Hello from Ukraine! Colette and I arrived in Kharkiv on Saturday morning after about 36 hours of traveling. The journey here wasn't as arduous as I had expected - our trans-Atlantic flight was as good as it can get. The seats were huge and comfortable and we had televisions with movies (good, new movies!), music, and video games built in. The food wasn't too bad, either. We watched Toy Story 2 and Children of Men (now I want to read the book - the movie didn't provide enough back story). After the flight we made a mad dash through Amsterdam Schiphol buying Dutch books (Frog and Toad Zijn Altijd Samen!) and food (a case of stroopwafels and 4 jars of pindakaas!) among other things.

After that we had a short flight to Kiev (where I wasn't allowed to knit during take off or landing, the stewardess thought that I would poke myself or something...) followed by a 6 hour wait at Kiev Boryspil airport where I had the realization of "oh crap. I can't even buy a bottle of water because I can't speak Russian!" which prompted me to buy a Russian phrasebook (with much difficulty, since I don't know Russian - thankfully Colette does!) My lack of Russian-speaking caused me to get "Kiev'ed" at the coffee bar - I paid about $6 for a cappucino while the girls behind were saying "how much" in Ukranian and laughing while they tucked my 20 grivna bill into their notebook. Nice. Very nice. Welcome to Ukraine. Luckily everything else is super cheap (a pack of Marlboro Lights costs about $1, a huge meal at McDonald's costs $5, and the subway - which is quite nice - costs 15 cents). I'm picking up some Russian, and can read Cyrillic now!

We're staying in Saltovka, which is a huge Soviet housing complex on the edge of town. There are nearly 600,000 residents, each living in a small apartment. There are hundreds of buildings, each about 6-12 stories tall and surrounded by tree-filled courtyards. Even though all of the buildings are the same the families that live there have taken the time to personalize them - there are gardens with fences created out of blue spray painted tires and benches made out of old shelving units. The concrete is crumbling in some places, brand new in others. Fancy business men drive by in their brand new Land Rovers and BMW's while old men drive their Soviet era Volgas. Women walk around in mini-skirts and 3-inch heels, which makes me feel quite schlubby in my Chacos and linen pants. They drink tea more than water. We're odd for wanting to drink cold water. And the coffee? INSTANT. Any kind you want. Nescafe, Jacobs, MacCoffee...YUM! Thankfully I planned ahead and brought 2.5 lbs. of Steep N Brew coffee and my French press.

Today we're going to wander around the city and check out some of the parks.

Pictures to come!