Day 28 - Sickly on the Metro

The day before yesterday, I was headed home with Maddy. She told me she felt really sick, so the trek to the metro was pretty slow. At the metro, she was looking really bad. She asked if there was a bathroom nearby, and I thought I remembered seeing a McDonald's (which always has bathrooms!) on the other side. So we went to McDonald's and looked for the women's bathroom. There was a guy standing next to it, my guess is that it was out of order and he was waiting to be able to go in and fix the broken toilet or something. After a bit of waiting, Maddy said we could just go. So go we did; we got through the doors and down the escalator and onto the metro. It was packed, so there wasn't any spot for Maddy to sit down. She was looking so pale and so out of it, but I really didn't know anything that I could do, so I tried my best to just stand there. It was so scary to me, I wasn't sure if she was going to puke or faint, but I was praying over and over that we could just make it back to her home safe. We got off the first metro but Maddy didn't think she could make it the rest of the trip, so we sat down on a bench for a while. I made some phone calls to let some others know I'd be late (to pizza, which is a whole n'other story) and then to find some taxi's that we could take the rest of the way from there. There was a ton of confusion when I was trying to talk to the taxi people. They told me the taxi would be there in ten minutes on the street (which I couldn't pronounce or remember for the life of me) so we walked up to the entrance of the metro and waited in there. When we got to the top of the escalator, I tried to find somewhere that Maddy could sit for a while. The only thing I could think was the wall, but there was a chair by this kiosk, and the man working there told Maddy she could sit there (through Russian geberish and hand gestures of course). He had really broken English, but he asked, "water?" Maddy nodded her head. I know she was super grateful. He asked aother kiosk owner to watch his kiosk while he ran out of the metro for a minute. I have no idea where he went, but he came back in less than five minutes with an ice-cold water with "gas" (which is like carbonated water). Maddy does not like carbonated water, but she drank it. From my knowledge, carbonation is good for nausea anyways, so I think it helped. It really made my day that the shop owner there was so willing to help. There are really a lot of great people here in Ukraine, and I am constantly amazed by those acts that I see at random most everyday. Anyways, we eventually (like after a few more phone calls and waiting around for what seemed like way too long) got the taxi. He seemed annoyed, I think it was because he had been waiting for us for a while; it took us quite a bit to finally find him on the busy street. Anyways, we got the taxi to Maddy's host-family's apartment. We went up the elevator and finally Maddy was home. She thanked me a ton for waiting around and calling people and talking to the locals; I know she was super grateful.