I just want my money...

Today we just moved into apartment for the next week and Ira's mom arrived from Moscow this morning.  Funny story.  We were moving and down to like 2400 grivni cash (the Ukraine currency) which is like $300.  I wanted to get some more $$$ so we could pay for this place for a week or whatever the woman wanted in one chunk.  Everything here is cash.  So we went by the ATM in the city we went to to get Ira's mom from the train station. 30 minutes away.  Big city of maybe 100k people.  The ATM was out of $$.   Ok, so we come back, get the apartment, woman is freaking out because she wants 3150 for the week and we just don't have it.  We give her 2k and are down to like 10 bucks to feed ourselves for the day (easy with the big fruits/veggies stands in this town, super cheap).  She says there is ATM in town.  We go by there and it is out of $$.  We call her and tell her and she freaks out, tells Ira that they fill up ATM at 10am and so she wants the $$ at 10:30.  Ira tells her to go pound sand, we will rest then take care of it at our leisure.  Ok.

So we go back by at like 5 and it still has no $$.  We walk the 15 minutes to kazantip, hang out there for awhile, check the ATM there - no $$$.  Grrr.  Had just spent our last 20 grivnas on a cup of coffee and 2l of water we'd since drank.  Walked back home, and while passing the ATM in our village see about 4 people in line.  It looked like someone was working on it.  We then waited in line for about 30 minutes while the line grew to like 50 people.  They got it loaded up and we got the cash at like 9pm.  Phew.  Crazy

But yeah, it's an adventure.  We are learning a lot about the experience and could be great hosts next year.  Land is super cheap here and for about 100k you could open a little hotel type thing no problem.  We're thinking about doing something like that if for nothing else than a good place to stay for our friends that could pay for itself in a few years I'm pretty sure.

The kids (24 year old couple) hired to run the first place we were here were saying that she had left a good job in a city, she had a college education, doing paperwork that paid her about $80/mo.  So labor is basically free.  Crazy. She said someone well off in Ukraine makes $200/mo.

It's a lot of fun and quality of life just improved dramatically with our AC and iPhones.  It feels quite safe from crime, but you are more than welcome to seriously mess up your health in one of a million opportunities.

They also take serious advantage of the non-Russian speakers we have talked to...