A researcher from Spain and an ardent traveler
Making ourselves comfortable on the upper floor of the snug coffee house Kaffa, we started surfing through the menu, desperately trying to find any trace of Turkish coffee. “I love Turkish coffee, I was looking for it in Kyiv but haven’t found it,” sighed Vivian Zeldis, Oxford Business Group country director, settling for a cup of spiced coffee.
Vivian has been in Kyiv one month already and is busy preparing a report on the local environment, a kind of investment guide. “It’s the third year that we’ve come to Ukraine,” Vivian explained. “We are making such reports in more than 32 emerging countries, including those in Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe,” she said. Unfolding The Report magazine, Vivian pointed to the main topics of their investigation – politics, economics, banking, capital markets, insurance, industry, and media – “the main issues being equal for all countries, and some particular chapters that vary, depending on the country’s specifics,” she said. “In Malaysia, we have plantations. Here we have transport, energy, construction, and real estate.” Vivian stressed The Report’s main peculiarity is that it is 20 percent comprised of interviews with political leaders – the president, prime minister, government officials, and businessmen.
Before coming to Ukraine, Vivian prepared a similar report on Romania and noted that “it is also interesting to go to a country nearby, where you can apply the knowledge you have – Romania and Ukraine share similarities.” After visiting several other Eastern European countries, she intends to go to the Far East, explaining her decision with the fact that she has already been everywhere in the eastern part of the world, except for its farthest part. “Besides, it’s warmer there,” laughed Vivian, who has not yet adapted to the cold Ukrainian weather.
Born in Barcelona, Spain, Vivian claims to be one-fourth Ukrainian, since her grandfather was originally from Odesa. Yet she’s not going to stay for good anywhere now: “I’m just traveling. I’m still young and I don’t have any family ties yet. Besides, my family supports my traveling,” Vivian said emphatically.
She recalled the warm experience she had during her life in the Middle East, taking into account numerous prejudices concerning the status of women there: “I didn’t want to go at the beginning. ‘I’m a woman and I don’t want people looking at me like at an inferior,’ I thought. Yet many managers were women, westerners are not expected to cover their heads, and you should be only clothed decently,” Vivian shared. “But even in Europe, I wouldn’t wear a miniskirt for a meeting, so I didn’t feel anything unusual.”
Touching upon language barriers in foreign countries, Vivian’s interest in politics, the complicated Russian language, literature, and constant electricity outages in Kyiv, we gradually came to discuss our favorite hang-outs, since Vivian appeared to be a rather outgoing person.
“I have gone to a lot of clubs. I liked Arena, Barsky, which has a nice view, but I don’t have any favorite place – one day I can hate music in the club, another day I like it,” Vivian said with a smile and confessed her passion for a constant change of scenery. “In Kyiv, I like all these restaurants and cafes that are hidden…like this one,” she added, looking around the ornate walls of Kaffa. Discovering that we both frequent Art-Club 44 and are fans of The Beatles, I eagerly recommended some interesting underground hang-outs and we plunged into a discussion of national cuisines in the capital.
“I visited Pizzeria Napule with my friend that is from Naples and she says that their pizza is better than in Italy,” said Vivian energetically. Admitting her love for Japanese food and especially for sushi, Vivian sighed that she’s actually an ovolactovegetarian – a vegetarian whose diet includes dairy products, eggs, vegetables, fruits, grains, and nuts – yet loves to eat sushi from time to time. “It’s difficult to be a vegetarian in a country where you don’t know the language,” she said, “sometimes it’s easier to ask for fish than to explain what exactly it is that you want.”
Being a vegetarian myself I immediately became interested in the reasons that have driven Vivian to such a decision. “I don’t like the way the animals are treated. I love meat, but when I think about the torture and death I can’t eat it,” she explained, but remarked that if animals live a normal life and are properly killed, she wouldn’t mind. “It’s also healthier not to eat meat,” Vivian added.
Missing her home in Spain, familiar books and music, Vivian tries “to keep the Spanish spirit within” and cooks Spanish dishes by herself. “I never go to Spanish restaurants outside Spain,” she said critically. “When I was in Romania I was in a very good restaurant, I ordered gazpacho, and they brought something that was very good. It had the same color of gazpacho, but it wasn’t gazpacho,” Vivian concluded, laughing.
