Later on Day 1

Later...

Ukrainian dollars are called Grevny. I had found the Russian/Ukrainian word only, but had not known how to pronounce it in Cyrillic (it looked like Hevny). We got about four and a half Grevny to the dollar, which is crap since it used to be 5 and up. Luckily, Dad had some Euros, and they happily took those. Our poor Canadian dollars and British pounds were rejected. Oh well.

After Dad came back he called some of the relatives here; they’re excited, especially to take us to the beach it seems. I passed out on the couch and was embarrassingly cranky when woken up. Everything looks like a bar (and is not even pronounce-able, for the most part, for me) so it was a bit of a task finding food for dinner. Dad kept saying, “I don’t know any better than you do! I haven’t been here in 28 years!” but eventually we sat down at a really nice place and laughed about how every Russian woman we saw was blond and thin and only drinking tea and smoking cigarettes.

The woman renting us the apartment also told Dad to not speak English unless he had to, because then he would be “a target”. I wasn’t there when they discussed this, but I really wish I had been, because now he’s super paranoid and pretty much refuses to speak to me in English in public! (It’s actually pretty endearing, he talks to me in Russian as though after hearing it enough it will all just make perfect sense to me, and then eventually translates if I pressure him enough/look openly confused. But there were a few times he slipped into Russian from English because he “caught someone reading his lips”. This will be one of the hardest things for us to deal with, I think.

We couldn’t stop ourselves from beginning to explore, even though my damn ankle looks practically explosive. We went by Dad’s old apartment where he grew up, and the gate was open! I got lots of great pictures! We went to a square where he used to sit on a chain link fence with his friends and I got a picture of him by it now, like 20 years later (and the same post office! …but different cobblestones).

The big circle in the center of town, right by Deribasovskaya, is essentially untouched, which is why I think it is all the more strange to Dad, who expects to see it full of his friends and the kind of people and activities he saw growing up. How strange to see kids getting pony rides from horses in tutus, and little boys on those little motorized trucks! But the garbage cans are exactly the same (it’s pretty cool, they tip over).

After the shower extravaganza of my lifetime, I’m clean and actually less sleepy than before, and couldn’t tell you what time zone we’re functioning on if my life depended on it. It’s 11 am in Tempe, and 9 pm here. Goodnight?

Today’s words:
Ukrainian Money- Grevny (4.62/1)
Cat- Coshka
Kitten- Kotyonok
Post Office- Potchta/Poshta
Daughter- Doytchka