It’s hard to imagine that we’ve already been living in Kyiv for well over a month now. We’re learning how to do things in a style somewhat similar to what many Ukrainians do as second nature…ride public transportation, go grocery shopping every couple of days, hold our breath as we go through congested areas (either because of smoke or body odor!) Life is definitely different; we find it really weird not to be able to just “jump in the car” and head somewhere; now we have to plan on 30-60 minutes of travel time to where ever we want to go. Besides the handy dandy metro, there’s a trolley bus and the medium sized buses are called marshukas. It only costs about 15 cents (1.5 hgrivnas) a ride, so if we do have to take a taxi we’re often reluctant to pay 50 hgrivnas (roughly $6). I, Alyssa, am starting to look like I’m carrying a huge watermelon around my waist and am always grateful when people let me have their seat on the "public".
And now for one of my favorite afternoons... Speaking of pregnancy, we’ve been to the doctor a couple of times. There’s an American Medical Center here that is taking care of all the prenatal care. They’ve been great! Last week we had another check up and the Skousens offered to take us (they bought a car.) Ken and I thought for sure that we knew how to get to the AMC because you only have to take two major streets. Tricky thing is that there aren’t really any street signs, anywhere. All of the landmarks looked familiar, so that wasn't helpful. My favorite landmark was when Elysa remembered an inflatable meat grinder right before a bend in the road--sure enough, we came across that on our first attempt to find the AMC. Notice that I said the first time, so needless to say we had to turn around and go back to the major Avenue.--All the while I've failed to mention one of the reasons that people use the public is because the driving is so CRAZY here...ever thought that Mexico was rough? Chump change in comparison, so Jacob's sweating bullets trying to whiz in and out and Ken's yelling "GO GO GO" when it's clear--We backtracked and tried the big street before the one that we had previously taken, went past some fake palm trees, recognized a WWII memorial from one of our first tours of the city, asked a guy for "Quadrot" (which we were told by the AMC to find) he pointed and let us cut in front of him, we drove and drove, tried asking more people for help but they just started speaking a lot of Russian or scowled, and finally tried calling the AMC again. As I was on the phone trying to describe what I saw around me, Ken shouted, "There's the McDonald's!" Thank goodness for the guiding golden arches. It just so happens that there is a metro stop, a huge bus stop, and a Mickey D's right next to the AMC--ah what relief! This outing proved one thing yet again--I REALLY NEED TO LEARN THE RUSSIAN ALPHABET! (I know that there was a huge run-on sentence in there...but that's exactly how we felt!)
And now for one of my favorite afternoons... Speaking of pregnancy, we’ve been to the doctor a couple of times. There’s an American Medical Center here that is taking care of all the prenatal care. They’ve been great! Last week we had another check up and the Skousens offered to take us (they bought a car.) Ken and I thought for sure that we knew how to get to the AMC because you only have to take two major streets. Tricky thing is that there aren’t really any street signs, anywhere. All of the landmarks looked familiar, so that wasn't helpful. My favorite landmark was when Elysa remembered an inflatable meat grinder right before a bend in the road--sure enough, we came across that on our first attempt to find the AMC. Notice that I said the first time, so needless to say we had to turn around and go back to the major Avenue.--All the while I've failed to mention one of the reasons that people use the public is because the driving is so CRAZY here...ever thought that Mexico was rough? Chump change in comparison, so Jacob's sweating bullets trying to whiz in and out and Ken's yelling "GO GO GO" when it's clear--We backtracked and tried the big street before the one that we had previously taken, went past some fake palm trees, recognized a WWII memorial from one of our first tours of the city, asked a guy for "Quadrot" (which we were told by the AMC to find) he pointed and let us cut in front of him, we drove and drove, tried asking more people for help but they just started speaking a lot of Russian or scowled, and finally tried calling the AMC again. As I was on the phone trying to describe what I saw around me, Ken shouted, "There's the McDonald's!" Thank goodness for the guiding golden arches. It just so happens that there is a metro stop, a huge bus stop, and a Mickey D's right next to the AMC--ah what relief! This outing proved one thing yet again--I REALLY NEED TO LEARN THE RUSSIAN ALPHABET! (I know that there was a huge run-on sentence in there...but that's exactly how we felt!)
What an adventure. This is great fun hearing your stories and trying to imagine what it's like. Please keep posting. Lots of love and good thoughts, Mike and Jo
ReplyDelete