Quick Trip to Zhovti Vody

Zhovti Vody - Yellow Waters - was quite the experience although not much of a shock. Yulia, while working in Kiev over the weekend, insisted that I come and see her hometown with Kristina and David. I declined at first thinking its too much of a hassle and out of the way but as I gave it more thought, I decided why not? It's only for a few days and a quick 4 hour express train ride. I bought the ticket and got to packing.

The train didn't leave until 2:45pm so I had the morning to myself. I decided to meet up with Kr and David at their AirBnb to make things easier. It was my first time traveling into city without my cousin but I was confident in the travel as long as I had google maps. Google maps always amazes me with how much information in contains and how it knows every little street or store etc. It shows you exactly where to walk, what buses/metros to take which makes it very difficult to get lost as long as you know how to use it. I actually didn't realize how time consuming traveling without a car is, which is something I'm still getting use to. My cousin's apartment is a bit outside of the city so getting anywhere takes about an hour. Frankly, I enjoy the long rides because I get to see more of the city, observe more of the culture, and listen to music along the way.

I got to their AirBnb around 12pm, the exact time I planned to be there. We had a little bit of time before we head out to the train station, so we just hung out for a bit together. For some reason there was so much traffic during the day so the 2 mile ride took us about 45 min, pushing us very behind on time to make it on the train. We rushed and ran through the station, sitting down just before the scheduled take off time at 2:47pm, feeling lucky that we made it. The time passed by quickly and before I knew it we were already there.

When we arrived, we were picked up by Yulia's brother Max who brought us back to the house. When we got to the house, we were greeted with a warm welcome by Yulia's family who were excited to see us. Yulia's mom, Natasha, prepared us dinner which I couldn't wait to devour because I was so hungry from the long travel with little food. After dinner we got some time to relax and kick back. Yulia showed us how they make their coffee with their huge coffee roaster. It was the coolest thing to see the procedure of the coffee bean roasting.

The next morning, I woke up late, feeling refreshed from the previous day's travel. We had breakfast at the house and hit the road by foot to explore the town. There really wasn't much to explore but it was interesting to see how people live outside the city. It was definitely quite the experience. The town is very old, and beat up with very little to do. The roads and side walks are barely cleaned, still covered with snow and ice. It was actually a bit terrifying walking the streets

because all I could focus on is how to not slip and fall. During our walks, I found myself in a baffling state of mind of how can this the normal commute for the people of this town. Why doesn't anyone care to clean the streets and sidewalks properly? It's because the government doesn't care, so no one else does either.

Like most of Ukraine, the town is very corrupt. A lot of unfinished businesses stand still for years because no one has the money to finish them. There is very little jobs, which makes everything ridiculously cheap. You pay as little as 60 cents for a bowl of pelemeni (dumplings) and a total of $5 for a bottle of shampoo & conditioner. Looking from the outside in, I was continuously wondering how life is possibly here especially for millennials. Many people get trapped in that life style because they simply don't have the finances to move anywhere else. A sense of guilt penetrated through me of why do I deserve the life that I got? After seeing how people live in these poor towns, I was truly reminded to desire less materialist things and find gratification in everything that I am fortunate enough to have already.

We later joined the English Club group that Yulia runs weekly. It was amazing to see everyone who came put the effort into learning a foreign language. We joined the group as guests and met some cool people along the way. I spent the evening hanging out with everyone

before heading back to the city the next morning. In the morning, I was dropped off at the train station with a pretty sweet ride. The entire time I was contemplating whether or not we are even going to make it because the roads were so terrible, covered in ice and snow making the commute twice as long. I got on the train back to the city, leaving with a heart full of gratification. Feeling grateful for getting the chance to meet Yulia's kind family and the reminder of how truly blessed I am given the opportunity to move to the US.