A Scale - Finally!

Today was fun! My Phillips Sonicare electric toothbrush stopped working - it didn't seem to be able to take and keep a charge anymore. So I decided to see if I could find a replacement. I went across the street to the big appliance store where I had bought my electric kettle and toaster oven. They only had Braun - no Sonicare (and of course I have 6 brush heads for the Sonicare that I bought before I left and brought with me!). I asked if they had any idea where I could buy the Philips and they suggested MKC, a huge electronics store down the street - I had actually gone to MKC yesterday to look around at because Ed had told me that this was where he and Gennady went to buy the shredder and that I would really like it! So off I went, and they
only had Braun electric toothbrushes as well. BUT I found a really cheap ($8) bathroom scale! So I got it. I asked the salesman if he had any suggestions about my toothbrush (which I had brought with me to show the sales people). He gave me the card of a repair place, also right on Pushkinskaya and very close to our apartment. They were really nice, and the guy there spoke English. He suggested that I might have to replace the rechargeable battery in the toothbrush and sent me to Number 7 Pushkinskaya - not too far away (and it just happened that I would have to pass my favorite Perogie store on the way there!). I found 7 Pushkinskaya - it definitely was not a battery store, butI thought I had seen something that was just before Number 7. And I was right - Number 5 Pushkinskaya is a GREAT store - everything you could possibly want in the way of batteries, extension cords, surge protectors, transformers, etc. They were wonderful. They took a long time trying to figure out the problem. I had guessed that maybe I had destroyed the charger by plugging it into the 210 volt outlet here with a simple plug adapter but no transformer. I had just assumed that an item like this would be designed to take both voltages (like an electric razor or laptop) with no need for a transformer. But when I looked at the bottom of the charger, sure enough it said 120 Volt - no mention of 210. And that was in fact what had happened. So my charger is kaput - and needlessly so, because of course I had brought a transformer (2, in fact) with me to the Ukraine. Oh well, I had found a few great stores, and had dealt with some really nice people who went to great legnths to help me. I went back to MKC and bought a $25 Braun electric toothbrush (a lot less expensive than the sonicare, which is more than $100 at drugstore.com and, besides, they won't ship here). The best part of the morning was that, when I got back to the apartment and weighed myself, I found that I haven't gained any weight since we left home.

The day hadn't begun so well. Last night I had to make several phone calls to the U.S. to deal with a problem we're having at the house. I thought that we had pretty much solved the problem, but I was still a little anxious about it. For some reason I woke up at 3 a.m. and decided to check my emails - problem still unresolved. But since it was about 5 p.m. at home, I was able to contact everyone I had to call to really put this thing to bed, and after about an hour it looked like all the pieces were falling into place. I went back to bed at about 4:30 and slept until 7:30. I couldn't get back to sleep and I just had to get out of bed. Ed was snoring away, so I got up, checked the emails (no further problems), fed Belle and took her for her morning walk (usually Ed's job) and also walked over to the market to buy milk, because we were completely out and we needed some for our breakfast. The store right next to our apartment was out of milk! The store I usually go to was not yet open (I didn't find this out until after I had walked all the way there); the store next to that was also closed too, but I finally found a market that was open and had a liter of milk. By the time I got home Ed was up and about, and we agreed that the scales of eternal gratitude had tipped way over to my side.

I had my second manicure this afternoon (it lived up to the promise of the first), but discovered that both my manicurist and hair cutter/colorist will be on vacation the entire month of August! YIKES!!! Oh well, I guess I'll have to try Alora (Ed's hair cutter) - and maybe I can even gut it out and wait for Yulia (my stylist/colorist) to come back. Time will tell.

We're all packed (it's amazing how my ideas of what I need have changed - I'm taking my little rollie, which is all I ever take, but it's usually jammed packed for a 10 day trip - this time it's half empty!). Now we just have to see if the taxi I think I ordered shows up. When I called the taxi company and said "Taxi?" they said Dah, Dah, and I said, in Ukrainian that I didn't speak Russian, and she hung up on me!! I called back and tried again and she said "no I don't" and hung up again! I called back again and this time it rang and rang and no one picked up! I gave it a rest for about 5 minutes, called again and when the phone was answered I launched right into my rehearsed lines: "Mayni protribni taxi zofstra horanko o piatti hodini. Ya jevu Chubarya odine, vee ehzed ce Pushkinskaya" She said "dah dah." I said "zofstra" (tomorrow) - she said dah - I said "o piatti hodini ranko" - she said "dah dah" - I said "odine, dva, tray, choterray," and before I got to "piat" (five) she hung up. So again, time will tell. Actually, the tram that stops right in front of our apartment (Number 5) goes right to the airport, but I don't have any idea how frequently it will come on Saturday, let alone Saturday morning at 5 a.m., or how long it will take to get to the airport by trolley. We will definitely take it home - it will cost us a total of 40 kopeki each - 80 kopeki equals about 15 or 16 cents!!

I'm really looking forward to this trip. Dian has already emailed to say that our hotel is very disappointing - it looks like a Marriott in Detroit and it's so far out of the city center that it might as well be in Detroit. But apparently it only takes 10 minutes on the metro to get to the center, and the two metro stops that are near the hotel are renowned for their art. So I think it will be just fine. I can see already that this experience in the Ukraine has made me a lot more flexible about my traveling requirements!!

Ed's First Meeting At The PD Office

Ed had his first meeting at the new offices today at 10 a.m. I wish he had taken his camera with him - Ed says the place is a real pit - it's a third floor walk up and it's filthy. The windows are so dirty you can't see out, the walls desperately need to be painted, and all the furniture is squeezed in so tight that it's hard to imagine how the people will fit in too! Ed reported that Gennady had asked the women - there are two women lawyers and the "paralegal"(who used to be the Minister of Justice for the Kharkiv Region), plus a young woman who was acting as a translator (and will probably be the director's assistant) - to clean the place up, but that they objected because they weren't dressed properly for the job. I didn't believe him, of course. I just thought he was teasing me (I'm usually very gullible and take the bait right away). But it turns out that it's true!!! I don't blame Gennady - he's a product of the culture he was raised in. And I did get a little sense of this at dinner with him and his family - he spoke almost exclusively to Ed (so much so that I changed seats with Ed so that I could try and talk with Nella and Yrena), and there was a bit of the "patriarch" about him. Anyway, I'm glad I'm not working there!!!

Ed said the meeting went well, all things considered - but there is a real problem because Gennady has had to do everything, from finding the office, renting the office space, buying the computers, installing the computers, etc., etc., and at the same time he's had to maintain his practice. None of the lawyers have signed contracts with the Foundation yet, and none of them are being paid yet. In addition, Gennady doesn't have access to an account with funds that he can use for office expenditures. Everything has to be approved by the Foundation - protocols have to be sent in with three separate bids, all bearing the official stamps of the stores offering the products, etc. This is a 100% cash economy, and I'm sure Gennady doesn't have cash to spare that he can front while he waits for reimbursements. Ed was so worried that things would really get started the week we are in Moscow and Riga, and that he would miss out on being here at the beginning but, as it turns out, they will probably spend all next week finding someone to clean the place up and paint it, and installing the computers and connecting the network. So it may just work out that our trip is perfectly timed! I don't see anything really happening until August 1. And then of course there are all the political problems in the Ukraine (not to mention the Middle East) - a government still has not been formed - who knows who will be prime minister - whether the government will backslide into further corruption and totalitarianism or whether the Ukraine will continue its march towards true independence and securing human rights for all its citizens. We'll just have to wait and see.

I had another meeting with Yrena, my Ukrainian conversation partner. This time instead of flowers she brought me home made red wine!!! Her mother has a house with a garden and grapes, and they make this wine themselves. We had a taste, and I have to say it was pretty sweet - sort of like an even sweeter Manischewitz. Not exactly to my taste. Yrena stayed an hour and a half, and it was exhausting, and even more discouraging than the first session!! But I have to push on. After I called it quits - I was just unable to say another word in Ukrainian, she told me that she was going to the supermarket and asked if I wanted to go along. That would have been a great experience, but Ed had just called to tell me that he would be home in 15 minutes. Also, I was very preoccupied with some work that has to be done at our house, and it was just about the time that everyone would be waking up in LA and I could try and contact the people I needed to speak with. We agreed to meet on August 1, my first day back after Moscow, Riga and Vilnius, and her last day before she leaves for the Crimea (back on August 16), and we'll go to the supermarket then. I'm really looking forward to that.

On Thursday the water truck comes at 4 o'clock, so I gathered up all our 5.5 liter bottles (which are $1.50 each when at the market, but which only cost 20 cents each to refill from the water truck). There was a big line today, so I had to wait a little before my turn came. But they are so fast and efficient at the truck - they just keep that water running and keep sliding the bottles under the spout. We were done in no time and ready to drag the now full, and surprisingly heavy, bottles to the elevator. It's times like this that I am especially glad that we don't live in a walk-up.

At 7 p.m. Yrena, Gennady's daughter, came over to get her instructions on the care and feeding of Belle. God, I wish Ed had taken her picture - she had on the most amazing outfit. She was wearing a skin tight red top that was strapless and wrapped around her ribs and tied above her midriff. Her skirt was a micro mini jeans skirt with a big intentional hole on her upper right thigh!! She was wearing yellow underpants (one couldn't help but see) and really high stiletto heeled sandals. She had a terrific red nail polish on her finger and toe nails. We went through Belle's routine - I fed her and showed Yrena what she ate, then took her for a walk with Yrena - god only knows how she manages to walk on the grass with those heels, but she does - came back, gave her the key and our cell phone numbers and told her to enjoy herself. She works from 9 to 7 without a break!! So Belle will have to last that long without a walk, which I think she can do. Yrena works about 3 minutes from our apartment. I'm awfully nervous about this, but Yrena offered to text message everyday and let me know that everything is okay- that's great, but now I'll worry because she's bound to forget to text message one day and I'll go nuts thinking something is really wrong!

This morning I had discovered that Belle had a very loose back tooth, and I was anxious about whether she needed immediate medical attention - whether it would get infected or become abscessed - but fortunately it just fell out a little later in the day and everything looks fine - no bleeding or anything, and she really doesn't look like she's in any distress. I'm sure I'll worry about it anyway, even though I probably would never even have noticed that it had fallen out if I hadn't seen it wiggle this morning!

All this worrying (I'm also worrying about whether I'll be able to call a taxi, and actually have one show up at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday morning), and trying to speak Ukrainian (I also listened to tape 23 today - hopeless - why do I bother????) has exhausted me. Time to go to bed.

Oh No! Not Kazakhstan!

Yesterday Yrena (of the metro encounter) called and we made a date to meet at 11 a.m. on Wednesday at our apartment for a trial Ukrainian conversation hour. That cheered me up immensely - something to really look forward to. The better part of the rest of the day was spent revising and retyping the forms for use by the lawyers in the PD office so that Sasha can translate them into Russian (NOT Ukrainian) and get them back to us so that Ed can review them with all the lawyers when they meet on Thursday.

We finished with the forms at about 3 p.m. and decided to walk over to the Circus, which I had found on Google Earth. It's south of our apartment just across the River. I printed out the Google Earth map, and it was very easy to get there. We took Belle with us because she really needs the exercise, and she likes to get out and see the world now and then. As soon as we got to Rosy Luxemburg Square we saw the bridge leading to the circus, which in Ukrainian or Russian spells out something that sounds like "stirk," and we also saw the circus building, which looks kind of like a run down Shea Stadium. The roof looks kind of like a roller coaster, it swoops down and up around a big round building, but when we got close we saw that the place looked sort of abandoned. As I've mentioned, I knew from things I've read on the internet that it was in use as late as April 2006, when thousands of people gathered there to celebrate Purim!! But it was dead yesterday afternoon. We walked around the the back and found Club Argus - Alona had told us that the circus was very close to Argus, and sure enough there it was. We heard the boom boom boom of the base from the music inside and went in. There was a security guard - "Nyet Soboka" - Belle was not allowed in. So she and I sat on a bench outside and Ed went in to explore. He came out after about 10 minutes and reported that they do indeed have bowling there - 3 lanes - and that the price depends on what time you go - early in the day it's about $6 for 30 minutes, but later in the evening it's $12 for a half hour. That's a fortune in Kharkiv. The ballet was only $8!!! But we'll have to try it one of these days.

We got home just before the rains came pouring down, and had a nice dinner of fried little fishes (I don't know what they are - they seem too big for anchovies, although they kind of taste like anchovies - maybe they're smelts) with a cabbage, carrot and corn salad, and a tomato, cucumber and dill salad with sour cream. I already had everything at home, except for the dill because when I went to the market yesterday everybody was out of dill! Maybe the dill delivery truck didn't make it into town that day, because every market I tried was out of dill. When I went to my usual market and asked for "Deeel" (that's what I do when I don't know a word in Ukrainian or Russian, I just say the English word with what I think is a Russian accent - you'd be surprised - it often works!) they looked at me as if I was crazy. Fortunately there was no one shopping there at the time, so all the sales girls were free and had plenty of time to play 20 questions pantomime style with me. First they pointed to all the fruits and vegetables and I was able to make them understand that it was nothing that was visible at the time. I knew they kept the herbs somewhere else (I had bought dill there before - God only knows how I had done it). They showed me cans of peas and cans of corn, and I tried to explain that it was green (but I didn't know the word for green). I made chopping signs, I said "borscht" because the borscht has dill floating on top of it - so they showed me beets of course, and finally I was able to get the idea across that it was the little green herb in the borscht - DILL!!! They told me the name in Russian and Ukrainian, and of course I've forgotten it - but I just looked it up in my Ukrainian dictionary, and it says "Kreep" but that's not the word they used - so I'll have to ask them again. My brain is like a sieve - I just can't remember anything any more, especially Ukrainian and Russian words. It gets very depressing sometimes.

Today Yrena came over at 11 and stayed until 1. She's just lovely. First of all she brought me sunflowers, which, apparently, is the Ukrainian flower. I introduced her to "mi choloveek" Ed, and "moya sobaka" Belle. It was fun to talk with her - she is an incredibly accomplished person. I asked if she was born in Kharkiv, and she explained, partly in Ukrainian, partly in English, that her mother and father were both Ukrainian but were educated in Moscow (her mother is a doctor/researcher and her father a philosopher). They married there and she was born in Moscow. Her parents were divorced, and her father went back to Kyiv, where he was born. Her mother went back to Ukraine too, to a place in the northeast where there is an army installation, because she was doing some kind of research with the army ( it sounds sinister). Yrena went to Kharkiv because there is a special music school here and she was admitted to that school (she's a violinist). She met her husband here and he is a computer programmer (the University here has a good technological institute). So that is how she came to live in Kharkiv. She has a son, 1 1/2 years old, and she has taken all kinds of special graduate courses in sociology, psychology, biology, etc., in English. She teaches English at the University and she also does translating. I remarked on her very beautiful sweater and she told me that she had made it - that she makes most of her clothes because she can't find anything she likes in the shops, and besides it is much less expensive. She also loves to cook, and I bet she's really good at it too.

I told her about my family - showed her pictures of the kids, and the grandchildren. We also went through all the pictures of the dogs - Beanie, Muffin, Woody and Belle. As it happens, Jo and Tom, and Deb and Snuffy had called that morning when it was about 10:30 at night in LA to tell us how Deb and Jo had killed Tom and Snuffy in canasta! We had so much fun talking with them - it was almost as if we had been there and played canasta with them! So I showed her the picture of us with the McGuires and Waldens in North Carolina, told her about the phone call, and tried to explain Skype - all in Ukrainian!

Yrena had brought a Ukrainian holiday menu cook book with her so that I could learn some names of foods (I had mentioned that I wanted to be able to order in a restaurant better than I could now). It was a great idea. We went through the menu for New Year's (I CAN'T WAIT for New Year's dinner here - and I hope someone invites us to join them for a home made meal!!) - it was really helpful. In addition to the words I already knew, like salad, borscht, potato, tomato, peach, nectarine, banana, cabbage, meat, perogies, fish, blini, vareneky, kasha, kilbasa, bread, butter, milk, juice, tea, coffee, beer, and a few others, I now know how to say cottage cheese, pork, goose, hare, rolled cabbage, cauliflower, eggs, beets, garlic, radish, wine, poppyseed cake and the colors red and green!! (That is I can say these things if I look at my notes!)

We agreed to meet again tomorrow at 2 p.m. I'm really looking forward to it, even though I'm quite discouraged about my ability to make any progress in this language. After she left I tried listening to the Pimsleur tapes again - I was on tape 22 when we left the U.S. - I listened again, and I still couldn't get it - I don't know if I'll ever get to tape 23!!

Ed left soon after Yrena arrived to meet Gennady at the new offices and show him the forms they will go over with the lawyers tomorrow. They were installing the computers at the office today. While he was gone, an email came from the Center for International Legal Studies. (Ed had interviewed with them in San Francisco on May 15 to see if he could be placed with a foreign university or law school to teach criminal law - he had been informed that he had been accepted and that he would be told his assignment before the end of July - this was it!). The letter said they were very pleased to let Ed know that he had been accepted for a teaching position in 2007 in Kazakhstan. I almost burst into tears on the spot. I just don't think I can take another assignment that is like Kharkiv. Kazakhstan is very, very far east - it's even harder to get from there to anywhere than it is to get from Kharkiv to anywhere (and that's damned hard). Not only that, but I think it's a Muslim country, and I'm not sure that this would be the best place for a nice Jewish girl from New Yawk. It's not too far from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, so I guess we could always go to one of those countries for a weekend get-away if we wanted some excitement! I was especially depressed when I looked at the Center's website and saw that there were positions in Warsaw, Budapest, Sophia, Riga, Talinn, Vilnius, St Petersburg, Odessa, Bucharest, Belgrade and Kosovo - any one of which I would find interesting. By this time it was about 8:30 a.m. in NY so I called Betsy - always a voice of reason. She, of course, made me feel much better - she always does. While I was talking to Betsy on the computer, Ed called on my cell phone, and I told him about the assignment. He was so sweet - he assured me that we weren't going anywhere I didn't want to go. But that didn't stop me from feeling incredibly guilty, selfish and spoiled. But Betsy did when I went back to my conversation with her!

Ed got home about 8 tonight because he and Gennady went out for a couple of beers after the computer delivery and after buying a shredder for the office . It's ridiculous that Gennady has to do this stuff - they should have hired an administrative assistant to take care of things like buying the furniture and computers and shredders, seeing to the installation of the phones and faxes and copiers, painting the offices, etc., etc. In fact it probably would have made sense to delay Ed's arrival until they were further along, saved on paying some of his expenses, and used the money to get an assistant to work on this stuff. Oh well, I guess no one could have foreseen the political problems the country would be facing. Just today I read in the NY Times that Yushenko will lead the opposition party in the Parliament, that he was unable to form an alliance with Yulia, his ally in the Orange Revolution, and that the man he defeated in January 2005 as part of the Orange Revolution will probably ascend to Prime Minister next week!!! (That's the guy who opposes joining NATO and who really wants the Ukraine to be a satelite, if not an actual part of, Russia.) All of this has certainly had an impact on the project and has delayed things quite a bit, and probably will continue to delay the progress of the pilot program.

Ed and I talked about the teaching assignment and agreed that neither of us wants to go to Kazakhstan. Ed is going to call them tomorrow and ask if there is an assignment available further west - he's going to tell them that having battled the old Soviet style system in the Ukraine, he would like to go to a place that is more progressive - such as Hungary or Poland. I don't think there's much chance that they will accommodate him, but it's worth a try. I'll be sorry to miss out on the orientation for the program though. It's held in the same place that I stayed in as a Fellow of the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies (Law) in July of 1970 - Schloss Leopoldskron just outside of Salzburg - it's also where they filmed The Sound of Music. It's a beautiful place and it would have been nice to see it again after 36 years!!

A Conversation In English On The Metro

Yesterday was pretty hot and humid and generally oppressive, so I just stayed in all day. But I did play around with Google Earth and managed to find the Circus and the Hippodrome (which we hope is the race course). They're both very close by - the Hippodrome is right next to Gorky Park (I'm afraid it may be a place to ride horses, rather than a place to see horses run), and the Circus is very near the Central Market on the other side of the River. The tram that stops right in front of our apartment can take us to either one.

Today I went over to Target to get more of that fabulous soft toilet paper, which I have not been able to find anywhere else. This time I got an 8 pack instead of a 4 pack - it's just such a schlep to go out there. I wandered around looking at the stuff that is available in the store (pretty much everything), but it doesn't make sense to get things there and carry them back on the metro, even if they are slightly less expensive. They have the most inefficient check out system I have ever seen - there are no express lanes, and everything is a cash transaction. You get on line, and wait your turn, and when you get to the register there's one person sitting by the till with a computer in front of her (it's usually a girl), and there is another person on the same side of the counter as you are on. He takes each item and swipes it over the scanner while the girl at the register just sits there!!! She does look at the computer and makes sure that the item is successfully swiped. In my case, a box of aluminum foil just wouldn't register on the scanner, so she had to send the guy back to find out how much it cost - it took so long that all the other people on line got really impatient but she couldn't close out the transaction and ring them up while I was waiting, so I finally just said forget it (in pantomime of course) and paid for my stuff and left.

I had just gotten on the metro when my cell phone rang - it was Ed, just checking in. I told him where I was and what I had been doing until we got cut off as the metro began to move. I happened to glance over at the woman sitting next to me who was reading a book (I don't see many people reading books on the metro) - and it was in English!! I just blurted out "You speak English!" and she said that she did in fact speak English. I told her that I was looking for someone to hire to engage in Ukrainian conversation with me - did she know anyone? Well, she said, she might be able to do it. She is an English teacher at the University, and is on holiday now. Russian is her "mother tongue," but she is also fluent in Ukrainian because she is required to translate things from English into Ukrainian when teaching. I asked her rate, and she said that if she were doing this for a good friend she would probably charge $4, but for a stranger she would charge $5. I told her that I would be willing to pay $5, but that I was leaving for a week long trip on Saturday, so I hoped that we could get together and try it out before then. We were both getting off at the same stop, so when we came out of the metro we exchanged names (another Yrena) and phone numbers. She also explained that she will be going on holiday to the Crimea for two weeks on August 1 (we get back to Kharkiv on July 31). All the more reason, I said, for us to try to get together soon. She agreed to call me and said that maybe she could think of someone else who could help me. I told her that this would be very kind, but that I hoped she would want to do it, because I really liked her. She said likewise, that it had "been a delight," and we went our separate ways. But this is what I call serendipity. I really had a good feeling about this woman - I know I would enjoy talking with her. She speaks English perfectly, with hardly any accent at all. I really hope this works out. If I don't hear from her by tomorrow, I will definitely call her and see if she can meet me soon and, if not, whether she can find someone else who can.

Ed has been in touch with everyone about the Project today. Roman (at the Renaissance Foundation) told Ed that he expects the Kyiv office to open at the end of September (of course, we'll be in the States at the end of September for Ed's cousin's wedding!). I have no idea what that means for us - i.e., when we will be expected to go to Kyiv. I would assume it would be before the office opens, but whether that is September 1 or September 15 or October 15, when we get back from the States, is a complete unknown. We'll have to tell Boris that we want to keep this apartment longer - but again, who knows how long. Given my craving for certainty, this does not please me! But there's nothing really that either one of us can do about it. Arkadiy and Gennady confirmed that the Kharkiv office now has furniture and the computers are being installed tomorrow and Wednesday, and that all the lawyers will be meeting at the offices on Thursday. At that time Ed hopes to establish the procedures for assigning cases, familiarize the lawyers with the data they will need to collect from the clients, and tell them about the motions he hopes to have them bring, whenever possible, challenging the pre-trial detention activities of the police. We don't know whether the office will actually begin to take cases right away, or whether it will take a bit of time to get some cases in the pipeline. If the past is any predictor of the future, nothing will happen before we get back on July 31, and that will be nice for Ed, who really wants to be in on everything at the beginning.

All in all it looks like we will be here for another 6 to 8 weeks - which doesn't thrill me, but doesn't depress me either. First of all we have our trip next week to look forward to. Second, we'll be going to Kyiv the weekend of August 11 for the opening of Susie's friend's art exhibition there. Then Jodi and her dad will be coming in early September and I, for sure (and, if it's over a weekend, Ed too) will go to Kyiv to show them the sights. I might even try and squeeze in a trip to see Michael and Jeremy in Umbria in August. Not so bad!!!

Our First Social Engagement

It's been a slow few days. Very hot and humid weather, encouraging indolence!!

Yesterday the only thing of note that happened during the day was the actual delivery of the FedEx package that Fern had sent (with file folders and legal pads for Ed) on Saturday at the astronomical cost of almost $80 (that's with the 75% discount that she gets!!!). It began with the familiar phone calls, - a woman on the other end insistently speaking Russian, despite my frequent and equally insistent "Ja neh rosamiou" and "Ja neh havorio po Ukrainski y ja neh havorio po Russki" and "Ja Americanka" "Ja eenozimka." After the fourth call, with her abruptly hanging up after a few minutes of non-stop Russian, I interrupted and said "FedEx??" "Dah, dah FedEx." I responded by reciting our address "Vul Chubarya Budonik odine apartemente sheesich voiseem" - "Dah, dah" she said, repeating the address, then more Russian stuff I didn't understand. I tried calling Alona to have her call and explain that we were home and that they could deliver the package, but she wasn't available on her cell phone. So I decided to walk over to the FedEx office (I knew where it was because of the Goldman Sachs FedEx fiasco), and told Ed to stay home, just in case they actually delivered the package. Off I went and I was almost there when Ed called to say that the package had been delivered. He told me an older woman had delivered it, and he thinks she was also trying to sell some other things, but he wasn't sure! I came home (after stopping at the market of course to pick up sausage, juice and a couple of morosivos), to find Ed happily filing away all his papers for the PD project. He was very pleased with the supplies that Fern sent, and I think he even felt it was worth the price!

Last night was our first "social engagement" in Kharkiv! Ed had invited Gennady (Genna) and his wife (Nella) and his daughters (Yrena, whom he had met before - the 25 year old dentist who works a block away from our apartment and who will be staying with Belle when we go to Moscow, Riga and Vilnius next week, and Marina, whom neither of us has met - the 17 year old law student who will also be staying at our apartment with Yrena) to have dinner with us at a restaurant (we can't entertain at home since we don't have any pots and pans to speak of and we don't have enough plates and cutlery for entertaining). The plan was to meet Yrena in front of her office at 7 p.m., and she would drive us to a new restaurant next to the Opera House where we would meet Genna and Nella.

First, of course, I had to decide what to wear. I didn't want to get too dressed up, but I didn't want to look as if I didn't care. So I decided to wear my turquoise paisley cropped pants and pale green V-neck short-sleeved top - the same outfit that I wore to Jed and Jenny's rehearsal dinner BarBQ at Torch Lake. I wore my 30 year old Charles Jordan gold, bronze and white leather braided sandals, with a gold leather ankle strap, so that I could walk (my only other choices for "dress up" shoes are my beige backless high heeled sandals - not suitable for walking even two steps - or my black nubuck Arche flats - obviously a totally wrong choice for this particular outfit). Ed wore his new pale lavendar linen shirt that he bought here last week, and clean, freshly pressed khakis (they were cleaned here in Kharkiv at the Panda International Dry Cleaners) and his loafers. We walked over to Yrena's office and arrived exactly on time to find Yrena and Genna and his wife waiting for us. We were very appropriately dressed. Nella was wearing black pants and high heels (I couldn't really see them though), and a pink short-sleeved low-cut top with pink flowers, made of the same fabric as the top, along the neck line. She has dark red (almost brown with very dark red color entwined) hair - it's definitely colored, but it's also clear that one is intended to know that it's colored), about chin length with eyebrow length bangs. She's a very pretty woman and looks very young, but she must be in her forties, at least, because she has a 25 year old daughter. She had on a very nice subtle necklace and small earrings, and a thin gold wedding band with rubies. Her nails were long pink fake juliettes, with an elaborate design on them (they are not meant to look natural at all - they are worn almost like jewelry - my manicurist had even longer nails like this, but hers were light green with a gold design!). Genna was wearing a short-sleeved sport shirt that was basically white with some black lines on it, and gray slacks. He also looks very young, and still has short sandy colored hair without a trace of gray in it. The real stunner though was Yrena - Marina did not join us (she is a blond, we later learned, and she was out with her boyfriend). Yrena has long, straight, very dark hair - almost black - but it looks absolutely natural, and I think it probably is her natural color. Her face is very pretty and she has a great figure (we later learned that she was the captain of her aerobics team all through high school and dental school - in fact the teams traveled to other countries to participate in aerobics competitions!). She was wearing a black and white teeny tiny skirt that sat on her hips, and a matching top, with bits of red in it too, that ended before her waist. Her midriff was exposed showing a bejewelled belly button and a spectacular tan. Her legs are very long, and she was wearing about 4 inch high spike heeled red sandals and a knock off Louis Vuiton black purse with all the LVs in bright colors. She had on thin, but big, gold hoop earrings and her nails were perfectly manicured, long but not spiky, with a dark red polish.

We drove over to the Opera House (a short walk) and parked next to the building just to the south of it, and went into a restaurant called Chateau, but written in Ukrainian so it spells out SHATO. It was a very nice place, and we ate outside on the balcony overlooking the Opera House (not a great view, unfortunately!). Yrena did all the ordering, and even though it's a "French" restaurant, we had mostly Ukrainian dishes (for our benefit). We had two bottles of a really good Georgian red wine, chicken, veal and beef shashlik, with grilled squash, eggplant and yellow peppers, as well as a kind of potato souffle with a little cheese on top. There were three salads to start that were very good, and then for desert Yrena got us two different kinds of "blini" - one dish was two blini filled with ice cream, one chocolate and one vanilla, and the other had two blini, or crepes, filled with fruit. They were really delicious. Yrena maintains that she doesn't speak English, but she really does, she just doesn't know it. We managed to talk quite a bit - I found out about her aerobics background and arranged to join her in an aerobics session on Tuesday at 7 p.m. I don't have my Asics here (they're in Kyiv), but she assured me that they could provide me with shoes. We also talked about going to see a monastery, just outside of Kharkiv, that is carved into a cave (it's called something Gorst), that Olga, my travel agent, had told me about, but whose name escapes me now. Nella offered to take us all there one day - Genna wasn't interested. He like sports, not sightseeing or cultural events. But we also talked about going somewhere for ice skating!! I really liked Genna's wife. Even though she really does speak very little English, after a few glasses of wine we all seemed able to communicate pretty well! Genna couldn't help himself from talking with Ed about the office and "business" - so much so that I actually changed seats with Ed so that he would be sitting next to Genna and I could concentrate on trying to talk to Nella and Yrena. We talked about Nella's background - they met at University where she was studying engineering - she was an engineer for many years. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, when there was no money to pay the engineers, she actually went off on her own and opened a hairdressing salon!! We talked to them about whether they thought independence had made a difference (it did - there is more freedom, especially freedom of speech), and the hopes they had during the Orange Revolution when they went out to Lenin Square waving their orange flags thinking there would be a huge change (there wasn't - they still haven't been able to form a government here, and the other day they actually broke out into a fist fight in the Rada (parliament) and Yulia stormed out and she and her followers are setting up tents around the Rada building!!). We talked about how much change there has been in the U.S. in the past 50 years - that it takes time, but it happens when there is a political will on the part of the population (look at the women's movement for example - the status of women has changed dramatically from when I started law school - or even the rights of criminal defendants, which were virtually nonexistent just before I started law school), but that you have to be ever vigilant (look at the recent assault on civil rights, the rights of defendants, etc., in the U.S., thanks to the Bush administration) to not only make those incremental gains, but to protect them. We talked about how the young women in Kharkiv dress (we all agreed that it was great if you are young and look like Yrena, but not so good if you are not so young, or are not as fit and thin as she is!). I told them that I really liked it because it reminded me of my youth and my days in law school and at Paul Weiss, when my skirts were pretty damn short too. The difference though is that we didn't have the exposed midriffs or the 4 inch spike heels that seem to be part of the uniform today.

During the meal it really started to pour - but the patio was covered and it didn't bother us a bit. All the outdoor restaurants and cafes keep these blankets that they give the patrons if it gets really cool, which it did last night. I had my shawl with me, so I used that, while Yrena and Nella wrapped themselves in the nice cosy blankets. The rain didn't last too long and by the time we were ready to leave it was over, and the air was fresh and the humidity greatly reduced.

All in all it was a really nice evening despite the language difficulties, except that Ed and I had meant to treat them to dinner, and when Ed went to pay the bill he was told that it was already taken care of. I was actually quite upset - this was not a cheap restaurant, and they just don't make that much money here (the PD lawyers for example are making $400 a month!). And, besides, we had invited them! They insisted, despite our protestations, and we finally decided to accept gracefully, but only if they agreed to let us take them out the next time. I think it may actually have been Yrena who picked up the tab (she chose the restaurant and she did all the ordering), and we'll try to make it up to her by giving her a nice stipend for staying here and taking care of Belle (but we also have to be careful not to go overboard and look like the "rich Americans" who have no concept of the value of money). We're thinking that maybe $5 a day would be right, and based on my theory that I should just assume that Hryvnas are Dollars so that I will not have culture shock when I get back home, that sounds about right - 25 Hryvnas a day. (I usually pay between $20 and $25 a day back home for someone to house sit and stay with Belle. Glen and Diane won't let me pay them when they take Belle which, in the months before we left for the Ukraine, was every time we went away, but maybe if they read this they will change their minds when we come back! They should, because I feel so secure leaving Belle with them and Lucy - it's the only time I don't worry at all about how she's doing - I know she's just fine with them. In fact, I suspect she prefers living with them to living with us!! She actually followed Diane out of the dog park and wanted to jump in her car the first day we were back from one of our last trips!)

We finished dinner at about 10 and just as we came out of the restaurant we saw fireworks nearby. Yrena and her mother explained that the fireworks were coming from the Metropol restaurant, and that they were for a wedding! They were excellent fireworks - not just some dinky flares in the sky, but really good and very elaborate. I can't imagine anyone being able to afford doing that at home (except the stratosphere richies), or being able to get a permit to do it for that matter.

Yrena was going off clubbing after dinner and Ed and I decided to walk home - it was such a nice night and it's such a short walk. We got home about 10:30 and fell into bed and didn't get up until 9 a.m. on Saturday (today)!

I was supposed to meet Oksana, a woman who responded to my email requesting someone who could help me with Ukrainian or Russian conversation, at 11 a.m. at Pushkinskaya Metro Station. But I got a text message from her (my first real text message - i.e., my first text message from someone other than the phone company!) saying she couldn't meet me today and asking me to call her on July 24. I text messaged back (my first time sending a text message) that I'd be out of town until August 1. So we'll just have to see what happens when I get back from Moscow and Riga.

This was a real do nothing day. I think I might have been slightly hung over - I definitely felt very washed out, no energy and extremely lazy. I spent most of the day reading the Pilates book that Jennifer gave me before I left - I'm hoping I can make myself do the pilates exercises
without someone to help me. This book is very good, so I just might be able to do it. I checked it out online, and there are at least two places in Kyiv that have pilates classes, so I definitely will take it up again once we move there. For me, it really has made all the difference between being crippled and being able to do just about anything. I've finally gotten Ed interested in it too - he's reading the book, and I'm so excited about the prospect of him doing these exercises. I think it will make such a huge difference in his back, his knees, his posture - everything. We shall see.

I did venture out once with Belle for a long walk to check out Club Oscar which is reputed to have a "circus" as well as a casino, a disco and other things. I found it on Petrovsky Street (and I also found a restaurant we'd been looking for called "Napoleon") but there was a sign that either said "Closed Until August 23" or "Closed until July 23" or "Closed From July 23" or "Closed From August 23". However, given the fact that the door was locked, and that the hours of operation were listed from 9 a.m. to 12 midnight, I suspect it's closed until either July or August 23 (I definitely have to check out the names of the months in Ukrainian). So we won't be doing that tonight!

We had a little supper at home and now I'm ready to hit the hay - no more Georgian wine for me, for awhile anyway.

In Which Susan Gets A Mani-Pedi, Cut And Color Ukrainian Style

Okay, first let me warn all of my male readers that they might want to stop right here and wait for the next entry. What follows is a very detailed and well illustrated description of my REAL adventure in the Ukraine - my first haircut, hair color and manicure and pedicure at Beatric on Pushkinskaya in Kharkiv. I was getting desperate - my roots would soon overtake the rest of my hair!! So we set the alarm for 7 a.m. (something we have never had to do here) so that I would have time to screw my courage to the sticking post before bravely marching into the salon, followed by Ed, the official photographer commissioned with task of documenting this momentous event. As I nervously entered the salon I had visions of what I would have to do for the rest of my time in Kharkiv after they finished with me here -- stay in bed with Belle and put a bag over my head (or maybe I could find a Burka here - I knew they were good for something!).



The receptionist, Olga, speaks French, so I showed her my precious photo cut out from a magazine (it's one of the women who works or worked at Eileen Fisher who they used in their ads once and she has the haircut that I want - actually, she has the face that I want and the haircut looks pretty good too!). I have been using this photo to illustrate the kind of haircut I want for about 3 years now. I also brought along a photo of me with my grandson, Allan, taken last April after a particularly good haircut and color treatment by Keiko. (Keiko is always good, but sometimes she's especially good.) I explained to Olga in French that I wanted the "coiffure" of the magazine picture, but the "couleur" of the photo of me. (I couldn't really use my own hair as Exhibit A for the color I wanted since it is so bleached out at this point.) She understood perfectly (I think). She introduced me to Irena (pronounced EERAYNA) who would be doing my mani-pedi (my mani-pedi was scheduled for 8:30 and my haircut for 11), and I explained that my choloveek (husband) would be taking photographs for an article I was writing about my experience there (this pleased her - I bet she thought it was for Vogue!).

Irena led me to a room where there was a chair that was almost like the kind you sit in when you go to the dentist. She filled a tub with warm water and something that made the water honey-colored, and left me to soak for awhile. Soon she came back and began to work on one foot. Now, I consider myself a connoisseur of good pedicures, and this one had a very promising beginning. First of all, all her tools were immaculate and set out on a white cloth, covered with another white cloth (again, just like the dentist!). She began to take off the polish, and used a new cotton pad for each toe, and two for the big toes - that's how you really get all the polish off. Most manicurists just use one piece of cotton for all 10 toes (not Teresa, of course). Not only that, she spent about 10 minutes per toe, not including smoothing out the heels and bottoms and my feet, and not including polish time. Even though Irena speaks no English (or so she says), she understands a little, and I managed to learn that Beatric has been open for 10 years, that she has been a manicurist for 5 years, and that she has been at Beatric for 2 years. But that was about as far as we got.

Irena brought out about 3 different reds, and with her approval I chose a color that I thought was very close to the "classic red" that I have worn for about 25 years now (but those of you who have seen and made note of my pedicures in the past can judge for yourselves - I'm talking to you Fara!). The toe guards that she uses are really good too - sturdier than the ones I'm used to - and then they have these fantastic slipper like things that they put on your feet and hook through your toe so that you can walk around in the salon and not mess up your manicure or be in your bare feet.

After the pedicure I followed Irena into the main room of the salon where I was to have my manicure, followed by the cut and color. It was now about 10 a.m., so she had an hour to do my nails (no polish, just buffing, please!). That's a very nice length for a manicure and, in my experience, about 4 times as long as the manicures you get in a shop (Teresa of course takes just as long as Irena did) - a pedicure in a shop, if they are really conscientious, takes about 40 minutes, and a lot of that is soaking time. So far I was most pleased. Again she spent about a lot of time, did a beautiful job on the cuticles, gave the nails just the shape they should have given my stubby nails and hands, and made them the perfect length (short!!). I couldn't believe my luck, just stumbling into this place and into Irena's incredibly capable hands. Oh, and the price - 100 Hrynas, or $20 - I haven't been to a shop in so long that I don't know what they charge any more, but I bet it's more than 20 bucks, and I bet they spend only about 1/4 of the time that she spent on my nails.

Coming up next was the haircut and color - that was another matter entirely. Oh, but I thought, a mani-pedi, big deal if they mess that up - in a couple of weeks everything has grown back and you can try someplace else. And, besides, I could wear shoes and not sandals, so no one would see my feet, and I could pretty much keep my hands out of sight too. But my hair - ohmygod - this is a very different story. This really can mess up your day (or your week, or your month!) - it's the frame for your face, and I really didn't want to spend the next four weeks in bed with Belle and a bag or burka on my head. I was NERVOUS.

After saying "dujeh dobreh" (very good) to Irena about a thousand times, I went over to Yulia (Julie) for my haircut. Now this required a great deal of consultation and, unfortunately, Olga was temporarily away from the salon and couldn't translate. Yulia found someone who spoke a little English and, by coincidence, she had a haircut very much like the one I wanted. Nevertheless, there was great confusion - did I want the color in the magazine photo I had? Nyet, nyet! Did I want one color or two? How the hell do you say "highlights" and "lowlights" in Ukrainian anyway????? Or in French for that matter. And then my eye caught sight of the aluminum foil used in highlights and I pointed to that and said "Tak Tak" (yes, yes - not as you might have thought, that that!) . Oh, they all said - highlights (only they said it in Ukrainian and I can't remember the word any more). Now came the discussion about whether I needed highlights now. No, I didn't think I needed them "chass" (at this time). I still had a lot of highlights left (they were done June 1st, just before we left the States), but my roots are a disaster I said (splitting my hair down the middle and bending over so that they could see just how big a disaster (I'd say about an inch and a half!) it was!
The color was mixed and then applied to the roots (oh god, that color looks awfully purple - I don't want any blue in my red!! - this is going to be a disaster, I know it!). Then she kind of mushed it around so that it blended in to the rest of my hair without a clear line of demarcation, but didn't completely cover all the existing highlights, etc. Hmmm, this looked very professional - but still, there's that purple tinge - it's quite worrying. Yulia then went off to do something else while I sat and tried to read, peering up occasionally to see if my whole head was turning purple. After a while the color began to turn to a kind of copper color, so I relaxed a little. After about an hour Yulia came back and led me to the sink (their sinks are much more comfortable - for me anyway - than ours are at home - there's much less strain on my neck and I can really relax), and washed out the color. When we got back to the chair (and the mirror) I took a peek, and it didn't look too bad. A little brighter than I'm used to, but it is summer, so that's okay, isn't it? Okay, maybe I won't have to buy the burka after all. Oh, but now comes the haircut, that's the really hard part - anyone can slap on some color, right?????

Yulia asked for the magazine photo again. She examined it for a few minutes, smiled at me and gave a thumbs up sign. The minute she began I could see that she really knew what she was doing. Not only had she picked a really good color formula for me, but she was snipping away at my hair in exactly the same way that Keiko does at home - little diagonal snips that look like a pinking shears was used on your hair. And then she took the blade of the scissors and used it to thin and lighten the weight of my hair so that it would stick up like it's supposed to do. I was really impressed with her technique. So now I completely relaxed. I told her that everything was really dujeh dobreh (very good), and let her go at it. And it was great!! It may be a tad short, but that's fine - it's hot, it's summer, and it'll grow. The important thing is that I think the shape is really good and that it will grow in really nicely - a real feat anywhere, but especially in the Ukraine where neither of us speaks the other's language. Thank the lord for magazines, photos and pantomime!! There was applause, shouts of encore! encore! from the gathering crowds, and flowers and kisses for the star of this little drama - Moi!
Oh, and the price??? $43 - yes $43 ($55 with the tip!). Can't beat that (well, you probably can beat that in Kharkiv, but I'm happy and I'm going back to Yulia for my next haircut and color in about a month).


When we got home (not before I arranged for a manicure with Elena next Friday!), we saw that the final photo was blurred by the light from the window behind me, so Ed took a final shot of the great job that Yulia had done. And that's it for the day - I was at Beatric for 5 hours (from 8:30 to 1:30) and then, working on the blog and this pictorial history of a day at the salon (after a bit of lunch, naturally!). And believe it or not, now it's time for dinner!

Oh, one more thing - for those of you who want even more detail - I just discovered that if you click on a photo in the blog it will open in a new window - much larger and with much more detail than appears in the blog.

The "Real" Ukraine

As I've mentioned before, Kharkiv is home to the "largest square in Europe." That's assuming you don't count Russia as Europe because Red Square is, in fact, larger. But it is pretty big alright, and dominated by a statue of Lenin on one end (the west) and a monolith Soviet monumental building, that now serves as home to one of the Ukrainian ministries, at the other (the east). The Kharkiv Hotel is on the north side, and some shops and cafes are on the south. My travel agent, Olga, is in one of those offices on the south side of the square, and we stopped there (on our way to the metro station at Universitet) to return a brochure she had lent me for a resort near Yalta that we are thinking of going to soon. The Square, as I've said before, was renamed Freedom Square (Ploschad Svobody) a few years ago, but everyone still calls it Lenin Square (Ploschad Lenina), for obvious reasons.


Our guidebook says that "First-time visitors to Ukraine often criticize the soul-less rows of concrete apartment blocks that make up so many modern Ukrainian cities. But few actually venture into these spaces." Well, we did, and today we schlepped out to Saltovka, a suburb northeast of the center of Kharkiv. Although we were stunned at the enormity of the area (it extends over two metro stops, an area encompassing 15 over-sized city blocks), it wasn't nearly as desolate as we expected. First of all, there are trees, lots of trees; and secondly, behind each dreary building (there are literally 1,000 of them), all made of pre-fabricated concrete slabs, and available in three sizes - small (5 stories high), medium (9 stories high) and large (16 stories high) - there are playground areas, parks, paths, places to hang laundry, and gardens - lots of gardens. This neighborhood, which according to our guidebook is called "Kharkiv's bedroom," was built in the 1970's after Kharkiv became a major manufacturing center for the Soviet Union (remember the tractor factory?), and the subway line from the center of the city was extended to reach the area. Today, apparently, it houses 600,000 Kharkivites. We went to the last subway stop on the line (Geroyev Pratsi) and emerged in the midst of a fabulous market - better than the Central Market we visited the day before. But it was really hot out and I was desperate to find some shade. We had planned on taking a tram into the "heart" of Saltovka, but the guidebook left out the number of the tram we should take! So we just jumped on Number 26 - it was jammed and stifling (and this was about 11 a.m.). Instead of going into the heart of the neighborhood, it seemed to be going around the perimeter, so we got out at the first stop and just walked around among the buildings. We wound our way back to the metro, got on and got off at the next to last stop (Studentska), and emerged to see exactly the same things, minus the great market. More concrete slab buildings, as far as the eye could see. Our guidebook tells us that: "Traveling out to Saltovka is beyond the tour guide's tether, but this quintessentially Soviet suburb definitely counts as the real Ukraine." So now, I guess, we have seen the real thing. But, frankly, except for the fact that it is definitely a suburb with vast, wide boulevards (with names like The Street of Tractor Builders or The Street of Heroes of Labor), the uniform design of each building (it reminds me of Levitt Town on Long Island), and the absence of smaller cobble stone streets with shops on either side, I didn't find the "soul" of the area to be very different from that of Kharkiv proper. It's like any other major city suburb with high rise apartments, only more so. It's not as dense as the city, or as vibrant somehow, and it seems much less affluent - but as apartment suburbs go, I guess it's not too bad.

When we got back to the city we decided to reward ourselves with a restaurant lunch and looked up one, Dkanka, that was recommended in one of our guide books, mostly because it was close to the Pushkinskaya metro station, which is where we got off. We found it buried behind a huge modern building on Lermontova Street and next to this weird little construction that looked sort of like a fairy-tale village (it even has it's own website - www.stargorod.net) There was a restaurant, a "beer garden," and other pretty buildings that looked like they belonged in Bavaria rather than in Kharkiv. (I later went to the website, but couldn't figure out what it is because it's all in Russian or Ukrainian.) Dkanka was a sweet little place, very traditional Ukrainian looking, with waitresses in traditional Ukrainian costume. We, as usual, ordered way too much - one hot green borscht, one cold beet soup that for some unaccountable reason was not called "borscht," a small chicken salad for Ed and the usual pancakes (really crepes) with red caviar for me. Too much food on such a hot day, but guess what - we finished it, of course!

By now it was late afternoon and time to call it a day. We went home to cool off and chill out and WORRY about my really big adventure tomorrow - my first mani-pedi and cut and color in Kharkiv!!

A Visit To The Central Market

Last night I got a Skype-in call from Claire and I must say that her news certainly put everything in perspective. There are lucky people and there are unlucky people, especially when it comes to health, and I am definitely one of the lucky ones, and Claire is definitely one of the unlucky ones. Just before I left for the Ukraine she went through a horrible experience with back surgery and awful complications that, without exaggeration almost killed her. Now I learned that about a week ago, while she was bending over to pick something up from the floor, she lost her balance, fell and broke the C-2 vertebra in her neck!! The only good news in this story is that she did not sever or injure her spinal cord and is able to move her arms and legs just fine, but she has to stay immobilized in some sort of horrible neck brace 24/7 for possibly 12 weeks! I can't even imagine how awful this must be - let alone the pain. When I fractured L4-5 in my back in Africa I thought I would die from the pain (or maybe I just wanted to die, to end the pain!). This has got to be a lot worse. All this brings home that I really do have to learn to look at my life and my "problems" from a different vantage point. No more moping around and spending the whole day shut up in the apartment.

So today we decided to go to the Central Market, Tsentralny Rynok, something I've been avoiding because I hate crowded mob scenes, and I especially hate flea markets - I just get overwhelmed with all the "stuff" and am never able to differentiate between the junk and the jewels. I didn't bring my passport or a lot of money, or even my backpack - I just carried one plastic carrybag and about 300 Hryvna in my pocket. Ed did the same - no passport, no wallet, just some Hryvnas. I had read that the market was rife with pickpockets (in fact Ed's office, which will be located near by, is not going to be taking cases from the district in which it, and the market, is located because they are worried that they will just be flooded with petty theft cases from the market).

We started out toward Shumskaya (the market is just west of the Cathedral that's on the "wrong" side of the Kharkov River (Blagoveschensky). I stayed off our usual streets and we found ourselves walking down a charming, curving tree lined street leading to the river. Ed, of course, resisted - he wanted to stick to the road most traveled, but I insisted. Well it turned out to be a wonderful street - not only lined with trees, but with books stalls, and also a few "tchatchke" stalls (Ed's favorite) and, best of all, one of the stalls had English books - books like The Canterbury Tales, Dr. Zhivago, a lot of Dick Francis, and some other things that looked interesting. The sellers are there every day, except Monday, from 10 to 3. This street will definitely be revisited. We found one guy who had lots of interesting old postcards and banners, and he spoke perfect French, so I was able to communicate with him fairly well. Then we passed another guy who had some great "dog" pins - I got one for the "Young People's Dog Club" (in Ukrainian or Russian) - the dog doesn't look like Belle (I think it's a German Shepherd), but at least it's a dog!!! This man even spoke English pretty well, so I'll definitely go back there.

We got to the banks of the river, and there was a section of the market to our right. We went in, but the only things that were being sold there were CDs, DVDs, stationery and office supplies, picture frames, greeting cards, books, and the like. We "did" this section and then walked toward the bridge to go over the river to the main section of the market. There were lots of people, but it was by no means a mob scene. Quite civilized - no pushing or shoving, and the stalls were orderly and formed wide aisles that were easy to walk through. It seems to be organized in sections - there's the "shoe section," the "children's section," the "nuts and dried fruits section," the "grocery and dry goods section," the "egg section," the "fresh fish and meat section," the "flower and garden section," etc. We stopped before when we got to the "clothing section" and skipped that and whatever else followed. In the dry goods section I got a supply of Alpine Fresh Tide (my last box had come from Target) and "scrub" soap for the shower, but, although I looked everywhere, I couldn't find the brand of toilet paper that I had gotten at Target that is really great - just like home. The next level of TP here is the quality of paper towel - I'm not kidding - and then below that is the "think wrapping paper" variety.

The produce is gorgeous, and a lot cheaper than it is in the markets we usually go to(much better quality too). We couldn't resist and bought 4 ears of corn (I haven't seen any fresh corn in the markets), delicious salted peanuts for Ed and sesame coated almonds for me, 2 fabulous peaches, 2 fantastic nectarines, and a beautiful melon - I forget the name of it, but it's very sweet and I think it's either a Chanterel, or it's from Israel (probably the latter since Israel is pretty easy to get to from here). Of course we stopped for the obligatory perogy. We couldn't figure out how to ask for meat - well, actually, I thought I had asked for meat, but we ended up getting one filled with apricot jam!! So we got another one - a different type (greasier and deep fried - I of course loved this - rather than the type that is doughy and bready on the outside) and this one was filled with meat. (We had decided to get the most expensive one on the theory that this was most likely to be meat filled, and in fact that was correct.) We polished it all off with a glass of Kvas, which you buy from a truck on the street. Kvas is a brewed wheat drink that tastes a little bit like a Shandy - a mixture of beer and ginger ale or lemonade. I think it would be delicious with sausage, but then the great beer here is wonderful with sausage, so why get Kvas?

When we got back home Ed got a call from Gennady - the office furniture will be delivered tomorrow and the office will open on Thursday!! Ed is still concerned that they will begin taking cases the very week that we will be in Moscow and Riga and Vilnius, but we both agreed that what will be, will be. They don't have an English speaking assistant for the office yet, and it looks like they won't be able to find one. They've been advertising for one for a week and no one has even applied! Ed is suggesting that they just hire a translator for a couple of hours each day so that he can communicate with the lawyers on a daily basis.

Ed was very disappointed to see that only three photos made it into the blog today. Surely, he said the photo of the "shoe section" or the "egg section" should be included! So I am including the egg section here. Now he's complaining that the picture of the egg section is too small and should be the same size as the other photos!

I had a long Skype-in conversation with Dian today - she had a great suggestion: She told me to see if I could arrange for Ukrainian or Russian conversation lessons twice a week - that way I would have someone to talk to besides Ed, and maybe even someone to go around with and learn how to order in restaurants, how to shop for things I have been reluctant to try because I have no idea what they could be, and just generally learn about different places and things to do in Kharkiv. I immediately looked up the University of Kharkov (the second largest university in Ukraine - only Kyiv is bigger) and emailed to see if this could be arranged. I hope I get a reply - this is something I think I would really profit from in many ways. One of the biggest obstacles here is the lack of any contact information for Kharkiv on the internet. There is tons of information for Kyiv - things to do, places to rent, things to see, places to eat, etc., etc. But there is virtually nothing at all for Kharkiv. So far I think my blog is the best guide to the city on the net!!

Culture Shock?

I am really depressed today. I don't know whether it's because Ed's project is to stymied, or whether it's because I'm just running out of things to do in Kharkiv, or a combination, or neither, of those things. Maybe it's just a wave of culture shock, which I've heard comes and goes. One problem, I know, is the isolation - there is just no one here for us to interact with. Very few people speak English, and almost no one speaks it fluently. The ballet and symphony season are over until the fall; there are no movies in English (the American movies are dubbed into Russian); I'm having a hard time getting into my book "Life and Fate," which Laura (on whom I rely for reading recommendations), has told me is one of the greatest books ever written. Sitting at my computer and going to Amazon, as if I'm browsing a bookstore at home, is fine, but in the end I can't buy anything because there is no way to get anything here. Fern sent out our first FedEx package, with the office supplies that Ed can't get here (file folders and letter size legal pads - yes, they just don't have those things here), and she emailed to say that even with her 75% discount at FedEx these are undoubtedly the most expensive office supplies Ed has ever gotten, and that she thinks we should save FedEx for absolute necessities! I am also dreading my haircut and color - I haven't seen any redheads here that look good, and by now my hair is so faded and bleached out from the sun that there is no way for them to tell what color they should use. These are trivial things, I know, but still . . . .

The highlights of my day have been doing a wash, stripping the bed for the clean sheets the maid brought with her this morning (she comes every Monday and stays exactly one hour and I pay her 25 Hrvynas - at that rate she makes more than judges earn here!), and going to a new and different kiosk for a new and different kind of sausage (I hate it - way too fatty) and cheese (masses of it - I didn't know how to tell her to give me less, and there was a very long queue impatiently waiting behind me). We were thinking of taking an overnight trip to Poltova, which is a small city about 1 1/2 hours west of here on the "fast" train to Kyiv, but Ed keeps hoping some progress will be made with the office preparations, and that there will be something for him to do.

So now I'm just going to wait until Betsy wakes up and makes her scrabble move - then pretty soon Molly will be up and she'll make hers, and then Dee. Vicki will start playing today too, back from her trip to Italy. Pretty pathetic!

. . . .

Well, everyone woke up and now I've got some scrabble games going. Betsy even called on Skype-In because she thought I sounded so down (she was right!). I also abandoned "Life and Fate" for the time being in favor of short stories by Alice Munro (much more absorbing right now), and I seem to have managed to make it through the day. Ed got a call from Gennady telling him that they plan to open the office on Friday. So, as they say, tomorrow is another day - and a better one than today I hope.

Even The Mundane Interests Me Here

Yesterday we saw a "water" truck in our parking lot behind the apartment so we decided to see how much it costs to buy water from the truck, rather than from the market. Ed took one of our empty 6.5 liter bottles down and came back with a full bottle that cost him 1 Hryvna, as opposed to the 7.6 Hryvna that this costs us at the market. Of course, we don't know whether people here buy this water only for cleaning and bathing purposes, or whether they drink it! But since we use the water almost exclusively to make tea, which requires boiling, we figured it was probably safe. We've been using it for 24 hours now, and we haven't gotten sick or died yet!

It's so hard for me to keep my blog entries short, even when I don't do much or nothing much happens. Just about everything I see is interesting in some way - either because it's just like what we have at home, or because it's so different from what we have at home!! Yesterday, for example, we saw our first fire trucks. They almost looked like toy trucks (and not toy fire engines, which are much more fully equipped). They are about the size of ambulances in the U.S. They are red, and have the same sirens, but there were no hook and ladders. Traffic did pretty much make way for them and they seemed able to get where they had to go pretty efficiently, but I wonder if they have any bigger trucks in case a building over three stories high is on fire! I certainly hope so.

Today we went to Gorky Park which is to the north of the city at the end of Sumskaya Street. While we were "researching" this expedition, we discovered that July 7 is some sort of mid-summer pagan festival, Ivan Kupalo, that involves fire, water, dancing, fortune-telling, and "strong overtones of sex." Of course we missed the whole thing! But that explains the fireworks we saw from our apartment windows.

We took a "marshrutka" on Sumskaya to the Park. A marshrutka is a minivan that usually follows a bus route, is unscheduled, leaves the first stop when it is full, and costs 1 Hryvna. They are always jam packed - a very unpleasant experience in a country where daily showers are a luxury and not routine. Fortunately, it was a very short ride (and, as I told Ed on the way there, a one-way trip, at least for me!). The park is actually lovely - it has many amusement park rides for kids, and vendors selling ice cream, hot dogs, popcorn and cotton candy, as well as sodas, water and juice. (Ed of course bought some popcorn immediately!) But it is basically a forest - there are areas carved out for the rides, but it's mostly trees, with nice trails or paths cutting through it. You can almost always stay in the shade, and it's just lovely to be outside, even when it's warm, if there's a light breeze and it's shady! There were lots of couples sitting on benches kissing (I think most young people here have to live at home with their parents and don't have their own apartments, so this is the only "privacy" they can get - and the apartments they live in are probably cramped and hot, so it's nice to get outside on a day like today), and lots and lots of children playing in the kiddy cars or riding on the Ferris Wheel and other rides. There are also several places where you can rent in-line skates, and I assume that is very popular too. We wandered through the park and Ed took lots of photos (he is very pleased when I select one of his photos for the blog!). We walked by several cafes (all of which blast out loud music - this is universal in Kharkiv - it seems that every cafe blasts loud music that you can hear blocks away).

We passed rather nice tennis courts (much like the courts I used to play on in Central Park before going to the office when I worked at Paul Weiss), and a movie theater, before we found the "aerial" tram which goes from Gorky Park to nowhere! Of course we took the ride to nowhere (a 20 minute trip through the trees - very pleasant, but it doesn't compare with the zip lines in Costa Rica!!!) and back (another 20 minutes in the opposite direction. After the aerial ride we found the "Children's Railroad" which is actually a training facility for teenagers to learn the railroad trade! There's a beautiful and well maintained pink station and then a pint sized train (big enough for adults to sit in, but definitely smaller than a regular train), which is staffed by kids (they drive the locomotive, they wave the flags signaling the driver when he can leave the station, and they "man" each car, taking tickets as you get on. It's about a 10 minute ride between Gorky Park and Forest Park, and since we couldn't figure out what to do in Forest Park, we got back on the train for the ride back to the station with everyone else.

I wanted to walk home, but Ed was reluctant. On the ride up Sumskaya I noticed that the shops were very posh and classy once we were north of "Freedom Square" as it is officially named (Sloboda Plotchka), or Lenin Square, as it still called by everyone. This is a part of the city I hadn't seen before and I wanted to explore. but I guess I'll just come back and do it by myself one day once Ed's office finally opens! We saw the tram lines and tracks (we hadn't been able to find any trams going to Gorky Park - there were no tracks on Sumskaya), and then we saw how the tracks swung off to the east of Sumskaya (towards Pushkinskaya, our street). Ed remembered that the numbers of the trams that stop in front of our apartment are 5 and 7 - and we saw a Number 7 swing around going in the right direction (south), so we hopped on (the trams only cost 40 Kopeks). It was full, but not jammed like the minivan. We got home in about 10 minutes - right in front of our apartment entrance - at about 4 p.m., just in time for a nice cuppa!

A word about Belle before I quit the computer and fix our supper. She's been getting more and more annoying, barking every time the elevator passes our floor or, God forbid, stops at our floor - then she really goes into a frenzy. So I decided to take a cue from a great article that was in the Style Section of the NY Times last Sunday - What Shamu Taught Me About A Happy Marriage (turns out to be one of the most emailed articles in the NY Times, and was even the subject of a not very good Maureen Dowd column yesterday). So now, instead of screaming "no no - stop it, stop it right now, no no" when she starts barking, I try to get her at the first stages (the snorting and low growling stages), firmly say no, and then tell her what a good girl she is and give her a treat when she doesn't bark. And it's really working. It's only about 3 days, and she rarely barks now!! I'm going to try this method on Ed the next time he does something annoying, just as the author of the column did!

Belle Meets The Shopkeepers And Susan Finds The Poshta

It's been a couple of days of just "living" in Kharkiv. No pressing errands to get done or tasks to be accomplished. Just going about the business of life and establishing our routines. Our mornings already feel like comfortable old shoes - we get up, I feed Belle and then, while Ed takes her for a walk, I get breakfast ready - not so hard - our famous Nestle Fitness without fruits (which they stock specially for me at one of the little markets - we consume one box every two days!), some orange juice (straight from a carton, not like the fresh squeezed juice that I make at home with the Valencias that I get at the Farmer's Market!), and of course our tea. Then I turn on the computer, check my emails and download either NPR All Things Considered from the previous afternoon in the U.S. or BBC Radio 4 so that we can listen while we have our breakfast and tea.

But first of all I check out the NY Times headlines, and yesterday saw that our friend, Bob Smith, whom we will see in two weeks in Moscow, satisfied one of the three criteria for enduring fame in our culture - he was on the front page of the NY Times having written the NY Supreme Court opinion deciding that the NY State Constitution does not require the state legislature to allow gay marriages. A few minutes later, I found that he had satisfied yet another of the three criteria - he was mentioned on NPR's All Things Considered (for the same reason). All that remains is for Will Shortz to have his name as either a clue or answer in the NY Times Crossword Puzzle and he wins the jackpot! The decision actually occasioned a rare legal debate in our household - Ed and I had a long and passionate "discussion" yesterday evening about whether it is a denial of equal protection to allow "opposite-sex" couples to marry, but not permit same-sex couples to marry. Guess which side of the "discussion" I was on! Actually, during the course of the "discussion" I really convinced myself of my position - when I had started out I was not so sure I was correct, but now I'm positive that I am!!

Yesterday we went to the posh store a few steps down on Pushkinskaya (where I had met the nice man with the two women who took me to buy sheets the day we moved in to this apartment) to see if we could get a couple of short sleeved "dress" shirts for Ed. This is what all the men wear here - Ed won't ever have to wear his suits or long-sleeved dress shirts. We took Belle with us, and she was such a hit - she always is - people always want to talk to her (through me of course - she doesn't understand Ukrainian or Russian!!). The sales girls (and they were girls, not women - only about 18 or 19 years old at the most) were just enthralled with Belle and practically forgot about poor Ed in the dressing room waiting for them to bring him the shirts we had picked out. We bought two shirts - one linen short sleeve and the other a very fine weave polo shirt style - all for about $150. On the way back we stopped at the market with Belle, and again everyone went nuts for her - what kind of dog, where is she from, is it a boy or a girl, etc., etc. So now everyone in these stores really knows us - not just because we are the weird Americans who try to speak Ukrainian, who must be living here because we come there all the time - but because we are the owners of that fantastic dog Bella!!

On Thursday I spent quite a bit of time typing up the Forms that Ed has created for use in the Public Defenders Office here, as well as helping design a letterhead for the office. We thought that this coming week was going to be real down time for Ed because he learned on Thursday that Gennady was going to Swansea for the week to look at the public defender office there. We thought we might take a trip to the Crimea, but after all the effort of organizing the Moscow-Riga-Vilnius trip I just didn't have the energy for another "big" trip, especially since we would be leaving for Moscow only a week after returning from this one. And I've already begun planning (actually, Jo has begun planning, and I've been joining in) our trip to Turkey with McGuires next June!! As it turns out, Gennady's visa for England hadn't even been applied for yet, so of course he didn't get one in time to go there this coming week! So maybe Ed and Gennady can spend some time this week getting the office organized and ready to open soon (although I don't know how much help Ed can be in getting furniture delivered and in hiring the office assistant). It looks like the timing of the opening of he office will be just awful - probably the week we will be in Moscow and Riga and Vilnius!! It's unbelievable - we had thought that by the end of July things would have been up and running for almost two months and that everyone would be winding down for the August vacation season!! I hope it either opens the week before we leave or else that it is even further delayed and doesn't open until August 1st. I think it will mean a lot to Ed to be there with all the lawyers and staff on the first day, but I can't see canceling or rearranging the trip at this point, not after all I've been through to get it organized! We'll just have to wait and see what happens. Maybe we'll get lucky.

The political situation here is definitely having an impact on Ed's project. The President, Yushenko, and his former ally, the blond bombshell, Yulia, had been on the outs ever since he dismissed her as prime minister; but after the elections last spring it was clear that Yushenko had to either work with her or make a deal with the man he defeated for President a few years ago. Just before the deadline for forming a government was about to expire he and Yulia came to an agreement - she would be Prime Minister and her arch enemy, one of Yushenko's men, would be Speaker. But somehow, last week, that deal fell apart. The result is that there is currently no Minister of the Interior or Minister of Justice - and the public defender project is being conducted under the auspices of the Minister of Justice!! So, until Ukraine has one, this project is definitely going to have to deal with a lot of bumps in the road.

Last night (July 7) we were reading when, at about 9:30 p.m., weheard fire works, so we got up and looked out the window. Sure enough - fireworks (and really good fireworks at that)were being shot off very close by - it looked like only about a mile or so to the east of our apartment. I have no idea what the occasion was - but it was fun to watch. I love fireworks and I missed being able to see the display in the Marina on the Fourth that we usually watch from the canals.

Today we finally made it into the Crafts Museum, which I have to admit was not much to see. There was only one room with a few things displayed around the edges - the whole center was occupied with theater chairs (there is going to be some sort of "spectacle theater" there on Thursday at 7 o'clock - we might go, but the language issue is a real problem in the theater, unlike concerts or ballet). There were a few cross-stitched table runners, some pipes, a couple of bowls, some lacquered spoons - really nothing much at all, and nothing that really impressed me either with its great artistry or its charm. Ed thought you could buy things there, but it turns out that you can't. We did manage to get the woman who was in charge of the room to understand that we wanted to visit a store that sold such things, and she wrote down the address of a crafts store and pointed us in the right direction. She even went to the front desk to call the store for us. She conferred with the man at the front desk to get the phone number from him. He was a real character - his entire mouth was filled with metal teeth (and, by metal, I don't mean gold or silver!), and to get the phone number he pulled out one of those notebooks that all Ukrainians seems to carry around to keep all their important information. They couldn't get anyone on the phone, but we decided to go and find it anyway so that we would at least know where it was located. We walked in the direction the woman had pointed to, and asked at a news kiosk. There we learned that we should go to the metro and make a left - sure enough there was the street and building number 11 was right where it should be. We went in and found the store on the second floor, and it was open. (We would never have found this place - there is absolutely nothing outside to indicate that there are stores in this building.) More of the same stuff that we saw in the Crafts Museum, but there were some really nice typical shawls and we'll definitely come back to get some of those. When we told the sales womon that we would come back and that we were now living in Kharkiv on Pushkinskaya, she wanted to know if we were working here (she spoke a little English). I explained that Ed was a "volunteer," here to help reform the legal system and the courts. Ed added "and the militia," meaning that he was here to reform the police too, but at the mention of "the milita" she froze, and all conversation stopped. I think she thought that Ed was working with the police, and that frightened her.

Oh, I did stumble upon the local post office on Friday. I was going to see Olga at my travel agency to pick up our plane tickets to Moscow and Riga, and I thought that I would make another try to locate the post office on my way. This time I kept walking past what I thought was Building 28 and, sure enough, I found it across the street on what appeared to be a different street entirely, but was in fact the same. I recognized it because there were two post boxes outside - the first I've seen on the street here. Ed and I went over today, after the Crafts store visit, but it was closed for lunch. So we went to a cafe in Schevshenko Gardens near Lenin Square, had a couple of small salads, and then walked back to the post office. It's so much fun trying to communicate with people when theyreally try to help. The woman at the post office was darling. She didn't speak a word of English but we managed to get, and mail, a card for Jason's birthday. They sell the cards in the post office. When I was able to get the woman to understand that I wanted a birthday card for Ed's "ceen" (son) she asked me (in Russian, of course) "big or small?" I thought she was asking whether the card was for a little kid or an adult - so when I said "bolshoi"(that's big in Russian - I have no idea how to say it in Ukrainian), she pulled out this stack of gigantic cards!! We all laughed and Ed found a card on the rack behind her that he thought was bright and cheerful, and small, and we bought that. We also managed to buy five envelopes with airmail postage to the U.S., and we found out, after one of my best pantomimes, that we could rent a post office box for 80 Hryvna a month - not that we need it - no one is going to write us and a FedEx package won't fit in the box.

I've been doing more research on things to do in and around Kharkiv - and there are quite a few: Gorky Park, Forest Park and the "children's railway" that connects the two. There is also an aerial tram that leaves from Forest Park and a race track near Gorky Park (but where, exactly, is another question - and finding out whether it is open now will take me at least a day!!). We have to see the Soviet suburb that houses 600,000 people in Soviet-style communal apartments, and we also have to go bowling at either Exspres or Argos or Misto (but first I have to find them!). Finally, I think we have made progress in locating the circus, although I'm not sure about that yet.

But right now, I have to join Ed and watch the match between Portugal and Germany for third place in the World Cup.