Stardate: Saturday, Sept 8, 2007

Kate and Patrick Reynolds’ Ukraine Journal
August 2007 to May 2008

Saturday, September 08, 2007
A Walk to the Oldest Ukrainian Cathedral
Today, while Maddy was at school, Antonina, Vasilisa, Patrick and I walked to the oldest cathedral in Ukraine on University Hill (the oldest city fortification). On the way there, I didn’t see anything unique until I walked into a gate and started to notice that there are men wearing long monk-like black robes with squarish-shaped hats and skirted women wearing head scarves. Next I saw the golden onion-domed cathedral spires. The mostly straight-edged walls were white without ornaments. We entered the side door and immediately the plain Jane exterior faded away to soothing patterns of flat-faced angular flowers and elaborate paintings of Biblical scenes. Antonia purchased slim yellow candles for us, and we entered the small sanctuary. There were many candelabras sitting in tribute to 2 x 2.5 feet gilded paintings of Christ, the Madonna and Child and a saint or two. There was one painting of a saint killing a dragon; I asked Antonina and she asked me who the saint that killed the dragon was! I told her that I had never heard that story. Maybe it is part of Eastern Orthodox and not Roman Catholicism. I need to check the web. Anyway, the paintings were spectacular, but they were slightly unnerving in their all too symmetric stares. The style reminded me of Medieval paintings in form and subject matter. There were little half-circle alcoves on either side of the central alter which held an elaborately painted panel with Biblical images. What struck me the most were the glares of some of the women who looked pissed at me, the intimate size of the cathedral, the vast amount of pattern-impressed gold on the paintings, and the overwhelming number of decorations on every surface (In that it was like the Thai temples). This cathedral is called Church of the Shroud.

Outside there was a little trailer in which they sell icons, etc. I will purchase one prior to leaving here. We left quickly, too quickly for my taste, but Maddy’s school was our main impetus. We quickly walked down the street farther to a place where the highest point of the city is, it is in another cathedral, and she showed us the way to the train station down “Poltava Road”. We also saw where artists sell their wares. I cannot wait to go back to purchase some of the items that I saw. There were gorgeous originals and knock offs of famous canvases. I saw several I coveted, but I wasn’t allowed to stop as Maddy was on Patrick’s mind. Lastly, we saw the striped cathedral, which is the 3rd leg of the triangle of churches in the old city. I can’t wait to go back to sketch some of the unique shapes that decorate spaces between Biblical scenes in the Church of the Shroud and to purchase some of the artwork.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Acclimating
Well, there are certainly things to adjust to here, but they aren’t as important as one might expect. For example, we don’t speak the language and most folks here don’t speak English. One might think that is way overwhelming, but Patrick and I have developed strategies for accomplishing what we need with very few words. We point, we gesture, we explain in English, we write, we smile and look questioningly. It is rudimentary, but effective in most cases. It is only when someone will not try to work with us that it becomes problematic. That is rarely the case. Most people here are surprisingly willing to help others. For the last 2 weeks, we have had computer difficulties. I couldn’t get the computer to recognize the USB devices or to upload photos, for example. I wanted to purchase a printer, copier, scanner (H399.00 or $80.00), but the computer, because it is a university networked computer, would not allow anyone but an administrator to add hardware or software. I was becoming increasingly frustrated with the problem and had been emailing a computer techie at UWEC for assistance. Finally, I took the computer to the place I wanted to purchase the printer, and they hooked it up. Together, with the salesman/techie’s basic English and my non-existent Russian and techie-speak, we figured out how to infiltrate DOS and modify the administrator password to allow us to fix the problems and add new hard/software! The 2 computer guys at the shop, our techie’s name was Vova, spent about 2 hours working on the computer to help me, and to ultimately sell the printer. We ended up buying the printer, computer speakers (H55.=$11.00) and a surge protector(H19.00=$3.80) from them, so Kate guesses it was helpful for them. Kate also popped next door and bought them 2 beers(White brand name) to thank them. They seemed happy wit the beers, too. Vova asked me if I like the Ukrainian beer—of course, we do!

Antonina and Vladimir have been to our flat twice to help with our washing machine/hot water heater issues. We still haven’t resolved it, but they have been kind enough to try and help. Antonina thinks it is her job to help me with these little issues! What a blessing she has been.

Hot Water
Speaking of hot water…we don’t have any. It has been about a week and a day without hot water. Let’s just say, that we all have been showering, but not all that often. Apparently, the government official hot water for the city until November, supposedly because they don’t need it. The weather has turned Fall-like and it gets chilly. Pat regularly cites the lack of hot water as evidence of Ukraine’s emerging place in the world. Kate doesn’t care nearly as much. But, I took the coldest shower of my life this morning, and I had to shave! I thought I was going to take of chunks of skin with the leg hairs! After a quick rise, I realized I couldn’t handle it this morning, so I literally took the hot water from the coffee maker and poured it into the tub and plopped myself in. It took the edge off the water for a bit, but I still had to wash my hair in icy water. One final note on hot water, without a certain temperature, our washing machine will not work. So, it just runs and runs, and runs! We have an ever enlarging pile growing quietly in a corner of our bedroom.

Interesting ways in which we have acclimated without notice.
We don’t bat an eye at running down to meet the water truck on Saturday afternoons between 4-4:30pm for still water or Sunday 2:30-3 for mineral water (l’eau gaseuse). We don’t think much about using the internet café or walking everywhere. Kate doesn’t miss a car in the least. Pat doesn’t seem to either. The only allowance we really need is to take a cab back from the grocery store, because we have too many heavy items.

We don’t seem to mind making our own Turkish coffee each morning, or being unable to read the restaurant menus. We ducked into a café on Monday, because it was pouring rain and we only had one umbrella with us. It was a cute, cozy place that had white-washed walls and dark wooden beams on the walls and ceilings as well as a faux circular fireplace in the room’s center. On the walls, there were cute, contemporary, but painted to resemble, old Dutch peasant life paintings. We shed our coats and felt right at home (we even took Maddy’s pants off, so she was sitting around in her diaper!), but our server was immediately stressed. It wasn’t because of Maddy’s pants-less attire either. He gestured and grunted out a couple of words in English that indicated to us that we couldn’t serve us because he didn’t speak English and the menu was in Russian. Well, we weren’t going back into the rain. So, we ordered the best we could: Stella Artois (beer), chai (which is the word for tea here-it’s delicious and soothing. It usually has mint leaves in it.) and a Sprite. He was comfortable with that. He then gave us a menu even though he thought we weren’t going to say. Once we had the menu, we realized that there were categories that we recognized: Pasta, Soup, Dessert! We ended up ordering a great Carbonara and a fettuccini Puccini, which were wonderful.

So, we have found great food to eat. The restaurants are generally like ours; they have Italian, Pizza, Greek, Sushi, home cooking kinds of places, deli’s or take out places with some prepared foods, Mc Donald’s (if you call that food), etc. Kate particularly likes the Spinnoki pizza from the place across the street on Pushkinskaya, called
eure. This pizza is wood-fired and has mushrooms, tomatoes, mozz, spinach and garlic! Yum.
Maddy likes their margarita pizza. That that being said, we always have to take risks with food unless there is an English menu or we can figure it out.

Department Meeting
I’m sitting right now in a English Translation Department meeting. They are interesting. The faculty talk non-stop while the Director (Antonina) or Director’s Assistant (Svetlana) are speaking. I’m surprised by this. It seems so rude to have a constant undercurrent of murmurs. They did have an animated discussion back and forth between the staff and Directors. Some people were talking about a problem and taking turns. Finally, Antonina said in Russian something like, “Okay. Enough. End of conversation.” It was fascinating and kind of headache-generating to hear so much talking, slightly animated and emotional and so fast. Some of the people are text messaging or doing other work during the meeting as well. One lady is doing her nails. Wow. Johannes would have cow.

Copy Challenges
Forget the constant warnings that our Dept copy costs are up. Wow. They do the copying here so differently than we do. First, you must purchase your own paper for copying at work. Second, you have to bring your copies to an “Engineer” who will make the copies for you. They have an ancient copier that only does one page at a time, and you have to feed the paper singly. I needed 20 copies of one reading (because I don’t have a course book), and the Engineer and Director’s Assistant acted like I had asked for the holy grail! Then, I had to borrow paper to make the copies, wait while they were made (I wasn’t allowed to make them myself), and I could only get set of copies I needed because the copier was out of toner. The “Engineer” who was copying acted like it was an issue with the darkness setting, but I knew immediately it was out of toner. I told him so, but he kept using my borrowed paper time and again to see if he could adjust the darkness. I finally went to the copier, next to him (he didn’t speak English and I don’t speak techie Russian), and I said, “I think it is the toner. Here let me show you.” and I started pointing toward the inside of the computer and trying to open it. He exclaimed, “Ah. Cartridge!” That’s when he opened it to gently shake the toner cartridge and replace it. It was good enough for the remainder of copies. Thank God.

Last night, I went to “Xerox” or Kinko’s. I had to wait, packed in a small vestibule with 8 other people for a lady behind the counter to make the copies. She did a detailed job, and I was grateful. It was an interesting cultural experience to see how they treat precious resources. They don’t have a copier available to just anyone. You certainly cannot walk in and ask for the copy counter to plug in, do it yourself and pay. They don’t have forms to turn in with your copies to indicated quality, size, color of paper, etc. It is all discussed individually with the person. It would seem that they are bureaucratic, but I think it is that they are control freaks interested in the service process.

Friday, September 14, 2007
Fall is a Comin’
The weather here as turned a bit cold. We arrived and it was in the high 80s and low 90s, so, contrary to Pat’s ultra cold prediction, we were sweating off a lot of “water weight.” Now, however, the weather has taken a distinct turn. We are clearly in the Autumn. We have cold rains regularly, like today, in which one is forced to tramp through deep rivulets of rainwater coursing down the sidewalks and streets and navigate between the cratered and pockmarked streets and crumbling sidewalks in order to keep your feet somewhat dry. Ordinarily, this would not pose much of a challenge, but add to the mix a capricious almost 3-year-old who likes to puddle jump, as well as people who literally do not know how to drive and get pissed when waiting in traffic, and you have for a stressful experience.

Maddy on Walks
Although we have suddenly, and to Maddy inexplicably, become a lot tougher about listening to us and holding our hands, etc, I think that she has handled it well. She has matured a bit since our arrival and is a MUCH better, but not completely attentive due to her age, listener. She understands now that cars will not stop for her, that she MUST trot across every street, and that holding hands with Mama or Dada prevents falls. She keeps pace pretty well and has a good time on walks. On longer walks, she still asks to be carried—initiated by the ever-cute, albeit annoying, “I carry you” (She still hasn’t acquired the passive.) while throwing herself in your path mid-step. We’ve each been tripped more than a couple times when we happened to be inattentive.