Umbrellas, Ice-Cream, and Flowers

You might be wondering what these three things could possibly have to do with each other and why they would all be in one blog post, but in the short time that I have been in Kyiv I have discovered that they are all present in the daily course of life here.

It has rained at some point everyday for the past week so an umbrella is an essential necessity for one to not only have, but as I have found out a couple of times this week, to carry with you at all times.  I quite enjoy walking in the rain when it's warm and I'm not in a particular hurry to get someplace, but that isn't the case here.  In the packing list we were provided it was suggested we bring an umbrella.  I have one, which I think I inherited after a PTA meeting and it was left behind, that is small and easy to use.  I brought it with me and it stays in my laptop bag that I carry to and from work each day.  I did need to use it one morning last week as we walked to work so I whipped it out and voila, nice and dry underneath it.  Of course, it does me no good, like today, when it started raining while the guys and I were out at lunch and it was still tucked away in my bag in the office.  You could see all the umbrellas popping up as people came out of the metro and you could see all the people without umbrellas standing in doorways waiting for the rain to let up.  We felt the need to get back to the office vs. waiting out the rain so off we went back to work in the rain.  Thankfully it wasn't a downpour, but going back to the office cold and wet does not make for a productive afternoon.  Needless to say we went home early, via the coffee shop to warm up, and I walked home with the umbrella since it was still raining.  I will make sure now every-time I leave to go somewhere that the umbrella comes with me.

I don't think you can go two blocks in Kyiv without seeing some type of ice-cream stall, they're on every corner and in every park and by every Metro stop.  There are the standard pre-made / pre-packaged ice-cream cones and sandwiches that we all know and love but there are also scoop, made on the spot, options as well.  Given how hot and bright it is here I am surprised the ice-cream doesn't melt, but somehow it doesn't.  Everywhere you look someone is eating an ice-cream, it's almost like a necessity, a "you can't go a day without an ice-cream".  People will be walking along the street, or sitting on a park bench, and it's almost like I'm out of place because I'm not eating one.  I'm determined one day after lunch to go over to the park and get one and just stroll around by myself blending in to the local surroundings.  Maybe I'll do that the day I go back to check on the progress of the ladies planting flowers.


Speaking of flowers, it is very lush and green here (because of the rain and sunshine) that there are flowers everywhere.  There are also 24-hour flower shops on most streets, although I think the ice-cream carts outnumber the flower shops.  There are two shops that I pass by each day and I told myself that at some point in this adventure I would stop in and see how much it costs to buy something and bring it back to my room.  Well after the rain and cold and stop at the coffee shop I decided that today was THE day.  I stepped into the shop and the lady invited me to look around, speaking no English and I speaking no Ukrainian we managed to make a deal.  I've noticed that every time I see flowers the color purple really stands out, it's almost prominent in the flower color here and there are so many different shades of purple that I've started snapping pictures of all the different purple flowers I see.  It should be intuitive to everyone that I decided to buy purple flowers - irises - to be specific, they seem to be popular here.  I grow irises back home in my garden and I've had purple ones but nothing this deeply rich in color.  When I was leaving the store the flower lady told me to hold my flowers upside down, blooms down.  I've seen people carrying their flowers like this all week and I have no idea why they do this but it seems to be the norm, so I understood her direction and left the shop with my upside down flowers.  I must admit, for the first time, on my own, I felt like I was a local.  I hope you enjoy the flowers as much as I'm going to for the next few days.

Here are the pictures of all the other purple flowers I've seen (notice all the Irises?)...