This One is for Zach: Ukraine Description

The buildings:
Ukraine LOOKS exactly how you imagine it does. Soviet apartment buildings mixed with beautiful old gold-domed churches. It took me a while to realize this, but the buildings look strange because although the main structures are uniform, the balconies, which every apartment has and are typically glassed-in are all different, giving buildings this strange pasted-together look. Alex says this is because the buildings are so old and eventually the balconies need repair, but every family can only afford to do so much, so some balconies are beautiful and made of stained hardwood, while others are tacked together with old pieces of rusted metal. I found this to be true of most Soviet housing, regardless the city. However, pre-Soviet buildings tend to be beautiful. Kiev, as a whole, is a gorgeous super-old city that resisted most Soviet architecture. On the outskirts of cities are groups of houses separated by fences and usually without much land. Recently there has been a push for houses in villages nearby cities, but until very recently the villages in Ukraine were dirt poor and not somewhere anyone wanted to live. The wealthiest people tend to live in big, gated communities, within the city limits or in the newer apartment buildings. A family might buy a floor of a building so they can all stay close.

Wealth:
Generally, people here are poor, especially lately. Many typical jobs pay 1,000 Grieven a month... which is about (at the current exchange rate) $100. And things aren't necessarily cheap here... an apartment could easily cost a few thousand Grieven in rent a month, often more, and food is outrageous. For example, Alex and I will go for a "little shopping" buying food to last us a few days and we'll spend 200 Grieven. So 1,000 a month gives you 5 times shopping for a couple. Not so good.

The People:
Ukrainians are very nice. Seriously. They are hospitable and friendly and, although they always seem to be frowning when you see them on the street, seem to be cheery, especially when vodka is involved. Everyone wears fur coats and fur hats. Even little kids. They tend to dress very fashionably and the girls usually look a little on the whorish side (not so say American girls don't). Everyone here is skinny. Most have blue eyes. Most have black or blond hair. The guys dress very European. I have yet to see a girl wearing anything on her feet other than tall boots. Including children.

The Food:
I sort of hate Ukrainian food, as you may have figured out from previous posts. They eat a lot of weird meats and put mayonnaise on salad. They also love eating salted fish with beer and bread and butter topped with weird stuff.

All in all, though, I like it here. The people are nice to me and it is endlessly interesting to be here. I just like being able to cook my own meals :-)

A Friend!

First of all, I am lazy. This is what a lack of schedule does to you. Or maybe this is what 6 days with zero sleep does to you. I have no idea what I did today but besides figuring out our money situation (yay for the dollar going up!) and cleaning the apartment and taking down the Christmas tree... actually, I take that back, maybe we did do something today... but I didn't leave the house. Not even once. And it isn't even freezing out... about 10 F... which is a whole lot of warm compared to the -25 C the other day... ie: -13 F. So much for Ukraine having weather similar to NH. Someone remind me why I'm not in Greece...

Anyway, last night we had Oleg and Nastya and their daughter Angelina over for dinner. I made olive-y red sauce and spaghetti and Alex made horiatiki. Alex and I were both sick which put a damper on things but I really like Nastya and she speaks English and I was sort of kind of thrilled to be able to talk to her. She wants to get together sometime without the boys which makes me happy. Did I make a friend here???

Anyway, I'm going to go drag Alex away from his iPod (I bought him IPod Touch Soccer for New Year's... bad idea) so we can watch a movie and cuddle.

Oh, and tomorrow we're going to Chernoble. Or close.

Culture. Shock.

It is 11 am on Friday, January 9th. I am in the living room of our apartment in Chernigov, Ukraine. Alex is asleep in the bedroom under a big fleece leopard-print blanket his mother sent us from Greece. We returned at 8 this morning from a trip to West Ukraine. It was a whole mix of things but generally one big culture shock for me. It started on January 3rd in the afternoon. I was feeling sick and we were about to embark on a 12-hour bus ride with 20 other people. Destination: Karpati, Ukraine. The mountains in Western Ukraine where we would snowboard and see a little of West Ukraine. We boarded the bus at about 4 pm (an hour after we were supposed to). The crowd was mostly youngish-couples with one family and a mother and her 10-year-old daughter. Alex and I were going with one of his best friends and his wife. When everyone settled in our guide, Alexandr Andrevivich, took the microphone at the front of the bus and started laughing and making jokes (that I didn't understand, clearly, and this is a big factor for me) and promised us champagne since he was late. I thought it was an empty promise but sure enough when the bus started he passed out plastic cups and bottles of champagne. I drank some despite feeling sick (as I mentioned earlier) but was worried because I didn't think a long bus ride + champagne + sickness + a (newfound) tendency to get car-sick would end very well. As we finished our champagne... all hell broke loose. People started tearing open hidden bottles of cognac (mostly cognac for some reason) and taking shots out of their plastic cups. I looked around in horror and realized Alex and his friends were not only taking part in this insanity, but were LEADING in it. In a matter of 2 minutes the bus has turned into a full-out party and I was just sitting there in shock. I refused shots several times over the course of a few minutes and as I watched this I got sort of pissed (in the American sense- HA)... no one had warned me that this was what Ukraine bus trips were like (and trust me, they all knew) and I was not prepared to get shitfaced and not exactly thrilled that Alex was ignoring me and everyone was speaking Russian and I was sitting in my window seat like a loser. Eventually things calmed down and Alex explained to me that, yes, this is typical. Soon the bus pulled over so the drunken passengers could use the bathroom. I got off the bus and saw no bathrooms... just trees. "Where are the bathrooms?" I asked Alex. "Just go by a tree." He said. This is normal in America for a car, maybe, if someone really has to go... but an entire bus, nuh-uh. I was feeling culture-shocked already. Finally, after hours of drunken craziness that I refused to take part in (maybe if they were drinking beer I would have cracked, but I still can't handle the thought of cognac on a bus), sort-of sleeping and a realization that my American-ness was going to be a big attraction (one drunk girl sat with me for 45 minutes pointing to things and making me say them in English) we arrived at our hotel. The rooms were bearable, but sub-par and decorated with glitter on the walls and fake plants hanging above the beds. It was morning at the point and we went down for breakfast (thank God, I was starving and all breakfasts and dinners were included in the price of our trip). The room where we were to eat was barely above freezing and even in a turtleneck and sweater and I was shivering. And then there was the food. Sitting at every place on a long table were bowls of beet salad and cookies. This was breakfast? I sat down and pushed the food around my plate, starving. Little did I know this was only the beginning of a week of terrible food experiences. After breakfast we headed off for a tram ride. It was pretty fun even thought it was a small train, not a tram, and did not go "up the mountains" as promised. At one point we stopped and drank "life water" from a spring and then literally stopped at an old lady's house who served us bread with butter, pickles and meat and tea from a giant metal bucket (needless to say I didn't have any) in exchange for tips from us. People drank the entire tram ride. After the tram we went to a Kaliba (traditional Ukrainian restaurant that is rustic in every sense of the word... and from my experience they are never really heated) and I had a decent meal of soup and some potato thing. It was fortunate that the meal was good. Dinner that night was not edible and included yogurt and an orange. We spent the evening drinking. Go figure. The next day we got up early to go snowboarding and skiing. I was a little worried about breakfast and rightfully so. We were served cabbage salad and assorted piece of cake (sound like leftovers to you?) and then... get this... mashed potatoes with meat. FOR BREAKFAST. I walked out and never came back to breakfast. The next morning they got soup. As we got back to the room Alex said "I'm worried that you didn't eat any breakfast..." I replied, "I'm worried you DID." Snowboarding the first day was a disaster. First we went to a mountain and all the lifts were broken. Then we drove to a farther away one and they didn't have any snowboards of course. We ended up having a nice day though... Alex and I took a sleigh ride out to this nice waterfall... but seriously, no snowboards at all? Alex eventually got them to get some for us for the next day but I was still pretty annoyed. It turns out though, and I realized this the next day, the snowboarding was AWFUL. The chair lifts were from 1900 and the trails were so skied-off there was more grass than snow. Ugh. So, after the snowboard-less day we went to another Kaliba. This one wasn't heated at ALL except for an open fire in the middle of the room. (I could still see my breath.) We ate shashlike (a traditional meat kabob) and listened to live music and drank (do you see a pattern?). It was a lot of fun. We danced around the fire and had a good time. Alex even fake-proposed to me to the delight of everyone (I'm still waiting for the real one :-) ). The days went on like this. A mix of disappointments and delights. Sometimes I was really happy and sometimes I was like "let's go home, please, right now". I can't really explain culture shock or how strange it was for Ukrainians to have an American among them (people were asking Alex questions left and right and alternating between treating me like a princess and ignoring me. The little girl (and also Alex's other friends who met us there's daughter) spoke some English and was obsessed with me. I've promised to go horseback riding with her sometime. A REAL LIVE AMERICAN.) but it was generally kind of strange and difficult to deal with at times. Culture shock happens when you aren't looking and it isn't necessarily about the big things- those you expect- but the little things, like beets for breakfast.

Me? Another language?

Okay, I'll admit it... I never really tried to learn Greek. It happened to a degree, of course, just by virtue of being there, but I never really put in much effort because for some reason I never really cared. In contrast, I want to speak Russian so incredibly much... and consequently I am spending a lot of time learning. Alex and I put stickers all over the apartment today labeling "stol" and "lampa" and "cartina". I've also been trying to use it more. Roman (I adore that name when pronounced in Russian... row-ma(soft)n) was over this evening and I played hostess in Russian even though he understands English fairly well. There was one point where Alex asked me to say the Russian alphabet and I was like "ah, beh, veh, deh... uh I don't think I can... can you guys?" And then they laughed because neither of them could. 

I blame the absence of a Russian alphabet song. 

Coming tomorrow: Christmas tree shopping in Chernigov...

Chernigov After Dark

Since Alex and I managed to miss daylight yesterday, Vara and Alex took me on a little nighttime tour of Chernigov. We drove around for a while and there was an interesting comparison between Soviet housing and older and newer architecture but basically Chernigov looks like any other city... just with more gold-domed churches and more people in fur. WAY more people in fur. So after we drove around for a while it started to snow and the boys took me to a little river port where we got out of the car, climbed a 1,000 year old staircase ("America isn't even as old as this staircase!") and walked around this beautiful old park. As we walked Alex and Vara pointed out different historical landmarks: Here is the oldest church in the former S.U., These are the twelve cannons that defended Chernigov many years ago. Etc. Etc. I was fascinated by how interested and proud they were of their city, of their landmarks, of their history. (By the way, Vera is a friend of Alex who I've met twice now. He doesn't speak English except for "pen, pencil, girl, boy and table" but I adore him anyway. Funny how you can judge someone's character without even having a proper conversation with them. (Or perhaps that's a skill I've acquired living abroad.))

Eventually we got cold and headed home.

"I want to see Ukraine during the day." I said.

"Neit" Alex said, "it's better in the dark."

Ochen Harasho

I think I've been here three days now, but every moment seems to blur into the next leaving me in a sort of haze. There is Absolute Bliss in having the freedom to do nothing and to be with the one you love. You can sleep when you're tired and eat when you're hungary and not feel beholden to anyone or anything. That's what this week has been like... blissful haze. For example, Alex went into the kitchen to make me tea (chai... see my Russian is improving already!) a few minutes ago and came out with a cup of tea, Russian biscuits cut diagonally, almonds and pistachios with a little cocktail umbrella sticking out of one of the biscuits. We're soaking up all those little pleasures that most of the time no one has the time to appreciate... 

[I stopped writing to drink my tea and then watched a movie and fell asleep for 12 hours... it is now past 4 pm the next day and we just woke up, completely missing sunlight, my tour of Chernigov, and any time to prepare for a "Greek themed" dinner we're having for one of Alex's friends... oops.]

As I said, time means nothing to us right now. We literally slept through all of daylight which is a confusing feeling. I feel like I'm back at yesterday. Now that I think about it, we really should get ourselves on some kind of schedule. 

Anyway, let me continue my "arrival" story:

I walked through the door of the airport to where mobs were standing with signs and anxious faces. I walked about ten seconds before I saw him; tall and grinning with a bouquet of roses. We embraced, blocking the passageway out and not caring one bit. I felt a surge of emotions: relief, joy... and a sense that nothing at all had changed. We were apart for four months and still felt every bit the same about each other... perhaps more. 

A moment later Alex introduced me to his friend, Oleqs. (I think? I thought it was the same as Alex's name, but apparently not.) He was sweet and doesn't speak a word of English. We went out to his car and Alex sat in the back with me (on the instruction of Oleqs) and we cuddled and stared at each other like we couldn't believe this was happening. A few minutes passed and we stopped at a little restaurant on the side of the road. It was an adorned log cabin and when you walked in there was a bar in front of you and then stairs on either side leading to little tiny rooms with one table each. We ate some traditional Russian food and then went home to Chernigov where Alex made me dinner. 

Thank You Pasha.

After four months of living in America I'm back overseas and figure I should start blogging again... 

I am currently in Chernigov, Ukraine. And boy was it an interesting trip. Before I explain, though, let me just say I am THRILLED to be here. And, although disoriented, absolutely content to just lie in bed with Alex for like, the rest of eternity. (The only reason I'm writing this is because he ran out to get some potatoes for the dinner he's making me.) 

On Monday afternoon Mom, Joni and Dylan dropped me off at Logan airport. I boarded a plane to JFK and then we waited for half an eternity on the runway, causing me to just barely make my connecting flight. When I stepped (or, rather, slid) into Delta Gate 10 to board the plane I looked around and couldn't contain my laughter. Everyone looked just like Alex. I'm pretty sure I could spot a Ukranian from a helicopter. 

On the JFK-KIEV flight I was seated next to a guy that was probably Alex's long lost twin brother. He was a Ukranian with a US Passport who is currently living in Odessa, Ukraine. I was thrilled when I realized he spoke English and he (along with everyone else) was very curious as to why an American girl was traveling to Ukraine alone. We made conversation over the course of the flight and he turned out to be an interesting guy who reminded me more and more of Alex as the flight went on. And boy was that an excruciating flight. I couldn't sleep (despite three melatonin) or read or watch movies because I was so anxious to get there...

But finally we arrived. Pasha, my seat mate, took down my carry on and as he hopped across the aisle to avoid an inside-airplane traffic jam, instead of the typical wave and "nice to meet you" he said "Come with me" and then basically saved my life about 14 times. "Stand in this line" "Fill this out" "Go now" "Stand here" and then when the passport control guy said I needed Alex's address to enter the country (really?) Basha appeared out of nowhere and gave his address instead and talked the passport guy into letting me through. And then he helped with my luggage, etc, etc. (This airport was absolutely insane and I never ever would have retrieved my bags if it wasn't for him.) The last I saw him we were walking towards the exit and I looked at him nervously and he said "Go, go, see him". And there was Alex on the other side, roses in hand... 

I'll finish the story in my next post... but long story short... thanks Pasha.