The Water Truck

Well, Jason has been dutifully boiling and filtering our water, and we regularly buy 6 or 7 liter bottles of water from the grocery store. Whenever we do, we inevitably find the "Roganska" brand water truck and scads of locals lined up with empty bottles in their hands. It was one of those Murphy's law things- we'd buy water and then find the water truck parked in front of, literally blocking, the entry to our apartment building.

Granted, it took us a bit of time to figure out what was going on. I mean, we did not expect the clean water truck to be parked in our alley. In fact, we hadn't even conceptualized the people wearing neat blue plastic (sic, waterproof) uniforms bearing the name of the water company, selling clean water out of the back of a truck.

Yesterday we caught them just as they were leaving, and we asked when they'd be back: later at 6pm, they'd be parked in front of the Apothecary down the road. So, at 6pm we trundled out with empty bottles and a wad of cash. We were just thankful that we wouldn't have to carry the bottles as far along with several sacks of groceries or whatnot. It is at this point that I must explain that a six liter bottle of water costs 18 Grivna, or, about $2.25. We filled up two six liter bottles for a whopping 7 Grivna, or 80 cents. We asked when they'd be back, and they replied next Wednesday at noon in front of our building. So, I guess next Wednesday we'll be lined up with our empty water bottles along with the locals... it gives me a sense of community solidarity.

Wage's Adventures

In case you were wondering what Wage has been up to... 

He enjoys getting clean in the washer...
mainly because he's not
certain you come out clean.

He knows what lives under the
 stairs... but he's not saying.
It is against protocol.  

Epiphany

I almost forgot: it is Epiphany per the Russian Orthodox Calendar. We were in a furniture store (looking for lamps) and a gentleman came up to us and asked if we were "khristyanin". It took Jason and I a second- The word means both "peasant" and "christian". Then we saw the branches in his hand. We nodded and said "yes", and the guy sprinkled us with holy water from his birch branches and blessed us. Probably better than the alternative tradition- jumping through a hole into a frozen lake.

Friday's Photos

A brief collection of photos for your viewing pleasure. Less than two minutes long, I swear!

Crossfit M4

Friday we were tired. We were going to trudge to a “SPAR”grocery store that Jason found on his way to a meeting, but we’ve got someserious melt going on—you can imagine how much fun it is to walk on melting iceacross the “Children’s Park” that was once a cemetery (they left the bodies,but moved the headstones). I think the cemetery-cum-park makes more sense on an ice coated, grey day in Ukraine. In any case, the peanut butter question remainsunanswered, which also means that our hope remains alive…

…and in case you were thinking, “I can just mail you some.”Why, no, you can’t. We don’t have a mailbox. Thus, I’m pretty sure we don’thave the corresponding mail service to go with one.

We ended up at ye ole “L’eto” grocery store, but before wewent in, we went for a quick lunch at the “Ali Baba” café, which advertisedschwarma, but was, curiously, out of potatoes (= no fries). Neither of usactually ordered the schwarma once we saw what else was on the menu- Fajitas!Now, you may wonder what a fajita in Kharkov, Ukraine entails, so let me fillyou in: stir fried chicken, onion and bell peppers, mushrooms, corn, cheese(the only description I can give is: white), and mayo. It was all served on asteaming hoagie. Surprisingly, no cabbage was involved, although I swear I sawit listed—it may have been MIA like the potatoes. I gave up on the last coupleof bites, which were dripping with a combination of grease and mayo (bothhealthy and delicious!).

As for atmosphere, the place was an overgrown kiosk. It hada counter a la McDonalds at which you ordered and the familiar coating of frygrease on the floor and, well, everything else. We sat in an extra room tuckedin to the side of the stand. There were two tables- one filled with centralAsian students coated in black leather, who were playing Russian rap on theircell phones, and Jason and I. I’m sure we blended.

This afternoon we hauled ourselves over to Crossfit M4. We’davoided it for a bit, because we knew it would be an odyssey. Two metro stopsand then we walked…turned around…walked some more…turned around again andfinally found it. It took us an hour and a half. In our defense, let me justsay that I did not expect to find two different roads named after two different50 year anniversaries- one for the 50 year anniversary of the Former SovietUnion (wrong) and one for the 50 year anniversary of the “Komsomol” (correct)…and I further would not have guessed that they’d intersect. In any case, weskated over the melting ice and felt such relief when we found it situated nextto the Hospital (convenient and probably not the best omen).

Yuri seemed really glad to see us and quickly threw togethera WOD for us. He spoke Russian with a Ukrainian accent, which means that everytime he encounters the letter “g” in Russian, he says “h” instead. So, we didoverhead squats, or “nad golovoy”, only he pronounced it “nad holovoy”. I toldhim he could call me “Galya”, which is about as close to Holly as you can getin Russian, and it came out “Halya”- even closer. Jason was “James”.

Everyone was very friendly, though. They told us to taketrolleybus # 24 back to the metro. It took about 5 minutes, which I mentionmainly because of the deathmarch on the way over. Jason points out that we didsave 3 Grivny (45 cents) by walking…

I’m going to try to collect “fur” photos for you all. Ithought you might find it interesting because it is so…not déclassé…butcertainly much more taboo in the US. There is lots of sable and mink going downthe street and some really fantastic “shapka’s” (fur hats) on both women andmen. 

Few Photos of Sunday

We boil the water for 5 minutes and then run it through a special Brita filter that removes heavy metals... yeah. I try not to think about that foamy scum ringing the pot.

We finally conquered the uber-kompleks washing machine. We figured out that you have to do each step separately: wash, spin, rinse, spin...and finally "trocknen", drying. Jason's gone to throw in some "flussenspulen"...

Dumplings filled with potatoes and mushrooms... 

We're here!

Jason and I arrived on Tuesday and have been busy trying to get the apartment together ever since. We've hit up about four supermarkets and several 'produkti' kiosks, and then ironically found the best one hidden down an alley in an apartment courtyard ACROSS THE STREET. seriously. We stumbled upon it yesterday... saw it... started to walk past... and then turned around and decided to explore. It was called "L'eto", or Summer, so we weren't sure if we'd be walking into a store or a restaurant. Still no peanut butter, but they did have ground Turkey (whaaaa?). When we asked the woman behind the counter for it, she and several other people tried to explain to us that it was Turkey- complete with one gentleman intelligentsia telling us in English, "It is Turkey". Once everyone was satisfied that we understood, they finally agreed to sell it to us. I don't think it helped that Jason and I immediately asked for half a kilo in Latvian... oops! In any case, we had spaghetti bolognese last night.