MoldovAnn

I got back from Georgia on Friday afternoon, and I leave Monday morning for another workshop in Russia. Yikes! Thank goodness for the heat – my laundry dried quick enough for a re-pack for the next trip.

We had a great weekend in Tbilisi last week, and then I had a good workshop in Batumi. The only bummer was that it rained cats and dogs every single day and evening! And since the big attraction to having the workshop in Batumi was the Black Sea, it was disappointing that we couldn’t swim. One colleague braved it during a brief break in the rain, but the water was so rough, he didn’t try for long.

A US Navy GM destroyer arrived in Batumi along with us for training exercises with the Georgian Coast Guard. Turned out they ate at the same restaurant as us one evening. Our waitress disappeared for a LONG time, and when our Georgian colleague finally found here, he asked what was going on, why had she abandoned us.

Waitress: “We have Americans here in the other hall.”
Georgi: “We have Americans too!”
Waitress: “Well, these are Black Americans.”

We all had a good chuckle, and we agreed that we didn’t mind at all that we’d been ignored for a bit if that was her excuse – my, how times have changed!

My suitcase was full of fabulous Georgian wine on the return trip, plus a couple bottles of chacha, a drink the Georgians like to compare to grappa, but I think it’s more like turpentine. Very, very potent. And a perfect gift for my in-laws, who love that kind of stuff. One bottle of wine broke in my suitcase, though, which came to my attention when I noticed the trail of red liquid following me through the airport terminal. Turned out to be the decorative ceramic bottle that I bought solely because I liked the bottle. I’m not sure if the wine was any good or not, but I was bummed to lose the pretty bottle. And of course laundry was interesting. Thank goodness nothing valuable was destroyed!

It’s been hot as Hades in Kyiv, and we were excited to finally host a party on our big balcony – margarita night! Igor and I cooked all day, and had some of that delicious Georgian wine to keep us happy and motivated. Friends arrived, I had two margaritas, laid down on the couch for a sec, and next thing I know, I wake up and the guests were long gone! I was most definitely not the “hostess with the mostest” last night. I guess the booze, heat and travel just caught up with me and I was out for the count. I was up long for a few minutes, thought about cleaning up and putting the leftovers away, but was still utterly exhausted and fell dead asleep again. Poor Igor was up until 2:30 cleaning up. I swear, I don’t deserve his love! He was so nice about it, though, and we had a good laugh this morning. Boy, do I ever owe him for this one.

Tomorrow is an early start. After the last disaster at Boryspil, I’m not taking any risks and will head out at an ungodly early hour. Looks like the weather is cooler around Moscow than it’s been in Kyiv – that’s a relief!

Igor arrived late last night, after a long but uneventful trip. He has a new apprecation for the size of the US, after the 6-hour JFK-LAX flight. I have to admit, it left quite an impression on me too! I guess I’ve always flown with a layover somewhere, so never really understood that it takes that long even with just one direct flight. 6 hours after a 10-hour trans-Atlantic flight, though, and the only words you can say are “sore butt.”

Wednesday was the Country Fair at NAFSA, one of the best parts of the entire conference (IMHO). EducationUSA advisers from over 130 countries decorated booths, dressed in traditional costumes and met with thousands of university representatives who are interested to recruit international students.

We had an Armenian princess

And some Russian ones too

And of course a great team from Ukraine

It was the first opportunity I’ve had to wear my embroidered shirt from Kosiv (western UKraine).

Several of the US university reps thought I was Ukrainian, since I was wearing the shirt, and I even was complimented on my good English!

The full set of photos are on Flickr.

This week, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia all celebrated their Independence Days. I was invited to a reception hosted by the Consul General of Azerbaijan last night. Wow, what a spread! And it was exciting to learn so much about the country. Did you know Azerbaijan was the first secular Muslim-majority country in the world? It had a brief indepence for 22-months in 1918-1919 before the Bolsheviks took over and incorporated it into the Soviet Union.

I’m in Los Angeles for a conference. It was a loooonnnggg trip. It will be fun to see my colleagues again and meet new people and eat lots of good food.

Woke up at 5 am. Man, I really need to sleep some more but now I’m wide awake. Gonna be a long day!

I got home yesterday afternoon, after a long and tiring couple of flights. Bummer I couldn’t get a direct NY-Kyiv flight on a Saturday. But I’m glad I didn’t spend the extra day in that assaulting city of New York – way too loud, way too crowded, way too much concrete for me.

I think this was the first time I’ve flown on Air France – aside from the stressful check-in at JFK, they were great. The vegetarian dinner was really good, with fresh rolls and good wine. Like on many flights now, each passenger had their own TV screen. But instead of one or two prescribed films, each person could choose their own movie from a pretty big selection. Since I’m so out-of-touch, I usually don’t know anything about the movies if they are less than a year old. I watched Marley and Me because I love Owen Wilson – he was good, but I still don’t understand what the movie wanted to be about and who wants to be crying on an airplane? Then I watched Revolutionary Road – great acting, but also not really what I would have thought of as first choice for a flight. I finally skimmed through the Comedy and Drama category – Nights in Rodanthe and a couple others I don’t recall right now but remember thinking “Lord, are there any movies without someone dying at the end?” But still, Air France was great.

It was a lovely 18C when I landed, sunny and beautiful. I sat out on our balcony for the first time, enjoying the sunshine and Sunday comics that Dad sent home with me – while Igor cooked up a batch of green borscht with the fresh sorrel he brought back from Korosten this weekend. With a dash of green Tabasco sauce – ah, the perfect blend of hot and sour! I enjoyed the food fest that is the US, but nothing beats Igor’s home cooking.

Pepette had another freak-out while I was gone. Her last one (and actually the first one) was in October 2007, also coincidentally when I was away on a business trip. She was hysterical, growling, screeching, acting like she not only did she not know Igor but like he was Enemy Number 1 who must be eliminated immediately. She actually bit him quite seriously before he managed to get her isolated in a spare room, where she spent most of the past week. She was calm when I got home, so I let her out for a bit when Igor went to the store. She’s still anxious and a bit nervous, and she seems hyper-sensitive to what are normal common sounds in our apartment – like water running through the pipes from upstairs neighbors. She was fine for awhile when Igor returned from the store, but when she did finally growl at him again, I herded her back into the spare room. We let her out again in the evening, and she even sat with me on the couch, snuggled under the blanket for a bit, but it seemed like she just couldn’t relax. When this happened before, the vet we took her couldn’t make any conclusions, and a friend who’s a vet in the US had three possible diagnosis: reaction to the drugs used at the pet salon when she was groomed, contaminated pet food, or good old-fashioned psycho-cat. We’ve done all the grooming since at home with no drugs, and changed her food and stuck to that brand only. Which leaves us with Psycho-cat. Demon-cat is more like it.

She’s purring on my lap at the moment, but we’ll see how things go when Igor gets up. We can’t live in terror of a small furball, never knowing if or when she’ll freak out. Both times happened when she was in heat, although she’s been in heat many more times with no freak-outs. But Igor suggested last night getting her sterilized, which is OK by me. I don’t know if it will help Psycho-cat syndrome, but our lives will certainly improve if she’s not in heat 2-3 times every spring and fall.

I leave tomorrow afternoon for my next trip – the beautiful country of Georgia. If all goes well, I’ll get to Batumi on the Black Sea for a day or two. It’s still on the cool side, so no swimming, but food extravaganza is guaranteed! Oh, and the steam baths… to die for!

Igor joined me for my trip to Moldova. We hired a friend to drive us here, since there are no direct flights from Kyiv and the train takes 16+ hours to travel 500 km (~320 miles). Within 5 hours we were on the border, then a good hour and a half spent passing through endless control points. We went through Transdniestra, this crazy little strip of land that thinks it’s an independent country while everyone else in the world thinks it’s a crazy little strip of land that belongs to Moldova. They take their craziness seriously, though, and have even introduced immigration forms at the border (new since we passed through last August).

The Moldovans have also introduced some new scams, namely an “ecology fee” which must be paid in local currency at the border. i could hardly bite my tongue hard enough to stop myself from endless commentary on the utter lack of an ecological conscience in the country.

We finally got to Chisniau about 7:30, checked into the hotel, and headed out for an absolutely fantastic dinner. For some reason, nearly all restaurants in Chisinau are in basements. I commented on this as we descended into the one we picked, and Sasha (friend/driver) said it probably had something to do with a positive association with wine cellars, which are extreme points of pride in Moldova. I think he’s onto something.

After a fabulous dinner, a delicious bottle of wine, an unncessary amount of vodka and a nightcap of a local brew akin to paint thinner, we stumbled on our way. Igor and I walked Sasha to his hotel, only to find it dark and locked up. The three of us took turns banging on the door and trying to explain to the stubborn guard on the other side that he should let in their paying customer. He was really stubborn, though, and probably could hear as little of what we said as we could hear of what he said, which wasn’t pretty much nothing. Finally Igor noticed the intercom.

“What do you want?”, the voice asked.
“To check in, get a room for the night.”
“This is the National Bank of Moldova” said the voice.

Oops. The hotel’s on the next corner. Double oops.

Today we went on a tour of the Cricova winery. Needless to say, none of us took particular advantage of the wine tasting at the end of the tour. We learned about the famous champagne process they use there, which is pretty dang cool, and saw what seemed to me at least a million and a half bottles of wine. Also pretty dang cool. So much wine, so little time….

Chisinau looks really good (and not just because of the wine). The city seems a lot nicer, cleaner, than when I lived in Moldova (gosh, is it really 4 years ago now?).

I had a very busy but fabulous time in Armenia. The food, the people, the weather – it was all fabulous. I was really busy, they packed my schedule quite tightly with meetings and events, but they were all productive and some even fun. I love talking to students, and I got to do it three times!

Yerevan is an interesting mix of new “under construction” sites and decaying, collapsing sites – some old abandoned buildings, some construction sites that were never completed and were abandoned (mostly at the end of the Soviet Union and early 90’s). So it has that in common with Kyiv, although it’s a lot smaller. Lots and lots of parks, lots and lots of monuments. I really want to go back during a nicer time of year to enjoy the great outdoor spaces.

We went for a day to Armenia’s second largest city, Gyumri. The 2-hour drive was gorgeous – fantastic view of Mt. Ararat as we departed from Yerevan, it’s just breathtaking! As we ascended higher and higher into the mountains, I really started to regret not buying a new camera when I had the chance. I was camera-less on the whole trip! Argh! Gyumri was hit hard in the 1988 earthquake, and I was told there are still destroyed buildings and homes in the city, although I didn’t see them myself. There was a lot of talk about a recent government decree to provide free houses to hundreds of families still displaced from the 1988 earthquake – for 21 years these families have been living in makeshift and (so-called) temporary emergency housing. Incredible.

I also heard a lot about the “dark ages”, three years in the mid-90’s when the entire country was without electricity and heat. Three years. Not a speck of electricity, not a bit of heat. One long-lasting result is the near total deforestation of much of the country, as so many trees were cut down for fuel during those years. I was fascinated, and impressed, with the positive attitude of so many Armenians that I met. I can’t begin to imagine the horrors of living in a city apartment with no electricity or heat for 3 days, much less three years, and yet one man reminisced almost with regret that those days were gone. He talked about how his children were small then, and they played games together every night, or told each other stories, or played piano and sang songs, or just sat and talked for hours on end. “Everyone’s so busy now,” he mused. I suppose he was mostly pining for the bygone days of his grown children’s childhoods, but wow, that he could remember those years of hardship with any warmth at all was amazing to me.

On another note, the Yerevan airport has joined the War on Liquids in full force, extending their profiling well beyond the clearly-threatening bottles of water. My purse was thoroughly searched and all items that could even potentially become a liquid (such as lipstick) were neatly packed into a small, clear plastic bag. Items that were formerly liquidish, such as an empty tube of cortizone cream kept in my purse to remind me to buy a new tube, were also scooped up and added to the surprisingly large pile of potentially dangerous liquidy items that are somehow rendered safe in a small, clear plastic bag. There must be some pretty cool super powers in those baggies.

The sky was perfectly clear as we departed from Yerevan, with a breathtaking view of the mountains all the way to the Black Sea. It was absolutely gorgeous. Beyond description gorgeous. I am so kicking myself for not getting a new camera yet.

Today was a good day. I saw only a tiny piece of Yerevan but I like the atmosphere here. I can tell it’s a great outdoor city in the warm months.

Re-reading my post from whatever ungodly hour I wrote it this morning, I note a bit of cynicism in my voice. Just a tad. A few hours of sleep, a fabulous Armenian lunch, good colleagues and good meetings have definitely improved my attitude. Looking forward to tomorrow.

I’m in Lviv today. Took the express train last night, left Kyiv at 5:00 pm and arrived in Lviv at 11:30. A friend told me to get seats in the second train car, which I didn’t really understand until I saw the first car (where my seat was) – definitely on the crappy side. Oh well, next time I’ll try to plan my trip earlier and get the second car. Anyway, it wasn’t bad, just hard for an early bird like me to stay alert until midnight when I finally hit my hotel room.

Good meetings today, including a presentation at Ukrainain Catholic University. We also met with faculty at the Ukrainian Academy of Printing – who knew there was such a cool place? They gave us calendars designed by the students, with each month printed in a different font and a short explanation of that font. Way cool.

The faculty were apologetic about the “poor” conditions of their state-funded univesity. It looked great to me! But I’m also easily impressed after three years spent mostly in the very sad and disadvantaged Chornobyl-affected territories. Visiting places like Lviv make me realize I have had such a skewed view of Ukraine.

I posted a few pictures from my Russia trip. I promise to write about that trip soon, there’s so much I want to say, I don’t know where to start. I discovered today in Lviv that my camera is broken, so no photos from here.

This is a gorgeous city. Granted, I’ve mostly only had glimpses in the early morning or late evening, on my to and fro from meetings. Business trips are such teasers! (Kudos to those who can find the theme in this post*)

Sunday evening we went to dinner at a popular Hungarian restaurant. I got nervous when a local colleague said Hungarians are “meat, meat, meat and potatoes people”, but it turned out there were good veggie options everywhere I ate this week. That night I was intrigued by the “Giant Green Salad”, since it’s hard to find a salad with actual lettuce in it in Ukraine. The title was, if anything, an understatment. The salad was ginormous – there was enough for all seven people at the table and then some. I was in heaven! I’m not sure what kind of first impression I made with my colleagues who live in places like Berlin, Washington DC, New York, and Budapest (where, apparently, entire gardens of salad are offered on the menu), but man was I ever in veggie heaven!

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel via the Christmas market. How can you pass through a Christmas market and _not_ get a mug of hot spiced wine?

OK, we were kinda late for the mugs and got the end-of-the-night plastic cups – but how cool is that giant ceramic pot of wine? If only it could fit in my suitcase….

The local office took us to a fabulous restaurant Monday night for dinner -actually it was a… I can only think of the Russian word (I hate when that happens), дегустация (degustatsia) – tasting, gustation, according to my dictionary. We sampled six or seven Hungarian wines throughout the delicious dinner. I couldn’t help but notice when we arrived that we were the only people in a decent-sized restaurant, but I was easily distracted by the aperitif. Somewhere after the fourth or fifth course (and the fifth or sixth glass of wine) I realized we were still the only people in the restaurant and I finally asked a Hungarian colleague if the restaurant was actually closed. “Yes,” she said, “they are closed on Mondays. But my husband went to school with the sommelier and they agreed to serve us tonight.” I know the Hungarians are not Slavs, and they don’t want to be Slavs, but man was that ever Slavic! So awesome.

The wines were awesome, the food to die for. I bought a couple bottles at the end of the night – less than $40 for two yummy yummy bottles, a white and a red. It’s been hard to keep them in tact so that I can share them back in Kyiv!
How to make an American who lived in Turkmenistan for 2 1/2 years happy:

Tuesday we had some good meetings that bookended a nice lunch at a chain Italian restaurant. Apprently it’s new to Budapest (is it possible that we got a chain Italian restaurant BEFORE Budapest?!), and the local colleagues, at the end of the meal, let it slip that they had actually done research to plan for this lunch and had, in fact, investigated not one, not two, but THREE restaurants before settling on this place. This chain has never impressed me in Kyiv, but wow was it ever good in Budapest. The manager personally oversaw our service, made meal recommendations and checked back regularly to ensure our satisfaction. Should I just pack my bags now and move to Budapest?

Today I managed to squeeze out a couple hours for the one thing I most wanted to do in Budapest: visit the baths. I have to admit, it wasn’t what I expected, but it was still pretty darn cool. And beautiful.

I was introduced to swimming outdoors in cold winter months in Kyiv, and it seems to be a hit in Budapest too. This bathhouse, recommended by the hotel receptionist for no particular reason that she could articulate (at least not in a language I could understand) was the bathhouse equivalent of my Giant Green Salad times five. The scale can not be captured in photo, at least not by my simple camera.

This is one part of one floor of changing rooms. I think this floor is only open in the summer, as we didn’t get individual rooms but rather one of about 40 lockers in one of about 10 or 12 locker rooms. And that’s only the women’s side.

I was dang glad we inquired at the desk in advance to set some expectations for the bath. I had in my mind the Georgian baths I enjoyed in May, but this was quite different. We also had trouble getting some clear information from the receptionist on what we should take with us. “Do we need to talk anything?” we asked. “No” was the simple answer. “We don’t need to take towels?”, we inquired again. “Yes, you need to take towels”, she replied. “So when you said nothing, you meant nothing except towels?” I’ll save you the Laurel and Hardy routine, but suffice to say I finally asked the girl “Do you go to the baths?”, which was answered affirmatively. “And what do you take with you?” “Towels, flip-flops, shampoo, soap”, I think there was more but that was enough for me to hear.

More to come.

I’m in Budapest – third trip in 3 weeks. Wow, when they said 50% travel, they meant! It’s my first time in Budapest, and my very first impressions are fabulous. The city center is beautiful at night, and we took a nice walk along a pedestrian mall to a Hungarian restaurant. Unfortunately, Hungarian cuisine is not exactly a vegetarian’s delight, but there were a couple not-so-Hungarian options on the menu. The Giant Green Salad did not disappoint – it was a freakin’ giant salad, which reminded me of the Chinese restaurant in Kyiv where my hot and sour soup was delivered in a bucket! I know people think I’m weird that I get so excited about a Giant Green Salad, but lettuce is still not very common in Ukraine, and a salad that is made of something other than minutely chopped potatoes, beets and carrots drowning in mayonnaise or oil just really turns me on.

In between these three trips, Igor and I also managed to move to a new apartment. I’ve spent a couple nights there, and it’s slowly starting to feel like home. We finally got to explore our new neighborhood a bit on Saturday. There aren’t any really good grocery store options, but the market is pretty good. We also found a sauna just a 5 minute walk from us, where we happily spent the early evening. Igor is a much bigger fan of the dry-heat sauna experience than I am, but I enjoy seeing him get such happiness there. I much prefer a steam bath or the hot mineral baths like I tried in Georgia. I’m looking forward to a good soak and scrub in the baths here in Budapest!

We had a great day together, which was much needed. It’s been quite a while since we could just relax and enjoy each other’s company. Igor made a totally yummy dinner, we had delicious wine and cheeses – after massages and the sauna, we were complete zombies with full bellies. Great way to spend the day with my favorite guy.

The trip to Moscow was good, very productive. My standard answer to the question “So, how was Moscow?” has become – “BIG!” Geez, it’s a freakin huge city. And freakin’ expensive. Some things t hat particularly impressed me:
- Wow, do the Russians ever know how to queue up. No mad-dash chaotic rushes to beat everyone else to the metro escalator like in Ukraine; these people politely and patiently get on one at a time and line up single file, even on the up escalator. That did seem a bit extreme to me, but the pretty girl in the instructions poster was, after all, giving clear instructions to “Stand on the right, pass on the left.”
- The express train to Sheremetova airport rocks. As if saving $50 compared to the price of a taxi wasn’t enough, reducing the time it can take to get to the airport from as much as 3 hours (depending on traffic) to a mere 30 minutes is so totally worth it. And the train itself was awesome – I almost forgot I was in Eastern Europe. In fact, are they really allowed to make something so clean, efficient and comfortable east of the Danube?
- The train terminal at Sheremetova airport also rocks. Cafes, shops, internet – and almost no customers since most folks rush on to the airport terminals for their flights.

I’m looking forward to this week in Budapest, but wish very much that Igor could have joined me for the trip. It’s becoming quite a dilemma for me – I love my job, love love love it; but I love love love love my husband and miss him every minute we are apart. It’s hard to be away from him, and when we are together, I try very hard to focus on us and not let work get in the way. I’m not balancing things well so far, as I’m WAY behind on work, just can’t seem to get ahead of things at all, but I also don’t want to let work take over my life. Hopefully after this trip I’ll be able to get a handle on things during the slow holiday season, when not many folks do much work in this part of the world. Russia is basically closed for the first 9 days of 2009, as will be most offices in the other countries in my portfolio. I actually look forward to working then so I can get caught up!

I’m in Moscow – first time in over 14 years! Wow, the city is amazing. Soooo different from what I remember. I thought Kyiv had changed in the 13 years since my first and second visits there, but it doesn’t compare to the change in Moscow.

I went to Red Square last night – so beautiful. I had forgotten how powerful and dramatic it is. I also walked along Old and New Arbat streets. Didn’t recognize either in the least. There is a huge book store on New Arbat that I _think_ I recognized, but it sure didn’t look like the grey drab place I frequented in 1992. If it’s the same store, I thought there was a huge post office across the street, but that is now a giant shopping mall. I’ll have to ask someone if there used to a PO around there, maybe I just didn’t get to quite the right spot.

In 1992, we couldn’t make direct-dial international phone calls from anywhere in St. Petersburg (where I was studying). Instead, we had to go to the post office and order a phone call, then sit down and wait until your number was called over the PA system. Only the announcements sounded just like the Peanuts teacher, only incomprehensible Russian garble instead of incomprehensible English garble. I missed more than one call opportunity because I couldn’t understand when my turn was called. And it wasn’t just my bad Russian – I often asked a local to help me and more often than not, they also couldn’t understand a thing from that PA system. I did meet some nice people that way though, waiting for my phone calls.

Anyway, in 1992 the only city from which direct-dial international calls could be made was Moscow, and when I would be in town I would often go to that giant post office that was somewhere near a giant Dom Knigi (House of Books), wait for an open phone booth, and happily dial away. I remember the first time I called from that post office. For some reason, it wasn’t an automatic two-way connection. I could hear my parents but no matter what I tried to do, I couldn’t figure out how to make them hear me. They guessed it was me calling from Russia and they talked for a few minutes to me; it was so nice to hear their voices but soooo frustrating to not be able to speak to them. It was only later that I somehow figured out that I had to push a button when my parents answered the phone so that they could hear me. It was absolutely incomprehensible to me why someone would make a call and then have to push a button so the other party could hear them – why would you make a phone call and not want them to hear you? I think maybe the prices were different or something if it was a “one-way” call, I don’t remember. Just another one of those little things that is huge when you are clueless.

I’ve got two packed days of meetings, but hope to squeeze in some social calls, too. I learned not too long ago that the daughter of my dear friend Alyona (from Moldova) is living in Moscow, with her Russian husband! I hope to see her tonight and get caught up on a lot of news that I seem to have missed.

I wish my wonderful husband was here with me. I love to travel with him, love to listen to his history lessons. As excited as I am to be back in Russia, I’m also looking forward to going home to Kyiv, to my Igor and our new apartment. Speaking of which, we finally finished the move last weekend. Good grief – all I could think was that I came to this country three years ago with two suitcases, and now we had SEVEN carloads of stuff to move. Even scarier is that we seem to have filled up an apartment more than double the size of the one we just moved out of. How the hell did all of that fit in our two-room apartment?!

The cat handled the move relatively well. She hid most of Saturday, and then Sunday followed me around all day, meowing in a way that made me think she was crying “I want to go home!” Sunday night she seemed more settled in, doing her evening exercises of sprints around the apartment. She also seems to enjoy the vast array of hiding places; Igor couldn’t find her at all this afternoon, and she appeared only when he opened the refrigerator door. What’s really funny is that he said she turned right in the hallway as if to go into the old kitchen, instead of turning left into the new one. I guess animals also develop their own habitual patterns!

Off to meetings.

We spent most of the weekend packing. Good grief, we have a lot more stuff than I realized. Amazing how much one can accumulate in 3 years time, especially when I was supposed to be here just temporarily! Our kitchen is back to state it was in when I first moved in – 2 forks, 2 spoons, 2 knives, 2 plates, no glasses, a few mugs, a couple pots. And to think – that was sufficient back then! As much as I hate packing, I LOVE unpacking. It’s like Christmas, only I get to relive the wonderful memories of each item as I unwrap it. Next weekend the fun part will begin!

The excitement of the weekend was when we discovered that someone had hacked into our wireless network and used up our internet limit for the month in the span of 3 days. Thank goodness we noticed the lights on the router going crazy late Friday night (or was it early Saturday morning) when neither of us was using the internet – we pulled the plug right away and cut the bandit off. We popped over to the internet company’s nearby office on Saturday, and they gave us a print-out of how to change the password for our wireless router. When we got home, we discovered that the screenshots they gave us do not in the least bit resemble the website, and after horsing around for an hour, we finally gave up and decided to go without wifi for the next week until we move.

I took a break from packing and internet fiascos yesterday to go to a huge mall with some American friends. Wow, I didn’t realize we had those kinds of places here! It’s huge, with an indoor ice-skating rink, bowling alley, movie theatre, gigantic grocery store, and a ton of over-priced speciality shops and boutiques. We did some window shopping, had a coffee, and decided to head home. Then the fun began. I swear, only Ukrainian drivers can manage to create a traffic jam in a freakin’ parking lot. Which reminds me, I saw a complete and total disaster of a traffic jam at a McDonald’s drive-through window the other day. How on earth? Only in Ukraine… I can hardly begin to describe the chaos of our particular traffic jam – it was utterly ridiculous. I finally ended up squeezing around a bus that just wasn’t going to move, and got out through the entrance. But we eventually made it home – after spending about twice as much time in the car as we had spent in the mall itself. Not a trip I plan to be repeating.

Tonight we are pooped from all the packing, the cat is busily inspecting all boxes and bags, and I’m looking forward to the week. How wonderful to look forward to going to work!

I made my first University presentation last night, about applying to MBA and PhD programs in the U.S. Wow, did I ever feel in my element! I surprised myself how much information I still have at my fingertips, but then again, I guess working for ten years at Ohio State ought to have left some remnants in my creaky ole brain. I had been thinking that I wouldn’t do so many outreach activities myself, since we have advisers and advising centers who are supposed to do that, but wow, I love being with a group of students again, talking with ease about a subject I know and love. I think I will join in on a couple presentations a month, if I can – especially if I can get away with doing them in English! We started our presentation in Russian last night (I was with one of our Kyiv advisers, Tanya, and my new assistant Ella -who, by the way, is absolutely fabulous), and one of the students called out “In English, please!” So we tag-teamed in two languages, since Tanya is more comfortable presenting in Russian (actually, she’s most comfortable in Ukrainian, but for some reason decided to present in Russian). I had a good chuckle after our presentation when a student came up and said that he was very impressed with my Russian – he said he hadn’t realized at first that I was American! I think he was putting into practice some of the advice from my presentation about the power of flattery – how a little flattery can go a long way if you are trying to get a professor to notice your application.

I’ve been back to the Middle Eastern restaurant 2 more times (and also have realized that they call it an Arab restaurant). On Sunday I got lunch to go, and while I waited I chatted with the young man working the cash register, Mohammed. Really nice young man, married to a Ukrainian woman. He introduced me to the new manager, Abrahim, who doesn’t speak English or Russian but who has a lovely smile and gives a good sales pitch in Arabic (at least he delivered it well, even if I didn’t understand the content). I was there again Tuesday night with Igor and some friends, and both Mohammed and Abrahim remembered me, greeting me with big smiles and a wave from across the restaurant. We had the same waitress as the first time we were there a couple weeks ago, and she also remembered us. I love this place!

We have just over a week until we can move to our new apartment – yeah! The coming weekend will be consumed with packing – yuck! I am so excited that we can finally consider ourselves “settled”. Granted, we’ll still be renting, but mentally I am finally ready to make some purchases that up until now seemed like splurging, not mention a pain the butt to haul around if we had to move to another country – my own set of stainless steel cookware, a food processor, a toaster (actually, Dad promised the toaster as a house-warming gift when we move), and a few other things that will just make life easier. Yeah!

I got a massage last weekend from a masseuse recommended by a colleague. He’s a medical student, and is putting his way through university working as a massage therapist. He comes to your place and does massages on the floor. It was a good massage, and much needed, but what I found most interesting was that he is from Turkmenistan. He’s been living and studying in Kyiv for about 5 years. I was a little embarrassed to admit to him that I know very very little about Turkmenistan, but he took advantage of my undivided attention to tell me a long and detailed history of the country. I didn’t catch all of it (it’s hard to concentrate on a history lesson in Russian when you are trying to relax and enjoy your massage!), but I enjoyed listening to him. Even though he dislikes the current regime, he clearly has a lot of pride in his people and heritage.

The sad news of the week is that I accidentally killed my ipod. It fell in a pot of water, and my attempts to dry it out with a hairdryer turned out to be not such a good idea – I think I fried it, literally. I am really missing my daily news dose on my commute to and from work. Electronics are so freaking expensive here, I hate to think of buying a new ipod here. But I don’t know if I can wait until my next trip to the States….

Here’s a really great article on the impact of the US elections on us Americans living abroad. I am happy to say that I have not experienced such serious anti-American sentiment myself, but I have certainly been called out on what my country has been doing the last 8 years. I’ve lost count of how many people have congratulated me in the last week on our new president, with such big beautiful smiles. One of Igor’s friends remembered that I once said I would not live in the US as long as there was a Bush in the White House – and asked if we are going to move back now!

The time has again come for change. After four years as an international volunteer, I am returning to my career. I’ve loved my experiences, and am so happy I took the chances, and the risks, that I did – so many wonderful opportunities have come my way, so many fantastic changes. I can’t imagine my life without Igor, and that alone makes the sacrifices, the stress, and all the uncertainties worth it.

Professionally, I’ve grown and gained immensely valuable experience, too. I wanted to volunteer internationally in order to change my career, and I have, and I have not.

I will be working as the Regional Educational Advising Coordinator (aka REAC) for Eurasia, working out of American Councils for International Education. Many of you know that I worked at Ohio State University for nearly 10 years, and education is my first field. Moreover, international education is my passion. I couldn’t be more excited to be returning to my first love, and to be doing it on this side of the pond. As so often seems to be the case, in hindsight it all seems to have been leading me here.

We are delighted, no, downright thrilled, to be staying in Kyiv. I’ll be traveling a lot again, and now more internationally than within Ukraine, which is exciting. I hope Igor can join me on some of the trips, that would be so much fun.

It will be interesting to work in such an America-focused environment. After 3 years with the UN, where I was the only American, it’s going to take me awhile to get used to the idea that people not only understand my obsession with Ohio State football, they also know what the heck is college football (and no, I don’t mean soccer!). I will miss the really international environment of the UN, but am also really excited to be back wtih an American organization.

The car is perfectly fine; well, not exactly but nothing is wrong with the brakes. The endless rain leaked into something and caused a short in the wiring that caused the brake warning light to come on. The mechanic apparently took me quite literally when I said “seal up” the leaky sunroof – he taped the roof with masking tape. It looks so bad, I have to laugh. At least I know that won’t last long.

Michael arrived last night, and Igor is playing with all his fancy photography equipment this evening (Michael’s a professional photographer).

We launched our new Youth Social Inclusion project yesterday – hrtrrah! It’s on our UNV website and the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sport. It’s taken nearly a year to get to this point, but we did it! And now for the hard part – actually putting the work plan into action!

3 1/2 days in the field, nearly 12 hours of driving on just one of the days. Although I wasn’t the driver, I’m still beat. It was a good mission, it’s always reinvigorating to meet with people we are trying to help. It’s also nice to get out of Kyiv, breath the fresh village air. I enjoy the village “traffic” jams much more than Kyiv traffic jams – being stuck in a herd of slow moving cows is much more fun than crazy drivers. But the roads in norther Rivne oblast are a nightmare- cobblestone roads for hundreds of kilometers.

Dad tagged along with us, for a change of view and to see a part of Ukraine he’s never been to before. He made friends with many of the village drunks and a few of the less shy kids while we had our meetings. The only word he seems to come up with to describe the trip is “interesting”, which I think means they weren’t the best 3 days of his life but not a total loss.

The storks were amazing – we saw literally hundreds of storks, in their nests, in the fields, flying overhead. The babies are nearly adult-size now but still apparently not entirely confident flyers. One lady told us about watching some young storks try to take their first gawky flight, which sounded hilarious. We also saw some dead storks along the road. I’m not sure how they managed to become roadkill, but I’m guessing they were young and hadn’t quite figured things out.

It’s good to be home. I missed my hubby. He’s off tomorrow to Korosten for some business, so this week we’re just passing each other on the road.

And we’ve got company this weekend, some friends from Tvarditsa who now live near Moscow will stop in Kyiv for the weekend on their way to Moldova for the annual trip home. Dad’s looking forward to being tour guide for them – I knew there was a reason we invited him for the summer!

The past week is a blur. I remember the major outline, but the details are lost. We landed in Kyiv Monday morning and I was in the office by lunchtime. I finally stumbled home about 9pm, after several meetings to confirm plans for the regional workshop we were hosting in Kyiv, with about 40 people attending from all over Eastern Europe and the CIS, 1-3 July. I changed our vacation plans to be in Kyiv for this workshop, and although I really hate that we missed 4th of July in Columbus, it was important to be here for this event, even if I wasn’t anywhere near my best for most of it.

Tuesday morning Igor and I were both wide awake at 4:00 am, and finally decided to get up and go to the grocery store around 4:30. First time we’ve never had to wait in line there! I was at the workshop early, and had a long spacey day. Despite being exhausted all day, I suddenly was wide awake once I got home and couldn’t sleep hardly all night. Wednesday was similar, but I really wanted to visit with my UNV colleagues so I pushed through a long evening and had some friends over for dinner. The workshop wrapped up on Thursday, and we had a nice reception in the evening for everyone. I regretted leaving early, but I was near dead from exhaustion.

Friday we had an important meeting with the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sport about a project I’ve been developing for most of the past year. The project was approved! Just need to finalize the financing, which should happen next week. So, I could finally relax Friday afternoon. I met up with a couple UNV colleagues for a quick beer.

For the first time in 3 years, I was invited to the big Independence Day party at the American Ambassador’s residence. Although I was still really pooped, and was hosting a colleague overnight in Kyiv, I felt I just couldn’t pass up the invitation. It was a fun event, and I enjoyed spending a couple hours with American friends and making some new acquaintances. After that party, I met up with some UNV colleagues for a late night. We stumbled home around 1 am (I think) and collapsed.

Igor went to Korosten on Tuesday, planning to be there a day or two, but that turned into the whole week. After seeing my UNV colleagues off to the airport, I drove to Korosten to finally visit with his family and friends. I had really been looking forward to listening to Igor tell everyone about our trip to the US. I love to listen to him tell stories, for one thing, but also I learn a lot more about his impressions and perceptions when he tells other people about what we’ve done and where we’ve been. Unfortunately, I missed most of his stories this time since he’d been there a week and seen most everybody by the time I got to Korosten. I did hear a couple stories, though – like how awesome Niagara Falls are, and that Ohio is a great place for retirement ’cause everything is set up for comfort (drive-thru banking, drive-up drop off for the library, etc). Igor was also immensely impressed with the vast array of gardening tools my Dad has – a tool for every task, he said.

We had dinner with Igor’s family, then rushed off to meet up with some friends who were waiting for us at their dacha outside Korosten. I was driving, which meant I didn’t have quite as much fun as everyone else, but I honestly didn’t mind the excuse to not have to drink vodka. Time to dry out for a bit.

We slept like the dead Saturday night, and for the first time in weeks I felt like I had a full night’s sleep. We woke up at 9:30 – jumped up is more like it, since we had an appointment at 10. Neither of us could believe we’d slept for over 10 hours! After running some errands, we spent an hour or so picking raspberries and blueberries in the yard – yum! There are still some cherries on the trees, but we decided to pass this time. Igor’s mom made a fabulous spread for lunch (as usual), with the highlight being vareniki (dumplings) with cherries, blueberries and mullberries. We stopped by Igor’s college roommate’s house on the way to Kyiv to visit them and Igor’s godson, and of course a “quick stop” turned into an hour and a half and another bursting table of goodies. We finally made it home around 7:30. The first time in nearly a month when we are home alone, and what do we do? I start the laundry and he starts scrapping the ice out of our crappy freezer – the things that desperately need to get done but we haven’t had time to do for ages. Finally we settle down, open a bottle of wine, and he’s watching boxing while I catch up on my blog.

It hardly seems like we were in Columbus just a week ago.

I spent last week as a volunteer election observer, seconded by the US government to the election observation mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It was a busy, exhausting and really great week. (By the way, I was officially on vacation from UNV and my volunteer work with OSCE was completely unconnected to my work with UNV.)

Most of the short-term observers arrived very early Saturday morning – airspace is less expensive in the middle of the night, so many flights arrive and depart in the capital Tbilisi at hours that I would prefer to think don’t exist. We landed about 4:00 am. After passport control, customs, collecting luggage, checking in with OSCE and finding the right chartered bus for my hotel, it was nearly 7 when I finally collapsed in bed. I slept a few hours, just enough to get me through the only full free day of the week.

My roommate in the hotel was an adorable young woman from Slovenia, Patricija. She and two of her colleagues from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Monika and Marko) made up the entire Slovenian delegation to the mission. They were all some of the nicest people I’ve met in a long time, and I happily spent much of my free time with them during the week. Patricija is a tiny thing, energetic and peppy – kind of like a perky toy poodle. I enjoyed her enthusiasm and optimisitic attitude as much as anything else in Georgia!

But Georgia itself was also really great. Everyone talks about the hospitality and friendliness of Georgians, and I certainly encountered nothing to challenge that legend. I had heard that not many people speak Russian anymore, so I’d been nervous I wouldn’t be able to communicate much with folks. It’s true not so many young people speak Russian these days, but pretty much everyone over 30 I encountered spoke Russian. Their accents were another story though! I took a short guided tour of one ancient church, conducted in Russian, and frankly couldn’t understand 90% of what the guide said. But she was a nice lady!

Saturday the Slovenians kindly adopted me into their group and we all agreed that the first place to visit was the ancient city of Mtskheta, the capital of the Georgian kingdom from the 3rd century BCE to the 5th century CE. We were so anxious to get on the road and do some sightseeing that we hailed the first taxi we saw, made him an offer for a half day of driving, and hopped in. Only after we settled in for the drive outside of Tbilisi did we start to take notice of what exactly we’d gotten in to. Monika was reading her guidebook and asked me to explain one phrase to her – it read something like this: “There are many private taxis, they are safe. But beware of beat-up cars.” I simply looked around and indicated the car we were in to explain the “beat-up” phrase. A couple times during the day, the driver couldn’t get the car started up and we had to push the car while he tried to pop the clutch to get it going. It became quite a joke for us, which of course was much funnier after we were safely back in Tbilisi, having cut short our plans for touring the nearby countryside after just two sites rather than risk getting stranded somewhere.

But those two sites were some of the most famous one near Tbilisi – the ancient capital with its beautiful Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, dating from the 11 century, and the nearby Jvari monastery, dating from the 6th century. Perched on a hilltop, Jvari offers a breathtaking view of Mtskheta and the surrounding hills and valleys. Just gorgeous.

Saturday evening we investigated the famous sulphur baths in Old Town Tbilisi. We visited three or four of them to compare and get the full scoop, planning to come back later in the week. Patricija and I went to one Tuesday night for a truly fantastic experience. The natural spring pours forth water at 50 degrees Celsius (122F), and in the small pools where you soak it is about 42-43C (107-109F). The tiled room is steamy, and the water feels absolutely great. We opted for the massage, which isn’t so much a muscle massage as it is a good thorough scrub down with a special woven hand mitt. You lay on a marble table, and the massuese rubs off so much dead skin you think you’re going to be just bare bones – but it feels great! My skin was soooo soft and smooth afterwards. We soaked, steamed, got rubbed down, soaked again – all in all, we spent an hour there and it was far from enough. We would have happily stayed several more hours.

Sunday the four of us decided to head out early to visit the town of Gori, about 80 km (50 miles) from Tbilisi. Why would we go to this sleepy town of under 47,000 people? It’s the birthplace of world-famous dictator Josef Stalin, and they’ve got a museum to him there. Too bizarre to pass up.

There’s not much I can add to Carpetblogger’s amusing post about the place. The museum is Soviet-style humonstrous, with cavernous halls. Among the many things I couldn’t quite get about the place was what the hell is actually in that huge building? The exhibitions we saw could not have accounted for even half of the space that had to be in there, judging from the outside. Did we miss the good stuff? And by that I mean did we miss the stuff that actually mentioned something about the fact that the subject of the museum was responsible for the death of millions of his citizens? I’m not asking for an analysis, even less a critique of him or his life. But I think what was most offensive about the place was the complete and total absence of any mention whatsoever that he might have done something a little bit bad in his life. I suppose I have to acknowledge that at least they didn’t say he was a good guy either. It was a rather mundane museum – facts, figures, photos, newspaper clippings, office furniture, family photos. You could almost forget the guy was a monster. The closest the guide came to mentioning anything approaching critical, and I’m sure it was more on account of a poor English translation someone gave her of the official tour, was when she pointed to a photo of Stalin casting a ballot and she said “And this is the first democractic election when Stalin elected himself.” I wanted to ask if they counted any of the other ballots cast in that election, or if it the one was enough to call it. I’d like to think it wasn’t just a poor translation but rather someone’s subtle way to sneak something more than the mundane facts into the tour.

I did learn a thing or two – Stalin was married twice and had a son. His second wife is actually still alive and lives in the US. They have a photo of his grandchildren visiting the museum.

They have Stalin’s personal railway car next to the museum, which is the length of two normal railway cars. It was relatively modest inside. The guide said Stalin didn’t like to fly and prefered to travel by rail as much as possible.

They also have the two-room house were Stalin was born and lived the first four years of his life. It looks to have been separated from whatever other construction it used to be part of, and the two rooms stand awkwardly in front of the musuem, under a stone and glass canopy. Stalin and his parents lived in just one of the rooms, which they rented from the people who lived in the other one. It was really small; hard to imagine a family living only in that tiny space.

In the end, I wondered if there might be something to the museum’s non-analytical take on Stalin’s life and reign. After all, everybody else only talks about the crappy stuff he did – but who knew he had a son and that his grandkids are still alive and kickin? I asked our driver what Georgians thought about Stalin. He said there are definitely people who hate him, mostly those who were repressed (go figure!). On the other hand, many Georgians see him as the great leader who defeated facsism and united a huge percentage of the world, and those Georgians are proud that Stalin was Georgian. Our driver also stated proudly that Stalin always made his first toast to Georgia – “He never forgot his motherland,” he said. I wonder if he remembered the ones he shipped off to Siberia?

And toasting in Georgia is a topic worthy of an entire blog post in and of itself, but that will have to wait for another day. It’s late, I’m tired, and the Georgian stomach bug that kindly accompanied me home hasn’t quite gotten the hint yet that it’s time to get packing. More later.

December 5 was International Volunteer Day. The UN marked the day with the usual release of statements from various officials, like the UN Secretary General’s statement, the UNDP Administrator’s statement, and the UNV Executive Coordinator’s statement.

We celebrated the day with a small event at the national medical university, to which we invited university students and anyone else interested in learning more about UN Volunteer opportunities. Featured speakers included one Ukrainian doctor who recently returned from a year serving in a South African hospital as an International UNV volunteer anesthesiologist. He shared great stories and beautiful photographs. Another featured guest was a Ukrainian ecologist who will be leaving in a couple weeks to work on a wetlands project in Bangladesh. I think the students were truly inspired to hear about these opportunities, and I hope they will consider UNV posts in the future.

There were a couple funny moments for me. I arrived at the university before my other colleagues, and I found the room where we would be and there was a young woman waiting. I asked her, in Russian, if she was Natasha, the contact person we had been working with. She responded, also in Russian, that Natasha was downstairs printing signs to hang up in the hallway, and that she herself was Viktoria, also a member of the student council who was handling the arrangements for our event. I introduced myself, still speaking Russian, and suddenly the girl became quite flustered and said “I’m sorry, I don’t speak English.” Hmm, I thought to myself, what language have we been speaking?

Throughout the entire program, I spoke in Russian, with an occasional Ukrainian word or phrase thrown in. Other speakers also spoke either Ukrainian or Russian. Someone started to ask a question in Ukrainian, paused and looked at me and asked if he should speak Russian instead. “No,” I answered in Ukrainian, “I understand.”

After the formal program, we had some refreshments and encouraged participants to talk to the presenters individually. One young woman came up to me and started to ask a question in Russian, then paused and asked if it was OK for her to speak Russian, if I understood? Good grief, I though, was my Russian really so bad the entire last hour that she didn’t even recognize it as her own language?

This was all especially confusing considering I recently learned that I passed the United Nations Language Proficiency Examination in Russian – and with not-too-shabby score, if I do say so myself! I got 86 out of 100 on the written exam, which included listening comprehension, reading comprehension, vocabulary, and grammar; and I got 81/100 on the composition (which was probably more a reflection of my illegible handwriting than anything else). So I’m looking at the certificate on my office wall this morning trying to boost my ego back up and convince myself that someone actually thinks I have decent Russian.

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Yesterday was also noteworthy for a couple other, more personal, reasons. I had my first fitting for the wedding dress. It’s great! The fabric is a silky blue/violet, with a velvet wrap around the waist of a slightly different color. Both are shimmery and look different depending on the lighting. I took a small scrap of fabric to help me find the perfect pair of shoes.

I also FINALLY got my car registered – and I have diplomatic plates! Woohoo!

One nasty, and pricey, experience with the traffic cops back in September convinced me to leave the car in the UN parking lot until the registration was completed. I certainly didn’t realize then that it would take nearly 4 months, but it was well worth it! The cops pulled me over for one of their bogus violations, and made up several more when they heard my accent, but it was difficult for me to fight the fake accusations when in fact I was driving illegally since the car registration hadn’t been officially transferred to me yet. D’oh! But no more worries now, I can drive 100% hassle-free. The sad thing is, I’m probably one of the few drivers on the road who actually tries to obey the traffic rules, stays within the speed limit, and is considerate of other drivers. Why would a person like that need diplomatic plates, you may be wondering? Obeying the law seems to be irrelevant to the traffic cops.

My boss from UNV headquarters was here all week. It was great, but completely and totally exhausting. I feel like I had a 150-hour work week. Today I’m going to work out, have a massage, and go back to the office for a couple hours. But for the first time in over a week, I might actually get to spend an evening with Igor.

We’ve still got a couple more weeks before work slows for either of us.

The dress is being made! I hope to see it this week. I took some pictures of dresses I found on internet stores that I liked to a designer a colleague of mine recommended. She picked gorgeous fabric, and drew up a couple different designs for me. I picked some features of 3 different designs and on the spot she drew a new design that was perfect! I wish I had taken a photo of the drawing. I’ll have to ask if I can do that when I go for a fitting.