Getting Medical Tests Done in Ukraine

I recently needed to get some blood and medical tests done in Ukraine. I'd never done more than visit a doctor once in a blue moon for some specific problem. What I'd done in the past was to call the Insurance for Foreigners hotline (when I had this insurance) and tell them I was ill. Then they arranged a time and place for me to visit a doctor. This time around I didn't have any insurance and wanted to do some preemptive medical investigations, so I needed to take a different approach.

I was aware that everything I wanted to check up on can be arranged through private clinics. But choosing among a myriad of seemingly identical clinics is a nightmare, so I waited till I left Kiev for Sevastopol to get the work done there. I also figured the prices would be lower.

Sure enough, the number of private clinics in Sevastopol was somewhere between 5 and 10, which made it a lot easier to choose. Still, it was a bit daunting investing the different clinics and trying to make the best decision.

Finally, I went in for my first blood tests. I walked in, asked for the price list, and a few minutes later told the administrator which ones I wanted. I paid at another window, brought the slip back, and was directed into the testing room. Five minutes later I was out. I left my email with the administrator to get my results by email.

This first experience was very encouraging given the simplicity of the process. The registration process was quick and easy and no documents were necessary. Once I got the results back, I decided to see some doctors. I chose a different clinic on a whim and set up my first appointment over the phone. I ended up staying with this clinic. Luckily, in Sevastopol most medical services are provided in a specific neighborhood, making it easy to save time by scheduling doctors visits or analyses for a certain time of day.

The procedure for seeing a doctor is more complex than for doing blood tests. You need a passport, and they create a new account for you. Your citizenship doesn't matter. In Kiev these accounts are almost always on the computer, but the clinic I visited in Sevastopol actually registered me in a dedicated paper booklet that they recorded all my visits in and stored in an expansive shelf in the registration room.

The cost of seeing a doctor varies with the specialist, but it is currently about 100 to 150 UAH (12-19 USD) for the first visit and half that for follow-up visits if they take place within a month of the previous visit. 20 minutes are usually allotted per visit. It's wise to get there 10-15 minutes early in order to register at the front desk and pay for the visit before it's your time to see the doctor.

Both doctors I ended up seeing seemed reasonably professional. One was particularly responsive and listened carefully to what I was saying, and was positive about my online research in the field. I had read positive reviews about the doctor online on some Sevastopol Internet forum. The other doctor was also professional but was less positive about my online research, suggesting that "too much reading can make you think you're ill, blah blah blah." I had to defend my efforts and explain that I'm not prone to hypochondria. This doctor would get lower ratings from me because she seems less attuned to her patients' needs, but she was still sufficiently professional.

It was interesting to read what doctors had written after each appointment with me when I came in the next time, picked up my account booklet and carried it to the doctor for our visit. I took photos of these notes for my personal records.

Both doctors then gave me recommendations — направления — indicating that I should get this or that test done just in case. I then took these to the places they recommended and had the tests done.

My experiences at these specialized labs were also relatively positive. At the first one, there was a confused crowd of people trying to figure out which line was for registration and which was for testing. I marvelled at the poor organization, given that each week the same thing must happen over and over again, and no one at the center takes it upon themselves to at least put clear instructions on the door. Nonetheless, the testing procedure itself was relatively quick and painless.

All along the way I thought of how much money and probably time I was saving over doing the same tests in the U.S., and the fact that at each step along the way I could ask questions and get additional information and was not simply an object on a conveyor belt.

Conclusion

Now that this experience is behind me, I know that addressing health concerns in Ukraine is not difficult at all, and I won't be tempted again to keep putting things off because I don't understand the system. I also feel comfortable about not having health insurance of any kind. Pretty much any problem that has any likelihood of arising can be properly dealt with for a few thousand dollars at most. Having this amount of savings would seem to negate the need for insurance.

The second main lesson learned is that no matter which country you are in, you must take responsibility for your own health into your own hands. You cannot expect to meet a doctor who will examine all areas of your life and identify the cause and effect relationships between diet, lifestyle, emotional life, relationships, stress levels, and your health issues, whatever they may be. Each doctor focuses on his particular specialization and medical solutions to specific problems within that field. So, self-education is essential in order to see the bigger picture and avoid overdependence on doctors who often aren't sure of their diagnoses and lack perfect information about their clients.

More on Healthcare in Ukraine at TryUkraine.com.

The English Language Conquest of the World

As the electronic, cultural, and economic interconnectedness of the world increases, more and more languages of regional importance are losing ground against English, which is now the indisputable global leader. There are very few contenders left that can be considered languages of international communication: Spanish (Latin America), French (France, Quebec, and parts of Africa), Arabic (however, the various dialects of Arabic are quite different, making communication difficult), Chinese (east Asia; some competition between Mandarin and Cantonese), and Russian (former USSR). All of these languages are losing ground to English as their respective regions of dominance increasingly interact with others. Even Chinese will likely not obtain anything near the status of English, as its citizens are learning English at a much faster rate than the rest of the world is learning Chinese. With its outmoded non-phonetic script and challenging tonality, the barriers to learning Chinese are high, whereas English is more accessible to beginners.

The most recent "casualty" in this competition of international languages is Russian, which used to be the primary language of international communication across much of Eurasia. Within as little as 10 or 20 years, its importance could fall to the level of, say, German — a language studied by people outside of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland primarily as a hobby rather than an economic necessity.

While national languages have grown modestly in importance as a result of measures to sideline Russian in Ukraine, the Baltic states, and the Transcaucasia region, the primary — and perhaps surprising — beneficiary has actually been English. English is now the language children are learning in school instead of Russian, it is a popular language for all sorts of public events, and — as opposed to Russian — is hardly ever perceived as a threat by nationalists. One can hold nearly any public event in Kiev in English without hearing complaints from Ukrainian "patriots," while similar events in Russian often draw public disapproval. It is prestigious and fashionable to give businesses and events English names and practically taboo to give them Russian ones except for the most stalwart historically Russian-speaking regions. Any event or entity that has any sort of international orientation is now automatically written in English. It is as much a gesture to increase the perceived importance of the event or entity among locals as a pragmatic measure to ensure that any influential international guests do not experience the slightest linguistic discomfort. The discomfort of non-English speaking visitors/clients is typically not taken into consideration.

In places where it used to be standard practice to duplicate street signs and metro information in Russian, this is now being done in English, and the Russian signs are gone. Across much of the former Soviet periphery, the generation under 20-25 years of age is growing up with better English skills than Russian. Even in countries that use Cyrillic or national alphabets (Armenia, Georgia), people usually send text messages in Latin characters and often post things on Facebook in their respective languages using Latin characters, or simply write in English. Increasingly, younger travelers from former Soviet states are speaking English rather than Russian with locals in other former Soviet states — for instance, Ukrainian-speaking Ukrainians or Estonian-speaking Estonians who visit Georgia. In 10 years or so, English will probably have replaced Russian as the dominant regional language in the Transcaucasus and Baltic states. In other words, Azerbaijanis in Georgia or Lithuanians in Latvia will use English to get around and do business more than Russian. This is where current trends are pointing.

Within countries as well, English is gaining cultural influence faster than most national languages can keep up. This is particularly true in smaller or poorer countries which don't have large and powerful economic and cultural institutions churning out lots of interesting products in the national language. So, for instance, rather than using or creating domestic websites or software, locals use international ones whose default language is English. Instead of getting their own academics to write textbooks for students in the local language (which may require inventing new terminology), many universities make use of foreign textbooks and learning aids, which are usually in English. Much other literature is translated from other languages, usually English. Instead of listening to their own bands, youth listen to "international" music, which means more English. They look up names and information in English online because there is so much more information available. There aren't enough translators, cultural adapters, writers, musicians, home-grown academics and scientists, etc. to meet demand.

The smaller the country, the greater the proportion of materials from English-language sources present in the infosphere. Of former Soviet states, only Russia appears to be populous and dominant enough economically, culturally, and academically to produce enough of its own information products in most spheres. For instance, there are Russian social networks that compete regionally with Facebook (Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki) and Russian-made search engines that compete regionally with Google and are even trying to go international (Yandex). Russia also has, by far, the best-funded science and research institutions (science is all but dead in many post-Soviet states) and the greatest software and literary output of the post-Soviet states. Even in Russia, though, cumulative adoption of English-language culture and information products within Russia is clearly greater than adoption of Russian-language culture and products outside of native Russian speaking regions of Eurasia.

As English comes closer to becoming the single global lingua franca and more and more products are produced in English relative to other languages, individual countries progressively lose their cultural self-containedness and self-sufficiency. The larger and more powerful the country, the longer it can "hold out" against the wave of externally produced English-language culture and information. In general, the smaller a country, the faster and more thoroughly it "internationalizes." In Georgia, for instance, academia and technology are too weak and too poorly funded and staffed to keep up — linguistically — with scientific and technical progress. There are now many things that can't be properly discussed in Georgian because the vocabulary just isn't there. Hence, Georgians are particularly receptive to foreign language penetration — before Russian, now English — and are more outward looking than Russians or even Ukrainians. There was even a serious initiative to make English the second official language despite an almost complete absence of native English speaking Georgian citizens. Throughout the process of foreign linguistic assimilation Georgian has remained the language of traditional culture and values: the dinner table, relationships, music and poetry, rural life, etc.

Even in larger countries with plenty of economic clout, such as Germany, Japan, or Russia, the relative importance of national languages is still eroding as people increasingly look outside their home countries for information and cultural and intellectual products. This process of "opening up to the world" is commonly viewed in a positive light; we have all heard the platitudes that "there is so much we can learn from each other" and "cultural exchange enriches everyone involved." However, contrary to popular belief, cultural exchange is more often one-sided than not, and often extremely so. The incentives for people from the less-dominant culture to learn from and absorb the more-dominant one are greater than vice versa. Imagine a group of equal numbers of American and Ukrainian youth who spend a year together at some isolated camp. Who will gain more from the experience? Will the Americans end up speaking Ukrainian or will the Ukrainians end up speaking English? Will the experience prove more valuable for the Americans in their future careers or for the Ukrainians? Anyone who's been to Ukraine knows that Ukrainians are more susceptible to English-language cultural influence than Americans are to Ukrainian culture. How many non-Ukrainians have been tangibly "enriched" by Ukrainian culture compared to Ukrainians who have been enriched by international (i.e. English-language) culture? Whichever area we look at, we see that far more Ukrainians are being drawn into the predominantly English-language international cultural realm than vice versa. Cultural exchange is really not two-directional, and the people who promote it are usually spokesmen for the dominant culture who have the privilege of experiencing a "taste" of different cultures for "personal enrichment," while people in the less dominant culture are subject to a total onslaught of new information, values, practices, and cultural products coming from the developed West, along with the necessity of learning English to increase their material opportunities in life.

This same pattern of unequal cultural "exchange" holds true even in more powerful countries such as Germany, Japan, and Russia, mentioned above. Consider how so many people in creative professions adopt the use of English to "reach a global audience," and how few of their counterparts in other countries adopt the other language to reach audiences in that country. For instance, there are far more German bands that sing in English than bands from non-German speaking countries that sing in German. In nearly every area of life there are economic and social benefits attached to the use of English and consumption of English-language cultural and information products. Movement in the opposite direction — from a dominant culture to a less dominant one — in contrast, only confers individual benefits or niche economic benefits. Expats from more dominant cultures who settle in less dominant ones tend to be viewed with an incredulity that is proportional to the difference in the level of dominance of the two cultures aggregated with the difference in per-capita GDP. For instance, an American who has settled in Germany might be a bit of an oddity, one who starts a business in Kiev or even Moscow raises many eyebrows, but one who moves to a village in Siberia merits a detailed, sentimental report on national television. In contrast, immigrants from Ethiopia, Ukraine, Russia, Germany, or Japan who speak fluent English barely arouse curiosity in the U.S. Few people question their motivation for immigrating or display much interest in their mother culture and tongue.

The future

It is safe to assume this powerful global anglification trend will remain in place as long as there is a high degree of global economic and cultural interconnectedness and of international travel. Anything that reduces interconnectedness — such as major wars and massive economic downturns — could reverse this trend temporarily (or, in theory, permanently if the upheaval is global in scale). The last bastions of non-English regional usage will probably by China and Latin America, which have large populations already speaking, more or less, a single common language and are geographically removed from the dominant West. It appears no longer crucial to the anglification trend that the U.S. (or U.K., pre-WWI) is the world's most powerful economy. Enough people now speak and use English outside native English-speaking countries that English is perceived more as the language of international communication than as the language of Americans, Brits, Canadians, Aussies, and Kiwis.

If interconnectedness continues to increase and English achieves the status of a universal language of international communication, a number of interesting consequences are conceivable. First, interest in learning foreign languages other than English may drop because there is no longer any necessity, and all other competing regional languages have been displaced. Second, English may gradually take over more and more functions within individual countries, eventually reducing local languages to a kind of everyday vernacular. First this will be done in politics, because it will save costs in paperwork and translation. The academic community will also find it more efficient to just publish most things in English for the sake of information interchange with colleagues worldwide. Public events involving participants from different countries will also be easier to organize and conduct in English. English could eventually become the language of public life and institutions within countries as well, which would elevate it to the status of Latin — a language that originated in west-central Italy, became the public language of western civilization, and remained the language of scholarship and administration across Europe for well over a thousand years after the fall of the Roman Empire.

Learn about Studying in Ukrainian Institutions of Higher Education

On March 29-31 there will be an open-house of Ukrainian colleges and universities (62, from 13 regions of Ukraine) as well as 50 foreign institutions (mainly European). This presentation seems to be geared towards cooperation between institutions with the goal of attracting foreign students, but if you are already in Ukraine and interested in attending a Ukrainian university, this would probably be an excellent chance to talk to people directly and get some useful information. The complete announcement is below, in Ukrainian. The address is the "Ukrainian House" building on Khreschatyk Street, 2 (European Square).

29-31 березня 2012 року в Києві у приміщенні Центру ділового та культурного співробітництва "Український дім" (вул. Хрещатик, 2) відбудуться: щорічна міжнародна спеціалізована виставка "Освіта та кар'єра - 2012" та виставка закордонних навчальних закладів "Освіта за кордоном".  В виставці «Освіта та кар'єра - 2012» приймуть участь 62 українські вищі навчальні заклади з 13 регіонів України, понад 50 закордонних навчальних закладів з Польщі, Греції, Німеччини, Чехії, Кіпру, Великої Британії, Туреччини, Литви, Латвії, Росії, США, Мальти, Австрії, Франції, Нідерландів, Фінляндії, Естонії, ОАЕ. Також у виставці візьмуть участь 20 міжнародних організацій та освітніх агенцій.  31 березня 2012 року (субота) об 11.00 в рамках виставки відбудеться презентація освітніх програм українських вищих навчальних закладів. У презентації приймуть участь представники міжнародних відділів українських вищих навчальних закладів. Запрошуємо до участі у презентації представників освітнього та культурного співробітництва іноземних представництв в Україні, іноземних фірм та представництв, які займаються набором студентів для навчання у вищих навчальних закладах України.  Участь у даній презентації надасть можливість налагодити співпрацю та обмінятись контактами з представниками міжнародних відділів вищих навчальних закладів, дізнатись про програми навчання та перелік спеціальностей ВНЗ тощо.  Участь у презентації є безкоштовною.

Adapting to a New Country: Part 2 — Language

(This is a continuation of the previous post)

In the past I have recommended that people learn as much of the language before their arrival as possible. I would like to revise that. If you can set up language lessons immediately after arrival, then it is probably a better use of your time and energy to just come a few days or weeks earlier and fill that extra time with language study with a tutor, rather than trying (usually unsuccessfully) to find time for independent study while you are busy preparing for your trip. Learning in advance takes more self-discipline than learning on location, and is typically less effective.

My goal for learning Ukrainian or Russian would be very concrete. You need to get over the initial learning hump as quickly as possible so that your knowledge of the language can carry you from there without too much additional effort. Once you are already speaking in the language and understand a large amount of what is being said, moving onward from there is much easier and doesn't require a lot of willpower and study. All that is needed is simply to have people to talk to in the language for a minimum of half an hour to an hour a day and to have a good dictionary (more on this below).

It can take 2 months or less to reach this threshold of somewhere between 1000 and 2000 words (I'd say roughly 1600), or it can take years or even forever if the right conditions or willpower are lacking. If your approach is effective (more on this below), you can assimilate these 1600 or so most useful and oft-repeated words — which I call the "communicative core" of a language — with 150-200 hours of work, which can be compressed into as little as 1.5-3 months. If the process is too drawn out and you keep getting distracted, you may end up taking much longer to get there in terms of hours of effort invested.

If at all possible, I would try to find an independent Russian/Ukrainian tutor in advance or sign up for beginning group classes with a reputable school of Russian/Ukrainian. I would also get some kind of beginning-to-intermediate audiocourse and an electronic dictionary for personal use to complement classwork (more on this below). I would arrange for classes on a near-daily basis. If you're meeting fewer than 3 times a week, it will be easy to lose momentum between lessons.

The order in which you learn things is very important. It is important to focus on what is relevant to your life right now unless you are a bookworm who gets carried away learning the structural nuances of a language. Here is the order I would attack Ukrainian or Russian.

1. The most basic phrases (days 1-2). Things like "hello," "thank you," "please," "excuse me," "do you speak English?", "I don't speak Russian/Ukrainian," "I don't understand," "my name is…", etc., plus very basic grammar associated with these phrases — i.e. conjugating the verbs "to speak" and "to understand," pronouns, and a brief introduction to the most basic grammar principles of Russian/Ukrainian.

2. Cyrillic alphabet + pronunciation (days 2-3). Alphabet and pronunciation go together. Learn all the letters and their best approximate pronunciation. Learn how to write and pronounce your own name. Practice reading some of the signs you'll see all over town ("ресторан," "гастроном," "банк," etc.) and learn what they mean. From here on you can practice reading signs around town and look up or ask your teacher what they mean. Practice repeating words slowly after your teacher to try to grasp the proper pronunciation. Your teacher needs to be sufficiently patient and to be able to explain and demonstrate some of the difficult sounds now and in the future as necessary. It is important to introduce good pronunciation habits from the outset because it will make speaking easier after an initial "break-in" period. Note: all words learned should have accent marks above accented syllables, and nouns should be noted as masculine, feminine, or neuter.

3. An additional complication for Ukraine is that in many mostly Russian-speaking cities almost all the signs are in Ukrainian. This will cost you a bit of time early on, but if you're learning Russian you'll need to learn the Russian equivalents of the words on the signs you're seeing around town (weeks 1-2). Usually the words are very similar, so it shouldn't be terribly difficult. At some point later on (weeks 5-8?) you will also need to learn the fairly short list of differences in pronunciation of Cyrillic letters in Ukrainian vs. Russian, and if you are in a city where much Ukrainian is spoken (Kiev), near the end of the course (weeks 7-8?) it will be very useful to be introduced to the most basic Ukrainian vocabulary (same stuff you learned in the first couple days of Russian classes).

4. Basic vocabulary for specific everyday needs. About 150-200 words at first (weeks 1-2), growing to 2 or 3 times that number by the time you've assimilated the full "communicative core" of 1600 or so words, including names of things you need to buy (groceries, milk, water, beer, banana, ticket, phone card, etc.) or often need to refer to (mobile phone, computer, Internet, wi-fi, apartment, city center, metro, train station, marshrutka, bus stop, office, school, organization, etc.), basic professions and roles (teacher, student, programmer, volunteer, father, mother, children, etc. depending on your activities), countries, nationalities, and languages (America, English, German, Ukrainian, Ukraine, Kiev, France, French, Russia, etc. depending on where you're from), and the "connective vocabulary" necessary to use them ("I am a ___," "I speak ___," "I am from ___," "Do you have ___," "where is ___?", etc., to go, to buy, to want, to be able, to need, etc.), as well as just enough grammar to understand why you say these things the way you do in Russian/Ukrainian. All this new vocabulary should be written in Cyrillic. This will slow things down compared to using transliteration, but it will be much more effective in the long run because you will learn to read, write, and pronounce better in the process.

5. Remaining basic general vocabulary for general communication (1000+ words). The most basic all-purpose vocabulary (my, your, me, him, her, it, that, who, what, when, where, why, because, here, there, today, now, again, at, in, on, etc., as well as numbers) should be introduced in weeks 1-2 with subsequent general vocabulary building upon previous words in order of usage and importance. For instance, "to forget" is appropriate for weeks 5-6 of an 8-week course designed to teach you the communicative core, but not for weeks 1-2. Months, days of the week, and telling time are appropriate for weeks 3-4, but talking about years ("in 1998," etc.) is for weeks 5-8. Grammar principles should be introduced as needed to create and explain dialogues appropriate to your level and current needs. Under no circumstances should your course commence with charts of endings and conjugations. You risk becoming discouraged and delaying your attainment of the communicative threshold by months or years. Introduced bit by bit in the context of things you have heard Ukrainians say or things you need to say yourself, Ukrainian or Russian grammar will be much more accessible and easy to grasp. Vocabulary and grammar that is timely is assimilated much better than untimely vocabulary and grammar. Remember that the connections between words are just as important as the words themselves; if you just know words and no constructions, then you will not be able to guess how to say things as simple as, "I need more time" or "I have a son." General vocabulary should be introduced along with common constructions for using it.

6. Along the way from the beginning to the end, it is necessary to have considerable amounts of unstructured exposure to the language outside of class. This is necessary so that your audial memory can engage in the language learning process by telling you things like "hey, I've heard that word before" and "what does «давай!» mean?" as well as gaining an intuitive feeling for how the language is spoken. Much of this can be achieved by walking around town and going about your daily activities (going to the store, restaurants, cafes, work, parties, people's houses, etc.), but the process can be sped up if you also spend time listening to special dialogues designed for the beginner or intermediate level. These dialogues will be spoken more clearly and slowly and will contain more of the words you have learned or will learn soon in class, so you will be able to get more out of them more quickly. I find it best when the dialogues are exclusively in the foreign language. If they are a complement to studies with a teacher or tutor, then an accompanying textbook is not necessary. If you find you are curious about grammar "ahead of schedule," then look for a grammar textbook to peruse on your own. But don't overdo it and get stressed out by all the things you don't understand. Just use it to satisfy your curiosity and get a second explanation of things in addition to what your teacher has told you, nothing more. Grammar study should assist speaking and comprehension, not vice versa.

7. You will also need a good dictionary — paper or electronic — to be able to look up words on your own. But you shouldn't get too carried away with this process. If you start writing down lots of words that you have not yet heard spoken (i.e. your audial memory is not yet engaged), chances are you will not be able to incorporate them into your active vocabulary until you actually start hearing them spoken around you. Therefore, focus on words you have heard or keep seeing around you, or on words you need right now to be able to say something important ("eggs," "the Internet doesn't work," "I have a cold," etc.). Ideally, the dictionary needs to show accent marks, any shifting accents, case requirements (e.g. "сказáть что кому, о чём" or "через что, кого"), and word morphology: declensions (changing endings) for nouns, conjugations and aspect (perfective or imperfective) for verbs. This way you will be able to obtain answers to most questions you will have about words and their proper usage. These days good electronic dictionaries for portable electronic devices make this easier than ever. For instance, the excellent and voluminous Oxford English-Russian dictionary is now available as an application for the iPhone/iPod/iPad. There is also a decent "Slovoed" dictionary app including other major European languages as well.

If you follow these recommendations, making minor adjustments for your individual needs and learning style, I can guarantee that you will get over that initial learning hump within a few months, making your life in Ukraine that much easier and more multidimensional.

Adapting to a New Country: Part 1

I am currently residing in Tbilisi, Georgia, setting up a second "base" with a new circle of friends and activities. This is a creative response to Ukraine's visa and registration regulations, which make it difficult to stay in the country for more than 90 days out of a 180-day period. I have chosen not to fight the system for the time being and will not attempt to do any complex paperwork to try to stay in Ukraine longer than 90 days at one stretch. In the spring I plan to return to Kiev and Crimea for another 3 months before coming back here or traveling somewhere else. If I choose, I can stay in Georgia for up to a year visa-free, but I can only stay in Ukraine for 90 days at a time.

No one likes having established activities, plans, and relationships in a place and yet not knowing whether they will even be allowed to stay there. This sense of insecurity and unsettledness is a fact of life not only for countless foreign citizens residing in Ukraine, but also for many Ukrainians who live in a system with constantly changing rules that often threaten their livelihoods. Of course, insecurity is not unique to Ukraine or to the former Soviet Union.

Moving to Georgia has given me a new perspective on the process of adapting to a new country and language. I had almost forgotten what it was like to not understand Russian or Ukrainian, to not be able to read signs on the street, to feel awkward addressing people in a foreign language (e.g. Russian or English) not knowing if they'll understand you, to feel slightly tense and disoriented because of your unfamiliarity with my surroundings and with the cultural norms of a place.

For me, the formula for overcoming these initial challenges is to 1) learn as much of the language as possible, 2) make friends with whom I can relax and talk about what's on my mind, based on common interests, and 3) familiarize myself with the place by walking around a lot and seeing what's going on, by studying maps and by reading about the place.

I have tackled all three of these areas at once by 1) arranging in advance for private Georgian lessons 5 days a week starting 3 days after my arrival, 2) staying with couchsurfers (see couchsurfing.org) for the first few days until I found an apartment (through them, by the way), getting involved with Spanish club activities, and taking guitar lessons with a Russian-speaking teacher I found through street advertisements, and 3) picking up maps at the tourist information office and walking around the city center and outlying hills a lot to get to know the place. It has not been painless, but it's been immensely better than starting out with none of the above. Admittedly, my fluency in Russian has given me a big advantage because about half of Georgians are fairly fluent in Russian.

Georgia is like Ukraine in that it has a strange alphabet that creates significant obstacles to learning the language and understanding your surroundings. It takes quite a while to be able to read signs with a speed even remotely approaching your familiarity with your own alphabet.

Based on my experience so far adapting to Georgia, I would like to give some specific recommendations for foreigners who visit Ukraine under similar circumstances (for several months, knowing nobody or almost nobody before arrival). My insight comes from having gone through this multiple times in different countries where different languages are spoken. Georgian will be the ninth language I have studied (counting English) and the fifth country I've lived in for an extended period of time.

Watch for the next post!

Two Months in Sevastopol, Crimea

In a recent post I mentioned that I had just moved to Sevastopol. Here's a report on my two months there.

1. House

Several thousand dollars was spent on completing basic construction of the house, making it liveable for year-round use. Almost all this money went to a work brigade that we have been very satisfied with. The workers don't drink and do their job well, and the foreman accounts for all money spent and comes around periodically to take a look, give instructions to the workers, and collect money.

Conditions in the house are still very spartan, but there is now a functional kitchen (small water tank, sink with drain into bucket, electric stove, samovar, fridge, countertop) and shower/bath (80 liter washbin behind a curtain where you can pour water over yourself). One does have to carry water around a lot, but the inconvenience is relatively minor. It's liveable. There are two electrical heaters that provide adequate heating for winter.

It is refreshing to live on your own land after being in the city for so long. And it's not decorative landscaping like modern suburban dwellings, but an actual plot of land with natural soil where useful things grow or can be grown. It's nice to walk out at night and see the pitch black sky, to sleep in total silence, and to wake up in the morning and walk around the lot to see what's going on.

2. City

Transportation to the city from the dacha turned out to be adequate and even somewhat better than expected. On the way into town you can just hail down a car and get in for the same price as a bus. On average it takes about 35 minutes to get to the center. This is better than most places around Kiev. Buses are not as full and I almost always get a seat. Buses run from 6:30 to 20:30 and have a semi-predictable schedule. Many evenings I end up returning on the last bus, which is convenient because it leaves at a set time. On rare instances I have taken a taxi to get home.

Interestingly, Sevastopol is the only place I know in Ukraine where they say "topik" instead of "marshrutka" (minibus) and passengers pay the fare as they exit. In fact, people often get off through the back door and walk up to the front door to pass fare to the driver as they leave.

Sevastopol has a lot less going on than Kiev, but I have met a number of interesting people and am looking forward to meeting more. Our Spanish club has also been successful, with 5 regulars.

3. Other benefits

How about fresh goat's milk and homemade dairy products? Some berries can be collected in the vicinity. For the first time in a long time I've been eating quite a bit of local produce.

4. Beach

The local beach is awesome. Predictably, I ended up not getting out there as often as predicted — only about once a week. But still... The water is now quite cold (10 C), but there are people who swim in it year-round, which supposedly boosts the immune system and provides other benefits. The 170-meter drop down to the beach provides an excellent workout.

There is also an archaeological dig 10 minutes away that I still haven't gotten around to looking at.

5. Hiking

With the "5th Kilometer" bus station nearby, there are a lot of options for getting into the hills and doing some hiking. I've been on 4 day hikes in 2 months, which isn't much, but I was tied down by the ongoing construction for much of the period. Here are some pictures.

Stray Dogs and Cats in Ukraine

Many visitors to Ukraine will notice the fairly large numbers of stray cats and dogs in population centers, both in central areas and parks and around the outskirts of towns. I think there are four reasons why this may be the case.

1. Perhaps the main reason is that there are large amounts of edible waste around. This is what probably first attracted wolves to human settlements where they began to get used to humans and eventually became domesticated. In Ukraine as in other countries large amounts of food are thrown away, and garbage collection is often slow and/or incomplete. This readily available source of food will end up feeding somebody, whether it's rats, cats, or dogs. I don't recall ever seeing rats in Ukraine. Perhaps that's because of the large numbers of stray cats and dogs. I saw rats in Oslo, but no stray dogs. Rats are much harder to liquidate.
   
   
2. Many Ukrainians are lenient with their pets. They like to let them off their leashes during walks so that they can run around freely. People who own private homes often let their dogs off their leash, perhaps for improved home security or perhaps to allow the dog to forage for itself, saving them some food expense. People in rural areas or dachas often never put their dogs on leashes in the first place, and they roam around freely and do "who knows what" during their nightly patrols around the neighborhood. The same goes for cats in districts with private homes or dachas. This behavior on the part of pet owners ensures a steady stream of escaped animals or animals born in the wild that then become part of the stray animal community. Occasionally owners may consciously release their pets because they are unable or unwilling to care for them, but I believe this happens less frequently.
   
   
3. By not becoming official caretakers of pets, property owners can enjoy all the benefits of having a pet without the responsibility. For instance, a lumberyard or similar industrial lot can simply allow some local stray dogs to hang around on their lot and occasionally give them something to eat, and they will effectively enjoy all the benefits of canine security without feeling obligated to do anything for the dogs (take care of their health, etc.). People in a dacha cooperative might see a cute kitten playing in their yard one day and start offering it food so that they can pet it, play with it, and watch it grow. If they leave for the week, they don't have to leave food for the kitten, knowing that it has other sources and isn't limited to their plot alone and that it will visit them the following weekend when they come back.
   
   
4. For whatever reasons, local governments usually do not do much to enforce official regulations regarding pet ownership or deal with the stray animal situation until someone is seriously mauled or even bitten to death or catches rabies. When something like this happens, temporary solutions are usually pursued, such as rounding up a particular pack of stray dogs (usually only part of the pack, as the rest escape).

Ease of Doing Business in Former Soviet Union Countries

The countries of the Former Soviet Union (FSU) share a common legacy but have taken very different economic paths during the past 20 years. This report on the ease of doing business may be of interest to many readers. 183 countries were ranked, including all FSU countries except Turkmenistan.

Below are FSU countries listed by number in the ranking with their change in position from 2010 to 2011, annual GNI (gross national income, which fails to account for the shadow economy) per capita, and population in millions. Follow the links to get more information about each country's rating.

16. Georgia (+1) / $2690 / 4.6 million

21. Latvia (+10) / $11620 / 2.2

24. Estonia (-6) / $14360 / 1.3

27. Lithuania (-2) / $11400 / 3.2

47. Kazakhstan (+11) / $7440 / 16.6

55. Armenia (+6) / $3060 / 3.3

66. Azerbaijan (+3) / $5180 / 9.2

69. Belarus (+22) / $6030 / 9.5

70. Kyrgyzstan (-3) / $880 / 5.5

81. Moldova (+18) / $1810 / 3.6

120. Russia (+4) / $9910 / 142.9

147. Tajikistan (+5) / $780 / 8.0

152. Ukraine (-3) / $3010 / 45.9 (download full report here)

166. Uzbekistan (-2) / $1280 / 27.6

Average change in rating from 2010 to 2011 for FSU countries: +4.6

Average GNI: $5675, or $3824 not including Baltic states, which are the three wealthiest per capita with an average GNI of $12460

Observations:

• Georgia is the lowest-GNI country in the top 44.
• Belarus and Kazakhstan are both substantially higher-income and easier for doing business than Ukraine.
• Ukraine is ranked lowest in Europe in terms of ease of doing business.
• Russia is three times wealthier per capita but nearly as hard to do business in as Ukraine.
• The 3 Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) are at nearly the same level of income and ease of doing business, as are the 3 Transcaucasian states (Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan).
• Of the Central Asian republics, Kazakhstan is both by far the wealthiest and the easiest for doing business.
• Among the bottom 35 countries, Ukraine is 3rd in terms of income per capita. Only Venezuela and Angola are "better off."
• Most of the most populous FSU countries (Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan) are in the bottom half of the ranking, while all of the least populous (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Armenia, Moldova, and Georgia) are in the top half.

Visa Requirements for Ukrainians to Travel to Countries Around the World

Many of you may find this article at Wikipedia useful.

As you can see, many countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the former USSR are accessible to Ukrainians for visa-free or visa-upon-arrival travel. Naturally, these are not the countries most Ukrainians are interested in visiting. А зря! Latin America offers quite a nice lifestyle with a culture more compatible with Ukrainian/Russian culture than most western nations. Turkey, Iran, Kenya, Namibia, Nepal, and Thailand are fantastic travel destinations. And Russia and the 'Stans cover an enormous portion of the Earth's land surface.

Compare Ukrainians' opportunities with those of Russian citizens. The latter have some advantages, particularly with regards to South America, most of which offers Russian citizens visa-free travel. Otherwise, the maps are quite similar.

Moving to Sevastopol

Who would've thought that after 9 years in Kiev I would move to another city in Ukraine? I like Kiev and have a myriad of activities, friends, and contacts there to keep my busy. But for the past several years I have felt that Kiev is not a place I would like to settle long term. It is too big, too polluted, too far from any mountains or other areas of outstanding natural beauty, and the real estate is too costly for me to realistically buy anything decent in the foreseeable future.

The realization that I would not be able to stay in Ukraine long-term anyway because of the immigration restrictions led me to begin thinking about spending more time elsewhere. Just a week later, I began planning my move to Sevastopol, Crimea. Here I will also be subject to the 90/180 rule, but there are big advantages here for me. I can live at my own dacha, carefully chosen in a convenient location just outside the city.

Dacha plots are not available for purchase by foreign citizens unless they have been privatized. Privatized plots cost quite a bit more. 6 or 7 years ago a Ukrainian friend and I bought an unprivatized plot together on her name and began the privatization process, which is standard and can be arranged for a set fee so that the owners just pay and forget about it. A year or so later, the process was completed.

I am a geographer (by nature, if not yet by profession), and I understand that location is everything. Here are the criteria we considered when choosing the plot:

• close to bus stops where city buses run
• walking distance to an awesome beach (arguably the most scenic in the region)
• at least a few neighbors live at their dacha year-round
• some investment in construction is taking place in the vicinity
• electricity and water
• not too close to the water that seaspray would suppress plant growth

Furthermore, because Crimean cities are small, it is realistic to live at a dacha just outside the city and enjoy the benefits of city life while living in a more tranquil location. In Kiev this is basically impossible due to the large size of the city.

Crimea has tons of scenic variety — sea, mountains, cities, historical sites, etc. — plus great numbers of tourists from all over Ukraine and the former USSR. Many places in Crimea attract interesting types of people — artists, scientists, wanderers, adherents of various teachings, etc.

I have long felt that this might be the best place for me within Ukraine in terms of lifestyle. Until a few years ago I was basically tied down to Kiev because of work, but now I can work from anywhere if I have Internet.

In the past year a modest house has been built on the dacha plot, and at the moment some relatives of my friend are installing the electrical wiring. Within a month this place will be quite liveable, albeit with primitive "facilities."

Now I am beginning to establish a social life in Sevastopol and Crimea. I already have some acquaintances here, and I've established a Spanish conversation club in town. All Spanish speakers are invited, particularly natives. My daily routine includes a hike down to the spectacular "Jasper Beach," with nearly 800 steps leading down a 170 m high slope to the secluded beach below (see some photos here). It's just a short bus ride away to a kind of avtovokzal (bus station) where one can take buses to destinations in the hills to the east where all the good hiking begins. From the dacha to the center of Sevastopol it's typically about a 40 minute trip, which is average for living in Kiev. But here I breathe fresh air and live in my own house.

The plot cost $4500 USD, as much as $12-15k will be invested total in the house and landscaping, the rent is nonexistent, and utilities amount to about $10 a month.