To understand my relief, you need to rewind a few hours. After a breakfast of banana pancakes and raspberry sauce (compliments of our first forays into the local markets), the kids and I boarded the bus to school.
I had permission to join them for the trip to finalize all of their in-processing for their first day. The trip wasn't too bad--about 40 minutes including stops to wait for and pick up other kids along the way. At Pechersk International School (PSI) we were met by name at the front door. Young Man and Darling Daughter were swept off to get their schedules and orientation from the secondary school while I stayed with Funny Guy in the Primary school to meet his teacher and then take care of additional logistics. After depositing Funny Guy with his teacher, I signed the kids up for extracurriculars (including playground club, Minecraft, and sports for Funny Guy; Yearbook and Russian for Young Man; and rock climbing for Darling Daughter), put money on their lunch cards, and got their PE uniforms (a huge bag of clothes for each child, including sweat pants, sweat shirt, T-shirt, and more). At last, I was finished. I had planned to maybe explore a bit of downtown Kyiv before heading home, but laden as I now was with the three heavy bags of uniforms, I decided just trying to navigate the metro system home would be adventure enough. I plugged in our home address into Google Maps and set off.
The walk was surreal. I live here!
Everything is strange and also strangely familiar (from my time in Russia more than 15 years ago). My ability to read most signs is exhilarating.
The familiarity of the conversations as people pass, talking on their phones or to each other, gives me hope that I may be able to navigate this place successfully in the not-too-distant future. The Ukrainian text and speech is disorienting (so close to Russian sometimes that I'm not sure if I just don't understand or if it is Ukrainian).
Still, the experience was exciting (the pictures are less than mediocre because I was juggling three large bags and my hands were freezing, but I figured some bad pictures would be better than no pictures).
When I got down into the metro station, I realized my phone didn't have cell service so I had to resort to the old-fashioned method of looking at a map to figure out where to go. Without anywhere pressing to be, it wasn't too bad. I figured out how to feed a 20 UAH bill (about $0.75) into a machine on the wall to get five trip tokens (which look like toy plastic money), then navigated my way onto the correct train.
I needed to make one transfer, so I got off and looked for signs to the other line. I couldn't find any.
I'm not sure if I missed them or if there wasn't an actual transfer path (the two stations are about half a mile apart, so either option is possible), but after wandering around for awhile in the station labyrinth of shops and halls, I came out above ground at one of the most famous monuments in Kyiv! It was beautiful. The whole area was.
I would have enjoyed it more, but when I checked my phone to calibrate where to go, the battery was at 2%. Normally, my phone lasts several hours, so I was dismayed to find my phone dying the minute I opened it up, especially since I'd been relying on it to know where to walk home once I arrived at the nearest metro stop. I only got enough of a look at the map before it gave up the ghost to orient myself toward the next metro. Oh well, I thought, this will be an adventure!
I set off in what I hoped was the right direction, and felt gratified when I saw the big M marking a metro stop up ahead. No problem. I got this!
The problem was when I got off at my final metro stop. Each stop has several entrances that can point you in various directions. Without a map or anything else to navigate by, I didn't know which exit to take. I knew our house was only about a 10-15 minute from the metro stop, but in what direction?
I picked one randomly and set out into the softly falling snow, convinced that I could just grab a taxi if I couldn't find our street soon. I enjoyed the walk immensely, finding a beautiful park and lots of interesting shops, but I didn't find our street. Eventually, I stumbled upon the U.S. Embassy. Oops, it was fun to see something I recognized, but that meant I'd definitely chosen the wrong direction. Time to try a taxi. I approached the security guard and asked (in Russian) whether it was possible to catch a taxi on that street. Not likely, he replied. Better luck up on the main street, he added, pointing.
I set off keeping an eye out for taxis. It wasn't long before the first one came along. No problem, I thought, ready to thaw my nose and toes safe and sound at home. "Saratovska?" he grimaced, "Нет." No? Huh, I was stumped, weren't taxis supposed to go where ever you told them? OK, I'd just try another. The next driver didn't even deign to answer me, just shaking his head and rolling up the window to drive away. Was I saying the street name wrong? The next time I tried a few different possible pronunciations but was met with another firm no. Deciding to try another tactic, I went into a grocery store and asked if they sold maps of the city. No. Did they know where Saratovska street was? No, but maybe the security guard would. Indeed he did but he whistled under his breath and said, "Ooohhh, это очень далеко" (it's very far), you'll have to drive, not walk. In answer to my query about where to find a taxi, he said, "On your phone of course!" Of course. How could I be so silly. :) Even though the result was disappointing, the whole exchange was kind of fun. Here I was making myself understood and understanding all in Russian. It made me want to rush home and study more.
I went back out to the street considering my options. I could find my way back to the Embassy and try to get a hold of My Man, but I didn't have my passport and didn't have a badge for embassy access yet. They probably wouldn't let me call anyway and I didn't want to interrupt him. I decided to retrace my steps to the metro since I knew I'd gone the wrong direction. Maybe if I were closer to home, I'd have better luck with a taxi.
And that is exactly what happened, eventually. After four more tries (eighth time is the charm!), I got a driver who was willing to try. He waved me in, assuring me, "No problem" (in English, no less) when I gave him the address. He pulled into traffic, then turned and asked me for directions. I couldn't help laughing. "Really, I have no idea, I'm completely lost," I assured him. In response to his blank stare, I repeated the assertion in Russian--his English turned out to consist of about five words. "Aaahh," he said, pulling over again. As I braced myself to get out and try again, he assured me he could find it, he just needed to look it up. It took him a few calls to dispatch and a few minutes looking up routes on his city map (no gps?!), but he eventually found it and pulled back onto the street. I smiled to myself as we backtracked more of the route I'd walked--I hadn't even been close! And then at last, he pulled onto our street and I saw a familiar store, then the park, and finally, our house. It's amazing how quickly a place can become home. Only a few days in country and this strange house has become a haven. "A big thank you!" I said, tipping him generously so that the grand total of his fare and tip came to just over $2. And it was over.
I could have avoided the whole adventure by simply grabbing an Uber ride home from the school, but I'm glad I didn't. Really, there's nothing like getting lost to help you get to know a place. In fact, one of the best consequences of not having a car here right away, is being forced to explore the public transportation options, being forced outside my comfort zone. It is a little harder, but there are so many options (most for pennies a ride), and now I know--even if my phone dies and I am hopelessly lost--I can find my way home, eventually.
And even though I made it home later than I'd anticipated, I still had time to hurry and clean up, do laundry, prep dinner, shovel the walks, and write up this story before the kids got home. Although I hope to start work soon, it's nice in the meantime to have the time not to worry too much about getting lost as I try to figure out how to navigate this new adventure.
