Last year, we posted a list of some of the things we especially appreciated after a long vacation in the US – things in the US that we thought were awesome, and things in Ukraine that we had missed. We have a few items to add again this year. As usual, Igor’s list mainly consists of food and drink, mine is a bit more eclectic.
in the US:– Dad’s back yard (this photo doesn’t entirely do it justice, it’s really a lovely sanctuary full of beautiful flowers and lots of birds)
– Max and Erma’s Garbage Burgers (that would be Igor)
– steaks (again, Igor)
– recycling
– how bicycle-friendly Columbus has become
– riding bicycles around town without fear of becoming roadkill
– drivers that defer to pedestrians, even if you aren’t crossing at an official crosswalk
– the Smithsonian museums, and in particular the National Air & Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Ukraine
– Ziggy (we missed him sooo much while we were traveling! He makes us both laugh so much, and he is a purr machine.)
– good, cheap beeer (and even though it’s not legal to drink alcohol on the street anymore, a savvy investor could have made a killing on brown paper bags, as they are now all the rave for covering that cold beer you are drinking on the street)
– delicious, delicious, delicious fruits and vegetables (wow, even the produce at the farmer’s market in Columbus didn’t taste like food)
– Kyiv metro (so efficient and easy to get around town)
– some of the wild and crazy things you do here, like pay in cash for an apartment (talk about excitement and terror!) My usual manicurist is on vacation, so I tried a different salon last week when I needed to get my nails done. The salon was actually a bit nicer than my usual place, the girl did a really good job, and it was only 20 hrivna (about $2.50) more expensive. I was starting to think maybe to change to this place in the future, but then the girl figured out I as American and started the mantra that just makes me tired: “Oh, it’s so much better ‘za granitsa’ (abroad, aka anyplace but here in Ukraine).” And then she bitched and moaned for the next hour about how much life and everything else sucks in Ukraine and how great life and everything else is in any other place. I didn’t feel like arguing with her, but did say a few of my lines that usually touch the national pride button in Ukrainians – like the produce is great, so natural and delicious – but she wasn’t having any of it. “The food sucks and is too expensive.” And that started the rant about prices, the cost of living, the crappy salaries. Well, I wouldn’t disagree with some of her beefs, but when people here try to tell me how much better everyone in the US has it, I quickly point out that noone in the US received a free house or apartment, like pretty much everyone here did when the Soviet Union split up. Most Americans, I point out, pay rent or for a mortgage their entire lives (and that’s not even getting into what’s been happening the last couple of years with the economic collapse). She wasn’t budged by that arguement, either. “Oh yeah? I had to take a loan for both my car and my apartment in Kyiv. How much is the percentage (interest rate) on loans in the US? I bet it’s not 20%, like we have to pay here.” Ugh, I hate conversations like these, trying to convince each other that life in one place is worse than in another. It’s stupid. There are pluses and minuses, good and bad, rich and poor in every country. And you can’t argue with a person who’s already convinced, especially those who’ve never been anywhere else. So I sat quietly, stuck for over an hour with her as she did my nails, thinking how I’ll never go back to that salon again. And also thinking to myself “Gosh, I kind of like living here.” And that’s all that matters.
Anka in Kyiv 