He finally put his foot down about the blogging; he’s not going to enable my selfish behavior anymore. He’s cutting me off. Really, this is the only way to deal with me. I don’t blame him.

Bless his heart, he’s not just throwing me out to the wolves, to fend for myself. He found a way for me to blog that’s even easier than letting him take care of everything for me.

All this change stuff have also given me the opportunity to reflect on what I want to do with my blogging, too. Sometimes it feels like more of a burden than a pleasure, sometimes I can’t wait to write, most times I don’t manage to find the time to write. Maybe shaking things up a bit, starting up a new site that’s easier for me to use, will help me to blog more.

I’ve decided it’s also time to retire MoldovAnn. I started this blog to share stories with family and friends while I was in Peace Corps in Moldova. I thought I was so clever to call it MoldovAnn. Well, I was in Moldova for one year, and have been in Ukraine for over four years, so it seems time to give myself a moniker that more accurately reflects who I am, or at the least, isn’t completely inaccurate.

And so a new blog is born, Anka’s Place. You can catch me there.

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.

The mask-wearing trend seems to be fading. There are less average people on the street wearing them the last couple of days, but shopkeepers, police, store clerks seem to be mandated to wear them. I’ve read enough from sources I trust that our homemade masks don’t protect us at all from viruses, so I’ve shed mine.

Friends outside of Ukraine keep asking me if this is all political – honey, everything in Ukraine is political! No politician will pass up a chance to grandstand.

At first I thought the quarantine was a pretty ridiculous overreaction, but more and more I think it was the right thing to do. If a real epidemic did break out, this country would be wholly unable to deal with it. So quarantining folks now, before there is a serious problem, just might prevent all hell from breaking loose.

Still no clue what will happen after the quarantine is lifted – events that need to be rescheduled, school time made up, etc. Let’s hope this madness does end on November 22, as is currently scheduled, and we can get on with things.

I smiled all the way home tonight after getting a reply to a fishing message I sent on Facebook. It’s Tony! Wow. I really thought I’d never find him again.

Ukrainians have a much stronger and more serious sense of the word “friend” than your average Americans do. Most Ukrainians will say they have 2, maybe 3, “friends”; everyone else is an “acquaintance”. We Americans, on the other hand, will call someone we met 30 seconds ago a “friend”. Not a bad thing, don’t get me wrong. But the only way I could think to describe Tony to Igor was that he is one of my 3-4 “Ukrainian-type friends”.

Oh, the intertubes can be so wonderful sometimes!

Igor was nervous about me going to the office, he suggested several times that I work from home instead. I didn’t want to give in to the hysteria, but waited until well past rush hour to make the commute. So he fashioned a gauze mask for me to wear over my nose and mouth, the latest fashion in Kyiv. I shoved it in my pocket, but reluctantly promised to wear it on the metro.

During my short walk to the metro station, I saw a handful of people wearing masks and 2-3 times as many without. On the long escalator ride down to the platform, I started to feel guilty about my promise to Igor, so I put on his homemade mask. I felt like an idiot – I can be as vain as the next devushka, I’m embarrassed to say, and all I could think was how ridiculous I must look. The station was not empty, but there were far less people than normal for a week day, a few in masks, more without.

As I waited for the next train, I felt a tickle in my nose and thought to myself “Oh crap.” Sure enough, I sneezed – one time, behind my mask. I noticed people slowly move away from me, and they entered different cars when the train pulled up. Thank goodness, no more sneezing on the commute!

I started counting the number of people wearing masks – about 25-30% in the metro, less on the street.

We swapped stories in the office about craziness over the weekend. The grocery store clerk who pulled down her mask to cough into her bare hand, then picked up Peter’s veggies with said-hand to weigh them. Nice. The guy wearing a mask around his neck, smoking a cigarette. Wish I’d gotten a picture of that one.

I kept thinking about a book I read last month, World Without End, set in an English village during the Plague of the Middle Ages – about the characters who took precautions that seemed ridiculous to most of the residents, and the people who didn’t “fall for” the hysteria and were too “smart” to believe in the silly new precautions that were suggested. I wondered which category I would fall into in an epidemic? I have to admit, I didn’t get the flu vaccine when I had the chance during my trip to the US last month. Am I an idiot or what?

I left the office at 6, the normal rush hour time when all public transportation is jam-packed. But not last night. I saw several trolleys and buses that were nearly empty. My station was quite empty for that time of day, but the car filled up at the next couple of stops, to basically the normal crammed rush hour level. More people were wearing masks than had been in the morning, though, maybe 40-50%

We finally found some statistics, on the Ministry of Health’s website. This chart shows # of cases of flu and other respiratory illnesses in 10 cities of Ukraine, 1999-2009, broken down by week of the year. Yesterday this chart, showing 2009 stats in the red bar, went up through Week 43/44 and showed us basically right on track with number of cases as in previous years. I told this to Igor last night, and his immediate reaction – oh so typical – was “I don’t believe anything the Ministry of Health says.”

Today when I pulled up the chart – well, you can see, a huge jump this week.

Now I am kinda getting nervous myself. Logically, I know these statistics don’t necessarily tell me anything either – it’s extremely likely that cases of the flu were under-reported in the past, as well as other illnesses that are generally treated at home. Lots of people get the flu and don’t even realize it, they just think it’s a bad cold or something. I can’t think of any time in my adult life when I’ve gone to the doctor for a cold or flu. So we could say this jump in statistics is just an indication of awareness and increased reporting. But still…. I may look ridiculous, but I think I’ll go for “better safe than sorry” and wear my mask today.

And speaking of masks, here’s an interesting explanation of what to wear and why (with thanks to The Heart of the Matter for sharing the link).

A colleague in the western town of Lviv wrote that his office building is being closed, so he’ll be trying to work from home until the quarantine is lifted in that region. There has been talk of the oblast borders being closed, which is like shutting down inter-state transportation in the US. I have no idea how that could be enforced, or frankly what good it could do. Markets are supposed to be closed starting today. The mayor of Kyiv wants to restrict entry into the city.

Our winter coats are still in Korosten, in storage at Igor’s parents’ house. It’s snowing this morning (the first snowfall of the year!). Another good reason to stay home today.

Greetings from Kyiv sums up well part of the reason there is such a panicky reaction to the flu:

Rumors are abounding everywhere about just what is going on in Ukraine. What some people outside of Ukraine don’t understand is that there is a history in this country of the government not giving out vital health information (check your history on Chernobyl) and a socialized medical system in which many times doctors do not even communicate to people what kind of disease they have. So it makes sense that Ukrainians are nervous about what is really happening around them.

My guess is that there are little to no reliable statistics on the flu and other seasonal illnesses from past years, and so the fact that there are statistics being quoted right now freaks people out. I have yet to see a report that compares this current flu outbreak to any figures from previous years – so how can we know whether this is worse, the same, or maybe even not as bad as past winter flu seasons?

I don’t know if the flu is worse now in Ukraine than it normally is, and I don’t think anyone else knows either. But I’m very glad to see people being more aware of basic hygienic precautions that would help all of us all year long – cover your mouth when you cough and sneeze, wash your hands with soap and water, eat healthy, drink moderately, get plenty of vitamins, build up your immune system.

Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko, in an attempt to scare the living bejeezes out of people, oops, I mean protect the population, has extended the autumn school break for another 3 weeks and advised people to avoid public gatherings. Once the announcement hit the wires this afternoon, parents started panicking – the flu immediately forgotten as they tried to figure out what the hell to do about childcare for another 3 weeks. Ex-pats were openly hoping the “quarantine” wouldn’t affect the international schools.

I saw three people wearing masks today, and another half-dozen covering their noses and mouths with scarves. Igor went to several pharmacies to buy echinacea and flu medicine, but no luck. Every place around us was sold out of both. So he bought a dozen lemons and insisted I drink the “family recipe” for good health – a potent concoction of vodka, lemon juice and honey.

I wonder how many of the unfortunate victims of H1N1 in Ukraine also thought their homebrew medicine was the right way to go. My father-in-law’s insistence that salo and vodka will protect you from and/or cure you of anything doesn’t seem like the best way to go right now. But what else to tell people to do?

We were thoroughly impressed with the breath-taking examples of quartzes, topaz, and many, many other minerals and crystals whose names I would hardly recognize in English even if I knew the translations from Ukrainian. Sadly, pictures weren’t really allowed inside the museum – well, for a measly 5 hrivna a shot, which hardly seemed worth it when the museum booklet, with numerous photos, cost only 7 hrivna (I’ll have to scan some of the pictures and post them!). This museum was quite a little treasure, no pun intended.

I love village museums, they are often chock full of things the local residents think are ordinary, but I find them fascinating. More than once I’ve managed to get someone to open up the village museum for me. They are usually just two, sometimes three rooms, and the folks with me (often Ukrainians who’ve grown up in cities) are stunned by the history held within the simple walls. Looms, spinning wheels, farm implements, intricate embroidery and cross-stitched clothes and linens, decorative blankets for horses, folk paintings, pottery, children’s arts and crafts – I have thoroughly enjoyed every village museum I’ve had the good fortune to visit in Ukraine and Moldova, and I hope to see many more! Anyone traveling around Ukraine – make a point to stop in any little museum you come across, and if it’s closed, ask around. Chances are, someone can find someone who just might let you in for a look around.

I wish I could have visited with more friends while I was in DC, but the week was really intense and jam-packed. Lots of exciting changes in our organization, which will be both fun and challenging. One new development is the addition of 7 more countries to my portfolio. I’ll definitely have my hands full!

Those of you in the central Ohio region, my school friend Kate is about to complete massage therapy school and I was a very lucky guinea pig for her. It… was…. awesome. If you want her to be on her list when she is fully licensed next month and ready to open shop, let me know and I’ll pass on your contacts to her. Trust me, you will not regret it. She has, as she called it, the Cadillac of massage tables set up in her studio. I would call it the Bentley. She’s got lots of really tall friends so she was purposeful to get an extra long table to accomodate taller frames.

The cat now has a definitive name. As much as we liked Ziggy, his personality ended up setting the name – Trasher. It sounds slightly less awful when said with a heavy Russian accent, but Igor informed me today that it’s the final answer. It’s my own fault, I jokingly refered to the cat once or twice as “musornik”, “trash can” in Russian, ’cause he eats just about anything and everything. Folks living in small towns and villages feed their dogs, cats, chickens and pigs with table scraps, but usually city pets (which so far, in Kyiv at least, don’t seem to include chickens and pigs) often get store-bought pet food. Our guy, for good or bad, is not so fancy and has turned up his nose to most brands of cat food, but is perfectly content with any and all table scraps. So Igor started calling him Trasher, and sadly the consequence of me being gone for two weeks is that now the name has stuck. *Sigh*

Everything else seems OK. Only one thing broke in transit this trip, and I think it’s fixable. I went wild at JoAnn Crafts and now Eileen and I will have sooooo many supplies for all those cross-stitch patterns we bought over the summer! I’m working on baby booties for a friend – they are adorable!

My cousin Mike figured he’d either get voice mail or just maybe my dad was back and would pick up, but a female voice was the last thing he expected to hear when he called with the sad news that their Uncle Jim had passed away.

Jim was my cousins’ uncle on the other side of their family, not related to me by blood but a relation nonetheless. He and his wife had a farm north of Columbus that we visited occassionally when I was growing up – I loved the open space, the horses, the woods, their big collie. His wife Virginia passed away 2 years ago, right after they closed on a house in town near their son. She never actually lived in the house, and so when Uncle Jim moved in, I can’t imagine how disconcerted his world must have felt, without her and in a strange new place. He couldn’t bring himself to sell the farm, though, and he drove up there 2-3 times a week (scaring the living daylights out of his children, no doubt, that their 89-year old father was making the 45 minute commute along the busy highway). He stopped at thrift stores and bought a piece of furniture now and then to put in the farmhouse, after everything else had been moved out. His kids brought up a cot, figuring it was better to have him sleep there if he got tired instead of driving back to Columbus.

He loved Wendy’s, and his granddaughter snuck a Frosty into the hospital for him earlier this week. He passed quietly, 90 years old, ready to join his beloved wife, sister and brother-in-law who have all died in the last 4 years.

My visits to Columbus are always jam-packed, this one no exception. But for some reason, I hadn’t managed to get Friday night plans finalized yet. Now I know why. Uncle Jim’s six nieces and nephews all came to town, from all across the country, for the funeral. I got to spend Friday afternoon and evening with most of them, and will see the others today. It’s been a decade since I’ve seen most of them, the last time was at their parents’ 45th wedding anniversary. I am embarrassingly out of touch with them, and I listened with amazement last night – doctors and teachers and pilots and researchers. A talented and successful bunch.

Scott will be back today from his trip to Japan with his new bride. She’ll have quite an introduction to the Merrill family!