Kharkov at night (two versions)

If you want to read graceful and handcrafted poetry about the surprising beauty / stark ugliness of a winter night in Ukraine, then visit Brendan's blog right now. Love his views or hate 'em, the man has definitely got a gift with words.

If you want to see a winter night in Ukraine, then I'm your girl ; )

The Week of Too Much

Ugh. It's just been one of those weeks. Have you been having one too?

Pull up a chair- let me tell you the story.

Making the best of winter

There's a lot of general dismay going around the Ukrainian blogsphere about February and this blog certainly hasn't been immune. The weather is always dreary and each day seems like a faded reprint of the day before.

I find myself going through old photo albums looking for proof that yes, at some point dry sidewalks and colorful flowers did exist here, that it wasn't just my imagination.

Despite all that, the temperatures have risen and sometimes the faintest glimmer of spring appears on the horizon. Have faith- it's coming! With that certainty, I wanted to get outside and document what's left of winter. D and I have been cooped up for the past month, working on websites and projects, and today was our first real afternoon of city exploration in 2013! I was so excited to get outside that I practically scrambled out of bed in the morning like a 7-year-old on Christmas day. D had promised to show me a shortcut he'd discovered between the Metalist Stadium and the Holiday Bowling Club.

Back in the kitchen

After our business lunch spree, I rolled up my sleeves and got back in the kitchen.
Now, I proudly present to you... the first 2013 edition of на кухне!

Enjoy : )

My new favorite snack

This is the best thing ever. It's easy to make, inexpensive, and the veggies- even the cabbage- stay crisp for days. It's as satisfying as popcorn: crunchy, salty, and sweet. Source: Natasha's Kitchen.

A Blast from the Past

Kremlin Butter / USSR Highest Quality

This butter is produced right here in Ukraine! There's a factory in Khmelnytskyi as well as in Zhytomyr.

Curry, Ukrainian-style

Snapshots of Ukrainian Life, Part 13

❄ We've had utility workers knocking on our door this entire winter. Each time they'd stomp in, politely inspect the heating pipes in the bedroom, scratch their heads, and stomp back out. There had been no warmth from that set of pipes in the bedroom since the city turned the heat on last fall and it turns out this was a building-wide phenomena... rumored to originate from our apartment! After three months of head-scratching, this man in camouflage cut out and replaced a 6-foot length of metal pipe. Immediately voilà, heat for everyone.

A few days later, his colleague showed up at the door to show us the problem: someone had inserted a fistful of metal welding rods inside part of the pipe, blocking the flow of hot water through the pipe. It seemed like this "act of sabotage" (to quote the utility worker) had been committed a number of years ago. We can only imagine that perhaps during the owner's remodel, she pissed off one of her workers enough to do such a thing. I could see that happening :p

❄ Meanwhile, the city streets have been a hazardous place this season. Ice coats the sidewalks. Occasionally men with small hoes will be hard at work, chipping the layer of ice away and making it possible to walk confidently rather than shuffle, but their efforts only go so far (say 8 to 10 feet) before the winter again lays down its dangerous game.

Now that the temperatures have risen, the new threat comes from above. Instead of looking down, you should be looking up.

Only 27 days to go

Ah, February.

How To Avoid Coffee Life

Let's talk coffee shops!

If you've spent much time in Ukraine's urban areas, you've undoubtedly stumbled across one (or ten or twenty) Coffee Life coffee shops. Coffee Life is to Ukraine what Starbucks is to the rest of the world. "There's coffee in our blood!" proclaims the back of the baristas' t-shirts. And in fact, there may be; last year Kyiv Post reported Ukraine as having the highest growth rate of coffee-drinking in the world.

look familiar, anyone?

 All foreigners end up at the Coffee Life chain sooner or later. It's a beacon of familiarity amongst the jumble of pawn shops, babushkas, and marshrutkas. Take a look at this page and tell me- how could you not get hooked? First off, there's the English prevalence: English menus, English logo and branding, even weekly Mafia games in English (free for native speakers). Then there's the free wifi, book exchange, drink specials, croissants, fancy desserts, lounge music, and 36 locations across the country. It's a franchise, so you can even open your own branch for around 1 million uah.

Going back to that question- how could you not love this place? By playing Scrabble there every week for 17 months, that's how!

I loved Coffee Life in the beginning- so upscale, so calming, so convenient- but eventually the monotony and the high prices got to me. Last week I dropped 33 uah on a mulled wine (original price around 25 uah but extra for a cinnamon stick and honey... but, uh, aren't those integral parts of mulled wine?) which, after they forgot my order and I had to wait ages for, tasted like a fish had just finished swimming in it. Luckily, there are plenty of other places to get a cup of tea here in Kharkov.