Hi all.
Well It’s been almost two weeks so since my arrival in Ukraine. Suprisingly, I feel at ease with my environment. I’m not sure if it because I had a week in KL prior to Ukraine and that has got me into a frame of mind of being away from home and having to accept it, or, that I just feel reasonably comfortable.
I think work is helping me settle. I am really looking forward to the challenge and working on a real “international” project as apposed to an Asia Pacific project. After a couple of breifs, I am now aware of the money and effort that is being thrown into this project
Me & Michal in the office
,
Looking back fro the Lenin statue to the start of the square
The infrastructure of this place is certainly lacking and it is explained by the countries economic state. The airport runway is held together by bits of tar filling the cracks. How they are going to make it a true International airport of it is beyond me. The current terminal is little more than a run down “town hall” type building, no toilets, duty free, money exchange or shops offering Ukraine souvaneirs that you would see in Australia, Europe aor Asia. Simply a runway where a bus comes to meet you as you disembark..... No “Thank you for flying Austrain Airlines”, just a case of get off the plane and on the bus & we will throw your luggage on the truck and get it to the terminal so you can get out of this place ASAP. And that is exactly what I wanted to do!!
Entering customs, I really started to get worried as the locals were being scruitinsed heavily. How would they cope with an Australian!! Australia and NZ are the only countries that need visas to get into this place (What have we done wrong by them?). As my turn came, I wiped the sweat from my brow and walked up to the makeshift wooden box that housed the “guard” in full military uniform and handed over my passport and immigration card. After what felt like 10 minutes, the immigration card was shoved back under the window & I was asked (in broken Russian) to fill in the departure card part C and D. On the departure card it specifically stated, “ do not fill in part C or D prior to leaving Ukraine”. So I dutifully filled in C and D hoping that on departure, I would not get jailed for filling this in!?!?!? Some one come and collect me if I do not turn up for my desired home leave......please......
Having made it through immigration and the excitable customs men, whom I’m sure just wanted to xray my bag to see my knickers and bra’s, I found a couple of friendly faces in a “Philip Morris “ card held by a big man and a bottle blond standing next to him. The rest is in Blog 1. Apartment etc.
“Bottle Blondes”
Yes...... They are everywhere, even the hairdressers, which worries me, and they think blond hair makes them absolutely georgous. They also dress accordingly and I dont understand how some of them get away with it especially at work. The dress sence is certainly not conservative and not what I would call business like.......... Hmmm, just let me check my distribution list of this blog again.... OK, its not going to anyone important in the PM world, right, So I cant be seen to be politically incorrect?
I am really going to be interested how these girls keep warm in winter because so far, at temperatures of 12-14 degrees, they are walking around in mini skirts and muffin tops for all to see. Mind you, there are some very well dressed women around without the bottle blond hair, you just have to look very hard for them.
“Taxi’s, Roads, Busses, Trolly buses and trams”
We all know Aussie taxis, busses and trams. Folks, be grateful for what we have. For what I have seen makes you cringe at how these people are transported to and from work. I have had a taxi driver who I’m sure was racing every single car and bus and every other mode of transport just to make it in front of them to the lights only to take off at break net speed to get to the next set of lights before anyone else got in their way. Mind you the small buses cannot compete with the taxis because they are so fully ladden, it is a struggle for them to get out of first gear. Same with the trams (not as we know trams & I hope to get a pic for you soon). These trams look like they have been beaten into shape after a major collision and sent back out to work with very little regard to safety or comfort of the passengers. The trolley buses, are buses that run on overhead tram wires. I still do not underatand the benefit of these things (apart from the fact that they dont throw out fumes), as they seem to cause more problems in the traffic than anything else. Because of the connection to the wires, if they are being blocked or are blocking the road....... everything else gets caught up in the blockage!!!!
Local small bus picking up passengers in the square. It was fully laden - low at the back and high at the front......see. They cram them in
I am told the metro (underground train system) is a little more refresshing than the above ground transport. Still haven’t tried it yet......another adventure.
SAT 24th.
Myself, Michal (Poland), Alexander (Sasha, Russia), and Pierre-Andre’, (Switzerland) are all desperate to get to a supermarket and buy something to put in our pantries and fridges. Inna took me to a supermarket last week and I promised the guys, I would show them the delights of two floors of food on Saturday morning. Friday night we went to dinner and shopping the next day was the hot discussion topic that evening. “Do they have meat”? Can I ge cereal? What about butter?” and on it went.
This morning, Sasha, who told me not to ring him befor 10am because he would be asleep, rang me and told me he had been up since 8am and was ready to go!! I picked up Michal who lives 200 metres from me and we swang by and picked up Sasha and Pierre-Andre and away we went on foot to the supermarket. Sasha decided, he was going to show us how to get there and he did..... in a round about sort of way... via the local market, where, if you wanted to you could buy a door, just one door, (as you do on a Saturday morning), boots and all kind of shoes, vegys, meats (unrefridgerated), nuts, gloves and just about anything else you could use, even a mop and bucket. I did buy an umbrella so I feel I contributed to the local economy somewhat and I didnt argue about the price!! After an hour of wandering through the local markets with stray dogs, I decided, it was time to get back on track to the real supermarket, where we intended to spend our money.
We finally found “POCT” pretty much on the main road as I had suggested. We all grabbed a trolley & went in pursuit of our favorite foods. You have to remember that everything in the supermarket is written in Russian.... I was on a mission to find some butter to have on my bread. I even went to the lengths to go to the Russian/ English dictionary and translate it into Russian before I left so I could locate butter easily. Do you think I could find the bloody stuff??
Thank goodness, half way though our shop, Dima (Dymtro) from work, decided to join us and found me and my butter, which had a picture of a cow on the packaging........ Of course, butter – cow, black and white... come on Merrin, get the connection... its easy !!!
Butter....sort of looks like a cow...
Having satisfied my need for butter, milk, cereal, rice, noodles, tomatoes, cheese, ham and a couple of other things that I hope will go well with pasta, I made it through the checkout and waited for the others. Four very satisfied foreigners now required a lift home with all the fruits of the morning shop. Once again, Dima helped us out getting taxis, especially me as I won the prize for most money spent at the supermarket!!!!
Dima and Michal checking out
Lunch took us to Puska where we relaxed with a couple of beers and decided to go back to the supermarket tomorrow and peruse the variety store for some bits and peices like bottle openers, pack of cards, games, jigsaw puzzles etc. This is what we are hoping to find.... we may find yet more shoes, mops and buckets etc.
Pushka for lunch.
Today was so nice just to go and explore a city and not worry about cleaning the house, vaccuming etc. It was a chance to be a local and get caught up in the way of life in Kharkiv. It is a lovely city and I am looking forward to the next 9 months, but please, let me have a friend who speaks Russian close by at all times!!!
My street. Apartment on the right
Look what I found !! Only AUD$13.00
Love to you all.
xm
(If any of my Ukraine friends are reading this blog, please dont be offended, we have bottle blonds in Aus, just not so many, this blog is how I see Ukraine through my eyes)
,Dmytro, Iurii, Maryna, Oleksandr, Me, Michal,Pierre-Andre'
Alexander (Sasha), absent is Yevgeniy
Alexander (Sasha), absent is YevgeniyOK, lets stop talking about work and start talking about Kharkov. I will try and paint a picture for you of how I will see this small ...big ......part of Ukraine that will be my home for the next 9 months or so.
The picture below is Freedom Square and it is sort of the hub of Kharkiv. The square has a statue of Lenin
and is surrounded by the university, the zoo, and a lot of parkland
There are lots of places for coffee and eating and it is a really social place on a Sunday.
Looking back fro the Lenin statue to the start of the squareFlying in to Kharkiv, you realise that this is a big, big place. In fact it used to be the capital of Ukraine a long time ago. It just seems to go on for miles, even bigger than Melbourne metro maybe.... seriously has to be on par with Melbourne.
The infrastructure of this place is certainly lacking and it is explained by the countries economic state. The airport runway is held together by bits of tar filling the cracks. How they are going to make it a true International airport of it is beyond me. The current terminal is little more than a run down “town hall” type building, no toilets, duty free, money exchange or shops offering Ukraine souvaneirs that you would see in Australia, Europe aor Asia. Simply a runway where a bus comes to meet you as you disembark..... No “Thank you for flying Austrain Airlines”, just a case of get off the plane and on the bus & we will throw your luggage on the truck and get it to the terminal so you can get out of this place ASAP. And that is exactly what I wanted to do!!
Entering customs, I really started to get worried as the locals were being scruitinsed heavily. How would they cope with an Australian!! Australia and NZ are the only countries that need visas to get into this place (What have we done wrong by them?). As my turn came, I wiped the sweat from my brow and walked up to the makeshift wooden box that housed the “guard” in full military uniform and handed over my passport and immigration card. After what felt like 10 minutes, the immigration card was shoved back under the window & I was asked (in broken Russian) to fill in the departure card part C and D. On the departure card it specifically stated, “ do not fill in part C or D prior to leaving Ukraine”. So I dutifully filled in C and D hoping that on departure, I would not get jailed for filling this in!?!?!? Some one come and collect me if I do not turn up for my desired home leave......please......
Having made it through immigration and the excitable customs men, whom I’m sure just wanted to xray my bag to see my knickers and bra’s, I found a couple of friendly faces in a “Philip Morris “ card held by a big man and a bottle blond standing next to him. The rest is in Blog 1. Apartment etc.
“Bottle Blondes”
Yes...... They are everywhere, even the hairdressers, which worries me, and they think blond hair makes them absolutely georgous. They also dress accordingly and I dont understand how some of them get away with it especially at work. The dress sence is certainly not conservative and not what I would call business like.......... Hmmm, just let me check my distribution list of this blog again.... OK, its not going to anyone important in the PM world, right, So I cant be seen to be politically incorrect?
I am really going to be interested how these girls keep warm in winter because so far, at temperatures of 12-14 degrees, they are walking around in mini skirts and muffin tops for all to see. Mind you, there are some very well dressed women around without the bottle blond hair, you just have to look very hard for them.
“Taxi’s, Roads, Busses, Trolly buses and trams”
We all know Aussie taxis, busses and trams. Folks, be grateful for what we have. For what I have seen makes you cringe at how these people are transported to and from work. I have had a taxi driver who I’m sure was racing every single car and bus and every other mode of transport just to make it in front of them to the lights only to take off at break net speed to get to the next set of lights before anyone else got in their way. Mind you the small buses cannot compete with the taxis because they are so fully ladden, it is a struggle for them to get out of first gear. Same with the trams (not as we know trams & I hope to get a pic for you soon). These trams look like they have been beaten into shape after a major collision and sent back out to work with very little regard to safety or comfort of the passengers. The trolley buses, are buses that run on overhead tram wires. I still do not underatand the benefit of these things (apart from the fact that they dont throw out fumes), as they seem to cause more problems in the traffic than anything else. Because of the connection to the wires, if they are being blocked or are blocking the road....... everything else gets caught up in the blockage!!!!
Local small bus picking up passengers in the square. It was fully laden - low at the back and high at the front......see. They cram them in
I am told the metro (underground train system) is a little more refresshing than the above ground transport. Still haven’t tried it yet......another adventure.
SAT 24th.
Myself, Michal (Poland), Alexander (Sasha, Russia), and Pierre-Andre’, (Switzerland) are all desperate to get to a supermarket and buy something to put in our pantries and fridges. Inna took me to a supermarket last week and I promised the guys, I would show them the delights of two floors of food on Saturday morning. Friday night we went to dinner and shopping the next day was the hot discussion topic that evening. “Do they have meat”? Can I ge cereal? What about butter?” and on it went.
This morning, Sasha, who told me not to ring him befor 10am because he would be asleep, rang me and told me he had been up since 8am and was ready to go!! I picked up Michal who lives 200 metres from me and we swang by and picked up Sasha and Pierre-Andre and away we went on foot to the supermarket. Sasha decided, he was going to show us how to get there and he did..... in a round about sort of way... via the local market, where, if you wanted to you could buy a door, just one door, (as you do on a Saturday morning), boots and all kind of shoes, vegys, meats (unrefridgerated), nuts, gloves and just about anything else you could use, even a mop and bucket. I did buy an umbrella so I feel I contributed to the local economy somewhat and I didnt argue about the price!! After an hour of wandering through the local markets with stray dogs, I decided, it was time to get back on track to the real supermarket, where we intended to spend our money.
We finally found “POCT” pretty much on the main road as I had suggested. We all grabbed a trolley & went in pursuit of our favorite foods. You have to remember that everything in the supermarket is written in Russian.... I was on a mission to find some butter to have on my bread. I even went to the lengths to go to the Russian/ English dictionary and translate it into Russian before I left so I could locate butter easily. Do you think I could find the bloody stuff??
Thank goodness, half way though our shop, Dima (Dymtro) from work, decided to join us and found me and my butter, which had a picture of a cow on the packaging........ Of course, butter – cow, black and white... come on Merrin, get the connection... its easy !!!
Having satisfied my need for butter, milk, cereal, rice, noodles, tomatoes, cheese, ham and a couple of other things that I hope will go well with pasta, I made it through the checkout and waited for the others. Four very satisfied foreigners now required a lift home with all the fruits of the morning shop. Once again, Dima helped us out getting taxis, especially me as I won the prize for most money spent at the supermarket!!!!
Dima and Michal checking outLunch took us to Puska where we relaxed with a couple of beers and decided to go back to the supermarket tomorrow and peruse the variety store for some bits and peices like bottle openers, pack of cards, games, jigsaw puzzles etc. This is what we are hoping to find.... we may find yet more shoes, mops and buckets etc.
Pushka for lunch.Today was so nice just to go and explore a city and not worry about cleaning the house, vaccuming etc. It was a chance to be a local and get caught up in the way of life in Kharkiv. It is a lovely city and I am looking forward to the next 9 months, but please, let me have a friend who speaks Russian close by at all times!!!
Look what I found !! Only AUD$13.00Love to you all.
xm
(If any of my Ukraine friends are reading this blog, please dont be offended, we have bottle blonds in Aus, just not so many, this blog is how I see Ukraine through my eyes)
Sorry about the formatting folks. I'll work on it !!
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