MoldovAnn

I wrote this late last Wednesday night/early Thursday morning, from my hotel room in Kharkiv. Didn’t get a chance to post it until now.

It’s officially the fourth Thursday of November in Ukraine, the traditional day of giving thanks in the United States.

I’m in Kharkiv tonight, my third city in 3 days during this tour of eastern Ukraine. A bartendar asked me tonight, after hearing me speaking English with my colleague, where I was from. It took me a moment to answer, I wasn’t quite sure how. I finally said “Originally, I’m from America, but now I live in Kyiv.” I was surprised by my own hesitation – how on earth could I be confused about where I am from? It was another one of those moments when I realized I have changed, my world is different from what it used to be.

This is my first trip significantly east of Kyiv. It’s embarrassing to admit that I have been living in Ukraine for 4 years and never been to eastern part of the country. But I’m trying hard during this trip to make up for lost time! The first stop was Dnipropetrovsk. All I can say is that I was amazed – pleasantly surprised doesn’t come close. Honestly, I’ve only ever heard about how industrial and polluted and ugly eastern Ukraine is. Well, so far, I’ve seen a quite different picture. Dnipropetrovsk was really beautiful; the city center is jam-packed full of hip cafes, outrageously expensive shops and beautiful architecture. The riverfront, excuse me, puts Kyiv to shame (then again, that’s not particularly hard since Kyiv’s riverfront is totally disgusting). I’m actually looking forward to visiting DP again, for pleasure and not just for work.

We drove to Kharkiv last night, about 2 hours from DP. It was already dark and I couldn’t get a full impression of the city, but we enjoyed a stroll through the huge (and clean!) park in the evening. We stopped for a “refreshment” at a cute-looking cafe with a display case full of decadent goodies. The waitress got a real kick out of us ordering desserts and beers – not the usual combination. She smiled and chatted with us and was all around friendly.

Wednesday we drove to Luhansk, 300 km from Kharkiv. It was rainy and foggy, the driver was on speed or something, driving like a maniac. I closed my eyes and resigned myself to a messy death on the open highway. 4 hours later we arrived in Luhansk and visited the Window on America. From there, we went to the Taras Shevchenko National University of Luhansk (not to be confused with the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, they are separate institutions).

Since my presentations are about studying in the US, I normally speak to groups of students who understand English and thus I can be lazy and present in English. So I wasn’t quite prepared when they asked me to do my presentation in Russian. I ought to be able to, in fact, I can, but I was tired, I wasn’t in my groove, there were sooo many people in the room – I don’t know what happened, but I started to get tongue-tied and all discombobulated. When my colleague whispered in my ear “Ann, just speak English”, that destroyed any shred of self-confidence I had remaining. It wasn’t one of my more shining moments, let’s put it that way. I quickly turned the floor over to my Ukrainian colleague, who did a bang-up job.

A quick dinner and another terrifying 4 hour drive, back to Kharkiv. I kept myself distracting by posting notes on the harrowing experience to Facebook. So I can’t say I have much of an impression of Luhansk, having seen very little.

A week later, I’m finally sitting down to finish this post. I started Thanksgiving Day in Kharkiv, gave a presentation at the Kharkiv State University of the Arts. We also met briefly with the university rector. I think she was the first female rector I’ve met. Her office was great – all sorts of musical instruments and other items, a big couch covered with stuffed animals (given to her by her students, she told me), and fun little knick-knacks everywhere. I suspect the “personality” of her office had more to do with her being an artist at an arts university, rather than the fact that she is female, but it was one of the most comfortable and friendly offices I’ve seen in a long time. There was also a resident cat, lounging on the sofa outside her office, entertaining and disdaining the visitors waiting to see the rector. I loved it!

I took the express train back to Kyiv that afternoon, arriving home late Thursday night. My wonderful husband had prepared a simple but lovely Thanksgiving meal for us, and we celebrated just the two of us. We have so much to be grateful for, such a wonderful life together.

Saturday we “officially” celebrated Thanksgiving, with family and friends. Igor’s mother finally accepted an invitation to visit us in Kyiv (first time in 4 years!), and it was fun to get to treat her to an enormous and delicious meal for a change. She felt very out of sorts – not her usual role to be the guest, not directing everything and everyone – but we were very happy to have her relax and just enjoy herself. Igor decided to bake a turkey. He did, as always, a fantastic job and everyone seemed really impressed with the giant bird. Friends brought a ham, pies, and lots of other great dishes. Oh, and Igor also cooked an enormous catfish. Food galore – just the way Thanksgiving should be!

Zigfried Koshinsky, aka Ziggy, aka Fat Cat, had a heyday. He entertained everyone playing fetch, sneaking nibbles when no one was looking. By the end of the night, his belly was nearly dragging on the floor. Even the cat got it right.