Hot at Home, Graduation Time in Chernivtsi

I've now been home for just over 2 weeks and it has flown by. I have immensely enjoyed visiting family and friends I have not see in nearly 6 months. The temperatures have been in the mid-90s everyday since I returned and I have loved it. 

I want to congratulate my sweet student Anna who is now the proud new holder of a master's degree. Graduation was yesterday in Chernivtsi, complete with a parade of graduates through the town. Here she is on the far left:

What a special day!

Throughout my time in Ukraine, I maintained a list of people, places, foods, activities, etc. I wanted to see/experience, etc. when I returned home. Running on smooth pavement, drinking water from the tap, taking a shower with water that I didn't have to heat on my hands and knees with a match and newspaper, etc. were just some of what I will no longer take from granted.

Before this experience, my life had been consumed with struggling to stay afloat between Furman and the History Museum. I am proud of the work I accomplished there but have regained a sense of balance. The daily necessities of life take longer in Ukraine because the luxuries, comforts, and conveniences we have in the U.S. don't exist on the same scale. I have spent more time doing basic tasks and less time on work. I have enjoyed relationships with people here, such as the young man at my gym, that are build on a smile and a wave. 

I will miss Anna and Ivana. I will miss walking everywhere, eating holubsee and borscht, and having the luxury of time to read everyday, keep track of my workout and running statistics, and be quiet and  reflective on this experience and time in my life. I needed to get away from the place I have lived for the overwhelmingly majority of my life to reset, and I have indeed accomplished that. 

Fulbright Gathering in Kyiv

I ate breakfast with some fellow Fulbrighters and before our meeting at 3, visited the National Gallery of Western and Oriental Art. It is a small museum but they had some nice pieces. The museum is also a former home to a couple who developed much of the collection. I love historic home museums, such as the Frick in NYC. This place was somewhat similar. The home was built in the late 1880s to display the collection.

Taras Schevchenko Park was full of activity!

At 3, we met at Myron’s place to have lunch and discuss our experiences as Fulbrighters. We had a nice discussion and it was enlightening and riveting to hear what others had experienced…good and bad.

Natalia has been SO helpful:

Kyiv train station:

I didn’t get to go to the ballet or the philharmonic with some of the others bc I had to catch the 8:21 PM train to Simferopol.

Now I am on the way to the Crimea!

Friday in Kyiv

Today we arrived in Kyiv at the vogzol at 9:20AM. Thankfully, the ever reliant Yuriy was right there on the track with a man with a cart to help with the luggage.

Here are my gifts from Mykola:

Lots of horilka released for Chernivtsi's 600 anniversary in 2008. Cute!

Heading into Kyiv on the train from Chernivtsi, one last time.

Remember this from January?

That is Yuriy with our baggage cart. Here is our baggage cart and Yuiry now.BIG moment!!

This brought back some memories. The last time I did this, however, it was in sub-zero temps and I was trying not to fall on ice. I greatly preferred it this time.

Yuriy and a driver he had with him dropped us off and they took all our bags to the Fulbright Office. Nice. I had breakfast and re-organized my stuff before going down the street to St. Volodymyr’s, my favorite church in Kyiv. I needed to kill some time before 3, when I had to meet with the Fulbright accountant in the lobby.

After spending some time in the church, I purchased a few more icons and then had a French press at Double Coffee.

Here is a typical Soviet-style building in Kyiv:

I met with the accountants and then we immediately left to walk to St. Sofia. St. Sofia is an incredibly historic church. I have been here three times and each time it has been closed. I was not going to leave this country without seeing it.

It was open! St. Sofia was built in honor of Vlodmyr the Great’s adoption of Christianity. Volodymyr the Great was the leader of Kyivan Rus, the first great Slavic civilization. He thought that every great civilization needed a religion, so he searched for one. I have a few conflicting sources about why he chose Christianity (one was that he chose Orthodox Christianity bc he loved Hagia Sofia and wasn’t wild about Roman Catholicism or Islam). St. Sofia’s exhibits seemed to suggest he selected it because he married Anna, a Byzantine princess from Constantinople (modern day Istanbul). Regardless, the point is that his decision had major implcaitions in world history, as it tied the future Ukraine, the future Russia, USSR, etc. to Christianity as opposed to Islam. It certainly makes me stop to think of the implications of his decision…what if he had chosen Islam or Roman Catholicism? Lots and lots to ponder there.

So, in the 10th and 11th centuries the people of Kyivan Rus adoped Christianity. Mass baptisms were held in the Dniper River in Kyiv and St. Sofia was built in the 11th century to honor his adoption of Christianity. This place is GORGEOUS inside…lots of gilded work and frescoes. I very discreetly snuck 3 photos.

Mural recently redone with pysanky eggs by a well-known Ukrainian artist:

Afterwards I was hungry so I had an early dinner at Puzhata Hata on Khreshatyck. Then I enjoyed just people watching on Maydan. People were playing in the fountains barefoot, so needless to say this place is very different from the Kyiv of January, when I first laid eyes on Maydan.

Then I went into Globus Mall to get some gelato before walking back. On the walk back I decided to take a few detours to see the place where I stayed when we landed in Kyiv in January, the first place (Coffee House) I had breakfast, etc. Brought back a lot of memories. I even saw the Radisson SAS where I went inside to use the ATM. I had read that it wasn’t safe to use ATMs on the street. The Radisson runs about $500 USD per night (western hotels in Kyiv are greatly overpriced) and there is security at the front door, so I felt safe using their ATM.

I laughed when thinking at how much my relationship to this country has grown and evolved since those VERY scary and exciting first few days as I faced a 4.5 month experience in this very cold and foreign place with a language and an alphabet of which I couldn’t make any sense.

The Golden Gate:

Ukrainian police car:First apartment building (apartments are much nicer inside than they are on the outside):Interesting architecture:

My, how my perspective has changed!