Double Coffee bad, Coffee House good

Not much has happened over the last few days - I've mainly been settling in.

I finally managed to find the effort to unpack my clothes, although my electronics are still just sitting on the dresser as I figure out where to put them.

I went to the Wal-Mart equivalent here in town with the CRDF guy who has been helping me get oriented. Spent some money there on a new pan, 10 liters of water, some spices, and other things I needed to get.

Yesterday I spent a few hours with Tim - an MBAEC alum who lives in Kiev. He showed me around town and pointed out some places that I didn't know what they were. A few important ones being a department store/mall type shopping center, a few good bars where xpats will usually go, and a supermarket type grocery store that's relatively close to me.

I went out last night to study and decided to go to a different coffee shop than I'd gone to in the past. That quickly became a bad idea. The booths at this place were too deep to be able to functionally write in a notebook or stare at a book and be comfortable. Besides that, they were playing music in there that was quite loud. Not that I don't like music when I study, but I like my music, and I like it pumped directly into my ears and not being blasted at me. And finally, it was slightly distracting that this coffee shop is apparently the place to take your girlfriend to get some coffee or icecream and make out in the booths.

So whats a guy to do? I got my check after drinking a rather large 'small' expresso, and went to the Coffee House right by my apartment. Certainly I wasn't going to drink more coffee, so I had a chocolate milkshake instead that was awesome.

I still haven't figured out exactly what the settings on my washing machine are. There is a dial that goes from A to M. I've picked up that A,B,& C are small medium and large sizes. After that, its a combination of spinning, rinsing, and rinsing and spinning. I've rinsed my clothes a few times extra when picking a random setting hoping it will spin them and dry them a little more.

Last night was the first night I went to bed at a reasonable time here - and more importantly it was the first time where I was able to fall asleep at a reasonable time. I'm planning on going to the department store this afternoon because I was told that there is an office supply store there. I want to find a sharpie and blank white paper, maybe some flip chart size stuff, and just label the hell out of everything in my apartment.

The tomato sauce I used last night for dinner - my ketchup chicken curry - was good enough to do the job. It's clearly just a sauce and has nothing else in it. I have no idea what the other jar I got is, but I'm starting to think it's tomato paste. If not, there is a large conspiracy going on where the entire world sends its 5 year old ketchup in bottles to Ukraine and passes it off as sauce.

I'm also hoping that today I can find something to use to dry my clothes - a rack of some sort, and possibly something to make my shower a little more showerlike. I'm still holding the shower attachment in one hand while I use the other for washing.