Where to start

I think that because there is so much I could write here that I've just kept putting it off. So, I'll start breaking things down in pieces.

A) I had no internet
Even though I put 2 months worth of money into my internet account before I left, somehow the account managed to run out of money. I looked at the online account history and it looks like that for every day I was late on the internet bill they took about 4 UAH out of my account. The funny part is this - because I was 10 UAH short on the amount I left in my account, they slowly brought it down to 0 and then disconnected the service 4 UAH at a time from 90.

B) I had no hot water
This I half expected. Every year, the city of Kiev shuts off hot water for two weeks in rotating sections of the city. My apartment is located in the section of town that had the hot water shut off on July 21st - also known as the day I got back from a 7 week trip.

As a result of this, I got to take 3 'showers' with my electric kettle and a water pitcher. Fortunately this only lasted 3 days, and after that the electric or gas boiler in my apartment building was fixed. I don't really know what was wrong with it, but my landlady had to get someone to come and fix it.