sunny days

sat outside today on the main prospect drinking a beverage with a friend and his am-ukr acquaintance. she talked about apartments and real estate in Ukraine and it got me thinking. an apartment in Lviv, remodeled, goes for $300-$500 a month, depending on location. Ukrainians, unless they are rich "businessmen" can't afford this. it is the foreigners, like me, that prop this market up and make it IMPOSSIBLE for normal Ukrainians to rent. of course, most Ukrainians own their houses, but in these house are three, sometimes four, generations of families. no one can afford to move out.

why?

because expats found that its cheap to live here. and that sucks for Ukrainian middle class because (a) it doesn't exist and (b) it doesn't have a chance to exist because they can't find real jobs to give them enough real money to make a living (like paying skyrocketing rents, skyrocketing food prices, skyrocketing gas prices, etc...).