moving in: before and after

Before:


After:


We have a home! After a month of living out of backpacks and boxes, we are delighted to be domiciled. Our new 2 room apartment was our third choice, as the others didn’t work out – one landlord was out of town, and another was reluctant to rent to foreigners who might make expensive phone calls. Since we’re only here for 4 months we couldn’t afford to wait any longer.

Here is our new address: Tverskoi Tupik 6/8, apartment 136, Pecherskiy raion, Kyiv. Stop by if you’re in the neighborhood! It’s a ten minute walk from the Pecherskaya Metro station in a neighborhood of auto mechanics and students. The area around the metro is very posh, definitely ‘the high street’ as the Brits would say. New buildings, a fancy supermarket, a Moroccan restaurant and a 24/7 “coffee haus” with wi-fi. From there you go downhill, past the three banks, the well-worn Institute of Culture (a college), across a muddy field and down an alley to get to our new place. In the other direction, Amy’s office is a 15 minute walk down a steep hill past the auto shops.

Three great things about our apartment: it has a microwave, a dishwasher and two closets! Three unfortunate things: it’s on the ground floor next to the front door, which slams frequently; everything in the living room is brown; and unlike the two other places we tried to rent, it is not next to the botanical garden. No matter, it’s home and we’re here to stay. Briefly.

fun with realtors

Friends,

You’ve not heard much from us since we arrived in Kyiv. We are indeed here, we assure you. We’ve been sinking most of our time into our apartment search. Unfortunately, the realty agencies that market to foreigners are used to people with bigger budgets than a grad student research stipend. Most offer nothing for less than a grand. Plus an agency commission of one half a month’s rent. That thousand dollars will get you a “two room flat” – a bedroom and one other room. (Plus a bathroom and kitchen, which don’t count as rooms). We had heard Kyiv was more expensive than Madison, but this, we agreed, was ridiculous. We decided to dig a little deeper.

With tremendous help from some of Amy’s former colleagues (from ISAR), we searched online apartment ads such as Aviso (http://aviso.ua/ -- non-Russian speakers see http://aviso.ua/aviso/eng/). At first glance, it looks like there are tons of places available, starting at $600, downtown in the neighborhoods we want.

Don’t you believe it.

First discount all the old listings that have already rented, which we learn only after calling. Then discover that the bulk of these classified ads are actually posted by agencies. Which would be fine, commission aside, except for the bureaucratic way these agencies are organized: it seems every apartment is assigned to a single agent, who then must coordinate with the owner before they’ll set up a viewing. After a dozen calls back and forth, we might manage to see one apartment. If the agent shows up. And if that advertised location matches the actual location. This was not the case for one lovely apartment we found, largest we’ve seen, a good deal for six hundred, except that “ten minutes walk” from one Metro station proved to be out by the highway, fifteen minutes on the marshrutka (minibus) from a different station. Nice place though, too bad.

In two weeks we’ve managed to see only 5 apartments. We tried to rent two of them, and failed twice. We’ll try again tomorrow.

New city, (old) new year

Jacob and Mike pose in front of Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the central square in Kyiv, during our first trip downtown. The square is decked out to celebrate the new year, which started today, according to the Julian calendar used here until 1917.

live from Kyiv

Greetings!

Somehow or other we made it out of our house, out of the state and out of the country! We all arrived safely in Kyiv Thursday, as did most of our bags. (The last two showed up today). So far we’ve spent our time just getting our bearings, walking around the city, visiting the local markets, figuring out how to get online. Jacob has been going around with his eyes so wide they bulge. Wish I knew what he was thinking!

Tomorrow we’ll start hunting for an apartment. Once we get unpacked, I’ll post some photos.
MFR