Stardate: October 5, 2007, Friday. Hazy & Lazy

Today has been a bit of a wash really. It’s been a terribly lazy day around here, sleeping late, playing with Maddy, reading, watching TV, and making a chicken-broth-based cottage ham stew with carrots, onions, parsley, potatoes, etc. I generally like to have time to engage in this sort of domestic idle, and the weather outside seemed to agree with me. It is hazy with lots of cool fog mingling among the buildings and trees.

This was a welcome relief after the two nonstop preceding days we’ve experienced. Wednesdays are my busy work days at the Univ when I teach 2-3 classes. I would prefer to meet each class on differing days, but their schedule prohibited times that were helpful to me. This way, I can travel around Ukraine on weekends. Thursdays are for Maddy’s school, Russian studying and Russian class. We usually follow that with a walk.

The destination yesterday was kid’s clothes store. Maddy is just mushrooming like a morel in a shady, damp wooden glen. We did purchase a handful of cute things for her that will probably last about 2 months… The only issue was that we literally couldn’t find many pairs of pants for girls. They have many cute skirts and colorful tights, but pants were limited. The large store we went to also was a toy store, so Maddy was challenging, because she saw some largish motorized cars and motorcycles that she wanted to ride on. We did pick out a potential Christmas gift for her, but I want to resist purchasing anything we cannot get back home.

Next, we ventured in pursuit of a mythical English bookstore. This has been a quest of ours for a couple of weeks, and we finally found it yesterday. They had about 8 shelves of English books in a spacious, 2-story bookstore. The books were essentially volumes of British and American classic lit, Harry Potter books, and how-to-learn-English books. Although I was perfectly content with the classics, I knew Patrick was disappointed that he couldn’t find any relatively timely political readings. He’ll just have to resort to reading online.

Today, though, I really wanted to do something productive. I finally did that when I went to the Internet café for about 3 hours. I submitted recommendation letters for a grant award to attend Int’l TESOL for A. I really hope she gets it; she deserves it. I also posted a bunch of videos on youtube.com and got my blog in good stead (www.reynoldsukrainejournal.blogspot.com). I was able to sort through and deal with about 110 emails that I have received since Monday. The totals are down, of course, because I’m not receiving any from students. I received some nice emails from people including my mom, Jeff DG, Kelly C, Liz K and Marty. Liz’s was stellar though because she told me that both my bosses forgot to schedule spring courses in TESOL/TEFL or order books, so they are scrambling a bit. It’s nice to be missed. J

Cultural Treats

• They do not have a telephone book in Kharkiv (Update: some people say they do. They say that the books are printed, go on sale, and then there aren't enough to go around). Some people say they do not make them. To find a company, you must personally know of it, see an ad or poster, or know someone familiar with it. It makes it really challenging to find assistance with household repairs or shops when you don’t know your way around.
• The washing machine is still not working. The saga continues…Finally found a repairman, he came and took out the supposed broken part. He sent it away for repairs, it came back, it was installed, and the machine still didn’t work. The motor is now broken. They took the machine away the following day. It’s been gone since Wednesday, Oct 3rd. We tried to encourage the repairman with money to return it faster, but to no avail. We have no idea when it will come back. We’ve been taking loads of laundry to A’s apt on the 4^th floor intermittently, because they do not have laundromats here. Fun. (Update 10/11/2007- it’s still not working. It came back suddenly on Monday, but it still had the same problem as before. It wasn’t fixed in the slightest. So, Tuesday, we, or rather A, went about making the endless phone calls to the repair people. They say that they will send an experienced repair man tomorrow. We’ll see. A told us not to let him leave without watching the entire process!). (Update 10/23/2007-still no washing machine! It was supposed to be fixed by last Wednesday, then by Sunday, and yet we are here on Tuesday with a massive pile of dirty, smelly laundry. Patrick was forced upon pain of death to cease seating.)
  
• A woke Pat up at 7:30am this morning. She came to warn us that the water would be turned off, so we should store up some water. Patrick filled a 4 gallon jug with tap water; We filled the tub. It’s a good thing since the water is still off at 11:37pm. They say it will be turned on at midnight tonight, but A says it is probably more like midnight tomorrow night! Well, you say, you’re prepared and it’s only your building, right? Nope. It’s like the whole city. Everywhere we went today, faucets did not run with water and toilets did not rinse. All the public bathrooms with their Turkish toilets had piles of pooh that stunk to high heaven! Wow. I actually had to use the nasty one at the internet café…it was memorable. It’s funny, you’d think that I’m complaining, but in reality it is more like I’m amused; the Lao toilets were so much worse. Some folks back home would not be able to adjust to the water and toilets. We’re here for the adventure and expected these kinds of things, so I think that makes it easier to adjust to.
• Another thing that would cause consternation is that one needs to light the gas stove with a lighter. Thank God, I knew how to do this. Pat and I even knew how to light the gas oven. Some Westerners would just flip. I guess I have to thank my folks for living on the Farm when I was a kid, because I know how to do things like this and why you put chlorine bleach in well water.
• Intercultural tidbit—don’t purchase even numbers of flowers to give to folks. It’s considered bad luck to give even numbers of flowers, which are only for funerals. Odd numbers are for cheerful times. I learned this after I had given A a dozen multicolored roses to thank her for the picnic in the country. The next day she showed me them, but noted that one had to be removed. Surprised, I glanced to where she motioned across the room, the single coral rose was in another vase all alone. The explanation surprised us both in that our cultures handle that completely different.
• Another little surprise (that I had been warned of during the Fulbright Orientation) came on Wednesday during my classes. Back story: The Fulbright officials and returning scholars all mentioned the corruption in the education system. For example, students pay bribes for admission to certain schools or programs and profs are bribed for better grades. This is a common practice although I don’t plan on participating. J

There are odd ramifications to these practices that I hadn’t expected, which brings us to Wed at my 8:30am Oral Practice class. We have been discussing the topic “Students’ Lives” and were focusing on various academic subject terms like zoology, geography, Arts & Sciences, etc. I announced the previous class that we were going to have a quiz, about which they had all forgotten utterly. Asking them to close their notebooks, I handed it out, explained the directions, told them not to talk and commenced it. It was the damned easiest quiz if you were awake in last class. No kidding. I’ve given harder quizzes to 4^th graders. A couple of students started whispering. I “pssted” them. A couple more next to them whispered. I reminded them that this was not a pair activity, and they must not talk. Various people continued to talk directly in front of my face! Okay, so I gently reminded them again. Remember, there are only 11 students in this class. It’s not like I couldn’t see every single face. So, I as I was walk around giving the evil eye to thos talking, I noticed that 4-6 students had their notebooks open. I told them to close them. Some did and some did not. I gently closed their notebooks, or whispered for them to do so. One girl had hers under her paper and I had to repeat myself to her about 4 times before she smiled sweetly and pleadingly before putting it way. I even had to move some students who were showing each other their answers. At this point, I was beginning to think that I had fallen into the twilight zone some where on my walk to school. The whispering, sidelong glances at each others papers, and the other varieties of cheating continued for a painful 25 minutes (supposed to be done in10 mins). I was pissed, of course. I’d never seen such blatant, remorseless and obvious cheating in my life. I told them afterward that I was seriously disappointed, and the next time, they were going to be separated and all materials must be on the floor.

You might thing this is an isolated incident, right? This happened again almost the same way in the next class after I had given them even more detailed directions about not cheating. I was dumbfounded.

How does this relate to bribes you may ask? Well, they don’t study, because they are going to bribe their teachers. Cheating is so rampant here that they don’t expect any profs to actually tell them not to. Their profs just ignore it! They were more surprised by my response than I was by their cheating! A and some other teachers told me that they were grateful that I had enough integrity to actually do something about it, and they hoped the students might learn from it. Well, if nothing else, they won’t expect me to join in and it was a fascinating cultural difference. You know, it was wild, because I’m not a super tough prof, but here I am looking the righteous prig!

• Fruit Juice: On a positive note, they have the widest variety of fruit juices I have ever seen. Aside from the typical orange, grade, apple, mixed berry and tomato, they have peach, pear, plum, kiwi, cherry, watermelon and pomegranate. The juice is so flavorful and rich that we have to dilute it with water to make a familiar, drinkable consistency. Peggy would think that’s funny after how much undiluted juice Pat and I have downed in her house! She used to always chide us about that. Oh, btw, they don’t have cranberry.
• Also among the list of edible things that are inherently better here are: coffee, tea, chocolate, wine, bread, sausages, ham, and a wide variety of wild mushrooms. Our neighbor, Roman, knows mushrooms well and goes on wild mushroom hikes. He showed Pat which are the good and the bad ones here. I think that is SO cool. It’s as common here to go mushroom hunting on weekends as it is to watch an NFL game on Sunday in Green Bay. (Update: we have been warned about bad mushrooms and not eating them. We haven't).
  
• Driving in Ukraine is an extreme sport. 7 years ago cars were not very common for the typical, non-mafia, middle-class family. Now, not only attainable, but they are invasive. However, as is true to Ukraine in general, the driving school teachers can be bribed. Well, you can imagine the results. Some drivers are absolutely nuts and some are frighteningly tentative. Some race with the peddle to the metal for about 30 feet only to stand in the typically unmoving traffic. Others clip the mirrors off of parked cars. They don’t respect the parking lane, they drive in it until they encounter parked cars, then swerve into the moving lane to the left. They may also opt for the sidewalk or the far left lane into the on-coming traffic. If traffic gets heavy at a stop light, they pile into the intersection and block it. To make matters worse, drivers then start bullying their way through the others at perpendicular angles or trying to turn around to exit the area. What you get then is not a traffic jam, it more of a traffic knot with horns sounding and people berating each other in Russian or Ukrainian or both. Now, I understand the allusion some make when they call Ukraine the “bumper car state”.
• The roads are super rough-big chunks of pavement or bricks are missing sometimes, so they are driving SUVs and American made cars and jeeps that are built a little tougher than European luxury cars. You don’t see American made in Western Europe that’s for sure. The potholes practically go all the way to Brazil. Pat finds it remarkable about the SUVs because petrol is not cheap. We have seen prices for between H4.55-H5.05 a liter, you do the math.
• It is very important to note though that we are observing the city center of the 2^nd largest city in Ukraine, so we are seeing what the crème de la crème are doing, these notes certainly do not pertain to poor city suburbs or villages where no one can afford luxuries like cars. We really do not know how the poor are faring here.

I want to get into some villages, but I think I will make that a bigger priority in western Ukraine where they have preserved more Ukrainian traditions like embroidery, song and dance, and clothing. Maybe that is naively romantic or nostalgic, but what can I say, I’d like to see Ukraine with fewer Russian influences.

Western Ukraine was only under Russia/USSR control for about 50 years during which time Russian/Soviet ideologues attempted to squash the Ukrainian nationalist movement through food and product shortages, in the cover of the night kidnappings, torture and murder, and manufactured famine. Eastern Ukraine experienced some different straits. Like western Ukraine, large percentages of the eastern Ukrainian population were starved to death or forced into gulags (work/interment camps) in Kazahkstan or Siberia. But in the east, the area was then resettled with Russians.

A tells me that the Russian General Muravyov was sent by Moscow into eastern Ukraine during 1918 and randomly started killing anyone who spoke Ukrainian. This approach was one to eradicate the Ukrainian language and terrorize the people. The USSR then “replaced” the dead with Russians. That is why this part of Ukraine thinks it should be with Russia. Oh. Yeah, right. Not! Pat and I cynically joked that it would be like claiming Canada was part of the US, then systematically starving them to death, then sending in troops to eradicate anyone remaining who spoke English with a Canadian accent or Quebecquois, and finally sending in US “settlers” to tame the land. Okay, so historically we did something similar to the Mexicans and Native Americans. I get the irony.