Interesting cultural tidbits...

• When you are paying for your groceries at the supermarket, the cashiers want EXACT change. If you do not give it to them, they will ask you for it. If you say you do not have exact change, they will ask you again- this time asking for a certain amount of coins or for smaller bills (as if you must have not heard what they were asking). Again, you say, no- I do not have it. This is followed by the cashier looking at your wallet in disbelief, knowing that you have the exact amount of change hiding in there and angry that you want to keep it all to yourself.
• Also, you must bring your own bags to the grocery store (or to the bazaar) unless you want to purchase plastic bags to bring your food home in.
• It seems that all of the locals here speak AT LEAST 3-4 languages (Ukrainian, Russian, Transcarpathian are the standards) and many speak more than this (Hungarian, English, German, Romainian, Slovakian... to name a few).
• When you order water to drink at a cafe or restaurant, they will always ask you if you want still water or bubbly water.
• Speaking of water, the water is turned off in our apartment building from 11pm to 6am. This seems to be the usual for the area. Actually, we are quite lucky, because other buildings only have the water turned on 3 times a day (6am-8am; 11am-1pm; 6pm-8pm).
• Throughout each month, we receive bills for the apartment utilities in our mailbox (electric, gas, telephone, lift repair...). They come printed on slips of paper and you pay them at the post office. They are due on the 20th of each month. Do not attempt to pay for the bills between 12pm-1pm on the 20th of the month. The post ladies do not like this. (Maybe it was their lunch time? Hmm... not sure.)
• Pharmacies are everywhere. Really. I think we go by 20 of them on route to the center of town. Maybe 25. You can walk into any pharmacy and buy antibiotics, no prescription needed.
• Dark brown sugar is very expensive here. If you can find it, it is around 12 US dollars for a pound, or 96 hryvnya. No, I did not buy any. If you happen to be traveling over, would you stick a bag in your suitcase for us? We will pay you cash money.
• Money: The Ukrainian currency is called hryvnya or grivna. The hryvnia is subdivided into 100 kopiyok. The current exchange rate is 8 hryvnya to 1 US dollar. The bill below is worth a little over 12 US cents.
• From our friends stories we have learned: if you have to go into the hospital for an overnight stay, you must bring with you everything that you will need. This includes: pillows, bedsheets and blankets, food (and also plates, forks, etc...), and an electric tea kettle if you want to have hot water available. You can also expect to share a room with 3 other patients (or more).
• If any of our Ukrainian friends are reading this, please feel free to add corrections in the comment section below.