Ukrainian and Russian Christmas Music

Traditional Ukrainian Christmas Music for your holiday enjoyment : )

Christmas and worship music

Note - to make this STOP playing click on the very small STOP button at the top of the player


See also http://www.sparinsky.kiev.ua/rizdvo/titles_eng.htm

Also - you can't miss the original CAROL OF THE BELLS


About Ukrainian Christmases - will take you to brama site explaining a traditional Ukrainian Christmas

The indignity of bills

Every month the bills start trickling into the mailbox. First the Communali charges - heat, water, garbage etc. Then the phone. Followed by internet - and now, on a more sporadic schedule - the electric bill. All of these bills, are in theory to be paid by the 20th of the month. Unlike in the states, where you can pay by phone, automatic deposit, or the really ancient method of check - here you pretty much have to do it with cash.*

You can pay at any bank - but you get charged for it - sometimes as much as $5. If you don't want to pay for paying your bills you have to go to the Oshadni Bank or the Post Office. Sounds easy enough - but consider this.
1) Everyone has to pay their bills at this time and in the same way
2)No one wants to pay for paying their bills - its bad enough having to pay them
3) The same establishments also distribute all the pension and social help payments which come out at the same time as the bills. = Big lines of pensioners wanting money.

All of these factors equall HUGE lines. In order to pay our bills - it normally takes 5 tries. Just popping in and out of various banks in order to see how long the line is. If the line is longer that 10 - 15 people - I figure it is better to try another time or day. Sometimes though you just have to bite the bullet and stand in line.

A Note on Lines
Lines are never as long as they look. Normally theu are longer. People come, stand in line for a few minutes until someone comes behind them - then they ask them if they are going to stand in line and if they say yes - they leave and will later return to the line after doing whatever it is they do.

By the time you get to the front of the line - you and the people around you have been waiting about an hour. The front of the line is where all the arguments break out. Grannies pushing their way to the front, workers complaining that they are missing their lunch, or that clients are waiting - people yelling at others for cutting etc. Lets face it - they probably weren't in the best of moods when they started standing in line - and an hour of standing, pushing, shoving etc just doesn't help matters.

Back to the bills . . .
After a particuarly disheartening bill paying experience this summer - I tried to start finding ways that it wouldn't repeat itsself. (translation - Alister had to pay the next month). A friend told us really - you can wait and pay every 2 months for communalni. This sounded like a good solution because the elctric seems to becoming every two months anyway and alister found a way to pay the other bills online. (Leave it to an internet provider to create a way for you to pay online). So this month was the test - the elecric bill came and I gathered up the last two months of communalni uslugia bills and started circeling the oshadni banks. After three days - I took the plunge and entered the line.

3 people from the front - and a granny four people behind me cuts to the front of the line and starts asking people to let her in. The whole line is outraged and everyone is telling the she isn't right in what she is doing and she is indignatley saying that she is still in her place (four people behind me) even though she obviously has her money out and is trying to weasle in infront of everyone.

Finally I get to the window (1 hour and 15 minutes) (the granny is sulking on the other side of the window). I give the clerk my bills and she gives them back to me.

Blah blah blah - And I figure out that there is a problem and I can't pay them.
What's the problem?
Blah Blah Red ink blah only black or blue.
Well how am I supposed to pay my bill?
Get a new bill
Where am I supposed to get a new bill?
The same place you got that one
This one comes in my mail every month - So I wait till next month and pay three at one time?
The lady behind me - who was probably just trying to get me out of the way so she could pay her bills - asked if I could write over the bills in black. No - the clerk wouldn't accept that either. Could she white them out and then write on it. No, the clerk wouldn't accept that either.
I've stood here more than an hour, there is no way for me to get another bill, and you're saying there is no way for me to pay.
Yes.
Look, the lady behind me says, go home and white everything out -then make a photocopy and pay again.

Translation - I have to spend another hour or more standing in line after I figure out a way to make the bills payable.

Another incredibly disheartening bill paying experience. Here's hoping the internet revolution will eventually exceed to our communalni and electric bills.

*Recently, digital boxes have appeared around the city that extend the ways you pay bills - but not all bills are covered by it. For example, communalni and electric - at least for our building can only be paid at the Oshadni bank.

A history lesson

Trying to find ways to use my Black treacle, I ran across the most amazing fun history fact ever. The Great Molasses Flood. That's right in Boston 1919 a storage container of molasses burst and the "slow as molasses" mass picked up speed - cresting at 35mph and forming a 30ft tidal wave. 21 people died. It sounds like those trapped found themselves in a sweet smelling tar-pit.
If history books would insert facts like this every couple of pages - children would find more reasons to pay attention. What kid wouldn't want to imagine a huge tidal wave of molasses sweeping over a city? It's way better than a comic book. it's actually true.

In college, we read the Great Cat Massacre as part of History Methods. The point of the class - or maybe the reason why we read the book - was to show that history can be drawn from any event (original sources though if you please!)- it isn't dry facts. Its life - a big sticky tidal wave about to grab you and sweep you away.

I think that is the reason why historical novels and memoirs are so popular nowadays - the authors reinvigorate the event with all of the laughter, awe, drama, or frustration that originally filled the conversations of people during that day.

(ps - I ended up making gingersnaps - but the treacle is a bit more potent than "regular" molasses)

From cheapest in the world to most expensive in the nation

While you all may have noted Tuesday, the 4th of November as a deciding day in the history of our nation - we in Kiev had other reasons to pause.

Tuesday, the 4th of November 2008 was the day that Kiev metro prices rose by 400%.

No longer will a continuous ride cost a mere 50 kopek (10 cents - and the same price it was when it first opened in 1960 - however - it then dropped (communism - to 5 kopeks) - now it will cost you 2 griven.

The morning the raise took effect, the metro wagons were littered with flyers that said "Kiev Metro - The most expensive in Ukraine" to protest the mayoral decision to raise metro prices.

I couldn't help but laugh. The Kiev metro had long been recorded as the cheapest in the world - and the fact that it is now the most expensive in the nation - a nation that has only 2 other small metro lines in cities where salaries and commuter traffic are also less - shouldn't be shameful or used as a reprimand. Over 2 million people use the metro system here - and it is built for 1 million people. Cars are increasing in the city by the hundreds and roads can't contain it. The metro needs to be expanded - but there isn't money to do it - in fact even at 2 griven per passenger the metro will still be running at a deficit that will need to be made up by selling advertising space. Moreover - the mayor - newly re-elected and desirous of please the public arranged it so that you could by a 1 year metro card for 365 UAH - which means that if you live and work in Kiev - riding the metro twice each day - you'll pay . . . that's right 50 kopek per ride. AND - the cost of the metro is shouldered by the working class because children, students, pensioners, and disabled all get ride either for free or at a reduced cost.

If you ask me - I say bravo for the increase - esp if it means that they finish the orange and the purple lines and let me travel around Kiev with traffic - free ease. And if you ask me again - I think you should add a few more stops to those two lines and connect them across the river with an interchange at Vidibichy and the new Dymiska station at the bus station.

Life's delectable pleasures

Today in Velika Kishenia I found a coupon for buy 5 Siriki and get 90% off. Talk about a coupon. Siriki aren't expensive anyway - and they are definately tasty --like bite size cheese cakes. My favorite are Fanny - with cherry syrup and a cookie crust.

Buy 5 for a fraction of the price? Don't mind if I do.

Columbia Crest

Walking thru the supermarket, I caught sight of something familiar . . . .

Columbia Crest wine is in Ukraine!!!

Ok - so the picture is awful - but really you can only expect so much when trying to take a covert picture on a cell phone.

I'm not actually a huge fan of Columbia Crest - It is ok - but not spectacular - but more, I am just proud to have a Walla Walla area wine being sold internationally to the everyday Joe (ok in Ukraine the price is a bit above everyday - but still . . .) And for those of you wondering about the numbers - its NOT dollars - but hreeven (pronounced grieven - like i'm a grieven for my lost dog . . .) At today's exchange rate - that makes the Chardonay a Washington wine bargain at $13 (In the US you can buy it for about 10 - but most of our wines are double that price) and the Shiraz converts to $22. Amazing that all the transport and tax only amount to a $3 per bottle increase.


(ps - sorry to not support the local economy - but when we splurge for wine - we normally go for the $5 bottle of Georgian Alazanskaya Dolina. Depite what you may think of how wine at that price should taste- its really nice.

Cats and Heights

We have almost given up trying to train our cat to stay off the tables, counters, and upper shelves of the bookcase. My last cat learn after two sprays of the spray bottle - but this guy I think sees the water as a bonus.

I have never seen a cat drink so much. Not only are all of our water immediate glasses targets (not coffee or tea - pretty much just the water), but in the morning he jumps up on the window sill and laps off the condensation on the window until he can see out. The he moves hown the window and does the same think all along the sill.
We even added vinegar to the water - but it doesn't work. Sometimes we have sprayed him as many as 7 times (with frustrated tsks and "bad cats" accentuating the ordeal) before he finally gets/ or is pulled down.
I tried putting saran wrap on the table. He responded by jumping up and falling asleep on it.
For the most part we are avoiding the problem by trying to keep him out of the kitchen unless we are there too - but still - as soo as our backs are turn to wash the dishes or put something in the fridge he is up on the table again. Any ideas?