Happy family freezing

Rare occasion of getting together with my sister in Kyiv, in ЦУМ (Central Universal Magazine)

New Obolon, New Vodka

I want to be fair, not everything on Obolon is Soviet and crumbling. New capitalist Obolon with McDonalds and shiny advertisements is prospering next to the Old Obolon.

There is an amazing array of tasteful vodka bottles available everywhere.

New Kyiv

There are plenty of glitzy places in Kyiv now. Arena City is one of the top destinations.

Book covers

My sister visited Kyiv last week, she was a moderator for a literary evening on the topic of erotica and pornography in the Ukrainian literature. It was very interesting that these issues are raised and that people care enough to express their opinions. I felt it was a bit unfair to frame the debate as one side who is for erotica and the other side who is against erotica in literature. The main issue was about taste, that sex scenes became gratuitous in the novels, to stimulate book sale. I feel that regulations will not work and that it is a passing trend: at some point Ukrainian literature (and mainly publishing houses and the audience) will mature to want something else. I think the taste needs time to develop.

My sister is an author herself, she published a book "36 Songs of Life" which was very well received by the reviewers and the audience.

My first impression of the book cover was that it was a bit risqué. This was before I saw the "companion" book cover, published by the same publishers, at the same time. Hers is in pink, the" companion" book is in blue. I find this very funny.

Carpet cleaning technology

I forgot how people cleaned carpets in my country: with fresh snow in bitter cold. It was reassuring to see that the tradition continues.

Meeting the students

Meeting the students….

The first day I went to Kyiv Mohyla Academy (UKMA) Faculty of Informatics, the dean Mykola Mykolayevych told me of their crisis. Two professors in the department got suddenly seriously ill, so he asked me to teach two courses to substitute one of the professors. He gave me complete freedom of what to teach, with only condition that the teaching must be in English and start next day. This was an ideal opportunity for me to teach what I want: so we are having two courses on Social Aspects of Technology (Social Informatics) with the focus on international issues of intellectual property and piracy.

I really like the students and the opportunity to get to know them. They are 3^rd and 5^th year of the University. In their age they are very close to the age my daughter would've been. Who knows, maybe she would've studied in Kyiv Mohyla.

They are the first generation growing up in the post-Soviet, post-Chornobyl period. I want to see who they are, what they think, what their opinions are. UKMA is the top university of Ukraine, aiming to be in the the world's top 50 universities in the next 10 years. The university pride itself on being free of corruption and bribes, and being truly meritocratic in their admissions policies. Competition is intense for each student spot, entrance exams are difficult. Only the best students gain the privilege to study in this University. Most of the students are coming from cities other than Kyiv, so for me it is also interesting to meet new generation of Ukrainians from all over Ukraine.

Did I mention that I really like the students? They are very smart and articulate, and have a very interesting perspectives. During the first class I was asking them what they want to do in the future, many of them already have their own companies or work as programmers and web designers. My favorite answer was though: "I want to be a Cosmonaut". Who does not?

Tom was laughing at me that I had an urge to invite the students to our nice apartment only to remember that our nice apartment is in MILWAUKEE and we and, therefore, students are in KYIV... It is a pity...

Kyiv tour with the Fulbright delegation

Fulbright office organized a tour of Kyiv for this year Fulbright recipients staying in Ukraine. It was quite cold, yet impressive. I have not visited these place for a long time. Vydubyzcky Monastery, St.Mykhaila church... Beautiful artifacts of the Honchar Museum...

Lessons of the connected world

I must admit that our soviet crumbling building was a bit of a shock for the first couple of days, but now it does not look that bad, it does not smell as bad either.

We constantly have to struggle with repairs though. There is a metal box on the staircase with all electric wires including telephone, internet, and television cable. Everything is hanging there barely attached to the sockets; it is a miracle that anything works. When Internet installation people came over to install new cables for the internet, they accidentally disconnected our television cable, so our television stopped working. Tom tried to fix television cable and knocked off our telephone cable, after that the telephone and the television stopped working. Fortunately, my sister called and remembered that we had a neighbor in the building on the first floor who is an electrician and miraculously still not complete alcoholic. So I ran to him for help. Tolia came and fixed our television cable and telephone. However, half an hour later our next door neighbor knocked on the door, telling that her television does not work anymore. I told her our story, she said she will call the cable company. So I expect the cycle to continue: cable people will come, fix neighbor's television and disconnect ours.

I think we get too spoilt in the U.S. expecting several telephones and televisions to work simultaneously....

Everything is connected in this Soviet reality. Another profound example: Tom drank coffee yesterday and drained coffee grinds in the sink. This blocked the sink. Washing machine is connected to the kitchen drainage, therefore our washing machine does not drain water as well.

Pictures of Old Obolon, New Obolon is completely different story....

First days, first impressions

I’m happy to be back in my own country. It is an interesting experience first of all because there is so much that looks and feels familiar, however, the country that I left 20 years ago does not exist anymore. I’m very happy to have my husband, Tom, to share this experience with me. He has a perspective of an outsider, draws different conclusions.

For me everything looks fuzzy at the first glance, and then comes into focus, when I either recognize it from my childhood and youth, and understand what is new. Tom sees everything as new and compares with his other experiences in foreign countries. It is fun to discuss our differences.

For instance, now I understand, how Kyiv bazaars remind him of Thailand. I was surprised by the comparison, at first, mainly seeing the difference in weather (it is absolutely freezing here). But bazaars (street markets) are a separate issue, I’ll talk about it later.

We settled on Obolon, the area in Kyiv, that I did not have chance to get used to after my parents moved there in 1983. We moved from one room flat on Pechersk (older, central area of Kyiv) to Obolon, newly developed area of Soviet high-rises. The flat as the whole building looked very new and shiny when we moved. Twenty four years later, the flat as well as all surrounding buildings look rather shabby and sad. Maybe electricity outlets are falling out of the walls and the toilet seat is not attached to the toilet, but everything is somehow pretty functional. We are very happy with out internet provider.

Overall service sector changed the most in Kyiv: everything is open until very late or 24 hours, and companies respond to service calls amazingly quickly.

The very first night of our arrival to Kyiv, installation technicians from the internet company came in. We had an agreement that they will install the cable modem and we will have the internet right away.

However, when the technicians came in, they told us that their company would not be the best alternative for us, that there is another new provider on Obolon (and only on Obolon) that would suit us better. At first Tom was very skeptical and suspicious of their sales tactics: don’t use our company, use the competitor. I believed them, they looked honest and sincere. Next day we walked to the office of the competitor and ordered their services, within 24 hours, the internet was installed. And it is quite advanced technologically, since we do not need any cable modems, we have direct Ethernet cable from their switch to our apartment. It is amazing that for the old crumbling Soviet building, they still put in new infrastructure.

Internet makes an enormous difference, now we feel very connected…..

More later