A rainy day in Kiev

Yesterday was chilly and wet. The good thing about having a three week vacation in one place is that you don't feel the need to spend every waking minute doing touristy things. Cold and rainy outside? Stay in bed with a book! I didn't venture outside until around 3pm, when the downpour dwindled into a fine mist.

I wandered around "my" neighborhood in northern Kiev for a little while, taking pictures of the prime examples of late Soviet architecture and getting bizarre looks from the locals. Tourists downtown taking pictures is commonplace. Who the hell takes photographs of residential neighborhoods in northern Kiev? Oh, right. Me.

I caught the metro downtown to meet up with D, who had just finished taking the GRE (I'll be experiencing this pleasure next week, because obviously one should take the GRE while on vacation in a foreign country) and who, as a result was in desperate need of food and booze. We were on our way to Пузата Хата (which as I mentioned before is D's favorite restaurant chain in Ukraine) when we were approached by three women, asking "Do you speak English?"

They turned out to be from the same city in the US where D is from, and were in Kiev with the Diamond Cutter Institute, teaching yoga and giving presentations on doing business from a Buddhist perspective. At the point at which we encountered them, they were late for a presentation they were supposed to be giving, as they were totally and completely lost. They were also getting pretty wet. And they were very zen about the whole experience. D and I (okay, mainly D) helped by asking locals for directions, then (when that failed) calling their contacts and asking for directions. Eventually, their contact suggested that they stay put and wait for someone to come and pick them up. D explained to their contact where they were (in front of TGI Fridays - yes, there is one in Kiev), and we left them to serenely await their ride. Oddly enough, we were able to watch them from inside Пузата Хата, until their ride finally arrived.

Recounting this event, it all sounds absurdly mundane. For some reason it amused me and D to no end.