CT's Adventures in Ukraine

Hot at Home, Graduation Time in Chernivtsi

2010-06-29T23:45:00.000+03:00

I've now been home for just over 2 weeks and it has flown by. I has been in the mid-90s everyday since I have been home and I have loved it.

I will post the pics and journal entries from my last few days in Ukraine and my first few weeks back home soon. For now, however, I wanted 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!

Fulbright Gathering in Kyiv

2010-06-07T16:04:00.000+03:00

We 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 museums that have been converted from mansions, 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 to discuss our experiences as Fulbrighters. We had anice discussion dns it was enlightening and at time, riveting to hear about what others had experienced…good and bad.

Natalia has been SO helpful:Kyiv train sation:

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

Now we are on the way to the Crimea!

Friday in Kyiv

2010-06-07T15:04:00.000+03:00

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 us with the luggage.

Here are our 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 we 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 this other driver he had with him dropped us off and they took all our bags to the Fubright Office. Nice. We had breakfast and re-organized our stuff before going down the street to St. Volodymyr’s, my favorite church in Kyiv. We 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 Jeff and I split a French press at Double Coffee. 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. We have been here three time 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 oneI have a few conflicting sources about why he chose Christianity (one was that he chose Orthodox Christianity bc he loved Hagis Sofia and wasn’t wild about the Roman Catholicism or Islam). St. Sofia’s exhibits seemed to suggest that he selected it bc 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 that 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-know Ukrainian artist:

Afterwards we were hungry so we had an eary dinner at Puzhata Hata on Khreshatyck. Then we enjoyed just people watching on Maydan. People were played 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 we went into Globus Mall to get some gelato before walking back. On the walk back we decided to take a few detours to see the place where we stayed when we landed in Kyiv inJanuary, the first place (Coffee House) we had breakfast, etc. Brought back a lot of memories. We even saw the Raddisson SAS where we went inside to use the ATM. We 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 we feel safe using their ATM.

We had fun laughing at how much our relationship to this country has grown and evolved since those VERY scary and exciting first few days as we faced a 4.5 month experiecen in this very cold and foreign place with a language and an alphabet we couldn’t make any sense of.

The Golden Gate:

The Golden Gate in January:

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

My how our perspective has changed!

Leaving Chernivtsi

2010-06-07T13:47:00.000+03:00

The journey home has begun.

After two weeks of packing, we are on the train. It took 6 people carrying stuff out of the flat and 4 pople putting it on the train. We have a lot of stuff.

Today was a good day. I had my favorite yogurt this morning. Anna came over around 11to pick up some magazines and clothes. She brought me 2 Chernivtsi magnets. Then I wrote some emails and went to Ace.

I enjoyed my last workout at Ace and took the time on the treadmill just to think about the past 4 and a half months here. That gym became an integral and I would argue essential aspect of my life here. It gave me something to do everyday, it kept my endorphins up, and in the midst of winter when every step I took had to be done with the greatest care, it provided a place where I could run freely and without worry. It made me feel good and provided a sene of accomplishment every day. Working out prompted me to set goals, work towards them, and achieve them. It became a little game I played here and provided an additional sense of purpose. Looking back on my time here, having Ace was a real blessing. I even became a little sad saying bye to Sasha at Ace. I didn’t think I would, but when I was leaving I said “Avia USA…dopobochenya” to let him know I was leaving and this guy who doesn’t much English at all smiled and, in my language, gave me a “bye bye.”

That is my treadmill on the left!

I walked home in the rain, drank some coffee, lit the fire, showered and continued packing. After we felt we had sufficiently done everything we could until some of the clothes dried some more, we went to Potato Hut for a late lunch. On the walk back we took one last picture in front of City Hall.

We walked back and Lilliana was in the flat waiting. She gave us a small pillow with the university on it. Boy, am I glad that I had gifts for all the people prepared. I took care of all the notes and gifts several days ago. I am Linda T’s daughter, you know. Lilliana left to run an errand and returned about an hour alter. I took some quick notes on Fast Food Nation bc I needed to give it back to Mykola. Andriy and Veronica came upstairs, also bearing gifts and a sweet card. Thankfully, they took a ton of our stuff, and whatever they won’t be able to use they will give either to the Red Cross or to some villagers they know.I also had to say goodbye to my Nike's. They have been used well beyond the point of what is healthy for my feet!

Mykola arrived a few minutes before 6 and it was nice having people in the apartment. We had never had so many people in this place at one time.Andriy, bless him, and Jeff and Mykola began carrying bags downstairs while I had a next to last run though of the flat. Then Veronica and Lilliana and I also carried some thing down. Jeff and I went upstairs for a final walk through of the flat. It was nice to have our final moments in there alone. Unbeknownst to us, Lilliana started crying outside bc she was sad to see us leave. Andriy and Veronica had planned to go to the train station with us and thank goodness they did. They had to all a cab bc they couldn’t fit in Mykola’s car bc of all our bags. I started to get a bit concerned about the time, but it turned out it was just 6:10. We got to the train station at 6:24. Then there was a bit of confusion about which train was going to Kyiv. Mykola had a meeting a 7 and so he went ahead and said be on the train tracks. His gift to us was 3 600th anniversary (of Chernivtsi) bottles of horilka for Jeff and a bottle of Ukrainian champagne for me. Very sweet. Andriy and Veronica helped us load all our bags on the train, which was quite a feat. Thanks goodness today was a bit chilly and overcast bc dong this in any kind o fheat would have been yucky. I actually had my leather jacket on doing all this. We had a few minutes to sit in the compartment together and then the conductor said the train was about to leave.

They went outside our window and took some pics of us. They danced to the train music (which sounds like a WWII patriotic song) and when the train began to move, they started running alongside the train, Those 2 are adorable. Andriy got to a point where he ran out of pavements and was booking it on gravel. They have been good friends to us and went way above and beyond by coming to the station with us and helping us. I have learned much about hospitality and warmth from the Ukrainian people. So kind.

I became sad saying bye to them and to Chernivtsi as the train starting chugging along the tracks. What an experience this has been.

Several hours late…It is 10:17 PM. I have beem working on my presentations for the Crimea conference but am about to pack up the laptop for the night. This is a pretty smooth train so hopefully I will get a decent night’s sleep. I am tired.

Last Full Day in Chernivtsi

2010-06-03T01:27:00.001+03:00

Today I slept until about 10, because I stayed up past 3. My sleeping is all out of whack. Having to get up early for conference stuff is going to hurt. Why fix it though, bc it is about to change again?

I packed some, and then it started pouring rain. I had to put away my bear. You can see that I have enjoyed it.

I called Anna to see when she would like to come over to pick up some magazines, etc. I waited until it subsided a bit to go to Ace. I had a thorough workout at Ace, just in case I am not able to get there tomorrow. 4 miles in 32:30. I am hoping to go tomorrow but we’ll have to see.

I talked a bit after my workout with Tetiana, my friend the tennis instructor. I finally found out the guy’s name in the gym. It is Sasha.

Afterwards, even though it was raining, I decided to walk around town to see some things one last time and to find some beetroot salad. The first stolovy didn’t have it. I went to Kolas. They didn’t have it, but the lady motioned for me to go across the street. Finally, I found it. I had some beetroot sald and some holubsee. The holubsee wasn’t great, so I saved it for Jeff. I also picked up some friend green tomato looking things and a cheese blyny/pancake. I walked home on Vul Ruska and just enjoyed walking around, even though I was getting soaking wet from the rain.

Beetroot salad and holubsee:

I will miss this place. It is a great little city with a fascinating history, and has been a very liveable place as well. And while I established some very good (and healthy) routines here, I will miss the feeling of adventure associated with always seeing something new, and not quite knowing exactly what is going on, what I am doing, what I am eating, and where I am gong half the time. You learn to surrender any expectations about control when you travel in a country in which you don’t read the alphabet, much less speak the language. People keep asking me when I will come back, and many just assume I am going home for the summer and then returning in the fall. Everyone seems surprised when I tell them I don’t have any of these answers.

This afternoon I did some blogging and some more packing. As I look at my computer clock, I realize that 24 hours from now, we will be packing the car to go to the train station and leave Chernivtsi.

Tonight, we went to Pizza Park with Andriy and Veronica. It was so good to spend time with them. Their dissertation topics are really interesting (Andriy with political ethics, Veronica with international election overseeing). They do some much for their community, and I enjoyed hearing about Andriy's plans to run for city council in the fall. He is really passionate about political reform and improving life in Ukraine. I like people who are go-getters, and these two definitely are.

Afterwards Andriy suggested we walk to this place about half an hour away. We ended up walking to an overlook near the swamp with a view of Chernivtsi. It was pretty, but dark and muddy and thus we didn’t get to see the view from atop the cliff bc it was really too slippery and dark to get up there.

These pics were taken on a very steep, muddy, and slippery slope!

They came back to the flat with us and helped us translate some things. Evidenty my yogurt is cottage cheese and muesli, and Mishka Pompushki sings a song about a bear coming to dinner. At first Veronica confused the pronounciation and told me the song is about beer and dinner, mishka meaning beer. So, beer, beer, beer s how the song starts. Then Andriy said, “Not beer, bear!” We had a good laugh about that one and Veronica was, as always, a good sport. So my bear sings about coming to dinner. Nice.

Now we are packing some more. I will be glad when this process is complete!

Our last full day here was a good one. I was happy to spend it with some good friends.

Monday and Tuesday

2010-06-02T18:54:00.000+03:00

Monday

Woke up and went to Ace. Walked the long way up there, and down Vul Virmenska back. I stopped in to a market to try to find my favorite yogurt, Activia with muesli and nuts. Or at least I think that is what it says on the container.

Came back, worked on my speech, emailed, and accompanied Jeff to Soho. Jeff bought case for my painting. I cooked Asian food later in the day.

Tuesday

Woke up, submitted my grades to Mykola went to Ace. Returned, packed, and got ready to go to the Post Office and to Koleso.

Holubsee and beetroot salad at Koleso:

I talked with Natalia to make sure everything is set for our transportation the next week, etc. Returned from Koleso and took a nap. Woke up, worked on blog, cooked the rest of the pesto and Arriabata sauce, and cooked cherry and poppy seed varynky to celebrate our last dinner in the flat in Chernivtsi. Drank the rest of the Crimea wine. Worked on blog late. Tomorrow is our last full day in Chernivtsi. Sad.

OMG! We have the TV on and we just saw Andriy!!! Evidently a university student was recently beaten to death by some policemen in Kyiv and students throughout Ukraine are protesting. Andriy told us last night there might be a protest in Chernivtsi this morning. I didn’t hear anything about one. They showed Andriy in the same room where we had our press conference for the election. H was just on again! Evidently he organized a roundtable discussion about what happened bc he couldn’t get the officials to sign a form that he needed in order to have a demonstration. Impressed with his activism! Students throughout Ukraine are concerned that justice will not be sought in the killing of this student, and are pretty outraged about it.

The Blessing of the Sheep

2010-06-02T17:42:00.000+03:00

Where do I begin?

At 7:21AM we were waiting outside the green building at Sobornna Square. We had decided to go on an “excursion” as they are called around here, to the Carpathian Mountains. The Carpathian Mountains are not far from Chernivtsi and everyone here has told us we can’t leave without seeing them. We had planned to hike Mt. Hoverla, Ukraine’s highest peak, but after reading more about that and learning that there is still snow at the top of the mountain, with temps hovering around freezing even in the middle of the summer, I axed that idea. No way I am getting anywhere close to snow. In fact, there was a really interesting oral history conference in Finland that I received a call for about a month ago. The deadline was a few days ago. I had planned to apply for it. Then, after giving it some more thought, I realized that Finland in December = snow. I didn’t apply.

So going on this excursion was a nice way to see the mountains and take care of another goal of our’s, which was to learn about Hutsul (pronounced Hootsool) culture.

The Hutsuls are the people who live in the Carpathian mountains. They are considered a distinct ethnic group, composed of 3 main tribes: the Boiki, Lemi, and Pokuttian. They have customs and foodways (mushrooms, brynza, mammaliga,berries) that are a bit distinct from the rest of Ukraine. They are known as sheep herders. They used to communicate from village to village through a trembita, a long, alone horn, but nowadays they use cell phones. Even today, their dialect is often undecipherable to other Ukrainians. This particular festival that we were going to was the 50th annual Blessing of the Sheep. Maybe you’ve been to one before; I had not!

The bus was supposed to leave at 7:30. At 7:27, I called the coordinator. She said she would be there in 15 minutes. Weren’t we supposed to leave at 7:30? We looked around and saw no one, so we sat on a bench in the square and watched all the nice people walking to the cathedral for mass. There was beautiful music emanating from the cathedral.

At 8, I noticed some people gathering near the green building. That has to be the crew. It was. The bus was late, and we ended up leaving Chernivtsi around 8:30. That extra hour of sleep would have been nice.

The drive to Potylla was very interesting. We passed village after village with cows roaming freely on the roads. At certain points we had to brake bc of cows crossing the road. We saw lots of people walking their cows on leashes as well. Jeff listened to his ipod n the way there, and when he talked he didn’t realize how loud his voice was. Granted, there were only 2-3 people in the van who speak English. The first time was when we passed a small stadium and he said, “Looks just like Sirrine Stadium (where Gville High plays football).” The second time was when he exclaimed, “Nothing like taking your cow out for a walk on an early Sunday morning!”

There was a horse and buggy at the service station where we stopped. This was the second time I have seen a horse and buggy at a service station in Ukraine. Doesn't seem to make sense. I got a cup of kava at teh gas station, and when the lady handed it to me, she said, "Nosteroyvna." Given that I had someone who speaks English with me (I had heard this lots before), I asked what it meant. For your health, was the reply. I like that. You give someone coffee and say, "For your health!"
When I saw this it made me miss my grandmother's house. This area reminded me a bit of upcountry SC.
We passed goats, chicken, and sheep. We saw lots of churches, and some pretty scenery. Tina Karol's hit Chinchilla played on the radio.

Last night in my book, Anna Reid’s Borderlands (a history of Ukraine written by this former correspondant for The Economist), Reid mentioned that the only time that Chernivtsi made the national news when she lived here was when one of the roads here disappeared into the Prut River. I didn’t realize just how close I would come about 10 hours later to a very similar situation.

Two hours later we arrived. We walked a long way, to get to the festival. Hutsuls like to do fancy and creative things with brynza/cheese. See?
Then we found some seats inside the stadium. I changed into my traditional Ukrainian shirt. Many dignitaries, including the Chernivtsi mayor and city council, spoke. Like politicians everywhere, these people like to hear themselves talk.

Then there was some singing and dancing. Then people began to form a circle around a wood stack. The main shepherd lit the bonfire and everyone ran around it. The bigger the fire, the better the cattle and harvest will be. They told the crowd that the fire was to purify these mountains and to purify our bodies.

The Merry Grannies sang, and a prayer was offerred to St. George to protect the cattle from evil.Now this takes the Ukrainian faux handbage craze a bit too far. This is a regular plastic bag!
Afterwards, horses ran around the stadium. They were decorated in bright colors. I only saw one sheep during the festival. Evidently a festival that blesses sheep doesn't actually have to include the sheep. Jeff tried to convince me that they had sacrificd a live sheep in the middle of the bonfire. I didn't discount that as a possibility. I've been here toong, I suppose. They had not, though, so no worries.They showed off wedding customs: Law enforcement did some exercises with a police canine. The dog searched bags and found a gun. Then, I was told that the dog would get the illegal immigrants. What? This man in a black suit and a uniformed policemen pretended to get into it, a firecracker went off, and then the man in black started running across the field. Then another policeman unleashed the German Shepherd and he took off after the man and tackled him. Several more policemen tor the dog off the illegal immigrant. Whew. Glad we are here legally.After the ceremony we walked around to look at all the stalls selling traditional Ukrainian stuff. We even saw the lady from whom I bought my shirt at Obnova.

Jeff wanted to buy my Dad one of these things as a gift. We decided to take a photo instead!
Trembita:With Valentina:

At 1:45 we met to walk to the restaurant where we had reservations and a special room reserved upstairs for our group. On the way we passed Yuriy Fedkovych’s home. He is he man for whom Chernivtsi Nat’l Uni is named, so they really wanted me to go in. The guide’s brother lives in the US and he was eager to give me a tour. One of Valentina’s students was eager to try out her translating skills, so we took the tour and everyone got pictures. Fedkovych is known for translated many important works into Ukrainians, and for his astrological studies. Hm. He was in the Bukovina regiment of the Austrian guard.

Then we went to the restaurant. Lunch, comprised of traditional Ukrainian food, was good. This place was a meat place which served lots of lamb shaslyk so I ate a lot of mammaliga, which is actually a Hutsul dish.

I had been told that we would be back in Chernivtsi by 4 or 5, and that we were leaving to go back after lunch. With lunch starting a few minutes after 2, we were right on schedule. Perfect. I needed to get home to do some packing, etc.

That is not what happened. Over the many toasts at lunch people became a little loopy and there were many opportunities for horse riding and dancing nearby. This was fun for the 2 hours. Then, the crew started telling jokes about Jews. I did not laugh and became very uncomfortable. I decided it was high time to go to the bathroom. When I returned I figured we would probably be packing to go. I was told another hour. An hour went by and when I asked when we would be leaving, I was jokingly told 2 more hours. Uh, this is not what I signed up for.

Jeff and I kept talking to some people, including some student who are doing a work study in the US this summer, working at the McDonalds in Times Square. That will not be an easy job. Lots of people wanted to come talk with the American to practice English.

We read the books we brought, watched some fish in the pond, watched as horse cart after horse cart went up the hill across the river , carrying people heading home for the day. I asked about alternate ways to get home; there were none.

At 6:20, we finally left the restaurant. Whew. I thought I would have been home 2 hours earlier. Oh, well.
Parts of the day had been fun and interesting. I was told that we were going to stop by to get some free beer (am I back in college?) for 10-15 minutes and then we would head back to Chernivtsi. What do you think happened? That 10-15 minutes turned into an hour and a half, with beer, horilka, lots more meat coming off the grill, singing, violins playing, horses cantoring all around us, and more mammaligia. The best part was that all this took place in a lumber yard with a bunch of stray dogs.
Eventually, we got back in the van to head back. Then the singing began. The scenery was nice heading home. Cemeteries here are very colorful. There is a cemetery just across the border in Romania that claims to be the most visitied cemetery in the world. It is supposed to be very colorful. More cows: I was told there is an expression in Ukraine, which translates into, "The mountains are smoking."
We finally arrived in Chernivtsi at 10:30PM. Needless to say, it was a really, really long day. I met some nice people who were very eager to make sure we had a good time, saw some interesting things, and learned about Hutsul culture, but wish the day had been about 5 hours shorter. I headed straight to light the shower when I walked in the door. Very, very, very glad to be back.

Scratches on a Prison Wall

2010-06-02T02:43:00.000+03:00

This week, I read Luba Komar’s Scratches on a Prison Wall. Her account from her days as part of the OUN, including her time as a prisoner of the Soviets, was eye-opening.

“Ukraine,” or the land that is considered to be Ukraine, developed that label during the 1600 and 1700s, when Ukraine fell under Tsar Peter the Great’s Russian Empire. Ukraine means borderland. In the 1660s, Russia and Poland divided Ukraine between them. Then, between 1772 and 1795, Prussia, Russia, and Austria partitioned Poland. Much of the land that now comprises Ukranie was then considered Poland. Lviv and its surrounding region, Galicia, became part of Poland. In 1785, Chernivtsi and surrounding Bucovina became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

You guys know what happened here in Chernivtsi from 1785 to 1941. At the end of WWI, when the A-H Empire was split up, Chernivtsi became part of Romania, while Lviv and Galicia became part of Poland. I should mention that Kyiv, central Ukraine, and eastern Ukraine became part of the USSR in 1917 at the outbreak of the Russian Civil War during WWI, but Western Ukraine, as I just mentioned, remained part of other countries and empires. Western Ukrainians feared the Soviets and did not want to become part of the USSR. When the Russians came into western Ukrainian between 1939 and 1945 and eventually gained control of the land in this region from Romania and Poland, the Soviets lauded themselves for having reunified Ukraine. This wasn’t how western Ukrainians saw it, especially when the Soviets began to aggressively subdue any Ukrainian nationalist sentiment, a political movement with headquarters in Lviv.

World War II came to Lviv in June 1941. The Soviets had already arrived in Lviv; bc of agreements relating to the partition of Poland that were part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between allies Germany and the USSR, they had been in Lviv since 1939. When the Germans decided to go on the attack against their ally the USSR, however, WWII came to Lviv. From then on, the Soviets, Germans, and Poles fought not only each other in western Ukraine, but also fought against western Ukrainians. Poor Ukraine…they had a seriously bad geographic location in 1941, sandwiched between Germany and Russia.

So Luba Komar, a student at Ivan Franko University in Lviv who was very active in the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), was arrested by Soviets before war broke out between Germany and the USSR in 1941. She and her brother and sister were imprisoned, tortured, put on trial, and sentenced to death by execution, Their death sentences were reduced to hard labor and exile in Siberia for 15 years. Just before she was to be taken to Siberia, the Soviets set fire to the prison she and her brother were in, abandoning it during a fight with the Germans. She and many others were able to escape. She returned to Lviv and resumed her activities with the underground network, becoming a radio communicator for the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. The goal of the UIA was to free western Ukraine from the USSR, the Germans, and the Romanians.

In 1944, she was sent to the west on orders from the UIA. She ended up in Bratislava, Slovakia, and then in nearby Vienna. She often travelled by foot and at night, taking advantage of a secret network of sympathizers. It reminded me a bit of the Underground Railroad that slaves used to escape to Canada. She was eventually placed in a displaced person camp in Germany. In 1949, she and her husband and daughter immigrated to America through Ellis Island. Her brother also survived the war and immigrated to Canada. Her sister fulfilled her 15 year sentence of hard labor and exile in Siberia and returned to western Ukraine.

Komar’s parents died in the 1960s and her sister died in the 1980s. She had not seen them since 1944. Returning to a Ukraine that remained part of the USSR was not an option, however. She felt it would have been a death sentence for her. The movement she supported continued through the mid-1950s, especially in the Carpathian mountsins, with UIA members and Soviet officials fightng each other. The KGB assassinated the UIA leader in Munich in 1959. So even long after she left, the nationalist movement continued.

Not even one year after the USSR crumbled, Luba Komar returned to Lviv to go through the records from her trial. She loved being able to return to her home country, but all her family here had died. She lived in NYC until her death in 2007.

I really enjoyed this book, and it certainly gave me an appreciate of just how badly the Germans and the Russians treated the Ukrainian people, especially western Ukrainian nationalists. They weren’t safe anywhere. I also realized the extent to which Ukrainians feel that they have never truly been in charge of their own country. The dream of an independent Ukraine that these people fought for was eventually realized in 1991, but even now, it isn't what many people had hoped for, and continue to hope for.

The Low Down on Ukrainian Higher Education

2010-06-02T01:41:00.000+03:00

My translator when we were in Kharkiv, Julia, gave me the low down on the Ukrainian higher education system during a somewhat dull presentation on Ukrainian economics. She even drew a diagram to help explain it (and to keep our noise level down).

I am going to post it here so I don’t forget it.

Secondary school is 12 years. Then, students can go to either an institute, a university, or an academy. A bachelor’s is 4 years, and then graduates can either go on to receive a specialist degree in 5 years or a Master’s degree in 5-6 years. Then one can continue for 3-5 years for a Ph.D. Same for a medical degree, I believe.

Another path is to go to secondary school for 9 years and then to a professional college or technical school for 7 years.

The third, and most undesirable path, from what I gleaned, is to attend secondary school for 6 years and what she referred to as practice for an additional 2 years.

I hope I have this correct; this was, at least, how I understood her. Here, am teachign students who typically attended 12 years or secondary school, and are now in university. One class was comprised of 4th year students who will receive their bachelor's degrees this summer, and my other class is comprised of 5th year Master's degree students.

Last Visit to Main Campus

2010-06-02T01:31:00.000+03:00

I consider myself an extremely fortunate individual for many, many reasons. One of those reasons has to do with the fact that I teach at one of the most serene, pristine, and beautiful college campuses in America, and in Ukraine, I have been super lucky to teach at a university with an intriguingly beautiful campus as well.

On Saturday, we decided to take one last walk over to campus to take som ephotos on this sunny afternoon.

Front gate:Classroom building:Seminary:Lots of brides on campus today...Ukrainian tradition to be photographed at all your city's sights on your wedding day.

Bye Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University! Or, as my students say here, "See you!"

Friday and Saturday

2010-06-02T01:30:00.000+03:00

Friday I woke up and worked out at Ace. Do you notice a pattern here? Olga was crowded around lunchtime on Friday!

Came back, showered, and did some packing.

See the little markets on both sides of the street?Paul Celan's family home:

That evening, we decided to return to the traditional Ukrainian restaurant that Mykola had introduced us to on Wednesday. On the way, we passed my building.

Holubsee, varynky, deruny, borscht, and mammaliga. I finally figured out what that stuff is called this past Wednesday.
The borscht was served in this massive bread bowl, Polish style. The Poles love their soup in a bread bowl.

Very typical way of serving hlib/bread...with onions and salo.Mammaliga (which tastes like polenta or a bit like cheese grits) and brynza (cheese):

Saturday I woke up and decided it was time to switch things around a bit, to get crazy. No Ace this AM, but do not fear, my rebellion did not include a day off from Ace, just a change in timing. I cleaned and packed, had leftover deruny for breakfast with strawberry jelly, and then we went on one last walk to the main campus to take some photos on this nice sunny day (that posting is forthcoming). Afterwards I went to Ace while Jeff went to Chicken House to get a burger for a late lunch. While working out I noticed that the very slim Ukrainian woman working out used this machine that shakes like crazy. You wrap this band around your waist, or thighs, or whatever, and it vibrates. I see lots of women using it. My question is: does thing actually work, and what is it supposed to do?

After working out I sat outside at Ace for a while and called my Mom for a chat. Unfortunately Dad wasn't home. I then went to the Olga market to get some olive oil and ended up buying this loaf of round, soft bread that looks a bit like a pizza crust. I knew Jeff would love it, and he did.

I went to the ATM immediately afterwards only to find that I did not have any ATM card with me. Hmm. A thorough search through the flat was not successful, so I then spent some time sorting out that situation.

Then I cooked dinner and now I am working on my blog while enjoying a glass of white wine from Crimea. I had bought it to have when my fam was here and realized that it needed to be taken care of this week.

I just got an awesome message from my BFF Anne Genevieve that I must post here. I am looking forward to going home, and this make me smile: "dear court - please come home stat. i mean seriously, enough is enough and this ukrainian situation has just gotten ridiculous. love me" HAHA.

As I look back on my time here, one item in particular has been of invaluable use. A few days before I left, my sweet younger brother called out of the blue to see if he could stop by and bring me a present. He had gone to Books-A-Million and bought the Lonely Planet guidebook for Ukraine for me. So thoughtful, and SUCH a great gift. In the first few months I was here, it went everywhere with me…and I do mean everywhere. It stayed in my purse bc I relied on it so many time each day. It has been absolutely invaluable and I can’t thank him enough. I am also very grateful to the Lonely Planet editors for suggesting a handful of Chernivtsi restaurants that have English menus for when I first arrived. That book has kept me entertained, informed, and busy. I love it. It is tattered and has highlighting and post-it notes coming out of it, but it is coming back with me. It will always remind me of my time here.

Another thing I believe I wrote about in February... Ukrainians use their patronymic, a person’s father's name with one of two endings, depending on whether that person is male or female. So, my students here would call me (they wanted to call me Dr. Tollison) Courtney Daviydiyvna. Daviydiyna is my patronymic, because my father’s first name is David. Mykola’s father’s name is also Mykola, and so in front of students I always refer to him, which is often, as Mykola Mykaliavych. See the difference in the endings? I hope I remember most of these things I have learned. I sure am glad I have this blog to refer back to!

Thursday

2010-06-01T22:58:00.000+03:00

Lately, the mornings start off sunny, and then it rains in the afternoons.

These past few days have been sort of low key, spent doing things "one last time."

My routine is to wake up, work out at Ace, and then run to the market on Olga to get anything I may need that day...great to have fresh fruits and veggies so easily acessible and so cheap! Then I usually work on the computer, go out again around town, and then cook back to cook and comnputerize some more.

Olga market...this guys knows a few words in English and occasionally likes to use them with me.

I've bought these potato things twice since January. They are good, but horrible for you, so instead of buying one I decided to photograph it.On Thursday evening we went to the German re staurant after cooking dinner to get coffee and read our books. I am reading a book about a woman who worked for the Ukrainian nationalist underground network during WWII.

The back to the flat before it became too dark. It gets dark here late...around 9PM.

Pretty!

Bukovina Jewish Museum and Student Competition

2010-05-31T20:00:00.000+03:00

Afterwards I met Anna at 3:30 to go to the Bukovina Jewish Museum near the Opera House. I learned so much from talking with the director (Anna served as translator).

Bordering the exhibists are photos of buildings that were once Jewish run establishments in Chernivtsi:

Some of the exhibits:

AH!

I learned that the Jewish area of town was located near the train station, and the town grew up hill from there. I learned that the area around the flat became filled with Jews between the world wars. Jews comprised approximately 50% of Chernivti’s population before WWII. Many stats suggest 32-33%, but the Director of the museum mentioned that many Jews were not registered and that the statistic is much higher. He also told us that Jews essentially ran Chernivtsi: Chernivtsi had had 2 Jewish mayors, and Jews provided much of the legal, medical, and banking services in Chernivtsi.

After WWII erupted, a Jewish ghetto was established near the train station (Romania sided with Germany). The Romanian mayor of Chernivtsi received permission to spare 16,000 Jews, largely bc without them, he argued, Chernivtsi would not really exist, and the professional services in the city would be gone. Jews were required to wear the yellow Star of David, and those who were exempted from deportation were given certificates to carry with them. The Romanian mayor fudged the numbers a bit and was able to keep between 19 and 20,000 Chernivtsi Jews from being deported to the villages around Khmelnitski.

Here is the Romanian mayor, Trajan Pepovici:

Chernivtsi ghetto:

I was curious as to what seemed like a discrepancy: I had read reports that suggested that Chernivtsi’s Jewish population was devastated during the war, but also read reports of this Romanian mayor who saved nearly 20,000. One report I read said that Chernivti’s post-war Jewish population was higher than other Ukrainian cities after the war. This was my time to find out what happened.

The director sent a lot of time answering my questions. He said that in 1944 and 1945 as the war was winding down and the Soviets had taken over, many Jews took advantage of the fact that they had Romanian passports (Chernivtsi was Ukrainian from the end of WWI to 1944) and the free border that existed between this area and Romania for a period of time. Most of the Jews who had been saved left, knowing they could go to other places around the world from Romania much easier than they could from the USSR.

Other Jews from Ukraine then migrated into the Chernivtsi area, Jews with little to no roots in the area. They too sought to move into Romania, but the ones who came here after 1945, when the Soviets began registering people and issuing Soviet passports, were out of luck. So the Jewish population of Chernivtsi was higher than it was in other western Ukrainian cities. The USSR wasn’t kind to Jews either. In the 1960s and 1980s, the USSR made it somewhat easier for Jews to leave. The room that houses the museum was the HQ of the local office that helped Jews to leave the Soviet Union. Many left for Israel and the U.S.

Of those who didn’t leave then, many left after the fall of the USSR in 1991. That is why the city now has a Jewish population that comprises 1.2% of the local population.

Here is Anna in front of the museum. She starts her job in July, handling their public affairs.

After leaving the museum, Anna and I went to watch a student competition at a nearby theatre. The competition was for the Mr. and Mrs. Contest and included about 15 students, men and women. They sing, dance, give monologues, and answer questions, and then the panel votes. The students were seriously into this. The winners go to the university-wide competition.

The emcees were my students, Marianna Derda and Taras (they are dating). Taras picked me up and walked me to class the first day of classes in February.

Anna and I had earlier discussed the language issue in Ukraine, and how it bothered many Ukrainians that Russiasn see themselves as the heirs of Kyivan Rus, the first society in this area. Kyivan Rus, I was told, is separate from both Ukraine and Russia, and furthermore, if anyone is going to make claim to that society, Ukrainians have more of a right to than Russians, given that the society was based in Kyiv. She told me that much of the Russian that Ukrainians inject into their language is incorrect Russian, and that has created a kind of slang that is Ukrainian based with Russian additions. The language issue is highly politically charged. So, I was therefore intrigued when, in the theatre during the student competition, one of the guys onstage spoke Russian throughout his presentation, and a large group of guys behind me started grumbling. One of them yelled so that the audience auditorium could hear, “Ya ne rozi meyu/ I don’t understand you.” He made his point.

Afterwards I stopped at the supermarket on Ruska to buy some chicken and an apple. Then I came back and cleaned and threw out a lot of papers. More packing…

Going Away Lunch

2010-05-31T01:02:00.000+03:00

Today was a great day. At 1:00, we met Mykola in his office to go to my going away lunch. Three other faculty joined us, including Valentina, our language teacher. Before we left, Mykola told us that so many of his friends in the US are Mormon, bc Chernivtsi’s sister city is Salt Lake, and therefore don’t drink. I think he was wondering if all Americans refrain from alcohol. He asked if we liked horilka. He then pulled out a bottle of Jean-Jacques cognac and asked if I could carry it in my purse. Uh oh!

Here are the steps leading to my classroom:

Here is the American Studies Center, complete with an American flag, a copy of the Declaration of Independence, 2 maps of the US, and photos from the US.

Lots of copies of David Shi's US History textbook, and thanks to Norton, who sent a full box of books and other materials to me via the Embassy's diplomatic pouch. Now American Studies has a lot more!

Mykola's desk:

I will miss Mykola, my "big brother." He always greets me with enthusiasm and constantly asks if he can do anything to help me. It has meant a lot every time he has said, "I am here to help you."

The restaurant we went to was traditional Ukrainian and had traditional tunes playing. They started off with dark bread (hlib) and salo, onions, sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, and homemade horilka (honey and horseradish flavored). I ordered deruny (potato pancakes) and potato varynky for lunch and Jeff had holubsee. Other people had mammilga (a sort of polenta), and trout.

The chair of the International Relations Department, which has jurisdiction over the American and Canadian Studies Centers, sat beside me. He is more comfortable with French than with English, resulting in a situation in which I used 3 (4 if you count my demonstration of all 10 Russian words that I know) languages during lunch. Combined with the many toasts, this got sort of interesting. At one point I started mixing them up, using the Ukrainian word for the number 4 instead of the French word in the middle of a French sentence. It was funny.

There were many toasts, including one from Mykola to my Mom. Mykola and I toasted each other, which was sweet. He has taken to calling me his little sister. I told them how much I appreciated his efforts, and their efforts, to make us feel at home here, and how much I have gleaned from the time I have spent in Ukraine and especially with their students.

Everyone had a great time, and Mykola seemed to take pride in this outing. I was pleased to see that. He was the one who secured the Fulbright and has handled nearly all the logistics regarding my trip. We talked about how I am the first Fulbrighter to come to Chernivtsi’s American Studies Department (there was one woman from the University of Maine who was here last year when the university and basically the whole city was closed for a month bc of the outbreak of swine flu…this area was hit REALLY badly…she was here for 4 days and then Fulbright and the State Dept decided she should return to the US). So I was the guinea pig. American Studies was awarded another Fulbright Scholar for this fall, so hopefully they will continue to be successful with their bids to host Fulbrighters.

On the way back, we passed the Youth Culture Palace. I was told that during Soviet times, this was the Political Education building, or political indoctrination building, more appropriately. They mentioned that the political education consisted of learning only about the communist party. Ha!

I also found out our building, the green building, was built between 1870 and 1873. It served as the Bukovina Government HQ. During the wars it served as the seat of the Romanian Land Parliament, and from 1944 to 1991 it served as the Communist Party Headquarters. As a child of the Cold War, I get a sick thrill from teaching US History here. The irony of it...

Photo Safari in Chernivtsi

2010-05-30T00:52:00.000+03:00

Today/Tuesday, I slept late and then immediately went to workout at Ace. Can’t believe guys are outside playing ping pong and tennis with shirts off…this place is a far cry from the Chernivtsi I knew in February and March.

Ukranian fashion update: all gold, including the sneakers you can't see. All gold at approximately noon on a Tuesday. Love it.

I came back, had my favorite yogurt for lunch (Activia with muesli) and then decided to wear my hammer pants today.

After working a little bit and exchanging some emails, we decided to go find the oldest church in Chernivtsi, built in 1607. On the way we passed the Drunken Church, and saw a large Polish tour group going in.

Head covered, hammer pants.

Of course the whole time I was walking around, I had “Hammer time!,” From London to the bay…,” and “can’t touch this” going through my head.

Then we found the old church. It was closed, unfortunately.

You can see the back of the Drunken Church from this church's courtyard.

Around the corner from the church is an old synagogue that is in ruins, but it is undergoing renovation. I had read about this and was pleased to see it. Funding this is a joint venture between a few different parties, including one family in New York.

My BFF Anne Genevieve and her sweet Dad like to go on what they call “photo safaris” together. That is basically what we did in the early evening. See this building. It is hilarious. The left side of it has been redone, while the other side hasn't.

and right side:

Across from the nice part of this block is a monument to soldiers from WWI and WWII.

Vul Ruska:

The top of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church:

Although these apartment buildings have not been maintained well, you can see that they were built during Austro-Hungairan times and I'm sure used to be very beautiful.

Then we passed the building where we went to get our credentials and for the press conferences back in February. Across the street from that building is the former Armenian Cathedral.

Typical street in Chernivtsi:

Check this out...building from the time of the A-H Empire next to building built by the Soviets. Can you tell the difference?

Olga:

All the various spelling of Chernivtsi in the languages of countries that have occupied Chernivtsi and the many ethnicities of groups who have lived here, are spelled out along the side of the street on Olga. Here is the Polish spelling of Chernivtsi.

Fashion alert:

We took a break and had a Staropramen at the Movie Palace on Olga outside, and then decided we were both hungry. Jeff made the call to go to Chicken House, a place he has wanted to go to since it opened and we first walked in.

It turned out to be good. I have pizza, with chicken (and corn and black olives) on it, of course.

On the way home we stopped at a mini-market on Olga and bought fresh red peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, and bottled water.The walk home was pretty.

Now I have to grade my final exams and work on my presentations for the Embassy conference.

Jeff was just playing with the international radio that Marian Strobel gave us for Christmas a few years ago and found a channel with some English music. Just heard Barbie Girl. Ha! Oh, now it is back to Ukrainian/Russian…

Leaving Istanbul, Monday in Kyiv

2010-05-27T20:09:00.000+03:00

This AM, I woke up even before the 5AM call to prayer. It was great to hear it one last time. The shuttle driver was scheduled to drive us to the airport at 6:15. WHen I walked out of the hotel adn looked to my left, I saw this:

Sunrise over the Bosphorus, which made the mosques and the boats on the Bosphorus hazy, golden, and beautiful. Wish I coudl have spend hours capturing that sunset on camera, but I knew I couldn't, so instead I took this one pciture and will hope that the memory of driving along the Bosphorus, watching the sunrise and looking at all teh ships below in teh distance will be seared into my memory for a very long time. Aboslutely magical.

When we took off from Ataturk Airport, I had a great view of the windy Bosphorus (I can see why it is so difficult to navigate), and saw where teh Bosphorus opens into teh Black Sea. So cool to see the southernmost point of the Black Sea, having just seen one of its northernmost points in Odessa. I had some beautiful views of the sun shining off the sea, and then we disappeared into the clouds.

An hour and a half later, we emerged from the clouds and I looked down and experienced momentary disblief. We began descending, broke through the clouds, and there it was. The tundra. Hadn't changed one bit from this perspective. Snow, snow and more snow. Everything was white, as far as the eye could see. I really thought much of this would be gone. I was told the snow would disappear in March. UGH.

For the first time, we landed at KBP and Yuriy did not pick us up. I had learned the words for train station and several other words that would be helpful, so I was optimistic I could get us on a shuttle or city bus downtown. It worked! I read the sign for voksul in Cyrillic and we boarded the bus to the train station and arrived there about 35 minutes later. Perfect.

Then, we had to figure out hwo to get train tickets back to Chernivtsi for that night. Hm. Not easy. Train station ticket booth attendants speak not a lick of English.

Successful.

We went to the Fulbright Office to leave our bags there. We talked with Natalia and Myron a bit and arranged for Eddie to take us all to the train station that night, bc Myron needed to go as well.

Becuse we sent so much time talking and were taking advantage of an earlier ride to the train station, we didn't have much time for lunch. So, our choices were very limited, and eff knew what he wanted:

McDonalds. So, I broke my streak. I have this thing about never eating at American restaurants while overseas. Oh well. The streak last for a long time...9 years. I can't say I didn't enjoy it, bc I did. I even spent 50 kopecks on a little thing of ketchup. It was the first time I have had ketchup in over a month and it was good.

We bought some train snacks at the grocery market and went back to Fulbright Office where Eddie took Myron, Jeff, and me to the train station. We arrived early and walked around what is really a beautiful train station to kill time. While walking around one very large waiting area of the station, we noticed something very unusual going on about 15 feet from us. I don't think I'll ever forget what I saw.

There was a man on the ground, with 2 ambulance workers and an older woman (presumably his wife)hovering over him. His legs were limp and turned out, so that the sides of his feet with his little toes were lying on the floor of the train station. The medical responders were giving this man incredibly vigorous CPR. They must have started and restarted this process about 6 times. Jeff and I joined the people in the area who were praying for this man and I tried not to watch as best I could. We couldn't leave bc they were between us and the door, and we had several pieces of luggage and didn't want to block the doors in the event that they put the man on the stretcher to take him out of those doors. It was so sad to watch the EMS guys go through round after round of CPR without any success. I felt so horrible for that woman, that she was ecperiencing what was undoubtedly among the worst moments of her life in such a public space. While there were people praying close by, there were so many more that were walking in and out of this room, glancing over but continuing on with their business. The sounds of train station continued in the background even as this was occurring. Some people were concerned, like us, but many more just continued on with ther business.

It was an ugly reminder that life can end at any moment, even in the waiting room of a train station. I wondered if they had just returned from a trip, or if they had been excited about where they were going, or if they were there simply to pick someone up.

I continue to pray for that woman, and for the health and safety of all whom I love. It is a reminder to always make the most of the moments we have with the people we love.

Sunday in Istanbul

2010-05-27T18:30:00.001+03:00

We ate breakfast outside today. The weather is nice, and it feels GREAT to be able to sit outside. This place is a warm weather paradise compared to winter Ukraine.

We walked around Sultanhamet, and after a few hours decided to get a gozleme/pancake. I got one with spinach. I have watched these women sit at the round, hot pancake makers for days and have been curious as to what they are making.

Then we walked around and found a small bazaar, where we went in to look at carpets. I bought a small carpet to hang on the wall. The colors are bright and I like it.

We walked past the university, and saw lots of young people hanging out.

Then we came upon a parade, some sort of protest. I couldn’t read the signs.

Afterwards Jeff got his shoes shined on the street. I noticed the pretty design at the top of this little convenience store/market, then realized that this place used to be a mosque built in 1720. I love visiting places that have such a long history; you find such odd treasures.

On the way to the Suleymaniye Cami, we stopped at a local place recommended by our Lonely Planet guidebook to try a traditional Turkish drink, boza, described as an “Istanbullu tonic drink made from fermented grain.” This place, Vefa Bozacisi, has been in business since 1875. Boza was good! We walked some back roads to get to the mosque. I saw a lot of signs advertising the fact that Istanbul is the 2010 European Capital of Culture. As I prepared to go into the mosque, Jeff shopped around for some traditional clothing.

Then we went inside the Suleymaniye Cami, only to discover that much of it was under renovation and closed. Too bad. Camiis are mosques. This is the mosque of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificient (1520-1566) and it overlooks the Golden Horn. It is a huge complex with a variety of social and public services, including a soup kitchen, hostel, and hospital. This was designed by Mimar Sinan, the same man who designed the Cemberlitas hamami. This is the building for which he is best remembered, and he is buried here. This was the fourth imperial mosque built in Istanbul.

Then we walked to see the Theodosian Wall, built by Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire Theodosius in the 5th century. Constantinople was surrounded by water on three sides (Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus, and the Golden Horn). The Theodosian Wall overland protect the fourth side. It remained impregnable until the Turkish conquest in 1453.

Loved seeing the kids kicking the soccer ball against these ancient walls!
After walking the walls we ventured over to Chora Church.

I have developed a fascination with former Byzantine, Christian churches that were converted into mosques. The resulting architecture is fascinating. Attaturk was great about converting these churches turned mosques into museums so that both Muslims and Christians could enjoy them. The Hagia Sophia is one example, Chora Church is another. The beautiful, possible the most beauitufl I have ever seen, mosaics and frescoes date to 1312. In the mid-twentieth century, the Byzantine Society of American funded the restoration of the mosaics and frescoes, which had been whitewashed for the 400 years this place served as Kariye Camii. My guidebook had a very detailed explanation of all the frescoes, so I loved walking around checking out the walls and ceilings after reading the descriptions in the book. I loved this place.

It was interesting to walk the non-touristy sections of the city. Check out the bridal wear!Turkish delight aka baklava:

We walked back to Sultanhmanet, where I got some freshly squeezed OK from a street vendor and took a pic in front of my hamami.We went to dinner and enjoyed walking around Sultanhamet Square on the last night in Istnabul. Here is the monument from Kaiser Wilhelm.

Then we walked around and got sucked into our 300th carpet store. I had been looking at carpets at the Arasta Bazaar (were we saw a whirling dervish performance!) but just couldn’t find one I really loved. We sat patiently as they showed us rug after rug. Right before we left, I took a walk around the store, and spotted one on the floor leading to their offices. I loved it and asked if it was for sale. “Of course” was the response I received. So I bought it!

Here is my dinner of chicken and veggies. I love how they get them to sizzle in these black iron skillets.After dinner, Jeff decided he just had to try this Turkish bath. I had talked about it ever since Friday night, and the guidebook said the men’s section was much more luxurious than the women’s. Off he went to the men’s section, and off I went, again, to the women’s. Awesome! I LOVE this city.

After the Turkish bath, we bought some Turkish delight on the street and sat on a bench in Sultanhamet Square that overlooked the Blue Mosque, wet hair and all. What a great trip.

Saturday in Istanbul

2010-05-25T21:55:00.000+03:00

I forgot to write about what I did last night. I had a Turkish bath at the Cemberlitas Hamami, which was built in 1584. I was bit hesitant, given that I had no idea what to expect, but after traveling like this I have become accustomed to occasionally throwing caution to the wind. It turned out to be one of the more awesome things I have ever done. The men’s and women’s areas are completely separate, with only men working in the men’s area and only women in the women’s area. You go to your locker, put on your bottoms, and go lie on this huge, naturally heated marble slab. It is crazy relaxing. Before long, a Turkish woman comes over with a bucket of warm water that she got out of the small bathing fountains in this very large, circular room. She grabs the exfoliator that each person is given at the entrance, and proceeds to scrub you down like you haven’t been scrubbed since you were 4 and your Mother threw you in the tub after you spent all day playing in the dirt. You get the idea. Then the lady takes you to the fountain, where she washes your hair and sticks your head under the fountain. She then proceeds to dump buckets of fresh water on your head.

Then you can go swim in the pool, or get in the naturally heated hot tub. I elected to also have a massage, facial, and have my nails done. Total spoilage. It was heavenly, and I felt squeaky clean when I left. There are many, many reasons to come to Turkey, and the Turkish Bath experience ranks near the top.

I loved the separate gender envioronment, because I was able to observe different generations of women, young girls with their mothers and grandmothers, all hanging out on a Friday night at the bath together. Islam emphasizes cleanliness, and thus these bath served a very important purpose before most people had the ability to bathe at home. The one I went to was commissioned by Nurbanu Sultan, the wife of one Sultan and mother of another, and built by the famous architect Sinan, who did some of the mosques around the city. The domed ceiling in the heated room (the sicklik) above the heated marble slab, called a gobektasi, had little stars that allowed in a tiny bit of light, giving the impression of having lit stars on the ceiling. Even though I was there by myself, I loved observing all these women there together, and loved feeling a sense of camaraderie with all the women who have come to this hamami since 1584. The women who worked there, realizing I wasn’t Turkish, spoiled me like crazy, checking out my blue eyes and trying to guess where I was from. French and Russian kept coming up; no one guessed American. I had heard that sometimes the women who work there like to sing, but I didn’t hear any of that. I would do this again in a heartbeat.

When I came back from the hamami, Jeff surprised me with presents: a Turkish flag, and a framed photo of Attaturk. Awesome. We went to dinner in the Sultanhamet neighborhood.

Saturday AM

Against my better judgement, I signed up for a tour. I detest organized travel tours. I don't even like cruises for many of the same reasons. I thoroughly researched the do it yourself ferry system but given that I had begun to feel we were crunched for time (there is so much to do here) I felt it might be more efficient to take a tour.

The tour began early this AM with a cruise on the Golden Horn (the inlet that divides the European sections of Istanbul), followed by a cruise on the Bosphorus (which divides the continents of Europe and Asia).

After reboarding the bus, we went to the house where Pierre Loti (a 19th c. French writer) lived. His home is now a cafe and has a beautiful view of the European side of Istanbul. I purchased some of Loti's books (I love travel literature) and then we took a cable car down the mountain, travelling over thousands of graves carved into the hillside.

We have really gotten into the Turkish coffee.

After driving around and viewing the old city walls, which date to the Byzantine Era, and the Aqueduct of Valens, we drove to what was described in our tour brochure as "optinal shopping opportunity."

This optional shopping opportunity was not really optional, and included a full on fashion show with "beauitful Turkish models" at a Turkish leather outlet. I was followed entirely too closely by this salesman who knew I was American. Although I was deterred from buying anything by my forced visit to the fashion show and outlet, the salesman who followed me sealed the deal. There was no way I was going to buy anything in this place. Some of these people just went nuts when they recognized 2 Americans.

After the fashion show, we drove back to the boat to have lunch. It wasn't bad. Then, we drove to the Dolmabahce Palace.

I was extremely excited abut visiting this palace. For several years now, I have been semi-obsessed with Mustafa Kemal, more commonly known as Ataturk. This man really deserves a separate posting.

So, this palace is where Ataturk lived in his last few years and the tour included his study, bathroom, and the bedroom where he died in 1938. The clocks remain stopped at 9:05AM, the time he died on November 10, 1938. His bed is covered by a huge Turkish flag and a Turkish carpet/rug with his depiction hangs next to the bed. It is a beautiful palace built as a summer palace in 1843. It is only used for very important state events now. The most recent event held at the palace was when Obama came to Istanbul in 2009.

After we left the palace we got back on the bus to cross the Galata Bridge and then the bridge over to Asia. I had never been to Asia before and so I was looking forward to this. On the way over, traffic was heavy and moving very slowly but drivers were still being very aggressive (drivers in Istanbul seem to be crazier than Ukrainian drivers).The Asian side of Istanbul looks very similar to the European side, except it seems to have more green spaces. I enjoyed our brief trek over to Asia.

Rest of day:
Shopped at Arasta Bazaar behind the Blue Mosque. Had coffee and tea and nargileh while watching a whirling dervish at Cafe Mesale. Looked at more rugs. Had dinner rooftop overlooking the Hagis Sophia and the Blue Mosque. The service was bad bc our server (who I heard speak at least 4 languages that night) kept flirting with the 2 British young women backpackers at the table beside us, but the view of the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia was excellent.

I am in Asia!!

I think these massive, inflated (they are hollow) pieces of crispy bread are fascinating.

I still love this place. It is Saturday night and I have one day left in this amazing city. We have lots planned!

Observations: Cats everywhere. Love the call to prayer.

Friday in Istanbul

2010-05-25T17:48:00.000+03:00

Caveat: I was in Istanbul in late February, but had to prioritize other things around that time so I am just not posting the photos from the last 3 days we were there!

Friday morning began with a visit to the Basilica Cistern in Sultanhamet, built by Byzantine Emperor Justinian in 532. There are 2 Medusa heads down here! Great place to hide from the rain.

I love all these cafes. .

Very Turkish...Smoking on ruins that are possibly over 1000 years old.

Later in the day we visited the Topkapi Palace in the Seraglio neighborhood. When Mehmet the Conqueror came into town, he set up his residence in this area in 1453, and his ancestors who served as Sultans continued to live here as well until the 19th century when the Dolmabahce Palace was built. The residence of the Sultans was a world completely closed off from the public. The Sultan and his extended family and his harem of women lived here. I found the hierarchy of life here very interesting. The valide sultan (the Sultan’s mother), for instance, wielded a great deal of power and influence over the court and her son, even when he was serving as the ruler of the Empire. Sultans were allowed 4 wives and as many concubines as he could support. The women of the Harem came from other places, bc Islamic law forbade the enslavement of fellow Muslims. Girls ended up here who had been sold by their parents or who were given as gifts by other nobles. We were fortunate to visit not only the palace but the harem as well (if you go on a tour, they don’t take you to the harem).

Inside the harem…

I love how Mustafa Kemal’s image STILL hangs everywhere in state-owned buildings.

After the Topkapi, we visited a rug store, where we were served apple tea, and the man demonstrated how the carpets “fly.” I loved seeing the flying carpets!

While walking I enjoyed seeing Muslim women. On our way to the Spice Bazaar we stopped into see the burial site of some of the Sultans and their families.

Then we went to the Spice Bazaar. This place was so colorful and fun. It was built in the 1660s.

We bought a Turkish tea set and a Turkish coffee set, and of course some tea and coffee. This place is a tea and coffee drinkers heaven.

After the Spice Bazaar, we walked to the nearby Yeni Camii, known as New Mosque. The New Mosque is not new at all; it was commissioned in 1597 by the valide sultan at the time, Sultan Mehmet III’s mother.Primogeniture didn’t exist in this society and thus the wives who had children with th sultan had to campaign for their sons to become sultan; it was in their son’s best interest, and in their’s, too, given the incredible amount of power the mother of the Sultan exercised. I walked around inside right around 5PM on Friday, which is a prayer day in Islam, so there were a lot of men and women praying in their separate spaces. Fascinating.

The Galata Bridge in the early evening…

Monday

2010-05-25T00:33:00.000+03:00

Today I woke up early, read the next to last chapter in Fast Food Nation, and then fell back asleep.

We packed some more, engaging in the usual deliberations about what to keep and what not to take with us. The big event of the day was our last trip to the train station to buy tickets. The Embassy needed to know all the details of our travels so we decided to go ahead and get the tickets. On the way to the train station we stopped at Potato Hut, again, for lunch. We order the same thing ever single time we are there (cheese, chicken, zaleny/green sauce, and pomodor/tomatoes) but what we get is different every time. Sometimes it is hot, sometimes cold, so it keeps things interesting.

Then we walked down the hill to the train station. Of course the last time that I have to do this is the easiest. We waited in line, and when I started to talk to the lady, this nice guy heard me speaking my very choppy Ukrainian, and asked if he could help. Absolutely you can! So I told him what we needed (tickets to Kyiv, then from Kyiv to Simferopol, then from Simferopol to Kyiv) and he helped order all of them. Awesome. He is just one of many people who, when they hear me struggling and they speak English, offer to help. So many people here have been so kind.

Here I am, writing down the details so I could show it to the womanbehind the window, before I knew I would have help.

Here I am making sure we buy chotiri billets in oden cabin.

We bought the tickets and proceeded back up the very long hill. I don’t like this walk bc I don’t like this part of town. There is nothing good to look at while walking, and the hill is very steep. Of course the woman walking in front of us was doing it in jeans that were like a second skin on her and 4 inch black heels. Not joking.

In front of the City Hall, all of Chernivtsi’s sister cities have a little plot. We saw Suceava, Romania, and several other cities in Poland and in Germany. Then we saw Chernivtsi’s only American sister city, Salt lake City!

We went to Olga to buy some gifts. I bought a small hand sewn cloth that has Chrystos Voskres sewn on it for my Easter basket, and also bought some cocktail napkins with traditional Ukrainian stitching and colors on them.

Then I went to workout. Good workout. I really will miss Ace. I will miss the blasting Russian pop music and how nice the people have been, especially the guy who works there who seems to have a 7 day per week job at that gym. He doesn’t speak English, and he writes my name KORTNI on my blue paper gym pass. After working out I talked with Tatiana, the tennis instructor. She has been emailing with some folks at a university in South Carolina, she tells me.

On the walk back from the gym, I continued to notice some of the street signs. Earlier in the day I saw that the street heading to the train station is named after famed Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin. That guy was a serious hero in the USSR. On the walk home I walked on a street named for Alexander Pushkin.

Tonight I cooked salmon with grits. We are trying to go through the many packages of grits my family brought to me.

Another good day!

Holy Trinity Day

2010-05-24T01:35:00.000+03:00

It rained in the late morning and early afternoon. Not good for an outdoor festival. Then, however, it stopped!

Today is Holy Trinity Day in Ukraine, and there was a local festival at the Chernivtsi Regional Museum of Folk Architecture and Life celebrating the holiday. The festival was called Obnova.

We hopped on bus number 4, paid our 1 hyrvnia each for the bus ticket (that equals about 12 cents) and showed the bus conductor the flier we had for the festival so she could tell us when to hop off.

The festival was a lot of fun.

All the museum exhibits were open; their exhibits are all in Bukovina houses from different periods, and some had hatched roofs. There were singers onstage, bonfires ready to be lit at night, little stands selling traditional Ukrainian items, and food stands. Jeff had a hot dog and I had some holubsee and we enjoyed walking around.

I believe I have written about this before…people find the most creative ways of making money for themselves. It is definitely a holdover from the Soviet system, when everything was so regulated. It forced people to develop unlicensed ways of selling things. You constantly see babushkas and others on the side of the street and in metro stops in Kyiv and other cities, setting up impromptu markets. They sell shoes, flowers, vegetables, socks, etc. One thing I have found particularly interesting is that basbushkas put out scales. People come by, weight themselves, and then give some money to the basbushka. See the scales?

Then, I decided to check out some traditional Ukrainian clothes. This woman seemed to have so much fun dressing me. She just kept putting stuff on me.

She wasn't finished...

I debated for about an hour over whether or not the shirt was something I actually would wear at home, and then I realized that all these designers are now selling stuff like this. The Tory Burch website has lots of these kind of things. Plus, I could wear it for Halloween, and when will I ever have an opportunity to buy traditional Ukrainian clothes again. So I found one I liked, bought a matching belt, and promptly put it on.

More festival shots:

We took the same bus back to town that we took to the festival. On the way, we passed a huge cemetery, which includes the Jewish cemetery. Every August, a big group of people, including a lot of young people from across Europe, come to Chernivtsi and help clean the cemetery. There is actually a Facebook group for it, which I am in, although we won’t be here to participate. I love that people are continuing to do this, even if only once per year. From atop this hill, there were some great views of Chernivtsi. You could see all the tops of the churches, with their onion domes.

We passed this strore, and stopped just long enough for me to read the sign. It reads Laminate and Parquet. Love it when I can actually figure this stuff out.

Then we went to have coffee near the Opera House.
Here was the view:

I loved sitting outside, looking at the crowds and the pretty buildings. This place is much prettier and more alive in the spring than it was in the winter. It is amazing the extent to which weather can impact thee experience one has , especially in places with extreme weather conditions. It is interesting to me that people over here don’t socialize in ways the we do at home. Many of them sit and smoke in public areas, or buy a drink at the market and sit outside. I guess it is less expensive. It creates a situation in which there are always lots of people just hanging out. It is kind of nice. If you want to see or be around people, just go to the Opera House square. Chernivtsi isn’t that big (about 240,000) and you frequently see people running into each other unexpectedly. I like that kind of familiarity and sense of community.

Then we went to Potato Hut for dinner and had burritos. There was a very pretty pink sky as the sun set on the walk home.

Friday and Saturday

2010-05-23T00:03:00.000+03:00

Friday and Saturday

This is our next to last weekend in Chernivtsi. It has rained a lot.

Friday morning I had my healthy breakfast and then went to workout. I did much better this time.

I always like looking at the dates on the buildings. This one is 1910.

And I always hate seeeing things like this, although it is a very common occurrence.

When it rains you can see how uneven the streets and sidewalks are. Walking over ice covered sidewalks like this was not fun.

I did some internet work and sent some emails in the afternoon, and then we went to Sorbonne for dinner. Lonely Planet had recommended this restaurant as had many people around town. It wasn’t what we hoped. It is more of a club than a restaurant, there was no one in there, and they didn’t have English menus, only Ukrainian, so we ended up just having a drink (or half of one…bad Moldovan vino chervone/red wine) and leaving.

We went to the German restaurant we have wanted to try on Olga. Still no English menus, but I ordered a chicken/kirka schnitzel and vegetables and got something somewhat similar to chicken schnitzel.

I also started packing today. I opened the suitcase and threw it on the floor yesterday, and actually began to fill it on Friday. It is going faster than I thought, but I am probably deceiving myself.

Saturday I woke up and went to workout again. After being sick, I am back up to 4 miles. It was beautiful and sunny on my walk up to Ace, but then I noticed it becoming dark, and then I heard thunder, and now we have another rainy day. It was still drizzling on my walk back, but I decided to take the long walk back down Vul Virmenska. I used to do that all the time back in February before I learned the short cut, so I did it for old times sack.

Images like this will always remind me of Ukraine:

Later in the day I did some internetting and began to work on my talk for the Embassy’s conference in Crimea. It is cold in the living room and I am wrapped up in a Snuggie (thank you Ansley!).

I also did some more packing.

I’m hoping the rain will go away tomorrow because there is an outdoor festival I want to attend. Ready for some SC sunshine…

Tour of the Metropolitan's Palace

2010-05-22T23:27:00.000+03:00

Today, I slept late again. I stayed up reading my magazine until 3, but I slept in. I had what has become a typical breakfast here: some yogurt, a little bit of cereal or muesli for crunch, and then either half a banana or some strawberries. At home, I am bad with breakfast; I usually have coffee and a banana or a Special K or Nutrigrain bar while driving to work. Too often I just have coffee. So, I am proud that the slower pace of living here has resulted in healthier breakfasts. It is the most important meal of the day, you know. 

I did some emailing and then showered and met Anna at 3 so we could print off her language evaluation in Mykola’s office. I find myself taking pictures of Chernivtsi, just because I know my time here is winding down.

Then Ivanna came to meet us and we walked to the main part of the campus. I wore my grey flats and got blisters on my feet. I do not know how these women walk these uneven streets in such high heels. My only rationale is that they are perhaps walking less if they take marshrutkas or the trolleybuses that I don’t take.

Here we are!

I enjoyed the tour of the university a lot. I learned that Josef Hlavka (the H is silent), who had attended the Vienna Art Academy, won the competition to design the structure that was eventually built between 1864 and 1882. He was 29 when he won the competition. He went on to design over 100 buildings in Europe. He modeled much of this structure after the Alhambra in Spain. I was in the Alhambra in 1992, and even though I was young I do remember being there and what it looked like. The complex consisted and still does consist of 3 buildings. The building on the left, if you are facing the center building, was the monastery, and the seminary church is on the right. Because of its unique history, today, Chernivtsi National University is the only state university in Ukraine that continues to operate a seminary.

The university opened on September 30, 1875 and was named after the Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz Josef. He did not attend the opening of the university ( I asked), but Prince Leopold was. 1875 was the 100th anniversary of Chernivtsi’s inclusion in the A-H Empire. The university was run under the patronage of the Metropolitan of Bukovina, a high ranking religious position in the Orthodox church. In 1944, when the Soviets took over this area, it ceased to serve as the residence of the Metropolitan and 12 years later, the complex became university property.

During the days of the A-H Empire, there was a statue of Franz-Josef and a statue of Empress Maria Theresa, a previous ruler of the A-H Empire, on campus. When the Romanians took over after WWI, they were removed. In 2003, the statue of Maria Theresa was found, without a head or hands, buried on the property that used to be the Bukovina Museum. In 2007, 10 sculptors from different areas of the Austro-Hungarian Empire gathered together in Vienna to sculpt 10 copies of the statue. 7 of them are in the entrance to this building.

I enjoyed seeing the Marble Hall.

The ceilings and floor in the red room are 135 years old and the wallpaper is silk.

The Metropolitan's library was burned in 1944. The room was renovated in 2000.

In 1886, the railway opened here, 4 years before Kyiv had a railway stop. In 1897, the city developed a tram network, only 9 years after London developed its. Electricity came to this area in 1912. This city was thriving during its days as part of the A-H Empire.

There is a botanical garden here that is 135 acres, but it is closed to the public and even students have to have special permission to walk through it.

The seminary church was built in 1878. From 1944-1991, it served as a museum, because the Soviets closed it. Since 1991, it has resumed its primary function as a training church for seminary students. We saw several priests-in-training, lighting candles, and going through prayers, while we were there.

We walked around and took some more photos after the tour.

Then we went to have coffee at the place where I went with Ivanna and Anna yesterday. Then I took some pics of Chernivtsi.

I cooked baked chicken, vegetables and rice for dinner. I mailed my essay to Vitaliy in the Fulbright office in Kyiv. Now I am drinking some delicious, hot lychee tea. I picked up a few packets in the hotel in Poland. I’m going to have to find some of this in the US.

Heading to sleep...

Last Day of Classes

2010-05-21T14:30:00.000+03:00

I did not sleep last night. Don’t know why. I was tired when I woke up this morning.

Today was the last day of school. Wow. There is always a simultaneous sense of achievement and a bit of sadness at the end of every semester. My life rides the waves of the semester system. It is nice, because each year has established parameters. When one ends, I know there is a new group of students awaiting a fresh beginning just around the corner. There is always a new opportunity to begin anew just months away at any given time of the year.

In 1890, a well known historian named Frederick Jackson Turner gave a speech, identifying the role the American frontier has played in the development of American optimism. Unlike Europeans, whose land had been explored for quite some time, Americans knew that, no matter what their lives were like on the east coast, there was always the option of going west to make a new life for one's self. It didn't matter if the Americans of the 19th century actually took advantage of this or not: what matterred, and what created that sense of optimism that Turner argued was central to the American character, was that each person knew that they could. Like the frontier, the semester system introduces new opportunities several times a year. I love living this way; it keeps life fresh.

Here I am on the first day of classes in early February:

And later that day, all bundled up:

Here I am on the last day of classes:

I gave the final exam, tried unsuccessfully to keep their chatter to a minimum, and told them how much I had enjoyed my time with them.

Then I met with a med student who will be in the US this summer. At 1:30, Anna and Ivanna came to meet me earlier than usual. Our class usually meets at 2:40 but we decided to do something special for our last meeting. We went to Mario’s for lunch (pizza), and had a good conversation about cheating and plagiarism and why it is so rampant here. Then, we walked across the street to a really cute coffee shop. I had coffee and cinnamon. I suggested they get a slice of cake or pie, and so we went to look. They told me I had to try this traditional Ukrainian cake called the drunken cherry. It is usually cooked with vodka or cognac or rum. It is chocolate and has cherries (Ukrainian LOVE cherries) and this one was cooked with cognac. It wasn’t bad.

I really enjoy spending time with these 2 young women. These 2 are going places…

At lunch, they presented me with a gift bag with the image of the main part of the campus on one side and an "I love Chernivtsi" written in Cyrillic on the other side. They had bought a doll wearing traditional Ukrainian clothing for me, and a Chernivtsi flag. I was thrilled by their gesture.

Afterwards I walked with them back to Place Sobornna and visited some shops on my walk home.

I worked on my computer in the evening. I need to submit my Fulbright essay for the yearbook very soon. I also cooked dinner using an assortment of leftovers and things we need to be rid of by the time we leave. Fajita veggie pizza and fajita pesto pizza.

It was a really nice day. Now I have to grade!

We fly home three weeks from tomorrow, and in some ways, that makes me sad. I have developed a really nice routine here, and I have tried never to lose sight of the fact that I am so fortunate to have had this opportunity, and to have employers, and family and friends who have supported my decision to come here.

Tuesday

2010-05-21T00:29:00.000+03:00

Working out yesterday was not a good idea.

Today we walked to the Post Office and got stuck in the daily rain shower. Big rain shower today, and I did not have my rain coat. Jeff insisted I take his, and he became drenched. We took cover under an awning, where we huddled for about 15 minutes hoping it would stop. About 10 minutes in we met a young woman who approached us to introduce herself. She was beyond thrilled to meet English speakers.

We finally made it to the Post Office and then of course once we were inside it stopped raining. Then we walked over to Olga Koblyianska, and on the way I stopped into this little stolovy/cafeteria to get a piece of this warm, cheesy thing that looks a little like cornbread. It is good. We had coffee on Olga Koblyianska and stopped at the market on Olgato buy bread. Jeff loves having fresh bread and has been spoiled by the fact that he can walk to the local market and buy it. You can't see it, but the fresh bread that is unpackaged is behind him. This packaged bread is new and has only started appearing since the weather got better. I've noticed that there are more food options since the weather has improved; I guess the food people can deliver more easily.

Tonight I cooked pesto penne, and then created my final exam for my final class tomorrow morning. Can’t believe my last day of class is tomorrow!

Monday

2010-05-21T00:16:00.000+03:00

Slept late. Had the leftover holubsee THAT I MADE for lunch. I am very proud!

Went shopping. Bought a pair of boots. Boots are big here, so they have beaucoup de choices. I am seriously getting into this Chernivtsi lifestyle.

Jeff suggested since we were out and we were getting hungry that we eat an early dinner (early for us is 6) at Efes, a Turkish restaurant here. I believe it was the first restaurant we ate in in Chernivtsi bc Mykola pointed it out to us and told us they had pizza. Our options were so limited when we first got here. We were clueless. We couldn’t read street names or the names of restaurants or any menus. We figured we could handle pizza. It turns out they had English menus, so we were able to order other things too. Consequently, I’ve never had pizza there. I always order Efes, their special. It is just like the dishes I ate in Turkey…chicken, potatoes, mushrooms, and tomatoes, all sautéed together with some cheese on top.

Jeff decided to eat his pizza Ukrainian style, with ketchup and mayonnaise.

Then we checked out the new restaurant in town, Chicken House. First time I have seea chickenndwich in Ukraine!

I stopped by the gym and worked out after dinner. Then I enjoyed a leisurely walk back to the flat. I’m easing back into this workout thing slowly.

Tonight, I began putting some things away that will not be on the return flight.

Feels good to clean out and give away!

Family Dinner in Chernivtsi

2010-05-20T00:23:00.000+03:00

Today I read my book, and then got ready to meet Anna at 4/16:00 at the university. She and her aunt had invited me over to dinner. We met and took marshurtka 9 to their apartment. The elevator was broken so we walked up to the 9th floor, and I enjoyed it bc I’ve been kooped up bc of not feeling well.

In addition to seeing her aunt again, I met her cousin, cousin’s wife and their 5 year old son, and Anna’s sister Yulia. They live together. They were all very welcoming. They had the table set when I arrived and Anna and I visited until dinner was ready. They cooked an absolute feast, and all of it was delicious. They served New Year’s Day salad, beetroot salad, and chopped cucumbers, radishes, and tomatoes to start. Anna told me the salad is called New Years Day salad bc back during the days of the USSR, there weren’t much food to buy in the markets. Throughout the USSR, though, this salad was loved by all, and so in preparation for every New Years Day, the markets would stock all the ingredients (eggs, corn, chicken, peas, potato) for the people to make NYD Salad.

We had mineral water, white wine from the Crimea (which prompted many toasts…whenever anyone’s glass is refilled, everyone toasts), and birch tree juice, which tasted a lot like lemonade. Birch tree juice is very popular here.

Then we had 3 kinds of varynky (cheese, potato, and carrot/cabbage), holubsee, and pizza. All of it was homemade…nothing frozen here.

Before dessert, they had a surprise for me. They taught me how to make holubsee. In passing, I had expressed interest to Anna last week and she remembered and told her aunt, who had it all set up for me to learn. So, so thoughtful. I just love people who pick up on things and implement.

Then we had coffee and dessert. We watched Anna’s cousin’s wedding video, and a video from her aunt’s travels in the US.

I felt so honored to be invited into their home. It was nice to spend time with a family so warm and generous. I gave them some gifts (Anna loves magazines from the US) and they sent me home with the holubsee I had made and some other treats.

There is a Romian Orthodox church near their apartment.

Anna accompanied me back to town on the marshrutka, where this guy

met me.

In the US, we so often meet at restaurants or at other places in public. There really is something special about being invited to someone’s home for dinner. I think of women I admire who have invited me to their homes for dinner in recent years…Diane Vecchio, Ann Batson, and Judy Church immediately come to mind. Many friends my age fall into this category as well, and it really is appreciated.

The experience of being invited into a family’s home will rank near the very, very top of my experiences here. Their kindness and warmth and generosity are inspiring. Anna and her aunt clearly enjoy doing for others, and I love people who create and enhance their own happiness by making others happy.

Anna tells me she is learning a great deal from our class, but I feel certain I have benefitted more. She has helped me a great deal, and I have learned much from her.

It is getting dark now.

Good Night!

Saturday

2010-05-19T19:53:00.000+03:00

Today I slept late. I have been getting more sleep than ever before in my adult life. I know many of my friends are young Moms; I don’t mean to rub it in, but especially because I don’t feel great, it is nice to have the luxury of sleeping late.

We walked up to KyivStar to check on my internet access bc I got some funny message on my computer from them. They were closed. I guess I’ll keep using it and see if I have any trouble.

Then we went to the German National House restaurant. We sat outside. One of the waiters spoke some English. I had a kava Americano (big coffee) and it did not have any sugar in it. I had cherry pancakes and Jeff had this chocolate concoction. We read our books. It was a little chilly. Here, people still sit outside, bc the restaurants provide wool blankets.

It is raining here a lot.

That evening we went to Reflection for dinner, where I enjoyed my Exotic Salad.

See? Very few salads have lettuce here.

Braids are big here.

We are going through the list of things we want to do one more time before we leave and Reflection was on it. It rained again tonight. The people at Reflection have come to know us, and it is always nice to be greeted by familiar faces.

Friday

2010-05-18T20:04:00.000+03:00

I bought this fun, cheapo watch on my first visit to Kalina Market with Veronica and Andriy, and it broke recently. It will always remind me of my time here.

I forgot to mention that Jeff made a mammoth bowl of varenyky with sauteed onions and cauliflower for dinner last night (and lunch the next few days).

Speaking of lunch, I forgot to mention that on Wednesday, I took a package of Lance peanut butter crackers and a Diet Pepsi with me for lunch. Mom brought a few packages of the crackers with her. As I sat there and had my lunch between my classes, I was reminded of the stories Mom has told me about how she used to have the exact same thing for lunch when she was teaching before I was born. I enjoyed my lunch all the more because of that memory. And now, I will enjoy the memory of my lunch. I only drink soft drinks a few times a year, but I will drink them even less now after reading Fast Food Nation!

Today (Friday) was a bit more eventful than others this past week. I’m still not feeling great, so working out is still several days away.

I started reading the book I reference above, Fast Food Nation, last night and became completely engrossed in it. Around 2:30, my usual going to bed time around here, I closed it to go to sleep, but as soon as I woke up I started reading again.

We went to Potato Hut for lunch around 3. They have good burritos, and aside from the "kissadias" at Reflection, is the only place in town that has anything remotely Mexican.

Then, we saw that there were some tables and umbrellas set up in the square. The on e thing I thought I would do today was get out to read a book if it was nice, so this looked like a great thing to do. We had both brought books just in case.

We got some coffees, sat outside on a Friday afternoon, and read. Occasionally I looked around at the action. I enjoyed listening to the accordion player. The accordion is big here.

I’m sick of espresso. It is too strong and too little. They don’t have skim milk here, at least not when you order kava, so I try to drink it black as often as possible. I may have to go with some kava Americano with molokom a few times.

There are two smells that I think will always remind me of Ukraine, maybe three, now that I think about it.

The first is trash. I have to pass at least one and sometimes two, depending on my path, trash drop off on the side of the street whenever I go anywhere. There are usually stray dogs loitering and someone digging though the trash. Oftentimes the person digging through the trash is nice looking…a woman in a suit, with a purse, etc. I just cannot figure it out. Today, Jeff left a pair of shoes at the very top of the dumpster, hoping someone would take them and use them. We passed that same dumpster less than 3 hours later, and sure enough, those shoes were gone. I’m not sure if a man who needs shoes got them, or some babushka is going to clean them and resell them. Regardless, I hope they help someone.

The second is the smell of yucky feet. That is a remnant from my Lviv-Chernivtsi train experience.

Finally, the smell of burning paper will remind me of Ukraine. We used to light newspaper. Then we ran out, so now we use paper. The smell of burning paper gives me a serious headache. The virtue of burning paper as opposed to newspaper is that, while it doesn’t hold the flame as easily, it also doesn’t burn so quickly, and the flame doesn’t grow as big. Thus, the controlled explosion that occurs when the flame hits the natural gas is smaller. I think I would have become more comfortable with the heaters at an earlier time if I had started off using paper and not newspaper.
After we returned from a brief stop at the market, I decided to take a photo of things we have in the kitchen here in Ukraine. Just one of many reminders of my daily life here.

Friday night we went to Pizza Park for dinner. I had pizza with chicken, corn, mushrooms, cheese, and tomato sauce. I enjoyed sitting outside. The German restaurant across the street was busy. Maybe I’ll give it another shot sometime.

Teaching Day

2010-05-17T23:14:00.000+03:00

Here I sit. It is 10:06 PM (or 22:06 around here) and I am watching Ukraine’s version of American Idol. Or at least I think this is Ukraine’s version. After listening to my students vent about the presidential administration and it’s pro-Russia tendencies, I just had a thought…horror of horrors…perhaps this is broadcast out of Moscow and not Kyiv. Perhaps this is Russia’s American Idol. I’ll have to listen to hear if they say dopobochenya or dasvedanya.

Today I dragged myself out of the house for the first time since Sunday afternoon to go teach my classes. Although walking the 9/10 of a mile up the hill to school was not pleasant, I was happy to be out of the house and back into the land of the living.

Today Mykola told me the department is planning a going away lunch for me on the 26th at a restaurant. Very sweet. Also on that day, “Wednesday will be Monday,” and so I won’t have classes, meaning that a week from today will be my last class. The schedule has not turned out to be what I had expected it to be (my grad seminar was supposed to end the first week in late April/early May) but that is OK. I love that 2 students in my grad seminar (Anna and Ivana) have wanted to continue to meet beyond what the schedule dictated. I really, really enjoy my time with them. Any one of us could have ended the seminar weeks ago, but decided against it. Next Wednesday we will do something fun. Today with them was fun as well; we actually sat outside at Place Soborna and had class. When I got to the part about the 2000 election, Anna wanted to know about how the US president is elected: is it by the sheer number of votes from the people or through something else? So, golden opportunity to explain the electoral college process, and to tell them that although this class has been titled American Diplomacy: Ideals and Realities (I didn’t name the class) the election of our president doesn’t follow what would happen in a strict democracy; rather it is better described as a democratic republic.

In my 11:30 class, I had also talked about recent American history. When I asked if any of the students had questions, one of them, Marianna, asked if I thought what some people said about the American government planning 9/11 was true? Essentially, was 9/11 an inside job to invade Afghanistan? Wow. She talked about films she had seen and all of a sudden 4 other students were chiming in, saying that those buildings could never have fallen without the American government sending people in to weaken them before the airplanes hit. I was quite surprised, but told them definitively that no, I did not believe this was an inside job. I talked about how some speculators/conspiracy theorists still argue that President Roosevelt knew about the attack on Pearl Harbor and allowed it to happen to have just cause for bringing the US into WWII. I then used it as an opportunity to discuss the importance of scrutinizing sources, exercising healthy skepticism, and basically not believing everything you hear or read. This, I must say, surprised me, because so many of them seemed to believe that this had been an inside job. Wow.

Jeff took some pics of me teaching today for the Fulbright yearbook:

As I was walking out of the building I noticed this:

After teaching, Jeff came to meet me and carry my backpack. We ended up shopping at one of my clothes places and then looking for paintings at another place on Olga. It started to rain, so we went across the walk to the movie theater outdoor café to grab some kavas. We sat outside under the canopy. I wore a black dress my Mom had left with me back in April. It was the first day I have worn a dress or a skirt to teach; today was the first day it has been warm enough. If you had told me back in February that one day I would be sitting outside in a dress having coffee in Chernivtsi, I probably would not have believed it.

The Flintstones were on TV, dubbed in Ukrainian, of course. They played Rockopoly and I enjoyed hearing Fred, or whatever his Ukrainian name is, count “sheest, sim, vessim…” (6,7,8). That is about all I understood.

I like the sounds of what I hear around here. Every Wednesday afternoon, I hear the sounds of church music coming from the main cathedral. I love the sounds of all the church bells on Sunday mornings. Occasionally I will hear some of the stray dogs barking ferociously at night, or cats meowing. The other day, while sick in bed, I had the windows open and could hear children playing outside. Evidently one of the childrens’ parents came out to ask something, because I heard the child respond repeatedly in the sweetest voice, “Moszhna? Moszhna?” (May I? May I?) Cute.

Which bring me to another point. Today I saw a little boy walking around Olga by himself. He walked into the food market, and bought himself this little orange drink that is popular around here. This is not the first time I have observed children walking the street by themselves. Because it is so much safer here, children seem so much freer than they are in the US.

I just saw my favorite Jacobs coffee commercial on the TV. It makes me laugh…the little jingle on the commercial is in English, and the coffee is pronounced Yacobs. I was impressed with myself a few weeks ago when ordering kava for Mom and I to take on the train from Chernivtsi to Kyiv. I hopped off the train to order it and the lady behind the coffee counter asked me, “Yacobs?” Ha. I knew what she meant bc of the commercial.

Thursday, I stayed in. Wednesday wore me out. I am obsessively reading Fast Food Nation. This is a really, really good book.

The Virtues of (Trying) to be Clutter-free

2010-05-17T22:46:00.000+03:00

Less than one month left. Today I felt a bit better and so I sat on the balcony and read a magazine, and then I cleaned out much of the apartment.

It is amazing how much stuff one accumulates (papers, etc.) in a 4 month period.

For several years in my life I was really bad about hoarding things. So, a few years ago I made a personal vow to be much more selective about what I choose to bring into my personal space. I find that eliminating clutter around me helps me to feel mentally clutter free as well. So,if I felt there was a good chance I had something similar already, why by another? I also made a personal vow to use fewer resources, mine and others. Why not reuse and recycle? Both were and are aspects of my commitment to sustainability…it helps in sustaining my personal resources and limits the amount that I contribute to the trash heap every week.

I love, for instance, using my Publix recyclable bag. I love that for 2 years now my weekly trash from all my wastebaskets can all fit very easily into one of those medium sized kitchen trash cans. I love that I use only an online syllabus in my classes and that I grade just about everything electronically; it has drastically eliminated my usage of paper and my student’s. I have become more deliberate and rational about items I choose to purchase and when and where I choose to purchase them. All this and more (things I won’t blog about) have become a little game I play to reduce clutter and the negative impact I have on the environment.

I was inspired by a Furman friend who lives in Boston. She and her husband decided to put a buying moratorium on themselves for one year. I was impressed. While I didn’t have it in me to completely stop buying anything other than the absolute necessities for a complete year, I decided I would put a moratorium on buying all toiletries, soaps, lotions, etc. until I had either used or given to charity all that I had in my bathroom, which at one point a few years ago looked like it could have competed with the shelves of Walgreens or Bath and Body Works (I was a soap and lotion junkie for many years…still love soaps, especially the ones sold at Greenville’s Saturday Morning Market). I am slowly making my way through all these things.

My efforts were aided this past Christmas; I walked over to the Furman library to check out the campus giving tree, which included ornaments, each with the name and requests of a local charity. I jumped at the ornaments for 2 women’s shelters that had shower caps, lotions, soaps, etc. as their needs. I’m not sure what the philosopher Immanuel Kant would say about the virtues of my self-serving act of kindness, but regardless, it helped them and it satiated this crazy need I have to clean out without being wasteful.

I really enjoy cleaning out in small doses, big doses is an altogether different matter. I’m sure some people, namely my Mother and housekeeper, will laugh at my previous statement. I empahtized the other day while reading my BFF Courtney’s blog “A Work in Progress.” Great blog, btw, written by a super special, amazing person. But I digress…she talked about that feeling of satisfaction that is gained from cleaning out her email inbox every day. I achieve that same sense of satisfaction. I just love highlighting and deleting all the unnecessary clutter. Because I have had my yahoo email address since 1997, I receive a lot of mail. I’m actually surprised I don’t get a lot more junk, actually.

So today was satisfying in the sense that I cleaned out a lot of junk. However, as soon as I cleaned out all these papers that feeling of satisfaction was tempered by the fact that I can’t recycle them. That is an essential component of the satisfaction chain. Recycling of paper doesn’t happen here, although people make a regular habit of using both sides of paper. Oh, well. Maybe one day.

I am enjoying the process of deciding what to take back with me and what to give away, and to whom. That has been fun, thinking about who has been helpful and supportive, and who might enjoy what. There is a lot of stuff that won’t make an appropriate gift but is still useful, and I’m trying to gather information about what to do with these items. Should I leave them at the trash cans? There is always someone going through them. Or, should I take them to a church and try to communicate? I think I’ll ask around the next few days to find out the best course of action.

This is clearly going to be a process, so I am glad I have started early. I didn’t leave the flat again today. Need to rest for tomorrow.

Sick Monday

2010-05-17T22:14:00.000+03:00

Monday, May 10, 2010

Well, it is a good thing I had a big day in the city yesterday bc now I am sick.

On Saturday, I saw two things of Kleenex and began to think about cleaning out this place. What was I going to do with things like that? Slowly over the weekend, I’ve developed some kind of nasty cold, sinus infection, or something. I haven’t spent much time out of bed today. Those Kleenex are almost gone. I also just took the last Tylenol Sinus, which means if I don’t feel better tomorrow I am going to have to have a native speaker go to an Apteka for me.

We leave one month from the day I am writing this to return to the US. Wow. I have been here for 3.5 months.

I have recently done inventory of lots of other items to see what I need to ration, what I can use freely, and what I can begin to give away.

I have 15 Splenda left for about 24 more days in Chernivtsi. I have an abundance of granola bars and will share some with my classes. I have gifts I need to give. I have entirely too many shower caps and soaps from hotels.

I just went through and cleaned out some papers that had accumulated. Good thing to do on a sick day. It amused me to go through my lists from January to see all that I had written. I even had one list from November 2009, the weekend after the WWII exhibit opened. It was the first chance I had had to catch my breath in months, and it hit me that weekend that if I was leaving the country for an extended period 2 months later, I had A LOT to do. January, in fact, was a blur of preparing to come here.

Jeff cooked dinner tonight. I chilled. After I thought all the Tylenol Sinus was gone, I began thinking of how we were going to get medicine similar to it. Then, just now, I found 3 more doses of it. Can’t believe it. I scoured that medicine bag twice earlier! I am now going to hold my own little Te Deum in gratitude.

I just took some, so hopefully I will sleep tonight. No pics today.

Mother's Day in the US, Victory Day in Ukraine

2010-05-17T02:05:00.000+03:00

I woke up early. I was not going to miss Victory Day.

I feel so privileged to be in a country when it is celebrating 2 awesome holidays. The first was International Women’s Day, and now, Victory Day.

Victory Day celebrates the surrender of Germany to the Allies in WWII. Germany and Romania were not always kind to Chernivtsi. Neither was Stalin, but I guess that is a different story altogether. These people had it rough. The entire demographic makeup of Chernivtsi totally changed during WWII. The Jewish population, which comprised 32% of the city’s population, was largely removed, although the Romanian mayor fought to save Jews from the ghetto. Another 20 percent or so was Romanian, 20 percent was German, 20 percent was Ukrainian, and the leftover was Russian, Polish, etc. During the war, Chernivtsi changed from being part of Romania to being part of Soviet Ukraine (1940…secret clause in Molotov-Ribbentrop gave Romanians 48 hours to get out), then Romania again (1941, during Operation Barbarossa), then once again part of Soviet Ukraine (1944). It remained part of Soviet Ukraine until 1991.

When leaving the train station, one of the first things that greets you before you get to the city center is the first Russian tank that came into Chernivtsi in 1944 to take the city from the Romanians.

I threw on some clothes and walked briskly up the hill towards Place Soborna. I had been told that there was going to be a parade and someone thought it would start around 9. I found some info on a website (thank you google translater) and was only about to find out that the Mayor had closed Place Soborna to traffic until 10:30. On my walk up I noticed my body temp was way off….looking back I now realize this was a sign of things to come. At the time, I shrugged it off bc nothing was going to stand in the way of Victory Day and me. Given that a big chunk of my life for the past 3 years has been geared towards researching and writing about WWII, this was a big day for me.

I passed a WWII vet in his uniform on the walk there. I went up to him, marched a little, and pointed, and he smiled and nodded. I continued heading in that direction. Then I saw a group of army guys marching in formation in the other direction. Uh oh. I continued towards Place Soborna anyway.

I saw that police were directing traffic and also saw more veterans.

Then I saw a HUGE crowd of people. I could barely see the parade bc of all these people.

I went up to some of the vets and shook their hands (yes, we did fight on the same side, funny as it sounds since WWII gave way to the Cold War).

I watched some of the men place flowers at the WWII memorial.

Lots of activity on Place Soborna early on this Sunday AM.

Some of these men had lots of medals. One of the things that I found most touching was that all these babushka were in attendance, wearing their deceased husbands’ medals. So sweet.

I loved how multigenerational the crowd was. Some much of this day reminded me of the celebrations we have for Veterans Day at the Upcountry History Museum. If you’ve never been to one of our annual Vets Day weekends, please come this year.

I enjoyed seeing this outdoor exhibit. The pictures reminded me so much of the photos that are taken at our events.

Then I asked around about what was going on next. It seemed that the events were moving to Taras Schevchenko Park. I didn’t have my map so I had to ask directions. We started walking, and walking, and walking. On the way, this gold SUV honked at me repeatedly, and I looked over to see Mykola!

Finally we reached the park. This park is great! I can’t believe I haven’t been here before. My students had told me about the circus here and the local football (soccer) team, Bukovina, that plays here.

I really couldn’t believe it I’d never been here after we exited from the other direction and saw how close it is to Olga K. Just a few blocks beyond Olga and then a left onto Vul Holovna. It certainly doesn’t have paths smooth enough to jog, but there were tons of people hanging out, walking around, having coffee, etc. It looks like a great place to take a book on a weekend.

There was a huge crowd gathered for the ceremony at the tomb of the unknown soldier. It lasted a long time, which is great, but I couldn’t see that well bc of how big the crowd was and obviously I can’t understand anything.

So after a while, we walked around.

The flowers I'm carrying were given to me by the veteran who is in the picture with me above. A man came over to give the flowers to him, and he immediately gave them to me. So sweet.

Perfect shoes for a stroll in the park, don't you think?

We saw the amphitheater where concerts are held. Then, we found the stadium. After looking around, I saw that the ticket booth was open and went in. It just so happened there was a match that afternoon. The next one isn’t until May 23rd, when I’m hoping we will be visiting Steve and Alissa in England, so we opted to go ahead and go that afternoon.

Football (or soccer, as we know it) is SERIOUS around here. The match provided a good opportunity for people watching. The stadium was loud, the fans were boisterous, and the atmosphere was highly spirited. We were surrounded by smokers in front of and behind us. Supposedly Ukraine made laws providing for non-smoking areas in restaurants and outlawed smoking in public places. No one seems to pay much attn to this law, however. Some have even acknowledged that the law means nothing.

The game was fun. I’m glad we got a chance to see this side of life in Ukraine.

Go Bukovina!

Oh, yes. This guy had a really good time.

Today was really special. I enjoyed seeing these vets and I loved seeing the babushkas with their husbands’ medals on. I loved that it reminded me of home and all that we do to honor the WWII generation. They don’t have their own holiday in the US, but those of us at the museum have tried to do our part to make them feel honored in the twilight of their lives.

After soccer we went to Koleso for holubsee. Then I called my family to say Happy Mother's Day. Loved being able to talk with them. Great day!

Saturday, May 8

2010-05-16T22:58:00.000+03:00

Saturday was a great day in Chernivtsi. The weather here now is that quintessential early spring weather, in which you still need a jacket bc the wind is blowing. No humidity here. It reminds me of certain days in March in Gville.

We became sidetracked on our way to shop for groceries. Jeff’s new hobby is Roman coin collecting, so he investigated a few places that have such things while I checked out the selection black boots at one store on Vul Ruska. He bought a gift for me, which was very thoughtful, and something I have wanted to get during my time here. If you’re curious, email me.

We eventually got the supermarket to purchase the usual suspects: cucumbers, tomatoes, red peppers, onions, yogurt, cereal, milk (molokom), muesli, wheat crackers, and pineapple. Today, the supermarket shopping highlight was finding and buying a Pepsi Light! They only had a few and one of them is now mine. We also purchased something new, these crackers that look like croutons. They have them at the jazz club here. I had enjoyed them there and now know they can be purchased in a package that comes with it’s own small carton of BBQ sauce. Odd.

We walked home serenaded by the ringing of church bells, which I loved. We passed a man, large beer in hand, walking down the street…very Ukrainian. As he passed the cathedral, he stopped dead in his tracks, turned, and crossed himself before continuing on his path. Also very Ukrainian.

I took a Tylenol sinus bc my throat and head are bothering me, and chilled for about 30 minutes before walking up the hill to the gym. Even with my feel ( I have self-diagnosed myself with super, super mild plantar fascitis..sounds worse than it is, no worries) I felt really good doing the 4 miles today. That has become my usual. I told Jeff that one of the things I will take away from my time here is better cardiopulmonary health. I used to DETEST running. Now I actually enjoy it.

We stopped at the market on Olga to put money on our phones at the kiosk, and picked up the groceries we couldn’t find at the other market. This house has recently had a lot of work done to it, and it looks great. With the T at the top, I think I’ll live here during my last month in Ukraine. Ha!

On the walk back, I thought, I wonder if the ladies at Soho can cut my bangs right now. It was about 7:30 on a Saturday evening. Sure enough, I walked over, popped in, puled my bangs down and made a scissor motion with my hands. The lady nodded (the people in this country are so kind to me given my language weaknesses) and pointed to the chair. I sat down, and 8 minutes later I looked like a new woman. She charged a whopping 10 hyrvnias, the equivalent of 1.20 USD. Unreal. I love my hair place in Gville, but it makes what I spend in the US on an annual basis on hair cuts seem astronomical.

Before dinner we prayed for our mothers and all the women in our lives whom we care about. We hope you all know we are thinking of you tomorrow on Mother’s Day.

Back to Chernivtsi

2010-05-16T22:09:00.000+03:00

The overnight train ride was fine. We did the usual shifting to the new tracks and going through border patrol. As soon as we got into Ukraine territory, I used the phone to call my Mother in hopes of talking to my grandmother on her birthday. It was 4:30 AM my time, and thus 9:30PM their time. They had just returned from dinner. I didn’t get to talk with my grandmother but did get to talk briefly to my Mom. I had wanted to call my other grandmother on her birthday back in February, but at that point in time was still trying to figure out how to call the US, so that didn’t work.

Now I sit in the Lviv train station waiting room, killing 4.5 hours, waiting for the 10:40 train to Chernivtsi. I bought tickets when we pulled into the station this AM a few minutes after 6. That was an experience, as always.

The concept of personal space does not exist in these parts, especially Ukraine, the way it is exists in America. Therefore, with people always crowding you, bumping into you, etc. you always feel like they are trying to break in line ahead of you. And, often, they are. So, the ticket lady and I communicated regarding the ticket situation…4 billets, oden cabin, Lviv to Chernivtsi, etc. Getting this right was important bc of the smelly feet experience I had last time I took the Lviv-Chernivtsi train ride. I began to pay and then as soon as I handed over my money, before the tickets had been handed to me, two women who had crowded on either side of me began to battle over who was gong next. Both were speaking in raised voices to the train lady, who had not even begun to point out the ticket info to me, as they always do. The ticket lady began to point out the info to me while the women were still talking. So, I raised my voice a bit louder than normal, threw both of my hands out to the side, and said, “Oden minoot!” The ladies backed off. Jeff thought this was hilarious.

We used the restroom, which takes about 25 minutes around here, after paying, waiting in line, etc. and then I bought 2 kavas. It doesn’t matter how many times I order ni sukar, I get sugar. Ni sukar evidently means no added sugar. I think it is impossible to get a no sugar coffee unless one order espresso. Perhaps I’ll give that a try here next.

The musician from Columbia just came over and asked, “So how did y’all sleep?” Y’all! It has been FOREVER since I have heard that.

It is now 7:42. 3 more hours!

Once we disembarked in Chernivtsi, we got a taxi to go back to the flat. It was quite a welcome back to Ukraine wake up call. The taxi, which must have been from 1978, was nasty, the car didn’t function like cars are supposed to function, and the driver almost hit a few other cars, a babushka, and a stray dog before we finally arrived at our destination.

So soon after we returned to Chernivtsi, I went to Ace. Getting in a good workout sounded really good.

I worked out, paid my May membership dues (125 UAH for the month= 15 USD), and then it began to rain. Hard. Lightening and thunder soon followed. So I worked out some more. The walk home testifies to the amount of dust that covers this city on any given day.

After being gone for almost a week, it was really nice to stay in, get a good workout, get clean, have dinner, and wash clothes.

Thursday in Krakow- May 6

2010-05-16T21:32:00.000+03:00

Thursday was a relaxing day. We walked to the train station, which is so modern and so conveniently located in the heart of the city. This Krakow just has it together. We bought tickets for the overnight train to Lvov (22:28- 6:03, there is a one hour difference between Poland and western Ukraine). The lady spoke some English. It is so much easier to buy tickets here than in Ukraine.

Jeff noticed an antique store in the train station. Odd, I know. Imagine my surprise when I saw that this antique had really beautiful things, many from England, at great prices. I saw a painting I loved that reminded me nothing of Poland, but of the SC coast. If I had to put an image to Pat Conroy’s The Water is Wide, this painting would be that image.

We left to walk across the square to the Kraikova Galleria, the city’s main shopping mall. This place blows Haywood Mall away, which isn’t saying much, I know, but this place was huge, modern, and had great stores in it. The clothing stores in Poland have had great stuff. I found some of favorite European stores (Zara, Mexx, Aggi, etc.) and ended up buying a sweater at Mexx. What is crazy about this is that the pattern is almost exactly like a jacket I bought at Mexx in Munich in 2005. I love the jacket, though, and it has some wear on it.

Jeff walked around while I shopped and discovered the food court. He found a Mexican place at the food court, and a Burger King. We ended up having Mexican, and thus celebrated Cinco de Mayo one day late. Not too bad, given that this was only the second time we’ve had Mexican since being over here. It is not common in this part of the world.

Here is the Polish idea of chips and salsa. I saw that they also serve their quesadillas with beetroot salad.

These shoes are everywhere.

Afterwards we went back to the antique store to buy the painting I loved. Yay! We took it back to the hotel to store it.

We walked down one of the main streets and went inside the Sts. Peter and Paul Church.

Then we walked to Wawel Castle, which is situated high on a hill on the riverbanks. They weren’t letting people in anymore, so we walked around and visited the National Cathedral, built beginning in the 13th century. Wow. This is essentially the Westminster Abbey of Poland. This is where Polish monarchs were coronated. The future Pope John Paul II also gave his first mass as a priest here the year after WWII ended. Impressive, and I learned about some historically significant Polish people I am now interested in, including King Kasimir III the Great, Queen Jadwiga, Thadduess Koscuisko, and Vincent Kadlubek. That poet I keep seeing statues of, Adam Mickiewicz, was also buried here in 1890.Then we walked to Wawel Castle, which is situated high on a hill on the riverbanks. They weren’t letting people in anymore, so we walked around and visited the National Cathedral, built beginning in the 13th century. Wow. This is essentially the Westminster Abbey of Poland. This is where Polish monarchs were coronated. The future Pope John Paul II also gave his first mass as a priest here the year after WWII ended. Impressive, and I learned about some historically significant Polish people I am now interested in, including King Kasimir III the Great, Queen Jadwiga, Thaddeus Koscuisko, and Vincent Kadlubek. That poet I keep seeing statues of, Adam Mickiewicz, was also buried here in 1890.Here is where King Kasimir III the Great is buried:

Here is the tomb of the historian, Kadlubek. Blessed Vincent Kadlubek was Bishop of Krakow in the 13th century and he was also a historian, who published 4 volumes on the Polish history. He became a Saint in the Catholic Church in the 18th century. It is a fine monument for a historian. I’ll take one just like it. HA! Here is Queen Jadwiga's most recent tomb. There is a dog lying at her feet, a sign of fidelity. Queen Jadwiga’s actual title was King, not Queen, because she was the sovereign ruler, and Poland had not had a Queen who was sovereign before, only Kings. She was sainted by the Catholic Church and is now Patron Saint of Queens. She was fond of taking food from the castle and giving it to the poor. She also sold all her jewels in order to renovate what was then the Krakow Academy, now Jagellorian University. Because her jewels were sold, she was buried with a wooden scepter and orb. They are on display, taken from her casket during one of the exhumations. She was sainted by the Catholic Church in the late 1990s.There are great views of the Vistula River from Wawel Hill. There is a mound in the distance, across the river here in Krakow, that is named for Thaddeus Koscuisko. Koscuisko (Kos-choos-ko) is Polish, and he is considered an American hero.There are also many cities and other monuments to him in the US. He fought in the American Revolution. He was enamored with our Declaration of Independence. He designed the defences at West Point, and, most importantly for us, fought with Nathaniel Greene (for whom Gvegas is named) in the Southern Campaign in South and North Carolina. He rose through the ranks in the Continental Army and came back decades after the war as well. He frequently corresponded with Thomas Jefferson and Dr. Benjamin Rush. Thanks for your help, Koscuisko. Can you see the mound?

University buildings:Walking through the very green park was nice, even though it was rainy.

Then we walked around some more, and returned to the shopping stalls on Rynok. We enjoyed being outside because the rain had stopped and occasionally I felt the sun trying to peep out from behind the clouds. We have not had a single moment of sunshine in Krakow but that has not stopped me from loving it here. We walked around, checking out the amber and crystal. Like other central and eastern European cities (Prague, Budapest, etc.) this place has lots of crystal and amber.

We sat outside at a café and tried the local Polish beer. It felt great to be outside.

We decided to eat at a Georgian restaurant, Gruzinskie Chaczapuri. Georgia is the birthplace of wine. Georgian food specializes in grilled meats, grilled vegetables, and cheese. They served shoti rolls, and a yogurt dip. Jeff ordered pork shaslyik (kebab) and I had grilled chicken, vegetables, and rice.

Afterwards we walked back to get our stuff. I checked my email and Jeff looked into the status of the UK elections.

We walked to Krakow Glowny and waited there for the train. We spent all but our last 4 zoloti ( a little over a dollar) on things we can’t get in Chernivtsi (live Nestea iced tea and Diet Pepsi). When we got the platform, I heard some people speaking English, so I asked if they knew that this platform was indeed for the train going to Lviv. They answered affirmatively and I detected a slight southern accent, so I asked if the group was from the US. Yes, they were, and so then they aske me where I was from. I told them, and it turned out one of the three guys was from Columbia! They are helping organize a group of musicians, a group named The Outlanders, for their musical tour in Poland and Ukraine. I plan to google this group. All aboard!

Auschwitz and Birkenau

2010-05-16T01:02:00.000+03:00

This morning I woke up with a very sore bum from yesterday’s bike ride. After breakfast, we waited to be picked up for our tour. As we waited, I looked over to see three different clocks telling the time all around the world. The first one was Nowy Jork, and it was about 3:45AM.

Our young and very Aryan looking tour guide (who ended up just being a coordinator) picked us up and the minibus took off. We passed a bunch of nuns carrying umbrellas in the rain. This city has zero shortage of nuns, monks, priests, etc. Many of them are very young, as well. The Jagellorian University has an important school of theology…doesn’t appear to be a priest shortage here.

On the way we saw a 1970s East German Trabant that is used to do the communist tours of Nowa Huta, one of only 2 planned communist communities in the world. Wild place...we rode through there on the way back.

Auschwitz is 70km from Krakow. Today, the city has a high of 50F and it is rainy. These conditions will only make us appreciate the experiences of those held here, I’m thinking. The ride out to Auschwitz is very green. It reminds me a bit of the GW Parkway in DC/northern VA. I thought of the Russian soldiers coming into this area during the war to “liberate” and wondered if they were prepared at all for what they were about to encounter.

Auschwitz is the German name of the town; Oswiecim is the Polish name for it. The national park and all the materials that reference this place, however, refer to it as Auschwitz. Makes sense. If I were Poland I wouldn’t want to take any responsibility for this either.

We arrived and were greeted by no less than 100 tour buses and a zillion people. This place was a mad house, full of disoriented visitors, and frustrated tour guides who constantly apologized, and offered very little instruction. Finally, we picked up a headset and were spit out from the throng of people into a courtyard. I wondered how this headset business would work. We had been told we had a guide, but then we had a headset. I soon realized that this was actually a genius means of touring visitors through this place. This place obviously has to cater to speakers of many different languages. It has tons of people. It also, ostensibly, should aim to control the noise level. After all, this place ought to be approached with a certain solemnity for the fact that over one million people died here. So, you put your headphones n, turn the channel and volume, and voila, you can hear your guide. This become important, bc much of what you can see on these tours take place in tight cramped and very crowded spaces. You are not always close to your guide, bc you have to wait in line on the stairwells, or wait in line in the basement while you see the cells, etc. If multiple guides raised their voices so all their peeps could hear them this place would be more of a madhouse than it already is.

Auschwitz was the first Nazi camp in Poland and was initially intended to house Polish political prisonsers. The Nazis invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Two weeks after the Germans came in from the west, the Russians invaded from the east and partitioned the country according to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. This place had been a Polish army barracks. The Nazis liked it bc it is protected by rivers, and it is very close to a main rail intersection.

Here, if the prisoners needed to be counted for whatever reasons, they would stand at attn outside building 15, which had a guard booth close by.

In 1941, Hitler reneged on the agreement with Russia, and invaded his ally, sending Stalin into near panic. 15,000 Soviet POWS were brought to Auschwitz. In 1942, after the Wannssee Conference, in which the “final solution” became the answer to the “Jewish question,” Jews began to be brought here from all over Europe.

The guards selected able men and women to serve as kapos, prisoners who would also serve as guards. The kapos also doled out food. Nice kapos were quickly demoted. Upon arrival, the prisoners were “disinfected.” This was a humiliating experience, with German guards often messing with the prisoners by turning the water very hot or very cold.

The first group to arrive were 728 Polish men, all political prisoners. They were forced to build a 220 volt fence around this camp. We learned that the building we had just entered was original, as were all buildings we would see. We then proceeded to march towards that famous sign, “Arbeit Macht Frei," meaning “Work Sets You Free.” This, we learned, was the only way in and out of the camp. Prisoners often had jobs outside the camp, and so they would march in and out of here at the beginning and end of every day. German guards counted them row by row. If any of them attempted to escape during the day, 10 people would be selected to die, and often some of those 10 would be family members. This policy effectively kept many people from attempting escape.

Up to 1943, the Germans took 3 photos of each prisoner they registered. I couldn’t believe the administrative and logistical organization of all this. It proved overwhelming once the numbers shot up, and in from 1943 onwards, photographing each prisoner stopped and tattooing started. Plus, when people died, they often looked very different than they had upon arrival (loss of weight, etc.) and the photographs often proved an ineffective and inefficient means of identification.

The prisoners were tattooed in different places depending on their identity and status. Jews were tattooed on their arms. Soviet POWs were tattooed on their chests. Those Aryan looking young Jewish males who were selected to be Germanized to fight for Germany were tattooed in a less conspicuous place. The 20,0000 Roma, or gypsies brought here had marks different from the Jews, who had marks different from homosexuals and the anti-socials. Jews were forced to wear the star of David. Homosexuals were forced to wear a pink triangle turned upside down. Auschwitz was the only camp to tattoo their prisoners.

We saw some of the prisoners uniforms, which differed according to their identity. They all wore wooden clogs made on site, and most of them had some sort of navy-grey stripe uniform with a hat. They had a coat for the winter time. I can’t imagine the winters endured under these conditions.

The various groups all lives amongst each other. This was another intentional means of keeping the prisoners from developing trust and solidarity.

We walked down a hallway with framed photographs of people’s faces. Beneath their faces were the dates that person ws registered, the date of death, and the person’s occupation. I saw advokat (lawyer), konduktor, student, and several different types of electricians. Getting a job was an important part of maintaining one’s value.

232,000 children were brought to Auschwitz, and most of them under the age of 14 were immediately killed, either by gas chamber or lethal injection into the heart. Some of them were tormented during medical experiments, many of them conducted by Dr. Joseph Mengele. Dr. Mengele had a fascination with multiple births. Evidently he took off to South American after the war and died there in the 1970s. He, like most of the Nazis, were never tried.

In another block (this is what the building were called), we learned about Father Kolba. Father Kolba offered to take the place of a man who was to die. The guards agreed. Father Kolba was placed into a cell that evidently received very little oxygen, but somehow he was able to survive the experience that killed most others. Father Kolba has been sainted by the Catholic and Anglican churches. In the cell where he died, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict have placed candles.

We also saw a standing cell, in which prisoners were forced to stand during the night after working all day. This was yet another means of torture.

The guide showed us the shooting wall, with grey insulation made from grass that was supposed to muffle the sound of gunshots. Here, prisoners were systematically shot in the back of the head.

Our guide talked to us about the zandercommandos, translated into special work unit from the German. This was a group of Jewish able bodied men selected to work in the crematoria. They were the “keepers of the secret,” bc they knew all that was going on.

We saw one text panel that had some statistics on it. Auschwitz opened in 1940 and Birkenau opened 2 years later. The camps were liberated by the Russians in 1945. 1.1 million Jews were brought here, 140,000-150,000 Poles, 23,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet POWs, 25,000 prisoners from other countries. 1.1 million of the 1.3 million brought here died during the war. In 1944, during one two month period, 430,000 people were brought here, and 70% of them were killed on arrival.

18% of Poland’s population perished during WWII. Wow. I wondered how that compared to the numbers associated with the Lost Generation in France after WWI.

The nationalities of the prisoners here include Hungarians, Poles, French, Greece (55,000 Greek Jews), the Netherlands, Slovakia, Belgium, Italy, Norway, Austria, Germany, Yugoslavia, and Bohemia and Moravia. Half of Norway’s Jewish population (690 people) died at Auschwitz.

Upon arrival, the Jews went through “selection” and were deemed to be “fit to work” or unfit. 70-75% of the Jews brought to Auschwitz were killed on arrival.

The crematorium we saw could handle up to 4000 bodies during a 24 hour period. It took on average about 30 minute to die after 5-7 kilos of Zyclone B was drpped into the crematorium. Zyclone B is a pesticide. The Germans first experimented with it on Soviet POWs in 1941. It took the Soviet POWs 20 hours to die bc the Germans didn’t use enough Zyclone B.

We saw a huge room full of decaying human hair. The guide mentioned that these camps provided significant economic benefit to Germany. The hair from the prisoners was sent to textile factories to manufacture all kinds of materials, including car seat upholstery. When the Soviets arrived, they found 7 tons of human hair at Auschwitz; this was used in the trials against leading Nazis.

Prisoners were also forced to leave behind all their belongings upon entering the camp. Some prisoners were assigned the task of sifting through these materials to take out anything of value. The warehouse where the valuables were stored were called Canada. Much of the money, after the guards stuffed their pockets, was sent to Berlin. Many other items were sent to Germany for use by the German people, including childrens’ toys. We saw broken eyeglasses (the good ones were sent to Germany for use), pots and pans, Jewish prayer shawls that Germans used to clean their guns, combs, brushes, shoe polish, and a room full of crutches and prosthetic limbs. The museum has a HUGE room of adult shoes lining both sides of the walls from floor to ceiling.

We saw the spot where Rudolph Hoess, the commandant of Auschwitz, was killed after being tried.

The guide showed us where Hoess and his family, including his 5 children, lived during the war. It was so close to the main part of the camp, and separated by barbed wire. During the Nuremberg trials, Hoess was asked how many people were killed in these camps during the war. He estimated 1.5 million. The Russians (who liberated all the camps coming in from the east while the American, British, Canadians, Aussies and Kiwis liberated from the west) consistently countered and argued that the number was much higher, and now we know that it was.

The crematorium here became an air raid shelter for German guards after they began to hear Allied bombs dropping close by. By that time, about 70,000 people had been killed in these ovens.

Before we left Auschwitz for Birkenau, someone asked our guide where he was from. He is an American, from Chicago (biggest Polish population outside Poland) who grandparents and mother lived in a village very close to Oswiecim. He says that growing up in Chicago his first language was Polish. He is probably in his late 20s and now lives in Poland. I was impressed with is knowledge; he was a good guide, and tried his best to make this the experience it ought to be, despite the crowds. It is unfortunate that visitors here become so distracted by the overwhelming crowds and cannot focus for long on the experiences of those who endured such misery. I have been to Dachau and to Terezin, in August nonetheless, and didn’t experience anything like the numbers of people that Auschwitz had in early May. Evidently lots of Polish schoolchildren come on fieldtrips near the end of the academic year. The people I saw, however, were definitely tourists.

It was cold.

The minibus transported us about 3 km away to Birkenau, which was built by Auschwitz prisoners. 20,000 people lived in one sector, and there was one shower for each sector. You were lucky to get one shower per month, and the same was true at Auschwitz. Birkenau is considered by some to be the world’s largest Jewish cemetery bc the ashes of those who died were spread on the grounds. When the numbers of people arriving became too overwhelming, the Germans ordered pre-fabricated horse stalls. The stalls, designed to hold 40-50 horses, housed between 400-500 people. At Birkenau, we saw the toilets, which were these concrete structures in the barns.

Sewage mixed in with the ground water, and the prisoners were forced to use the groundwater to drink and to bathe. Disease spread throughout the camp. Most people at Birkenau died from disease, starvation, and or the conditions. The beds were stacked, with 2 people on each bed and three beds stacked atop one another, same as at Auschwitz. The top bunks were the best place to be, because it was warmer up there and you didn’t have as much human waste, or as many rats and bugs to contend with. Prisoners slept on straw or sometimes on paper mattresses filled with straw.

The peak occupancy at Birkenau was 90,000. Birkenau is very different from Auschwitz. It seems much smaller, and more temporary. It is a death camp, whereas Auschwitz is considered a work and death camp. Historians argue about this terminology; weren’t they all, essentially death camps? The terms distinguish between those were prisoners were forced to work before death and those where they were simply put to death.

In December 1944, the Germans forced 65,000 prisoners to march west towards Germany. Those who couldn’t maintain the pace were shot. When the Soviets arrived they found 12,000 people at Auschwitz and 7500 at Birkenau. Evidently only 2 Soviet soldiers died liberating the camps. Most of the Germans had left.

Around 2:30, our tour ended. We were able to walk around Birkenau briefly, to check out the train tracks where some very famous photographs were taken.

Auschwitz became a museum in 1947. Although I didn’t have the experience I wanted to have in the sense of having time for reflection and contemplation, I am glad we visited. I was prepared for this, actually. Most of the guidebooks I read about this warn visitors of the harried, crowded nature of this cash cow museum. It is important to come here, and I no doubt have a greater understanding of the conditions here. Much of the history I already knew, but it was important to come here and see the beds, see the grounds, see the barbed wire… The museum definitely takes an old-school minimalist approach. There are lots of artifacts, little text, and few photographs. There is nothing interactive and nothing for children. Unlike Dachau and the Holocaust Museum in DC, there is nothing that forces visitors to stop, reflect, and contemplate. Some may disagree, but it seems this museum could be far more effective in achieving their educational goals and their purpose of honoring the memory of those who perished here if it put some effort into implementing some of the more recent museum exhibit practices. Evidently the new Jewish museum in Krakow near Oscar Schindler’s factory is supposed to reflect the most up to date museum practices.

One thing: several months ago the famous Auschwitz sign was stolen. Thankfully, it was recovered shortly thereafter. The one we saw in its place was a copy of the original that had been made in the 1970s. The original is in the conservation department of the museum at Auschwitz.

After we were dropped off in the city center, we saw this grafitti:

That evening we attended a Chopin Concert in the Renaissance Chamber at Restaurant Wierzynek. The young pianist, Pawel Motyczynski, played both Chopin and Paderewski. The concert was a relaxing contrast to what had been a pretty intense day.