A Sad and Happy 2 Days in Kyiv

Right now it is Friday night, Aprils 23rd, and I am sitting in the Kiev vogzol/train station, listening to a woman’s monotone voice offering monotonous announcements regarding the train from Chernivtsi-Moscova/Moscow.

Yesterday AM Mom and I arrived in Kyiv on the train and went immediately to the Hotel Express to shower and then head to the airport. Her flight out of KBP was at 12:55. I was so sad to see her go. Having her and my other family here has certainly made me miss home. A lot. I have begun a list of activities, places, and people I am eager to return to in the US. I think I am really going to enjoy this summer. I will relish seeing people I have missed, and doing things I have missed.

So I was able to walk with her up to the security gate, one step past where most passengers are allowed, which was nice. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of her visit. Dropping her off at the airport was very sad...

I followed the status of her flights closely later yesterday afternoon to make sure everything went smoothly and it evidently did. I am happy to report that she arrived home safely this morning my time.

After I walked out of the security area after leaving Mom, I went downstairs, got a Jacobs latte out of the machine, walked over to the arrivals area, where I had picked the crew up three weeks earlier, and then went outside to meet Igor, the driver.

Igor the driver (not realtor Igor) picked me up and we headed towards Kyiv. The traffic was terrible heading back but I was able to review my talk as we sat in traffic. Igor likes his tunes loud, and he likes to pump the brakes to the beat of the music. Have you ever sat in a white van with a 55 year old man who laughed out loud as he listened to his loud music and pumped his brakes to accentuate every beat of the music? At one point he looked back to gauge my level of enthusiasm for the to-the-beat break pumping, and likely read my lack of enjoyment. The brake pumping stopped just before the Russian pop version of MC Hammer’s Hammer Time came on. I obviously recognized the beat, especially the part of the song where he says, “Hammer Time.”

Speaking of MC Hammer, I bought a pair of Hammer pants today at OGGI. They are very popular in Ukraine and I will look ridiculous in them in Gville, but that is OK. They are very comfortable.

Here is a photo I took of the WWII Victory Monument/Iron Woman on the ride back to Kyiv. Evidently she isn't structurally sound and there are some concerns she will topple over. That would not be good, as she is MASSIVE.

Bad traffic...lots of marshrutka.

Finally, Igor and I arrived at the National Aviation University around 1:50. He kept asking me, “Universytet?” after I told him the address. You can’t supply a written address around here, unless you know how to write it in Cyrillic, so I’ve found it is easier for me to write it out for myself and just say it. There are many universities in Kyiv and so I hoped we were heading to the correct one. When I saw this, I knew we had arrived at the correct location.

Yes, this is the aviation university. I was scheduled to give a talk at 3. After walking in to where the materials said I should be, I couldn’t find anyone who knew where the American Studies conference was being held. Finally, I found a woman who helped me. Before I actually arrived at the place where the conference was, three different women had passed me amongst themselves, taking turns walking me around, trying to find this building. They were very nice and helpful, but this particular conference wasn’t well organized, and I had become a bit frustrated with the whole thing at that point. The National Aviation University is huge and teaches much more than aviation. From what I gathered, they teach all the usual subjects, they just specialize in aviation.

I was introduced to a woman who spoke some English and who assured me I was in the correct place. They offered me lunch. Everything but the orange slices was covered in some sort of pork product, so I had some orange slices, bottled water, and then some hot tea. The tea wasn’t all that hot, however, and about 10 minutes after drinking some my stomach started to rumble. I began to wonder about just how long that water had boiled; thus, my tea drinking ceased for the time being.

They took me to the room where I was giving my talk and I realized that I wasn’t part of a session. Instead I was the only speaker scheduled at 3 and my talk was the last one of this 2 day conference. Love it when I get this kind of advance notice. Of the many qualities I have had practice developing during my time here, flexibility and versatility are near the top of the list.

My Mom reminded me that I had practice at a young age with impromptu performing. She planned a school system-wide arts festival that included every child in the district back in the late 80s/early 90s. The arts festival lasted about a week, I think, and took place at McAlister Square Mall. Whenever the mall was open, students from the school district performed on the stage. The goal was to have performers on the stage constantly. I remember that a few times there were some times when the next performers weren’t ready, or weren’t there for whatever reason. Guess who filled all the holes (sometimes with no choreography)? I’m very proud of her for planning all that; her efforts were recognized when she was named one of President Bush’s 1000 Points of Light at a ceremony and luncheon at the White House. Go Mom!

So I went off script and was glad I had just used the previous 25 minutes to adapt a power point presentation so I could use it. I gave the talk on the evolution of how American scholars are writing about the social movements of the twentieth century and it went fine. I then was taken downstairs bc the university wants to publish the paper I didn’t actually read (as is customary at professional conferences) in one of their journals. They gave me two choices: publish in the scientific journal, which requires me to pay someone to translate my talk into Ukrainian and pay for publication (evidently not atypical here, as it is in America…when I inquired about this, the woman said, “It is different from the US. In the US, it is called vanity press. Here, it is customary.”) or have it published in the philosophy and culture journal, in English, and there is no charge for that. Both are referreed journals of equal stature. This seems like a no brainer.

After my talk, I asked for help getting back to central Kiev. I was in an area few tourists and no English speakers frequent, and knew I would be screwed if I didn’t have some help. Two very nice ladies said they were going in the direction I was going and offered to give me a ride. Fantastic. They both spoke some English and on the way asked me about my time in Ukraine and in America.

After I returned to central Kiev, I checked on Mom’s flights and caught up on correspondence. Then I decided to go to Buddha Bar so I could get my favorite drink there (the Velvet- comprised of champagne, vodka, and Chambord) and some cucumber sushi.
 
Here is a photo of Maydan...it turned out to be pretty weather.

I popped into a store on Kreschatyk. Have I mentioned that Ukrainian fashion features a lot of English writing and photos of cats? The English language writing usually centers on some theme of love and is often very odd. For instance, the other day I saw a t-shirt that read, in English, “I found a love note and stole it to put it on my bed so someone will think that someone loves me.” Oooooooo K.

Afterwards I decided to go to dinner at Himalaya, Kyiv’s best known Indian restaurant. It was the first time I had had Indian since January and so we really enjoyed it. I had chicken saag. AGG, can we please go to Handi when I come back?

I had forgotten how deep the Kyiv metro is. The first line opened in 1960, in the midst of the Cold War, and the lines were built so they could also double as bomb shelters, ostensibly in the event of a nuclear attack courtesy of the United States.

I was able to watch the debate amongst the British politician vying to become the new PM. I really enjoyed it. Having CNN and the BBC is a real treat.

Here are some photos of Kyiv. The first one is of the boulevard heading to the train station, and th other is of a typical urban apartment building.

Friday we went to the train station to buy tickets to Lviv.  Lviv is the one place in Ukraine that I want to see that we have yet to visit. Everyone here kept telling us to wait until spring. We wanted to get on the 17:05 train that arrived just before midnight. Sold out. URGH. So, we bought tickets for yet another overnight train.

We hung out at the train station for a little while and made some plans for Lviv. All of a sudden we had a lot more time to kill. I had shopped a little on Kreschatyk last night and really enjoyed it.

Walking out of the train station, we stopped for a few minutes at McFoxy. I had yet to actually go in a McFoxy, and was curious. It is essentially Ukraine's version of McDonalds. It is actually next door to the McDonalds. McFoxy is less expensive, I am told. I don’t know that they do hamburgers. I saw a lot of chicken. They do have similar looking fries and ice cream cones. McFoxy…it is just so Ukrainian.

So that is what we did. I went into some stores and walked over to Globus Mall to find the Nescafe café. There are 6 in Kyiv. We couldn’t find it so I got coffee at another place at the food court. We talked about getting dinner at the food court and then getting a late night snack at McFoxy before getting on the train. Then it was we suggested we go back to the Indian restaurant we had gone to the evening before. I had actually had that same thought earlier in the day, so that is what we did. This time I had a chicken curry dish.

Then I shopped some more on Kreshatyk.

Below is a babushka selling fish on the street…

And a man dressed as Ukraine’s beloved writer Taras Schevchecnko…

We went back to Globus Mall to get some gelato. We took the metro from Kreschatyk to Universytet to get our bags and then taxied to the vogzol for our train. The metro ride was most unpleasant…I got stuck under this man’s smelly armpit and was surrounded by babushkas heading to the train station with all their plastic bags. The train was way too crowded and the doors started to close on me before I could get off at Universytet. Rrrr. I am ready for the tranquility of those Austrian cafes for which Lviv is known.

Earlier in the day I had craved some OJ. In the train station, I found this machine that takes oranges, squeezes them, and dispenses the juice in a cup. Perfect. It was delicious. I have noticed that Europeans love their juices, and they love them freshly squeezed. It reminded me of all those places in Turkey and even some in Italy where you could order orange juice and watch the people squeeze the oranges to make your juice. My Uncle B used to do this for me and I loved it.

OMG. We just got on the train going to Lviv. This is by far the nicest train I have been on in this country. Why can’t the train to Chernivtsi be like this?! It has electricity and a flat screen TV. They have washcloths, soap, and hand wipes. Unreal.

The train leaves in 2 minutes, at 22:00, and will arrive at 7:41 in Lviv. I’m really looking forward to Lviv. I have high expectations. Some have called it the “new Prague” and have encouraged people to visit before it becomes more discovered than it is now. We shall see!