I’ve decided that one thing I’m going to miss in Nassau is Fall. I love the changing leaves and the crispness in the air. After way too much rain last month, the past week has been filled with beautiful fall days and evenings. Although I’m already feeling like the evenings are starting too early - I’ll miss you, sun!
You are currently browsing articles tagged kyiv.
Last Friday, while Shawn was at the airport getting someone “special” out of the country and on his merry way, there was excitement in our neighborhood.
In Kyiv, September 1st is the first day of school. This morning the sidewalks were packed with parents walking their children to school. It was easy to see which kids were headed to class for two reasons. First, kids here dress to the nines on the first (and last) day of school. All the girls were in their best dresses with fluffy white bows in their hair approximately equivalent to the size of their heads. And the boys were all wearing suits - I even spotted a couple little boys dressed in tuxedos. Very classy. Second, it’s traditional here to take flowers to your teacher on the first day of class. From small bouquets of 5 roses to huge flower arrangements (again, approximately equivalent to the size of their little heads) - I can only assume that most classrooms look like funeral parlors on September 1st.
I’m not sure if I’ve ever really discussed parking in Kyiv before. All you need to know is that it’s a free-for-all. Pretty much any place will do as a parking space - the sidewalk…the local park…partially blocking traffic… You get the idea. Today seems to be particularly bad in our neighborhood. Laika and I had trouble getting out of our building because of a car parked on the sidewalk directly in front of our door. Then we had to squeeze by two cars that had left just enough room on the sidewalk for me to pass by sideways (there’s a fenced lot next to our building). And when we got to the grassy area where Laika usually “does her business,” there was a huge black SUV parked in the middle of it.
As I was initially forming the idea for this post on my bus ride home from the gym this morning, it was going to be about how insanely full the bus was. And about how I ended up forced to stand incredibly, uncomfortably close to (and facing) a Ukrainian man. Like so close I could feel his breath on my face. You’ll have to believe me when I say that it was going to be really funny. However, when I finally got to my building I realized that at some point my ride had become the WORST worst bus ride ever.
So the one event I was looking forward to this summer happened on Saturday and I was not there. It’s probably wrong of me to be as disappointed as I am, but I really wanted to see Paul McCartney in concert. However, the concert coincided with the biggest thunderstorm of the summer (so far), turning the streets into rivers, and creating the feeling that it was actually raining from above and below at the same time. So we made the decision that it would not really be enjoyable to go and stand with tens of thousands of Ukrainians in those conditions. But two days later, I’m still disappointed.
Breaking news - Kyiv, Ukraine. Coffee lovers in the capitol city were stunned earlier this month as local chain “Coffee House” announced that they would begin allowing customers to take their coffee with them, rather than drinking it in the cafe. Coffee ordered “to go” will be placed in a small paper cup with a plastic lid so that customers can conveniently carry it with them to work or, more likely, a park bench. The introduction of the lid feature will allow Ukrainians to have their coffee while smoking and talking on their cell phone without the fear of spills, which has long been a problem with MacCoffee from kiosks (previously the only coffee available in this “to go” style). Local expats are thrilled that they will no longer be required to struggle with drinking hot beverages at “Coffee House” through a straw from an awkward glass without a handle.
I have a confession to make. A few days ago, I pushed a woman on the bus. Like the back of my forearm met the center of her back and I pushed. Hard. In my defense, pushing is a way of life here, particularly when it comes to public transportation. But I am ashamed at my overwhelming feeling that I have, in fact, gone native.
Yesterday the weather was horrible. It rained all day - the kind of rain when it’s only a few degrees above freezing, so it’s terribly cold and wet and everything floods because the precipitation is rain instead of snow. Yuck. Around 10pm, things turned into what I believe meteorologists in the US would call a “wintry mix.” And at some point over night it turned into all snow. And so this morning, we woke up to our first day of snow in Kyiv! And it hasn’t slowed down since.