11 things I'm still getting used to in Ukraine

It's been almost two years (very, very good years!) but some things here can still throw me for a loop.

1. Buying water from the water truck.

a rare quiet moment at the water truck

Water trucks show up several times a week, if not daily. Just listen for the loud honking and you'll know that the truck has arrived. Next, a line forms as people approach the water truck with empty plastic jugs in hand. There's always a water-dealing duo, a man (the driver) and a woman (the money collector) working together. Some days they'll fill up your container with sparkling water, other days with regular water. It's really quite simple to buy water this way, the only tricky part is remembering when the truck will come.

2. Clothes sold by the kilogram.

"Today's price for 1 kilogram: 40 uah"

This pricing plan is popular at secondhand shops filled with "clothes from Europe!". Prices are highest on the day the clothes are delivered and get cheaper and cheaper as the stock gets lower.

3. Fairytale churches.

4. Drinking age of 18.

Also, no using a giant wrench!

5. McFoxy, the McDonald's copycat. 

Often located within spitting distance of McDonald's.

Another blogger wrote about McFoxy too!

6. While 'reduce' and 'recycle' are only starting to gain popularity, 'reuse' is going strong.

For example, instead of being retired or repaired, one day our three dumpsters all received gleaming coats of fresh green paint (see below). They continue to serve the community to this day, not necessarily containing all the trash but definitely looking much prettier.

Plastic bags, meanwhile, are no longer scarce but continue to be treated as valuable commodities. Many times I've carelessly gone to throw one away only to have it snatched out of my hands- "that's a perfectly fine plastic bag! I'll just take it home and wash it." The city workers who clean up Pushkin street reach into the garbage bags, pull out the garbage and put it in another bag, thus allowing the bag already in place to live another day. Gotta say, this is totally awesome for the environment and the whole reusing plastic bags is something we all should do.

6. GORGEOUS metro stations.

WOW! Way to go, Kiev metro!

7. Old gas stoves. 

(aka, the scary stoves)

"When you smell gas, call 104 immediately". Public service announcement in our apartment building.

8. Superstitions I'm not familiar with. 

Like this situation- do you go under or around telephone poles?

Correct answer- you go around! All those fools who walked under them are said to now be cursed with anything from a headache to a case of bad luck. 

9. Pickled watermelon.

Ambitiously purchased and eaten by D.

10. все вокруг колхозное, все вокруг мое, Everything around belongs to the collective farm, everything around belongs to me. 

"Everything around belongs to the collective farm, everything around belongs to me," goes a famous song from the 1940s. But that can also imply how people would take light bulbs from hallways and street lamps when they needed them, cut away parts of the railing from the staircase when they needed metal, or do things like this. We spotted the above scene one afternoon. "Hmm, someone must have needed a bathtub", my friend remarked. Or was he just pulling my leg?

D tells me that when he was growing up, the news was filled with reports of people stealing power lines to sell for scrap. Unfortunately this often led to electrocution. Another time the news reported that someone stole an entire water tower from a local village. Your guess is as good as mine on that one!

"Who here is last in line to steal the wires?" source

11. Reminders of World War II. 

Many of its battles were fought in Ukraine, including several right here in Kharkov. Monuments and memorials are everywhere, a sobering reminder of those bloody years.

One of several tanks on display near Constitution Plaza.

"Here lives a veteran of the Great Patriotic War (WWII), please treat him with respect!" Seen on an apartment building on  Morozova street.

What appeals to you the most? Would you like to buy your clothes by the kilogram? Try pickled watermelon? Is there anything you've had trouble adapting to when you traveled abroad?