A month in

A month in, and a bit more settled. Visits from David and Maggie, who both came bearing presents of olive oil and lokum! And of course catching up and good times. David and I spent a weekend in Lviv and also explored Kyiv. Maggie came for the bayram and we stayed in Kyiv, but saw quite a bit. Also managed to fill up a suitcase of decent wine and European cheese for her to bring back to Istanbul. I think this was a trip second only to the wonderful Indian (at Himalaya) we had our first night.

For those of you who are fans of David's photography, and I know there are quite a few of you out there, you can find his photos from the trip here. The Chernobyl album is here. I wanted to share one of my favorite of his pictures, taken on Andriyivskyi Uzviz in Kyiv:


There are so many things I like about this photograph. Most of all how it reminds me of seeing this couple at the time and thinking, "How ridiculously sweet..."

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This past week I attended an interesting conference titled "World War II and the (Re)Creation of Historical Memory in Contemporary Ukraine." Not in any way an area of expertise for me, so it was quite interesting to passively participate in. Also: Mariah Carey interference on my simultaneous translation device, reception at Polish Embassy, meeting academics at all levels of investment warning me about the dangers of graduate school, and all-night documentary film festival on Saturday. Unfortunately regarding the last item, I was not in attendance. Great idea, but I do think you'd need to be quite dedicated to not fall asleep just thinking about the following collection of words, all in one place: overnight. world war two. documentary. Shall I add: academics. Really, great idea though! I instead spent my Saturday night eating sushi, getting dragged to a place that some of us call the "underground military bar" (because it is actually underground, not because it is actually cool) to eat borsch and drink half a beer only to retire by 10.

Settling in

I'm sitting on the balcony of my new Kyiv apartment, and although at times this weekend was quite sunny and a bit stifling, at the moment it feels more like autumn as the center winds down from the weekend.

I haven't written in awhile...there are still posts from both Kyrgyzstan and Georgia that never materialized. In theory I was going to finish these posts (half-written in my mind for months) before starting on my time in Kyiv, but if I do that it may be quite some time before I get out another post.

I'm studying Russian here for two months, then moving down to Simferopol to begin my research. Since arriving last week, I've managed to locate almost all my basic needs - SIM card, trusty neighbourhood cafes, flat, market. On the list of basic needs to be soon fulfilled: internet, French press, lamp to replace the one I've already broken (whoops).

Before I left for Kyiv, I found out that a friend of mine from Bishkek, a fellow Russian student named Michael, is also living here in Kyiv, working at a German NGO. He offered to let me stay with him until I found a place. I am so thankful for his hospitality. Waiting 90 minutes at passport control only to find out my baggage was lost and my prearranged driver had already left the airport, it was wonderful to know that I had a friendly face waiting for me somewhere out there is this new city.

So then I was left with the question of a more permanent residence. The language school I'm attending provides quite costly accommodation. I lucked out considerably when Brian, another student here, was approached on the marshrutka by a woman wanting to rent out her apartment. Unfortunately (for him), he had already found an apartment, so he passed it on to me. Bypassing both the school and real estate agents, I was thus able to find a cozy, affordable one-bedroom flat in the center.

For affordable groceries, however, I have to leave downtown, with its expensive loaves of bread and lack of fresh vegetables, and venture to less central markets and grocery stores. This is most certainly more than worth the effort, as now is a great time of year for fruits and veggies. Frequenting produce markets is my favorite way to slowly acquaint myself with both the food and the people of places I visit.

Aside from settling in and orienting myself, I've yet to see much of the city. Unfortunately I missed the Independence Day events waiting in Michael's apartment for delivery of my missing luggage. A friend (David, whom you may remember from a Kyrgyzstan post or two) will be visiting next week, and I hope to be able to show him around with a minimum of navigational blunders. I have yet to schedule the weekend's entertainment (aside from a day-trip to Chernobyl) - this weekend is the opening of the opera season, so opera tickets are naturally sold out. As a backup, I tried to get tickets to the Ukrainian theatre, but the woman in the kacca was not too keen on selling me tickets to Saturday's show..."But it is in Ukrainian!! You won't understand it!!!" I got scared and ran away.

Please send me an email if you would like my local address and/or telephone numbers, and add your address if you'd like to engage in low-tech correspondence.