Perpetual Change

Random thoughts

I am sorry if I repeat myself. Sometimes I am not sure if I have already mentioned something in my rambling thoughts, but if I have then you can be assured it must be pretty important. Also thank you so much for all your responses. I love knowing that you guys are reading along, and I love the comments. The following is just a collection of random thoughts:

One thing that I was not prepared for was just how “1984” things are here - the Soviet Ministries and the collective farms and the common apartments. You can really see the old Ukrainian way of life, and how it was overlaid with a conformist mentality for a period. It is really interesting, and historically (not just because of the Orange Revolution) I think this is a very interesting time to be here. A popular Ukrainian movie is about a guy that somehow ends up in another city (I haven’t actually seen it yet), and goes down “his” street to “his” apartment building and up to “his” apartment and opens it with his key and finds a woman living inside, with whom he then falls in love. Sometimes things are just so similar that you could believe it could happen.

“In private do what you want, in public do what you are told.” This very interesting Ukrainian proverb encapsulates much of the Soviet minutest. I do see people sweeping streets and taking care of things but generally public areas are in less well-kept condition than private areas. Ukrainians always remove their shoes when they enter a home, and will usually be offered slippers by the hosts. In fact, they have verbs that means “to take off your shoes” and “to put on your shoes.” I always find language differences very interesting and telling. As I mentioned, Ukrainians are very fond of fires for many uses, and they have words for “good fires” and “bad fires.” I also thought it was interesting that they had verbs for “to eat breakfast,” “to eat lunch,” and “to eat dinner,” because these meals don't really seem to follow a regular pattern, but now I think they have these words to differentiate between when they are eating, because what they are eating could be the same for all three. In fact, many times breakfast is what is left from dinner, to which many of my chicken and mashed potato breakfasts can attest.

They also are very fond of tea, and they use mugs for most beverages. They don’t drink many beverages besides tea and coffee (some of the few things that don’t grow in Ukraine), but wine and juice is often served in mugs. Ukrainian does not have a (non-archaic) word for “thirsty.”

In other major differences, all Ukrainians must get a passport when they turn 16. It seems very few use them for international travel, but they use them for other documentation (very few drive). How is that for a contrast with the States. Finally, we get a “walking around allowance” every two weeks. The daily value is the amount necessary for lunch, drinking water, and then a miscellaneous amount that is equal to the lunch value. Translated into dollars, this daily amount is just over $3. I usually don’t spend that much. So our two week payout is usually about 200 Hrivnya or 40 dollars. I don’t feel comfortable carrying this amount in my wallet. I leave most of it at home and usually carry about 40 Hrivnya, or about 8 bucks!

posted by jjs @ 11:02 AM