The price of fame.

[caladri]

It's not as easy to be a millionaire on paper in Kyiv as it was in Praha (UAH are a factor of ten off from CZK in valuation, plus the stock market hates us), but the barely-post-Soviet culture garners one treatment and attention unheard of outside of the most posh of circles in the US -- in shops and restaurants, at least. Restaurants are much the

Comments

[aquaeri]

... where the staff think they have a much better grasp of English than they do. They smile and nod at everyhing and say "yes" when they think you want something and "no" when they think you're unhappy.

I've never been to the former Soviets, but oh boy does that bring back memories of a Russian PhD student.

[caladri]

*grin* It's really frustrating! They only fix things once we complain a dozen times because they're used to that attitude satisfying people and not having to do anything. Things get fixed trivially once they understand they have to fix things. Argh! It's just so irksome, especially with not speaking the language. I would love nothing more than to chew them out (this is supposed to be a 4 star hotel and we're paying 4 star prices, but the service and accomodation and security don't measure up to that at all - I think they think 4 star means they have a string quartet in the lobby in the evening and a pianist in the afternoon and their bartender dresses well and stands up straight,) but I know I'd get the same mixes of yes and no. I gave it a try yesterday about the Internet always being slow and often not working at all and the girl at the desk was all "well, ok, but what can I do?" I don't expect you to first order fix the problem, I expect you to act as the front-end to the hotel and either get the problem fixed by someone or

[aquaeri]

No worries mate :-).

It does sound really frustrating, and unfortunately (if that Russian student was anything to go by) there's probably not much you can do except collect stories to amaze people with.