3 hour flight delay = probably not making connection tonight. *sigh*
Even the business lounge in Kyiv Boryspil kinda sucks. No electricalPassport? Check
Book? Check
iPod? Check
Cross-stitch? Check
Upgrade? Check
Last week involved a lot of uses of the Russian verb “to cut”, which translates to English in numerous ways
– slaughter the bull
– mow the law
– “fix” the cat
– chop the veggies
We were both surprised and really impressed how quickly and efficiently the “masters” worked. The first pieces of meat were cut, cleaned, fried and on the table in just under an hour.
No, I did not eat it. I’ve been a vegetarian for over 20 years and have no desire or intention of changing that. So you may be surprised that I was involved in this very carnivorous process. One of the reasons I stopped eating meat was out of horror and disgust with the US meat industry. The terrible inhumane conditions animals live in, the over-use of vaccinations to stave off the rampant spread of disease (caused in large part by the horrible and unnatural living conditions), the hormones and chemicals used to “pump up” the meat- just a few of the things that horrify and disgust me. The disconnect between most Americans and the sources of their meals also makes me mad. I remember when I was working at a grocery store as a teenager, and one year after the annual Ohio State Fair we had some of the prize-winning livestock in the meat department. As I was ringing up a lady’s groceries, she suddenly saw the sticker on her package of meat “1st Prize Lamb”. She had a conniption, “Oh, I petted this lamb at the Fair! I can’t eat it!” Why the hell not?, I wanted to say. What’s the difference between the lamb you didn’t see alive and one you did? I have no desire to eat either of them, but the hypocrisy of pretending your dinner started out in plastic wrap and not as a living, breathing creature just boggles my mind.
A few months living in a small village in Moldova, where you grow and prepare almost all of your own food, gave me a new persepective. First, the animals on a small farm live a pretty darn good life. You don’t get much more free-range than a yard full of chickens and geese running around. The sheep are out in the field all summer long. And those are some damn happy pigs (and now I really understand what it means to “pig out”!). The animals are slaughtered with respect, and every single part of them is used – nothing is wasted. I mean nothing (I had no idea what could be done with duck feet!). The same is true on the small farms in Ukraine.
Even though I still don’t personally have a desire to eat meat, if I was going to, it would be here in Ukraine. I don’t have any problem with people eating meat that has come from an animal that has lived decently, has been treated well, slaughtered humanely, and used completely without waste. Such was the meat from the bull in Bekhi. It was a day of celebration for the family, and definitely an interesting experience for Bill and me – one that we are not likely to find in the US!
There are more pictures on Flickr, (and I promise, nothing gruesome).
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So, the other “cutting” this week. The delicous smell of fresh-cut grass around our apartment building was such a quintessentially “summer in America” sensation for me this week. I can’t wait for vacation! No big adventure plans this summer, but a couple of weeks enjoying summer in Columbus is very much what my soul needs right now.
I finally took Ziggy to get “cut”, aka castrated. I’ve never had a boy cat before, so yet another process that was (morbidly?) fascinating to me. The vet underestimated not only our tubby cat’s girth but also his stubborness, and she ended up giving him three doses of anethesia before finally accepting that he was just not going to go to sleep. I stepped out of the room, and just a few minutes later they told me he was ready to go home. So quick and easy! He was dopey and unhappy the rest of the day, but good as new the next morning – terrorizing us early in the morning until one of us would get up and feed him. And he seems fairly oblivious to what happened to him, at least so far.
Ziggy’s one of the best cats I have ever lived with – hilarious, a purr-machine, and sooo much personality. But he can get a bit out of control when we play sometimes, getting pretty rough with the scratching and biting. I had hoped getting him fixed would help settle some of his agressive playing. But the other “cut” of the week was more serious scratches on my arm last night. Let’s hope that was just some lingering testerone that will fade out of his system sooner or later. Man, I hope so.
Bill and Eilene had an awesome party last weekend, at which Igor learned how to make sushi. He’s been anxious all week to try it on his own, so we picked up the ingredients on Saturday and had a fabulous sushi feast for dinner. Yuuuuuummmmm!
I also got a cut and color on Saturday, which always requires in instant re-do of the style. I swear, they must have only one style template in cosmetology schools here. No matter who has cut my hair or what kind of cut I’ve asked for, the stylist inevitable sends me on my way with a mushroom cloud on top of my head. Anybody know a good stylist in Kyiv who can do something decent with short wavy hair?
After the haircut I popped over to the optician. I accidentally broke my glasses a few months ago, and while the repair job was a valiant effort, they just didn’t fit right anymore and were increasingly uncomfortable, so I grudgingly accepted it was time to shell out the money for a new pair. I always admire interesting and bold glasses on other people, but somehow never have the courage to get myself something more daring than your basic discrete frames. As usual, I kept picking out frames that were essentially like the ones I always buy, but not being happy with them. The poor saleslady was trying hard, though, to help me, but kept picking out crazy stuff that she insisted were “fashionable”. Lo and behold, she finally got it right – not too bold, but not too boring. Before I could wimp out, I ordered them up – and 30 minutes later went home with my swank new look!
(And you gotta admit, it takes some confidence to post a picture of yourself with serious bedhead)
“Teach and Learn with Georgia”
The Republic of Georgia is recruiting native English speakers to teach in schools in Georgia. Feel free to share this with professors, friends, or even post a flyer in the
appropriate office at your university or office.
So, my first thought was, holy crap, how awesome is she! Then I thought, holy crap, how sad is it that the only cast member I recognize is Betty White?
She is the Queen. Simply amazing and utterly stunning. If only I have her grace and poise and fabulous sense of humor when I’m half her age – which, ack, I am not too far from!The first week of May is bookended by two holidays – Labor Day on the 1st and Victory Day on the 9th – and much of the country takes off for what are known as “May holidays.” We stayed in Kyiv, which is always a great place to be when most of the city’s residents are away!
The weather was just marvelous all week. Even the rain was great – short bursts of thunderstorms that smelled delicious and helped the trees and flowers just burst with color. I don’t know if this spring is truly exceptionally beautiful, or if it just feels extra-ordinary because the winter was so dang awful, but either way, it is downright magnificent. We started the holiday week with a BBQ, Ukrainian-style. Igor marinated the meat and veggies the day before
And on Monday we headed to one of our favorite little patches of the woods just outside Kyiv. Igor worked up a fire, and Bill did an excellent job keeping that big log from rolling into it. 
The Master Chef approved of his own work.
Eilene’s got tons more fantastic pictures on Facebook but I don’t know how to post them here.
Saturday was the big annual festival at Pirohovo Museum, a huge outdoor museum of Ukrainian village life (the website has an ad for the abortion pill -how bizarre is that?). It’s outside Kyiv, and always a bit confusing for me to find. We set the GPS, affectionately known as Galina Petrovna, and headed off. Now, Galina Petrovna has moments of, well, insanity. I don’t know if it’s just bad programming in the Ukrainian map I bought here, or if there is something fundamentally not quite right about her. Maybe she has a sense of humor I don’t fully appreciate. Somedays she’s a lifesaver, other days you really have to wonder. Within the past week, she directed us more or less into a tree, across a pedestrian footbridge, and into oncoming traffic. Friday she was having a particularly bad day and we apologize for having waken her from her slumber. She clearly thought the holidays applied to her, and must have started early on the celebrations. So it was with trepidation that we suggested she show up to work on Saturday. I did a search for Pirohovo Museum and 2 entries popped up, a distance of about half a kilometer from each other. On a whim, I opted for the second entry.
It was definitely the scenic route. As we wound our way through little village alleys, onto dirt roads and around hairpin curves, I was pretty sure Galina Petrovna had strapped another one on the night before. Since we weren’t in any real hurry, and I always enjoy a strange roundabout trip to potentially nowhere, we stuck with her. Lo and behold, she brought us up to a back entrance to the museum where only 2 other cars were parked! Wow! We had expected, at the front entrance to Pirohovo, to have to park a half-mile or more away from the actual entrance. And the territory of the museum itself is enormous, 150 hectares (about 370 acres), and walking from the car to the entrance to the festival area is a trek and a half. But at our new-found back entrance, we parked just a hop, skip and a jump away! Galina Petrovna, when you show up for work, dang, girl, you rock.
Eilene, as usual, took way more and way better photos than me, as I was pretty quickly distracted by the arts and crafts. We had a great time, and even the rain storm was serendipitous as we ran for cover in a vendor’s tent where Eilene found a lovely summer dress! We got a good chunk of our gifts purchased for this summer’s US trip, plus enjoyed the music, art, and people at the festival.
Sunday was both Victory Day and one of our anniversaries (we have several special days throughouta the year that we like to celebrate). This year markes the 65th anniversary of the Red Army’s defeat of the Nazis. (I almost had the chance to attend a conference in Berlin this week, which I thought would have been an especially interesting place to spend Victory Day!) If not for the Holocaust, we would likely remember World War II as the attempt to wipe Slavs from the planet. 20 million Soviet citizens died, nearly 1/3 of all the lives lost in the war. Ukrainians, especially suffered – “Along with the Belarusians, they suffered the greatest losses of any country during the war, as both the German and Soviet armies passed through their land twice in advance and in retreat.” (Kudos to NPR for spelling Belarusians correctly, and double kudos for referring to Ukraine correctly and not “the Ukraine”, like Carl Kassell did recently!) This NPR report is excellent, “World War II Holiday Brings Ukrainian Nightmares“, and not just because it includes an interview with my colleague Myron Stachiw, director of the Fulbright Program in Ukraine.
Igor and I decided to enjoy the beautiful day at the Botanical Gardens, only we must have hit on the idea about 2 minutes after all of Kyiv decided to do the same thing. It was a madhouse, and we turned around before we even go to the ticket booth. Instead, we decided to stroll through our favorite spot in Kyiv, the Military Hospital complex. Yes, that sounds really bizarre, but the hospital grounds is one of the most serene, beautiful and peaceful places in all of Kyiv. Just look at this lane:
There are tree-lines paths and shady gazebos everywhere.
And this isn’t just a pretty place, it’s historical too. The hospital is one of the oldest medical facilities in Ukraine. A field hospital was first established here in June 1755 with 50 beds.
All in all, lovely May Days in Kyiv!
There’s just nothing quite as lovely as a spring rain. The smell, the sound, the feel, the knowledge that in the morning the world will be even greener, more vibrant, more beautiful.
It was a bit of an annoying day, saved only by good friends with whom we could laugh about the irritations. I’m pretty sure there was a Candid Camera van following us around Kyiv. But the evening was great. Good food, good wine, great friends. And now delicious spring rain. Life is marvelous.
Anka in Kyiv 