Ok, technically the First Week isn’t even over yet, but it’s Friday night and it feels like I’ve done so much already. I got into Kyiv on Tuesday midday after 21 hours of flights, or some stupid number of hours like that. That flight nonsense included a 6-hour layover in Dulles (which is much nicer than Reagan as far as airports go), an 8-hr transatlantic flight to Vienna sitting next to a German man who kept hogging the arm rests, and a 3km sprint from one Vienna terminal to another—seriously, that airport’s huge.
Arriving in Ukraine though I was surprised at just how much they’ve cleaned and classed up Boryspil. In 2007, when I was there last, it was just a tiny shade better than the super-old regional airports in other Ukrainian cities. This time though, the plane actually pulled up to one of those skybridge things so I didn’t have to go plane-> staircase-> tarmac-> bus-> airport. Ironically, in Vienna, the gate was on the ground floor and we had to take a bus across the tarmac to climb a metal staircase to get to the plane going to Kyiv.
Customs was a breeze and delightfully calm, especially compared to the explosion of people and sounds that was the part of the airport where people wait for arrivals. A huge throng of people, crushing their way through onlookers, valets, and loved ones trying to get their carts full of baggage to the outside doors. Predictably, I was confronted by the taxi-guy coordinator within about 18 seconds. I was going to take the bus—super cheap!—but there was already like 50 people in line for the next one and the taxi was only $22 so I figured why not. Taxi guy was super nice though, drove rather safely for a taxi driver, and got me to the airbnb place I’ve been staying at. This place has a loft in it, which is new for me, and the location’s pretty boss.
I did an airbnb because the registration process in Ukraine is stupid. Because of the visa I have to have, I have 45 days from arriving in country to register myself at a long-term address. So much of this week has been consumed by finding an apartment, which I was really just unable to do outside of Ukraine. The realty/rental company I’ve been working with though has been a peach, and they’ve done a great job, meaning I’ll be moving into my new apartment on Monday—yay! Both myself and Olga, from the rental company, were surprised to find something so quickly with an owner who was willing to actually register me, which for tax reasons, lots of people try to get out of. Except if I’m not registered, I invalidate my visa and therefore the terms of my grant, which would suck. But no worries, I got a great place and it’s all good. I’ll put pics of it in the next post.
Zoloti Vorota, the Golden Gates. Above is Maidan Nezalezhnosti.
Kyiv
Kyiv is a great city. It’s got lots of wonderful things going for it, and the part of the city I’m in right now—near Zoloti Vorota—is pretty much smack in the middle. Cobblestone streets, old buildings with cool facades, museums and monuments everywhere, underground shopping malls, multiple coffee trucks per block—it’s got it all. What I’m most impressed with though is how safe the city feels. There’s also more cars and more people and more diversity and more dirt (but less stray dogs and beggars), but everyone has their smartphones out and so many people are wearing backpacks—two things that I really didn’t see 8-10 years ago. The phones, sure, didn’t have the same market penetration they have now, but even so, there just seems to be this feeling that the city’s safer.
I’ve also been doing so much walking. A benefit of city living, for sure. I’ve got my little jawbone fitness tracker guy and I’m averaging almost 20k steps a day. My feet and legs are still trying to get used to all of it, but it’s all good. I even decided to walk down to Podil yesterday morning, since it would’ve taken the same amount of time to walk to the metro, ride the metro, then walk to my destination. Podil, if you’re unfamiliar with Kyiv, is one of the oldest parts of the city, down in the lowlands between hills where the center of town is and the Dnipro. It’s also where Kyiv-Mohyla Academy is—one of the universities I’ll be working with—the Chornobyl museum, and my new apartment are.
It’s also nice because it’s flat.
Right now, at this airbnb place, I’m at the bottom of a valley so either way I want to head out from my apartment to downtown or to the metro is uphill. Not only is it uphill, but one of those hills is the highest part of the city. It’s rough if I need to head north. But cool though, because at the top of that hill is St Sophia’s and St Andrews, which are both beautiful. Kyiv, man, it’s got everything.
All in all, it’s been a crazy few days re-adjusting back to Ukrainian life. Language is probably the biggest hurdle there. I’ve felt all kinds of dumb trying to get my brain and mouth to switch over to Ukrainian and/or Russian, and the struggle is real. I’m trying not to take the weird looks I get personally though, and each day I feel like I’ve gotten better at it. In no time I’ll be up to snuff again though, no worries.