I was just in the office kitchenette, slicing a tomato for an afternoon snack, when my boss walked into the room. He opened the cupboard, took out 3 shot glasses, mumbled something about vodka, and walked back to his office where he is having a meeting with a mayor from one of the communities where we work.
Sometimes this place just cracks me up.
I had a really great time during my visit home. I wouldn’t have thought 3 weeks could be “whirlwind”, but they certainly were!
I enjoyed making presentations at Ohio State University and Ohio University about Chornobyl and about international volunteerism. It was very exciting to present about topics I’ve come to know well, and to do it all in a language I’ve fully mastered!
Tanya and I drove 1200+ miles roundtrip, 24 hours total driving time, to spend a day and a half at her new beach house in Litchfield Beach, South Carolina. It was sunny, 77 degrees, and we even got a bit tanned sunning on the beach. Pretty damn awesome.
I also spent a night in Athens, Ohio, with my friends the Kleins. Jenny gave me a nice tour of Ohio University, and I thought the campus and town were really great. I can certainly understand the attraction to live in such an idyllic town.
Dad and I went to Ohio State’s campus to tailgate before the Ohio State-Michigan game, and that was a lot of fun. We watched the game with Scott and Carina at Studio 35 – what a blast! All the fun of watching with a pumped-up crowd, plus pizza, popcorn and beer! No wind, no rain, and no hassles getting in or out. The only part I don’t like about watching football on TV is that they don’t show the band’s halftime show.
I was back in Kyiv on Nov. 21, back to grey skies, fog and falling temperatures. I’m not really thrilled about another long, dark, cold winter here, but I’m hoping to break it up with a trip somewhere warm and sunny in February. Just back from one trip, and already working on plans for my next one!
I came across a link on Dan Miner-Nordstrom’s website to a cool map website. You can customize a map to indicate all the countries you have visited. Here’s mine!
As you may have guessed, Thanksgiving is not a holiday here in Ukraine. I worked all day Thursday, and then met up with two Americans for dinner that evening, Blane and Tom. We went to TGI Friday’s, where we proceeded to indulge ourselves to extreme excess, all the while reassuring each other that was “OK to gorge” because, after all, it was Thanksgiving. I almost needed help carrying my distended stomach home.
Saturday, Igor and I hosted a home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner for 10 at my apartment – 3 Americans (Blane, Tom and me again) and 7 Ukrainians (Igor; Igor, Olga, Mary and Peter Afanasiev; Lena; and Sasha). We made WAY too much food but we all did our best to put away as much of it as possible. My vegetarian stuffing passed muster with the Americans, and the Ukrainians liked it too (they’d never had anything like it before). The Afanasievs remembered my corn bread from last year’s Thanksgiving dinner, and were happy to eat it all up again this year. Igor baked some salmon steaks to appease the carnivores, and along with the numerous salads and side dishes, I think we all had more than our fill – in true Thanksgiving style!
The books I’ve read the past few months are: Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett; The Kalahari Typing School for Men, by Alexander McCall Smith; The Mysterious West, edited by Tony Hillerman; A Passage to India, E.M. Forester;
Beach Music, by Pan Conroy; and Firefly Summer, by Maeve Binchy. I’ve been stocking up on books while I’m here in the U.S. (in fact, I think I’ll have to mail them to myself or else they’ll take up my allowed luggage weight completely!), and I’m looking forward to some highly recommended books once I’m back in Kyiv. I bought a box of pulp fiction at a Democrats Abroad auction a few months ago, and although I enjoy that kind of reading now and then, I’ve been reading way to much of it lately and I need something with more substance!
An on-line discussion group I am in decided we would share with each other our election day experiences. I decided I would post my observations here, as well.
I wanted to work as a polling station worker on election day, and so a couple months ago I checked out the Franklin County Board of Elections website. “Poll worker” was a topic on the homepage, and I clicked on the link. Cool, I thought! I can get the info I need and maybe even sign up right here on line! The link took me to a page with a Forms page, with the following links:
Application for Absent Voter’s Ballots
Republican Precinct Official Application
Democratic Precinct Official Application
Voter Registration
I am independent, and adamantly do not want to register with either the Republican or Democratic party. I was quite disappointed that my only options were to self-identify as one or the other, I still don’t understand why it matters if you want to be a poll worker. I also wondered if this was yet another way to disenfranchise people as well as to staff polls with people of one persuasion or another. You may remember that Ohio didn’t exactly have a fair election in 2004. Well, I reluctantly clicked on the link for Democratic Precinct, and was taken to a form asking for my name, address, city, county, zip code, email address, and phone numbers. A drop-down menu listed the elections from which I was to choose: All, 2005 General Election (not a good sign that the website is well-maintained!), 2006 Primary Election, and 2006 General Election. I selected the only option that actually still existed, the 2006 General Election, clicked “Submit Application” and waited. And waited. And waited. I was never contacted about being a poll worker. No deadlines or other information was listed on the website, and there was no postal address or phone to contact if you had questions or wanted to follow up.
Several times over the past few months I have thought about trying to follow up with the Board of Elections, finding a phone number or postal address. The problem is I usually remember those kinds of things at 9:00 am Kyiv time, which is 2:00 am Columbus time, and by the afternoon I’ve usually gotten busy with something else and forget to call. Oh well, I decided to let it go this year, since I wasn’t sure if I’d be back in time for any training that might be involved (although there was no info on the website about training, time commitment, skills/requirements – nada!).
Today I went to my polling station about 8:15 am. There were about 6 or 7 people standing the minimum distance from the entrance. One man asked if I needed any “assistance” with my vote and tried to give me a party’s choices. I didn’t even look close enough to know which party. A candidate for state representative was there, a young man I knew when I worked at Ohio State. It’s hard to believe that my former student is running for office! (but very cool!) I went up to him, said hello and wished him luck. I noticed 2 people taking exit polls, as well. Man, I hate that, but more on that later.
It was my first time voting in person at this station (in a nearby recreation center), since I changed my registration to my parents’ address when I moved overseas 2 years ago. I had the voter registration card that was sent to me in 2004, which listed my precinct number. The voting was set up in the gymnasium, with about 6 or 8 different lines. I scanned the room looking for the line for my precinct, 20-C, but couldn’t find it. I asked 4 different workers before one of them picked up the official address/precinct book and told me I was actually in 20-D. I am guessing the precincts have changed since I registered 2 years ago, since there was no 20-C at all, and thankfully that was just a minor snag. At first I stood in the wrong line, the one to actually vote, instead of the check-in line. A worker asked me almost right away if I had checked-in, and then directed me to the correct line. He also asked me if I would like a brochure that listed the full text of the 5 issues on the ballot, so I could review them while I waited. I had read about the issues already, but took the brochure anyway to refresh my memory.
A new rule in Ohio is that you have to show an ID to check-in, whereas in the past all you had to do was state your name and then sign the roll, and presumably the workers checked that your signature matched the one on record. I have heard some concerns expressed about requiring ID to vote, as some people/organizations consider this a type of poll tax (since you can’t get any kind of ID for free, as far as I know). I like the idea of showing a photo ID to verify who I am for voting, but I do think something needs to be worked out to provide people with a free ID option. After checking-in, I was handed a piece of paper that said “right to vote”. It had a number on it, and I did not like the fact that this number was written next to my name in the voter log. It concerned me that my vote might not be anonymous, but I decided to wait and see what came next.
I was checked-in and ready to wait my turn to vote by about 8:30 am. I stood in the next line for about 15 minutes. Some other precincts’ lines were also longish, others almost non-existent. We have new polling machines in Ohio. They are computerized, and I thought they looked very “open.” In the past, we voted on a machine that was taller than me and you stepped behind a curtain for privacy. These machines were about waist-high, with no curtains or other blocking devices. They were, however, arranged in such a way that the screen faced a wall, with “wings” on the sides that somewhat blocked views from the side. I watched as the people ahead of me had their turns. Many people seemed to take a long time. I watched one elderly woman take nearly 10 minutes to vote, with frequent questions to the poll worker.
There were altogether 5 workers assisting at my precinct’s station: 2 workers at the check-in table, 2 assisting at the voting machines, and one man who seemed to be “floating”, answering various questions and dealing with people with special circumstances (like one guy who needed to submit a provisional ballot). I was impressed to see that a good portion of the poll workers were young (college-age or maybe even high schoolers). At my precinct, there was one person I would lable “senior citizen”, one I thought couldn’t be older than 20, and 3 that I guessed to be in their 40’s and 50’s. A glance around the room and the 2-3 other precincts seemed to show the same trend. In the past, I always thought poll workers were all retired people. I was very pleased to see younger people, especially the folks in their 20’s.
When it was my turn to vote, I handed my “right to vote” slip to the worker and watched her like a hawk to see what, if anything, she would do with that identification number. It turned out to be nothing, it was never entered into the voting machine, and the piece of paper went into a big envelope with all the other slips. That was a relief. She took me to my machine and inserted a cartridge into a slot, which activated the machine for the voter. I was pleased to see that control in place, and it seemed that someone could not, purposefully or inadvertantly, access a voting machine without the “supervisor’s cartridge” being inserted first. She touched buttons on the screen to activate a ballot, then removed her cartridge and told me I was ready to go. I followed the instructions on the screen, and had my first set of candidates to vote for. As I touched the screen for my selections, I could see and hear a slip of paper behind a plastic screen recording my vote. My selection was instantly typed on the paper, and although the computer instructions said I could change my vote up until the last step, it seemed to me that there would still be a record on the paper copy of my original selection. I was tempted to try changing my vote at least one time, to see how it worked, but decided I didn’t want to risk it so I didn’t test that part of the process.
I voted in all the races where I felt well-enough informed to make a good decision, as well as on the issues. I skipped many of the races for judges because frankly I just didn’t manage to read about the candidates and didn’t know anything about them. After finishing my selections, I selected the button to review my vote, and a warning popped up to notify me that I had not voted in every race. I reviewed my ballot, and selected “submit vote”. The screen indicated I was done, and I watched as the paper ballot scrolled upwards until my vote was far from visible (it looked like a paper roll, like on a cash register).
It took me about 3-4 minutes to complete my ballot. In total, I spent about 35 minutes at the polling station, with at least 30 minutes of that time spent waiting in line. Frankly, I thought the process was quite simple and straight-forward, aside from the initial confusion about my precinct. The instructions on the machine were clear, the buttons were big and clearly marked. I liked the paper ballot and the fact that I could both see and hear it being printed. I’m not quite sure what was so challenging for other voters, but some seemed to just have “change phobia” and “technology phobia”.
As I exited the building, one of the pollsters asked me to take a quick survey. “No,” I said. “That’s what elections are for.” Her sharp rebuttal was “No, it’s just a poll.” I know she’s just doing her job, so I had inclination to argue with her. But I hate polls about as much as I hate telemarketing. It’s absurd that we call elections before a single vote has been cast, and I think polls should be banned. My cousins from California were here over the past weekend, and we talked a bit about the impact of polls and “early counts” from the East Coast effecting voting on the West Coast. Doug said he was not going to watch TV all day today, partially so he could get the actual results when they were actually ready. (avoiding all the political ads and lame day-long speculations and commentary are a good reason to avoid TV today, too.)
I have not watched TV nor checked any news websites today, myself. I will wait until tomorrow when there is a reasonable chance that the reports will represent the actual results a bit more closely.
I had an uneventful flight back to Columbus – man was it long though! I took Delta’s new direct flight from Kyiv to JFK, which is a 10 hour flight. And Delta now gives NO free alcohol at all on their international flights. Bummer! I had a few hours’ layover in New York, and Emily was able to come out to the airport for a bit, which was awesome. She looks great, and we had a nice, albeit brief, catch-up. Then I had a quick flight to Columbus, and was in by 11:00 pm. All told, it took me 18 hours to get home.
It was cold and grey on Wednesday, not so different from what I left in Kyiv! But Thursday was lovely, still cold but sunny. And the trees are beautiful. I want to take my camera out and capture some of the scenery. Columbus has changed so much, too. New shops and cafes everywhere, construction all over the place (as usual). I missed my exit off the freeway at one point and got off at the next exit, and literally did not recognize where I was. It was quite disconcerting to feel lost and confused in the town where I lived for 33 years!
I’ve been really busy so far. I took my laptop into the Apple store for repairs, and after about 5 minutes of trying to sort out everything that is wrong with it, the guy said “I think it would just be easier for us to give you a new computer.” Woohoo! So I picked up my brand-spanking-new MacBook yesterday, with a DVD-writer, built-in video camera, and all kinds of gadgets and toys I haven’t even figured out yet. The thing even came with a remote control (I have no idea what you need a remote control for with a laptop, but it sounds cool!). I tell ya, that extended warranty I bought 2 years ago was the best investment I ever made.
I spent most of Thursday at my Grandma’s house with my Aunt Martha and cousin Ruth Ann. We cleaned out all her clothes, kitchen stuff, etc. We have some more to do today (Friday) and then on Saturday when my Dad and brother can come over too, we’ll divide up the sentimental and valuable things. Not a fun task, but we did find some really neat stuff that both tugged at our hearts and made us smile. Grandma had the dress she was wearing when Grandpa proposed to her in her dresser with a note on it. It’s no surprise she got a proposal in it – it’s quite a sexy little flimsy thing! 🙂 And she has the fabulous derby hat that my Grandpa wore for their wedding. Lots of photos and albums and some old letters that we set aside to look through later. I’m looking forward to that. Aunt Martha pulled out record albums and fired up the old record player. For most of my life, I never knew there was a record player in that box on legs in the dining room, and I certainly never heard Grandma play an album on it. We had fun listening to the music from the 40’s and 50’s.
My Aunt Mary Ellin flies in today. Tomorrow there will be memorial mass for Mom and then we’ll all go out to dinner. It’s very very strange to have two huge holes in my life here. In the car from the aiport Tuesday night, I had to stop myself from asking Dad how Grandma is. Just a habit to ask, I guess. And so strange to be packing up her house without Mom. There are many things that I know Grandma would have wanted Mom to have, and things that I know have meaning or importance to Mom more than anybody else. And the things that I know Mom would be able to tell us where they came from, but now some of those stories are lost forever because the people who knew it are all gone. Grandma was thinking about us, though, and we found several things with little hand-written notes attach to let us know what was important to her, like her engagement dress, or the ceramic bowl that belonged to her grandma. Gosh, I’m really missing Mom and Grandma.
Anka in Kyiv 