After months of depravation, oppression and overall depression, at last the day long awaited for had come. The German army is pushed out by brave Soviet men and women, leaving Kharkov to its inhabitants again to begin rebuilding their homes and lives. A day that will forever be remembered, Liberation Day, 23 August 194…?
Well I’m not entirely sure. I wasn’t here then or even born for that matter. But I do know that it is a very important date, even more so than modern Ukrainian Independence Day which follows immediately after on the 24th of August. Also I know there is a statue to commemorate this great day. I know this because now I live opposite of that giant of Soviet art.
That’s right folks… I moved… again. The 1st of July brought not only the insane heat we’ve been experiencing but also it brought Sasha to my flat to help transport my overabundant belongings from Cold Mountain to 23 August. I now live with one Ukrainian girl who is a student at my school. We share a two bedroom, first floor flat, without balcony but with an automatic boiler. Yeah!! No more scary lighting of ancient gas boilers! Also we have fairly consistent running water, which is a feature I lacked in the very first flat I lived in. She has a television with cable, including the beloved BBC World Edition news and she lets me watch it whenever (unlike scary Babushka who used to lock the door thus prevented my acquisition of news from the outside world).
That’s the positive features. The negatives: More bugs (cockroaches, spiders and freaky little refrigerator bugs) than I’ve EVER seen in a single household I’ve lived in, including a terrifying mutated 4-legged giant spider who decided to move into my bathtub for a while. Eventually I explained that the flat was for humans only and placing him on a newspaper, I released him to the wild again (put him outside my flat where insects belong!). Another downside is the bed, I’ve traded sleeping on the living room couch – which was surprisingly comfortable – for a super old and thus indented twin size bed. That’s okay I suppose, they have chiropractors in England.
Overall it’s a good situation, the bathroom and kitchen have been retiled, although there is no bathroom sink (just the pipes protruding from the wall where one would go) and so brushing my teeth in the bathtub is the norm. For the past few weeks my roomie has been in the Crimea, so I’ve had the place to myself for a while. It’s also right across the street from a Huge and Expensive supermarket as well as an extensive and cheap outdoor market (where I now normally shop). This flat is closer to the city center and thus work, so I can sleep in even later and still get to work relatively on time.
It was hard moving again and for a while I doubted my choice, but it has been a good experience learning about another part of the city and I have finally been able to keep up with world events such as the bombing in London, the IRA declaration of cessation of fighting and the Discovery success. Now as my time rolls to an end here (see post Long Overdue Update) I will say goodbye to all my flats and hope to move to an apartment where all things will be in one place (i.e. a bathroom sink IN the bathroom, a bed that doesn’t roll me into a ball shape, a boiler that needs no help to start itself and most important – NO MORE BUGS!!) Well, a girl can dream, can’t she?
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