First days, first impressions

I’m happy to be back in my own country. It is an interesting experience first of all because there is so much that looks and feels familiar, however, the country that I left 20 years ago does not exist anymore. I’m very happy to have my husband, Tom, to share this experience with me. He has a perspective of an outsider, draws different conclusions.

For me everything looks fuzzy at the first glance, and then comes into focus, when I either recognize it from my childhood and youth, and understand what is new. Tom sees everything as new and compares with his other experiences in foreign countries. It is fun to discuss our differences.

For instance, now I understand, how Kyiv bazaars remind him of Thailand. I was surprised by the comparison, at first, mainly seeing the difference in weather (it is absolutely freezing here). But bazaars (street markets) are a separate issue, I’ll talk about it later.

We settled on Obolon, the area in Kyiv, that I did not have chance to get used to after my parents moved there in 1983. We moved from one room flat on Pechersk (older, central area of Kyiv) to Obolon, newly developed area of Soviet high-rises. The flat as the whole building looked very new and shiny when we moved. Twenty four years later, the flat as well as all surrounding buildings look rather shabby and sad. Maybe electricity outlets are falling out of the walls and the toilet seat is not attached to the toilet, but everything is somehow pretty functional. We are very happy with out internet provider.

Overall service sector changed the most in Kyiv: everything is open until very late or 24 hours, and companies respond to service calls amazingly quickly.

The very first night of our arrival to Kyiv, installation technicians from the internet company came in. We had an agreement that they will install the cable modem and we will have the internet right away.

However, when the technicians came in, they told us that their company would not be the best alternative for us, that there is another new provider on Obolon (and only on Obolon) that would suit us better. At first Tom was very skeptical and suspicious of their sales tactics: don’t use our company, use the competitor. I believed them, they looked honest and sincere. Next day we walked to the office of the competitor and ordered their services, within 24 hours, the internet was installed. And it is quite advanced technologically, since we do not need any cable modems, we have direct Ethernet cable from their switch to our apartment. It is amazing that for the old crumbling Soviet building, they still put in new infrastructure.

Internet makes an enormous difference, now we feel very connected…..

More later