So, I'm finally out of the southern Ukrainian city that I'd been living in for almost a year. I spent a week in Kiev, going through training for the large chain school that I now work for. Training was a bit tedious, involving training classes during the day, and then observation in the evenings.
My quarters in Kiev consisted of sharing a room with another teacher on the third floor of an office building. There were about 10 total teachers going through training at the time, including two American women. Both of these women stood in stark contrast to the thin, beautiful women we saw on the streets. Both were overweight, revelling in their own self-wrought drama, and seriously outclassed by their Ukrainian competition. That didn't stop one of them from chasing me relentlessly for that entire week, and unfortunately it didn't stop me from hitting it after getting totally trashed on some Turkish alcohol that she loaded me with.
Thankfully, my stay in Kiev came to an end, at just the right time. The school I had to go to for observation classes was very close to Maidan. One day, while heading to the school, the group I was walking with took a wrong turn, and we ended up smack dab in the middle of Maidan. At that time, it was peaceful, but the violence erupted literally the day after I left.
So, now I'm in my Eastern industrial city, which is definitely an upgrade aesthetically from my previous city. My job is definitely giving me much more work than I had before. However, my stay so far has mostly been boring. We'll see how things go from here on out.
Monday, January 27, 2014
Friday, January 10, 2014
Goodbye, Southern Ukrainian City
As I stated before, I'm about to leave my current city tonight. I'll be in Kiev for around a week and then will be off to my new destination, a large industrial city in Eastern Ukraine. My blog has seen a bit of a resurgence in views as of late, with a person sending me an email saying I'm the "Ukraine version of English Teacher X". While I'll take that as a compliment, so should English Teacher X. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Anyway, I have a few updates to post once I'm a bit more settled. In the meantime, if I get enough emails from people, I'll post a "mailbag" update, where I'll answer your questions about anything and everything Ukraine. If you have any questions to send, shoot me a message at eccentricexpat@gmail.com.
Anyway, I have a few updates to post once I'm a bit more settled. In the meantime, if I get enough emails from people, I'll post a "mailbag" update, where I'll answer your questions about anything and everything Ukraine. If you have any questions to send, shoot me a message at eccentricexpat@gmail.com.
Monday, December 30, 2013
The New Year Cometh
I haven't been updating this blog as often as I originally planned, but that's ok. I've kept up a slow but steady stream of updates during my time here in Ukraine. Since the year is about to end with a bang, and a new year is approaching like a zombie wooly mammoth, I figured it would be a good idea to do a short review of this last year.
Last year around this time, I had quit my job back in the US, and set about preparing myself to leave the country. I spent much of January and a good bit of February in a southern US state, selling, giving away, or just tossing most of the things that I've accumulated throughout my life. I initially gave myself about 3 weeks to do it, but ended up staying there for over a month, with that still not being enough time to wrap things up. I then went back to the state where I lived at the time (another southern US state), and spent the last week of my time in the US packing up and spending time with my parents.
In late February, I left the US and arrived in Ukraine, as you can read here. My flight over was a bit of an adventure, but only because I had never flown overseas before. I arrived in Ukraine, and started my first job, teaching English for a language school owned by an American.
I spent my first several months learning how to do my job, and met a few women, one of whom ended up becoming my first girlfriend here. My time with her was fun, albeit short, and we ended up parting ways after about a month. Still, she provided me with my first taste of the dating experience here in Ukraine. Not long after I parted ways with her, I started learning just how different Ukrainian women can be.
In the meantime, my job had not turned out to be quite the dream job I initially thought. I liked teaching just fine (and still do), but I didn't like working for the owner of the school, who was a habitual liar and scam artist. He ended up firing me from the school, but when things seemed to be at their bleakest, I was rescued by other, more honest people.
I started working at a new language school, and also continued to meet women, where I found out firsthand the dark side of coupling with women here. However, not long after, I ended up meeting several other women, one of which became my second girlfriend, and the other became my best friend here. If it wasn't for the latter's help, I would have had to go back to the US, or live in a cardboard box.
Thankfully, things became more stable for me again, and I was able to move into another apartment. Shortly after doing so, I met my third (not so temporary) girlfriend, who I am still with. Which brings me to now....
In less than two weeks, I'm leaving my current city for another, much larger city here in Ukraine. Unfortunately, while I've had my moments here, I've found it difficult to survive with the little amount of work that I've had. I was able to eke out a living for a while, but I'm tired of having to scrounge up every last kopek to pay rent. I accepted a job at a large chain language school in Ukraine, which is guaranteeing me a decent salary in a much larger city. I'm quite sad to leave my current city, but at the same time excited to finally go somewhere else. My girlfriend has made noises about following me to that city, as she has family there, but we'll see what happens. For now, I'm just going to enjoy the obligatory celebrating that comes with the new year.
Last year around this time, I had quit my job back in the US, and set about preparing myself to leave the country. I spent much of January and a good bit of February in a southern US state, selling, giving away, or just tossing most of the things that I've accumulated throughout my life. I initially gave myself about 3 weeks to do it, but ended up staying there for over a month, with that still not being enough time to wrap things up. I then went back to the state where I lived at the time (another southern US state), and spent the last week of my time in the US packing up and spending time with my parents.
In late February, I left the US and arrived in Ukraine, as you can read here. My flight over was a bit of an adventure, but only because I had never flown overseas before. I arrived in Ukraine, and started my first job, teaching English for a language school owned by an American.
I spent my first several months learning how to do my job, and met a few women, one of whom ended up becoming my first girlfriend here. My time with her was fun, albeit short, and we ended up parting ways after about a month. Still, she provided me with my first taste of the dating experience here in Ukraine. Not long after I parted ways with her, I started learning just how different Ukrainian women can be.
In the meantime, my job had not turned out to be quite the dream job I initially thought. I liked teaching just fine (and still do), but I didn't like working for the owner of the school, who was a habitual liar and scam artist. He ended up firing me from the school, but when things seemed to be at their bleakest, I was rescued by other, more honest people.
I started working at a new language school, and also continued to meet women, where I found out firsthand the dark side of coupling with women here. However, not long after, I ended up meeting several other women, one of which became my second girlfriend, and the other became my best friend here. If it wasn't for the latter's help, I would have had to go back to the US, or live in a cardboard box.
Thankfully, things became more stable for me again, and I was able to move into another apartment. Shortly after doing so, I met my third (not so temporary) girlfriend, who I am still with. Which brings me to now....
In less than two weeks, I'm leaving my current city for another, much larger city here in Ukraine. Unfortunately, while I've had my moments here, I've found it difficult to survive with the little amount of work that I've had. I was able to eke out a living for a while, but I'm tired of having to scrounge up every last kopek to pay rent. I accepted a job at a large chain language school in Ukraine, which is guaranteeing me a decent salary in a much larger city. I'm quite sad to leave my current city, but at the same time excited to finally go somewhere else. My girlfriend has made noises about following me to that city, as she has family there, but we'll see what happens. For now, I'm just going to enjoy the obligatory celebrating that comes with the new year.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Pimpin' It
Despite the title, this post isn't about me becoming a superfly pimp out here in the rundown ghetto of southern Ukraine. Instead, I'm pimping my mentor English Teacher X's book, "How to Survive Living Abroad" (click here for the Smashwords edition). For those of you who don't know who English Teacher X is...read his blog, and then buy his books. His blog was probably my biggest influence on becoming an English teacher, a profession that I am still currently enjoying. My blog posts, "Two Girls, One Night parts 1 and 2" are included in the book.
As an added incentive for my readers, I added a postscript to the story, which adds a few details to the story that didn't make it into my original posts, and shows the eventual fate of the girls involved. The book is currently free on both Amazon and Smashwords, so there's no excuse to not check it out.
In other news, the Temporary Girlfriend has turned out to be not as temporary as I thought. Also, I might move to another city in Ukraine. More on that soon.
As an added incentive for my readers, I added a postscript to the story, which adds a few details to the story that didn't make it into my original posts, and shows the eventual fate of the girls involved. The book is currently free on both Amazon and Smashwords, so there's no excuse to not check it out.
In other news, the Temporary Girlfriend has turned out to be not as temporary as I thought. Also, I might move to another city in Ukraine. More on that soon.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Update
Just a quick post, as I feel I've been neglecting this blog too much. Things haven't changed much since I last updated. The Temporary Girlfriend is still here, although she is supposed to leave in less than a week. We'll see if she actually does. In the meantime, I've spent most of my time either working or with her. I'll probably have more to post on both of those subjects, but for now, just rest assured that I'm still alive and well. For how long that will remain, I'm not sure, but things are still "OK" at the moment.
Monday, November 4, 2013
Attack of the Crazy
Last week, I was supposed to go to Vinnitsa to meet a "friend" who I knew back in the US. My "friend" was actually a Polish/Ukrainian girl who I dated several years ago. Our dating relationship was kinda brief, as she quickly started to prove that she was a major headcase. However, even after I ended the brief and not very serious relationship, I did meet up with her a few times after. Not for sex, as we never quite made it that far, but to hang out, and to try to pick up a bit of Russian from her.
Shortly before I left for Ukraine, she went on a major campaign of trying to get me to stay. Of course, this proved to be futile, as I wasn't about to be talked out of it by anyone, least of all her. Shortly after I came out here, she called my parents and tried convincing them that I was in danger out here, and spouting off some other crazy things like saying that someone back in the US was trying to kill me. She did make my parents worried, but only in that they thought I would be crazy to keep talking to her. I emailed her and told her to never call my parents again.
Even after all that, though, I agreed to meet up with her when she came out to Ukraine. Her home town is in western Ukraine, so a long bus trip would have awaited me. Two days before I was supposed to go see her, I informed her that I was dating a girl here, and I was hesitant about going to see her, based on past history. This set off the histrionics. She accused me of hurting her by not going to see her, called me every name in the book, with her voice getting that crazy tinge to it that usually spells imminent danger. I hung up on her and didn't answer any more of her calls. That set off a flood of text messages that continued unabated until she left, presumably sometime today.
Since I'm a complete asshole, I decided to share many of these text messages with my readers. Let these serve as a lesson to you all - never stick it in teh crazy! Just imagine how much worse it would be if I actually had.
"Enjoy local sluts,baby boy! She will go to Istanbul and start a "consumation" career, asking Turks topless to buy her drinks and you'd better go to the local KozhVenDispanser,get checked for syphilis and gonorrhea! Adios gringos"
"Good evening ****achka! Is your girlie entertaing rich Turks already?"
" ****ka - moj amerikanec,ja tozhe amerikanka i imeju gorazdo bolshe prav,i ne tolko na **** ! Ukrainskie devushki nujny emu kak razvlechenie,povysit samoocenku ;) "
"Hi ****,you know - you are very mean,heartless and cruel. We made plans to meet long before I came to the Ukraine. You hurt me real bad and I dont deserve it!Never expected that of you, how mean and two-faced you are. Why hurt me so bad???"
"Hows your Turkish Delight doing, ****? Thank you very much for how bad,mean and cruel you have been to me during this trip and breaking our plans"
" **** the Traitor double dater. Girlie is practicing her future job in Istanbul on you - Istanbul Constantinopol goddammit that shit to fucking hell"
Shortly before I left for Ukraine, she went on a major campaign of trying to get me to stay. Of course, this proved to be futile, as I wasn't about to be talked out of it by anyone, least of all her. Shortly after I came out here, she called my parents and tried convincing them that I was in danger out here, and spouting off some other crazy things like saying that someone back in the US was trying to kill me. She did make my parents worried, but only in that they thought I would be crazy to keep talking to her. I emailed her and told her to never call my parents again.
Even after all that, though, I agreed to meet up with her when she came out to Ukraine. Her home town is in western Ukraine, so a long bus trip would have awaited me. Two days before I was supposed to go see her, I informed her that I was dating a girl here, and I was hesitant about going to see her, based on past history. This set off the histrionics. She accused me of hurting her by not going to see her, called me every name in the book, with her voice getting that crazy tinge to it that usually spells imminent danger. I hung up on her and didn't answer any more of her calls. That set off a flood of text messages that continued unabated until she left, presumably sometime today.
Since I'm a complete asshole, I decided to share many of these text messages with my readers. Let these serve as a lesson to you all - never stick it in teh crazy! Just imagine how much worse it would be if I actually had.
"Enjoy local sluts,baby boy! She will go to Istanbul and start a "consumation" career, asking Turks topless to buy her drinks and you'd better go to the local KozhVenDispanser,get checked for syphilis and gonorrhea! Adios gringos"
"Good evening ****achka! Is your girlie entertaing rich Turks already?"
" ****ka - moj amerikanec,ja tozhe amerikanka i imeju gorazdo bolshe prav,i ne tolko na **** ! Ukrainskie devushki nujny emu kak razvlechenie,povysit samoocenku ;) "
"Hi ****,you know - you are very mean,heartless and cruel. We made plans to meet long before I came to the Ukraine. You hurt me real bad and I dont deserve it!Never expected that of you, how mean and two-faced you are. Why hurt me so bad???"
"Hows your Turkish Delight doing, ****? Thank you very much for how bad,mean and cruel you have been to me during this trip and breaking our plans"
" **** the Traitor double dater. Girlie is practicing her future job in Istanbul on you - Istanbul Constantinopol goddammit that shit to fucking hell"
Friday, October 11, 2013
The Temporary Girlfriend
I currently have a temporary girlfriend. Her name is "N" (thankfully not yet another "Z"), and she lives one building away from me. I met her the same way I've been meeting all of the other girls here, through a popular online dating site.
"N" doesn't speak much English, and I don't speak much Russian, but that hasn't stopped anything. I met her only a day after talking to her online, deciding to meet in between our two apartment buildings. As per the norm, she initially refused to go to my apartment, but quickly relented once it was clear that we would have trouble communicating with speech only, and even then, only after making me promise not to put my hands all over her. Needless to say, I ended up putting my hands all over her, but only after a full bottle of cognac later. However, she didn't give in to sex all that easily, and made me wait more than a week for it.
She came over again two nights later, and then the next, and the next...and she's been over every night since, about two weeks later. We hit it off pretty quickly, and our personalities match. She has a great sense of humor, loves spending time with me, and has even cooked dinner for me several times.
So...why is she a "temporary" girlfriend? Because there's a catch (just like with every other girl here). She's leaving for Istanbul in a couple of weeks for work, and will be there for a long time. She doesn't know the exact date yet, and is going to work for a boss who wants her to marry him (typical Turkish clown). I joined in the chorus of all of her friends and family in warning her that she risks being sold into sex slavery, but she says she needs the job to pay off some rather large medical bills. I believe her story, despite the fact that Ukrainian women are generally not to be trusted to tell the truth about anything. Despite all of that, though, I'm thoroughly enjoying my time with her.
"N" doesn't speak much English, and I don't speak much Russian, but that hasn't stopped anything. I met her only a day after talking to her online, deciding to meet in between our two apartment buildings. As per the norm, she initially refused to go to my apartment, but quickly relented once it was clear that we would have trouble communicating with speech only, and even then, only after making me promise not to put my hands all over her. Needless to say, I ended up putting my hands all over her, but only after a full bottle of cognac later. However, she didn't give in to sex all that easily, and made me wait more than a week for it.
She came over again two nights later, and then the next, and the next...and she's been over every night since, about two weeks later. We hit it off pretty quickly, and our personalities match. She has a great sense of humor, loves spending time with me, and has even cooked dinner for me several times.
So...why is she a "temporary" girlfriend? Because there's a catch (just like with every other girl here). She's leaving for Istanbul in a couple of weeks for work, and will be there for a long time. She doesn't know the exact date yet, and is going to work for a boss who wants her to marry him (typical Turkish clown). I joined in the chorus of all of her friends and family in warning her that she risks being sold into sex slavery, but she says she needs the job to pay off some rather large medical bills. I believe her story, despite the fact that Ukrainian women are generally not to be trusted to tell the truth about anything. Despite all of that, though, I'm thoroughly enjoying my time with her.
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