The Search Ends
Sunday June 11
So why am I not surprised that Elena is not at Rosy Luxemburg Square at the appointed hour of 10 a.m.? I call on my cell phone – not available. I look for, and find, a sliver of shade thrown off by the Independence Monument (a tall think obelisk topped by an eagle) and wait there. At 10:30 she arrives (skin tight jeans and high heels) and takes me to the same complex in 2 Rosy Luxemburg Square where I had seen the first apartment I could live in. This one is at the other end of the complex (these complexes are beginning to have a pattern – I now see the Soviet plan – there is a large building facing the street with an entrance from behind where there is a “courtyard,” which always has the garbage cans and a children’s play ground). In fact this apartment is almost identical to the one I saw yesterday – it must have had the same “interior decorator” – but this one is $400 a month more than the other. I decide to be upfront with Elena and I tell her as much. She tells me that she has another apartment that she will be able to show me later that day that she thinks I will like. So, of course, I tell her to call me when I can see it. (I have never mentioned that we saw 38 Sumskaya and met the tenant, and she has never acknowledged that this has occurred, so I have no idea whether or not she knows we have been there, but I assume she does.)
By now it’s time for me to meet Gennady’s agent and see the two apartments in Constitution Square. I walk over there from Rosy Luxemburg Square and we go through the same sort of broken concrete entrance (I’m really getting used to this) and up two flights of stairs to a pleasant flat that is much like a one bedroom suite arrangement rather than one large room. There is a living room/bedroom with a fold out sofa that is definitely NOT king size – not even queen size – maybe not even quite a double. There is also a very vocal Chihuahua (at least there would be no problem having Belle here). The price is definitely right - $450 a month – but no air conditioning, no high speed internet and no place for Ed to sleep (Belle and I would take up this entire bed!) – so I think I’ll have to pass on this one. But he has another, larger apartment to show me in the same building, but of course it’s not available to be seen until the next day. I am firm. No – I HAVE to make a decision today (Ed insists – in fact he has already packed up all the bags and brought them downstairs to the reception) – so after much discussion between the landlord and the agent it appears I will be able to see it at 1:30.
I went to the Zanzibar Café where I had tea and smoked sturgeon so that I could pass the time until I could see the other apartment in Constitution Square. They take Visa, thank goodness, because I am running out of Hryvnas.
At 1:30 I met the agent and we went to see the next apartment. This flat is quite nice, but it obviously belongs to someone who lives there, and will be a sublet, rather than an apartment that is meant to be let out on a regular basis. Again, there is no air conditioning, no high speed internet, no satellite TV, and it is very weirdly decorated. This apartment would be $850 a month, but I would have to arrange for maid service myself, and we would have to install the high speed internet and air conditioning ourselves and at our expense. It didn’t seem worth all the hassle and expense for 2 months. BUT, I liked the location of this apartment more than the apartment in Rosy Luxemburg – it’s only a 5 or 10 minute walk, but this apartment seemed to be more in the center of things with easier access to markets and other things I would need. I was torn and really couldn’t decide – but the agent gave me until 7 p.m. to decide.
By now it was time to meet Alona at the Soviemskaya Monument. We walked from there to Pushkinskaya where we met another girl, Marina, who took us across the street and up half a block to another courtyard with garbage cans and parked cars and a playground area. This building looked like a white brick soviet style apartment house. There were three different entrances in the back. But there was one good sign – there were pots of pansies lining the walk way – someone here cared about how the common area looked! The only thing really different about this entrance is that there is no coded steel entrance door – instead there is a “guard” – a very old man who sits in a little booth and doesn’t look up as you walk in! But the entrance was fairly well lit, you only have to go up two steps to get to the elevator, which seemed to be in slightly better condition than most. We went up to the 8th floor, opened the door to one of the 4 apartments, and I saw, for the first time, what would end up being our home for the next two months.
The apartment is almost identical to the one in Rosy Luxemburg (the same interior designer again?), but there are no gold columns here, but instead lots and lots of fake flowers. It’s newly and cheaply renovated, with hardwood floors, pale blue walls in the living room (with one peachy/orangy wall for contrast), an ugly blue fold out sofa and coffee table in the living room, along with a “wall unit” of fake wood consisting of a wardrobe type thing, a few drawers, a shelf with the TV on it, some other shelves, a long cabinet with glass doors and a fold out bar with drawers under it. There is a rather inoffensive dark blue area rug with some red and yellow and white in it. The kitchen is dark blue linoleum tile with white tile walls, white fake food cabinets and a small white refrigerator, stove and washing machine. There is an eating area with a small white table, a built in seating area with grey covering that’s not bad compared to what I’ve seen. The lighting is good in both the living room and kitchen. The bedroom is fine with just a queen size bed with two white night tables, a white wardrobe, a small white “dressing table” and a three drawer white bureau. The bathroom has a rather new porcelain sink with a small ledge/shelf above it, a clean toilet, green tile and a white tub with a hand held shower mounted on the wall (enclosed with a green patterned shower curtain). There’s a small entry way with a little unit (which all these apartments seem to have) made of fake wood, with a bench to sit on, a couple of drawers and a back with about 5 or 6 hooks on it to hang jackets and coats. There is also an area behind the living room and kitchen that use to be a balcony, but now is just some extra space where we can actually store some stuff. There are windows along the entire length of the apartment so there is plenty of natural light, and the same is true in the bedroom. No air conditioning, and no high speed internet, but there is no problem, I am assured, getting both. The high speed internet will take 2 or 3 days to install and the air conditioning will be installed within a week.
I walked back to the hotel at about 3 p.m. and told Ed that I would really appreciate it if he would look at Rosy Luxemburg and the Pushkinskaya apartment with me (he hadn’t seen either). We arranged (through Gennady) to be shown the Rosy Luxemburg apartment, and I called Alona to see if we could go to the Pushkinskaya apartment again. Finally we had a plan to see Pushkinskaya at 5 and Rosy Luxemburg at 6. The housekeeper was at Pushkinskaya cleaning up while we poked around for a few minutes. We then left to see Rosy Luxemburg. When we arrived at Rosy Luxemburg, we found Gennady there too – he had come to see if he could help us!! He is so kind.
Ed and I both independently decided that Pushkinskaya was the better choice – mostly because of location, but also because with Pushkinskaya came Alona, who would be able to help me a little – like find things such as dry cleaners and markets in the neighborhood. I called Gennady and asked him to let Tania know that we had decided not to take Rosy Luxemburg and to ask her when I could meet with her and get our $400 back. I called Alona and told her we would take Pushkinskaya and asked if we could get the keys now because Ed wanted to move that night!! She told us that if we could get back to the apartment before 7 p.m. the housekeeper would still be there and we could get the keys from her. We turned around, arrived at the apartment at 5 minutes to 7, got the keys and went to have a little dinner at a nearby, lovely Uzbecki restaurant – Buchara – delicious, but rather pricey. I think it was about $40 for the two of us – outrageously expensive for Kharkiv!
After dinner we decided that I was too exhausted to do the move that night and that we would stay one more night at the hotel. We somehow hadn’t paid for the night before – I don’t know how that happened, and no one had asked us to pay yet today. But when I found that Ed had brought all the bags down already and that I didn’t even have a toothbrush in the room, I told him he had to go down and retrieve my things. He said that this would probably mean shelling out another $140, but I insisted (the meal had a lot of garlic in it, and I was beginning to feel the effects!). Sure enough, payment was demanded and made, but the next morning I told Ed that it was worth every penny to have had my toothbrush that night!!
So why am I not surprised that Elena is not at Rosy Luxemburg Square at the appointed hour of 10 a.m.? I call on my cell phone – not available. I look for, and find, a sliver of shade thrown off by the Independence Monument (a tall think obelisk topped by an eagle) and wait there. At 10:30 she arrives (skin tight jeans and high heels) and takes me to the same complex in 2 Rosy Luxemburg Square where I had seen the first apartment I could live in. This one is at the other end of the complex (these complexes are beginning to have a pattern – I now see the Soviet plan – there is a large building facing the street with an entrance from behind where there is a “courtyard,” which always has the garbage cans and a children’s play ground). In fact this apartment is almost identical to the one I saw yesterday – it must have had the same “interior decorator” – but this one is $400 a month more than the other. I decide to be upfront with Elena and I tell her as much. She tells me that she has another apartment that she will be able to show me later that day that she thinks I will like. So, of course, I tell her to call me when I can see it. (I have never mentioned that we saw 38 Sumskaya and met the tenant, and she has never acknowledged that this has occurred, so I have no idea whether or not she knows we have been there, but I assume she does.)
By now it’s time for me to meet Gennady’s agent and see the two apartments in Constitution Square. I walk over there from Rosy Luxemburg Square and we go through the same sort of broken concrete entrance (I’m really getting used to this) and up two flights of stairs to a pleasant flat that is much like a one bedroom suite arrangement rather than one large room. There is a living room/bedroom with a fold out sofa that is definitely NOT king size – not even queen size – maybe not even quite a double. There is also a very vocal Chihuahua (at least there would be no problem having Belle here). The price is definitely right - $450 a month – but no air conditioning, no high speed internet and no place for Ed to sleep (Belle and I would take up this entire bed!) – so I think I’ll have to pass on this one. But he has another, larger apartment to show me in the same building, but of course it’s not available to be seen until the next day. I am firm. No – I HAVE to make a decision today (Ed insists – in fact he has already packed up all the bags and brought them downstairs to the reception) – so after much discussion between the landlord and the agent it appears I will be able to see it at 1:30.
I went to the Zanzibar Café where I had tea and smoked sturgeon so that I could pass the time until I could see the other apartment in Constitution Square. They take Visa, thank goodness, because I am running out of Hryvnas.
At 1:30 I met the agent and we went to see the next apartment. This flat is quite nice, but it obviously belongs to someone who lives there, and will be a sublet, rather than an apartment that is meant to be let out on a regular basis. Again, there is no air conditioning, no high speed internet, no satellite TV, and it is very weirdly decorated. This apartment would be $850 a month, but I would have to arrange for maid service myself, and we would have to install the high speed internet and air conditioning ourselves and at our expense. It didn’t seem worth all the hassle and expense for 2 months. BUT, I liked the location of this apartment more than the apartment in Rosy Luxemburg – it’s only a 5 or 10 minute walk, but this apartment seemed to be more in the center of things with easier access to markets and other things I would need. I was torn and really couldn’t decide – but the agent gave me until 7 p.m. to decide.
By now it was time to meet Alona at the Soviemskaya Monument. We walked from there to Pushkinskaya where we met another girl, Marina, who took us across the street and up half a block to another courtyard with garbage cans and parked cars and a playground area. This building looked like a white brick soviet style apartment house. There were three different entrances in the back. But there was one good sign – there were pots of pansies lining the walk way – someone here cared about how the common area looked! The only thing really different about this entrance is that there is no coded steel entrance door – instead there is a “guard” – a very old man who sits in a little booth and doesn’t look up as you walk in! But the entrance was fairly well lit, you only have to go up two steps to get to the elevator, which seemed to be in slightly better condition than most. We went up to the 8th floor, opened the door to one of the 4 apartments, and I saw, for the first time, what would end up being our home for the next two months.
The apartment is almost identical to the one in Rosy Luxemburg (the same interior designer again?), but there are no gold columns here, but instead lots and lots of fake flowers. It’s newly and cheaply renovated, with hardwood floors, pale blue walls in the living room (with one peachy/orangy wall for contrast), an ugly blue fold out sofa and coffee table in the living room, along with a “wall unit” of fake wood consisting of a wardrobe type thing, a few drawers, a shelf with the TV on it, some other shelves, a long cabinet with glass doors and a fold out bar with drawers under it. There is a rather inoffensive dark blue area rug with some red and yellow and white in it. The kitchen is dark blue linoleum tile with white tile walls, white fake food cabinets and a small white refrigerator, stove and washing machine. There is an eating area with a small white table, a built in seating area with grey covering that’s not bad compared to what I’ve seen. The lighting is good in both the living room and kitchen. The bedroom is fine with just a queen size bed with two white night tables, a white wardrobe, a small white “dressing table” and a three drawer white bureau. The bathroom has a rather new porcelain sink with a small ledge/shelf above it, a clean toilet, green tile and a white tub with a hand held shower mounted on the wall (enclosed with a green patterned shower curtain). There’s a small entry way with a little unit (which all these apartments seem to have) made of fake wood, with a bench to sit on, a couple of drawers and a back with about 5 or 6 hooks on it to hang jackets and coats. There is also an area behind the living room and kitchen that use to be a balcony, but now is just some extra space where we can actually store some stuff. There are windows along the entire length of the apartment so there is plenty of natural light, and the same is true in the bedroom. No air conditioning, and no high speed internet, but there is no problem, I am assured, getting both. The high speed internet will take 2 or 3 days to install and the air conditioning will be installed within a week.
I walked back to the hotel at about 3 p.m. and told Ed that I would really appreciate it if he would look at Rosy Luxemburg and the Pushkinskaya apartment with me (he hadn’t seen either). We arranged (through Gennady) to be shown the Rosy Luxemburg apartment, and I called Alona to see if we could go to the Pushkinskaya apartment again. Finally we had a plan to see Pushkinskaya at 5 and Rosy Luxemburg at 6. The housekeeper was at Pushkinskaya cleaning up while we poked around for a few minutes. We then left to see Rosy Luxemburg. When we arrived at Rosy Luxemburg, we found Gennady there too – he had come to see if he could help us!! He is so kind.
Ed and I both independently decided that Pushkinskaya was the better choice – mostly because of location, but also because with Pushkinskaya came Alona, who would be able to help me a little – like find things such as dry cleaners and markets in the neighborhood. I called Gennady and asked him to let Tania know that we had decided not to take Rosy Luxemburg and to ask her when I could meet with her and get our $400 back. I called Alona and told her we would take Pushkinskaya and asked if we could get the keys now because Ed wanted to move that night!! She told us that if we could get back to the apartment before 7 p.m. the housekeeper would still be there and we could get the keys from her. We turned around, arrived at the apartment at 5 minutes to 7, got the keys and went to have a little dinner at a nearby, lovely Uzbecki restaurant – Buchara – delicious, but rather pricey. I think it was about $40 for the two of us – outrageously expensive for Kharkiv!
After dinner we decided that I was too exhausted to do the move that night and that we would stay one more night at the hotel. We somehow hadn’t paid for the night before – I don’t know how that happened, and no one had asked us to pay yet today. But when I found that Ed had brought all the bags down already and that I didn’t even have a toothbrush in the room, I told him he had to go down and retrieve my things. He said that this would probably mean shelling out another $140, but I insisted (the meal had a lot of garlic in it, and I was beginning to feel the effects!). Sure enough, payment was demanded and made, but the next morning I told Ed that it was worth every penny to have had my toothbrush that night!!
posted by Susan Spivak at 2:29 PM
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