ahka | 18 years since we left Kiev

Today is 18 years since our family left Kiev. That day in 1992, we thought that we would never be able to get back there and see our friends ever again. It was super depressing and exciting time for me. Our apartment was empty and neighbors were coming over to pick up the last of the clothing and other staff that we did not plan to take with us. Our relatives came from other cities and helped us pack our suitcases.

In the evening, taxi came. Our neighbor, former my parents' student, was taxi driver. He was happy to give us a lift. We put all our suitcases in the trailer. We did not have a lot of stuff. We had less suitcases than it was allowed to take with us. All our neighbors, relatives and friends came out to say good bye to us. A lot of them took tramway to go to the train station and say good bye as train will take us away from them.

A group of my dad’s friends went with us on the train to Moscow to make sure that we got safely to the Sheremetyevo International Airport. At the airport we stayed all day and only around 3am customs let all of the refugees like us go through and get ready to get on the plane in about 10 hours. We did not sleep for 2 days and were very tired.

Once we got on the plane to fly to New York we tried to relax. It was my very first, very long flight across the border of former USSR and across the Atlantic ocean. On the plane, they served French fries and I tried to eat it with plastic fork and knife. My fork broke and then I saw other people, who have been to America before, that they ate fries with their fingers. That worked… I felt embarrassed about that and my self esteem started going lower from that moment on.

Once we came to New York, I was totally exhausted because it was very uncomfortable to sleep on the plane. So, it was day 3 without sleep and shower. My head was totally in the clouds. I got used to long waiting hours of the immigration services and then customs. Eventually, in about 3 or 4 hours after we landed, we were allowed to get out of the airport. We were told that our flight to Minneapolis would be only next morning and they arranged a hotel for us to stay overnight.

My dad’s friends, Felix and his wife Alla, who lived in New York for over 10 years already, contacted our immigration officials and they allowed us to stay overnight at their place. I thought that I was in a dream!

They took us to their apartment in Brooklyn. They drove us to Brooklyn and we could see Statue of Liberty and Manhattan on the way. I could not believe my eyes and I could not believe that I was in America! America was like another planet to me and I could not believe that I made it there!

Most of all, I wanted to take a shower and get some sleep horizontally. As we came to our friends’ apartment in Brooklyn, we were somewhat scared. The apartment building was old with wood stairs without an elevator. We had to walk up to the 3^rd or 4^th floor carrying our baggage. The stairs were making squeaky noises and the whole apartment entry looked dirty, dark and old. It was a little, very old, 2 bedroom apartment. It looked worst then our 2 bedroom apartment in Kiev.

We all were a little bit scared, because my dad’s friend was actually a president of some company and his wife did not work. They choose to stay in the same apartment that they rented 10 years ago when they immigrated to America. They still live in the same apartment today.

After taking a shower and eating dinner, Felix suggested taking us for a ride in Manhattan. Even though we were tired, we agreed to go. That whole evening was like a dream that I couldn’t believe was true. My eyes were literally closing down and I had to keep them forcefully open. We all were amazed to see skyscrapers, a lot of lights, and a lot of people. It was already late at night.

When we got back to the apartment, I just wanted to lie down, I didn’t even care where. I slept and early in the morning my mom woke us up. I felt like I did not sleep at all. It was like, one moment I went to bed and the other moment I had to wake up.

Early in the morning, we ate breakfast and Felix drove us to the airport. At the airport we got on the plane to go to Chicago where lived my sister Yulay’s friend Sasha, who came to the airport to spend an hour with us before next flight to Minneapolis. At that time people were allowed to go to the gates. He was happy to see us and we were happy to see him. He was in Chicago alone for a few years and worked almost 80 hours a week to make some money so his parents would be able to come to America. Today, the whole family is in Chicago and we stay in touch with them.

Finally, we got on the plane to Minneapolis. There were no Russian speaking people and none of us spoke any English. Poor stewardess was trying to figure out what we wanted to drink. At that time, I did not even know how to say “juice” and kept telling her in Russian “sok” she couldn’t understand me and I ended up saying that I wanted Tonik, the only drink that I knew she would understand. I was embarrassed and frustrated again.

Once we arrived in Minneapolis St. Paul airport, we met all our relatives who were already here and with them there were their friends. There were Mamedovs’ (they became best friends of my parents, they don't even eat dinner without each other on the daily basis) and Zyama who helped everyone, he is deceased now. There were about 5 cars that came to meet us at the airport.

On the road from the airport to St Louis Park we looked into the windows and did not see any skyscrapers. Everything looked clean, flat and everything was covered in the snow. It was a total contrast from what we saw in New York.

My uncle told us that they rented an apartment in the basement for us. After seeing the horrible apartment in New York, we had wild ideas about what an apartment in basement might look like. It was a terrifying image.

However, when we finally arrived into our apartment in basement in St Louis Park, it looked spacious, bright, clean, with big windows, right above the ground, and it looked huge in comparison to the New York apartment and our apartment in Kiev. I was happy that I could dance in the big space and not bother any neighbors under.

Our relatives already found some used furniture for us and made a food shopping. We were greatfull for their hard work in making our immigration process go as smooth as possible.

That’s how our American life begun!