We arrived to Kyiv on a Thursday night after a great trip to Paris. Friday morning, when my body was complaining that it was finally time to fall asleep, My Man was already heading out the door to his first day on the job.
Jet lag? What jet lag, he scoffed. My Man hit the ground running in Kyiv and never looked back. His colleagues were ready for him, having decorated his desk in welcome.
Saturday, he and Young Man joined other colleagues for some cross-country skiing in a park across town.
By that afternoon, he was already out at the store shopping for supplies for his mini-homesteading plans (garden, microgreens, rabbits, and bees) and had already ordered red worms for our kitchen composting bin (he figured out how to navigate the web page in Russian, placed the order, paid via kiosk, and picked them up at a public post office a few blocks away just a few days later).
I am seriously in awe at his ability to adapt to new places and situations. Meanwhile, I was home trying to win a world record for how many boxes of tissue I could blow my way through in 24-hours, exhausted and bed-ridden with a nasty cold that developed just as we were leaving Paris. We definitely adjust differently to life in a new country. One of these times, I'll figure out how to move without getting sick! In spite of my cold, however, I was figuring things out as well. On Friday I went shopping with a friend who taught me how to ask for the correct cuts of meat, which stores could be trusted for fresh produce and which were better for meat and dairy, and that you have to bring your own bags shopping or pay for bags during checkout.
I learned how to weigh and tag our produce and what cheeses are most likely to be palatable to our picky American kids.
I got our suitcases unpacked, got the kids off to school on Monday, got lost, made some new friends, went shopping at several different stores, and managed to prepare meals with a skeleton kitchen and foreign ingredients. I figured out how to walk to the metro, how to walk to the Embassy, how to walk to the store (OK, that last one is cheating since we got lucky enough to have a little grocery store right across the street!), and how to catch an Uber taxi anywhere too far to walk. We rearranged furniture, shoveled snow, and went out to dinner with friends. The kids started after school activities, made friends, did homework.
We fell in love with sunsets from our dining room window; Funny Guy built a snow fort (and was dismayed when it started to melt the next day); we explored our neighborhood and the nearby parks.
All in all, it was a hectic but productive week for all of us as we settled into our new lives here in Ukraine.
Somehow we won the lottery and ended up in Kyiv with a long weekend (for My Man) and a week off from school (mid-semester break) for the kiddos after only one week of the daily grind. That was perfect timing for some good old tourism and exploration.
Friday night My Man and I tried out one of the only Mexican restaurants in town: Tequila House. The place was cute, the food was delicious, and the guacamole was superb. However, the fajitas and burritos did not taste Mexican (or anywhere south of the border!). The chicken and veggies were superbly cooked and tasted great, but the lack of any Mexican spices (chili powder anyone?) was a little distracting and slightly disappointing. Still, the guacamole was great and we'll probably be back again. Afterward we walked around enjoying the newness of downtown, stumbling across a "Chocoladnitsa" (chocolate cafe) where we stopped for dessert.
We had considered a trip out of town to Bukovel ski resort or Lviv for the long weekend, but were glad we chose to stay and explore closer to home. Here are just a few of the highlights from our weekend.
We took a city walking tour. When I planned the outing, I didn't realize it would be more than three hours long, or quite how cold the day would be (not to mention drizzly and gray). Still, we enjoyed learning more about the history of Kyiv, seeing some of the most famous churches and monuments, and even taking time to look at some unique souvenirs and parks--at least I enjoyed it and the kids were good sports.
When we first exited the metro downtown, we were surprised to walk into the middle of a large gathering, commemorating the third anniversary of the Euromaidan Revolution.
Then we followed our tour guide on a route that visited St. Michael's Cathedral, where we stopped to go inside and admire the intricate paintings and decor. We learned more about the terrible famine during Stalin's time and how many churches (including this one) were destroyed during the Soviet communist period. We stopped at an art gallery to see art by a local artist named Evgeniya Gapeniya (the kids have been excited to notice her artwork throughout the city since), then walked up to St. Andrew's church, which is beautiful but under restoration.
I thought it was an interesting juxtaposition to see how different the pictures could be with some careful cropping. :)
Although I enjoyed the tour very much, I hope we will go again when the weather is better and the trees are green. This area is famous for street vendors and artwork, so it will be fun to come back. As it was, there were a few hardy vendors out despite the cold, and we enjoyed browsing.
Our next stop was a colorful Alice and Wonderland art park, where Funny Guy especially enjoyed playing.
St. Sophia's Cathedral, where a Ukrainian rock band had set up and was blasting music, was our last stop. We didn't have time to go inside, but hope to come back (at least I do--the boys were pretty much churched out at this point!).
By the end, we were ready to try some real Ukrainian cuisine. It didn't disappoint. We feasted on soups, meat, cheese, potatoes, and hot chocolate. It was delicious. We enjoyed appetizers, meals, drinks, and desserts for less than $30 for the five of us. We added a star to our Google Maps!
As we finished dinner, we got an invitation from new friends to come play games, so we headed there for the rest of the evening, trying several new games, eating ice cream, and feeling lucky to have made such good friends so quickly.
By the time we got home, we were exhausted, but it was a great day.
The rest of the week is kind of a blur, but here are some highlights:
We discovered a beautiful forest (can't wait to return with cross country skis or bikes and a picnic when the snow melts!) and explored several parks near our home.
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| There are pigeons everywhere (along with lots of crows, magpies, and some beautiful little songbirds). |
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| I have loved finding ways to get out and walk through the parks near our home, whether on the way to the Embassy or metro station. |
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| There are lots of street markets around. This one features old coins, Soviet war medals, and other war paraphernalia, including guns and ammo. |
Across the park from our house we discovered a great little Ukrainian restaurant called Taras.
The food is delicious, ambiance is nice, and the location is great. In fact, we've already been back a couple times.
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| The metro stops each have their own theme. This medieval theme was my favorite. |
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| Without our car, we've spent a lot of time in the metro system. It kind of grows on you, and for less than 15 cents per trip, the price is right! |
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| Although the metro gets extremely crowded in the evenings (standing room only), it is usually pretty empty in the mornings. |
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| Weasley has adapted to life in Ukraine surprisingly well, even exploring our snowy backyard. Darling Daughter is very happy to have him here. |
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| Cats are very popular in Kyiv, with several sculptures of them (as well as the real deal) throughout the city. |
Saturday My Man went to an Soviet antiques market, a UNESCO world heritage site (the Lavra Monastery), and a farm market. He took no pictures of the antiques market (except of his friends and the hot chocolate they got at the end), 10 pictures of the UNESCO world heritage site (three if you don't count duplicates), and more than 20 pictures of the farm market. I guess we can see what he thought was the most interesting part of the day!
Of course he did come home with rabbits, so who can blame them.
My Man hopes to eventually breed them for meat, but for now, we just have two little girls more than 6 months from maturity, so they'll just be pets (and provide lots of material for our compost bin).
There are a ton of fun-filled malls in Kyiv and we've already explored a few.
They feature iceskating, roller blading, arcades, strange rooms like mirror mazes and ninja rooms (where the rooms are upside-down or slanted with obstacle courses), laser tag, bumper cars, and more. Seriously a kid's dream world.
No wonder our kids are liking this place! Of course the gelato doesn't hurt either.
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| Even the elementary schools are a reminder that they are using a different (but not too different) alphabet! |
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| Young Man refuses to admit that it's cold here. It's very alarming to the locals who think a healthy fear of the cold is essential to a long and healthy life. |
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| Kyiv is a beautiful city! |
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| Houseplants make me feel happy! |
The longer it takes for me to finish this blog post, the more places we explore and pictures we take! I could write more, but my Russian instructor will be here soon (My Man and I both get four hours of instruction per week) and I need to finish prepping dinner before then. The snow is melting and friends say we might not get much more this year (or we might get another huge storm--it really all depends on the year). Either way, we have now been in Kyiv about two and a half weeks and already it is starting to feel more natural. The sights and sounds and experiences that were strange and exciting and overwhelming when we arrived (like walking across the street to the grocery store or seeing Cyrillic and hearing Russian everywhere we go) are already settling into the comfortable familiarity of every day life. We are finding our routines and recognizing our neighborhood landmarks. We have houseplants and pets and even some of our things (our first shipment arrived this morning!). We are starting to figure out which light switches turn on and off which lights (which was a major mystery in this house originally!). We are starting to make ourselves at home.
It looks like we are breaking in those new shoes without too many blisters.
