All day long my stomach has been tied up in knots. It's the first week of the new semester and it feels like everything is up in the air. I've been trying to design a cool fall schedule but there's a downside to such lifestyle design: waiting to see what actually happens.
Now it's 7 PM on this long, tense day and if I chewed my fingernails they'd be gnawed down to the quick by this point. The landlady just came to collect rent. My lovely gray kitten ran and hid from her. Smart. I wanted to do the same. There's a bit of a disconnect between this woman and me. I act super-friendly to try to win her over (and because that's my natural state). She treats me like an idiot and looks at me like I'm wearing rags. I really dread the Ukraine tenant-landlord set-up. Instead of feeling like you're renting a nice, anonymous apartment, it's always "don't you forget for one minute that you're living in my apartment. In fact, I'll remind you by leaving a bunch of my stuff around and then acting really catty when I come to collect rent." It was surprising to hear her say that she's rented to other foreigners in the past. Did she treat them all like they were idiots?
We did start paying rent in dollars (some companies, like D's, pay salary in dollars). As I wrote before, this is what the landlady had originallydemanded wanted. Barring such a salary, it's not as simple as it sounds. It might be possible to get dollars from some ATMs but seriously, what is this, 1994? Should I be selling blue jeans and tampons on the side? And this is now the second time someone has mentioned that the grivna is headed for a crash.* I used to believe all this stuff but after five thousand phone calls to D's Ukrainian relatives, I realized that's what people will always say here. Even if things get better.
(*Update: Ukraine devaluation fears on the rise)
In other news, my lengthy search for Spanish classes has paid off. I found a school that offers intermediate/advanced level classes. It's not far from my home and I've signed up for 4 hours of study a week. The classes have been really enjoyable. The teacher has an incredibly simple teaching style that I've never encountered. It's a pleasure to be there just to observe her teaching skills. I'm downloading them into my head for future use :P This school is so small that they don't even have a website. Everything is very homegrown.
Also, after over a year of thinking about contacting a local social service agency that works with refugees, I finally did it. Amazingly the director emailed back right away and then took the time to meet with me and introduce me around. I was as surprised by this as he was by my offer to teach English in their offices! That's one of the things I'm working to integrate into my schedule now. Originally I thought I'd volunteer with their clients but he suggested I train the actual employees instead, which is way cooler! When he took me under the UNHCR sign and into their offices, it felt great. Being a part of that kind of work again is really important to me. Don't get me wrong- I'm no Mother Teresa. It's just that the people and their stories are fascinating. I think most people would feel the same way if they were to get involved.
Anyways, last weekend I promised to show up at this children's event for some of the refugee kids. I called up my English-speaking friend Marina (she's a real Mother Teresa) and weaseled a reluctant D ("children? on a Saturday morning?") into joining forces and off we went. The event was new, meaning almost completely unstructured, and thankfully a simple alphabet game amused people for like.... an hour! I couldn't believe it! The kids were really easy to get to know. We all hung out together for about two hours and then groups start to splinter off. A fair number of them headed for what turned out to be a decent computer lab. One teenage girl from Africa cornered D and (his words) demanded help with her English homework... which she then did with painstaking labor. A retired doctor with the Red Cross came up and started a conversation about her work in Ukrainian TB clinics and about her great love for New York. There was also a cool German PhD student who fearlessly jumped in and interacted with the kids. She's been in Kharkov for a couple of months, doing some research toward her degree. Next weekend she wants us to have a "World Party" with the kids. The program coordinator asked me to talk to a group of teens about life in America for resettled children. Um, I don't know. They get enrolled in school, adapt faster than their parents and- despite their age- suddenly become responsible for the entire family's welfare. Is that too pessimistic to bring up?
Okay, so those are some of the possibilities that are swirling about in the autumn air. And tomorrow my (paid, hooray!) classes start. The Spanish teacher has inspired some pretty awesome ideas for class, muchas gracias. Instead of dragging myself back to work this fall, it's actually exciting.*
*Alternate ending: Instead of dragging myself back to work, it's actually exciting if for nothing else than to see all my best-laid-plans go awry. As usual! :p
Now it's 7 PM on this long, tense day and if I chewed my fingernails they'd be gnawed down to the quick by this point. The landlady just came to collect rent. My lovely gray kitten ran and hid from her. Smart. I wanted to do the same. There's a bit of a disconnect between this woman and me. I act super-friendly to try to win her over (and because that's my natural state). She treats me like an idiot and looks at me like I'm wearing rags. I really dread the Ukraine tenant-landlord set-up. Instead of feeling like you're renting a nice, anonymous apartment, it's always "don't you forget for one minute that you're living in my apartment. In fact, I'll remind you by leaving a bunch of my stuff around and then acting really catty when I come to collect rent." It was surprising to hear her say that she's rented to other foreigners in the past. Did she treat them all like they were idiots?
We did start paying rent in dollars (some companies, like D's, pay salary in dollars). As I wrote before, this is what the landlady had originally
(*Update: Ukraine devaluation fears on the rise)
In other news, my lengthy search for Spanish classes has paid off. I found a school that offers intermediate/advanced level classes. It's not far from my home and I've signed up for 4 hours of study a week. The classes have been really enjoyable. The teacher has an incredibly simple teaching style that I've never encountered. It's a pleasure to be there just to observe her teaching skills. I'm downloading them into my head for future use :P This school is so small that they don't even have a website. Everything is very homegrown.
Also, after over a year of thinking about contacting a local social service agency that works with refugees, I finally did it. Amazingly the director emailed back right away and then took the time to meet with me and introduce me around. I was as surprised by this as he was by my offer to teach English in their offices! That's one of the things I'm working to integrate into my schedule now. Originally I thought I'd volunteer with their clients but he suggested I train the actual employees instead, which is way cooler! When he took me under the UNHCR sign and into their offices, it felt great. Being a part of that kind of work again is really important to me. Don't get me wrong- I'm no Mother Teresa. It's just that the people and their stories are fascinating. I think most people would feel the same way if they were to get involved.
Anyways, last weekend I promised to show up at this children's event for some of the refugee kids. I called up my English-speaking friend Marina (she's a real Mother Teresa) and weaseled a reluctant D ("children? on a Saturday morning?") into joining forces and off we went. The event was new, meaning almost completely unstructured, and thankfully a simple alphabet game amused people for like.... an hour! I couldn't believe it! The kids were really easy to get to know. We all hung out together for about two hours and then groups start to splinter off. A fair number of them headed for what turned out to be a decent computer lab. One teenage girl from Africa cornered D and (his words) demanded help with her English homework... which she then did with painstaking labor. A retired doctor with the Red Cross came up and started a conversation about her work in Ukrainian TB clinics and about her great love for New York. There was also a cool German PhD student who fearlessly jumped in and interacted with the kids. She's been in Kharkov for a couple of months, doing some research toward her degree. Next weekend she wants us to have a "World Party" with the kids. The program coordinator asked me to talk to a group of teens about life in America for resettled children. Um, I don't know. They get enrolled in school, adapt faster than their parents and- despite their age- suddenly become responsible for the entire family's welfare. Is that too pessimistic to bring up?
Okay, so those are some of the possibilities that are swirling about in the autumn air. And tomorrow my (paid, hooray!) classes start. The Spanish teacher has inspired some pretty awesome ideas for class, muchas gracias. Instead of dragging myself back to work this fall, it's actually exciting.*
*Alternate ending: Instead of dragging myself back to work, it's actually exciting if for nothing else than to see all my best-laid-plans go awry. As usual! :p
Good luck with all this and hats off to you!
ReplyDeleteThank you, MCD! :)
DeleteSorry to hear about the overbearing, catty land lady! How frustrating. Mine was an elderly Russian lady, who was mostly benign but kind of... prone to lecturing me. She surveyed my winter boots, and gave them a pass because they didn't have an unreasonably tall heal ("How do these young girls go around with such high heals these days??"), and chided me constantly about using too much power ("why is this entrance light on?".. because I didn't want to greet you in pitch black? "well, you MUST learn to ECONOMIZE ELECTRICITY!"), as well as nitpicking about how I ate my cereal ("Put a placemat under it!!"). Pretty hilarious, all in all. Sweet lady. Oh, and I paid my rent in US dollars as well (I was told emphatically not to pay in hrivnas).
ReplyDeleteThis is the same woman who proudly presented the non-heating microwave to you? :p Maybe she thought it used too much electricity and secretly disabled it!
DeleteAhahaha, YES, the very same. :D
DeleteI want to explain how your land lady feels about you.
ReplyDeleteOf course it depends of the person but people in Ukraine are very suspicious to the tenants. Because normally ukrainians prefer to possess apartments, not to rent. An average ukrainian would rather live in a poor conditions in his own room in a hope to buy a flat, than to rent a decent flat of three bedrooms. If ukrainian pays a rent it means that something has happend to him. Not necessarily bad, but presumably he has a difficult time - got divorsed, got married and has nowhere to live, came to find a job from some remote rural area or even from abroad(third world countries). These people are usually unpredictable, and you should keep an eye on them to not to be fooled. There are also students who have respectable reason to rent but also could make you a lot of problems with their drunk fights, parties and music all the night.
So, your land lady is obviously stupid enough not to see that she has been that much lucky to meet YOU. The most quiet and reliable tenants of all the time! :)
THANK YOU for stopping by to write this, Timur! It's very interesting to hear things from the Ukrainian side. The whole living situation here is really hard for me to get my head around sometimes. Once in Crimea I saw an ad for a real estate company. "Grandma!" it said, "Do you want grandchildren? Then help your children & in-laws to move out and get their own apartment." Living together with extended family and being reluctant to rent because of this social stigmata you outlined are two things that surprised me about Ukraine. But it does seem like it's getting more common/acceptable to rent, I think. Maybe the internet is helping to popularize this option?
DeleteAnd haha, we're only quiet until you come over to hang out! :p
Don't be so naive about Ukrainian people....she's just the float owner..why should she be friends with you?
ReplyDeleteYou know, you're right, Lena. It's just a leftover expectation from life in America, I guess. Now it doesn't seem like such a big deal anymore, the relationship just is what it is and nothing more.
DeleteDid you pay rent for the last 3 months in advance? People are usually suspicious if they didn't securitized their fear.
ReplyDeleteNo, she just asked for the last month in advance, which we did.
Delete