Adapting and Lessons Learned

We’ve been in Kyiv almost two weeks now and I think we’re starting to adapt a bit. Fortunately, after a week at work we ended up with a five day holiday and that has given us plenty of time to explore, relax, and adjust to life in this place that is at times looks so much like America, but is really completely different.

Through the helpful advice of new friends and co-workers as well as trial and error we have begun to learn how to accomplish things the Ukrainian way. More Western style grocery stores exist, but the small gastronoms and markets near us still operate largely on the old Soviet style of telling a clerk what you want and then they give it to you. There will be no touching of the lettuce or making sure the can of corn isn’t dented. You get what they give you. We were taken to a large Costco type store this past weekend and stocked up on goods from pasta to a new hairdryer. On the way out of the store you are allowed to take the electronic goods to a kiosk that will allow you to buy a guarantee. They take it out of the box and plug it in to show you that it works and then you buy the coverage. If it doesn’t work they won’t sell you insurance, but you also can’t return it. They tell you where you can have it repaired and after that is done you can return and have it covered. Very efficient.

We learned the wrong way to pay attention to bus numbers lest you end up someplace you don’t want to be. We won’t make that mistake again. (I hope.) We also learned that you should not argue with a woman who has a chimpanzee. Jennifer describes that better on her new post. We learned that Ukrainian beer isn’t too bad and a giant bottle of it is cheaper than a small bag of M&M’s.

Tomorrow my goal is to make some progress on high speed internet for the house. I found the office which was the first step. Now I need to go in and try to negotiate the hook-up. Someone advised me to just keep speaking English until they give up and find the one person who speaks a little bit of English and see what we end up with. That’s probably the approach I’ll take. As important as it is to know Russian here, sometimes life is easier if you play stupid until people either give in or leave you alone depending on what you’re after.