17 June
Today I went to a huge children’s store to buy a sort of gag gift for Amy and Charlie and their new-ish baby, Benjamin. I won’t reveal the gag gift til later, as I’m just mailing it now. The store had recognizable things like Fisher Price and Leggo toys, Crayola (I smelled the crayons and got stared at suspiciously), and less familiar things, like an entire wall of very realistic-looking guns.

I’ve been making myself walk around my neighborhood after work before dark, to familiarize myself and also not spend hours and hours alone in my apartment, obsessively reading. Tonight my destination was the produce market and then after dinner, the baby store.

I have been a bit obsessive lately about grocery shopping, as in I like to go everyday. The interactions at the market are very satisfying – friendly, I get to practice Russian, it’s food and they give out samples! The huge supermarket right by my house is also a source of hours of entertainment. I smell shampoos, try to read ingredient labels, look at all the new and strange products, as well as feel triumph when I find a familiar one, such as Balsamic vinegar. I still haven’t brought myself to buy the US-priced olive oil, but I know I will eventually break down. The sunflower oil is locally produced and quite nice. There are several varieties, ranging from dark and flavourful (but BAD BAD BAD for baking – brownie disaster) to light and without a distinct taste (on the contrary, quite good for baking – decent brownies).

I could talk about food for days, so I’ll move on.

Last week, while doing laundry, I hit my head on a light fixture and it turns out got a small concussion. I realized this when I saw that part of my eye was extremely bloodshot, so I called the PCMO (medical officer). I had sort of forgotten that I’d hit my head, which may have been part of the concussion thing. Anyway, I ended up staying the night at Expat Palace and doing laundry in the machine there. Oh, luxury! The eye cleared up in a few days, but the running joke among some of the PCV’s here is to ask me how many states there are in the Union, from when they were supposed to be on head injury watch for me.

It is also sweet cherry season, to be followed later by sour cherry season. I am almost sick of strawberries and am trying to switch to trying to eat cherries everyday til I’m sick of them, too. Then it will be another fruit’s turn at the market. However, the glut of berries gives me the ability to make berry intensive things like strawberry granita, sort of like gelato and really, really good w/ a little vodka as a slushy cocktail. Mmmm.

Today I also met my local militsia (police). Per PC procedures, my Regional Manager, Irina, and I went to the militsia office just one block from my building and asked to speak to the highest up person we could to introduce me. We got a pretty high up guy judging by his office and suit. He actually was really nice, but I kept having some weird visions of Russian Dragnet, which interfered greatly with my ability to take the proceedings seriously. Like so many things in my experience here, this meeting was one more stop on the surreal highway. Sometimes I am a little overwhelmed or maybe just impressed by the simple facts: I am riding in a Landrover with diplomatic plates, speeding around Kyiv to our next militsia meeting.

Anyway, back to this reality, Officer Friday asked us if we wanted to meet the officer in charge on the blocks where I live, so we went over to a satellite office that just happened to be open for two hours when we were there. Both officers couldn’t seem to believe that we didn’t want anything from our visits, but just to have them know I was here and meet me. They were nice and surprisingly friendly. I’m glad that I already know when to not smile here, as these were meetings to sit and look tough and confident at.

Sometimes I am somewhere that I can see a view over this city and over the grey Soviet apartment blocks, the gilded church domes and the ugly modern brick apartment blocks, a huge blue sky spans and my heart breaks to try to know this place and learn it all. I wish that I could embrace it all and it would become like home to me, but I know it is take time and it will always be other or maybe not or maybe only sometimes.

Time for bed. No more strawberry slushy vodka treats or more slather like the proceeding may follow. Good night.