My speedy brother and sister-in-law have some posts and photos already up on the web.
Blogs
http://skippy.net/ukraine-2007-part-2
http://skippy.net/ukraine-2007-part-3
Photos
http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649
http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649
http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649
http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649
We had the best wedding ever – it was a blast! We had just the right amount of Ukrainian wedding insanity, including the helmet hairstyle, for everyone to have a fantastic time. As Igor says, the only thing missing was a bear and a fight, but that’s OK!
I hope to get some photos up in the next week or so.
There’s been so much to do in preparation for 15 international guests that I nearly forgot the reason they were all coming here – 2 days until the wedding!
Nine of them are here already, and after 2 days of airport, apartments, and numerous various issues and needs to be dealt with for all of them, we actually got to spend an afternoon enjoying Kyiv. Being Americans, I knew the primary goal of any outing is to buy stuff, so we went to Andriyivsky uzviz, a long cobblestone street lined with artisans and vendors. Everyone made nice contributions to the local economy.
I always am amazed at how long it takes to move a group of people along. The cold and snow eventually served as a motivator (or de-motivator, depending on how you look at it), and once essential souvenirs and gifts were bought, everyone was ready for a warm restaurant and hot chocolate.
It’s absolutely wonderful to have my family and friends here. Igor’s finally gets to meet the people I talk about – and they finally are seeing the places I have told them about.
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.
Anka in Kyiv 