Cultural Observations: Eastern European ‘luxury’ (Embarrassing note to friends:

Cultural Observations: Eastern European ‘luxury’

(Embarrassing note to friends: We don’t have a car. We have a driver, and a housekeeper, and someone else to help too – so oversized the two bedroom apartment is never empty. And that apartment plus all the ‘help’ are about equal in cost to a decent apartment in Seattle – not much at all. Now, you can do the same thing in much of the rest of the world, but there is a definite class and culture difference between you and the staff. Whereas here in eastern Europe, it’s more like hiring your extended family and sort of living with them. And I gotta tell, ya’, if it wasn’t for the damned banking problem here, and the inability to ship stuff to from major retailers to Ukraine, I can’t imagine a better place or way to live. Yeah, it’s a bit dirty and run-down everywhere, but the people make up for it. Now, if I lived alone instead of with a tribe, I’d really prefer to just have a housekeeper/assistant of some kind – a wife without sex who can’t take your assets, vs a wife without sex in america who can take your assets. And you can have all the girlfriends you want. I really hate my government. Because if it weren’t for them I might actually be able to be happy here. So I might have to dispose of the government.)