Ukraine is one of those places in the world, much like Maine, that I feel thats tests you in every way, especially in the winter. This past week the weather has been horribly relentless. It has turned cold, to the point that even walking with my thermals on during the day my legs go numb if I am out too long. We have also had light snow almost everyday. In Maine we wouldn’t really even think about this kind of snow, but streets and more importantly side walks don’t get properly cleared off. The snow has turned into this brown sticky mush that is like walking in cold mash potatoes. I have my nice wide Sorrel snow boots that keep my feet warm and grounded for the most part, however because of this mash potato snow, it gets stuck in the groves of my boots and when I hit the sidewalks made out of black cobble stones that are horrible slippery, I slip every time without fail. I have yet to fall, clearly I didn’t get my dad’s horrible balance. Most of the time I just laugh it off slipping and sliding around sometimes even make small game out of it. What else can you do really, I mean I could go around with a huge blow torch melting the snow in front of me as I walk, but I have a feeling that might be frowned upon here, guess I’ll just wait to get back to Maine to try it.
Despite these less then ideal conditions I somehow still end up walking everywhere. On Monday there was a glimmer of sun in the sky and rushed into a panic to get myself together and go out and shoot. I walked to the bus stop and wait anxiously for the next number 71, looking up at the sky to make sure that the sun had not run away from me again. The bus pulled up and I paid my 2UAH (25 cents for you Americans) and took my place standing in the front holding on to one of the seats so I wouldn’t fall. The bus was decently crowed, but honestly not too bad compared to some of the sardine like conditions that I have been jammed into. I looked out the window patiently waiting to see the park that I was going to shoot in. I ended up getting off at the stop after I should have, but it worked out better because all of the walking for the most part was down hill. The other stop would have been uphill obviously, and since I spent my whole childhood walking uphill, both ways, to school in the freezing rain, I feel the right to be a little lazy now that I am an adult. I walked through the pure white snow covered park, basking in the midday sun, over come with euphoria of a magnitude that has not been seen on a Monday for anyone for quite sometime. It was probably a very good thing that it was mostly deserted as I was grinning ear to ear and possibly laughing to myself a bit, and I am sure they would have dragged me off to some mental institution or thought that I had gotten an early start of my vodka consumption. I hurried to the amusement part of the park that was shut down for the winter and started taking pictures. One of the thoughts that ran through my head was, Are these rides really safe? I see a lot of rust. I need to see these things in action sometime. I also did not sneak into this place, they just leave it open during the winter, so the thrill factor was a little low, but still over all interesting subject matter and enjoyable shooting.
I finished up at the park and walked down the stairs to the street and looked up the hill to where the bus stop was that I had gotten off, (and when I say looked up the hill I don’t mean I could see it from there, just looking in the general direction.) and then looked down the hill to where I knew there was a bus stop, but I didn’t know its exact location. I chose to go down. I was not ready to fight with a snow covered hill, when I need to be out shooting. I walked along for about fifteen minuets and found the stop I was looking for, the one I should have gotten out at in the first place, and waited impatiently for the next 71 bus to take me out further into the country side and eventually where it would end its run at the King Cross mall. My bus finally came and I climbed on to the over crowded thing and held on for dear life with both my arms tightly wrapped around one of the metal poles. I was standing on the top step of the stairs, with my feet half off trying to balance and not fall like an unexpended mashooka rider. Falling would meant that I could put away my big “American” forehead stamp that I slam on my face, so people are aware of my origins. Its not like my general lack of Ukrainian would be a dead give away that I wasn’t one of them in the first place or anything, but I digress.
I road in my sardine can, oh excuse me, bus, for a few more stops and then I got off at an area I had scoped out a few days before. There were some industrial ruins around and just general horribly run down places. I walked towards the first abandoned building and saw that there was a big wall surrounding it and I decided that the lighting wasn’t that great right now and it just wasn’t going to be worth it. I looked across the street and there was a complex that looked like some of it could be uninhabited, but again there was a huge wall and I knew there was no way in hell that I was getting in. I turned and started walking in the direction that my bus had gone off in and decided that I would just walk the rest of the way to the mall and take photos along the way. I started walking and about an half hour had passed, and I thought to myself “It’s not that much longer. I’ll be there soon.” Well as I walked through the suburban country side that half hour turned into an hour and then an hour and a half. I should have just gotten on one of the buses that passed by, but at this point I was obsessed making it to the mall by foot and making sure that I did not possibly miss something that I could take a picture of. I have also developed this odd need to walk a lot every day it seems. Its a really good way to get to know the city I have found and also its a way for me to clear my head. Also I was too cheep to pay 2UAH (25 cents people) for the fare. Oh God Ukraine you have made me horribly cheep, oh what I’m like that back in the States too?
Once at the mall I got my lunch, even though it was passed 4pm at this point and then I went about some shopping. I finally got a proper winter scarf that is also doubling as a shawl, it kind of makes me feel like an old lady, but I’m ok with that because its warm and was only 49UAH (about $6.20, gosh people get your abacuses out so I don’t have to keep doing math). I then went to this huge store which is basically like a super Wal*Mart. I ended up drifting into the DVD section and buying Twilight: Eclipse. I do not know what compelled me to buy this horrible movie that I hated the first time I saw it except for the fact that it was only 52UAH (about $6.60) and it is also dubbed in Ukrainian and Russian which may turn out to be the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. I also tried to find the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, but got completely ignored by two workers who clearly saw and heard me try to ask for help. Maybe I should have looked for a flare gun in there hunting section.(Seriously though there was no hunting section so this was not a true Wal*Mart). That might have gotten there attention.
I am now going to admit to you all what I have become addicted to over here. Buying chocolate. I tidied up my room the other day and the amount I found was astounding. Its become this horrible addiction. God forbid I run out of it apparently. See the thing is I am buying more then I am eating and I forget about a stash and then come across it later on. Its all really good too, much better then Hershey’s. I think right now I have at least five unopened bars, at least three opened and a bag of assorted mini chocolate bars. I hope customs doesn’t have a limit on it, if someone could check up on that for me it would be grand. Also someone is probably going to break into my hostel room and rob me of my scrumptious goodies, which I may not be opposed to so I don’t have to lug 5 pounds of the stuff back with me. I ended up buying even more that day at the Ukrainian Wal*Mart. They still appreciate the ability of pick your own mixed bulk candy here. I can’t read any of the labels as none of them are in English, but I look at the pictures and I decide what to get by prices. The most expensive chocolates are about 80UAH per kilo (that breaks down to about $3.65 a pound). Cheep ass me goes for the ones that are about 50UAH per kilo ($2.85ish a pound) In all I spent about $8.25 at the Ukrainian Wal*Mart. What a bargain shopper I am!
After that I went out to find a bus back to the city center. This bus driver seemed to be in a horrible mood. At first I thought that I just had my American stamp on my forehead again, but he drove like a mad man puffing on cigarettes, (yes bus drivers here sometimes smoke while driving. I wonder what would happen if I just lit up in the bus?) honking at traffic, and he even got into an argument with a passenger over God knows what. Seriously if people are worried about my safety here, its one of these bus rides that I would be most likely to die in I feel.
I made it to the city center, and I was still on my Harry Potter mission. Make fun of me if you will, but it brings me so much joy even at the age of 22. I ended finding it and payed 52UAH for it and was really tempted to buy the Justin Bieber CD at the store too, but I stopped myself. I also have Bieber fever. My mental age just keeps getting lower in this blog.
Moving on from those embarrassing facts, I ended up getting home to the hostel a little after 5 and spent most of the night eating chocolate (shocked? Shouldn’t be.) watching Harry Potter and chilling with the Peace Corps kids staying at the hostel. I cannot tell you how good it was to be able to hang out with a group of Americans that know what you are talking about when you make a reference to something in pop culture and a few of them had even been to Maine, so I got to bask in the glory of my state. It also gave me some insight in to more Ukrainian culture. One of the guys talked about how he had managed to get a computer for one of the teachers in the school he’s working at through a grant and the teach just uses Word to type up quizzes that in turn, she also still writes on the board. He has repeatedly offered to show her how to do more, but she doesn’t want anything to do with it. Similar stories were also shared by the other volunteers. Its hard to change things when people don’t want it. I also learned how much free time they end up having and what do they do with it you ask? They watch movies and TV. It is common for them to have multiple external hard drives, one for music, one of TV shows, and one for movies. When they get together for conferences and such they end up swapping, so they have enough entertainment to last them until the next time they all get together. It also made me feel a little better about my recent DVD purchases, even though I am sure if I had hit one of them up they would have had it, well maybe not Twilight because it was all guys here.
They also told me how a lot of people where they work and in there villages think that they are incapable of feeding themselves so they always get all this food, jars of pickles, potatoes and invites to dinner. One guy told me how one of the teachers always packs an extra sandwich for him everyday so he doesn’t go hungry. They all appreciate it, but also find it amusing that these people keep fussing over them.
We got on the subject of holidays and how much Ukrainians love to celebrate the most random of things, like when I leave to come back to the States on March 8th, I am going to be missing Women’s Day. Basically from what I’ve gathered it is a mix of Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, and Labour Day back in America. Traditionally men give small gifts to the women in there lives and it started off as a celebration of the working women. I vote that we bring this holiday to America, so whoever shows up at the airport to pick me up make sure you have something for me and we will start this holiday off on the right foot. I also heard about someone’s first Easter in Ukraine. They had just arrived here a week or two earlier and they were living with a Ukrainian family and on Easter morning he got woken up way before dawn and they all piled into the car and drove for over an hour in the country side, appearing to be going to the middle of nowhere. They ended up at a church and had Easter service and then they went off to someones house to eat and drink, vodka of course. This was repeated several times at various homes, until about mid-afternoon when the Peace Corps volunteer was dropped off back at home and the family did not reappear until a few days later. He assumed that they just continued on doing this. He also mentioned the massive Easter baskets that they get that are filled with practical food items that never seem to end. You just keep reaching in and things keep coming out. He called it “a friggen Mary Poppins basket”.
Here a great thing they also do in schools. If 20% or more of the student are absent they close down the school for quarantine. I asked how long this normally lasts and they say however long they feel like. Maybe its just evil me, but don’t you think that the students might get together and all plan on being sick on the same day, so they get vacation? If they haven’t they should.
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