Kiev Airport

When you enter a country, when do you first feel that you have arrived? Some people get that excited feeling when the plane lands but I don’t. When the plane lands in the Kiev airport, we unbuckle our seat belts and slowly stand up. I open up the over head compartment in which my backpack is laying in. Snatching it, I remind my grandma to get her purse as well. Getting out of the plane, my grandparents and I walk in a line: my grandpa, my grandma, and I. We walk down the steps and circle up on the pavement. Buses drive over and we get on. I still don’t feel like I am Ukraine even though I am in Ukraine. 

We ride around the airport on the bus and then the bus drops us off at a white building. I step off the bus first and just stand there for a minute. “I’m almost here, almost here,” I keep repeating in my head. My grandparents get off a couple people after me and we begin to walk up the ramp. The clear sliding doors open in front of me. I step in and feel like I am home, in Ukraine. When the sliding doors open in front of me, I feel as if it is Ukraine that is allowing me to enter the country. I tear up and begin to cry from joy. Both my grandparents kiss me on the cheek. I always get emotional when I step in because I truly feel like I have arrived. Everyone is speaking in russian. Everyone looks russian. It is an amazing moment that I wait a whole year to experience. It is only one second long but when I step in I know that I arrived. 

There are fourteen lines to the left of me and i stand up on my toes to see which ones the shortest. There are nine lines for non ukrainian citizens to enter through and five for ukrainian citizens to enter through. I am younger than eighteen therefore I am allowed to enter with the ukrainian citizens since I entered the country with my grandparents. Walls, floors, and ceilings are all white and it feels clean. I hear babies crying from right and left due to the heat surrounding everyone. Its our turn to register in and I get even more excited. The man looks at my grandpa and then down at his passport and then does the same thing to my grandma. He stamps my grandparents passports and then he looks down at my passport and back up at me. He asks me where I will be living and I recite my grandparents address: Малиновский двадцать семь, двенадцать квартир. He stamps my passport and tells me to have a good time. He motions his door to the exit of the room and we have. 

We walk into the area where we have to get our luggage. When I was little it used to be my favorite part. I loved watching all the luggage spin around in circles on  the conveyer belt and I looked at it as a game when I had to find our luggage. We got our two suitcases and four duffle bags quickly. We walk right by and they do not ask to check our bags. Ahead of me are two sliding doors again and it is always my favorite part to walk out first being bold and strong. On the left and on the right are people right when the doors open, and I keep my head high. People are holding flowers, others are cheering but I just look ahead, take steady steps, and keep smiling.  

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