. Aunt Olha is the celebrity for the day it seems.

Ariadna, Hannah, Max, and myself sit around leisurely sipping on hot tea and nibbling on the food Ariadna has prepared, as we again talked about the past few days and how quickly they have passed. Time is 12 noon approaching 3 hours before my flight, and make last minute provisions and packing of my luggage.

Max says that his wife and son will join us on the ride to the airport. Am happy to hear that they will be coming along, as I did not get to visit with Max's wife and baby past the first day. Max Jr. comes to me without any fuss in the car, and I entertain him most of the way. He is such a good little boy of 18 months.

As we approach the main road to the airport, it has been closed off by the police because of some trouble ahead. This is the only road to the airport and now am wondering what is going on, and if I ill make my flight.

This is a prelude to the start of my problems on my flight's home. Max decides to stop and ask the police for permission to enter the road, because he has a passenger that is traveling out of Ukraine. After some discussion, the police allow us to pass through their roadblock, WHEW! As we approach the airport, do notice many armed police and wonder what is going on. As we leave the car and enter into the airport, everything seems to be a bit on edge. We arrive two hours before my flight, and find out now that you can only go to your gate 1 hour prior to the flight, so more wrong information has us sitting for 1 hour. Now, I give my last goodbyes to my relatives in Lviv, and my thoughts are if/when I will return. Ariadna, Hannah, and Max's wife are emotional, and this makes for difficult goodbyes. As the time nears, I become a bit nervous about going through customs, because of all the stories heard. Ask Hannah to come with me through customs if possible. She agrees, and as the door opens, its a mad rush to the counter, pushing and shoving is unreal, and so I just join in like the locals, pushing and shoving back. Upon reaching the ticket counter and presenting my ticket, Hannah is informed that she cannot go any farther with me. My thoughts at that moment are..... Now I am at the mercy of the customs agent...... so this is my last chance to thank Hannah for helping me these past 6 days. Hannah is really emotional now as I give her a big hug and kiss on the cheek. What a wonderful person Hannah is. Then I turn to enter the room where all the custom agents are.

Near the entrance one of the customs agents waves me towards him. He is an older man. I place my two carry on luggage pieces on the table for inspection. He does not know English very well, and he asks me for my passport, my entering customs declaration, which I had filled out when I arrived in Lviv, and my exit declarations form. My heart skips 2 beats realizing that I have not filled out any exit declaration forms. Now I am in trouble for sure, I am telling myself. The customs agent not speaking English very well, and is asking me several questions I cannot answer. So I throw out my most famous line of Ukrainian speech that I can muster. I say to the customs agent; "Ala moya Ukrainska ne e dushe dobre" which means that "My Ukrainian is not very good". The agent looks up at me.......I think I stop breathing at this time.... and he actually cracks a smile.......WHOA!!!!!!!!!! I was shocked, but smiled back at him. He then asked me if there was anything different to declare than what was brought in. Replied back that only a few books books and 2 boxes of chocolate that were given to me, along with the remaining money brought with me that was not spent. The customs main concern is that no antiques of important artworks were leaving the country illegally. He inquired about the books, and then I started to worry again. So, showed him one of the books, which happened to be given to me by Hannah, the book was a small dictionary of Ukrainian-English words. The customs agent smiled when he seen this book, and said that the books were OK to pass, then he asked me to sort through my luggage, and as I was going though all my dirty clothes, he chuckled and said never mind, I was approved to leave. Guess the thought of searching through all my dirty clothes did not interest him. Did not even have to fill out the departure customs declaration form that was supposedly required. And to top it all off, did not have to pay any export taxes!!!

WOW! Was I every relieved; now the last stop was for proper passport documentation and to have my luggage scanned. This was a snap having all the proper exit documentation, and started to walk to the airline gate. All the while I could see my relatives in the doorway watching what had transpired. One last look at the faces of my relatives and waved a final goodbye, they waved back as I disappeared through the next door and into the terminal gate, to prepare for my flight back home.

Free at last.......am heading home, will be home in about 14 hours.... or so I thought...

There was still another hour before the LOT Airlines flight from Lviv to Warsaw was to depart, and it had not arrived as of yet. Had no concerns at this time, only a feeling of relief as my mind buzzed with the events of the past 6 days. Many thoughts came to mind: Did I stay to long; Did I not stay long enough; Was I a good representative of my family in the USA; Was I good representative citizen of the USA; Did my relatives in Lviv enjoy my visit; and poor Hannah was she so tired because of all the interpretation in the last 6 days.... and on and on and on.

Then the dreaded announcement came. Our plane was delayed in Warsaw, and was going to be 1 hour late. Not too worried at this point, as there is a 1.5 hour layover in Warsaw to my connecting flight to New Jersey, and since the Warsaw airport was not that big, figuring that 1/2 hour was plenty of time to make my connecting flight. One hour passes, and then our plane arrives. An additional 30 minutes pass and now we are finally starting to board the plan to Warsaw. Now getting worried that I will not make my flight as there are zero minutes extra to make my connection, and with the poor on time record of LOT Airlines, am hoping that my flight will be delayed leaving from Warsaw. As we finally approach Warsaw, our flight took the exact 1.25 hours as was estimated. As we land, my heart sinks as I see two 767 jets taxiing down the runway, but there is still one 767 sitting at the airport. Am hoping that this is my flight. As we hurriedly depart from our plane, half of the 48 passengers rush to the transfer gate only to be told our flight has departed already. Along with me, many people are not happy with this. We are told we will be put up in a hotel for the night, dinner and breakfast will be provided, and will be on a flight the next day.

GREAT! I say to myself, only 1.25 hours into my 18-hour return flight home and now am stuck in another country for and additional 24 hours. So at 5 PM we are bussed to a hotel about 10 miles from the airport. As we drive along, I take note that there is quite a difference in the economy of Lviv Ukraine and Warsaw Poland. It is evident in the condition of the buildings, the number of cards on the road, and the overall general appearance of a large city. Many of the people are understandably unhappy as we check in to the hotel.

Of these 20 people delayed in Warsaw, there were 4 doctors from the USA that flew to Lviv to on humanitarian mission for sick children in Lviv. These doctors had given their medical services free of charge to these children. From what I understand, these doctors had very important scheduled surgeries in Boston the day of 6-6-01. With all the doctors plea's, LOT could not or would not change their flight schedule. Many of the 20 delayed people heard of this and were not pleased with LOT and their customer service representatives. Personally, had thought this was extremely bad performance of LOT airlines.

The hotel is a fairly nice hotel, must have been an elaborate hotel in the past 20-30 years. First things first, HOT SHOWER, yes!!! Then I head to the restaurant and several of us are seated. Seems as if the hotel has been advised of our arrival, as there are already food items waiting for us. Needless to say the portions were not as generous as Ariadna's kitchen, nor was the quality. So dinner was finished quite rapidly, and most of us resolve in to going back to our rooms for the evening. It is now around 9 PM and, remember that I do not have any non-carbonated water, so....... it's back to the "foaming at the mouth while brushing your teeth" adventure again.