Kold Kiev

Here are a couple of pictures from my 10th floor apt. in Kiev. You'll have to use your imagination to combine them in order to see what I see.

I am happy to report that I now have coordinates for my apartment building so you can locate me exactly on this planet!
50deg 24' 34.90" N
30deg 37' 43.95" E

If you have Goodle Earth, you can find me by typing in "Kiev, Ukraine" and then navigating to those coordinates. You can get Google Earth here if you don't already have it. Once you get to Kiev, navigate your way to the SE side of the city (across the river) and match up the coordinates! You will see my beautiful high-rise apartment building in all of it's glory. Ohh the wonders of the age of information. The satelite image is from the summer, so its a little greener that it is here currently.

Here is the view from my stair well on the opposite side of the building...complete with a sidewalk sweeping babushka.

The section of the city where I live is mostly high-rise apt. buildings. The buildings are usually about 15 storys tall with large spaces (of grass?) in between them. It's a strange sight...its a very spacious city...not what I expected. I can't wait to see it in the spring. I work in an office that is on the first floor of a similar apt. building. It is about 10 mins. walk from where I live. This is very close (thank God!) because morning walks can be quite brisk.

One thing that I love/hate about this city is its road/sidewalk system. Just getting in from England where space was at a premium and roads were packed tight with small cars like a sardine tin, these roads seem like praries and dotted with large herds of buffalo'esque vehicles.

Basically, the roads are wide and the sidewalks are also very spacious...but their inviting width is a seductive ploy to reel in the unsupecting traveler to an icy/mushy grave (at least for the ego). What I mean by all of this is that no one clears the sidewalks so all the snow gets packed down so it looks safe, but underneath is a layer of ice that has taken me for a fool twice in as many days...
(un)Fortunately, I don't have any pictures of my public embarassment(s).

Also, I have found that the food here is almost as deceptive as the sidewalks. Don't get me wrong...the food here is geat and I really enjoy it. But the first few days I was sadly dissapointed by the catered lunch we order here at the office everyday. It's cheap (about $2.25) and pretty tasty. It comes with soup, main course, and salad. The salads are highly colored and very different from anything I'd had before. Upon seeing an item like this, I immediately thought "Yay! Fruit salad!" I hastily dug in , and to my suprize found nothing less than the exact opposite of what I had imagined...Pickled Cabbage. Again the cabbage was really good, just not what my expectations had readied my palate for...


Here are some pics of my Apt. It is very nice and I really love it. It has 4 components: foier w/ closet, bathroom w. shower & washer, Kitchen w/ oven, and living room/bedroom w/ couch/bed. I must say that I was wondering where my bedroom was when I first arrived, but it turns out that for heating reasons...my bedroom is also the common room. I now have reason to keep my room clean. This couch may look like an ordinary couch, but I plan on unleashing its hidden/wonderful capapbilites in my next photojournalistic memorandum.