and... moved

It's official. We've spent 2 nights in the new place, so it's pretty safe to say that it's the real deal.
Right now it seems like all the hassles, the searching, the waiting, all of it has fallen away and given me a new lease not just on an apartment but on life. For a while there in May and June, things were a bit iffy. It felt like Ukraine and I had broken up and become reluctant roommates. Now we've moved past that awkward stage and have become- if not as friendly as before- at least more understanding of each other. It's amazing what a change of scenery can do!

Anyways, onward-

The new apartment is a little bit smaller than the previous one, so we've tried to accommodate by decluttering those bits and pieces that you inevitably end up with when you live in one place for a while. Most older apartments have a shkaf-kupe from the 1990s: it's truly the warship of all wardrobes, taking up an entire wall and housing everything from fine china to t-shirts. I was watching a soap opera on TV yesterday and an angry housewife was yanking her clothes out of the shkaf-kupe as she prepared to walk out on her philandering husband. Timur also mentioned seeing an ad back in the 1990s, when many people were trading an apartment for a car and vice versa- one guy was trading a car for a shkaf-kupe! But for now, we've escaped the gravitational pull of this piece of furniture... in fact, the only drawers in the new apartment are in the kitchen and the bathroom. The living room is blissfully furniture-limited (couch, coffee table, desk) and the bedroom contains only a bed and tall, narrow, and overwhelmingly modest wardrobe tucked away in the corner. Yeah for less dusting!

Settling into the bedroom

Did you catch that- a TV! It was inevitable, I guess. When trying to find an apartment last month, everyone proudly touted TVs as the 8th wonder of the world. "No, the bathroom doesn't have a bathtub... but it has a TV!" (Yes, actual comment, from an apartment with 3 TVs.) Usually my screen addiction is fully satisfied by the internet but perhaps now the TV will start to sneak in. First off, there is cable, and I've never had cable in my life. My parents vetoed it when I was a kid (making me and my brother very sad kids :p) and then as an adult, I never had a TV. Now suddenly we've got a TV with at least 20 channels. Secondly, it's good for studying a language, right? So far, I've just watched bits and pieces of family dramas. I remember listening to BBC Russian several years ago and not being able to understand anything, so it's really nice to realize that progress has been made since then.

Another new thing for us is the mattress with box springs. Thinking back on all the places we've lived together, it's been about 5 years since we slept on one. Since then it's been the floor (Alaska, about 3 years, out of curiosity), the broken couch bed with a dangerously gigantic crack that you could get trapped if not careful (Kharkov), and a foam mattress glued to a bed (also Kharkov). After such a long time, being on this mattress feels like falling asleep on a cloud!

You may be wondering about our catty friend-

Кит is doing okay. He made the move rather unglamourously, carried in a reinforced shopping bag in a friend's car. He didn't make a peep the entire journey and then hid himself under the bed for several hours. Now he's lord of the manor again, prowling around, demanding food, and showing his displeasure over this whole affair by peeing (twice!) on the only rug in the entire place.

Where am I? 

My battery is almost dead so I'll have to wrap this up for now. Still no internet at home so this post is courtesy of the Oblomov anti-cafe and six cups of their Early Gray tea. Thanks for reading!

Our inaugural meal on Sunday evening!! : )