Thank you, Romania!

Food bought in the supermarket comes packaged with instructions and ingrediences written in cyrillic (Ukrainian and/or Russian). The translations for the neighboring countries are of no big help either: Hungarian, Slovak, Tatchik, etc. are not among the languages we master. But luckily, Romania is not far away. And as we experience regularly, Romanian is a VERY FAMILIAR language, that we don't speak. But we can understand it very easily on food-packaging. We hadn't expected this easy way out! And we are therefore often very thankful for the existence of the latin language Romanian!

Problème de gaz (écrit par Isabelle 7 ans)

Les Russes se disputent depuis pas longtemps avec les Ukrainiens.
Les Russes, disent que les Ukrainiens n´ont pas assez paiyes pour le gaz.
Moi, je dirais que les Ukrainiens doivent soi donner un peu d´argent au Russes ou ils achettent le gaz autrepart.

Ukrainian version of Simplicity

Before the X-mas vacation, Peter tried to set up a voice mailbox to his Ukrainian mobile and started that activity in the last hour before leaving … to cut it short, it didn’t work out like that.

Having been in mobile business for some time, and having eaten the “1-click” requirements for services to be successful, we need to share with you this piece of original text from Peter’s customer’s web-site (yes, it exists also in English, that’s the best news for the start !!!).

Here it goes:
==============================================================
How to connect and setup Voice Mail service?

In order to connect service you should submit an application in Customer Care Centres or address your coordinator.

Personal mailbox setup:
call 775 number;
enter default password 4444 and press #;
listen to the general instructions in order to learn how to use service and:
— setup new password (1—6 symbols);
— record Ordinary Greetings and Greetings When The Line Is Busy;
— record Voice Signature.

Advice! Think of and record interesting greetings and your friends will enjoy leaving messages for you.

!!! remark from the editor: if you think that’s reasonable and you are getting there, read further. For your information: if you call 775, the system will simply hang up. Here is what you get when you follow the link “coordinator”:

Coordinator is a representative of your company authorized to control servicing of your employees in XXXX's (name known to the editor) network.
While concluding an agreement you, as well, register Coordinator. After submitting application for coordinator's rights registration and letter of attorney, Coordinator will be able to resolve the majority of servicing questions by phone or with the help of computer.
==============================================================

!!! remark from the editor: please note that your company coordinator will be “able to resolve the majority of servicing questions by phone or with the help of computer” !!!

Let’s skip the other 3 links that are needed, you should have received the message …. if you are able to set up your personal voice mail in the network of Peter’s customer within less than 1 week, you deserve a gold medal and get a free subscription for the time of your stay in our guest room!!!

Final remark: Peter tried again today, with the help of his assistant, as the voice services are only in Ukranian. After 30 minutes calling all the mentioned numbers and trying everything, they gave up. Let’s hope our “Co-ordinator” has the right document, power of attorney and rights registered.

Let's not mention the name of this mobile network operator here at this point in time.

Winter in the City

With the New Yyear, winter has arrived in Kyiv. Some people say, temperatures were down to -20C last week. It's now round 0 to -5, with a lot of sun, so a perfect day for winter sports. We equip ourselves with skating shoes and off we go together with Peter's colleagues Natasha and Sergey and their families to the skating place "Nauka" in the west of Kyiv. Skating is popular here, many shopping centers offer indoor skating to keep people longer in the shopping mall.

During the "Sportwoche" in Amstetten, we had all done this for the first time since long, but as always, don't count on kids loving the same thing twice in a row. Nathalie loves her new shoes and is off quickly. Isabelle groans a bit that she still has her old shoes, but after some time enjoys the skating also very much. When after 1 hour the ice-machine (with steaming Diesel engine, a nice experience in the "Traglufthalle") comes back to repair the ice, we take the chance and head for a pizza with the whole crowd.

After lunch we need more of the ice, so we're off to Obolon, for some adventures on the frozen Dnipro. The ice some 15cm thick, and quite many try their luck ice-fishing. They drill holes with a real drill (see the photo) or use a simple lance.

We make it to one island and continue our adventure there. We find a tree which must be a copy of Pippi Langstrumpf's tree in which she keeps her lemonade, but as it's too cold, the lemonade is frozen to blocks!

On the way back to our car, we have a short talk with one ice fisher, who just pulls out a fish as we speak to him.

Time to go home, it won't get better and the cold gets to our toes, next time we all come with our snow boots!

gas, heat, internet

Thursday, January 8th
On January 7th we flew back home to Kyiv and all we read about in the papers during the trip were the problems between Naftogas and Gazprom, or rather between Ukraine and Russia.
We were hoping for a warm and dry flat, but did not really dare expect it to be that way.
After a perfect trip we landed in our flat……. and everything was fine! Except for the cold air that comes through the gaps between walls and windows…..everything is working as it should: water, heating, electricity.
The only non-functioning utility is the internet.
On our first morning back home, Svetlana our Russian teacher came punctually as ever and started off by speaking only Russian. In the past weeks, she had mostly been speaking German in between the exercises and now we accelerate the pace. This is what we wanted, but did we really…………?
Then I’m back on the phone with our internet(non-)provider. Unfortunately, Anton (who has become a constant help over the phone in the past months, because he seems to be the only English speaker at this telecom company) is not on duty today, so the first answer is “please call back on Monday”. Not surprisingly, this answer is not accepted and I demand help today. “We will call you back”. Not having been called back in the afternoon, I make a second attempt: “The master will call you in one hour.” Everyone who can hold a hammer or a saw is called a master in this part of the world, but I assume/hope that it is Anton that they are referring to. After one-and-a-half hours, the next attempt by me (!) leads to Anton. Kids cry in the background, he seems to be at home. He gives a mobile number and asks to call him again in 20 minutes. 19 minutes later, he calls J.
After many “plug in, plug out, wait, what lights blink?, plug out,….”, he finally gives up! This has never happened before!
He tells me to call the call center again in half an hour. He has already advised them to send someone out to our place and I need to make an appointment. When I call, the lady immediately says that a “specialist” will come out tomorrow and call me shortly before.

Friday, January 9th
No internet, no specialist.
No warm water, no heating. The kids take cold showers and then invent their own contingent-plan: they fill plastic bottles with water and place them under their switched-on bedside lamps. They hope to create a warm water reservoir big enough for the next parental shower-attack.
At 11am, the water is back.
I make my first call of the day to Telesistema. The same Marina that was on duty yesterday says that the specialist would come on Monday. Her administrator (apparently some sort of boss) had told her so. Unfortunately, she is unable to connect me directly to this boss, because I don’t speak any Russian.
I call Peter for help. Shortly after that, Yaroslav calls me back, takes all the info and goes to battle with Telesistema. Half an hour later he concedes defeat. Apparently, the problem is much bigger than us.
Then, just before going to bed, one last check of the control lights and surprise: the internet is back!
No one will ever tell us, what was wrong this time and how it was fixed, but for now, I just enjoy!