What A Difference A Day Makes!
Tuesday, June 20
What a difference a day makes!
First of all I figured out how to use the clothes drying rack - it isn't a grid after all. Instead there are 2 "arms" that fold over to make the rack more compact, but when extended, like magic, the grid configuration disappears and, instead, there are long plastic coated rods on which to hang the clothes (which are pretty dry by the time they come out of these washing machines - the spin cycle is that good).
Next, I heard from Boris that his wife would arrive at 10:30 with the workers to install the air conditioner, that she would wait while they did the work, and that after that the TV person would come to install additional English channels (like HBO, Cinemax, National Geographic, etc.) I asked if his wife might be able to show me how to work the washing machine - he said that she doesn't speak English, but that he would tell her the problem and we could probably charade our way through the instructions.
Off I went to the stationery store to see if I could get paper clips, a stapler, a notebook, legal pads and file folders for Ed. Of course, I had wanted to bring these things with me, but Ed had forbidden it. Well, he regrets that now - they don't have anything resembling file folders or legal pads here - it's just not something they use. Instead they put all their papers in plastic sleeves. And, of course, no one uses our letter size (8 1/2 by 11) paper - they all use A4 which is slightly longer and slightly narrower. I did manage to find a good regular size stapler, paper clips, and a notebook with lined paper instead of the graph paper that is more common here.
I then began my search for the dry cleaner. The woman in our compartment on the train from Kyiv to Kharkiv on Saturday had told me that there was a dry cleaner near our metro stop, Arkitectura. She described the location perfectly - If you stand on the street that intersects Pushkinskaya at the Arkitectura metro station, with McDonald's on your left, the dry cleaner is on your right. I still had to ask someone to show me, but it was right where she said it would be - Panda Sec International. It consists of a room the size of a closet, with a woman sitting there on a kitchen chair. There are a few garments hanging up, and a couple of bundles of sheets and bedding. I guess she sends the things somewhere else to be dry cleaned or washed, and only has the things that are dropped off that day, along with the clothes that are scheduled to be picked up that day, in the little room with her.
I then explored the little market that is attached to the spa/gym/cosmetic surgery center Beatric. They have some nice looking take-out salads - but everything is covered in mayonaise or sour cream here. I still have not seen any lettuce in any of the stores. I did have a "Caesar Salad" the night before - but this consisted of some lettuce, cucumbers, apple slices and ham, dressed in sour cream, with orange slices around the edges!!! No kidding - that's what a Caesar Salad is here! I wonder were they got the idea to call this a Caesar Salad - I'll have to investigate and see if other restaurants prepare it the same way.
I came back so that Ed could leave for his meeting with Gennady to draft the forms for use by the PDs (it's exhausting for him - there is no office space and he has to meet in a cafe with Gennady,who is very smart and unbelievably nice, but it's always hard to have substantive conversations with someone who is not completely fluent in English).
I wasn't home 5 minutes before the door bell rang and Boris' wife came in with 4 workers to install the air conditioner. Just in time too - I was warm last night and didn't sleep as well as I had been since we arrived here. They told me to take all the sheets off the bed, and put all the things that were out on top of the dresser away, so that they wouldn't get covered with construction dust. The installation is going to take about 3 or 4 hours, and Boris' wife has to sit here the whole time. I offered her tea and mineral na voda (non-carbonated mineral water) - she took the mineral water - and she's watching the TV as I write this and listen to Morning Edition on my computer. But first she showed me how to use the washing machine. I gave her the Russian instruction book, and soon the problem was solved. I had the detergent in the wrong slot of the little drawer that has three slots in it. Simple! Otherwise I had done everything correctly. So I reran the darks, with soap this time, and now they are hanging on the very functional drying rack!!
Now here's how to write our address in Ukrainian:
ВУЛ. ЧУБАРЯ 1, КВ. 68
ВЬЇЗД З ВУЛ. ПУШКІНСЬКОЇ З ПЛОЩІ ПОЕЗІЇ
For those of you not literate in Ukrainian or the Cyrillic Alphabet, thats:
Chubarya St 1, Apt 68
Enter at Pushkinskaya St at Poet's Square
Believe me, it's not as romantic as it sounds!! You will soon see pictures of the entrance.
After the air conditioner was installed the Sputnik (sattelite) expert came to try and get more English channels – no success. We can do it, but we have to buy a new card for $150, pay him $80 to install it (although all I think you have to do is slip it in the slot!), and then pay $25 a month – for this we will get HBO, Cinemax, BBC, and a whole bunch of other stuff. It turns out we can take the card with us when we leave and it will work in Kyiv and London – so we might do it. I told Ed that it’s up to him – it’s his turn to be a spoiled brat!
The house cleaner came and cleaned up the mess the workers had made, the air conditioner was tested and seemed to work (the remote is in English, so I think I’ll be able to manage this machine!), and Boris arrived with a basket of gold colored star gazer lilies for me!!! How sweet! He also took away our dirty sheets, I remade the bed with the bedding I brought from home, and Ola, the house cleaner, will bring back the clean sheets next Monday, when she comes, and take away the soiled ones. A good system. Stuffing all those sheets in the washing machine would be hard enough – drying them would be impossible!
Ed had his first “business lunch” in the Ukraine with Gennady and a friend of Genady’s. The lunch consisted of 3 shots of vodka each and a chocolate pastry!!!! He’s asleep on the sofa with the World Cup soccer game (Costa Rica v Poland) on the TV as I write this at 5:30 p.m.!
A word about the weather – one must never go out in Kharkiv without an umbrella in the summer. The sun will be shining and then suddenly there’s thunder, a big black cloud, and pouring rain. I first discovered this on my Sunday trek to look at apartments (was it only 8 days ago? I can’t believe that!). And unlike NY, a hundred umbrellas sellers do not instantly appear on the streets when the rain starts! But I had also discovered then that the underground passages with the little stores are very useful in the rain – you just wait there until the rain stops – it always does within a short time. I had also found a fold-up umbrella for sale in one of the little stalls (I had left mine at the hotel that day), but I didn’t have enough Hryvnas with me to buy it. I now carry my umbrella with me always, and I also carry plenty of Hryvnas.
It poured at about 4 p.m. today, but by 4:30 the sun was out and I gathered my strong plastic bags (they are very reluctant to give you carry bags here – you have to buy them – that is, IF they have them at all) to go marketing. I must admit I’m tired of sausage and cheese – but I really don’t have any kitchen utensils and it would be extremely difficult to make anything here. I don’t have a steamer for vegetables, I can’t find any lettuce for salads, I’m completely spoiled when it comes to fruit and I haven’t found a place that has really good produce yet. I could roast fish and vegetables, but it’s awfully hot, and turning the oven on might put me over the edge! So I thought I’d look around and see if I could find some nice prepared foods – like they have at Whole Foods! Yeah, right!!
I first went to the market attached to Beatric – they had some sort of cabbage salad, and I got a ton of that; I also got a piece of cooked, cold chicken, a piece of fried fish, a meat (I think) pie, and something that looks like a small tomato and cheese pizza and one that looks like a small eggplant and cheese pizza, and finally an orange for Ed that I hope is better than the other oranges we’ve sampled. This cost me $10 – it had better last a week at these prices!! I went to my usual market and bought some tomatoes and cucumbers, a nice looking radish, tomato, cucumber and pepper salad, and some good looking cold sautéed cauliflower. This set me back another $5 (with my huge 5.5 L plastic bottle - with handle - of Old Mirgorod Water that I never go home without getting if I see it). A very successful market trip – the only thing I couldn’t find was unsweetened breakfast cereal, but I might be able to get that at the other neighborhood market tomorrow (they were out of it on Sunday).
So now it's time to sample everything and post today's blog.
What a difference a day makes!
First of all I figured out how to use the clothes drying rack - it isn't a grid after all. Instead there are 2 "arms" that fold over to make the rack more compact, but when extended, like magic, the grid configuration disappears and, instead, there are long plastic coated rods on which to hang the clothes (which are pretty dry by the time they come out of these washing machines - the spin cycle is that good).
Next, I heard from Boris that his wife would arrive at 10:30 with the workers to install the air conditioner, that she would wait while they did the work, and that after that the TV person would come to install additional English channels (like HBO, Cinemax, National Geographic, etc.) I asked if his wife might be able to show me how to work the washing machine - he said that she doesn't speak English, but that he would tell her the problem and we could probably charade our way through the instructions.
Off I went to the stationery store to see if I could get paper clips, a stapler, a notebook, legal pads and file folders for Ed. Of course, I had wanted to bring these things with me, but Ed had forbidden it. Well, he regrets that now - they don't have anything resembling file folders or legal pads here - it's just not something they use. Instead they put all their papers in plastic sleeves. And, of course, no one uses our letter size (8 1/2 by 11) paper - they all use A4 which is slightly longer and slightly narrower. I did manage to find a good regular size stapler, paper clips, and a notebook with lined paper instead of the graph paper that is more common here.
I then began my search for the dry cleaner. The woman in our compartment on the train from Kyiv to Kharkiv on Saturday had told me that there was a dry cleaner near our metro stop, Arkitectura. She described the location perfectly - If you stand on the street that intersects Pushkinskaya at the Arkitectura metro station, with McDonald's on your left, the dry cleaner is on your right. I still had to ask someone to show me, but it was right where she said it would be - Panda Sec International. It consists of a room the size of a closet, with a woman sitting there on a kitchen chair. There are a few garments hanging up, and a couple of bundles of sheets and bedding. I guess she sends the things somewhere else to be dry cleaned or washed, and only has the things that are dropped off that day, along with the clothes that are scheduled to be picked up that day, in the little room with her.
I then explored the little market that is attached to the spa/gym/cosmetic surgery center Beatric. They have some nice looking take-out salads - but everything is covered in mayonaise or sour cream here. I still have not seen any lettuce in any of the stores. I did have a "Caesar Salad" the night before - but this consisted of some lettuce, cucumbers, apple slices and ham, dressed in sour cream, with orange slices around the edges!!! No kidding - that's what a Caesar Salad is here! I wonder were they got the idea to call this a Caesar Salad - I'll have to investigate and see if other restaurants prepare it the same way.
I came back so that Ed could leave for his meeting with Gennady to draft the forms for use by the PDs (it's exhausting for him - there is no office space and he has to meet in a cafe with Gennady,who is very smart and unbelievably nice, but it's always hard to have substantive conversations with someone who is not completely fluent in English).
I wasn't home 5 minutes before the door bell rang and Boris' wife came in with 4 workers to install the air conditioner. Just in time too - I was warm last night and didn't sleep as well as I had been since we arrived here. They told me to take all the sheets off the bed, and put all the things that were out on top of the dresser away, so that they wouldn't get covered with construction dust. The installation is going to take about 3 or 4 hours, and Boris' wife has to sit here the whole time. I offered her tea and mineral na voda (non-carbonated mineral water) - she took the mineral water - and she's watching the TV as I write this and listen to Morning Edition on my computer. But first she showed me how to use the washing machine. I gave her the Russian instruction book, and soon the problem was solved. I had the detergent in the wrong slot of the little drawer that has three slots in it. Simple! Otherwise I had done everything correctly. So I reran the darks, with soap this time, and now they are hanging on the very functional drying rack!!
Now here's how to write our address in Ukrainian:
ВУЛ. ЧУБАРЯ 1, КВ. 68
ВЬЇЗД З ВУЛ. ПУШКІНСЬКОЇ З ПЛОЩІ ПОЕЗІЇ
For those of you not literate in Ukrainian or the Cyrillic Alphabet, thats:
Chubarya St 1, Apt 68
Enter at Pushkinskaya St at Poet's Square
Believe me, it's not as romantic as it sounds!! You will soon see pictures of the entrance.
After the air conditioner was installed the Sputnik (sattelite) expert came to try and get more English channels – no success. We can do it, but we have to buy a new card for $150, pay him $80 to install it (although all I think you have to do is slip it in the slot!), and then pay $25 a month – for this we will get HBO, Cinemax, BBC, and a whole bunch of other stuff. It turns out we can take the card with us when we leave and it will work in Kyiv and London – so we might do it. I told Ed that it’s up to him – it’s his turn to be a spoiled brat!
The house cleaner came and cleaned up the mess the workers had made, the air conditioner was tested and seemed to work (the remote is in English, so I think I’ll be able to manage this machine!), and Boris arrived with a basket of gold colored star gazer lilies for me!!! How sweet! He also took away our dirty sheets, I remade the bed with the bedding I brought from home, and Ola, the house cleaner, will bring back the clean sheets next Monday, when she comes, and take away the soiled ones. A good system. Stuffing all those sheets in the washing machine would be hard enough – drying them would be impossible!
Ed had his first “business lunch” in the Ukraine with Gennady and a friend of Genady’s. The lunch consisted of 3 shots of vodka each and a chocolate pastry!!!! He’s asleep on the sofa with the World Cup soccer game (Costa Rica v Poland) on the TV as I write this at 5:30 p.m.!
A word about the weather – one must never go out in Kharkiv without an umbrella in the summer. The sun will be shining and then suddenly there’s thunder, a big black cloud, and pouring rain. I first discovered this on my Sunday trek to look at apartments (was it only 8 days ago? I can’t believe that!). And unlike NY, a hundred umbrellas sellers do not instantly appear on the streets when the rain starts! But I had also discovered then that the underground passages with the little stores are very useful in the rain – you just wait there until the rain stops – it always does within a short time. I had also found a fold-up umbrella for sale in one of the little stalls (I had left mine at the hotel that day), but I didn’t have enough Hryvnas with me to buy it. I now carry my umbrella with me always, and I also carry plenty of Hryvnas.
It poured at about 4 p.m. today, but by 4:30 the sun was out and I gathered my strong plastic bags (they are very reluctant to give you carry bags here – you have to buy them – that is, IF they have them at all) to go marketing. I must admit I’m tired of sausage and cheese – but I really don’t have any kitchen utensils and it would be extremely difficult to make anything here. I don’t have a steamer for vegetables, I can’t find any lettuce for salads, I’m completely spoiled when it comes to fruit and I haven’t found a place that has really good produce yet. I could roast fish and vegetables, but it’s awfully hot, and turning the oven on might put me over the edge! So I thought I’d look around and see if I could find some nice prepared foods – like they have at Whole Foods! Yeah, right!!
I first went to the market attached to Beatric – they had some sort of cabbage salad, and I got a ton of that; I also got a piece of cooked, cold chicken, a piece of fried fish, a meat (I think) pie, and something that looks like a small tomato and cheese pizza and one that looks like a small eggplant and cheese pizza, and finally an orange for Ed that I hope is better than the other oranges we’ve sampled. This cost me $10 – it had better last a week at these prices!! I went to my usual market and bought some tomatoes and cucumbers, a nice looking radish, tomato, cucumber and pepper salad, and some good looking cold sautéed cauliflower. This set me back another $5 (with my huge 5.5 L plastic bottle - with handle - of Old Mirgorod Water that I never go home without getting if I see it). A very successful market trip – the only thing I couldn’t find was unsweetened breakfast cereal, but I might be able to get that at the other neighborhood market tomorrow (they were out of it on Sunday).
So now it's time to sample everything and post today's blog.
posted by Susan Spivak at 1:17 PM
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