Bought It!
We bought a couch today. It will be delivered in two weeks. The well-known Petrivka metro station is not only host to a massive outdoor book bazaar but also to a warehouse of cheap Ukrainian furniture. Today the weather turned quite frigid again and the warehouse wasn't heated. Except the small room the robust manager sat in. She had a flat monitor and computer but did all the ordering and selling by hand on paper. They didn't have exactly what we wanted but would custom make it with our selection of covering. Well, not exactly our selection. Several styles we wanted were no longer available even though we were told several times they have everything. This is a prime example of surviving in the post-Soviet world--appearances are always deceiving.
We also looked for some English books for a class I am going to start teaching in about two weeks. Not much luck there. Petrivka book prices seem to be matching store prices. We then went downtown to eat in one of the mall food court's because I was freezing and didn't want to go aboveground. There at Maidan, the square where the hundreds of thousands protested fraudulent election results last year, people have begun to sell lots of souvenirs of the revolution. Big pictures of Yushchenko and Tymoshenko, Yushchenko coffee cups and pens, calendars, scarves, mousepads, keychains. I'm not much of a fan of this stuff in general but I am so happy to see this pride, this desire to remember how we all stood together, and by taking a risk, we made a difference. Long live the revolution!
It was announced today that $580 million was invested in Kyiv last year, twice the amount of the year before and more than half of all foreign investment in Ukraine. Now I know where all these malls are coming from!
The government also made several proposals for parliament to consider Thursday. Among thes is raising the minimum monthly salary to 332 UAH ($64). They also have suggested getting rid of several tax-free zones to increase government revenues. And Putin came to town today. Yushchenko and he talked for a couple of hours. PORA, the student activist group that played a crucial role in the Orange Revolution, threatened some civil unrest but I don't think anything materialized.
We also looked for some English books for a class I am going to start teaching in about two weeks. Not much luck there. Petrivka book prices seem to be matching store prices. We then went downtown to eat in one of the mall food court's because I was freezing and didn't want to go aboveground. There at Maidan, the square where the hundreds of thousands protested fraudulent election results last year, people have begun to sell lots of souvenirs of the revolution. Big pictures of Yushchenko and Tymoshenko, Yushchenko coffee cups and pens, calendars, scarves, mousepads, keychains. I'm not much of a fan of this stuff in general but I am so happy to see this pride, this desire to remember how we all stood together, and by taking a risk, we made a difference. Long live the revolution!
It was announced today that $580 million was invested in Kyiv last year, twice the amount of the year before and more than half of all foreign investment in Ukraine. Now I know where all these malls are coming from!
The government also made several proposals for parliament to consider Thursday. Among thes is raising the minimum monthly salary to 332 UAH ($64). They also have suggested getting rid of several tax-free zones to increase government revenues. And Putin came to town today. Yushchenko and he talked for a couple of hours. PORA, the student activist group that played a crucial role in the Orange Revolution, threatened some civil unrest but I don't think anything materialized.
posted by Kyivmission at 1:16 AM
4 Comments:
Thats great. New furniture. If you don't mind me asking, what kind of class are you teaching?
Iam teaching a free business English class that will have a conversation component based on the writings of C. S. Lewis. It's a ministry of our church. I have two degrees in English so every so often I teach a little English.
Wow, impressive. C.S. Lewis. Oh yeah, he wrote The Chronicles of Narnia. Those are great books. Cool:)
You do realize we must see this couch. I don't know what I am going to do with myself for 2 weeks! Oh wait, it's Ukraine, so 4 weeks is more likely. Sorry! But you have to post a picture.
You know, I just bought a table last week, and it was two weeks waiting time too.
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