11 hours in the plane really gets to you. I cannot fall asleep in the plane and after a while all I want to do is cry. But then I think about Ukraine and how I am going to be there soon, and I get extremely excited. The best part of the flight is when the captain says “Fasten your seat belts; we are going to be landing in twenty minutes. It is thirty degrees Celsius, and a clear sky.” Right then I quickly snatch my sister’s hand. My sister and I always grasp each other’s hand during takeoff and landing.
We walk out of the airport, hearing every taxi guy in sight saying “do you need a ride?” but we respond with no. The air feels heavier, the streets are dirtier, the cars are smaller, and the stray animals are everywhere. It feels great walking out of the airport; I hold my head high and I look for my uncle Vova. Once I spot him, I sprint over and give him the biggest hug. Then again I realize that it takes 10 hours in the cramped car until I get to my house in Nikopol and my happy mood slowly fades away.
The car is very cramped, I can hardly move my leg. Suitcases surround us and the heat is unbearable. Driving across Ukraine we spot long fields of sunflowers, all facing one direction. I ask my parents why the sunflowers only face one direction and they respond by saying that they face the direction of the sun. We take a rest stop by the sunflowers to take pictures. Getting back on the rode, there are hardly any cars. It looks as if it is a never ending rode.
The first stray dog that I see running along the rode stops the beating in my heart. In Ukraine, they don't have shelters so animals are everywhere. It is hard to get used to because I love animals. In fact I want to be a veterinarian, so it is very hard when I see animals in need of help and me not being able to help them.
My family and I begin to play a game where we see who will see the entering Nikopol sign first. When we see it we scream Nikopol as loud as a newborn baby screams and it gets the excited blood flowing through my body again. I sit up tall and proud that I am in Nikopol. We turn onto my street with only one street light on the rode. We drive up the rocky driveway and I can hardly see anything in sight. My grandparents are standing outside, waiting for us in the darkness. I run over and hug them until my mom moves me away so that she can hug them too. My grandparents are like my parents to me because they pretty much raised me until I was 7.
My grandpa unlocks the front door into the apartment, holds the door open for us with his left foot, and pulls the little rope for the old fashioned light to turn on. We walk 2 stories up the spiral staircase of the apartment building. My grandpa opens the first steel door, and the second one was already open. I walk in first and flip the switch for the light to turn on. Running over to my grandma, I am not sure if it is a dream or real life. Her arms wrap around me and hold me tight, she always gives the best hugs. I put my suitcase down in the living room and I say "finally home."
Word Count: 609
That's a very good entry--you express the difficulties of long voyages very well, and you also get across the joy and relief of arrival.
ReplyDeleteTwo things:
1. Rode v. road. Rode is the past tense of "to ride" and road is the thing you drive on.
2. When you write speech, called "dialogue", you should capitalize the first word in the quote, and put a comma before the first quotation mark. Example: I put my suitcase down in the living room and I say, "Finally home."