I so want a Lada...

Especially one that has a police theme. Woot, woot!

It's been a busy couple of days.

I'm not even sure why it's been so busy. I keep having these really weird days where I'm going from meeting to meeting without time to eat lunch or check my email, and yet, I can't really say what I've accomplished. Oh well. It doesn't matter. What does matter is that it's the weekend and we've been able to have some fun. We had our first foray with curling last night. I forgot my camera, or there would be photos of us slipping around on the ice. We hosted a brunch this afternoon for a couple of my co-workers, which was really enjoyable. And, tonight, we are headed to the monthly trivia competition. Since I don't have pictures of all that fun stuff, I'm going to share some of our place. I don't think I've posted any shots of our apartment yet, so here they are.

It

Don't!

Do you think this sign means: don't stand with your knees bent, or don't be a lurker? Perhaps, don't do a nerdy 80s dance? I'll spoil all the fun: it's written in Ukranian and it means no exit.

In case you're wondering how to spell...

sex shop in Cyrillic. They certainly don't beat around the bush! (OK, so I just spent 10
minutes googling idioms so I didn't have to use that one in this context, but I
couldn't find another one with the same meaning. My apologies!)

House of Chimeras

Architect, Vladislov Gorodetsky, built the House of Chimeras in 1901 & 1902. It's located across the street from the President of Ukraine's office. Before a meeting in the neighborhood last week, my co-workers took me by it. They told me that Gorodetsky bet someone that he could construct a solid building on a large Kyiv hill without it sliding down into the city below. With this, the House of Chimeras was built. They also told me that the creatures and animals on the facade were placed there for Gorodetsky's daughter, whom he loved very much and possibly succumbed to an untimely death. I also heard that he spent a lot of time in Africa, hunting, and that is where some of the inspiration came from.

More shots of the city....

President's Office. The sign reads: President of Ukraine.

Mobile coffee shop.

Classic graffiti!

The Dniper at night.

Best art I've seen on a building so far....

It took me a minute to figure this out....

In case of an emergency, or if we had to get off the bus in a hurry.

trash

It looks like this on a street that I use to get to work. It's not like this everywhere, just one this one street. Not sure what's up with the garbage folks -- those that leave it and those that are supposed to pick it up.

Dream Town

There's a mall nearby called Dream Town. It's a couple stops away from our nearest metro station and one weekend a while ago Tom and I checked it out. It was packed and there were lots of restaurants and things to do. One of the more interesting things was the ping pong courtyard. I had no idea that ping pong was so big here, just like I never imagined badminton being popular in Japan. Tom and I went to Dream Town in the afternoon. There were plenty of people there on dates and lots of families enjoying the mall. Really, my only complaint is that smoking is pretty widely done inside and walking by some of the food court coffee shops and restaurants was pretty unpleasant.

Georgian wine, part II

Another classic label. This time there is rape pomegranate peel and nut snakes. Not sure I would ever want to consume something with any of that. My favorite part is, "It is intensive and solid wine with excellent balance of astringent and acidity." Doesn't sound appealing at all, and yet it was pretty tasty.

Election monitoring

Tom and I participated in a mayoral election for a town outside of Kyiv last weekend. The opposition candidates contended that fishy stuff was going on leading up to the event. This prompted a coordinated effort for international observers to oversee things on voting day. It wasn't a full fledged monitoring effort because usually these things start well before the day of vote casting. Generally, monitoring initiatives start early so the actions of political parties during the campaign season can be monitored as well. It's sometimes less common for strange stuff to be taking place on the election day, but lots of fishy stuff can happen leading up to the event. This can help stack the deck in favor of one party over another. For example, in this election it just so happens that all the election commission members (who are in charge of registering voters, handing out ballots, monitoring the polling stations, and tallying the votes at the end of the night) were affiliated with the incumbent party. Strange that none of the opposition candidates had representatives acting in election commission member positions. In all, it was a long, long day. We had a 4 hour training on Saturday and then left our house at 6am on Sunday. We returned at 2am on Monday morning. Whew.

Traveling by train

Riding the rails in Ukraine is quite common. The network of trains running throughout Eastern and Western Europe is quite substantial, and Ukraine has approximately 22,800 km (that's 15,000 miles) of railroad line. Since I've been here, I've heard people talk about their train travel with a badge of honor. The former Peace Corps types are especially quick to share their stories of riding in "platskartny" (third class), which is essentially a dormitory squeezed into a train car. Those with a bit more dough can ride "coupe" (second class), where four people share a small compartment. Those willing to shell out the extra money can go "SV" (first class), with a compartment with two beds. Those misanthropes plush with hryvna (or with sweet, USG jobs) purchase the whole compartment so they can ride solo. Here's what my firs train ride looked like:

Welcome home Dawn, welcome home.

I was away last week for my first sight visit. I took a train to Khemlnitsky, which is about five or six hours west of Kyiv, depending on how you travel. Our "home" for the end of the week was Hotel Coliseum. It certainly had a theme. Here are some photos of the "style."

Busin' it, Kyiv style!

Over the weekend, Tom and I decided to take a bus ride. We hopped on the #16 at a central location not far from our place and rode the whole route. It was a fun way to explore another part of the city. There are some interesting things associated with riding the bus here. For example, the fare purchasing is not automated, although, you can purchase a card and just flash it at the fare collector (see the blurry picture of the woman with the blue vest). Otherwise, you hand over 1.5 hryvnia ($0.18) and she'll give you a ticket that you'll punch in a contraption affixed to the side of the bus. I guess each bus and tram has a unique punch, so someone could tell if you were trying to use an already punched ticket on a different bus. Another funny thing is the wear and tear on the buses -- most of them look pretty ragged. And, there's copious amounts of graffiti all over the seats and walls. And, when we got out to the end of the route, we stalled for a bit in the middle of the intersection. Tom and I couldn't figure out what we were waiting for until we saw a middle-aged man, dressed in black with a backpack slung over his shoulder running to the bus. He dashed into the front and took over for the the driver behind the wheel. I guess he was late for work!

Euro Cup 2012

The countdown continues. Less than 90 days now.

PDA

Public displays of affection are big here in Kyiv -- like really, really big -- with long extended sessions of making out for everyone to see. I noticed the "openness" (we'll call it) when I came for a short visit in October of last year. I asked my American colleague who's well versed in post-Soviet states about it when we were walking around the city. Her explanation was that everyone lives at home with their parents/family and most young Kyivans don't have another option for expressing their affections aside from public venues. That may be true, but it amazes me at the length and forwardness of some of the public make outs I've seen. I've been trying hard for a while now to capture this on film (which I know makes me sound kind of perverted), but I finally caught a snapshot tonight as we were walking through Midan, also known as Independence Square, in the heart of the city. Please note the ass-grab.

Urgh.... My tummy hurts...

because I ate too much. Tom and I tried "Gim-a-lay-a" (aka Himalaya) tonight. It was okay for Indian food. The atmosphere was nice -- a second floor establishment overlooking Khreshatik (the main drag in Kyiv's city center). But, the most remarkable thing about the place was I'd estimate 80% of the patrons were non-Ukrainian. I heard French, English, Dutch (I think) and Japanese being spoken at the different tables. Ooo la la! We are international people of mystery!

Snapshots from around Kyiv

As today was a holiday and I didn't have to work, we took a long walk around the city in a direction we hadn't explored. Here are some pictures from around town. Enjoy!

International women's day -- March 8

Hello one and all. I am a woman. Celebrate me. Thank you.

So, international women's day is a big deal here in Ukraine. A few weeks ago we celebrated men's day. Reciprocaiton of the holiday and the accompanying adoration of women just so happens to be tomorrow. Someone summed up the festivities as St. Valentine's day and Mothers' day all wraped up into one -- truly a fabulous mix. I am just greatful that we have a day off and that I get to explore the tradition a bit. Today, my colleauge (Olksander) put together a "party" for the ladies in the office. We had champaign (at 11:30 in the morning), snacks and cake. Alex handed us all roses along with a hug and thanks for being in his life. Although the Ukrainian holiday is pretty heavy on gendered stereotypes (http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/123883/ President Yanukovych's message to Ukrainian women on women's day -- classic!), it's still nice to be appreciated.

Typical sidewalk in Kyiv

It's a disaster area walking around Kyiv! I know I wrote earlier about the falling icicles and how it was hard to walk on sidewalks here. I forgot to mention that, in addition to the icicles, most of the sidewalks in Kyiv are torn up or have some major roadblocks which impede traffic. One of my first days here I got honked at because I was walking in the street, but I was walking in the street because there was a row of cars parked on the sidewalk leaving no room for pedestrians -- talk about irony!

Goat dancing!

Over the weekend Tom and I went to dinner with some new friends. We were put in touch through a former classmate of mine. They suggested we dine at a "traditional" Ukrainian restaurant which Tom and I had walked by on several occasions and wanted to try, so we were happy to oblige. When we walked in, the host gave us a glass of sweet vodka by the door. We checked our coats (one of the things I love about Kyiv -- everywhere has a coat check) and headed upstairs to find our table. The place was decorated in "traditional" decor and all the chairs were covered with goat hides (furry seats!). We enjoyed some more sweet vodka and salo (sliced pork fat) for starters. I had wild boar dumplings for dinner and Tom had chicken and mushroom stuffed pancakes. After we ate, one of the staff came and asked us if we would like to learn some traditional Ukrainian dancing. We went back downstairs where a man was playing a violin (or was it a fiddle?) and calling out moves -- my favorite being the one where we stompped our feet "in the dirt", waved our "horns" in the air, and turned around and shook our butts to "sweep up the mess with our tails". Did I mention that Tom didn't dance?