GUYS I DID IT IT HAPPENED THE STRESSFUL NIGHTMARISH APARTMENT SEARCH IS OVER AND I HAVE AN APARTMENT HERE AT SITE!
Like, I thought apartment searching in Chicago was hard?! Oh no. Oh no no no. Oh Randi. No. It’s a million times harder when A. You can’t speak the language, B. Nobody wants to rent to a foreigner, C. You’re working with a Peace Corps-established budget of literal pennies, D. Your apartment has to meet safety and security standards set by Peace Corps, E. You’re a single woman living in a “traditional” culture, F. Your selection of apartments is… really interesting, G. You’re relying on flaky realtors and sketchy websites, H. You need a pre-furnished apartment because you don’t have furniture because you own two suitcases worth of belongings…
…I could go on. Apartment searching in Chicago was easy peasy compared to trying to find housing in the city of Khmelnytskyi!
But! The traumatic search is over! I have moved to my new lil Ukrainian apartment!
OK, so before I get to my apartment itself, lemme just kinda talk with you about what this whole House Hunters process was like.
So, first of all… I am a Peace Corps Volunteer. I am on a budget. Because I live in an oblast center, Peace Corps gives me a housing stipend of 5,000 UAH (roughly $170) per month for rent, bills, utilities, etc. It doesn’t sound like much, but it is technically enough for a somewhat decent and livable place. Nothing new, modern or high-end, but something safe and livable.
Secondly, I’m a foreigner here. And — not only am I a foreigner — I’m a single woman. So a lot of landlords are hesitant to rent to me because I live a very untraditional lifestyle. The first apartment I reached out about, I was immediately rejected because I wasn’t married. Honestly, I took that pretty hard. That kind of discrimination is illegal in the U.S., and I wasn’t used to it.
And finally… Ukrainian apartments are… interesting.
Apartment buildings are pretty nondescript on the outside. Most apartment buildings in Ukraine are what are called “Khrushchyovkas.” These are low-cost Soviet-era apartment blocks that were designed — and then mass-produced — to serve as temporary housing until communism could develop. They were created as a temporary solution to the USSR’s housing shortage in the late 1940s/ early 1950s, and were designed as prefabricated buildings with a 25-year-life span.
But… we all know what happened to the Soviet Union.
So, many of these buildings still stand today. And, furthermore, new apartment buildings are designed in the same style as the khrushchyovkas.
While the outsides of khrushchyovkas look pretty drab, the insides look TOTALLY different. Ukrainian interior design style is bright, colorful, loud, in-your-face and what Americans would call “extra.” Every inch of Ukrainian apartments is covered in colored pattered wallpaper. Like you can see in the tweet above, kitchen cabinets are painted neon colors, ceilings are glossy and recessed, kitchen tiles are covered in vinyl decals, there are chandeliers everywhere… it’s a lot. The thought process behind these design choices is simple. The buildings are drab and depressing on the outside, so Ukrainians did their best to make them bright and cheerful on the outside.
This is just one example of the Soviet mentality that’s still present today.
So, apartment searching! Not only was I trying to find an apartment that was in my budget, walking distance from school, up to safety standards and willing to rent to a foreigner…
…I was also trying to find an apartment that wasn’t… covered in decals of naked Slavic women.
(Let’s never forget this gem.)
So, the method of finding an apartment. Peace Corps encouraged us to use our network. A lot of organizations that Peace Corps works with have had volunteers in the past, so they know the process. In fact, there’s one organization that pretty much always has a volunteer, so there’s a designated volunteer apartment that’s just been handed down from PCV to PCV. Other volunteers — like, ones that work at universities — are able to live in dorms/ student housing for free. Some volunteers in really small remote villages actually don’t have independent housing available, so they have to live with their host families for the duration of service. And then, some just choose to live with their host families.
Lemme say, I adore my host family. I could not possibly love Mama Natasha and Vanya any more. But, Mama Natasha’s husband Igor will be coming back from overseas soon, and I am sure they want their space back. They live in a pretty small apartment, and I feel like a little bit of a burden sometimes. Mama Natasha has been sleeping in the living room since I arrived since she gave me the master bedroom, and while this is normal in Ukrainian culture, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t uncomfortable with the arrangement.
Plus… I’m 30. I’ve lived alone for the better part of the past decade, and I really, really appreciate having my time and space. I knew I definitely wanted my own apartment so I could read, practice yoga, host other PCVs and couchsurfers and just generally live the type of life I’m used to living.
So, using my Peace Corps network to find an apartment. That wasn’t really a thing for me, because I’m the first volunteer at Gymnasium No. 2. All the teachers and administrators at my school spent weeks trying to find me an apartment, but no luck. My school is in a nice part of town, so housing here is pretty expensive. And, a lot of apartments don’t want renters. They want buyers.
So, I started using OLX (the Ukrainian version of Craigslist) and realtors.
It also doesn’t help that I’m noooot a great Peace Corps Volunteer. I was picky. I had a few things that I really, REALLY wanted in an apartment. I wanted:
– A real bed*. Everything in Ukraine is designed to be multi-functional and many apartments are studios with fold-out couches. My back says no thank you. I also wanted a place for guests to sleep, because I knew I’d be hosting other PCVs, friends and couchsurfers.
-A wall-mounted shower head. Many showers here are bathtubs with hand-held shower heads, and that sounded really inconvenient and messy.
-In-unit laundry. This sounds really facetious and high-maintenance but in-unit washing machines are actually common here. Dryers are rare, but most Ukrainians have washing machines. Otherwise, you have to wash your clothing by hand because laundromats aren’t a thing here.
-And, finally, as little wallpaper/ tacky decor as possible.
*A quick note — apartments in Ukraine come pre-furnished. What you see is what you get. When you move into an apartment, you inherit the furniture, decorations, dishes, cookware, etc. Because, well, communism. When I explained to my Ukrainian friends that — in the States — you typically rent an empty white shell of a unit and use a UHaul truck to bring your own furniture, decorations, dishes, etc. everywhere with you when you move, they were SHOCKED. Just another example of American individualism vs. Ukrainian collectivism.
So, with that impossible list in place, we set out to find an apartment! I toured a few places with Oksana, Mama Natasha and Stas. They were all great about translating (except Mama Natasha, ofc, who doesn’t speak English) and were really patient with me as I tried to find a home.
I ended up liking the third apartment I toured, and immediately started all the paperwork to get the lease going.
After about 24 hours, it was mine! Oksana and I met with my new landlord Sasha so she could sign my lease and I could give him the money.
Ironically enough, Sasha and his wife actually intentionally rented to me because I was American. They’re very modern and open-minded — Sasha is an attorney — and they wanted to get to know more about the U.S.
So with all that said, a few photos of my new квартира!
My apartment is actually in a newer building, if you couldn’t tell. It’s modern and clean — no wallpaper! — and will fit my needs perfectly.
An interesting note about Ukrainian apartments. In the U.S., we bill apartments as “one bedroom” or “three bedroom” or whatever. That’s NOT the case here. Apartments are billed as “one room” or “two room” because rooms are multi-purpose. Most Ukrainian apartments are very utilitarian. You enter the apartment and end up in a foyer, and in the foyer are several doors. Each room is separate. There are no open floor plans like there are back in the States.
So, I really liked this apartment because… it didn’t have that! It was billed as a one room, but it did have a little bed nook, so I kind of had a separate living and sleeping area. And — while it did have a foyer — it wasn’t as closed-off as other apartments because only the kitchen and bathroom had doors. The foyer opened into the main room, and the bed nook was hidden from the main entrance.
I had seen enough photos on OLX to know that I wasn’t going to find anything better, so I made it mine right away.
These are all photos from my tour, by the way — I hadn’t moved my things in yet when these photos were taken.
I also have a really nice kitchen! I don’t have a dishwasher, but considering I never had one in Chicago… I’m OK with that.
Here’s a video tour of the full unit. You can turn the sound on for the full experience… just, uh, forgive my language.
My apartment is also in a decent location. I’m a 10-minute (uphill) walk from school, and a 20-minute walk from Mama Natasha’s apartment. I’m kind of in an industrial neighborhood, so there isn’t too much around me.
Despite the Ukrainian tradition of collectivism that left me with a set of lilac-printed dinner plates and a flat screen TV, I did have to buy a few things for my apartment. Luckily Karl — an outgoing PCV — offloaded a bunch of stuff onto me. But I did end up buying some new bedsheets, a really nice desk (I plan to spend a lot of time lesson and club planning, plus studying Ukrainian and Russian), and a couch cover. I’ll probably eventually also buy some decorations and some little things to make me happy.
This is gonna be where I struggle. I’m a damn Libra and I love interior decor too much for my own good. I’m gonna end up spending hundreds of dollars on furniture and decor at Jysk that I’ll just have to give/throw away in 20 months. I can already tell.
My apartment is also up to Peace Corps codes, and I feel very safe here. I’m on the seventh floor (my building has an elevator) and it has an electronic gate outside the parking lot (I even have parking, which I’ll obviously never use, lol). The building door uses a separate electronic key fob, and I have two different keys for my unit door itself.
So, that’s that! There’s what my Peace Corps apartment looks like. It’s definitely one of the nicer units I’ve ever rented… and I know I’m upholding the posh corps stereotype, but that’s just kind of what Khmelnytskyi has to offer.
You can be mad. I’m not. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Oh, and my rent? 5,000 UAH exactly. Unfortunately it doesn’t include bills or utilities so I have to pay for heating and water and gas and whatnot, but I’m OK with that. I’m pretty good with budgeting and since I save money by walking to school and eating cafeteria lunch for free, I figure it will even itself out.
I’m excited to see how I end up making this apartment into my own lil corner of the United States. I’m so excited to finally have my own place here!
This post was originally published Jan. 24, 2021. Its timestamp has been updated to better reflect the timeline of my Peace Corps service.
Interesting to read about your city) Through the eyes of Americans)
It was a very, very nice apartment! I was so lucky.