Well, a little more about Kiev...
Ukrainians are a proud people who were often oppressed by the Soviet gov't. Stalin did some especially cruel things to this "bread basket" country...namely, he stole all of their food for several years by making them export it to feed mother Russia. Stalin left the Ukrainians to starve as a form of ethnic cleansing because he thought that the Ukrainians were too independently minded.
With that said, you can come to understand the culture here a little better. In the winter it can be a very grey place. It snows often (even yesterday...in the middle of freakin' march), and can get a little depressing. Though there are some soviet relics around, such as the tram system (it looks very soviet...if you saw it you would know what i meant) and some of the housing sectors, overall it is a very modern city.
They have big screen TVs in their main square, shopping malls, McDonald's littered throughout the city, and plenty of name brand stores. They also have Mega stores (think Sam's club, Costco) here as well. I was completely taken off guard when I saw these cause they are as big, if not bigger than those in the states. This struck me as very odd, b/c in the states you wouldn't see such real estate hogs so close to the city center...the land would be too valuable. Very out of place to my American eyes...
The population is about 3.5 million, which I think rivals LA. There seems to be a great disparity between the affluence of the wealthy and the poorer working class. You can see high dollar BMW's and Mercedes ride down the potholed streets of the suburbs right next to the ancient soviet-brand LADA's (funny looking cars...they still make them brand new, but the body styles are as if they were stuck in '82). It seems to be getting harder for the middle class here as prices for housing have been shooting up in the last few years.
The city itself has beautiful architecture...especially in the churches and museums. Ukraine is one of the most free of the Central Independent States (CIS) that used to be apart of Russia. Unlike Belarus just to our north, you can openly talk about religion and politics.
The clothing is a funny mix of hipster-Euro/American 80's for the young people and older men in soviet wool suits with their Ushankas (stereotypical Russian fur hat). Most people, however, don't wear very colorful clothes...at least not in the winter. Jet black, female mullets are not a strange site here. Somehow the Ukrainians just make it cool to have mullet.
The metro is crazy. People don't have the same concept of personal space. If you have to go on the metro at rush hour, you have to be prepared to squeeze incredibly close to the 6-8 people nearest you. People pack on to the car, and then just when you think that its full, there are about 3-5 more people that stand at the doors and push everyone in tighter so they can get in. I once had to stand off-balance, on one leg for 20 mins until the car cleared out a little. Crazy.
Another crazy fact that I was amazed about when I first saw it was that people on the mini-buses around the city will freely pass their cash to complete strangers in order to pay their fare. Granted, the "marshrutkas" can get very packed like the subway, but it is so foreign to me that you would just hand cash to people you don't know. I guess the Ukrainians have an honor code or something...
In a few weeks, there are going to be parliamentary elections. There are at least 10 different parties here and they all are campaigning very fiercely. These are the first elections after a political revolution that happened a year and a half ago. It was called the Orange Revolution and it was a peaceful sit in in the main square for about 3 months. Students and young people were the main contributors and they helped to oust a president who was a just a puppet for the Russians. The revolution helped to remove him and now he is leading one of the most popular political parties. If his party wins a majority of the parliament, they could have a lot of influence in turning the country back towards Russia...scary thought...
Needless to say, it is a very interesting time to live here and I am really excited that I get to be a witness/participant in such a pivotal point in this young country's history...
Ukrainians are a proud people who were often oppressed by the Soviet gov't. Stalin did some especially cruel things to this "bread basket" country...namely, he stole all of their food for several years by making them export it to feed mother Russia. Stalin left the Ukrainians to starve as a form of ethnic cleansing because he thought that the Ukrainians were too independently minded.
With that said, you can come to understand the culture here a little better. In the winter it can be a very grey place. It snows often (even yesterday...in the middle of freakin' march), and can get a little depressing. Though there are some soviet relics around, such as the tram system (it looks very soviet...if you saw it you would know what i meant) and some of the housing sectors, overall it is a very modern city.
They have big screen TVs in their main square, shopping malls, McDonald's littered throughout the city, and plenty of name brand stores. They also have Mega stores (think Sam's club, Costco) here as well. I was completely taken off guard when I saw these cause they are as big, if not bigger than those in the states. This struck me as very odd, b/c in the states you wouldn't see such real estate hogs so close to the city center...the land would be too valuable. Very out of place to my American eyes...
The population is about 3.5 million, which I think rivals LA. There seems to be a great disparity between the affluence of the wealthy and the poorer working class. You can see high dollar BMW's and Mercedes ride down the potholed streets of the suburbs right next to the ancient soviet-brand LADA's (funny looking cars...they still make them brand new, but the body styles are as if they were stuck in '82). It seems to be getting harder for the middle class here as prices for housing have been shooting up in the last few years.
The city itself has beautiful architecture...especially in the churches and museums. Ukraine is one of the most free of the Central Independent States (CIS) that used to be apart of Russia. Unlike Belarus just to our north, you can openly talk about religion and politics.
The clothing is a funny mix of hipster-Euro/American 80's for the young people and older men in soviet wool suits with their Ushankas (stereotypical Russian fur hat). Most people, however, don't wear very colorful clothes...at least not in the winter. Jet black, female mullets are not a strange site here. Somehow the Ukrainians just make it cool to have mullet.
The metro is crazy. People don't have the same concept of personal space. If you have to go on the metro at rush hour, you have to be prepared to squeeze incredibly close to the 6-8 people nearest you. People pack on to the car, and then just when you think that its full, there are about 3-5 more people that stand at the doors and push everyone in tighter so they can get in. I once had to stand off-balance, on one leg for 20 mins until the car cleared out a little. Crazy.
Another crazy fact that I was amazed about when I first saw it was that people on the mini-buses around the city will freely pass their cash to complete strangers in order to pay their fare. Granted, the "marshrutkas" can get very packed like the subway, but it is so foreign to me that you would just hand cash to people you don't know. I guess the Ukrainians have an honor code or something...
In a few weeks, there are going to be parliamentary elections. There are at least 10 different parties here and they all are campaigning very fiercely. These are the first elections after a political revolution that happened a year and a half ago. It was called the Orange Revolution and it was a peaceful sit in in the main square for about 3 months. Students and young people were the main contributors and they helped to oust a president who was a just a puppet for the Russians. The revolution helped to remove him and now he is leading one of the most popular political parties. If his party wins a majority of the parliament, they could have a lot of influence in turning the country back towards Russia...scary thought...
Needless to say, it is a very interesting time to live here and I am really excited that I get to be a witness/participant in such a pivotal point in this young country's history...
posted by Jared at 5:24 PM
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