You Say You Want a Revolution?

Unless you've been living under a rock, or just never check up on the latest world news, you're probably aware that Ukraine has been experiencing a revolution of sorts here the last few months. I imagine the few of you who read this blog are well aware of this fact, so I'm sure I don't need to rehash the events for you.

However, one thing I'd like to mention is something that's rarely mentioned in any news items. Despite what CNN or most other Western news outlets would have you believe, not everyone here in Ukraine agrees with the throngs of protestors who have started a civil war in Kiev. I live in the eastern part of Ukraine, and most people here are firmly against the protestors. Pro-government rallies have been frequent, and there's been absolutely no sympathy or desire for change in the government.

Having said that, should this revolution cause a drastic change in the government, an already fragmented nation is going to fragment even more. Crimea is only part of Ukraine as an autonomous republic, and has already threatened to secede from the country should the political situation not resolve itself. Most of Eastern and Southern Ukraine also has much closer ties to Russia, and has little desire to join the EU. Most residents speak Russian on the street, even through the official language of the country is Ukrainian, and many feel that the language and cutlture is being forced on them by the people in the west.

In other words...don't expect this country to stabilize anytime soon. Which is a shame, really, as this is a wonderful country with wonderful people. They deserve better than this.

An Interesting Conversation

I recently started talking to a Ukrainian girl who is from my previous city, but now lives in the US. She's provided some interesting insights on the view of America from an immigrant's viewpoint, but one part of our conversation helped to confirm what most men who come here say.

Me: i have another question for you...what do you think of american women?

Her: mmm   
honest?

Me: yes, of course   

Her: a lot of them overweight or healthy to much, too independent and not caring like our girls, and i don't like outfits here, look like second hand   
they are try to be like a men
wich i hate about all situation

Me: yes, i agree with you 100%   
so you think it's no surprise that american men would look for a wife in Ukraine, yes?

Her: and i dont see make up often   
yes
i think it is logical then
and men here good looking

So, there you have it. Even Ukrainian women agree that they're far superior to their American counterparts.

Slippery Slope

So, I suppose I just experienced my first "real" winter here in Ukraine. Shortly after arriving in my new city, the weather took a turn for the colder...much, much colder. Temperatures were around -20C for most of that time, up until a week ago. Every flat surface was covered in at least a centimeter of ice. The snow that eventually came helped to maintain some traction, but every day, my walk to work was a struggle just to stay on my feet. Thankfully, I only fell once, a few days ago just after walking out the door of my apartment building. I landed flat on my ass, so nothing beyond my ego was hurt.

Work has been proceeding nicely. Unfortunately, my social life hasn't been as smooth. Not that it's been rough, it's just been extremely uneventful. I've only met up with a few people here, although one of those was just this last weekend, with the promise of more. I should be able to find a date for Valentine's Day, just in case I decide I need one. I still haven't made up my mind on that yet. Anyways, that's all for now. At least until things become a little less boring.

Relocation

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.

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.

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.

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.