Kiev Pictures!

Sideways Sasha and Lena.

This is in the middle of Kiev. I want a house here almost as much as I want one in Corsica and on a Greek Island. 

I <3 Kiev, Ukraine

In my experience up until two days ago, although I like Ukraine, I didn't think I'd ever want to move here permanently. Exploring Kiev in the daytime changed that. I absolutely LOVED Kiev. It was beautiful, the buildings were mostly pre-Soviet or new, and it felt... cosmopolitan. I even heard English spoken on the streets several times. Whoa baby. English! Alex and I rode into the city with Oleg and Nastya and Angelina because it just so happened Nasya was going to meet some friends in the city. We parted ways at the end of the metro and Alex and I went to see where he went to university. It was a beautiful part of the city with artsy looking students and big buildings. Very chic. After we walked around for a bit we went to get dinner in the center of the city (really the only place I'd been). Stupidly, we chose an Applebees (seriously!) because I was feeling sentimental and Alex wanted nachos. The food was awful. After, we went to Alex's uncle and aunts place. We spent the night there and had a lovely time. They were doting and sweet and tried so hard to make me feel at home. I kept thinking, "wow... these people will be FAMILY soon." Good thing I like them. We talked and ate more and I tried home-made vodka. Then Alex and I slept on a wildly uncomfortable pull out couch. The change of pace was so nice... funny how something as simple as sleeping in a new place can remind you how much you adore someone. There was one point at about 5 am when Alex sat up and I woke up and said, "what are you doing?" "I just realized you're probably thirsty." he said. Yeah, he's amazing. Have I said that before? In the morning we had mini pancakes and then headed off to find the U.S. embassy. It ended up taking about 4 hours of us walking around Kiev, but that was okay because it was beautiful and I really love exploring cities. Except maybe wearing 4 inch heels was a bad idea because my bad ankle was not okay. At all. After we finally found the embassy and then realized it was the wrong place and found the consulate (not next to each other, of course) my ankle was killing me so I sat for a minute and Alex scoped out a place for lunch. He came back and said, "I found a place. It looks out." Turns out, it was SUSHI. I was totally excited. Alex wanted to make me happy, but he doesn't like sushi. Or should I say DIDN'T. I assumed, and was correct, that the reason he didn't like sushi was because he'd never had good sushi and omg this place had good sushi. Alex loved it. I loved it. And we spent a whopping $20 on the whole meal. Yess. After sushi we walked around the city again. There was this one place... the place that made me realize I could totally live in Kiev... that overlooked a sort of mini-canyon (Kiev is very hilly) and inside were all these beautiful old houses painted these brilliant colors. It was gorgeous. 

And then we went home. But I want to go back. Now. 

All The Good News

On Sunday night, or rather early Monday morning, I checked my email right before we headed to bed. There was one from my mom telling us a certain paper had arrived in the mail- our APPROVED I-129. For those of you who don't spend your time researching visas, the I-129 is the first step of Alex and my K1 visa. It is the step that takes the longest time and we really didn't expect it to be accepted until around June. This is very very very exciting news except now we're scrambling to get everything else together before our interview at the embassy... which we could have in 4 weeks if we're lucky! That means Alex could be in America in 5, theoretically... which is just insane to think about. It was starting to feel so unreal... so far away... and now, here we are, and it is REALLY happening. Yay! Eeek! 

The second good news I have is that Alex stopped smoking. It was a Valentines Day present to me and he's been SO good! I'm very proud of him, although he's been unusually moody today. I guess I should expect that, though. 

This morning we went for a walk and visited Oleg at his jewelry-making-place. It was this big room in an industrial building with a bunch of guys working at little desks covered in tools and metals and liquids and torches. It was pretty cool, and nice to see jewelry made by hand. In fact, I don't think I want to buy non-hand-made jewelry again. There is so much love put into the handcrafted stuff! Wouldn't it be nice to get a ring from there? :)

Anyway... wish me luck on this visa crap. It is so much work, seriously. And I'm terrified of making one little mistake that will cost us 10 months of wait time.

Oh, and I'm going to be home alone for three days. Alex's grandmother is dying and he needs to go see her in West Ukraine. He hates to do it, but I can certainly survive on my own and I'll probably spend a lot of time with Nastya so I don't go insane. Alex keeps saying that I should make dates with a lot of people-- but no one except Nastya do I feel seriously close with and it would be weird trying to speak Russian without Alex around to bail me out. Poor dear. His grandmother is very important to him-- she's the one who taught him Ukrainian when he spent summers with her. Alex's mom is also really upset that she can't be here to say goodbye to her mother... which reminds me, Happy Birthday Luda! 

Time for some visa research. Woo. Hoo. 

Valentine's Day

As with all holidays around here, Valentines Day was a little different than I expected. Alex and I had planned on a lazy day... going out for coffee in the morning and making dinner in the evening. Perhaps with a bit of champagne thrown in there. That wasn't how it happened, though. Roman called us in the morning and said, "Be ready in half an hour to go down to the airport and have shashlik." Alex and I discussed it and negotiated the time and we decided to go for it. I wasn't really looking forward to spending my Valentine's Day watching Alex be the little socialite he is... but it seemed like it might be an interesting experience. Roman picked us up in his sleek white Honda and we headed out of town to the airport where he spends most of his time jumping out of airplanes. Now, instead of just parachuting, he has recently purchased a "jump suit" that makes him look like a bat. I couldn't understand how it worked when he first showed it to us (and demanded he try to jump off his kitchen counter) but apparently you just jump out of a plane wearing this suit and you turn into a bird. And then when you land you pull your parachute. The landing is what I'm unclear on. Check out YouTube for some jumpsuit videos. It's pretty crazy. Anyway, we got the airport and apparently Roman has his own little trailer set up there... with a bed and a kitchen and even a little TV. If it isn't clear, Roman has a little bit of money... which is a sharp contrast to almost everyone else I've met here. When we arrived there was already a couple (okay, I admit it, for the four thousandth time since being abroad, I thought the guy was the girl's father for a good half hour) there with a fire going. I pretended I spoke Russia for a few minutes and then admitted that beyond introductions I'm pretty useless. Fortunately, everyone spoke English. I hate to say this, but it seems as though the more money people have, the better their English. Of course, that doesn't mean they'll talk to you in English. Even Roman, when we first met, pretended he couldn't speak English at all. It was pretty cold there and we started cooking and hanging out around the fire (you should smell our clothes now...). Shashlik, for those who don't know, is basically Russian kabobs or souvlakia or whatever you call it in other countries. Except it tends to be much bigger and they marinate it in a mayonnaise sauce. It isn't bad, though. We cooked potatoes and shashlik and ate and then someone I got convinced to take sots of honeypepper (Joanna's fav) vodka. And not just shots. HUGE shots. I even said "choot choot" meaning "little bit" and this guy poured me enormous shot after enormous shot. Long story short, I was wasted in 15 minutes. We did have a lovely time, though. They tried to convince me to jump out of a plane, I refused. Alex was excited because this spring Roman is giving him a "jump". It was his birthday present. Alex has jumped out of planes a few times before, but not in years. He says it is important in case he's "in a situation where I [he] need[s] to jump out of a plane." I can't think of a situation where I would ever need to know how to parachute, but, okay... if it makes him happy. And is free. When it got dark we headed home. I fell asleep in the car. We spent the rest of the day half-drunk and he gave me flowers and champagne and we ate chocolate for dinner. He also gave me the best gift, ever... he's quitting smoking. So far it has been a day and I'm quite impressed with how good he looks. I sort of expected to see him writhing on the floor coughing up black stuff. Wish him luck, he will need it. Fortunately, though, when Alex decides to do something... he comes through. 

Off to the store now, I'm making burritos. Lucky boy. 

xo

COuNtDoWn

Arg. I feel like I'm leaving Alex already... even though we have a good three weeks left together. How could time pass so quickly? It looks like I'll only be back in America for about 2 months though, so that time will pass quickly too... just enough time to make some money and hop back to Ukraine for a lovely summer. I'm really looking forward to summer. Hopefully I'll make some hops to Western Europe and Egypt and I'm looking forward to Chernigov in the summer. When it isn't perpetually grey. There's a chance we might spend the summer at the Black Sea instead, but part of me wants to stay here where I'm starting to make friends. This week has been a little strange. Tuesday was the anniversary of the day, 5(?) years ago that Alex's best friend died. He left for the cemetery in the morning and Nasya came over for tea and some girl time (which oh my God I need). We hadn't even finished a cup when the boys came trudging back. They had planned to go drink vodka (no way!) at someone's house but it fell through so they ended up here. Nastya and I took on the wifey roles (she is much better at that than I) and cut up fish and vegetables and bread and poured the boys vodka. We ended up sitting around with them toasting and drinking all day. It was fun, but it was sad to see Alex in so much pain. And I know him well enough to recognize pain... Anyway, we ended up staying up half the night that night which has thrown us off as far as sleep and now Alex and I both seem to be insomniacs. Which sucks. Even getting up early, we cannot seem to get to bed before 4 or 5. And not being able to sleep is one of my least favorite things on earth. 

Off for now... need to study Russian and, er, watch Gossip Girl... my new obsession. 

The Dinner Party

Last night was lovely, although today it is 2 pm and I'm still in my pajamas having accomplished nothing but half the dishes and Alex is still asleep. I think he's sick because he keeps coughing and moaning. Anyway, earlier in the week we invited two couples over for dinner on Friday night. Oleg and Nastya and Romashka and Yulia. I meant it to be a classy and wine-filled evening and not anything like the typical Ukrainian dinner party. I spent all week scouring food blogs and recipe sites for things I could make with ingredients I could find around here. I ended up choosing recipes that could be changed if I couldn't find something. Ie: Cream cheese or smittana. Sweet potatoes or potatoes. Friday morning we went shopping and I found most of what I needed which was pretty impressive. I started cooking at about four (they were supposed to arrive at 8) and at just about that time Romashka called to inform us that both couples were going to bring their kids. (Uh, what?) And they wanted to know what to bring. Alex tried to explain that this was an AMERICAN dinner party and it was not necessary to bring anything. The concept was clearly hard for them to get their heads around because Ukrainian dinner parties are very different from what I had planned. Fortunately Alex understood my intentions-- the fact that he's lived all over comes in handy quite a bit when I run into cultural barriers. So, I cooked and cooked and cooked for a really long time with only minor disaster (and now for 8 people, not 6). I made stuffed chicken breast with a lemon butter sauce, a light pesto over shells, herbed potato wedges and Viennese cucumber salad. Everyone arrived about 8:15 with bags of groceries: juice, beer, vodka... and Yula made pizza. I was a little annoyed but sort of expected this. Anyway, my food turned out to be a big hit post Oleg picking up a piece of chicken and asking, "What's IN this?" He's jewish so I said, "lots of pig."

The night, as I said before, turned out to be lovely. The kids were sweet and I am absolutely in love with Oleg and Nastya's little girl Angelina. Apparently she's always asking about me and kept saying "I love you best friend." in English. She's also delighted to use the word "cool". 

At one point the little boy started crying and they went home around midnight. Nastya and Angelina stayed past one which was nice. Nastya is becoming a real friend and her English keeps getting better and better. I really need a friend here so this makes me uber-happy. She's all worried that I won't come back here for the summer but I totally will.

Okay, now to the rest of those dishes...

Dinner party = Success. 

I just ran into a door

Whenever we have guests over Alex always closes the bedroom door because the room is kind of a mess. The rest of the house is pretty clean most of the time, but we never use the bedroom so it has turned into the "place where we throw junk". (You see, we mostly sleep on the pull out couch in the living room. I have no idea why but we both like it better in there. The bedroom is sort of creepy.) Anyway, whenever we have guests over Alex closes the bedroom door and every single time after they leave I try to go into the bedroom (because all my stuff is in there) and I run smack into the door. I mean, it seriously happens a lot. I'm getting sick of it and considering buying glow-in-the-dark stickers for the door or something...

Anyway, life is pretty good 'round here. Yesterday Andrevich came over (he is one of my favorite people here even though he doesn't speak English) which was lovely. Whenever people visit in Ukraine they bring tons of stuff, even if it is just a "hey I'm going to stop by and say hello" sort of visit. Andre brought: Lviv Beer, cherry juice, corn muffins, pastries AND a beautiful purple potted flower for me because he felt bad that he didn't get me a flower on my birthday. Isn't he a sweetie? And single... any American girls looking for a nice SWM? I should start a dating service! Anyway Alex went out and bought a HUGE dried salted fish called "shchooka" not to be confused with "sooka" which is a bad word. I was confused because the words are only separated by one letter: shch (yeah, that's a letter) and s. So we ate the huge fish and drank beer and then the boys played Tavli and then we hung out and talked and generally it was a nice evening. And did I mention I love my flower?

This evening Vara and his sort-of-girlfriend (but don't worry girls, he's still mostly on the market...) came over for a bit. I had many awkward moments with the girl (Yula) when the boys were on the balcony smoking because she does not understand that for me to understand her when she speaks Russian requires A) a miracle (just kidding... sort of) and B) her to speak SLOWLY. (Or at least not really really fast.) Fortunately I have learned the word for "slow". For some reason I could always remember "fast" but never slow and would say something like "speak no fast" when someone spoke too fast which would confuse people because when it comes down to it, native speakers of any language tend to have a hard time understanding when someone fucks up their language grammatically. I even do it sometimes. Alex will pronounce a word in slightly the wrong way and I'll look at him like he's crazy. Anyway, Yula refuses to speak slowly and then doesn't understand why I can't understand her and it sucks because then I feel like my Russian is terrible which is not a good feeling when life seems to depend on your Russian NOT sucking. 

This is the rant-y-est post. I think I'll sign off now. Alex and I are watching "Yes Man" in a few minutes. We started to watch it a while ago but never finished and for a week whenever I said "no" Alex would point to me and a chant "no man! no man." If you've seen the movie, you'll get it. 

Peace, Love and Good Russian

"I have to go down there. Someone's trying to hit Vara with a stick."

So last night at about 1:30 Vara calls Alex because he left his keys here earlier in the evening. He told Alex just to go out to the balcony and throw them down (we live on the fifth floor). I have no idea what happened but when Alex came back into the living room he looked out the window, sighed, and said, "I have to go down there. Someone's trying to hit Vara with a stick." 

Alex put on his coat and went downstairs. I went to the balcony to try to see what was going on and sure enough there was a guy down there trying to his Vara with a stick. It was kind of scary to watch and I was afraid Vara would get hurt... and even though our communication sucks I have a huge soft spot for him. He's also here all the time so I'm the most comfortable with him out of all of Alex's guy friends. Anyway, Alex goes downstairs and there is yelling and arguing and finally Vara drives away and Alex comes back upstairs. Everything is OKAY. 

Apparently the guy was wasted (and possibly on drugs) and was walking by the building just as Vara pulled up... and the guy said to Vara "Someone beat me up and stole my jacket tonight!" all pissed off and then just attacked him as if he was the one who did it. I guess in the end Vara punched the guy in the face a few times and then Alex intervened and convinced Vara to go home. 

The reason I mention this is to stress how strange it is to me that this is NORMAL here. I mean, okay, maybe in like... cities... this shit happens all the time and I'm just not aware of it... but it seems like every ten minutes someone is getting in a fight here and no one backs off no matter what the situation. I can't get used to it and I just hope Alex has enough sense to stay out of trouble... 

Photo Diary: Our Birthday Party

Hanging with Volva
Kissy. 
My Ukrainian guy piggy bank compliments of Vara. Every girl needs one!
Some of the many flowers I got!
The birthday kids dance... I sort of felt like we had just been married. 
Ukrainian birthday party: shot of vodka, toast, shot of vodka, eat, shot of vodka, dance, shot of vodka...
Dancing?

dvatset-chiteerie

Holy shit I am 24. It doesn't sound particularly old since Alex just turned 28 (now THAT sounds old) but, still, I remember turning 12 and thinking, "wow!" Today has already been lovely, and it is just barely afternoon. Alex and I got up early (what??) and he made me crepes with caramel sauce and fruit. Then Oleg came over to get Alex so they could go shopping for the party. He also, curiously, measured my left ring finger. Then I basked in the glory of "happy birthday" messages while Alex bought shashlik, tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, salami... etc. etc.. Now we're going to get the food together... marinate the meat, make the salads... cut up stuff and head to the place where we're having the party. It is a sort of  "cabin" place, but it's really nice and has a patio and a kitchen and pool table and Oleg (bless his heart) eve got us a DJ. Soo... it should be a pretty crazy night. 

Eeepp

(And thanks for the birthday texts/calls/Facebook messages/emails... I'm glad people didn't forget about me!)