Comforts and Conveniences

This past week marked 40 days and 40 nights in Kiev; a significant number of days for a trial period, I think.  I'm not sure who was testing whom, though.  Were the city of Kiev and the country of Ukraine testing us, or were we the judges trying to decide if this eastern European metropolis would pass our test as a good place to live and work?  There have definitely been some challenges to overcome, but I'm going to say either way, it's a win!  We are successfully learning to survive in a new culture and this country and its people are growing on us.

This would probably be good time to post an update on some of the inconveniences we dealt with early on.  We did end up getting a memory foam mattress topper for the slab of concrete we were trying to sleep on.  In fact, I really only spent about 4 or 5 nights on the sofa, before Mirka took me shopping for the mattress topper a few other large items that would have been next to impossible to try and bring home on the Metro.  We have yet to hire a cab or a "personal driver" to take us anywhere, but I'm sure that day is coming.

We also ended up getting hot water around the 15th of August.  It was so exciting!  The morning we discovered the boilers had been turned on, I took a long, long shower.  It fact I was in there so long washing my hair, shaving my legs, scrubbing my heels... (you get the idea), I flooded the bathroom floor!  Seems I wasn't paying attention to the shower door which had swung a bit over the edge of the tub.  Thank goodness the entire bathroom, floor and walls, are tiled.  The hot water and awesome water pressure made up for the time it took to clean up afterwards!

Now we are waiting to see what day the heating system will be turned on.  Yes, the city controls that as well.  We heard it will be the middle of October.  Thank goodness the temperature outside hasn't been so cold that we need to heat the apartment yet. 

The box we shipped from Myrtle Beach before we left the states took about 4 weeks to get here.  It was like Christmas when we opened it!  It contained some books, a set of flannel sheets(which still smelled like the dryer sheets I was using), some pictures and decorations, our slippers, and OUR PILLOWS.  Now that's comfort!

We are no longer lugging heavy bottles of water home from the grocery store.  The water cooler was already in the apartment, but we now have water delivery every two weeks right to our apartment door. 

 

 

 The television set also came with the apartment.  We originally thought we wouldn't need a TV because we wouldn't be able to understand the language.  As it turns out, that is not the case.  To clarify, we still don't understand the language very well, but we are using the TV.

When the cable company came in to hook us up, they hooked us up with some English speaking channels.  Some of them include Discovery, Fine Living, CNN, and Animal Planet.  But we don't only have cable.  We are also able to watch movies and old TV dramas and sitcoms through Netflix. And believe it or not, Jay is going to be able to watch football, live!  He purchased the NFL Game Pass which allows him to stream the games as they're being played.  Of course with the 7 hour time difference, some of those games will be in the middle of the night here.  He has figured out, though, that he can probably catch the end of some of the games before school the next morning.  You can take the man out of Pittsburgh, but you can't take Steeler Football out of the man!

By the way cable is cheap and our electric bill last month was only $8.60.  We can definitely live with that!

We are becoming more familiar with our neighborhood and some of the places nearby to shop and eat.  This convenience store (pictured below) is across the street from us, but like most convenience stores, a little bit more expensive than the regular grocery store.  The other unfortunate thing is  that everything is behind the counters.  I felt like I was back in Port Trevorton at the old Herrold's store the first time I went in, except this time I had to point at the items I wanted because I didn't know how to say the word in Russian.  I'm getting better with the language now, and I'm sure I will go there more often this winter when I don't want to walk very far in the cold temperatures and snow.

This is a little pizza restaurant, attached to the one end of the convenience store.  It's our Anthony's in Ukraine, but without trivia.  We still end up going there about once a week.  It's really cute inside and the waiters are very patient with us trying to order in Russian.  Some of them know a little bit of English and they have a menu that is loosely translated into English.  So far we haven't ordered anything we couldn't eat.


The three grocery stores we frequent:

Cilpo

Fora

 

MegaMarket

 

It took us a while to find a lunch box for school.  They just don't have them here!  In fact, this isn't really a lunch box.  It's a cooler, but it's just what we needed to carry our leftovers in for lunch at school.  The letters on the front, when sounded out phonetically, say "camping".  We found it in the camping section at Megamarket.

 





I will end this post with a picture from the rooftop patio of our school director's apartment at sunset.  See how comfortable and relaxed we are?  Life in Ukraine is good!

 



Saturday Night at the Opera

We went to our first live opera on Saturday night. We saw Verdi's "Aida".Verdi wrote this opera in his 80's.  The story is basically about an Egyptian army commander Radames falling in love with an Ethiopian slave girl (also a princess). He betrays his country and is sentenced to death by entombment. The bad part about the opera was that it was sung in Italian and the sub-titles were in Ukrainian. We would have had no idea what was going on however, the music teacher at our school gave our group a quick synopsis of the opera prior to going. We rode the metro into the city, had dinner and then walked to the opera house which was built in 1867. Tickets were very inexpensive, only 150 UAH ($19) a piece. Those were for the good seats. The lowest priced tickets were 10 UAH ($1.25)

                                                                    The Paughs

                                                           Brett, Susan and Deb

                                                Anne, Traci, Kristina, Leann and Vivian

                                                                  Bob and Morgan

                                              Sitting at restaurant waiting for dinner

                                                            The Kyiv Opera House

                                     Everyone had to check their coat before going into theater

                                                           Interior of opera house

                                                                       Mezzanine

                                                              Dome of opera house

                                                                   Prior to curtain

Thinking of You

Happy Labor Day...

to all of our USA friends!  While you all were enjoying the day off at a picnic or on the beach, we were at school, starting our second full week with students.  Last week we experienced  our first days of inclement weather.  Not bad after a month of warm, sunny days with only one evening thunderstorm.

             This was last Tuesday morning.  A beautiful morning walking down the street on our way to school.

                       Tuesday, approaching the back gate to the school grounds.

                                Wednesday morning, same street, cold and rainy.

 

 

                             Evidently a perfect day for a snail to take a walk.

                       Again, Tuesday morning elementary line-up on the blacktop.

The elementary director of instruction monitoring students or playing?

 

 

                                                Tuesday after school soccer practice.

                                                Wednesday after school bus line-up

Wednesday after school student line-up at the coffee machine in the high school.

 

In just one day we went from summer to fall!  Thankfully, we were back to sunshine and warm weather yesterday and today.

 

 

 

Back to thinking of all of you...

 

So on Saturday we rode the marshutka (public bus) for the first time and found our way to the US Embassy to shop at the commissary.  We have decided that it won't be something we do often, but it is nice to know it's there and we can have a little taste of America if we need it.

 



These are the things we bought at the commissary that we can't find in Ukrainian grocery stores.  We ate that whole bag of potato chips as soon as we got back to our apartment!  I like the paprika flavored chips I found here, but I LOVE salt and vinegar chips!

 

 

 

Here are just a few other items we have with us in Kiev to remind us of "home".

 

 



 My bulletin board at school: a homemade going away card from Sean, one of my social studies students at St. James Middle; a picture of my little Chaleckis; and a card from my mom and dad.

 Here's a blast from the past!  I have taken this crazy statue with me to every school I've worked in.  It was a gift from Wade, one of my third graders back in Mansfield around 1987.  (Wade, if you're reading this...thank you!  It's a reminder of how much fun teaching can be!...  With or without an episode of The Monkees :)

 A spray paint painting from Katelyn hangs in my office as a reminder of Myrtle Beach, St. James schools, and Rebels Without A Clue, our Tuesday trivia team at Anthony's.

                                         Our three kids and our three grandkids. 
 Surprisingly, this frame and the pictures made the trip without breaking in the box we shipped to Ukraine from Myrtle Beach.  It's sitting on the bookshelf in our apartment.

                             The quilted table runner on our coffee table made by Mary Beth reminds us of our dear friends, the McKeevers.

The teddy bears that were on the cake that the choir and the Stephen Ministry folks from our church in Surfside had for us before we left.  We miss our church family.



 

The Steelers hotpad my niece Rachel made for us is just the right size for our coffee pot here in Kiev.

We've also used the colors in the dishcloth that Jay's mom crocheted for us as a theme for our kitchen decor and furnishings.

 

 

A final reminder to all of you (our friends and family),

 Even if we don't have something we can see and touch here with us, we are carrying you with us in our hearts and we are thinking of you!