MoldovAnn

I can’t believe I forgot the visit to the new museum Art Arsenal in my post about Independence weekend! President Yushchenko signed a decree just a few weeks before I arrived in Ukraine in October 2005 to establish arts and cultural museum in the old Soviet-era arsenal factory in Pechersk, just across the street from the Lavra. Over the past four years I have frequently walked past the site, watching the slow but steady progress of renovating the enormous and dilapidated structure. For awhile there wasn’t even a roof on the building that takes up nearly half a city a block. The last few months the progress has been impressive.

Bill and Eilene had noticed a big security detail at the complex on their way to flower festival, and we figured the President must have been there for an official opening. When we walked by after leaving the Lavra territory, I asked if we could pop in to check it out. I don’t know if there will be an entrance fee eventually, but that day it was free.

The space is amazing.

Three wide tall lanes with arched ceilings, like in an Orthodox church, but with unpainted stone and white columns. And huge windows let in tons of natural light. The wide center aisle was open, with a display of Trypillian culture artifacts along the left aisle and modern Ukrainian art along the right aisle.

The displays were spread, seeming almost sparse due to vastness of the museum space itself, but it was nice to not have everything crammed together like in so many museums.

At the far end of the building, in a kind of alcove, chairs were arranged around a piano for a concert later in the evening. I can only imagine how incredible the acoustics are in there. Very exciting the center is finally open!

My “Aha!” moment of the month was realizing there is a card reader built into my laptop – d’oh! No more excuses for not uploading my pictures because I can’t find the camera cable! So I am finally, slowly but surely, catching up on my photos to Flickr. I’ll post some highlights here eventually.

Last weekend was great. Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day and we went for a long stroll with friends Bill and Eilene, starting at the Lavra and then on to the new Holodomor (famine) monument. I had only seen it from afar, so walking up close and around the plaza I had mixed feelings. There was some controversy last year about the huge amount of money spent to build yet monument to the 1930’s famine. It wasn’t really clear why anothe rmonument was needed not very far from the simple yet elegant monument at St. Michael’s Cathedral. The new one certainly doesn’t touch me the same way. They did a really fantastic job landscaping the hill below the monument, though, with stairs and paths down connecting to the paths all along the hillside. The, honestly, impressed me much more. There are several sets of stairs going down below the monument plaza, which were roped off. We looked over the side of the plaza, down one level to kind of courtyard, where old tools and canoes and other items were strewn about. A man was working on some of them, and we went down to check it out. He snapped at us that the museum wasn’t open, the courtyard was off limits still. I translated for Bill and Eilene, and when the man heard us speaking a foreign language, he seemed to warm up a bit, or at least he stopped yelling. I asked him if the things were old, as we all looked at them closely and admired them. This really won his favor, and he got interested in telling us a bit more. He showed us the flour mill he was working on, and demonstrated how it worked by cranking the handle, which turned the millstone, and he pointed to where you would pour in the grain and where the flour would come out. He invited us to come back on opening day, August 24 (Indepedence Day), and we promised we would be there.

We continued on with our stroll, with a quick stop in the underground shopping mall at Ploschad’ Slava (Glory Square). Eilene and I found a huge box of Ukrainian motif cross-stitch patterns at the Ukrainian book store and we just went nuts! We both bought enough patterns to keep us busy for the next couple of years, I suspect, while still drolling over the beautiful patterns for shirts (which are far beyond my skills, that’s for sure). The walked continued through Marinsky Park, to European Square, past Indepedence Square, and down Khreshatyk. We ended up – tired, hungry and thirsty – at a cafe where we relaxed and did some people watching. We were looking forward to quiet evening at home.

As we were heading home later, a friend of Igor’s from Korosten called to ask where the Fortress is. Turned out he was in town for the weekend with his new girlfriend and wanted to see the place Igor has raved about so much. He tried to explain how to get there, but when Vlad called back about 10 minutes later, we realized it would be easier to just take them there ourselves. Many native Kyivans don’t even know there is a fortress right smack in the middle of the city, so we weren’t surprised when Vlad said he kept asking people where it was and no one could tell him. So we met up with them and took them to the fortress. The main exhibition hall, which has an incredibly impressive collection of Trypillian artifacts was closed for an exhibit change. We were afraid the fabulous collection would be taken away, but the ladies assured us a different exhibit was changing and the Trypillian items would still be on display. We’re curious to see what will be there next! So we suggested Vlad and friend check out the smaller exhibit hall, in a different building. We went to the little building near the exhibit halls where we’ve always bought tickets before, but were re-directed to the actual ticket booth at the entrance to the grounds. Looks like they’re getting kinda fancy, maybe even professional! So Igor and I walked over to the booth and checked out the schedule and prices. We asked for two tickets.

“No,” said the lady in the booth. “It’s too late, we’re closing.”
I paused, checked the sign again, checked my watch.
“It says the museum is open until 6. It’s only 5:10 now.”
“No, it’s too late. You won’t have time for a tour.”
“But we just want to look on our own, we don’t need a guide.”
“There’s not enough time.”
Finally Igor chimed in, tired and grumpy after our long day.
“We can manage it. We’ll be OK. Two tickets please.”

I was getting a bit slap-happy, started laughing and asked the lady if the museum doesn’t need to earn any money? There budget is OK these days? On pretty much every of the numerous occassions Igor and I have been to the fortress, we always get a lecture from the ladies about the poor state of the museum’s finances, so it just seemed utterly ridiculous that they would be turning away 2 paying customers. Then again, I’m sure she was at least partially concerned for us, that we wouldn’t get our money’s worth out of a 45-minute visit (I’ve run into this before, especially from older women,). It’s sweet that she was concerned, especially since the tickets cost 7 UAH each, less than $1. But it still makes me chuckle that the employees of a cash-strapped museum would refuse to sell someone an entrance ticket!

So we passed the tickets on, walked Vlad and friend to the door and headed again for home. His phone rings; another friend from Korosten is in town for a seminar and wants to meet. Igor (much to my guilty relief) sends me on home while he goes to meet Olga. He calls soon after and asks if it’s OK for her to come to our place, she doesn’t have a place to stay the night. Of course! So I whipped together some dinner, and having company was the perfect excuse to bake a chocolate chip cake. It was a fun evening, but man were we ever exhausted when we finally collapsed into bed!

Sunday was brunch at Arizona BBQ, always a pleasure, followed by a quick stop at a arts & crafts booth I like in the underground shopping mall at Bessarabska Square (such a great use of space in a densely packed city – go underground! Wish they’d make some parking garages that way, too). Eilene and I got some fabric and thread for our new cross-stitch patterns, and she loaded up on yarn for the hats she’s knitting for cancer patients. We finally ended up at home, blissfully vegging on the couch until bedtime. Whew!

The week has been equally busy, although with fun social stuff. Saw “District 9″ one evening – a lot more gore than I care for, but a good story line. Looking forward to the sequel (will it take 3 years to make?). Also went on a “Caribbean Cruise”, organized by the American Chamber of Commerce, along the Dnipro River. It was OK; the best part was hanging out with Igor and friends Bill and Eilene. Igor commented that there were a lot of “huntresses” on board, or “working devushkas”, as Bill put it. Dad hooked up with a couple pretty quickly and disappeared for the rest of the evening.

Igor and I are in week 2 of a “drying out” phase. We decided it was time to take a break from alcohol – too much of in the past few months, and way too many of the corresponding calories. Considering the main selling point of the Caribbean Cruise was the free “tropical” cocktails, we weren’t sure how our resolve would hold up. But we stuck to our non-alcoholic beer (which was surprisingly thoughtful of the organizers to have available!). When we got home, Igor commented, “Well, we made it through our first event without booze. Kinda boring, but we did it.” I don’t think it would have been more exciting or entertaining if we had been drinking, though. But it was a pleasant evening, something different to do.

The coming weekend will be chock full of fun stuff – Sunday is Flag Day, Monday is Independence Day, so lots of events planned throughout the long weekend. Saturday is the flower festival at the park by Rodina Mat’. Sunday is a flag-raising ceremony at Marinsky Palace. And after the parade on Monday morning, we are looking forward to checking out the new museum at the Holodomor monument.

We moved over the weekend- I can’t believe how much we accomplished in 48 hours! We are more or less settled in, a few things left to unpack and find just the right spot for. Tonight we’ll tackle pictures! Can’t wait to put up paintings and photos that I haven’t seen for 9 months – the walls in the previous apartment were solid concrete, and although it was the perfect excuse for Igor to buy a snazzy drill, it was just too much to hang up all our pictures there.

One of my favorite things in the new apartment is this:

That’s the view from our bedroom window, a gorgeous apricot tree dripping with fruit.

Thank you to everyone who wrote and called to wish me a happy birthday – it was really a great day!

I got home really late Thursday night from Russia, it was already practically Friday. At the stroke of midnight Igor produced a lovely bouquet of roses for me. So sweet! At the office my colleagues also surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers, bright violet, but I don’t know what they are called. Really pretty.

The tradition here is that the birthday girl or boy prepares the party for colleagues and friends. Igor helped me out, ever the wonderful husband that he is, and brought a cake and 2 bottles of champagne to the office for me. We enjoyed relaxing and laughing for a bit, a nice break at the end of the week and worth doing no matter what the occasion! Several people had just returned from vacations and other trips, so there were plenty of hilarious travel stories to go around.

After work, Igor and I went to look at a couple of apartments. The real estate market has dropped so much that even apartments in Pechersk, where we desperately want to live again, have come into a more-or-less reasonable range. The first place had plenty of pluses, a few minuses, but the owners were pretty determined to stick to the inflated price they had in mind. It never fails to amaze me how many property owners here prefer to receive nothing instead of accepting a lower offer – as I understood it, the place had been empty for several months with no one willing to pay the price they wanted, but I guess they don’t need the money.

The second place we saw was a second visit for Igor. He had told me the day he first saw it “I found our apartment.” It just resonated with him, he felt at home there right away. I can’t say I had the same immediate feeling, but I definitely understood why he liked it. And he’s been so unhappy in the place that I picked last year, I want to make sure this time that we choose an apartment that he feels good about. Three big rooms, a nice size kitchen with gas stove, water heater, tall ceilings, brick building, in a courtyard so low street noise, enclosed balcony, well-insulated windows, second floor, in Pechersk, and a short walk from the metro – basically all we were hoping for! The previous tenants had kids who clearly put some wear on the place, though – spots from markers and stickers on the walls, furniture is “well used”, I would say. But that’s stuff we can fix or work around and generally deal with.

After a little bargaining, we closed the deal and will move in next week! The best part is that it is $450/month LESS than we are paying now, and our quality of life will be so much improved.

The great birthday wrapped up with a quiet dinner on the balcony with my wonderful husband, a delicious bottle of Georgian wine we bought in Tbilisi, and fireworks in three parts of the city that we could see. What else could you ask for?

It was a new record for total and utter chaos yesterday at Boryspil airport. It’s always a bit of a madhouse there, but yesterday was really quite impressive. Two counters for something like 6 or 7 flights to check in- Tbilisi, Bangkok, Tel Aviv, Dubai, Copenhagen and others. Everybody was freaking out, the poor ladies were doing their best, I’m sure, but passengers were yelling at them to work faster (which just ALWAYS makes someone want to work faster, right?). We were in line for registration for over an hour, finally just 2 or 3 people away from our turn, when 2 obnoxious men pushed their way to the front and wanted to ditch everyone because they were late. Very brave move, I thought- that crowd was pretty dang ready to go ballistic on somebody. I pointed out that we were ALL late, and Igor told them to get back to their place in line. (Turned out they were on the same flight as us, so definitely no more late than we were.)

Security noticed my little non-pointy scissors for my cross-stitch (which have gone on something like 10 or 12 flights with me) and said they weren’t allowed, but didn’t take them away. Just told me to leave them in the terminal (which, of course, I did not).

Passport control went smoothly, we breezed through. Igor noticed two men being deported. I overhead a man ask that his passport NOT be stamped. What was that about, I wonder? I’ve heard of Americans doing that in Cuba, or someone who travels between Armenia and Azerbaijan not wanting a stamp, but no stamp in Ukraine was a new one for me.

I checked the screen, Gate 1. By the time we got there, our gate had changed. The ladies at Gate 1 told us to go to Gate 4. We stood in line but something didn’t look right. I went to check the screen again, and now we were changed to Gate 5. I stared to wonder if they really knew where our plane was.

We finally boarded, then spent an entire hour on the tarmack, suffocating in the stifling hot air of the cabin. Babies screeching, everyone melting. When we finally did take off (and the air conditioning kicked on, thank god!), the pilot came on the intercom to apologize for the delay, which was due “to lack of services at Boryspil airport”. Wow. And they want to host Euro 2012 here? They’ve got a LONG way to go.

On the plus side, the new entrance to the terminal is spiffy (although the improvement over the previous entrances is questionable). And the barricades were arranged in one of the most logical ways I’ve ever seen in the parking lot at Boryspil (the traffic pattern is arranged differently every single time I go there).

We had a great evening in Tbilisi. We’re staying in a kind of bed-and-breakfast right in the center of town. A character of an old lady has almost an entire floor of an old historical building, and she rents out five or six rooms. At some point in time, the large rooms were renovated to each include a bathroom. The walls are covered with her own paintings (“I’m no artist, it’s just my hobby”). You could probably get a second floor in here, the ceilings are so high. When I called to make the reservation, she told me “У вас входит бракфаст”, which cracked me up (4 words in Russia, 1 in heavily-accented English, translation: breakfast (the word she said in English) is included).

We were both a bit irritable after the flight (and a loooonnngg wait for luggage in Tbilisi), but some wine and hatchipuri improved moods pretty quickly. Then a wonderful meal with friends at a cool outdoor restaurant along the river. So much for losing those American pounds!

It’s been raining all evening in Kyiv, a gentle, delicious-smelling rain with a little bit of thunder and lighting. A lovely summer rain.

The vegetable soup on the stove also smells delicious. We seem to have gone overboard at the market this past weekend, all the gorgeous fresh veggies were just too irresistible! But it turns out there is a limit to how much salad even I can eat, and I couldn’t bare to think of all that food going to waste. So I’m making veggie soup, which seems like a winter dish to me, so maybe I’ll freeze it and save it until January when I’ll be dreaming of fresh veggies.

Good news of the day: Delta gave me unexpected bonus miles and now it’s quite possible I’ll achieve Gold Medallion status this year. Not really sure what that will get me – bragging rights at the least, I guess.

I finished watching the series Arrested Development. Lord, what a hilarious show. Such a pity it only had 3 seasons! I’m watching Monk now. Also great, but in a different way. I’m reading pulp fiction and watching less-than-intellectual American TV programs. Man, this is not like me at all! I usually love to read and watch something educational (yes, I’m a dork), but lately I just want to veg in the evenings.

We’re going to Tbilisi this weekend. I’ve got a workshop next week in Georgia, and I talked Igor into going a few days early with me since he’s never been to Tbilisi. Yeah!

Chestnut trees in Kyiv – they are everywhere and they are really gorgeous

A walk in the Botanical Garden

Igor got new glasses, which he actually likes (and so do I!), despite the grumpy look he’s giving me.

Last weekend was just about as perfect as spring can get. I don’t know what’s different this year, but this spring looked and felt much better to me than any other spring in Kyiv. The chestnut trees were just explosions of delicate blooms literally all over the city. There are more pink chestnuts now, too. The apple trees, the lilac bushes, the bright sun, the warm temperatures. We went for long walks – in the botanical garden, on Andreyevsky uzviz and on Khreshatyk – all three days of the long weekend. It was gorgeous everywhere we went!

Most of the country celebrated Victory Day. Igor and I celebrated two years of life together in Kyiv. Although the wedding anniversary is in December, we made our commitments to each other when he moved to Kyiv in May.

Two weeks until our great Wild West adventure. Oh man, do we ever need a vacation! The plans are coming together really nicely. We bought some guide books in Russian last week, as well as Bill Bryson book which is titled in Russian “Uncle Sam’s Country”. I thought he must have published a new book and I was a bit jealous that Igor would get to read it first (a whole book in Russian is still more than I am up to). Turns out it’s Notes from a Big Country, just titled differently in Russian. I’m excited for Igor to read it, I hope the humor translates well. He was chuckling a bit last night, so something got through OK.

We weren’t very happy with the guide books, though. They are mostly hotel and restaurant listings, with just a page or two of history, facts, etc. Anyone know where we can get good guide books in Russian or Ukrainian? I tried to search on line, found a couple bookstores in Russia, but we need something in Kyiv.

I’m back home in Kyiv, wondering when that magic moment occurred and Kyiv became “home.” It is home because my husband is here, first and foremost. My work and friends are here, too. I love being in Columbus, too, my other home, where my family and friends are. And I’m always amazed at how quickly and easily it is to reconnect with those close friends I see once a year, if I’m lucky.

I slept for something like 14 hours Tuesday night, and enjoyed a quiet day with Igor on Wednesday. He took me to the fitness club he joined recently, and signed me up as well. It felt great to have a good workout, and I’m looking forward to us getting in shape together. There are saunas in both the men’s and women’s locker rooms, which of course was the big selling point for Igor. I was kind of bummed we couldn’t use the sauna together, but as I was in mine I heard sounds on the other side of the wall and started to wonder… “Igor, is that you?” Sure enough! So we sat in our respective saunas and chatted through the wall, being the only people in either one. It was cute.

I’m back to the office today, which will be great. I miss my colleagues!

This is the season of never-ending holidays in Ukraine. Or at least it starts to feel that way to me by about this time every year. We’ve had Latin Christmas, New Year’s and Orthodox Christmas (Jan. 7), with one more to go – the so-called Old New Year, which celebrates New Year’s Eve by the the Julian calendar, even though the region changed to the Gregorian calendar 90 years ago. Man, those Slavs will think of any excuse for a holiday!

We spent both New Year’s and Orthodox Christmas with Igor’s family, as we usually do. It was the usual festival of gluttony and sloth, ending with several doses of something to calm the stomach. Fun was had by all. Igor’s father fulfilled his life-long dream and, in the year of the Cow (as it is called in Ukrainian), he bought himself a cow. (It wasn’t actually his life-long dream to buy the cow in the year of the cow, it just worked out that way.) So, his farmstead is now complete – pigs, sheep (his second lamb was born last month, almost one-year to the day from the first one, which was born on the morning of our wedding), a goat, chickens, turkeys, rabbits and a cow. He’s convinced he’s going to keep us all alive during this economic crisis with the products of his farm – let’s hope things don’t get that desperate.

They slaughtered one of the pigs in the last few days of 2008, so the big excitement for everyone during the holidays (except, of course, us vegetarians) was the homegrown pork, salo, and other various pork products. I’m sure it’s all quite tasty.

Since our trip to someplace (anyplace) warm and sunny didn’t pan out, Igor and I decided to spend a night at a spa center just outside Kyiv, creatively called Spa-Center. Since we sold our car not long ago, we headed to the bus station where various buses depart in a northwestern direction from Kyiv to find something that could drop us in the vicinity of the hotel. Lo and behold, right as we came out of the metro, the Korosten bus was pulling out directly in front of us. The driver slowed down, opened the door and yelled out a greeting to Igor – an old acquaintance! Although his bus was full, he let us stand in the aisle for the 15 minute ride to Vorzel. As we walked up the long driveway to the spa, we both laughed that we were probably the first people to arrive at this up-scale spa by foot.

We checked in, changed to our bathing suits, donned the hotel robes and headed to reception to get set-up with access to the spa center. And boom, the lights go out. It was still early afternoon, so there was plenty of natural light, but then the smell hit us. Something was definitely burning. As we descended the stairs we quickly realized the problem – the door to the utilities room was wide open and the stench was coming from the electrical panel. That was more than a blown fuse. After about an hour or so, Igor asked at reception if we should pack up and head home. No, they assured us, the power will be back within the hour. To their credit, it was back on in about 30 minutes. Of course, it went again several hours later, but by that time we had already thoroughly enjoyed the spa facilities.

We enjoyed the novelty of sitting in the steaming outdoor jaccuzi while snow fell around us, then took a quick dip in one of the pools. Igor was anxious to get to the highlight of the experience for him, the various saunas. They have a steam room, a Finnish (dry) sauna and a Russian banya. You can get a “treatment” with a venik by one the spa workers, or you can buy your own birch or oak branch and go to work on yourself with the leaves. Igor opted for this, and pretty much got the full experience – getting on a good sweat in the banya, swatting himself with the birch branch, and then stepping out of the banya and dumping a bucket of cold water over his head. That whole process is too extreme for me, but he did convince me to let him do a gentle “massage” with the birch branch a couple of times. Not bad.

After a couple of hours, we were thoroughly relaxed. The transformer blew again just as we were leaving the spa, and the electricity was out for another hour or so. I was a bit afraid to actually stay the whole night there, not feeling particularly confident that the place wouldn’t catch on fire at some point, but thankfully no more transformer problems.

We easily caught a bus back to Kyiv the next day, and decided to check out an appliance store before heading home. We’ve been talking about getting a juicer, and I did some investigating a few days earlier. I had found that for a little bit more, we could get a food processor that includes a juicer, instead of just a juicer. Well, one thing led to another, and before we knew it, we were lugging home a small space ship, I mean large kitchen “combine” (as they are called here), that does everything except wash the dishes. Oh wait, it has some self-cleaning mode too. We tested the juicing function first thing, and Igor got a little carried away. Next thing I knew, we had several liters of juice from all kinds of things – beets, carrots, parsley, cabbage (that’s particularly disgusting, I might add), apples and I don’t even know what else. The machine works great, and we found some combinations with beet juice that aren’t too bad actually.

Once these holidays are over, we are going on a mostly-juice diet for a while – we both feel fat and out of shape. There’s not much we can do for more physical exercise at the moment, since it’s damn cold with plenty of snow, but we can work on our eating habits and get back on track with eating healthier. I love the holidays, I enjoy the time with family and friends, but I’m ready to get back to work, to a schedule and a routine. One more trip to Korosten this weekend for an early celebration of Old New Year with friends, then the holiday season officially ends and we’re back to normal.

We were back in our old neighborhood the other day, visiting the Lavra with some friends. It hit me like a Mac truck how much I miss Pechersk! It wasn’t just that everything was familiar, somehow the entire atmosphere of the neighborhood feels different from where we are living now. I was hesitant to tell Igor that I missed the area, worried he’d be upset or I don’t know what. I finally told him, and he looked as relieved as I felt – we both miss Pechersk soooo much! We decided that as soon as we can, we’ll move back there. I don’t care if it’s farther from my office, it feels like home there. We also decided our next move will most likely be to an apartment that we purchase. Real estate prices are falling, and it just might be possible for us to buy a modest apartment in the coming year.

It’s weird to be more financially secure than we’ve ever been, thinking about things like buying our own apartment, in the middle of a global economic crisis and living in a country that has been hit quite hard. (Well, my retirement funds have tanked, but otherwise…) Although we are personally benefiting from the strong dollar right now, I do sincerely hope that the hrivna stabilizes soon so that so many other people don’t suffer any longer.

Today is a work day for me – yes, even at an organization called American Councils! We take a mix of Ukrainian and American holidays, and this year Latin Christmas didn’t make the list. But we get three days off next week for New Year’s, plus a day off for Orthodox Christmas on Jan. 7. But it will be a light day in the office, I suspect.

Igor and I are having some folks over for a Christmas dinner on Friday, and we started cooking last night. I’m excited to have our first party in the new apartment! It will be a bit tight, even in this big place, as the landlords still haven’t removed some of the ugly old furniture we told them we didn’t want. We’ll have to pile a bunch of it up in one of the rooms and close the door!

I think it snowed a bit overnight – it’s very white (and cold-looking) outside. But yeah, a white Christmas! I think I’ll watch my all-time favorite movie tonight, It’s a Wonderful Life. What a great flick.

Igor gave me a stunning blue topaz ring for our anniversary/Christmas/New Year’s. He says my set is complete now – earrings, necklace, bracelet, and now ring. I told him I still could get a nosering, an anklet… or maybe start on a new set with a different stone?

Happy Holidays!

Public transportation rates increased 4x
Hot water shut off in much of Kyiv for 3-4 days
Heating reduced throughout the city, some buildings without heat periodically
Price increases almost daily, market stands not bothering to write new prices anymore, instead posting “+20%” to yesterday’s prices
Bank deposit accounts frozen, people can’t withdraw their money
Pensions not paid
Government employees not sure if they’ll get paychecks this month
Layoffs, downsizing, bankruptcies
Falling hrivna, salaries’ value reduced by nearly half
Banks advertising on their homepages auctions on cars and other items repossessed

This holiday season will not be so merry for many Ukrainians.

I feel guilty for my spring and summer complaints about the poor exchange rate and the belt-tightening Igor and I had to do. It was nothing like what many people are suffering now.

We finally have internet in our new apartment. That was a crazy ordeal, but finally solved – yeah! So here are a bunch of random thoughts that have been building up, waiting for expression.

It’s freakin’ cold in Kyiv. I realized yesterday as I froze to and from work that it’s time to dig out the down coat. Yikes.

We found a sauna a 5-minute walk from us. We’ve gone two weekends in a row. Igor is much more of a hot, dry sauna fan than I am, but I enjoy going with him and love seeing him have such a good time there. He can be so predictable, too. Without fail, he complains for the first 90 minutes about how it isn’t hot enough, somethings not right, etc etc, and inevitably he turns the proper shade of red that he wants to be in the last 10 minutes and he gets a big grin and says he’s happy. He’s so funny sometimes.

The cat is finally settled in to the new apartment. She sleeps with us most of the night again. The one annoying thing is she doesn’t like to open the bathroom door to get to her box, even though we propped it open a bit for her. She prefers to sit outside the door until someone comes along and holds it open for her. She is so freakin’ spoiled. This also makes me worry about how we can leave her alone overnight, as we do on occasion. Gotta figure this one out.

The realities of my new job are starting to sink in a bit more. It’s great, I love it, but the travel will be quite an adjustment for us. Igor wasn’t too happy to hear my travel schedule for the coming year, especially some of the longer trips. But we will adapt. And I reminded to be more attentive during our time together, and not to bring work home with me.

I finally assembled all the pieces together and today I will have a toasted bagel with cream cheese for breakfast. Well, the Ukrainian version of cream cheese, which is pretty darn good too. Dad gave us a toaster as a housewarming present, and also a microwave as an early Christmas present. I haven’t used a microwave oven in over four years, and Igor has never used one, so we’re (re-)discovering it together. This micro is really cool – it also has a grill function and a steamer. Igor grilled pork over the weekend, which turned out really good. Last night we made baked potatoes – so quick and easy! I’ve got some cauliflower waiting to be steamed tonight. Yeah!

Igor and I are both stunned by how much stuff we have. To think that three years ago I moved into this apartment with two suitcases – everything I had in Ukraine fit into two suitcases. This weekend we moved four carloads of stuff to our new apartment, and there’s still at least one more car load to go. Wow.

I enjoyed unpacking most of it today – I love getting re-acquainted with my things! And it’s fun to organize and arrange our things in a new way, in a new place. I am soooo in love with “my room” (at least I’ve dubbed it “my room”!) – a small room with a fabulous huge new wardrobe and a reall dresser! I haven’t had a dresser or a nice wardrobe in 4 years, and I’m so excited to have enough space to arrange my clothes the way I like to.

We also are now the proud owners for our first set of living room furniture. Igor had heard about a good deal on a 3-piece cream and brown living room set. He went to check it out, brought me some pictures of it (since I couldn’t get out to see it myself), and when we decided to purchase it, he arranged for the delivery straight to our new place. So I actually hadn’t seen the new furniture until Friday, when we got the apartment keys. I was excited to finally see it, as Igor had been very enthusiastic about it – and it is, after all, our first major household purchase together. Imagine my surprise when I unpacked the loveseat and saw not cream, but GREEN! I would call it “lettuce green”, a soft green, kind of like key lime pie, maybe. It’s not bad, it’s just very much not what I expected. And somehow Igor was equally surprised. My first thought was that the shop pulled a fast one on him, delivering green furniture instead of cream, but Igor was standing there, helping actually, when they packed it up and loaded it all on the truck. How he could have ever thought this furniture was cream is beyond me. They must have had some funky lights in that shop. So we’re trying to get used to our lettuce green furniture, which doesn’t in the least bit go with the rug that came with the apartment. Looks like our next household purchase will be a new rug.

By the way, the rug that Dad brought us from Armenia goes absolutely perfectly in “my room” – yeah!

We’re going to stay one more week in the old place, and officially start living in the new place next weekend. I can’t wait! I’m glad we got so much done this weekend. I have business trips each of the next three weeks, so won’t actually have much time in our new place for nearly a month – just in time for Christmas!

Speaking of Christmas, Eilene and I went on a tour Saturday of a small factory outside of Kyiv that does hand-made glass Christmas-tree decorations. It was really cool to see the whole process – blowing the glass, applying the real silver plating and glazes, and the hand-painted details. The highlight, of course, was the opportunity purchase ornaments for absurd prices – none of them cost more than $4. I’ll write more and post photos as soon as I find the camera cable in a box somewhere.

We had our first real snow yesterday, and quite a bit overnight. The car was actually frozen shut! Igor finally brought out a kettle full of boiling water, which we poured over all the door locks. What a sight we were this morning, with stacks of suitcases on the sidewalk, trying to get into our car. The city was quite pretty today, all covered in white.

Time for bed. A busy week ahead.

We spent most of the weekend packing. Good grief, we have a lot more stuff than I realized. Amazing how much one can accumulate in 3 years time, especially when I was supposed to be here just temporarily! Our kitchen is back to state it was in when I first moved in – 2 forks, 2 spoons, 2 knives, 2 plates, no glasses, a few mugs, a couple pots. And to think – that was sufficient back then! As much as I hate packing, I LOVE unpacking. It’s like Christmas, only I get to relive the wonderful memories of each item as I unwrap it. Next weekend the fun part will begin!

The excitement of the weekend was when we discovered that someone had hacked into our wireless network and used up our internet limit for the month in the span of 3 days. Thank goodness we noticed the lights on the router going crazy late Friday night (or was it early Saturday morning) when neither of us was using the internet – we pulled the plug right away and cut the bandit off. We popped over to the internet company’s nearby office on Saturday, and they gave us a print-out of how to change the password for our wireless router. When we got home, we discovered that the screenshots they gave us do not in the least bit resemble the website, and after horsing around for an hour, we finally gave up and decided to go without wifi for the next week until we move.

I took a break from packing and internet fiascos yesterday to go to a huge mall with some American friends. Wow, I didn’t realize we had those kinds of places here! It’s huge, with an indoor ice-skating rink, bowling alley, movie theatre, gigantic grocery store, and a ton of over-priced speciality shops and boutiques. We did some window shopping, had a coffee, and decided to head home. Then the fun began. I swear, only Ukrainian drivers can manage to create a traffic jam in a freakin’ parking lot. Which reminds me, I saw a complete and total disaster of a traffic jam at a McDonald’s drive-through window the other day. How on earth? Only in Ukraine… I can hardly begin to describe the chaos of our particular traffic jam – it was utterly ridiculous. I finally ended up squeezing around a bus that just wasn’t going to move, and got out through the entrance. But we eventually made it home – after spending about twice as much time in the car as we had spent in the mall itself. Not a trip I plan to be repeating.

Tonight we are pooped from all the packing, the cat is busily inspecting all boxes and bags, and I’m looking forward to the week. How wonderful to look forward to going to work!

I made my first University presentation last night, about applying to MBA and PhD programs in the U.S. Wow, did I ever feel in my element! I surprised myself how much information I still have at my fingertips, but then again, I guess working for ten years at Ohio State ought to have left some remnants in my creaky ole brain. I had been thinking that I wouldn’t do so many outreach activities myself, since we have advisers and advising centers who are supposed to do that, but wow, I love being with a group of students again, talking with ease about a subject I know and love. I think I will join in on a couple presentations a month, if I can – especially if I can get away with doing them in English! We started our presentation in Russian last night (I was with one of our Kyiv advisers, Tanya, and my new assistant Ella -who, by the way, is absolutely fabulous), and one of the students called out “In English, please!” So we tag-teamed in two languages, since Tanya is more comfortable presenting in Russian (actually, she’s most comfortable in Ukrainian, but for some reason decided to present in Russian). I had a good chuckle after our presentation when a student came up and said that he was very impressed with my Russian – he said he hadn’t realized at first that I was American! I think he was putting into practice some of the advice from my presentation about the power of flattery – how a little flattery can go a long way if you are trying to get a professor to notice your application.

I’ve been back to the Middle Eastern restaurant 2 more times (and also have realized that they call it an Arab restaurant). On Sunday I got lunch to go, and while I waited I chatted with the young man working the cash register, Mohammed. Really nice young man, married to a Ukrainian woman. He introduced me to the new manager, Abrahim, who doesn’t speak English or Russian but who has a lovely smile and gives a good sales pitch in Arabic (at least he delivered it well, even if I didn’t understand the content). I was there again Tuesday night with Igor and some friends, and both Mohammed and Abrahim remembered me, greeting me with big smiles and a wave from across the restaurant. We had the same waitress as the first time we were there a couple weeks ago, and she also remembered us. I love this place!

We have just over a week until we can move to our new apartment – yeah! The coming weekend will be consumed with packing – yuck! I am so excited that we can finally consider ourselves “settled”. Granted, we’ll still be renting, but mentally I am finally ready to make some purchases that up until now seemed like splurging, not mention a pain the butt to haul around if we had to move to another country – my own set of stainless steel cookware, a food processor, a toaster (actually, Dad promised the toaster as a house-warming gift when we move), and a few other things that will just make life easier. Yeah!

I got a massage last weekend from a masseuse recommended by a colleague. He’s a medical student, and is putting his way through university working as a massage therapist. He comes to your place and does massages on the floor. It was a good massage, and much needed, but what I found most interesting was that he is from Turkmenistan. He’s been living and studying in Kyiv for about 5 years. I was a little embarrassed to admit to him that I know very very little about Turkmenistan, but he took advantage of my undivided attention to tell me a long and detailed history of the country. I didn’t catch all of it (it’s hard to concentrate on a history lesson in Russian when you are trying to relax and enjoy your massage!), but I enjoyed listening to him. Even though he dislikes the current regime, he clearly has a lot of pride in his people and heritage.

The sad news of the week is that I accidentally killed my ipod. It fell in a pot of water, and my attempts to dry it out with a hairdryer turned out to be not such a good idea – I think I fried it, literally. I am really missing my daily news dose on my commute to and from work. Electronics are so freaking expensive here, I hate to think of buying a new ipod here. But I don’t know if I can wait until my next trip to the States….

Here’s a really great article on the impact of the US elections on us Americans living abroad. I am happy to say that I have not experienced such serious anti-American sentiment myself, but I have certainly been called out on what my country has been doing the last 8 years. I’ve lost count of how many people have congratulated me in the last week on our new president, with such big beautiful smiles. One of Igor’s friends remembered that I once said I would not live in the US as long as there was a Bush in the White House – and asked if we are going to move back now!

I remembered I had to do something today that required my physical presence in the office, so I waited an extra hour this morning before venturing to the metro. The line was about 30 deep, and within a minute of me queuing up, another 30-40 people appeared behind me. People were patient but some clearly irritated. The automated machines weren’t working properly, so the only way to get the new tokens was to stand in line at one of two windows and get your tokens from a live person. Still no monthly passes (Igor was told they won’t be available until December).

I started chatting with the guy in front of me, and another lady joined in. I made a comment about it being a bit ridiculous that they didn’t start selling the new tokens a few days ago, and the lady chuckled and said (ironically) “But then people wouldn’t have to wait in line!”

You can see the Soviet legacy so clearly in certain aspects of Ukrainian society, and the ability and tolerance to stay in endless lines is certainly one of those legacies.

So the price of the metro (subway) goes up by 4 times starting tomorrow, from 50 kopeks to 2 hrivna. Can you imagine the public outrage of an increase from 50 cents to 2 bucks in, say, New York City? Granted, the price of the metro hasn’t increased in something like 8 years, and given inflation rates of 24% this year alone, clearly a rate increase is in order. But man does it suck to be your average Kyiv worker with a monthly income of about $200 – your monthly commute now costs not $5 (24UAH), but starting tomorrow will cost $20 (96UAH) – that’s an increase from 2.5% of your monthly income to 10%, would you be a little upset?

Frankly, I think Americans would be pitching fits in the streets, if an American public transit system would even dare such a move. In Ukraine, they deflect hysteria by not making available the new passes and tokens – a completely different kind of infuriation (is that even a word?).

Prices of public transportation change tomorrow, 4 November. I tried to buy a new monthly pass last Friday and today – nichevo – they don’t have any. So instead I tried to buy the new 2 hrivna tokens today – nichevo – nada – dream on.

Four million people will need to buy new tokens tomorrow – is this good planning? I am sure I was not alone in wanting to buy a new pass and/or tokens in advance so as to avoid the lines on 4 November. Hah!

The bagel I had for lunch today will NOT make up for the frustration I will face tomorrow morning, standing in line with 4 million commuters to buy the new tokens. I think I’ll work from home, just to avoid the chaos. It’s the whimp’s way out, but wow am I ever grateful that I have the flexibility to do it!

We are moving! We finally found an apartment that we like, with a manageable commute to my new office, with a price that doesn’t make us ill at the idea of paying it every month. We’re moving out of the center of Kyiv, though, which is going to be an interesting change for us. And not just out of the center, but to the edge of Kyiv – two bus stops past the last metro station. But wow, is it ever quiet out there. And there’s a giant park nearby, a forest really. We are really looking forward to some long walks there.

We are also literally “moving up” – to the 10th floor! Even though we’ll be far from the center, we’ll have an amazing view, and we’ll see the weekly Kyiv fireworks from our balcony, instead of just hearing them but seeing nothing through the high-rises that surround us now.

And yes, there’s an elevator.

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The temperature has finally dropped enough that the centralized heat was turned on a few days ago. We’d been waiting for that before we gave the cat her quarterly shave. I decided to give it a try this time, and the cat actually laid down in the tub when I got out the electric shaver! Guess she was ready to lose all that insulation. Igor somehow just couldn’t stand by and let me manage the process, and I finally handed over the shaver. He’s getting better at it, but Pepette’s patience is not endless, and she especially hates it when he shaves her legs and head. She looks utterly ridiculous, but she’s happy! She got some extra special yummy treats for being such a good girl, had a good sprint around the apartment to demonstrate her new-found energy, and is now curled up on my lap purring like mad. Ah, how I love my monster.

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My new job is starting up slowly but surely. There’s a lot of stuff I have to do before I can really start doing my actual job – set up my office, buy a laptop and other equipment, hire my assistant, etc. The computer I’m using until I get my laptop is a dinosaur, and frustrates me to tears with its slowness and lack of capacity. The IT guy did something today that made it a bit better, but man I can’t wait to get a new computer.

They weren’t kidding about the 50% travel! By the end of this year, I should travel at least to DC, Budapest, Moscow, and one or two cities in Ukraine. But I can’t schedule any of it yet because the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is taking forever to do my new visa (because my visa is based on my employment, I had to get a new one when I changed jobs). They’ve had my passport for going on six weeks now, and it is also frustrating me. On the other hand, I have this sneaky feeling that I should enjoy the inability to travel while I can, ’cause soon enough I’ll be traveling a LOT.

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Saturday was my three year anniversary in Ukraine. It’s incredible to think how much has happened in these three years. I came here expecting to stay a year, maybe two, and I just updated my profile with the State Department’s Travel Registration to “staying indefinitely”. Three years in this apartment is also almost a record for me – the second longest residency in one abode since I moved out of my parents’ 18 years ago.

Life is good. I’m so glad, and very grateful, that I’ve found my place in the world, here with Igor. And the monster (aka Pepette).

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I downloaded 5 seasons of Homicide: Life on the Street. I loved the show when it was on air, but discovered it only after a couple of seasons. I really enjoyed watching from the beginning now and getting all the ‘backstories’ that I had missed before. Man, what a great show.

I’m also still working on my embroidery. I finished three small projects so far, one of which I want to frame and give to Igor’s mom for her birthday. My current project is by far the most ambitious to date – eleven different colors and a pretty complicated pattern. I’m ready to be done with it and try out the Ukrainian patterns I bought during our recent trip to the Carpathians. I’m about half way through it, argh. One cool side effect is that I am catching up on my podcasts, and the Podiobooks and Librivox books that I’ve been wanting to listen to. But now I’m way behind on my stack of paper books. *sigh*