MoldovAnn

We are all starting to realize exactly how ridiculous the housing situation in Kiev is. We saw a bunch of apartments yesterday, not one of which was either reasonably priced or in a decent enough condition that any of us would want to live there. Cristina and Alessandra are starting to consider sharing an apartment, and Mietek is considering living farther away from work. I decided to take the apartment we saw on Tuesday, and thus signed the lease this morning.

I liked the landlady, Larissa Ivanovna, immediately. In fact, she reminds a bit of Tamara Ivanovna in Ialoveni. She’s sharp, active and very business-like. This is the first time she’s rented out an apartment, and as it is my first time renting one here, we were both a little nervous and perhaps overly cautious about the details. I asked one of our CRDP drivers, Oleg, to go with me to make sure everything was on the “up and up.” He assured me the contract was standard and reasonable.

I was able to move into the apartment this evening, and I’m just delighted with it! It’s a 15 minute walk to the office, and on bad weather days I can take a bus or marshutka. Right next to my building is a large grocery store, and next to that is an outdoor market with lots of fresh produce, as well as other household goods. There are 3 metro stops within 5-15 minute walk from the building, as well as lots of cafes, shops, restaurants, and much much more.

I have what is called a 2-room apartment. This means that, in addition to the kitchen and bathroom, there are 2 rooms in the apartment. The living room is furnished with a new couch (which folds out into a bed), matching armchair, a cabinet/cupboard, television, and a table and chairs. Off of this room is a small enclosed balcony, with lines strung for drying laundry. The bedroom has 2 twin bed (which I’ve pushed together to make one large bed), 2 wardrobes, and 2 nightstands. Larissa kindly left me some sheets, blankets and pillows until I can buy some of my own. She also left me a few dishes, pots, silverware, and cups to get me started. The kitchen also has a small table with chairs. The bathroom includes a small washing machine. The entire apartment has been “updated”, if not completely renovated. It’s bright, clean, and gets lots of sunshine via the large windows. And did I mention it’s on the fourth floor, with no elevator? I decided the climb up and down the stairs would be good exercise for me.

In the few spare moments we’ve had during this apartment search nightmare, we are also trying to get acquainted with our new colleagues and the business of our project. The staff is completely consumed with preparations for an international conference entitled “Chernobyl affected regions in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine – from recovery to new developmental approach”, to be held October 31-November 2 in Chernihiv, a city about 2 hours north of Kiev. In some respects, their preoccupation with the upcoming conference has been good for us, since we can deal with all of these details of settling in without worrying about trying to learn all about work, too. We will attend the conference, and I expect we’ll learn a lot, but thankfully we are not expected to do much more than just show up!

There are still a million things to take care of, but for me the biggest hurdle is passed and I feel so much better having secured my housing. Hurrah!