Back Home In Kharkiv
Well, one thing is clear. Ed need not have worried about being out of town during the first week the office was getting started because, of course, nothing happened. It took Gennady three days just to open the bank account (it's unbelievably difficult to open a bank account here - I never managed to open one for us), and then it turns out that the Renaissance Foundation in Kyiv didn't transfer the necessary funds into the account, and now the entire Renaissance Foundation office is on vacation - until August 22!! So none of the computers have been set up, the office has not been cleaned or painted, one lawyer has already quit (the one Ed thought was especially good), none of the lawyers have been able to sign any contracts and there is no money to do anything, let alone hire an administrator to do it. At this rate we'll get to Kyiv on January 1!! Actually, they told Ed that they expect us to move to Kyiv in the middle of September, but we leave for Boston on September 27 to go to Ed's cousin's wedding, and then off to NY and Los Angeles (where I have a thousand doctor appointments, and where we will go to the Kirov Ring Cycle at the Orange County Performing Arts Center), and back through London, not returning to Kyiv until October 17. But assuming that things continue in the same fashion, the timing should be perfect - we'll go to Kyiv and move in there around September 15, then leave for our trip and come back just in time for things to get going in the Kyiv office. We'll just have to see what happens.
We had an absolutely fabulous trip to Moscow, Riga and Vilnius - thanks in large part to the Smiths. It was wonderful to see them and to sit around after breakfast or dinner and talk. Bob was a fantastic tour guide, relieving me of my usual responsibilities - so it was a double vacation for me. And the real treat was going out to see where Liena's mother lives (about 45 minutes outside Riga city center) and walking up to the 5th floor apartment in Riga where Liena grew up, and where her sister now lives, in the city center of Riga. It's a beautiful building, that was renationalized in 1991, and that was part of the Soviet communal apartment system - there's one large kitchen and one bathroom for all the apartments (which are usually just one room in which a whole family lives). Liena's family's apartment was quite spectacular by these standards. First of all, it consists of two large rooms instead of just one. Secondly, her grandfather had partitioned off part of one of the rooms and made a small kitchen for their family, and he had also installed a toilet in their apartment so that they didn't have to wait with all of the other families to use the single communal toilet. Not many tourists get to see these things, so we felt very lucky. The only sour note of the trip was the discovery that Ed's camera had been stolen sometime during our Air Baltic flight from Riga to Kyiv. It's not the camera that we miss, but the disc with all the photos Ed took - I'm really sad about that - and there will be no photos for my separate blog entry (I'm working on it, but it will take some time to finish) about our trip. It was our fault - my camera had been taken from my bag a few months ago when we returned to LA from London on British Air. My letter of complaint to the airlines had been fruitless - they simply said that I had no business packing and checking anything valuable! I had vowed then that we would never pack a camera, and that if we did for some reason, we would at least remove the disc with all the photos. I was pretty careful, and had taken my iPod, my Treo and my jewelry with me on the plane, but I didn't check on Ed!! Another lesson learned at a great price!(I still intend to write Air Baltic, and also to send a complaint letter to Marriott about the 20% premium that is imposed on their Russian hotel rooms because they use an artificial exchange rate of 32 to 1 instead of the actual exchange rate of approximately 27 to 1).
As soon as our plane landed in Kyiv I received a phone call from Alona informing me that I owed $200 for the internet for July!!! I was flabbergasted because Boris had told me that it was $8 a month!! Well, it turns out that there is indeed an $8 monthly fee, but then you pay for usage, and since I use it all the time, to play scrabble, send emails, Skype friends, download God knows what, and to listen to NPR and BBC Radio 4, I had run up quite a bill. But I have to reconcile myself to this expense while we are in Kharkiv - the internet is my lifeline here. Hopefully there will be more choice in Kyiv and I will be able to find an internet provider that has a higher monthly fee but allows unlimited access.
We did really well at the airport in Kharkiv. We had hoped to take the trolley back to our apartment, but it seems the trolley doesn't stop right at the airport, but some distance away, and since we were tired and anxious to get home we took a taxi. I managed to tell him exactly where to go and to negotiate a price of 40 HVA, despite his initial quote of 60 HVA. I was quite proud of myself - especially since I found that my Ukrainian was quite rusty after over a week on non-use.
We got back home to a squealing and delighted Belle at about 7:30 p.m. last night. She looked great and seems to have survived our absence without any ill effects. One of the great things about having a dog is that you're always glad to get home, even from a great vacation, because you can't wait to see the dog. At least this is the case for us.
We tried to put on BBC World News to see what was going on in the world, but we were unable to get the "Sputnik" (satelite) to work - so now instead of having two English speaking channels, we had none. We called Boris and he said he would come over the next day and fix it.
We slept late today, and I had just gotten up and put the kettle on when the doorbell rang. It was Boris, come about the internet payment and to see if he could get the sputnik to work. I threw on some clothes, opened the door and put breakfast together while Boris fiddled with the TV - with no success. We then discussed the internet bill - we were obviously upset about it, but we're sort of stuck, especially since it's clear we will have to stay in Kharkiv for another 4 weeks, at least, and there's no way we're going to move to another apartment. We asked Boris to get us a bill from the Internet company and that we would pay him. He agreed to get the bill and also to come back and get the sputnik fixed. At least he's very responsive when we ask for something.
I have a lot of catching up to do (actually I'm quite happy about that because I will have lots to do for the next week, and then on August 11 we are going to Kyiv for the weekend to see an art exhibition of a friend of Susan Cooder's) - not only because we've been away for 11 days, but also because it is the first of the month and I have to take care of all my monthly bills, etc. Also, I had an appointment to meet with IYrena, my Ukrainian conversation teacher, at noon, and a manicure appointment at 3 p.m.
The first order of business was the laundry (after running downstairs to the little market and buying some milk). I had about 3 or 4 loads to do. I looked carefully at the package of Blitz Tide to see if I could figure out how to avoid having the soap pour out of the machine, as it had done for the past two or three uses. When I got to the end of the directions (which fortunately have pictures illustrating the Russian words), I saw a picture of a front loading washing machine with a big red X on it. Well, there was no misinterpreting this - obviously this particularly kind of Tide was not meant for front loading washing machines. The laundry had to wait until after I did my marketing.
By this time Yrena had arrived. It was hopeless - I couldn't remember how to say anything except "hello" and "how are you." I tried, but I was tired, out of practice, and generally incapable of saying anything, so I ended up speaking mostly in English and she would respond in Ukrainian. Better than nothing I suppose. She's leaving for the Crimea with her family tonight, and won't be back until August 17. I told her that I was really going to practice by listening to my tapes while she is gone and that we will speak only in Ukrainian when she returns. She took me to her supermarket, which is far superior to Target - smaller, better organized, easier to deal with - and has everything I could possibly want. It's about the same distance from our apartment - 3 metro stops - so I will go there from now on. Yrena told me about the different types of sausages, the different prepared foods, which brands are better, I found cottage cheese and lettuce, and I think the whole experience was extremely helpful. Plus, I got the right kind of Tide (it has to say "Automat" on it) and two boxes of our favorite Nestle Fitness, for about 1/2 the price I pay in town. I said goodbye to Yrena and asked her to call me as soon as she gets back so that we can continue our meetings. I know she will - I really enjoy her company and I think she enjoys mine too.
By the time I got back I only had enough time to say hello to Ed (who had been at the office in the morning, where he had learned that nothing had happened in his absence) and throw a load of laundry in the machine before going out for my manicure. As I've said (more than once!), my manicurist is leaving for a month's vacation (as is my hair cutter and colorist!). I'm sure another manicurist will be available, and will probably be just as good, but I am really worried about my haircut and color. I asked Olga, the receptionist, in French (she speaks fluently, and I can do a lot better in French than in Ukrainian or Russian!) if she could ask Yulia, my hairdresser, if she would give the color formula and explain my haircut to someone else in the salon, in case I can't wait for her return to have my hair cut and colored. Yulia agreed, but I hope I can wait - I'm really pleased with the haircut she gave me.
By the time I got back, Ed had left for the office again, so I busied myself with laundry, email catching up, and working on the blog. Boris called and asked if he could come over at 7 p.m. to fix the TV - of course I said yes. Ed called to say he would be late (they're working on the contracts and trying to contact someone from Renaissance Foundation), so I fed Belle, took her for her walk and waited for Boris. He managed to fix the TV, gave me the bill for the internet, and I handed over 1000 HVA - except it turns out that what I thought was a 500 HVA note was a 500 Ruble note (worth about $20, as opposed to $100 for a 500 HVA note). So I paid him half and told him I would give him the rest the next time I see him.
Ed got back about 8 or 8:30 and I made him a little dinner (his favorite - sausage and cheese) and we both had a tomato and cucumber salad with dill and sour cream that I had thrown together (I had already eaten - the sandwiches I had made from the breakfast at our hotel in Riga for our trip home, but which we hadn't eaten because the airplane food was really good!). By then we were both really tired and we got into bed, read my print outs of the Tom Friedman, Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd columns that we had missed during our trip, and fell sleep.
We had an absolutely fabulous trip to Moscow, Riga and Vilnius - thanks in large part to the Smiths. It was wonderful to see them and to sit around after breakfast or dinner and talk. Bob was a fantastic tour guide, relieving me of my usual responsibilities - so it was a double vacation for me. And the real treat was going out to see where Liena's mother lives (about 45 minutes outside Riga city center) and walking up to the 5th floor apartment in Riga where Liena grew up, and where her sister now lives, in the city center of Riga. It's a beautiful building, that was renationalized in 1991, and that was part of the Soviet communal apartment system - there's one large kitchen and one bathroom for all the apartments (which are usually just one room in which a whole family lives). Liena's family's apartment was quite spectacular by these standards. First of all, it consists of two large rooms instead of just one. Secondly, her grandfather had partitioned off part of one of the rooms and made a small kitchen for their family, and he had also installed a toilet in their apartment so that they didn't have to wait with all of the other families to use the single communal toilet. Not many tourists get to see these things, so we felt very lucky. The only sour note of the trip was the discovery that Ed's camera had been stolen sometime during our Air Baltic flight from Riga to Kyiv. It's not the camera that we miss, but the disc with all the photos Ed took - I'm really sad about that - and there will be no photos for my separate blog entry (I'm working on it, but it will take some time to finish) about our trip. It was our fault - my camera had been taken from my bag a few months ago when we returned to LA from London on British Air. My letter of complaint to the airlines had been fruitless - they simply said that I had no business packing and checking anything valuable! I had vowed then that we would never pack a camera, and that if we did for some reason, we would at least remove the disc with all the photos. I was pretty careful, and had taken my iPod, my Treo and my jewelry with me on the plane, but I didn't check on Ed!! Another lesson learned at a great price!(I still intend to write Air Baltic, and also to send a complaint letter to Marriott about the 20% premium that is imposed on their Russian hotel rooms because they use an artificial exchange rate of 32 to 1 instead of the actual exchange rate of approximately 27 to 1).
As soon as our plane landed in Kyiv I received a phone call from Alona informing me that I owed $200 for the internet for July!!! I was flabbergasted because Boris had told me that it was $8 a month!! Well, it turns out that there is indeed an $8 monthly fee, but then you pay for usage, and since I use it all the time, to play scrabble, send emails, Skype friends, download God knows what, and to listen to NPR and BBC Radio 4, I had run up quite a bill. But I have to reconcile myself to this expense while we are in Kharkiv - the internet is my lifeline here. Hopefully there will be more choice in Kyiv and I will be able to find an internet provider that has a higher monthly fee but allows unlimited access.
We did really well at the airport in Kharkiv. We had hoped to take the trolley back to our apartment, but it seems the trolley doesn't stop right at the airport, but some distance away, and since we were tired and anxious to get home we took a taxi. I managed to tell him exactly where to go and to negotiate a price of 40 HVA, despite his initial quote of 60 HVA. I was quite proud of myself - especially since I found that my Ukrainian was quite rusty after over a week on non-use.
We got back home to a squealing and delighted Belle at about 7:30 p.m. last night. She looked great and seems to have survived our absence without any ill effects. One of the great things about having a dog is that you're always glad to get home, even from a great vacation, because you can't wait to see the dog. At least this is the case for us.
We tried to put on BBC World News to see what was going on in the world, but we were unable to get the "Sputnik" (satelite) to work - so now instead of having two English speaking channels, we had none. We called Boris and he said he would come over the next day and fix it.
We slept late today, and I had just gotten up and put the kettle on when the doorbell rang. It was Boris, come about the internet payment and to see if he could get the sputnik to work. I threw on some clothes, opened the door and put breakfast together while Boris fiddled with the TV - with no success. We then discussed the internet bill - we were obviously upset about it, but we're sort of stuck, especially since it's clear we will have to stay in Kharkiv for another 4 weeks, at least, and there's no way we're going to move to another apartment. We asked Boris to get us a bill from the Internet company and that we would pay him. He agreed to get the bill and also to come back and get the sputnik fixed. At least he's very responsive when we ask for something.
I have a lot of catching up to do (actually I'm quite happy about that because I will have lots to do for the next week, and then on August 11 we are going to Kyiv for the weekend to see an art exhibition of a friend of Susan Cooder's) - not only because we've been away for 11 days, but also because it is the first of the month and I have to take care of all my monthly bills, etc. Also, I had an appointment to meet with IYrena, my Ukrainian conversation teacher, at noon, and a manicure appointment at 3 p.m.
The first order of business was the laundry (after running downstairs to the little market and buying some milk). I had about 3 or 4 loads to do. I looked carefully at the package of Blitz Tide to see if I could figure out how to avoid having the soap pour out of the machine, as it had done for the past two or three uses. When I got to the end of the directions (which fortunately have pictures illustrating the Russian words), I saw a picture of a front loading washing machine with a big red X on it. Well, there was no misinterpreting this - obviously this particularly kind of Tide was not meant for front loading washing machines. The laundry had to wait until after I did my marketing.
By this time Yrena had arrived. It was hopeless - I couldn't remember how to say anything except "hello" and "how are you." I tried, but I was tired, out of practice, and generally incapable of saying anything, so I ended up speaking mostly in English and she would respond in Ukrainian. Better than nothing I suppose. She's leaving for the Crimea with her family tonight, and won't be back until August 17. I told her that I was really going to practice by listening to my tapes while she is gone and that we will speak only in Ukrainian when she returns. She took me to her supermarket, which is far superior to Target - smaller, better organized, easier to deal with - and has everything I could possibly want. It's about the same distance from our apartment - 3 metro stops - so I will go there from now on. Yrena told me about the different types of sausages, the different prepared foods, which brands are better, I found cottage cheese and lettuce, and I think the whole experience was extremely helpful. Plus, I got the right kind of Tide (it has to say "Automat" on it) and two boxes of our favorite Nestle Fitness, for about 1/2 the price I pay in town. I said goodbye to Yrena and asked her to call me as soon as she gets back so that we can continue our meetings. I know she will - I really enjoy her company and I think she enjoys mine too.
By the time I got back I only had enough time to say hello to Ed (who had been at the office in the morning, where he had learned that nothing had happened in his absence) and throw a load of laundry in the machine before going out for my manicure. As I've said (more than once!), my manicurist is leaving for a month's vacation (as is my hair cutter and colorist!). I'm sure another manicurist will be available, and will probably be just as good, but I am really worried about my haircut and color. I asked Olga, the receptionist, in French (she speaks fluently, and I can do a lot better in French than in Ukrainian or Russian!) if she could ask Yulia, my hairdresser, if she would give the color formula and explain my haircut to someone else in the salon, in case I can't wait for her return to have my hair cut and colored. Yulia agreed, but I hope I can wait - I'm really pleased with the haircut she gave me.
By the time I got back, Ed had left for the office again, so I busied myself with laundry, email catching up, and working on the blog. Boris called and asked if he could come over at 7 p.m. to fix the TV - of course I said yes. Ed called to say he would be late (they're working on the contracts and trying to contact someone from Renaissance Foundation), so I fed Belle, took her for her walk and waited for Boris. He managed to fix the TV, gave me the bill for the internet, and I handed over 1000 HVA - except it turns out that what I thought was a 500 HVA note was a 500 Ruble note (worth about $20, as opposed to $100 for a 500 HVA note). So I paid him half and told him I would give him the rest the next time I see him.
Ed got back about 8 or 8:30 and I made him a little dinner (his favorite - sausage and cheese) and we both had a tomato and cucumber salad with dill and sour cream that I had thrown together (I had already eaten - the sandwiches I had made from the breakfast at our hotel in Riga for our trip home, but which we hadn't eaten because the airplane food was really good!). By then we were both really tired and we got into bed, read my print outs of the Tom Friedman, Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd columns that we had missed during our trip, and fell sleep.
posted by Susan Spivak at 8:19 PM
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