Arrival in Vinnytsia

Internet access at last! It's been such a crazy day today, but the past week or so has been rather ho-hum. Since I don't have my teaching assignment yet, and the only people I know here are other professors who have very busy schedules, I've been mostly left to my own devices. I don't really have any objection to that, though; after the craziness of my last month or so in America, and the intensity of Kyiv, I find the peace and quiet to be more than welcome. I've been knitting, writing, doing crossword puzzles, watching Russian TV, occasionally going out to get groceries and various other necessities... it's been lovely. On a brief tangent: I also finished an excellent e-book I purchased before I left Kyiv entitled "The Meaning of Night"-- a story about revenge, written in the style of a Victorian piece. Superbly written. I kind of wanted to frame some of the passages.

It took very little time at all to unpack my things, and I feel pretty settled in, though I'm always on the lookout for a few little extra things to make my apartment feel more homey. I am really pleased with the apartment, though. It is very close to the university, right at the city center, and the building is clean and pleasant. Downstairs there is an adorable little cafe which sells the most delicious coffee and pastries. It's funny because I'd been joking to Scott and Manda that at my apartment here I'd be able to go right downstairs and have a nice cup of coffee in a little European cafe, but I had no idea that would be the truth! My favorite thing about it, though, is the view from my window.

Only in Ukraine, do people have flower gardens in their backyards in the middle of the city. So beautiful. And the stars I can see at night! This is certainly not Cincinnati!

On Tuesday (the day after I arrived), I met Tanya, who is one of the other English professors at the university. She's about my age, and very nice. On Tuesday she showed me around the city, and we had some delicious sushi for lunch (yes, sushi is very big here). Fun fact: Roshen chocolate is from Vinnytsia, and their main factory/headquarters is located here.

I had no idea! Tanya told me that the company's founder is a big political figure around here, and is very progressive and has done good things for the city. They also have a new mayor here, who I've heard from multiple sources is very young and has also done a lot to improve the city.

On Saturday, we went to the festival that was being held all along the main street of the city. It was all decked out for the День Міста-- literally, "day of the city," roughly equivalent to our "Founders' Day" celebrations. It was quite a party, and the town was all decked out.

On the bridge, with pretty lights overhead

We visited two separate concerts, one classical (which, when we attended it, was all songs from West Side Story :))and one rock (with a local band opening for a more popular Ukrainian band and Russian band), and then went down to the waterfront to see the fountain show.

I was totally blown away by the fountain show. This is only my favorite clip, but the fountains played for a full hour, set to music with lights and lasers and even projections on the water. The Bellagio's got nothing on them!

There have, of course, been other shenanigans over the past week, but I'll talk about those later. I'm actually really exhausted tonight. Things are done differently here-- in order to purchase services like phone, internet, and cable TV, you have to actually visit the office of the providing company. Then, you can use automated kiosks (like ATMS) (located just about everywhere) to pay your fees. These things are also wonderfully cheap for an American-- cable TV costs 60 UAH a month (about $7.50) and internet costs 75 UAH (about $9.50). In order to figure all these things out, Svitlana (my contact at the university, an English professor) has been working with me and my apartment rental agency. Today, though, she had to go before we could finish with everything... so I spent the better part of the afternoon going all over the city with my landlady, taking care of all these services. The best part? The landlady didn't speak a word of English, so we had to make do with my very terrible Russian. It was definitely challenging and a little stressful, but I was actually really glad. Opportunities like this are the reason I came here, and the fact that it ultimately worked out definitely gave me a lot of confidence to keep trying. Maybe I'll actually be able to speak Russian not-so-terribly by next June! :o)

And now, my friends and family, I am going to bed-- but you may look forward to another post tomorrow, now that I am reconnected with the world!