Miscellany

International Women’s Day
I told you this International Women’s Day thing was serious here – the men in our office threw a little party for the women this morning, with cake, champagne and a bouquet of flowers for each of us. The men are having long and serious discussions of when they will each go to the main UNDP office to congratulate the women there. I was asked, as the only native English speaker in our office, to write a “congratulatory letter” on behalf of CRDP that will be sent to all the women in UNDP agencies, the Ukrainian Ministry of Emergencies (the Ministry responsible for all Chornobyl-related activities), donor organizations, etc etc etc. Basically, I’ve been asked to write a Hallmark card. Not my cup of tea, but I’ll do my best.

Buckeyes are everywhere
Yesterday I met with the Director of IREX Ukraine. It turns out that she did her Master’s in Russian at Ohio State, and we had a year or two that overlapped in the department. We know lots of the same people. People often say that when you get an Ivy League education, it’s not that the education is so much better than at other schools, but it’s really the network to which you gain access that is so valuable. I have to say, Ohio State’s alumni network is no shabby thing. I have met a fellow Buckeye on nearly every trip I’ve ever taken in my life.

I hate smoking
Yesterday, on my way to meet Andrea at IREX, more than half of the peolpe I saw on the street were smoking. Last year, a law was passed in Ukraine requiring that all restaurants and cafes have a no smoking section. This usually means a table or two in the corner of the room that are designated “no smoking”, but which are basically surrounded by smoking tables. Some tiny places don’t even bother, like the pizza place near my office that is really a hole in the wall, with only five or six tables total. Larger places that have two or more rooms usually designate one of them non-smoking, but it’s not particularly enforced. A new bar/restaurant opened up not long ago across the street from our office, and Mietek and I stopped by after work one evening to check it out. The front room has the bar in it, and there was a couple sitting a table smoking away. The back room had a small group, four or five people, smoking. I asked the bartender “Where is the no smoking room?” He looked at me blankly. I couldn’t tell if he didn’t understand the question or didn’t understand my accent. I turned to the waiter and asked again “Where is the no smoking room?” He pointed to the rear room, and lamely commented “But they’ve already started smoking in there.” Thanks, buddy. “You are doing a great job following the law,” I said. Blank looks from everyone. Columbus, Ohio, passed a law a year or so ago banning smoking in all public places. I gotta tell ya, it is a real treat to go out to eat in Columbus now. On my last few trips home, I visited restaurants and bars that I haven’t been to in years because I couldn’t stand the smoking. I miss that tremendously here in Kyiv, and I hardly ever go out to bars or restaurants here anymore because it just stinks, literally.

Things I like better in Ukraine
On my trip to Columbus last month, I realized several things that I like better in Ukraine.
(1) Restaurants, cafes, bars, etc. in Ukraine always have a coat tree, coat rack, or even a coat check room. This is especially handy in the winter when you are loaded down with layers and layers. Not a single restaurant I visited in Columbus had a place to hang up your coat.

(2) I like living in the land of small (or even no) tips. When a taxi driver in New York city told me that my $2 tip for the 15 minute ride from LaGuardia airpor to JFK was not enough, I started counting the minutes until I’d be back in Kyiv. Taxi drivers don’t expect tips here, and in restaurants, a 10% tip is higher than average.

(3) Public transportation is great here. Within a 1 kilometer radius of my apartment (approx. 1/2 mile), there are three metro stations, 5-6 public bus and trolleybus lines, and at least 10 or 15 different privately-run bus lines. The metro and public buses and trolleybuses cost 50 kopeks (about a dime), and privately-operated buses cost from 1 hrivna (.20 cents) to 1.75 hrivnas (.35 cents). And I love that I can walk to most places I need to get to (granted, I’m lucky that I can live in the center of town, close to work, shops, etc.).

(4) Men always open doors for women. It’s just polite.