Bad Computer Karma In Kiev

Dangit. So this is what happens when you're having a great time. Time flies and you realize you haven't updated your friends and family in over a week. Lots has happened, here it is in a nutshell.

Kiev, Ukraine has really grown on me. At times I feel like I'm walking through Reykjavik in Iceland, and at other times I feel like I'm walking through Antigua, Guatemala. Weird.

My Frist Ukrainian Contact

My first reaction to Kiev was "ugly buildings," (and yes, the buildings are still ugly), but I've been able to find some of the architectural diamonds in the rough. One of my new Couch Surfing friends Denis took several hours to show me all around his city and he gave me the insider information about everything. I had a fantastic time.

And that's been the vibe of Ukrainians I've felt here so far - very hospitable.

The Saturday Night Mixup

Last Saturday I was supposed to meet a group of Couch Surfers in the city. They had a plan to visit about 5 different locations in the city. But when I went to meet them at the first meeting point, I realized that I didn't know the exact location and left my map at home. So I had to walk all the way back home to get the map (about a mile away).

I plotted the locations on the map and shoved it in my pocket. After over 2 hours of walking in circles, I finally found the tiny pub we were supposed to meet in. The Couch Surfers weren't there. It was 10:30. We were supposed to meet a 8.

So I figured I'd catch them at the next location. After a 20 minute power walk, I found the restaurant and tried locate the group of people I had never met before. One of the servers spoke English and I asked her if there were any English speakers in the restaurant. She said they left about 30 minutes ago. Dangit. Just missed them.

So I asked her the fastest way to get to the next location on the map. She said the subway. I'd never used the subway before. But I went anyways.

Ukrainian is written with Cyrillic characters and I'm barely able to sound out all the letters yet - but event less so on the fly in a high-paced subway. Add to that fact there were no clear signs posted and I had no idea where I was or where I was going.

So here's what happened: I hopped on the first train that came into the station and realized that that was kind of stupid because I still wouldn't know where I was at the next stop. I got off at the very next stop which was a transfer station. I walked to the other station and pulled out my map to find the station closest to my house (giving up trying to find the Couch Surfers at this point).

I got two people's attention and pointed to the station on the map that was closest to my apartment to see if they'd point in a direction for me. They just said, "Da" (Yes). I was struggling to ask in Russian, "No, I mean how do I get there?" But they spoke English and said, "You're already here."

After nearly 4 hours of walking around aimlessly, I found my way back home.

How the heck did that happen!?

Easter Sunday

Last Sunday was Easter. I purchased one of the local Easter cakes known as a Babka.

I tried me some.

And it was dry, but pretty good.

The Crash

That same night I stayed up all night coding. I was working furiously to launch 2 web projects in an insanely short amount of time. I noticed my MacBook Pro was running a bit slow but figured it was just because I was working her to death.

As I finished the last project, I did my ritual of backing up my active projects online and shut the computer down for the night.

The next morning it happened.

My MacBook Pro is down for the count. Bad. I run a web-based business and if my computer is down, my company is down. There is no time to play around - 2 projects were just hard-launched and that means if anything went wrong, it was live for the whole world to see.

Minutes after I discover my computer crashed one of my clients called my Ukrainian cell phone with an urgent request for some files.

The closest Apple store is in Germany. I wasted no time in finding an "authorized Apple reseller". It was more of a shady outfit, but I was desperate for a computer. They didn't take credit cards and were asking for $300 more than the retail value.

I didn't care. I went to the nearest ATM and took out as much cash out of my business account as my bank would allow. Then I went to another ATM and took out the remainder from my personal account.

With pockets full Ukrainian Hryvnia bills, I came back to the "store" and bought a white MacBook with a Cyrillic keyword.

The whole process took up the whole day so I wasted no time in taking her home and plugging up my backup hard drive. I hadn't done a full backup for over 10 days, but at least I had that!

This was going to take a while.

So I made myself a nice little dessert.

When I got everything restored back to 10 days ago, I was able to download my latest online backup of the two projects I had just launched. I love SVN!

The computer seems to work fine and will sometimes пооп жунк poop out cyrillic characters.

My Apartment

I'm finally moved into my for-real apartment that I'll be staying in for the rest of my stay in Kiev.

It's located directly in the center of Kiev. It's got a ridiculously high ceiling and an uncomfortably high toilet. It makes it hard to take a dump.

New Ukrainian Friends

This past Friday I posted a message on Couch Surfing seeing if anyone wanted to meet up at a coffee shop for a low-key get together. There was a great turn-out.

When I ordered hot chocolate, they basically gave me a cup of melted chocolate

After a while we went out to eat at a tasty Italian restaurant. And then regrouped at one of the subway stations to meet up with more Couch Surfers. We had about 12 people join us throughout the night.

We eventually made it to a bar (ew) but it was not very loud so we were able to talk. We even tried to play the game where you have to talk but you can't show your teeth.

As the night wore on the group started to whittle down little by little. Eventually there was just 4 of us. Ian, a guy from the UK and Natalia from the Ukraine were having a very "lively" political discussion. I was quite entertained and sat back with a smile and listened.

I was just about to call it a night when this cute waitress approached the table. She was acting a bit sheepish and I realized she was not a waitress.

Ian jumped on the opportunity to talk with the pretty girl and introduced himself in part English and part Russian. I'm quite entertained by male slash pretty female social dynamics so I quietly observed the interaction with a smile.

After a bit of back and forth it was clear that she didn't speak hardly a word of English. She looked at me with a shy smile and then turned her attention to Anton, one of my new Ukrainian friends sitting next to me and said something in Russian.

Anton laughed and turned to me and said, "She wants you to join her at her table to meet her friends."

Feeling quite special, I proudly walked over to her table and met her friends who spoke about 10 words of English between the 6 of them.

They were all very nice people and were full of smiles. The "alpha male" of the table was a bald guy with fairly noticeable muscles.

They poured me a shot of vodka and flashbacks of Vietnam ran through my head. Although it wasn't quite as nasty as the Vietnamese moonshine, alcoholic beverages are just not my "cup of tea."

I asked them how to "cheers" in Russian and the muscly bald guy came over to me and locked arms for the drink and then gave me a big Ukrainian kiss on both cheeks.

I suppose the bald guy's muscles posed as a challenge for Anton because he ended up arm wrestling the guy.

And won!

After a while of trying to communicate and laughing at not understanding each other, I was pooped. I had help from Natalia with finding a taxi that wouldn't rip me off by letting her do all the talking.

Tomorrow I'm going to a Language exchange group to try and learn me some more Russian. I'm also doing an exchange with one of the Couch Surfers so I'll be Russianed out by tomorrow night!