... from Kyiv

Due to many circumstances and without any real trying (and I guess that is how it usually works), I have rather suddenly ended up in Ukraine. Kyiv is going to be my base for the next year.

I have not seen too much of Kyiv yet, only few streets around the place I live and work but I need to say the following…
Make-up: I am fairly confident to say that girls do not wear as much make-up as we think.
Short skirts: I have seen girls wearing skirts but they are usually knee height, and pants seem preferred (it is only -7 here).
There are many old women on the streets, I was bit suprised about that.
Some other observations are:

• There is a homeless man sleeping on the staircase outside my door. The coridor is warm. (update - he is no longer there, it is the next day afternoon and i finally managed to convert .docx to doc and can upload this post)
• There are the same metro cars in Kyiv metro as the ones we used to have (or still have) in Prague (Mitishinskiy mashinostroitelniy zavod).
• It is sunny and nice snow lying outside on the streets.
• People definitely do not seem to notice me, I think no matter what I can easily pass for Ukrainian (till I take the map out of my bag or open my mouth). Marta, maybe you are just too pretty :P.
• Today I gave instructions about where the metro station Arsenalna is (how cool is that!). I must look like a local even though just 5min back I was enquiring about how to get to my place from Arsenalna :D.
• There is this huge supermarket close to my place... and there is at least 50m long freezer full of different kind of shrimps. The prices are very similar to Czech food prices.
• Passport control at the airport sucks.
• I am in my bed, watching TV in Russian... the Murders in Midsumner (or whatever the spelling is).
• I withdrew some money (not all ATMs work) and I managed to run out of them fairly quickly. So I already have a debt! (update - I already paid it back)
• I have a sim card and credit on it (yep, the debt)! (update - former debt)
• I am sleepy and hungry (very hungry). (update - had two meals since and yummy cakes)
• Oh, and today I wore my fancy pants to work (bought two pairs before leaving for Ukraine as my usual clothing – jeans etc. – would probably be rather inappropriate).
• My boss is Georgian, there is Canadian Indian co-worker and the rest are Ukrainians. Our office may move soon to another location.
• The prices of accommodation are dropping, but my flat was rented yet during the peak prices.
• I had a meeting with one of my colleagues at 6.30 pm ytoday. At 5.30pm she called me, which scared me as I thought she changed the time of meeting. Well, she did not change the time of meeting, my office computer was an our late.
• I have visited an alternative club (where writers, musicians etc. meet) where they were celebrating old new year. The place was crowded with constant pushing flow of people entering and leaving. There was a programme going on... at the beginning some people were reciting. I could only judge by the way their voice and expressions were set (oh, and I understood „k*rva“). But then there were two amazing groups of young musicians. One was more based on violin, harmonique and different kind of flutes... the other one was more based on violin and cimbalom. But they had one thing in common, by playing national songs, or xmas carols, or simply live melodies, they made the crowd move and sing along and that was awesome.