my impressions

As an American living/working/visiting in Ukraine, a common question I'm asked is "What are your impressions of _______?" It's apparently a literal translation of a question in Ukrainian, since whenever I ask someone to translate it for me (because I can never remember the word in Ukrainian), they say "impressions". So here are some random impressions I've had since arriving in Balaklia:

~There are now two coffee shops and a pizza place that delivers (not that I've been to any of them yet). Be still, my beating heart.
~There is also a second supermarket, twice the size of the first one (which came while I lived here). It offers such delicacies as Brie, which you used to only be able to find in Kharkiv. (I don't actually want Brie, I'm just amazed you can find it here now.)
~I lived here two years and didn't know that a) both the college and the lyceum have dorms and b) the name of the bus stop by the Yukhymetses' house (Sichnya).
~I did a fairly good job of packing clothes for this trip. Packing a non-wrinklable black skirt and a black cardigan was a stroke of genius, as I wear them almost every day. Tif's suggestion of throwing in my long denim skirt for around the house was also an excellent idea.
~That said, the weather here is a bit cooler than I had hoped. It's working, but I should have packed one more long-sleeved shirt.
~Everyone is much more computer/Internet-savvy than they were two years ago. Nadia is quite proficient with the computer now and spends her evenings looking up old friends and relatives on Odnoklassniki.ru, which is basically Classmates.com.
~One should never try and do educational research during the last two weeks of the school year.
~I spent a semester learning about informed consent and confidentiality. It's all a lot more complicated when you're doing research in a culture where these are not concepts that people have spent much time thinking about.
~My former students understand English a lot better than they speak it. I'm amazed at how much they understand.
~12 kids are a lot. But I wouldn't want to be staying anywhere else in town while I'm here on a visit.
~The economic crisis has really hit home here. Everyone talks about it. Nadia said that this month the government hasn't sent them money for raising the kids (for anyone unaware, the Y family is sort of a permanent foster care home, except that the children look at it as their own home and family...they just aren't legally adopted). She's not sure what they're going to do if this continues.
~It's really good to be back. Everyone's made me feel very welcome.