Buildings, food and football

I still haven't figured out how to upload my pictures. Therefore, I'm sorry not to be able to show you some beautiful sights, yet. However, I have taken some new ones on an old, inoperative building, which was built some years ago, but has never been used. It's situated quite close to my flat and on monday my flat mates and I went there to scale it. I think it was a little bit risky, but I had to do it - peer pressure, you know. We had to find a hole in the fence surrounding the building to enter building. It was so scary, because there were no windows and no ballustrate and I don't know whether I trust the Ukrainian construction skills that much. We had to go up approximately 7 floors until we reached the top. We had an amazing view over Kiev from the roof. So it was definately worth it.

In the evening I met a nice German girl, which is currently doing an internship at a law firm in Kiev. We had dinner and I showed her around for a bit.

Yesterday the grandmother (Babuschka) of my Ukrainian flat mate visited us and made absolutely amazing Ukrainian food. A soup, which I think was called Borscht, and Palmini (something similar to Tortellini) with sour cream and meat. Then we drank tea and ate some Ukrainian sweets. She also invited us to her house on the countryside.

Later this evening my flat mates and I went to an Irish pub in the city centre to meet some friends of my flat mate and to watch the football game Barcelona against Dynamo Kiev. Although Kiev lost it was a nice game. I had to explain the rules to my American flat mate. In return he will teach me the American Football rules on Sunday.

Tonight I'll meet the German girl again to go to the theatre. I'm hoping to understand at least a little but of what they are saying.

Tomorrow my internship will start, which makes me very nervous. I'll let you know as soon as I can give you my opinion on this internship.

Beauty, marrying and cheapness

In the last couple of days I noticed how beautiful Kiev is. There are so many lovely and pretty buildings, that I had never expected here. Kiev is, furthermore, known for the wide range of parks in the city. And in every street you can find trees, whose leaves are starting to turn yellow. So Kiev is a very green city indeed. Every sunday, one can walk on Kiev's main street without being hit by a car, because traffic is forbidden at this part of the city. You can see all kind of different people walging around there - punks, rich people, homeless people, a lot of young people and so on. But they are ALL soooooo skinny. It's unbelievable. I feel totally fat in comparison to them. Their thighs are half the size of mine. And the girls walk around very revealing, but I guess this is just normal here.

In the last days I met to guys, which showed me around the city and explained me the history of some of the buildings. I think I'm now even able to find the way back home, without getting lost in some kind of ghetto. Today I've visited the Sophie Cathedral, which is UNESCO world heritage, although I much more loved another church, with turquoise walls and green spires. Very cheesy but very lovely. By the way, everyone is marrying in Kiev: I saw 4 bridal couples on Friday in a park, 5 yesterday at the church and 2 today in another park. I guess this has to do with the pressure from the families and the women to marry as quickly as possible.

What really strikes me are the totally cheap prices here in Kiev. I pay only 25 cents for a 2 litre Bonaqua bottle and only 20 cents for a ride with the bus. Today I had lunch in a Ukranian restaurant and I only paid 4 Euros for 2 meals. And the food turned out to be very delicious. The rents in Kiev, on the other hand are extremely high - 300 Euros for a room is normal, despite the low quality.

I really have luck with my apartment. First of all, it only takes me 20 minutes to my internship place by foot. Second, I only need 25 minutes to the liberation square in the inner city. And third, my flat mates are very nice. I think I wouldn't have survived the first days without them. The American guy is very nice and we were talking a lot and the Ukrainian guy, who was away for the weekend also helped me a lot organising my life here in Kiev.

I already took some nice pictures. So I should find out how to upload them here. Maybe you can see some pictures in my next blog entry.

Till has arrived!

Approximately six hours ago I landed in Kiev. I was also allowed to enter the country, although the security people and passport-checkers looked pretty angry and made me feel like a criminal. I had to ask a Russian woman for a pen in Russian (У вас есть корондаш?) to fill out the immigration card. And my luggage arrived - Juhey. However, while leaving the airport, at least 10 Ukrainian men were badgering me and asked me to go with them by taxi. At least that's what I think they said (of course I didn't understand a word except Taxi). Outside, a crowd was waiting for a way to come to the city centre. So I had to ask around (in Russian!!!!!) how I arrive safely at the central station without paying too much money. Some guy directed me to a bus (Автобус), which drove to the station. It turned out that the airport was 40 kilometres(!) away from the inner city. So it took me 50 minutes to arrive there. I was so intelligent not to change my money already at the airport. Therefore, I couldn't pay the busdriver, who was collecting the money on the way to Kiev, because I only had Euros. He got pretty angry and wanted to money immediately. Thanks to one other passenger who changed my Euros into Hrivnas I could pay the price.

Once I left the bus I had to ask again many people how to find the way to the street where I was supposed to live in. By the way, the temperature was freakingly high and I wore a thick coat and I had to carry my backpack and my luggage (which I couldn't roll!). I was running around for 40 minutes asking in my limited Russian language skills for the direction. I was sweating like hell and I just wanted to take a shower.

But it hadn't ended here. I was standing in front of the door, with no name tags and no bells. I tried to call Sasha (my flat mate) on the mobile, but it said that this number doesn't exist. I tried several times and I started panicing. Then a girl wanted to enter the door and I tried to explain her my situation in Russian, but she didn't know Sasha and she also couldn't reach him on the phone.

So I was waiting until another person came. The next person who came was --------> Sascha.

Yes!

He told me that there are two entrances to the apartments and that I was using the wrong one. So I accopanied him to the flat. One has to open 5 key holes and 3 doors to enter the flat. I think the Ukrainians are very attached to security. I could choose a room, because the other flat mate will arrive at 11 o'clock today. He's from America.

What happened to me after my "exciting" arrival in Kiev - you'll find out soon on this site.

1. week to go!

Здравствуйте

Now it's official. In one week I'll go to Kiev, Ukraine.

Till in the Ukraine. Sounds funny when you think about it..

Actually I only had the idea of going to Kiev after reading a magazine article about the city. And the pictures looked so lovely - so I had to apply for this internship. We'll see whether my shallowness will penalise me.

Thanks to Markus, who forced me to write this blog, because he doesn't believe in regular e-mail exchange, you will be updated about my surviving skills in Kiev.

Have fun!