Old Habits Die Hard & a New Leaf

Despite our very new adventure, moving half way across the world, I find myself continuing with many of my old ways.....

Bulk Buying: I used the family of 5 as an excuse to indulge my love of Costco at home -   nostalgically photographed a cart full o Costco joy before departing.....

In Kiev, bulk buying is NOT the norm.  Packs of 5 trash bags (huh?!), individual beers and sodas at even the largest grocery stores & 10 oz bottles of lotion are pretty much the norm.  Meanwhile, I search for the bulk buys everywhere.  Programmed to procure a week's supply, I was thrilled when a local babuska had a whole kilo pack of raspberries!

Beverage mania: With the loss of fountain soda (limited places have fountain - like McDonald's - but no diet 'on draft'.  Only regular), I told myself it would be high time to reduce my silly levels of soda consumption and evolve to a more tea centric beverage plan.  Well, seems I'm adjusting to bottled Pepsi Light and have merely added tea into the mix.  Beverage count growing...

Parties: Our love of throwing parties does not need to subside here.  Plenty of friendly ex-pats to invite... (Xavier's birthday party & an Oktoberfest party planned to date).  Last night, we hosted Logan's team for a BBQ.  The language barrier & 'fear thy boss' culture made for a bit of a stiff start.  Guess the # of candies in the jar and an ice breaker helped.  But my small talk in Russian could use some work..

NEW LEAF? With all that sameness, I've been thinking I should pick up something new.  Russian language lessons are starting soon (trying to be excited about reducing my cloud of confusion - but know it's going to be serious work). 

So I attempted another new activity I thought would come more easily....started with common new hobby step 1....bought the book:

Preserving!  Why not?!  We have trees dropping lord-knows-what kind of fruit that my Driscoll's berries kids won't accept, I have time on my hands - so we'll give it a go!

First attempt was not all that successful.  In my defense, I had not yet purchased the book and leveraged a no-recipe method.  As a rookie, this is not a recommended approach.  The knife is standing on its own because the consistency is somewhere close to hardened concrete.  You've been warned - don't try this at home kids - do yourself a favor and buy the book first...

Have a sweet Sunday!

No OSHA here

One of the things I have appreciated about Kiev is the laid back attitude.  No banned foods to worry about at school, no waivers to sign before entering a play zone - one might even say the pendulum has swung from anal over protectedness to free-wheeling mayhem!   

Splinters be damned!  Wood seats on the swings.......

Na-na-na-na-na OSHA - must have been an 80 degree pitch on this slide....

Our personal injury lawyers would go hog wild - kid driven electric cars and animals AND bouncy houses with absolutely no waiver in sight!  (even Zoe seemed frightened by the madness of it all!)

So while, I embrace the attitude, I continue to wash our garden strawberries in bottled water and carry a hearty supply of antibacterial hand wipes.....

Have a wild (and safe) weekend!

Predictable

So the other night an 'expatriaton consultant' came to meet with me (apparently disgruntled spouses are the #1 cause of ex-pat assignment failures).  She ended up staying for ~3 hours - spent at least 50% of the time talking about her boyfriend that lives in the States.....then took me through a handy binder with facts about Ukraine, self assessment tools etc.  One chart showed the 'stages of the expatriation process'....it graphed morale over time & showed that at the beginning it is common to be in a 'isn't this novel' euphoria, then followed by a "WTF were we thinking" abyss, ultimately rebounding into some sort of moderate satisfaction.  Here I had been thinking I was doing fabulously - feeling entertained vs. annoyed by my constant miscommunication, enjoying the daily 'taste offs' of one kind or another, totally convinced I will be able to speak Russian some day etc.  Come to find out, I am being TOTALLY PREDICTABLE!  Agh...


So I figure I'd better share some of the entertaining highlights before the emotional abyss:

Bureaucracy & the Wild West: One thing I find entertaining is the extremes that are daily life here.  Many simple tasks are plagued with bureaucracy.....paying a water bill requires getting a form, reading your meter, calculating the cost, writing it in, taking that to an office and paying in cash.  Driving a car requires monthly forms to be completed, notarized & posted in your vehicle. 

In contrast, there are other areas no one seems to pay much mind - stray dogs roaming the street everywhere....

and if you can't find a parking spot, don't fret - just pull onto the sidewalk!....

Absolute Outfit Freedom: I'm working on my stealth photography to share the fabulousness that are the outfits around here.....net, net - you do NOT have to worry about petty things like matching, if you are too old for your outfit, if it reveals too much etc.  ANYTHING GOES!

Cute & happy (mostly) kids

Ahead of the trends

Working in marketing, we were always looking for and talking about trends.  Trends we expected to snowball and shape future needs, to help predict consumers' desires in advance.  Despite Kiev being considered 'behind the times', I'm seeing some of those trends alive here too....

Localization trend: Seems to me the best place to get fruit around here is from the 'babushkas' (grandmas) selling fruit from stands - or more often - some boxes on the sidewalk.  I've had lengthy conversations with the kids about why the babushkas are selling fruit, how they buy it for less than they sell it for and 'use the extra money to buy dinner' (Xavier quote).  Anyhow, I honestly have no idea where the fruit comes from, how these ladies get it.  But seems to me it must be a semi-local farm......

Customization trend: In marketing we always talked about the trend of customization - people's growing desire for things you can tailor to meet your tastes, your personal needs.  Like Nike shoes you can customize etc.....another thing here I've found to be pretty damn smart is the flusher.  So our toilet looks pretty everyday.....

But when you take a closer look at the flusher you see it has 2 parts - for 2 very different needs.  Little flush for little output, big flush for big output.  With the push of a button you can customize to your needs.  Brilliance!

I'll now sign off so I can enjoy one of the last of the summer evenings on the patio - with our own construction site to watch + a view of the Motherland monument (far right).  Still working through which wines are acceptable (creating a high tech rating system to guide future purchases) AND enjoying our first pan of brownies since arriving here (THANKS Mom!!)

Brilliance!

Padded walls + survelence camera = happy diners: The kids - especially Quincy - have been feeling kind of homesick this week.  So we went to an 'American restaurant' last night - Arizona BBQ.  The food was decidedly mediocre (ala TGIF at home), but not only was there American music and decore, they had the most brilliant kids area I've ever seen.  A room with a slide, some toys & a tv playing that was equiped with PADDED WALLS (want those at home!) and a survellence camera that you could see from the main dining area.  Simple idea but brilliant!  We got to sit and enjoy a peaceful, longish dinner (service is never fast).  This should be required at all family restaurants!

(NOTE: This was the view from my seat - opening = the kids room, tv in upper left corner = survelence)

The kids enjoyed the American kids menu - their twist on a french fry with Xavier's hamburger was a smiley face potatoe!  Portions however are decidedly not American - just 2 potatoes with his meal.  Starting to understand why there are hardly any obese people here despite a not that healthy cuisine (cream in and on most everything!).

So, while we may not have mac n cheese or brownie mix (GASP!), we do have that going for us!

Hope your weekend was also padded wall fun!

Looking more like home, but not exactly...

Stuff is comforting: the kids rooms look pretty much the same except both are ginormous so we were able to fit an extra bed in each and still have room for dance party - or more often with the boys - a 'WWF party'

Every occasion is a good occasion to show a little skin: The kids' school hosted a family picnic with booths from various suppliers that can work in english (e.g. bookstore, wine shop, dry cleaner).  A dentist was among them.......her outfit to me captures the essence of 'anything goes with Ukraine fashion" & 'If you got it, flaunt it".  Note - she IS the dentist - not the recptionist or hygenist etc....(I'll have to give Margie the tip)

Lost in translation

Russian lesson step 1 - placing delivery orders.  With our dishwasher down this week, I decided we'd go the easy route and order pizza.  Given my lacking Russian, I walked over to one pizza place while the kids were at school and attempted to place my order in advance (in order to benefit from pointing & charade like gestures).  That apparently is not allowed.  You must call.....UGH!  I was thrilled that I patched together enough to place the order - but the kids were less thrilled when 3 of the same pizzas showed up (and no, it was not 3 of the cheese or 3 of the pepperoni they wanted!)

The pointer is powerful - but still no sure bet: Yesterday I went to a fancy grocery store with high end deli counters, imported wines & cheeses etc.  My pointing finger went a long way to procuring many high priced items.  Given I was unable to figure out how many grams would = a reasonable amount, I just pointed to the salad and said "da, da" (yes, yes).  Ended up getting the entire plate of salad.  Good thing it was super delish - and even high here is not that bad for most food items (~$20)

Another day, more adventures - although I am pretty sure Quincy is totally OVER this adventure thing (suggested we go pick up McDonald's for the school picnic this Saturday!)