Ukraine: First Impressions

This post is admittedly quite late as I’ve been out of Ukraine for a couple of months now. But I thought I’d write up how my expectations compared with my first impressions of Ukraine.

My visit to Ukraine was eye-opening to say the least. Growing up in Canada as a Ukrainian-Canadian, my entire life I’d been exposed to Ukrainian culture, food, language, etc. I had little difficulty reading the signs in Ukrainian or Russian (one Polish guy I met called Ukrainian the “spider language”, because of the letter “ж” (zh) reminded him of spiders) and, after being in Poland for a couple months already, I’d heard about the current state of affairs in Ukraine already.

The shock came when I found out just how divided the country is. Moving from West to East there is a noticeable divide in attitude, language, and mood. Before Ukraine I’d often heard that the country is divided into two parts but it never sank in until I actually saw it first-hand. It’s amazing to travel across a country and not only see but feel the change as you travel. The West is less developed industrially than the East but probably holds the greater amount of traditional Ukrainian culture. The East, however, is not only more industrialized but much more practical in terms of which market it panders to: Russia. But that’s what I could figure out judging by what I’d heard and read previously and what I was seeing. I may be wrong.

My absolute first impression of Ukraine after being there for a week was “What a derelict shit-hole.” Granted, I had arrived in winter so the place was a mess with slush and ice and the trees were barren of leaves. Aside from the stone-faced people walking around, there was little sign of life in Lviv when I arrived. An extra factor that contributed to my first impression and one that’s completely my own fault was that I had arrived over budget from Poland and, even worse, forgot the PIN to my debit card. As I would later learn, no money, no honey.

As a result, I applied for and accepted a job as an English teacher in Kharkiv, Ukraine. I had gone from southeastern Poland to far eastern Ukraine is less than a week. In that week I’d be on the move every day while being trained in the school’s curriculum. But that story will have to wait. My first week in Ukraine, needless to say, was a blur.

Money matters aside, I couldn’t help but well up with tears to see the country that my grandfather had left behind. Had he stayed I would not be enjoying the freedom I enjoy today. To see my ancestral homeland with my own eyes and to walk the ground that my ancestors walked was humbling and heart-rending all in one. But I chose to go there. Although I was shocked, I was determined to see the brighter side of life in Ukraine.

So those were my first impressions of Ukraine. I would spend four months in Ukraine, visiting cities such as Lviv, Kyiv, Poltava, but I would spend most of my time in Kharkiv.