Going to Kiev in 7 days, any tips?

[Neonred 3,564]

I'm going to order one this summer. We are stuck out here in Dillingham (Bush Alaska) for another 14 months until Kira's contract with the hospital is up...then it's back to Big Lake for us. But our lease on this house ends at the end of August and the apt. were moving into doesn't have a washer & dryer hook up, and the laundry mat here is like $20 a load..or even more. So we saw this a few weeks ago and noticed it has accessories like "quick connect fittings", etc... and it has gotten some decent reviews by the looks of it. I figure I can resale it here for what I paid for it when we move back to civilization.

After watching Deadliest Catch, Ice Road Truckers, and Flying Wild Alaska I feel like I know all about life in Alaska. Looks like it's all about fishing, fighting and drinking, and there are almost no roads so you fly around or wait until winter and drive over the ice! LOL

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

After watching Deadliest Catch, Ice Road Truckers, and Flying Wild Alaska I feel like I know all about life in Alaska. Looks like it's all about fishing, fighting and drinking, and there are almost no roads so you fly around or wait until winter and drive over the ice! LOL

I know a few of those peeps Ice Road Truckers...they ham it up a bit for the TV...ratings I guess. Alaska's mellowed out a lot over the years. Back in the day it was all out chaos sometimes with the drinking and fighting. Iv'e got knifed in Kodiak, Anchorage, and shot at in Nome. Those were the days...lol. I can remember having to check in your gun, knife, whatever before entering the Red Dog Saloon over in King Salmon during fishing season. Those days are over for the most part now. Anchorage has turned into Little Seattle, and it's spreading from there.

When I go down to Washington state to visit I don't even think of telling that side of the family some of the story's knowing it would shock the h*ll out of them.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I'm going to order one this summer. We are stuck out here in Dillingham (Bush Alaska) for another 14 months until Kira's contract with the hospital is up...then it's back to Big Lake for us. But our lease on this house ends at the end of August and the apt. were moving into doesn't have a washer & dryer hook up, and the laundry mat here is like $20 a load..or even more. So we saw this a few weeks ago and noticed it has accessories like "quick connect fittings", etc... and it has gotten some decent reviews by the looks of it. I figure I can resale it here for what I paid for it when we move back to civilization.

$20 a load! #######????

I never saw one of these.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

$20 a load! #######????

I never saw one of these.

That includes drying A gallon of milk here cost $9 with taxes. A loaf of bread...$4 if it's on sale. Gas is at or over $6 a gallon, and there's no natural gas here so all heating is done with fuel oil...which cost a small fortune in itself. Welcome to "Village Life"... This place is ####### hole is what it is. No roads in, no roads out. You either fly yours stuff in or bring it in by barge during the summer after the ice is gone. Iv'e got some pics on this laptop of last years first barge getting chocked in ice during the end of April. Sea ice here is usually gone for the season by early May, and doesn't come back until late October, early November.

14 more months until were back in civilization.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dillingham,_Alaska

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

That includes drying A gallon of milk here cost $9 with taxes. A loaf of bread...$4 if it's on sale. Gas is at or over $6 a gallon, and there's no natural gas here so all heating is done with fuel oil...which cost a small fortune in itself. Welcome to "Village Life"... This place is ####### hole is what it is. No roads in, no roads out. You either fly yours stuff in or bring it in by barge during the summer after the ice is gone. Iv'e got some pics on this laptop of last years first barge getting chocked in ice during the end of April. Sea ice here is usually gone for the season by early May, and doesn't come back until late October, early November.

14 more months until were back in civilization.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dillingham,_Alaska

Crazy. The last I was in Alaska, Eagle River and around there, was maybe 20 years ago. I recall things being noticeably more expensive but I do not recall them being so outrageous.

Oil and propane are expensive here also, since we moved to the city and have natural gas our heating bills, even for the larger house, are half what they were for propane on the island. Electricity is about half also, actually, less than half.

So how does Kira get "almost free" clothes and shoes?

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Crazy. The last I was in Alaska, Eagle River and around there, was maybe 20 years ago. I recall things being noticeably more expensive but I do not recall them being so outrageous.

Oil and propane are expensive here also, since we moved to the city and have natural gas our heating bills, even for the larger house, are half what they were for propane on the island. Electricity is about half also, actually, less than half.

So how does Kira get "almost free" clothes and shoes?

Eagle River is on the "road system". Lower 48 - Canada - road system alaska...were bush alaska

They say natural gas back east is going to get really cheap with all the shale finds in Pennsylvania and New York. Your gas bill should really be cheap once they take off....just don't drink the water nor eat the fish in NW PA.

[Brad and Vika 129]

All In One Washer & Dryer

http://www.homedepot.com/Appliances-Laundry-Clothing-Care-All-in-One-Washer-Dryer/h_d1/N-5yc1vZby6n/R-202336996/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

No Home Depot there either

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Eagle River is on the "road system". Lower 48 - Canada - road system alaska...were bush alaska

They say natural gas back east is going to get really cheap with all the shale finds in Pennsylvania and New York. Your gas bill should really be cheap once they take off....just don't drink the water nor eat the fish in NW PA.

Back in the 80s I was making annual Elk hunting trips to the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana. It was very remote and I have to admit I was not entirely comfortable with it. Evebn though I grew up on a ranch in rural west Texas. Being more than 10 hours by horse to the nearest road was a bit un-nerving. I have a lot of respect for someone that can live like that. It is not for me. Alla would go crazy immediately

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

No Home Depot there either

Most of our shopping other than food items is done online... Amazon and free shipping ftw!

Back in the 80s I was making annual Elk hunting trips to the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana. It was very remote and I have to admit I was not entirely comfortable with it. Evebn though I grew up on a ranch in rural west Texas. Being more than 10 hours by horse to the nearest road was a bit un-nerving. I have a lot of respect for someone that can live like that. It is not for me. Alla would go crazy immediately

Kira is the one who gets screwed the most..he he. She is constantly flying out to the villages..and I mean some of them are like population 100 or less, and they fly out in teams of 3. She brings most her food items with her, sleeping bag, and air mattress for sleeping on the floor of the clinics. No real air fields...not like you see most other places. It's just a flat strip of gravel, and ski's on the plane in the winter. It's her own fault though. I brought her out here when she came in from Belarus for the fact I had signed a one year contract with the city of Dillingham. She went and signed a two year contract with the hospital without telling me. When she asked if I would mind if she signed a contract with them, I could see right away she had already and was trying to butter me up. 14 months to go and we are out of this ####### hole!

Back in Belarus she had a PhD, was head something at a vetinary clinic, etc... So they offered her a two year training deal as a Dental Asst. with free schooling, and they will hook her up with a job in Wasilla at the new Native clinic when we get out of here, and then help pay for more schooling if she chooses to go further in that field. So she really couldn't pass it up.

Here's the killer though. They have two Russian teachers here at the University bldg (Satellite) and one teaches English, and his wife teaches Spanish. So they got Kira a free class (grant I'm guessing ?) and she's taking her mid term for Spanish tomorrow. The suck part is every time someone has a problem with their animal they call her. No full time vet here atm. But she's cruising on the Dental Asst. job...she set a record for passing all the exams in record time, and record scores. In the 14 years they have had this program nobody has moved as fast as she has....or course she had a head start with the Vet thing back in Belarus.

[Neonred 3,564]

Most of our shopping other than food items is done online... Amazon and free shipping ftw!

Kira is the one who gets screwed the most..he he. She is constantly flying out to the villages..and I mean some of them are like population 100 or less, and they fly out in teams of 3. She brings most her food items with her, sleeping bag, and air mattress for sleeping on the floor of the clinics. No real air fields...not like you see most other places. It's just a flat strip of gravel, and ski's on the plane in the winter. It's her own fault though. I brought her out here when she came in from Belarus for the fact I had signed a one year contract with the city of Dillingham. She went and signed a two year contract with the hospital without telling me. When she asked if I would mind if she signed a contract with them, I could see right away she had already and was trying to butter me up. 14 months to go and we are out of this ####### hole!

Back in Belarus she had a PhD, was head something at a vetinary clinic, etc... So they offered her a two year training deal as a Dental Asst. with free schooling, and they will hook her up with a job in Wasilla at the new Native clinic when we get out of here, and then help pay for more schooling if she chooses to go further in that field. So she really couldn't pass it up.

Here's the killer though. They have two Russian teachers here at the University bldg (Satellite) and one teaches English, and his wife teaches Spanish. So they got Kira a free class (grant I'm guessing ?) and she's taking her mid term for Spanish tomorrow. The suck part is every time someone has a problem with their animal they call her. No full time vet here atm. But she's cruising on the Dental Asst. job...she set a record for passing all the exams in record time, and record scores. In the 14 years they have had this program nobody has moved as fast as she has....or course she had a head start with the Vet thing back in Belarus.

Does she want a job in Florida? I'm about ready for a new assistant.

Or, in 14 months my daughter graduates from dental school in Louisville KY.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Does she want a job in Florida? I'm about ready for a new assistant.

Or, in 14 months my daughter graduates from dental school in Louisville KY.

If she ever see's that post I'm probably going to lose a wife ! She's never been to the lower 48 other than a 6 hour layover is Chicago (POE) and she spent most of that time taking taxi's to get her cat out of customs. She's seen Florida plenty of times on the travel channel and ask me why we don't see beaches like that up here. Meh...we are flying to Seattle this summer so she will get a first hand look at civilization here in the US.

[easyukraine 1]

she might decide to move you and her back to civilization after she sees it

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

If she ever see's that post I'm probably going to lose a wife ! She's never been to the lower 48 other than a 6 hour layover is Chicago (POE) and she spent most of that time taking taxi's to get her cat out of customs. She's seen Florida plenty of times on the travel channel and ask me why we don't see beaches like that up here. Meh...we are flying to Seattle this summer so she will get a first hand look at civilization here in the US.

And she is from Minsk? No way Alla would adapt to that. But she would say "Now I know why you can drink water from a faucet...good immunity"

she told me that before she moved here. It wasn't that we had clean water, it was because we lived in the "wild" and had developed a secret North American immunity to disease.

[~Johnny~ 27]

Well...I'm all packed and heading out 2pm tomorrow. I have 17 hrs of travel time, here to Memphis then Amsterdam then Kiev. Will be in Kiev around 5pm Friday.

I got a long padlock and did our names with a sharpie permanent marker. I got an extra padlock if we can find someone out there to engrave something in Russian on it.

Got some Jadore perfume, seems to be popular with most of younger lady friends I know.

Got her a few shirts. I got a nice black studded blouse and then I have her a t-shirt from my last rock band called Dirty Doggz. Our female fans were called Love Puppies and we had t-shirts made for the girls that said Love Puppy on the front and Dirty Doggz on the back. Shirts are black with red letters in Chiller font. Typically during a show, the girls that wanted shirts had to earn them by dancing and showing off their "puppies" to the crowd while we played our song called Love Puppy. We had the local radio DJs in Anchorage (Bob & Mark) at Blues Central every Sat night for a month giving out shirts to Love Puppies. It was a cool gimmick. Sooooo I have one left that I'm bring to Kiev

yep..packed lots of dark clothes.

Will grab a rose on the way to airport tomorrow.

Had a good diet going for 3 weeks and fit well into all my clothes, then today somebody at work decided to treat everyone to fried chicken day.....our snack table is right next to my office..been battling to stay away from donuts and king cakes every morning but I lost that battle today ...who can turn down free chicken??

You guys have fun here in RUB VJ land...don't be too popular..it drives the other groups crazy...

Edited March 24, 2011 by ~Johnny~

[james&olya 1,121]

Well...I'm all packed and heading out 2pm tomorrow. I have 17 hrs of travel time, here to Memphis then Amsterdam then Kiev. Will be in Kiev around 5pm Friday.

I got a long padlock and did our names with a sharpie permanent marker. I got an extra padlock if we can find someone out there to engrave something in Russian on it.

Have it engraved in English lettering! It seems everything has more status if it is not cyrillic alphabet. I had a tough time finding printed tee shirts with anything in cyrillic. Everybody that wears that sort of thing buys stuff with English on them. Sometimes what they said didn't make much sense but they didn't care, it was being in English that seemed to matter.

Edited March 24, 2011 by james&olya