A Big Jar Of Nescafe Boodlaska!!

Here I am, spending my last few minutes in the Kharkiv apartment, on my computer of course!!! Our bags and boxes are all packed and we're set to go. The minivan (a huge Mercedes bus, really, that holds 16 passengers, but has no luggage area) arrived on time and we were on the road by 7:30 a.m. Well, we definitely needed almost every inch of space with 4 GIGANTIC cases, one medium case, four small cases, 2 brief cases, various boxes and bags, and Belle!!

Just as we were leaving I had a bad scare. I had grabbed a paper towel to clean up something and Ed told me to be careful because there was blood on it. I looked at him and saw blood pouring out of the top of his head!! He had spent four months being extremely careful not to hit his head on the windows (which opened inward), and on the very last day, as he stood up after lifting one of the large boxes, he hit the very sharp corner of the window, which went into to the top of his head like a knife. I was really worried that he would need stitches, but fortunately we stemmed the red tide by putting a lot of pressure on it for about an hour.

So we did it - we managed to move all our crap to Kyiv!! We got to 7 Kostyolnya (the pink building) on Saturday September 23 at about 1:30, just when I had told Tetyana (our landlady) we would be there. Ed still had to go over to the Renaissance Foundation offices to pick up the rest of our crap, which had been stored there for the past 4 months (3 large cartons and 2 huge suitcases), so after unloading just a couple of bags he began the process of trying to get the driver to take him there. I had told the driver at the outset that first we were going to 7 Kostyolnya and then to 46 Artema (about a 15 minute drive, at most) and then back to Kostyolnya. Now he was giving Ed a really hard time - he wouldn't go until he was paid, and Ed (very wisely) wouldn't pay until he took him there and back. We were paying by the kilometer (doubled since we had to pay for the guy to go back to Kharkiv too), so he just wanted to get back and not spend another hour going about 3 kilometers. Tetyana (who doesn't speak much English - her English is about the same as my Ukrainian) somehow conveyed that she thought she ought to go with Ed while I waited at the apartment for the arrival of the internet "master" - that's what they call workers here! Good thing she did too - we forgot that this was Saturday and that the minivan would have to go by St Michael's, where there are about 50 weddings every Saturday - the traffic was at a complete standstill. Absolutely no movement. But Tetyana knew the back ways, which of course the driver, from Kharkiv, did not know - and neither did Ed. So they got there, finally, and Ed loaded up all the new bags and boxes, and they drove back to the apartment. It took about an hour to unload all those bags and get them in the tiny elevator and up to the third floor - the elevator could really only hold one bag and one person at a time. So I just kept unpacking while the bags kept rolling in. By about 6 p.m. we were pretty much done.

Everything was put away in their temporary places until we figure out our routines and what needs to be kept out of the "bedroom" closets (which are inaccessible when the bed is down) and have to be kept in the hall closet where one normally keeps coats. I intend to buy a really nice looking coat rack so that we can keep the coats we use on a daily basis on that and keep some of our day to day clothes in the coat closet.

Ed was really beat - he had not only taken all the bags down and into the van in Kharkiv, he had loaded the bags from Artema St and then unloaded everything at our new apartment. Not to mention the bonk on his head that morning. And then he went out to the market while I was unpacking to pick up some bottled water, juice, milk and chocolate! All the necessities!! He had a couple of gin and tonics (he hasn't been drinking at all since we left the States) - I had brought a lime with us, as well as the gin and tonic - and fell fast asleep on the reading nook/bed built-in that's in the kitchen area (that's right, the kitchen area - I know it sounds weird, but it actually works, and looks nice!). I was still waiting for the internet "master" and he finally arrived at about 8 p.m. At first he wasn't going to do the work because although Tetyana had paid for the first month plus the modem rental, there was a 1 Hryvna fee for something or other that she had somehow neglected to pay. I called her and she convinced him that he should proceed and that I would pay the 1 Hryvna, which I did, and happily too - remember that's 20 cents!

By 9 p.m. I was all set - internet connected and working! Very fast, and with 5 gigabytes per month before paying extra I am assured by everyone I know that I will never have to pay more than the $17 per month that this package costs (we get a 15% discount because we have the cable "premium" TV package too). So for a total of $35.50 we get essentially unlimited high speed internet and the best TV package available, with about 30 English language stations. I can't tell you if they're any good, because after the first night here the TV cable can't "find" any stations!! The TV master is coming on Thursday, after we leave for the States. It'll probably be fixed by the time we get back.

Ed and I both collapsed onto our new queen size bed. Belle jumped up, got in her usual horizontal position and took up three quarters of the bed, leaving a tiny space for me and Ed on the edges!! By this time my back was so stiff and tired that every time I moved in bed I let out an involuntary moan - then I threw my knee out slightly trying to get Belle to move and make room for me and Ed!

I had a restless night, but Ed slept pretty well because this mattress is, for him, so much better than the one we had in Kharkiv. Apparently the mattress on his side of the bed was really horrible, and his hips would get bruised on the wood platform underneath the foam slab that served as a mattress. Mine wasn't as bad and I did okay. I found the bed in the new apartment a little small, and I was beginning to worry that it wouldn't work. It was also a real pain not having bedside tables. I keep a lot of "just in case" stuff in my night table drawer, and it turns out I needed a lot of those things that night - naproxyn and nexium, just to mention two!! I had a chair from the kitchen next to my side of the bed, but it didn't work very well. Also, it was very crowded on Ed's side - the arm chair barely fit there with the bed down, and there was hardly any room for him to squeeze through if he had to get up in the middle of the night - a frequent occurrence for both of us. My computer was balanced precariously on a chair in the former balcony/office nook, and I was generally very anxious about how things would work out.

I staggered out of bed the next morning, immediately popped a naproxyn and nexium in my mouth, and went into the kitchen to fix breakfast and feed Belle. But first I turned on the computer so that we could listen to All Things Considered. I didn't have a teapot (ours had broken when I was washing it for the trip to Kyiv) so we had to settle for tea bags. But I had brought along three boxes of Nestle Fitness, so we managed to have a fairly normal breakfast, although we were forced to actually sit at the dining table to eat it - something we never do (we always have our breakfast on a tray on our bed at Sherman Canal, and in Kharkiv we sat on the sofa in the living room and used the coffee table - the kitchen table was my "desk")!!

I was able to get a few more essentials that first full day - a tea pot, a couple of nice big cups for us to have our morning tea, the softest toilet paper available, dish washing detergent and clothes washing detergent - that sort of stuff. There's a market within a 5 or 10 minute walk from our apartment, right on Kreshchatik (the main drag in Kyiv), that carries a pretty good supply of these sorts of things. Ed left for Kharkiv to try and tie up the loose ends before we leave for the States, so Belle and I were on our own Sunday night, Monday and Tuesday, until Ed returned on the late train. I had gotten his train tickets for him, and I got him two tickets for both legs, but it turns out that the powers that be sold BOTH of his seats for the return trip TWICE - so Ed ended up with no seat. But it worked out fine because he spent the entire time in the Club Car with Roman, from the Renaissance Foundation, who had also been in Kharkiv to attend the press conference there. And he ended up meeting the most interesting guy from South Africa (near Cape Town) who was in Kharkiv helping Jews emigrate to Israel. He was a pastor in South Africa, and then later a diplomat, posted to Israel, and that's how he got involved in this work. We're planning on looking him up when we go to South Africa - hopefully in February - to visit Michael and Jeremy in Montague.

I spent almost all my time in Kyiv without Ed looking for the furniture we needed. I went to a place with Tetyana to look at office chairs and desks, and I have to say I hated everything there. So I went by myself to the large department store in Kyiv - STUM - nothing at all. Then I went to one of the huge underground shopping centers - Metrograd - and found a furniture section with some interesting things. I found a place where they design and make the furniture, and there was a very nice girl there who was one of the designers and she agreed to come over to the apartment on Tuesday night to see if she could design a desk, coffee table and night tables for me. She was really great - arrived right on time at 9:15 p.m. after the store closed. She spent a lot of time with me, taking measurements and doing rough sketches of a desk, file cabinet, end tables and a coffee table.

The next morning I went to the store to look at the designs and pick the finish. I can't tell you how many trips back and forth to Metrograd this ended up requiring. There's so much wood in this apartment, and it's quite nice wood - I didn't want to put anything crappy and cheap looking in the main room. But unfortunately, Alona (the designer) only had choices that were kind of cheap looking. The desk and file cabinet (with drawers) will be fine, because they will be white to match the window ledge in the former balcony, which is now enclosed and part of the apartment but a little set back (you can just see it behind the second armchair in the photo), so it doesn't have that fake wood look. But the coffee table and end table (I've decided we only need one - Ed doesn't really need a bedside table since we have a ledge behind the bed where we can keep our glasses and night lights -and it will be a bedside table at night, and an end table next to one of the arm chairs during the day) really should look good and match all the wood of the door frames and closets. Alona had a sample of such wood, but, unfortunately, for some reason, it was impossible to make the furniture with that particular product. So, in the end, I just ordered the desk to be custom made to fit into the enclosed balcony and a small "tomba" - the file-cabinet piece, with three drawers and one bigger drawer for files.

So the second stage of our adventure begins soon. We left for the States on Wednesday, September 27, in the afternoon, leaving Belle in the care of Lilya, a sweet girl who works at the Gintama Hotel where Ed and I have stayed while we've been looking at apartments. I'm nervous about leaving her, but it's better than taking her on an airplane for 18 hours. And Tetyana loves Belle, and has even offered to take her the next time we travel! She misses her dog, a cocker spaniel named Madonna, who went to America with her daughter when she left to live there with her husband and baby. Tetyana is really nice - I'm very fond of her. I asked her if there was anything I could bring her from America, and she said "A jar of Nescafe, Budlaska"!!! Apparently U.S. Nescafe is different than Ukrainian Nescafe, and she just loves Taster's Choice Nescafe in the red jar with caffeine. I'll be sure and bring her as many jars as I can fit in our luggage - there won't be much room since 6 months of prescription drugs, many, many books in English, big Uggs for both of us, a laptop computer and computer case for Ed, among other things, are waiting for us in Scott & Joan's guest room so that we can take them back to Ukraine. But I'll be sure and get at least one big jar!

Almost Ready To Leave Kharkiv

Unfortunately, Ed misunderstood Vicky and thought that she would be able to attend the meeting that he called for all the lawyers this morning at 8:30 a.m. In fact she she had a class and could not be there. So needless to say Ed was exhausted by the time he was finished.

Gennadiy was supposed to be translating since Vicky couldn't make it, but he was, as usual, doing a thousand things at once, on his computer, on his phone, etc., as were the other lawyers - they would get phone calls on their cell phones and leave the room - there was just a total lack of discipline. As I said, Genna's English isn't that good to begin with, so for him to absorb what Ed was saying really would require his total concentration - let alone "translating" what Ed was saying for the other lawyers. I asked Ed if it wasn't Gennadiy's job to set the rules for office meetings, and that one of the rules should be all cell phones off and no one at their computers. Ed agreed, but said that Genna was not really a good "disciplinarian." Oh well, Ed and I have reached a truce when it comes to Genna and I'm not going to rock the boat.

After the meeting Ed finally got the identification of all the motions that are in Russian - each one involved a long dissertation on which of Genna's cases had required that particular motion, so it took quite a long time - plus, it turns out that there were many duplicates so I'll have to scan them in all over again because I did them in groups of 10 to cut down on the time it took (over an hour). Now they all have to be translated into Ukrainian by someone (Sasha's internship at OSJI has finished, so I don't know who will do that now), since that is the official language of the country and will be the language used by the courts in Kyiv, which is the nation's capital. They still use Russian in the Kharkiv courts.

Ed got back home at about 1 p.m. and had to leave for the dreaded meeting with Golond (it's Golond, not Golan as I had thought - the lawyer who can "talk" to judges and who arranged for the PD room in the courthouse) to tell him that the press conference was going to be very low key and that no one outside the organization was going to be there. I think the PD's office finds Golond very useful, because he can get things done, but they don't necessarily want to be publicly associated with him. So it's a good thing this press conference is turning out to be a big nothing.

Ed met Vicky at Golond's office, and she snapped this picture of Ed with Goland (on Ed's left), and the head of the bar disciplinary committee on his right. When Ed got back he told me that he now realizes why he was dreading the meeting - it involves a ritual of phoney baloney praising of each other (you know, like they do in the Senate - "well, as the most honorable and esteemed gentleman from Florida, who has very perceptively seen the issues involved, just said, blah blah blah") and drinking a lot of vodka, which you cannot refuse. Golond, who is 75 and who I think looks like a sweet New York Jew, sort of like Ed Koch or Neil Simon, hit on Vicky of course, telling her that she should come back any time, that she needn't wait for Ed to return, and the like. Ed said Vicky took it in stride and even downed a cognac or two.

So now there is nothing left for me to do here except finish up this Blog entry (maybe my last until after I return from the States on October 18, depending on how well the unpacking and connecting to the internet in Kyiv, and the repacking for the trip home, goes), throw a few final things into the suitcases, and get some sleep. Our hired minivan and driver is due to arrive at 7 a.m. (Vicky arranged it, so I'm pretty sure it will be here.) Ed will be coming back here on Sunday night for a meeting with all the judges of the Kominternovskiy court on Monday, and then a meeting on Tuesday with the head of the prison bureau to see if he will honor the permanent permission slip that allows the lawyers to visit their detained clients as often and as long as necessary. We learned last night that one of the PD lawyers, Oleg, had gotten such a permission slip signed - now they have to see if it will be recognized and honored by the guys who are in charge of letting the lawyers in to see the clients! After that meeting there will be the press conference that none of the press will attend since they already went to the press conference called by the General last Tuesday for the signing, and Ed will get the 4:30 train back to Kyiv. He's still hoping to get a meeting with the court administrator to start working out procedures for a bail system, but that hasn't been agreed to yet. On Wednesday afternoon we leave for Boston for Ed's cousin Tom's wedding in Marblehead. We'll have two full days and two nights before the rehearsal dinner to regroup and rest up and try to recover from jet lag. It's a real crunch but I am really looking forward to going home for a while, even though it will be very hard to see everyone - in fact, impossible - I will still get to see a few friends, and get some fish that isn't deep fat fried (not that I'm complaining - I love deep fat fried)!!

A Homemade Feast

Dinner was, as I expected, delicious and HUGE!! Nella really pulled out all the stops. When we walked in there was a table laid in the living room (their apartment, which houses 4 people and a cat, is smaller than ours in Kharkiv, but a little bigger than the apartment we will have in Kyiv). They have a small kitchen, which somehow manages to hold a stove (3 electric burners), a fridge (small - half size) and a small table with the same kind of bench thing to sit at that we have in our apartment. The hallway has some wardrobes and the living room has a big unit against the wall that holds the TV, wardrobes, shelves, etc. Against the other wall is a big sofa bed. The matching armchair (it's sort of a velour fabric) was also pushed against the wall but I think that was to make room for the table. The sofa bed is clearly Genna and Nela's - this is where they sleep. Every surface was covered with Yrena's (the 26 year old dentist daughter) stuffed animals - some of them enormous and some tiny - there were dozens of them!! The other room - the only other room, aside from the bathroom, which I didn't see - is quite small, much smaller than our bedroom her, has two single beds at right angles to each other in a corner, some shelves, and a small desk with Genna's computer and printer. This is where the girls sleep and Genna works - I don't think Genna had a separate office before he took the job as Director of the Public Defender Office. I'm not sure how they arranged things, but maybe Genna worked there during the day and then when they came home he stopped - or maybe he kept working while they slept.

Neither Marina nor Yrena was there when we arrived at about 6 p.m. Ed and I had taken the mashroutka (which I kept calling the matroushka until I was corrected by Genna's family and shown the error of my ways, with much laughter and many giggles, when Nella pulled out the Russian stacking dolls - the matroushkas!!), which we boarded at "the Monument" - Sovietska - the hub of downtown. When we got there at about 5:40 there was a very long queue - probably about 40 people - waiting for No. 291, our mashroutka. One pulled up almost immediately and everyone got out (this must be the end of the line) and about 20 people got on board. The next one pulled up about 5 minutes later, and the same thing happened, leaving only 2 people ahead of us on the line. Before the that one left another pulled up and we got on. There are 3 seats next to the driver, a bench along one side of the van that holds about 6 people, 3 rows of double seats holding another six people, and then a bench behind the drivers seat facing the rear of the van with 4 more places. Only one person stood. So I guess they are more comfortable than the buses and trams, which are jammed packed at this hour. Ed and I sat opposite each other so that I could grab on to his arm to keep from falling into the person next to me as we rounded the turns. It took about 15 minutes to get to Genna's stop - what I would describe as an industrial suburb - large Soviet style apartment buildings next to what used to be an electronics plant, producing parts for the sputniks and employing over 25000 people during the Soviet area. It's very like Soltavka, which we had visited early during our stay here. There are all these pipes, about 2 or 3 meters off the ground, running through the "courtyards" (which is the parking and garbage bin area - but which also has the requisite "playground" that I see in every Soviet housing development), and we learned from Genna that these are heating pipes which the Soviets decided would be easier to maintain if they were above ground rather than underground!!! There's a massive network of them there, some of them covered with some sort of insulating material, but most of them bare. Very weird looking.

Well, as I was saying, the table was laid in the living room, and was covered with platters of food and bottles of wine, Crimean champagne, Mirgorad water, juice, vodka, beer, etc. There were many cold dishes - all of them either breaded and fried or covered with delicious mayonnaise, or both!! There was fried eggplant with mayonnaise, fish cakes of some sort, buttered white bread with a smoked red fish on it, a fantastic tomato and cucumber and dill salad - the tomatoes were spectacular - stuffed peppers, and two "salads" which are collations of various vegetables (peas, corn, etc.) and eggs, and in the one case (Olivier salad) cubes of ham, and in the other (I don't remember the name of this salad, but it's always on a Ukrainian menu or among the prepared foods in a Ukrainian market) with crab meat. There was also the requisite platter of sliced sausages and hams. And these were the hors d'oeuvres!! I was stuffed - the eggplant was especially delicious and I had 4 pieces - I felt like a galupsey (a unique Ukrainian stuffed cabbage dish)! When I thought I couldn't eat another bite Nella brought out the main course - breaded and fried chicken paillards over mashed potatoes, and a cabbage and chicken heart dish (animal hearts are eaten here all the time - I see veal heart salad on all the menus) - I wasn't crazy about the chicken hearts, and only had one small one with lots of cabbage so that I could try it and look like I was taking a lot from the platter. We didn't have borscht because in between cooking all these things, Nella had to oversee the construction of a kiosk near the tram stop where she will have a little market (in addition to her interest in a hair salon, and a business that cleans feather pillows!!) So she just ran out of time!!

I know Gennadiy is crazy about Nella and his two daughters, but he is so patronizing and dismissive of them, especially Nella. The only thing he is openly proud of is Yrena's sports achievements - she is a Ukrainian aerobics champion and has competed all over the world. One of her stuffed animals has about 50 gold medals hanging around its neck!! Gennadiy is a fitness nut - he even told us (and showed us) that he has a scale (which is right there in the living room, also the bedroom), and that he makes Nella weigh herself everyday because she is "fat"!!! This woman is not fat, she is not even plump!! She's not skinny, but she certainly doesn't have to lose any weight. Both the girls have great figures, but he keeps telling Marina that she is fat too! When Genna met us at the mashroutka stop he was carrying a bag with some juice and bottled water - he waved it at us and told us that Nella was making him work (I guess he had to buy the juice and water), and that a man shouldn't have to do that. Maybe he's just trying to make jokes, but these are not jokes that amuse me. At dinner, as we would exclaim over the food, Genna would tell us that his friend's wife was a much better cook (at least Nella was out of the room when he said this!) - he did explain that this other woman was a better cook because she was a housewife and stayed home all day and had nothing else to do, which I guess is giving Nella some credit for being a business woman, but not much, and it certainly doesn't give much value to being a "housewife"!

In fact, while Ed and I were waiting for Genna to come get us at the mashroutka stop we actually had (another) fight about Genna. He thinks I'm way too hard on Genna - that I really "have it in" for him. I, of course, don't see it that way at all. Ed really admires Gena for standing up to the judges and police here, for being a really good lawyer, and for being a man of principle. I admire those qualities too, but frankly, I don't get to see that side of the man. I see how he makes demeaning and patronizing comments about his wife and daughters (laughing, it's true, but to me it feels like 'kidding on the square'), the man who exhausts Ed because he doesn't recognize that it would be to both their advantage to have a translator work with them on the legal matters, even though they can certainly converse together in English about all sorts of other things, the guy who insists on talking to Ed about business when Nella and I and his daughters are there and cannot participate in the conversation. I really find it hard to believe that he is such a staunch advocate in court when I see how he delivers some comments to the press at the signing of the agreement with the police - head down, very timid seeming. I also think that while being a man of principle is a very good thing, it's not so good if it prevents you from getting anything done. You have to find a way to keep your principles and get results. I had told Ed earlier how I had been listening to a reading from a book by a woman lawyer who worked in Iran during the late 90's trying to achieve some relief for the way women were treated in that society, and how she had had to figure out a way to get results while appearing (to the powers that be) not to challenge the system - he just got furious with me, telling me that I just didn't understand someone like Gennadiy. Well, maybe I don't, but what I really don't understand is why Ed keeps provoking these conversations. He keeps bringing up the things that are great about Gennadiy, knowing that I won't necessarily agree, leaving me in the position of either saying what I think or keeping silent. He also keeps bringing up the things that drive him crazy about Gennadiy, knowing that I will agree, and then getting mad at me for doing so! We have to figure this one out - or it's going to be a problem.

Ed knows I never give even a hint about these feelings to Genna - I would never do such a thing because I am genuinely fond of him. As I said, he is a really good soul - the woman thing is probably a cultural issue, not necessarily specific to him, and probably more my problem than his. That's why I wouldn't dream of challenging him on it. In fact, I usually play along - like when he told us that Nella had made him "work" buying the juice and water, I chimed in that this was outrageous, how could he allow it, in America no husband would stand for it, ha ha ha ha.

But again, I digress (and here I am complaining about Genna going off in all different directions). The dinner was a big success. At one point I asked Genna whether he had seen himself on TV on Tuesday night, after the big signing, and I think he misunderstood me, because he said "yes yes we have English channels" and he put on the TV!! So we had the TV on in the background throughout the dinner. But we just ignored it and talked over it. We all made toasts - I did "davashes derovia" (to your health) and Nella gave a very moving toast saying (in Russian) that even though she doesn't speak English she feels that she has made very good friends, that she feels very close to us, and that she hopes that we will always remain friends. She said lots of other things, but Genna said he really couldn't translate it, but it was the music, not the words that was important - it brought tears to my eyes. She really is lovely.

I remarked on a photo they had displayed of Yrena and Marina that I thought was great, and Nella went into one of the cabinets and brought out all these photo albums of the different aerobics competitions Yrena has been in over the years. These photos were really something - some were just great snaps of Yrena or the team doing their stuff, but others were quite risque - for example, the entire team naked in the sauna, Yrena wearing "body art," which consisted of a see through leopard unitard that was almost as if she were naked, and some other very provocative poses!! I think their culture is much less inhibited than ours! We also watched a couple of videos that Genna had on his computer of the two girls when they were much younger. There was one of the two of them doing a song and dance routine to welcome Genna home after he had been in Cincinnati on an exchange program - just adorable - 8 year old Marina playing the "groom" wearing Gennadiy's suit jacket and his cap that said USA, and 14 year old Yrena in a tiny skirt and tights playing the "wife" and prancing around nonstop. And then there was another when they were about the same age where Yrena plays the piano while Marina sings "Let It Be"!!! Sooooo cute.

At about this time (7:30 or 8) Yrena came home from work and joined us. Why, she wanted to know, didn't we bring Belle. We explained that Belle would be chasing the cat all over the apartment. That was not a good enough reason in her judgment! A sentiment that was echoed by Marina when she came home from her evening classes at about 9 p.m. - she goes to the Law Academy part time and works at the Academy full time. It's such a small world - it turns out that Marina also works for Dr. Stashis, the same man (the head of the Law Academy) that Vicky works for! Marina and Vicky know each other pretty well. I guess there really is only 6 degrees of separation after all.

Ed had scheduled an office meeting with all the lawyers (including the 5th PD who had just been hired) at 8:30 the next morning (Friday), and so both he and Gennadiy went easy on the vodka and we left at about 9:30. Nella insisted that Yrena (the only member of the family who has a car - she bought it with her earnings) drive us home, and she went with us to keep Yrena company on the drive back.

I was sorry to say goodbye to Nella - but I know we will see her again soon because Ed will have to come back to Kharkiv from time to time to work on the project here, and we will try to come to see one or two of Marina's volley ball games (she is a member of a Law Academy team that is reputed to be at an almost professional level). So this not really goodbye.

He Not Speak Pretty One Day

Poor Ed. He is so exhausted. It is really, really hard to spend so much time with Gennadiy, who is a really good soul, but so scattered. And he talks non-stop, but in a way that is especially exhausting because he is constantly interrupting himself and going off in a different direction. So every conversation takes forever and goes nowhere. He is a really principled man, and Ed says he is a real fighter in court, but when it comes to speaking English, it's really, really difficult. And of course Ed can't possibly use a translator with him - he would be so hurt and offended. But the problem really boils down to the fact that he just doesn't speak English very well - and so he is always searching for the right word, which takes a long time, and he is not always successful. I know, I should talk - my Russian is non-existent and my Ukrainian pathetic. But I don't have any illusions about my ability to communicate in those languages - I can't, plain and simple! And although his command of English is about one million times better than my command of Russian and Ukrainian, it's still not that great. For example, he and Ed did a whole series of motions that are to be input on the office computers in Russian, and Ed just wants him to identify the subject of each motion that is in Russian so that he can use them in Kyiv as well. There are exactly 39 of them - I know this because I scanned all of them into our computer. So far he has gotten Gennadiy to identify about 10 of them - and that took about 2 hours. I wish I could convey how frustrating it is to talk to him - he'll say "You go number 5 tram, then there is - no not is no - that is - no no - number 5 next to number 6 - no no - that is, well maybe, number 5 will go, no, not go, come to court." He once tried to give me directions to go somewhere, and after 15 minutes I just asked him to please give me the building number and the street - it was about 5 minutes from the apartment and if I hadn't interrupted he'd still be giving me the directions - and this was 3 months ago!!!! So after a few hours with Gennadiy Ed comes home just beat. And he really wants to get a lot done before he leaves - he wants to identify all those motions, make sure the office phones are working so that they can take calls, make sure that the copiers and cabinets and locks to be placed in the police station and the court are purchased, meet with the Presiding Judge and all the other judges at the Kominternovskiy court to introduce a radically "new" procedure called bail (which entails setting up an account with the courts where bail can be deposited, writing regulations on the procedures for posting bail, etc., none of which the courts are very receptive to). In addition, he has to go to Golan's office (he's the guy who arranged for the PD's office to get a room in the courthouse) and explain to him why there won't be a big-deal press conference after all (they've decided to postpone that until the office is really up and running - probably mid to late October), but only a minor press conference with Ed, Gennadiy and Arkadiy on Tuesday announcing the signing of the agreement with the police and the beginning of the work of the PD Office. Of course, no one from the press will go to that since they already covered the big deal signing ceremony at the police station on Tuesday. Some of this stuff he shouldn't have to deal with at all (e.g. making sure that the copiers are purchased!), but if he doesn't do it, it just won't get done.

Arranging the meeting with the Presiding Judge has been very difficult. The Deputy Presiding Judge is very opposed to the project - she says she knows all about the project, she doesn't want or need to meet with "the American," they have plenty of good lawyers at the courthouse who will take these cases "for free" and will do a very good job, and on, and on. But finally a meeting was arranged at 3 p.m. today. We'll see if the judges will cooperate. Ed asked me to remind him how to get the courthouse, and I couldn't help him - I've never been there - I've only been to the police station. After many heavy sighs and groans to prepare himself for the coming ordeal, he picked up the phone and called Gennadiy. He was on the phone for about 5 minutes getting directions, and when he got off I asked him what tram he has to take, and he said that he was going to take a cab - Gennadiy did the usual stop, start, stop, turn, stop, start, turn, turn, stop, and Ed just gave up! Ed asked me if I thought that the cab driver would know where the Kominternovskiy courthouse is, and I said that frankly I didn't - the cab drivers here can't even find popular restaurants when you give them the exact address, and we don't even know how to say "courthouse" in Russian or Ukrainian! He thought he remembered how to get there on the Number 5 tram, so he set off an hour early to see if he could find it. (When I called Vicky later to find out how to say aspirin in Russian (it's "aspirin," by the way) she told me that Ed had called her to ask her to help him explain to a taxi driver that he wanted to go to the courthouse and to give the driver the address. Vicky was actually teaching at the time of the call, and she didn't know the address, so she asked her students, some of whom did know, and together they were able to get him to the court on time! Vicky asked me to tell Ed that he owes her class a lecture on the workings of the PD Office in Kharkiv - that she had told her students about the project and they (all law students) were very excited about it. Naturally, Ed is very happy to do this - it's right up his alley - he's a born teacher.) He ended up giving up on the tram because, after waiting half an hour and seeing three Number 5 trams going in the other direction, he began to worry that he wouldn't get there in time if he didn't get a cab. He learned later that there were two auto accidents and that the Number 5 going in his direction was not running!

As if Ed won't be exhausted enough tonight (we're both getting colds too - hence the need for aspirin), we're having dinner at Gennadiy and Nella's home this evening!! She's making borscht specially for me. She really is the nicest person. So while Ed went off to meet the judge, I went to the expensive "Gastronom" around the corner to buy some French wine and French chocolate truffles to bring with us. We'll pick up some flowers when we go to catch the Mashroutka - these are little minivans that basically follow the routes of the buses and trams (but there are more of them than there are public transport), charge slightly more (like maybe 1.50 HVA - 30 cents - as opposed to .50 HVA - 10 cents), have only a few scheduled stops (but they will stop when they are flagged down and when you ask them to), so they are generally faster, less crowded and more comfortable - or so they say. We shall see. We actually took one when we went to Gorky Park shortly after we arrived in Kharkiv, but this trip will be at rush hour (5:30) in the heart of downtown, and I've seen the queues that line up for these things. I think it will be standing room only.

Ed just got back from his meeting with the Presiding Judge, which he said was moderately successful. She's agreed to assemble all the judges in the courthouse for a meeting on Monday afternoon. We'll see if they show up. He brought up the issue of writing regulations for granting bail, but she said that there was no procedure allowing for bail, even though there is a law that entitles people to bail. When he asked her for a meeting with the court administrator to help set up such a procedure, she explained that she has very bad relations with the new court administrator, and that she could not arrange such a meeting. She then proceeded to give a detailed history of her "good" relations with the previous administrator, may he rest in peace!

Now it's off to Genna and Nella's. I'm sure it will be a feast.

The "Official" Signing Ceremony

I have finally finished inserting the photos into the Blog entry for Jodi and Don Gold's visit to Kyiv!!! Thank God!!!! It's a lot more work than it might seem!!! First of all there was the problem of accessing Jodi's photos - she uses snapfish, which provides high resolution digital photos, which I guess is great if you're printing them, but which means that it takes forever to download them!! Then there was the constant kvetching of Ed (the official Blog photographer - here he is hard at work!) who wouldn't stop bugging me about which of his photos he wanted included (all of them!). Why doesn't he do his own Blog???? Then it just takes forever to upload photos into the Blog and to do the layout - i.e., to place the photos so that the text flows nicely and doesn't get obscured by the photos overlapping. In order to do this properly you really have to keep publishing and editing over and over again, because there is no way to tell how the final product will look without actually publishing it first! I think I published and edited this particular blog entry at least 25 times. And with all this of course I have to deal with Ed's constant complaints and queries about why didn't I include this one, or that one!!! And with the problems of the internet here - frequently disconnecting and interrupting the uploads and downloads! I think it took about 7 hours all together!!!

Meanwhile, on Tuesday they had the "Official" signing of the Agreement with the Police. It had actually been signed on Monday, but now the press was there - lots of press - and we were told that Ed was on the local TV news programs a lot that night. The venue was different too - this time we met at the actual police station that the PD's office will be servicing - Kominternovskiy - and all the PD lawyers were present, as well as Arkadiy, Gennadiy, Ed, Vicky, the General, a representative from the Ministry of Justice, the Chief of the Police Station, and the General's assistant. Ed was asked to say a few words, and he gave a great little speech, saying he knows that change is difficult, that is always easier to just stay the course, that he is so impressed with how cooperative the General, in particular, has been and that he is to be commended for embracing rather than rejecting changes which we all hope will benefit of the Ukrainian people. The press asked lots of questions, and Ed, through Vicky (in the lavender top), who is so good at what she does, answered them all. He said that every culture and system is different, and that it wasn't his purpose to impose the U.S. system on Ukraine, but rather to help the Ukrainian government establish a public defender office that would operate effectively within the Ukrainian Constitution and laws in particular, and the Ukrainian system in general. (In fact, the Constitution and laws are quite good in their protections of the rights of suspects and defendants - its the practices of the police and the courts, which often don't conform with the requirements of the laws and the Constitution, and application of these laws by those official institutions, that need reform. Of course Ed didn't say this!)

Ed wore the Kharkiv pin that I had bought him and looked very handsome and impressive as he responded to the press and the General. I was snapping away, and got some good photos - especially of the General, who is a very smart and practical guy, although you might not think so from this photo!! All of his questions or problems with the original draft of the agreement were very well taken, and in the end it looks like they have fashioned an agreement that might actually have a chance of working!! I hope so.

The PD lawyers were then taken on a tour of the police station. First they were shown the room where they will be stationed so that they can instantly respond when a suspect wants a lawyer, and so that the police won't have to wait to begin their interview of a suspect when he waives his right to counsel - the PD lawyer will be on site and can confirm immediately whether or not the waiver is voluntary. After that we went to look at the detention cells, which have just been remodeled and repainted. So, I must say, the cells didn't look too bad. But during this entire time we didn't see a single suspect or detainee! Maybe there's another section of the police station that we didn't see.

I went back after the signing ceremony and the tour to do a whole bunch of errands in preparation for our move to Kyiv. Among other things, I had to get the cash to pay the first and last month's rent for the apartment, and I also had to get enough money to pay for Ed's train tickets back to Kharkiv on Sunday, and then to Kyiv again on Tuesday afternoon. There's the matter of the minivan and driver that we hired to haul us and Belle and all our stuff to Kyiv at 7 a.m. on Saturday - I think it's going to cost about $400! YIKES!!! We've gotten spoiled with these $12 train tickets. But it's really the only way to get everything to Kyiv without driving ourselves crazy and wearing ourselves out - I still remember how difficult it was to get everything here, and we did that in two trips! When I went to the bank to withdraw some cash, I was told that they didn't have enough U.S. Dollars to meet my request (although I had plenty of money in my account)!! So I had to take half then and go back for the other half the next day! I also learned that the debit cards that we had gotten are not on this account (the Current Account which is in U.S. Dollars) - they are on an entirely separate debit card account, and we have to deposit Hryvnas into that account in order to use the debit card or withdraw money (only in Hryvnas) at an ATM. So now we have two accounts at Aval Bank, and soon will have a third - We can deposit U.S. Dollars in a Savings Account, and if we keep it in for a year we'll earn 7% interest, which will help offset the 1% they charge to take our U.S. dollars out of the Current Account. I suppose our banking system and options back in the States are just as complicated, but somehow it doesn't seem so to me.

That night we had dinner with Mike Willard, our friend from Kyiv whom we had met through Terry Pristin. He was in Kharkiv promoting one of his books, which has just been translated into Russian. He had spent the day driving to Kharkiv, having a press conference, meeting with a potential new client (he has a PR and business consulting firm with offices in Kyiv, Moscow and Istanbul). The next day he was lecturing the students at the University before leaving for Kyiv. Ed and I really wanted to go to the lecture, but, as it turns out, Ed was stuck at the office, trying to get everything done (there are tons of details that have to be seen to) and I had a lunch date with Vicky at Buchara. Mike brought two guys with him - one of them, Maxim, is the grandson of a famous Ukrainian poet, Maxim Rylsky, and Mike's press relations guy, and the other, Rostic, works for Mike's company, looks 14 but is really 25 and speaks English perfectly - I mean really perfectly - hardly any accent at all. I had to pick the restaurant, and I was tempted by Buchara because it is so close and pretty, but they don't take credit cards, and we wanted to pay for this dinner - Mike had taken us out our first night in Kyiv, and he had arranged to get the Sleeping Beauty ballet tickets for us - and Kharkiv was, after all, "our" city! So instead we went to Ochotniy Dvor, the really pretty restaurant that Oksana Stashis had introduced us to. We thought we would probably eat inside, it's getting quite chilly out at night now, but once Mike and his companions saw the setting we decided to eat outside instead. The restaurant provides big thick blankets to wrap around yourself, but even so I think I caught cold. (All the restaurants with outdoor seats have these blankets available for their customers - it's a great idea, but how long can this continue??? I haven't seen any outdoor heaters here. Another thing all the restaurants here provide are big vases for the customers to bring the flowers they have bought - either for celebrations, or to take home - so they won't wilt or die before the meal is over!! Another great idea because in this culture everyone brings flowers to celebrate even the smallest occasion.) I'm still glad we sat outside, even though it really was quite chilly - you feel like you are in the middle of the woods, and there was a fantastic trio with a terrific jazz singer. She must have been American - she was young, beautiful and black - and she sang wonderful standards. (It was a really nice change from the usual blaring rock music that you usually get in restaurants here - the other night when we went to dinner with Vicky we had to leave the nice part of the restaurant and sit in the bar because we couldn't stand the music - it was so loud you honestly couldn't hear what anyone at the table said.) I can't believe we didn't go over and talk to her - ask her where's she from - where she will be next, etc. How stupid was that!! The food was good too - everyone loved it. In fact, we all ordered the same main course - pork shashlik - it was so tender and juicy and well-seasoned - yummy. I, of course, started out with my usual blini with red caviar - I just cannot get enough of that stuff. Ed and I decided to try a desert, and I ordered what I thought was poppy seed cake (Rostik was away from the table when we ordered and couldn't translate for me!), but turned out to be "honey cake." I didn't like it at all, so Ed ate the whole thing. In fact, the waiter had misunderstood and brought two, when we wanted to split one order, but we gave the extra one to Rostik who said that it was one of the best he had ever had.

Mike had his car and driver with him and we had the restaurant call us a taxi to get back. Our cab driver had gotten lost on the way to the restaurant - this is the second time we've had cab drivers who couldn't find their way to restaurants that appear to be quite popular and crowded! And this time I even had the card from the restaurant - with the name, address and phone number. We finally had to call the restaurant for him so that they could tell him how to get there. It took over a half hour to get there (it's a 10 minute ride), and I felt so bad for the driver because gas is so expensive, that we gave him an extra 5 Hryvnas (he had of course initially demanded 50, and we had said 20, and he had said okay). So this time we wanted to make sure the guy knew how to get to our apartment and that the price was right. We enlisted Rostik's help and in two seconds he told the guy where to go and got the 20 Hryvna price we wanted. I hope we see more of him (and Max and Mike of course) in Kyiv - he's really lively and fun - loves American music, like the jazz singer we heard. Turns out he's also a lawyer, but stopped doing that almost as soon as he had gotten his degree. He joined Mike's company as a translator, but they quickly found that he was too good to be just a translator, but I'm still not sure exactly what it is that he does!!

A Dress Rehearsal

This is it - the big day! Will the General sign the document, or will there be further delays???? That is the question! In anticipation of things going well both Ed and I dressed up - he in a suit and tie and dress shirt, I in my black skirt, black Arche flats, green V neck long sleeved knit top and my fabulous shawl that I got in Costa Rica. It's getting pretty cold here now. It seems to go directly from very very hot summer to quite chilly late autumn here.

Ed was scheduled to meet with Gennadiy, Arkadiy and the General and his assistant and their lawyer (who turns out to be a general as well), and the Deputy Director for the entire region - the number 2 person in charge of all the police chiefs and officers in the Kharkiv Oblast) at 11 a.m. at the former KGB Building. We decided that I should go to, and take photos of this momentous occasion. There was just one small problem - neither Ed nor Gennadiy had yet to see or read the final agreement which Gennadiy was supposed to sign at 11 a.m.!!! Ed had arranged to meet both Gennadiy and Arkadiy at the building at 10 a.m., with Vicky, so that they could review it, but Arkadiy neglected to bring it with him! (The day before when Ed tried to get Arkadiy to email it to him, Arkadiy was not able to do that, and when he tried to get the Deputy Director's email address so that Ed could ask her for a copy, Arkadiy was unable to provide that either, even though he had obviously received her email address when he got the agreement that she had emailed to him on Saturday morning.) The Deputy Director was in a meeting, so she couldn't give them a copy, so they just cooled their heels for about an hour until the Deputy Director emerged from her meeting and could print out copies for them.

Meanwhile, I had gone to the printer that Vicky had told me about to finalize the text on my and Ed's "calling" cards - I can't really call them business cards because they have no business name, address or title! These guys are great (unlike the first printers I used). They did a proof instantaneously, helped me decide on the correct English phonetic spelling of our street in Kyiv (Kostyolnya - the last "y" replaces the cirillic symbol for softening the preceding consonant, so you have a sort of slight pause and intake of breath - sometimes it's indicated with an apostrophe, but this seemed better), and I disposed of the matter in about 10 minutes. I arrived at the former KGB Building, as directed by Ed, at 10:30, camera at the ready!

So I was there waiting with Arkadiy and Ed and Vicky when the Deputy Director emerged. She is a very attractive woman, with blond hair swept up on top of her head, and she was wearing her police uniform, with a big medal on her chest, and very high black spike heels with silver star burst decorations on the toe section of the shoe. Very nice! She has great legs so it looked fabulous. The uniforms are quite good looking, blue, with fitted jackets and short straight skirts.

We went into her office (which is really quite splendid by Ukraine standards, let alone Kharkiv standards) and she printed out a copy of the agreement for Ed. (We later learned from Vicky that the first thing she said, in Russian, was "Too bad we couldn't do this Saturday as planned, but I understand someone was sick" !!! Vicky didn't translate this for Ed at the time - good thing too because I would have gone ballistic. Arkadiy probably told her that Ed was sick, when Ed was available and desperate to get this thing done!!!) Ed quickly went over the agreement with Vicky - an important section had been deleted - and then, after Gennadiy arrived (he had had to go back to the office to get the official stamp for the signing of the agreement - he hadn't been told by Arkadiy that they were going to sign everything that morning), Ed began to discuss the deletion with the Deputy Director. The police position was quite reasonable - Ed wanted to include a provision requiring the police to wait to question a detainee, even when the suspect wanted to waive his or her right to counsel, until a PD lawyer confirmed with the detainee that he or she did, in fact, want to waive right to counsel. This could eat up a lot of time, especially if the PD lawyer was particularly slow in responding to the call from the police. But under Ukrainian law, the police have only a 3 hour window in which to question a detainee after arrest. The police investigators' position is that there is nothing in the law that requires them to wait so long for a public defender to confirm that the right to counsel has been freely waived (quite true), and they would therefore never follow this rule even if the agreement was signed with this provision included. Ed suggested that they limit the time for a PD lawyer to arrive to 45 minutes. He asked if it would be possible to write the agreement this way. The Deputy Director laughed and said "We can write whatever we want, but the investigators will not do it, and there is no law that requires them to wait for a lawyer once the right to counsel has been waived." She pointed out that it would be very detrimental to the Project sign an agreement that was openly flouted from the outset. So a compromise was reached - since the PD office will only be serving one police station and court instead of two, it will have enough lawyers to be able to assign one, on a rotating basis, to be present at the police station all the time so that there will be no delay in having the interview to confirm the waiver of right to counsel. Ed had wanted to avoid having a lawyer stationed at the police station because he didn't want the lawyers getting too friendly with the police officers and investigators, and possibly, as a result, subconsciously becoming less aggressive in their representation of their clients. He was also worried that the clients might think that the lawyers work for the police rather than for them. But, all things considered, this seems to be the best solution, at least for the time being.

The call came that the General was waiting for us. We went down two floors. The halls were carpeted with beautiful runners, the walls were wood paneled, and we were ushered into a beautiful conference room with a huge circular desk, with an empty space in the center in which there was a virtual garden of green houseplants! The General arrived - I was introduced by Ed "Ce moya durzhina - vona advocat" - and the General said he knew - word had already reached him that I was there. I took some photos, and then it was decided that there should be a big-deal signing session with the media, etc. present. So even though everything is now agreed to, the actual official signing will take place tomorrow (and I've worn the only nice thing I have with me today!!). I guess they won't be surprised to see me there with my camera - I wonder if I should bring Belle too!

As we were leaving I asked Vicky to ask the Deputy Director if she was wearing "regulation" shoes. The Deputy said that the regulations just say that black shoes must be worn, so she supposes that they are! Ed asked what the medal was for - and she said it was for "motherhood" - we all exclaimed and asked how old her child is, and when she said 22! I swear Ed and I both thought she meant 22 months! This woman looks 32 tops!! She told us that she is 45, which is hard to believe, and that you get this medal because your child has succeeded at something, so you are honored for having brought up the child very well. Her daughter is a ballerina with the Hanover Ballet (I'll have to find out whether that's Hanover Germany, or somewhere else). Ed and I told her how much we love the ballet and that we had seen Swan Lake on Friday night. She said that they are now doing Don Giovanni at the opera and it's quite good. Maybe we'll have to go - we'll see if we have time before we leave.

On my way home I stopped off at the post office to buy two envelopes with stamps to send two letters to our new address - one in English writing and one in Cyrillic. On the Cyrillic envelope I put my return address in English letters and on the other I put the return address in Cyrillic - so it will be interesting to see whether the English one gets to the address in Kyiv, and if not, whether it gets returned to me here.

I also stopped at a hotel that seems to have sprung up overnight. Two months ago there was a run down building that said "HOTEL" in Russian but was missing a couple of letters. Today it's quite nicely restored, with the usual granite entrance, but nice wood and carpets throughout. It's on Gogol Street and called the Chichikov, after the character in Dead Souls I suppose. All the receptionists seem to speak at least a little English. I looked at the rooms, and they are nicely done, with good quality furniture, and nicely and differently tiled bathrooms (tiny tiles, instead of the usual 12 inch square fake marble tiles). It costs $160 for a double, including tax and buffet breakfast, and it was worth checking out because Ed will no doubt have to make a few visits to Kharkiv after we move to Kyiv. They weren't too keen on the idea of Belle staying there, but I'll bring her by, and I'm sure they'll melt and give in. I had a capuccino in the bar while I wrote out the addresses on my envelopes - good Illy coffee - but yikes!! 20 HVA, without a tip!!! Even Beatric only charges 8.20 HVA with a tip.

In Which Susan, Ed And Belle Meet Jodi And Her Dad in Kyiv And Susan Chooses An Apartment There

I was scheduled to go to Kyiv on the morning of September 7, arriving at 1 p.m., in time to take the metro to see the apartment on Bessarabska Square. On Wednesday I
sent an email to the agent to confirm our appointment and he emailed back that the owner wouldn't be able to show me the apartment until Monday, September 11!!! This really pissed me off because I was hoping to get everything settled by 1:30 p.m. on Thursday so that I could enjoy my visit with Jodi and her dad, Don. But that's life in Ukraine. Monday at noon FOR SURE - yeah right - it ended up being rescheduled again for Monday 3 p.m., and then we had to wait over 1/2 hour for the other agent to arrive - but I digress!

Since I didn't have to rush right from the train station to the apartment I decided to take Belle with me, rather than have Ed bring her on Friday morning, when he was taking the train to Kyiv to join us for the weekend. (He stayed in Kharkiv on the chance that he and Gennadiy would be able to observe the police stations on Thursday - and much to my amazement, he actually managed to make that happen! He was going to come back on Sunday so that he could bring all the PD lawyers over to the courthouse to see the room that had been assigned to them there and introduce them to the courthouse administrator and Golan.) Ed's negotiations with Golan had really paid off - the court and local bar went way beyond approval of the assignment of a desk for the PD office in the attorney room (the attorney room still has a picture of Lenin prominently displayed! And manual typewriters available!!). They actually agreed to give the PD office it's own room (which even has a window!!) with a door that it can lock, and where it can keep a copying machine and documents relating to cases!! Just amazing. The four public defenders (there will soon be a fifth) are thrilled!

I also decided to bring my computer, even though the hotel charges $20 an hour for the internet - even when you bring your own computer and use the wi-fi!!! The charge wouldn't have been that awful if they had a decent speed, but they don't - they run at 58kbps, which is slower than dial up!! I was going to have to learn to use it very sparingly.

I had bought two seats for myself, 2nd class, so I had no trouble accommodating all my stuff and Belle on the train. Belle just squeezed in between me and the wall and looked like a fur jacket or muffler that I had folded up on the seat next to me! When she finally woke up, about half way into the trip, the train steward was amazed to see her and wanted to know if she had been on the train and out of her case the whole time. "Tak Tak" I said, and since she was so good he didn't make a fuss. That's always the case with Belle - if I inquire in advance, the answer is usually "sobaka neh mozhna" - but once they meet Belle it's always "Belle mozhna" - Belle is permitted. Even with her incredibly scruffy coat - she really looks like a mongrel these days, as you shall see in some of Jodi's and Ed's photos. Yes, finally - photos for the Blog.

I managed to read a lot of War and Peace, arrived on time, and decided to take the metro since it was the middle of the day and unlikely to be a crush. I was wrong about that - it was a crush, but nowhere near the crush that practically squashed her when we took the metro to the train station on a Sunday at 4:30 p.m. Besides, this train was going the other way, and was closer to the start of the line, so the train wasn't completely overloaded yet. Nevertheless, it was pretty full, but I noticed that the front car was pretty empty. I let one train go by and walked to the front, but on the next train the front car was as full as the rest of the cars!! I got to my stop, Kreshchatik, and couldn't quite figure out which way I should exit. When I emerged I had no idea where I was - I certainly was not on Kreshchatik!! So I bit the bullet and found a cab. I showed him the card for the hotel, and he told me 45 HVA. I said no, twenty. He said 35 and I said no. He said 25 and I said no, and we finally agreed on 20. When he started driving I realized that I was about 2 (long) blocks from the hotel, so I told him it should be 10 HVA. He showed me a card that indicated that the minimum ride in Kyiv is 20 HVA. He pointed out that this card is a year old - that the rate is now 30 HVA because of the cost of gasoline, plus there is a surcharge for a dog. He was probably telling me truth, and in any case I was so discombobulated that I handed him 30 HVA when we arrived at the hotel door, said djakoyou - thanks - and got out of the cab. Once I had given it to him it was too late to take it back, so I was out 10 HVA, or $2 - I think I can live with that!

I felt like I was coming home - everyone at Hotel Gintama knows us now (because of Belle, of course). I went to my room, unpacked, checked my emails on the incredibly slow internet, and settled down at a table on the patio with a pot of tea, War and Peace, and Belle to await the arrival of Jodi and her father. They got there shortly after 5 because it took them over an hour to get through passport control at the airport. I told them I had made dinner reservations at O'Panas (the restaurant in Shevshenko Park that Zaza had taken us to when we first arrived in Kyiv only 3 months, but what seems a lifetime, ago, and that we had time to rest up, shower and relax before heading out at about 7. We walked over, and it was still light, so I could point out the sights - St. Michael's, St Sophia's, the new Hyatt (a gleaming metal structure across the street from St Sophia's that, to my eyes at least, looks horribly out of place), the old Leipzig Hotel, which is an incredible Beaux Arts building from about 1910, which once was the grandest hotel in Kyiv but is now completely abandoned, although the outside has been restored (apparently the government, which owns it, cannot find a tenant - if only Hyatt had taken that building and refurbished the inside and restored it to it's former glory as a hotel - but sadly they did not do so), the Opera House, with the world's ugliest Soviet apartment building directly across the street, and Zoloti Verota (Golden Gate, the only remaining section of the original wall that surrounded the city). It was a lovely evening and we strolled through Taras Shevshenko Park to the restaurant, where we celebrated Don Gold's 79th birthday!! It was fun getting to talk to Don about his career - I had googled him before coming and learned that he had produced some of my favorite TV programs - Rockford Files, McMillan and Wife, Miami Vice, Hart to Hart - just to name a few! And also to catch up with Jodi and find out what's been going on at the dog park. Jodi is so much fun (and I'm not just saying that because I know she'll be reading this either!) - she has so much energy and enthusiasm. Ed really liked her too - and paid her and her father the highest of compliments: "When we get home, we should have them over." Ed, a solitary creature at heart, doesn't often say that!!

The next morning I took Belle and Jodi and Don on a walking tour through Maryinsky Park, past the Arch of Friendship, Maryinski Palace, the Rada, the National Philharmonic, beautiful park lands, and back down along Kreshchatik, passing Maidan and the Independence Monument, and going to see the pretty little square by the National Ukrainian Theater where the apartment on Olginskaya was situated (the apartment that had the makings of a great place but which was horribly fitted out). We stopped and had some fun with the public art in the square, and then moved on to one of my favorite cafes on Kreshchatik where they already know us (because of Belle) and where we waited for Ed who was due to arrive at 1 p.m. He met us for lunch and from then on it was non-stop touring with Jodi and Don. A great time was had by all, at least by us!

This was a great chance for me and Ed to see all the sights that you never see when you live somewhere, and only see when you are a tourist in a city. But first we had an errand to run - we had to go up the the Renaissance Foundation offices on Saturday morning before they closed at 1 p.m. so that I could retrieve more prescription drugs that we take on a regular basis. We were about to run out because I thought we would be in Kharkiv for only 2 months and I had left them there. There is a tram that goes right to the offices, and the stop is not far from the hotel - by St Michael's - but Ed wanted to take a taxi, so we went down to the corner at Kreshchatik to get one. There was a taxi waiting but he wanted 50 Hryvnas - out of the question. So I had my hand out to hail another cab when a car pulled over. I gave him the address we wanted and told him 20 Hryvnas, and he said okay. I had read in my guidebooks that this is a perfectly respectable and safe way to get around in Kharkiv. People just pick you up to earn a few Hryvnas. Ed didn't even realize that it wasn't a cab until I told him what we were doing. He was horrified - but we arrived at the Foundation offices 15 minutes later, safe and sound. I found what I was looking for right away - thanks to my great labeling system and the good fortune of having that particular gigantic suitcase being the easiest one to get at. Ed was able to talk to Roman about the project, which was very useful, and we were soon on our way back - by tram this time. It was easy - 3 stops away - and we alit right between St Michael's and St Sophia's and met up with Jodi and Don in front of St Sophia's.

We went to the Lavra, by bus this time, which is a sacred monastery dating from the 9th or 10th century and walked through the caves, holding candles to light the way, where the monks had lived and worshiped, and were now buried. The bodies are mummified and occasionally you see a hand or a foot poking out!! And they were so tiny - maybe 4 to 5 feet tall!!

The women of course have to wear scarves on their heads and skirts - I looked like a total dork with my long black skirt over my pants - and when Jodi began to wander down one of the cave offshoots, a priest asked if she was Christian, and when she said yes - not true, she's Jewish, she just thought that was the answer they were looking for, - he told her she couldn't go down that cave - it was for pilgrims only. We didn't realize that there is a big difference in their minds between Christian and Ukrainian Orthodox!

They have several museums at the Lavra - including one of miniature art - that includes things like a bust of a head carved from a poppy seed!! No kidding. You have to look through microscopes to actually see the things. As Don said, the question is not how, but why!!! We were lucky and got there just as they were opening after the lunch break, so we didn't have a bunch of people ahead of us and could really take our time to look at each piece - there are only about 20 things so it didn't take too long, but there were lots of ooohs and aaaahs all around.
There was a portrait of Lenin that was made from the text of a lengthy essay he had written (you had to use a magnifying glass to read the words, but the portrait looked like a normal graphite drawing). The best, we all agreed, was the golden shoe clad flea!!! For sure that would have been Belle's favorite.

The other museum there that we went to was a collection of the National Treasures, including some spectacular Scythian pieces - the most amazing one was a gold pectoral that is just indescribable. All of the gold carvings are intricate and depict different individual scenes, including animals (with defined musculature), people (with distinct facial features) and other things. Each of these items was very small, about a half inch at most, and perfect.

We never even got to the cathedrals (there are several) in the monastery, and we didn't get to see the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, with the enormous (6 meter) metal statute celebrating the motherland, also known as Tin Tits, although we did get to see her in the distance from the grounds of the Lavra. Well, there will be plenty of things to do when other visitors come!

We also visited Babi Yar, where about 140,000 Jews were shot in just one single day by the Nazis.I still remember The White Hotel, a fantastic novel that features Babi Yar. It's an interesting visit, not the least because to get to the Memorial at the very site of the massacre, you have to walk through a park that is filled with flower art (we called it the Ukrainian Rose Bowl) and an open air market selling lots of plants, fruits, honey and vegetables. The park and market were filled with families and laughing children on the Sunday we visited. A stunning contrast to the somber menorah that stands at the edge of the ravine where the bodies were tossed, and to the sad memorial to all the children who died there.


We also went to the Central Synagogue, where Jodi was an invaluable guide - she really knows about all this stuff. We followed that visit with lunch at Mordechai, the Kosher cafeteria right next door - it wasn't my favorite place to eat - paper plates and plastic forks for example - and I didn't think the food was that great but, nevertheless, it was definitely an integral part of the whole "Jewish" day in Kyiv!

On Friday night we went to the Circus - it was opening night and I expected something spectacular. We also hoped to get some street food - like hot dogs - there because we hadn't had time for dinner - but we struck out on that score. We did get tiny bags of popcorn though!! Jodi and Don had the bad luck to have a very hyperactive kid behind them - he never stopped jumping, pulling his shirt over his head, screaming, grabbing Don's coat, and generally making it impossible for Jodi and Don to relax and enjoy the show. We saw some good acts (the strong man, the high wire act, unbelievable animal acts including dancing porcupines with their quills extended the entire time!), but decided to leave at half-time. We had walked to the circus, against the advice of the hotel receptionist, so we were all pretty tired (it was a long walk - and it would have been a very long trek uphill on the way back) so we took a taxi home. I did my usual bargaining and got what I think was a reasonable rate. It's amazing how agitated we all get over an extra dollar or two!!

Saturday night, Ed's 64th birthday, we went to the National Ballet and Opera Theater to see Sleeping Beauty. We had great seats in the 7th row dead center on the aisle.The best part for Ed was that there was a big space between the 7th and 8th row so he didn't feel that he had to squish down so that the people behind him could see!
The ballet was quite good, although Sleeping Beauty is not my favorite, and Don who couldn't remember ever having gone to the ballet said that much to his surprise he enjoyed it. This despite the fact that, once again, there was the most annoying kid sitting right next to Don, and Jodi had some people in front of her that sat in such a way that she had to twist herself into a pretzel to see the stage. Ed and I insisted on switching seats with them at the first intermission, but by that time they moved the irritating kid, and the people in front of Jodi had changed seats with some other people, so it worked out that we all could see and watch undisturbed! It was good - not the greatest I've ever seen, but not bad. Certainly a very enjoyable evening, if not a thrilling one.

On Sunday afternoon Ed and Belle left us at 4:30 to get to the train station, and Jodi and Don and I walked down Andrew's Descent, probably the oldest street in Kyiv, which winds down from the top of the hill to the River Dnipro and Podil, the former working class district, but now the artsy and yuppie district, where they sell all manner of Ukrainian craft - both good and bad. Jodi found some cool stuff, and we stopped at this great little museum near the bottom of the street - Museum of One Street - which takes things found from each of the houses on the street (including one owned by a Rabbi, one owned by the writer Bulgakov, author of The Master and Marguerita (his house is also a museum), and others owned by a seamstress, a musician, etc. It's a fascinating way to see the history of the street and the city unfold.

We ended up in Podil and had dinner at a great Georgian restaurant called Mimona, which apparently is based on some cult film about an airline pilot (all the waiters and waitresses were dressed like airline stewards or stewardesses). After dinner we walked along the main drag, which seemed to be closed to traffic and filled with strollers, to catch the funicular up to St Michael's and the top of the hill (about a block away from the hotel). But not before we were able to gaze up at the beautiful vista of St Andrew's on the top of the hill (and the beginning of Andrew's Descent). This church was designed by the same architect who designed most of St Petersburg and Maryinski Palace in Kyiv (where the tsars would stay when in town). It has beautiful green domes that dominate the view upwards from Podil.

The next day Jodi, Don and I wandered around the city, stopping for a visit at St Sophia's (which has a great model of the old city surrounded by the old city wall that really puts everything in context). It's now a museum, but most of the original 11th century construction remains untouched. It's amazing that it has withstood the invasion of the Mongols, the Poles, the Germans, and god knows who else, not to mention the assault of the elements over the years. There is a belief among Ukrainians that St Sophia's is indestructible - but, as my guide book states, the United Nations is not so sure and has designated the cathedral as a protected site. We went on to St Volodomyr's which is supposed to be the most artistically beautiful, but Jodi and I didn't like it all - it's way too ornate and gloomy, although the outside is really pretty with it's bright yellow stucco and gorgeous royal blue domes with gold stars. From there we walked down Taras Shevshenko Blvd - a wonderful broad street with a beautiful middle island lined with fabulous trees (I have to find out what kind they are - Linden? Poplar? I don't know, but they give off this white fluff that fills the air during late spring and early summer) leading down to Tostogo Square and the last remaining statute of Lenin in Kyiv. By that time it was almost noon and I was supposed to meet the real estate agent to see the apartment near Planet Fitness, but of course I got a call postponing this to 3 p.m.!!! Why was I not surprised??

So instead we spent some time wandering around the Bessarbia Market and the fantastic "Gourmand" market in the basement of the new Mandarin Plaza shopping center across the street from Bessarabia. Bessarabia Market got it's name in the early 20th century because of the merchants from Bessarabia who made there way to this spot to sell their wares. Now there are gorgeous vegetables and fruits, sausages, meats, flowers, caviar, fish - you name it - on display and for sale. And the Gourmand Market across the street is even better!! As Don put it to me "I think you're going to have a really good time here." Jodi even found fantastic wines there, including a Chateau d'Yquem.

We still had time to kill, so we went to this FANTASTIC, and adorable, cafeteria, called Hut of the Pot Belly, to get some lunch. We had to wait on line forever, but the food was really delicious (all Ukrainian dishes) and the entire meal, for all three of us, cost me less than $5!!! I know that Ed and I are going to spend a lot of time here - the trick is to find a time when it is not so crowded. It definitely took longer to get our food than to eat it!

By now it was (finally!) time to see the Bessarbska Square apartment. The agent was waiting for us when we arrived at the appointed spot - TGI Fridays - yes, unfortunately this apartment is in the very same building that houses TGIF, which the Kyvians actually think is a very good and high class restaurant in the U.S.!! They are shocked when we say we don't want to eat there or at McDonald's (of which there are many). We had to wait another 1/2 hour for the "owner" (she couldn't possibly really be the owner - she must be the owner's agent or something - to arrive - she was over 30 minutes late because of the incredibly awful traffic at Bessarabska Square - you have to be crazy to take a car anywhere near there - non-stop gridlock 24/7. One look at apartment was all it took. The first bad sign was that we didn't use the elevator to get to the apartment, which is on the third floor. But then, after taking a look at the elevator, which was sort of added to the outside of the building, we all agreed it was probably a good thing that we didn't use it. It looked really bad. Even Jodi, who had spent a year living in Budapest in 1996, and was used to the Soviet era entryways, was taken aback. And then, when we got to the door of the apartment, we found that there was someone staying there!! She looked like a druggie and was smoking a cigarette and drinking tea when we came in - she wasn't expecting anyone and was pissed off about the whole thing. The entire apartment stank of smoke and there were heavy drapes that would never be rid of the residue without a really good cleaning. The place was huge, but had a mixture of some really cheap crappy furniture and some good stuff, but even the good stuff was sort of ugly - the kitchen was bad - it certainly was not the kind of place that I would be thrilled to come home to. The views were really awful - overlooking some sort of construction site and garbage cans and the like. Don was really appalled - he couldn't believe that anyone would pay to live there, let alone $3000 a month, which is what we were told the apartment had rented for before!

We went back to the hotel, marveling all the while at what people will pay for terrible places to live. I called the agent for the apartment near Planet Fitness immediately after seeing the Bessarabska Square apartment to see if I could look at it once more, and then I had called Tetyana and asked the receptionist at the hotel to ask her if I could see Michael's apartment that evening. It was arranged that I would meet Tetyana there at 7 p.m. Meanwhile, shortly after we got back to the hotel from Bessarabska Square the other agent called me back and told me that we could see the apartment near Planet Fitness at exactly 5:45. By now it was almost 5:30, but Jodi was great and agreed to rush over there with me (we basically had to go back to the same spot we had just come from!). Jodi liked the one near Planet Fitness - it is pretty nice, and has all the things I really need - like internet and TV - but I won't even be able to unpack until we can get a really big extra wardrobe - and there is the problem of no oven. After taking a good look there (it has lots of advantages - nice views, lots of security around there, very close to Bessarabia Market and the Gourmand Market in Madarin Plaza, and the like), we hurried over to Kostyolnya St - "Catholic Church" St in English, because of the Catholic Church, St Alexander's (where they have services in English - useful in the event I convert) at the end of the street at the top of the hill. The two apartments, both really well located, are at opposite ends of the main drag - Kreshchatik St - a little over a mile apart. Jodi really liked the Kostyolnya St apartment too - especially the storage space - and I decided to take it. I told Tetyana that I would take the apartment and would meet her there the next day at noon to give her $1000 to secure the apartment while I arranged all the paperwork with Michael.

So it's all settled - we're taking Michael's apartment - actuallyit turns out that it's Tetyana's apartment. This is the outside of the building and our new address, as of September 23, 2006 will be:
Україна, 01001, м. Київ
Вул. Костьольна, 7, кв. 16
or, in English, UKRAINE, 0100, Kyiv, Kostyolnya Street 7, Apt 16. As it turns out, the entrance to the building is actually much better than I remembered, and even though the apartment is quite small, it has a lot of closet and storage space, something generally lacking in Ukraine.

Jodi and Don and I had a picnic dinner that night on the patio at Gintama Hotel - leftovers from the great Georgian restaurant we had eaten at the night before, some sweets Jodi and I had bought at what Michael had told me (during a phone conversation) was the best bakery and bread store in Kyiv (right next door to MacDonalds in Maidan, about 3 minutes from the apartment and the hotel), and some salads we ordered from the bar at the hotel. It was terrific, and I felt so relaxed having made a final decision about where to live in Kyiv.

The next morning, while Jodi and her father packed up, I took the metro (the metro stations really are quite lovely, although usually very crowded) to the train station to get my tickets back to Kharkiv on the afternoon "express" train (I was nervous about waiting until the afternoon to get them because of past experience with sold out trains). When I got there, at about 10:30, I was told that I would have wait about a half hour for some unknown reason (no seats were available at 10:30). At 11, the woman behind the counter where foreigners have to purchase their tickets (who actually spoke a little English) waved me over, and I got what must have been the last two seats on the train (it was jam packed when I boarded later that day). I took the metro back and headed over to the local Aval Bank branch (about 3 minutes away, very convenient) to withdraw the $1000 I needed to secure the apartment (all went very smoothly - no problems at all).

At noon the three of us walked over to the apartment (which is 2 minutes from the Hotel Gintama - great for future guests since there's absolutely no room in our apartment for anyone else but us and Belle), so that I could meet Tetyana there and Don could take a look. He approved as well - he couldn't believe the difference between this one and Bessarabska Square apartment, although I think the entry way still shocked him. Jodi snapped a photo of the view from the kitchen window, and I arranged to come back at 1 p.m. (after Jodi and Don left for the airport) so that Tetyana and I could go hunt for the furniture I needed (2 end tables, a coffee table, and a desk and desk chair). Tetyana had already been looking for these items and had found some things she would show me.

It was so nice having Jodi and Don here. And it was especially great for me to have someone else look at the apartments. It just made me less anxious about my decision. But the time had come to say goodbye - they had to leave for the airport at 1 p.m. and I had to hurry over to the apartment to meet Tetyana. She and I first discussed the internet possibilities. It looks like I can get 4000 megabytes at a very high speed for $20 a month. I thought that would work out fine (and after checking with Glen I found that it definitely will be fine - and in fact, I have since learned that they changed the packages and rates as of September 1 - now I can get 5 gigabytes for $20 a month - even better) and told her so. She and I then walked down to the corner and over to Kreshchatik to get a taxi. I offered to take the metro, but she said a taxi was better. She spoke to a taxi driver and refused his offer of 50 Hryvnas. We then flagged down a car, and he took us to "Budonik Mobileh" or Furniture Building, quite far away, for 25 Hryvnas.

Furniture Building is a huge store filled with, guess what, furniture of all sorts. Everything from very cheap plastic fake wood junk to heavy baroque looking ugly wood stuff that's very expensive. Anything from Italy is highly prized and very expensive, even though I could see a chip out of one of the Italian end tables that made it clear that it was made of compressed wood chip board, not solid wood. We settled on a cheap computer desk and desk chair - I don't care so much about these because they will be in the nook that was formerly the balcony of the apartment, and won't be sitting out in the living room. But I did want the desk to at least match the color of the wood elsewhere in the apartment, and we were able to pick the color that worked. The chair has a tiny checked upholstery of black and raspberry that makes it look like a solid dark burgundy colored chair - which goes well with the other things in the apartment - and it's comfortable. Most importantly it raises up high enough so that I can put a laptop on the desk and use the keyboard without getting a back ache. That's been a big problem in Kharkiv - the table is normal height and so the keyboard ends up being too high, putting a strain on my back and shoulders because the bench I have to sit on is a fixed height. I've tried putting cushions and blankets on the bench to raise myself higher, but nothing really works for very long - they all collapse under my weight, which I fear is steadily increasing!!! I've got to find pilates in Kyiv!!!!

The end tables and coffee table were a different story. I want these to look good because they will be sitting out in the middle of the one real room. I didn't like anything we saw, and I think Tetyana was a little irritated with me. We are supposed to be splitting the cost of these items, and I don't think she wants to spend as much as I do. I decided to tell Michael that we will get these pieces ourselves. If they want to buy them from us at the end, great. If not, we'll either give them to people we meet in Kyiv who don't have much, or we'll give them to Vicky here in Kharkiv. We're going to be in that apartment for quite a while and I don't want to feel like I'm camping out.

After my experience with taking the metro to the train station with Ed and Belle on Sunday, September 3, I decided to splurge and take a taxi ($6) - this was a weekday and rush hour - I had a suitcase and a heavy computer case - I just couldn't face the metro. I got to the station in plenty of time, found my seats (which were the worst seats in the car - they were in one of those 4 seat arrangements where two seats face one way and two others face the opposite way, so that even though I had two seats, the two seats opposite me were taken and I had no legroom). But I had my pillow and the seat next to me, so I pulled out War and Peace and settled in for a great 6 hour read.

I got home at around 11:45, the train was almost a half hour late - the first time that's ever happened to me here - and there was Ed with Belle to greet me. We walked home in the dark (the street lights seem to go off at midnight here) and the cold!!! It's starting to get really chilly here at night - I don't think it ever gets cooler in Los Angeles than it is here now once the sun goes down. All three of us were exhausted, and we crashed as soon as we walked in the door.