Ed & Susan's Adventures in The Ukraine

Postscript

2010-06-09T02:49:00.006+03:00

I've been spending the last week or two trying to proofread all the Blog posts so that I can have it printed and bound in book form to give to Ed and our grandchildren (when they are older). This was Ed's idea, and I've been resisting. But now that I'm finished, I'm glad we're doing this. It really was a great adventure.

The Blog ended rather abruptly - not because anything terrible happened, but because living life left little time or energy for writing about it. We spent another 9 months in Kyiv, traveling much of the time, including a month-long visit to the States where Ed had a knee replacement in August of 2007. We managed to take all the trips I talked about planning in the Blog (Morocco, Barcelona, London, Lviv, St Petersburg and Vienna) and many others too - Budapest, Tblisi and Talinn, Israel and Turkey, to mention but a few. Ed oversaw the opening of a third Public Defender Office in Ukraine - in a city called Khmelnytsky, west of Kyiv. This office, like Bela Tserkva, had an amazing Director, a dynamic and energetic woman who saw what needed to be done, and did it.

Ed was in touch with OSJI a few months ago and was told that the Project is still up and running - a major achievement, considering the political situation in Ukraine (Yanakovich is now President) and Yulia and Yushenko are both out).

We left Kyiv in December of 2007 and spent the next 15 months in London (with Belle, of course), where we managed to see about 130 plays (including a 4 day marathon of Shakespeare's Histories, performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Roundhouse), and 70 ballets, operas and concerts. We didn't travel much because we so loved London. We had a wonderful apartment in Knightsbridge Village (on Ennismore Gardens - we even had a key to the private garden!). Every time I walked out of the apartment and onto the street I felt as if I was living in a Henry James novel. We were two blocks from Hyde Park and three blocks from Kensington Gardens. Belle has never been happier - she got to chase squirrels (off leash) for at least an hour on an average of 5 days a week. I fell in the Serpentine on one of those outings, Ed began work on the Great American Novel (aka Great Thoughts), his stab at a murder mystery/courtroom drama, and we both rode the buses and tube EVERYWHERE (we only took a taxi twice - once on Christmas Day when we had dinner with Laura and Portis and had to carry lots of food to the apartment where they were staying - the buses and tubes don't run on Christmas - and once when I had to go the emergency room at about midnight), ate lots of Pie Minister pies, went to the ballet or theater an average of three or four nights a week, stayed home and watched fantastic British TV on the other nights, visited wonderful bookstores, food markets and museums, had weekly private pilates sessions with fabulous Jane Burn, and saw many friends who came to, or passed through, London during that year. And we made some very good new friends whom we continue to see when we stop in London on our annual trip (well, three years in a row make it an "annual" event, doesn't it?) to the Edinburgh Fringe. In short, we had a wonderful time.

We left London and returned to the States on March 7, 2009. I wouldn't have missed our adventure for anything in the world. I can't wait for the next one.

Alone In The Apartment For A Few Days

2007-03-01T16:35:00.004+02:00

There are definitely some things that I can have here in Kyiv that I will miss when I get back home - and the mani-pedi is high on that list. I just got back from 3 hours of tending to my hands and feet, and I still can't believe what a great job Marina does. The secret is this amazing machine she uses, which I have never seen in the States, that files away the cuticles and all the dead skin - no soaking, no cutting - just filing with all these different sized attachment files (it's like a dentist's drill, with different drill heads, only here it's different filing heads). I can't even imagine what my poor hands and feet would be like without her. The cold weather and the hard water really do a number on these extremities - I have horrible chapped heels and deep painful cracks in both my thumbs - but three hours with Marina has done the trick - now I just have to remember to keep lathering on cream all over my fingers and heels every chance I get so that I keep the cracks at bay.

Unfortunately these luxuries don't come cheap - a mani-pedi at Sofiyiskiy Fitness Center costs almost $100 - and the special German anti-cracking cream I bought there cost me $30. But since these are the only things I spend any money on that can possibly fall in the category of "cosmetics," I refuse to feel too guilty about it (or so I say - I do actually feel quite guilty about it, no matter how many times I tell myself that since I don't spend any money on clothes or fancy dinners at fancy restaurants - or any restaurants for that matter - it's okay to spend it on pilates, mani-pedis and operas and ballets). I do limit my self-indulgence though - no more than two manis a month and no more than one pedi every 5 weeks! I can't say the same about the opera and ballet - we go whenever we feel like it, which is usually two or three times a week - more when we travel - but when you consider that the ballet and opera here costs far less than a movie back home (or even here, for that matter), I can honestly say that I REALLY don't feel guilty about going. Travel is the other major expense, but Ed and I have agreed that this is something we really have to do now, while we still can. And we are definitely taking advantage of living in such proximity to Europe and Africa and Asia. But there are still so many places to see and so many things to do - we'll never be able to do it all before we leave Kyiv.

Ed has just left for Kharkiv, where he has a meeting tomorrow morning at 9:30 with the General's Deputy (Yolana). They want to expand the Office's jurisdiction to another police station since they have gotten practically no cases from the Kominterovsky District, and Ed also wants to get the real statistics from the station they are currently servicing (i.e., how many arrests have been made in Kominternovsky) so that they can compare those numbers to the number of calls they have gotten from the police to represent detainees and determine whether the police are cooperating. This, of course, is something that the Kharkiv Office Director should be doing by himself, but Genna wasn't even able to arrange the meeting. Ed finally had to have Vicky, our friend and his translator, call Yolana and arrange everything! Unbelievable! Meanwhile the Bila Tserka office is going great guns and Victor, the Director, is handling everything. He took all the stuff Ed had done while in Kharkiv (the Agreement with the Police, the office forms, case files, etc), input them in the Bila Tserka office computers, and, as they say, took the ball and ran with it. Ed's job there is just what it should be - an outside expert consultant - not the moving force and lynch pin of the whole project as it was, and in many ways still is, in Kharkiv.

So Belle and I have the apartment to ourselves for the next 32 hours or so - a very strange experience. It really is amazing that we are surviving as well as we are in this very small apartment, when we are both here practically 24 hours a day! And especially since we know practically no one here and so, even when we do go out, it is almost always just the two of us. We are both making an effort to avoid the kinds of behaviors that are particularly annoying to the other. Ed, I must say, has been extraordinary in doing so. A few weeks ago I mentioned to him that he maintains an almost non-stop chorus of sighs, "oh boys", and other such expressions, while he sits in the "other room" - I'm at my "desk" in my "office alcove" off the living room/bed room and Ed is in the "dining room" section of the kitchen - at his computer, working on the Supplement to his 5 volume tome on California Criminal Practice. He of course was completely unaware that he was doing this, but once I mentioned it he became acutely sensitive to it. He asked if it bothered me, and I told him that is was sort of annoying (which surprised him since I like to have background noise - like NPR - while I work, or read or do anything). Ever since I mentioned it he has almost completely stopped doing this! Now we both laugh if he does let fly with the occasional sigh or groan. So what had been a growing source of irritation for me, has become an occasional source of amusement for us both. I, unfortunately, am not so quick to change, although I do try, even though sometimes Ed doesn't think I do.

I'm in the middle of a book that Max and Betsy recommended to me, "Natasha's Dance" by Orlando Figes. It is just fantastic, and I'm particularly glad that I have already visited St Petersburg (and had the benefit of a great guide there), and Moscow (where we also had the benefit of a great guide in the person of Bob Smith, referring to many guidebooks and passing on the information to us), and that I will be going back to both cities after reading this book, which is a cultural history of Russia, focusing much of it's attention on these two cities and what they represent in the development of what is quintessentially the "Russian" character. Figes is astounding in his breadth of knowledge - he ties together the literature, the music, the art, the religion, and the history of the country to define the "Russian" character - it has already enhanced my experience in Ukraine, and I'm only half way through the 600 pages.

Since we're going to London so often these days, access to books is no longer a problem. I just order whatever I want on amazon.co.uk, have it sent to the place where we stay (The Apartments on Draycott Pl in Chelsea), and the package is waiting for us when we arrive. It's perfect. Another Gitter recommendation is waiting for us in London - "The Lost" (the author describes his search for his family roots near Lviv - the Gitters have arranged to use the same guide when we go to Lviv to visit the village where Max's father was born).

Time to feed Belle and take her for her early evening walk - tasks usually undertaken by Ed. Belle's been snoozing on the sofa and just woke up, took a huge stretch, and gave me a look that said - well, I'm ready. Let's eat!

Men's Day In Ukraine

2007-02-23T17:42:00.005+02:00

Today, February 23, is Soldier's Day in Ukraine (and probably in Russia too). Over the years it has come to be called "Men's Day" to counterbalance National Women's Day, which is on March 8 (an official State holiday). At first I forgot all about it, but I did notice that there were patriotic sounding songs being played on the loud speakers in Maidan (Independence Square, at the bottom of our street) and on Kreshchatyk, the main drag here. Then I realized what day it was. But what was really startling was how it really gave me an idea of what the place must have felt like in Soviet times. Kreshchatyk and Maidan are the quintessential Soviet boulevard and square, respectively. The street is very broad with monumental Soviet buildings from the 1930's on either side. With the very Russian sounding marching type music blasting away, and the cold, crisp air (it was down to zero degrees today - and I don't mean centigrade!), and crystal clear blue skies, one could easily imagine oneself surrounded by Bolshevik soldiers on parade. Instead, there were women in high heeled boots and long fur coats carrying chocolates and flowers for the men in their lives. I stopped an bought a bouquet of yellow tulips for Ed.

Ed Plans An Outing

2007-02-22T12:58:00.004+02:00

I think that today's experience at the Russian Consulate in Kyiv takes the cake for bureaucratic bull shit in action.

Now that all our reservations have been made for our trip to St Petersburg with Max and Betsy in May, now that we have received our official invitations and vouchers from the hotel, now that we actually have our paper airline tickets in hand, I decided that I should get our visas so that I don't have the problem I did last time of trying to find a 10 day window when we can let our passports out of our possession without interfering with another trip. (We had to get the expedited visas - very expensive - for our trip to St Petersburg in November in order to get our passports back from the Russian consulate in time to take our trip to Warsaw, which preceded our trip to St Petersburg.) So yesterday I called the consulate to confirm the hours (9:30 to 13:00), confirm the fee for the visas ($100 per visa - 10 days to get the visa), confirmed that I had 10 days before our next trip (March 9 - but March 8 is an official Ukrainian holiday and everything will be closed on National Women's Day), and set off at 11 a.m., first to the bank to get some US Dollars (I need my passport to do that, so I thought it best to get some before I gave the passport to the Russians). That took forever - everything is done by hand here - there are computers, but they still have to enter everything manually, print out long sheets of paper on old fashioned dot matrix printers, cut the paper with rulers to make lots of small pieces of paper, and then you and the bank clerk have to sign all the small pieces of paper. I didn't get out of there until 12:20, so I beat feet to the metro stop - Zoloti Verota (Golden Gate) - about 10 minutes walk away, and hoped against hope that I would make it to the consulate on time. This particular metro is very very deep, and I am not joking when I say that it takes at least 10 minutes to get down to the tracks (and of course 10 minutes to get back up once you arrive at your destination). Suffice it to say that I was 5 minutes late. They let me in the door, but that was as far as I got. "Come back tomorrow" was all anyone would say.

Oh well, I was pretty philosophical about it - it was a beautiful day - clear blue sky, sun shining, very cold - so I made my way back to Zoloti Verota and to Sofieskiy Fitness Center for my second pilates session with Julia. (I had to cancel Tuesday's session because I was totally wiped out after whatever it was that attacked me on Monday night had finished with me.) I had time for a lovely cup of tea overlooking the pool, and then got ready for my session -- this involves checking my coat, scarf, mittens and earmuffs, getting a key for a locker, putting my plastic bag (that I always carry with me in case I want to shop) into the locker, after first taking out my pair of white socks, taking off my shoes and black socks and putting them under my locker, putting on my white socks, removing my sweat shirt and leaving it in the locker with the plastic bag and my coat check, locking the locker and walking up to the pilates studio. I think I am the only woman there who does not bring a complete change of clothes and a suitcase of makeup, but I am also the only woman there who isn't dressed to the nines when she walks in!

Another good session - I'm glad I'm keeping up with this while Katya is away. My back definitely feels better when I can do the stretching and pilates. When I got back home it was already 4 p.m., so I just had time to clean up all the loose threads on the trips to Barcelona and Morocco, before Ed and I headed out the door for dinner at my favorite place - Puzata Chata - that's not CH as in CHair - it's CH as in CHanukah. It means the potbellied hearth and I love it. It's a charming cafeteria with really pleasant surroundings and great food. We had huge amounts of food (kasha, meat blintze, cheese blintze and apple blintze, vegetables, roasted potatoes, chicken and two soups, one beer and one orange juice) for $10, total. And what's more, it is really delicious. We might go again tonight as I have no food in the house for dinner!

Ed and I had a talk about how to deal with some of the problems that come about because of our cramped living quarters and the fact that we are basically together 24 hours a day, 7 days a week now. Ed gets very angry with me for sitting down at my computer and giving it my full attention, getting irritated when he interrupts me. I get very annoyed when he interrupts, especially if I am in the middle of something, like balancing a bank account! We toyed with the idea of having set hours when I could work uninterruptedly - say 9 to 12 - but I really felt that was silly. I told Ed that I will try to be more flexible, and that I will not rebuff his interruptions unless I am really involved in something that can't wait and demands total concentration, and when I am, I will try to tell him so nicely, rather than dismissively. We'll see how it goes.
We also talked about the fact that I feel that Ed would be happy just to sit in the apartment 24 hours a day and never leave, and that if I didn't do something about it, that this is exactly what he would do! I'm pretty much of a homebody too, but jeez, you have to get out once in a while - and unless I plan it, it just doesn't happen (except on the rare occasion when a third party organizes something).This really bothers me. I just feel like I'm being drained, and once in a while I would like him to suggest that we go to or do something.

So this morning Ed told me we would take an excursion to what we call "Tin Tits" -the huge Titanium statue of a woman holding a torch symbolizing the motherland, with tits that do look like an old Madonna concert tour costume, which stands above the War Memorial Museum just south of the Lavra. It's quite close to the Russian consulate, so we decided to go to the consulate first and then stop at the museum.

The trip to the consulate was uneventful - another gorgeous clear blue sky, freezing cold, day, and we arrived well before 13:00 when everything turns into a pumpkin. The man at the "reception" desk looked through our papers, brought them back to the woman in the back office, who soon brought them back to us to tell us that we would have to come back, because we were applying for our visas "too early"!!! Our trip is in May, she said - we can't get visas until April!!! I showed her my visa for my July visit to Moscow, which I got in April in the States. That was a different consulate she said, and they obviously have different rules. I asked her to tell me the earliest date we could apply for our visas, and she said April 16 (our trip to Russia is on May 16). I explained that this will be difficult for us because we have other trips planned, which will require that we have possession of our passports, and that there is no 10 day block of time between those trips when we could give our passports to the Russian consulate in order to get the Russian visas. She was, as she said "very sorry," but that is their rule! I asked her to show me where it says that I can't apply for a visa more than one month in advance but, of course, "this rule is not written down." We asked to see the Consul, but naturally he was away on a business trip and would not be back until Monday. She really was quite nice, given the circumstances - not like some of the civil service battle axes we have encountered here (and in the States I might add). She really was sorry but, as she put it, she is just the secretary for the visa section and she can only follow the rules. Such is life here in Ukraine, especially when dealing with the Russians!!! But I suppose it's the same everywhere, really - it certainly was as bad, if not worse, when we arrived in Delhi with no entry visas for India!

It was noon by this time, and neither Ed nor I wanted to go to the War Museum, so we headed home. But I guess the trip to the Russian consulate counts as an outing, doesn't it???

Bila Tserkva Office Opens

2007-02-20T16:13:00.004+02:00

Anna came over for drinks after the training session at Bila Tserkva and then we walked over to Kasak Mamai. But it was CLOSED! I couldn't believe it. I can't tell if it is closed permanently or just temporarily - I hope the latter because it is really good. So, after some hesitation, we ended up eating at the only other restaurant we know about near by - it's called Mokka - and it has fresh sea food on Wednesdays and Saturday - the only trouble was, this was Tuesday!! So Anna and I ordered Vareneki - a delicious Ukrainian dumpling like dish - like little raviolis filled with all different things (these were meat) and usually served with sour cream. Ed had Solyenka soup (a delicious meat soup usually served with a slice of lemon and a dob of sour cream). Anna and Ed were exhausted - they had taken the mashrutka to the office in Bila Tserkva (about a 1 hour ride). They did the same coming back, but made the mistake of taking a taxi from the train station, which is where the mashrutka stop is, because that taxi ride took over 2 hours!!!! It's normally a 10 to 20 minute minute ride. The metro, although crushing, would have had them back in 15 minutes. And of course Anna and Ed don't know each other well enough to just sort of sit there, not speaking to each other - they had to make conversation the whole time - talk about exhausting!!!

On Wednesday Anna went to Kharkiv to check things out for herself. I spent most of the day finalizing the details for our trip to Morocco, doing laundry, marketing - the normal tasks of life. I also had my last session with Katya in the pilates studio before she leaves for her London training. I had another really good session and I walked away feeling great. I asked her if there was someone I could train with in her absence and she suggested either of the two Julia's who work there. I asked her if she would speak to either Julia, and explain my situation so that I could work one or two times a week in her absence. So it looks like I won't have to go cold turkey for over a month after all. I think (and Katya thinks) I understand the principles well enough to be able to work with someone on an individual basis even if the trainer can't speak English. So I'm hopeful I won't lose a lot of ground.

Thursday was the grand opening of the Bila Tserkva office. Ed and I met Anna at the Hotel Gintama, where she is staying, and took a taxi to the International Renaissance Foundation office on Artema Street. We could have taken the tram, but we were dressed up. I was actually wearing high heals - granted, they are Arche washable nubuck high heels, with a very broad base at the bottom of the heel (not at all like the spiked heel shoes the Kyivian women wear) and, even worse, with rubber soles - but high heels nevertheless. We all piled into the waiting van - Anna, me (I'm the official photographer for the event), Ed, Roman Romanovsky who heads the project at IRF, Vasylyna Yavorska, the Project Coordinator in Kyiv, and another woman who was a representative from the Ministry of Justice. I've already had complaints from some of my more devoted readers about the lack of photos - but it is so time consuming to put them in the Blog. But I do realize that they make a tremendous difference, and I am going to come back to this entry and put some of the photos I took of the opening (not all 67 of them though!!) in later.

When we arrived at the office the place was abuzz with activity. Victor had everything really well organized. It's amazing what a difference there is between Bila Tserkva and Kharkiv. For one thing the Presiding Judge here is fantastic - he is really supportive of the whole project and has taken a personal interest in its success. Also, Victor is a really good manager - he found great offices, was able to get all the agreements in place (using the documents Ed had negotiated in Kharkiv), and organize the press conference and signing ceremony without Ed having to hold his hand every step of the way. He even had a blue ribbon across the doorway leading to the lawyers' offices, for an official ribbon cutting ceremony! The Chief Judge was there, as well as the Chief Investigator, Chief Prosecutor, all the lawyers, the head of the Bar Association, the Mayor of Bila Tserkva, the Director of Public Affairs from the Police Office - and lots of press. Everyone said a few words - Victor, the Judge, Roman, the Justice Department representative, the head of the Bar Association, the Mayor (who cut the ribbon), the Chief Investigator, the Chief Prosecutor, the police representative, and, of course, Ed. There was an official signing of the agreement between the police and the office of the public defender and then we all went out to a lunch of "American Pizza" organized by Victor. This was my first experience with the celebratory "business" lunch in Ukraine. And it turns out that everything I had heard about this occasion is true - everyone has to make a toast, and all eating stops during the toasts, so the lunch takes hours and hours. There were two tables with about 12 people at each table - everyone at the opening was invited (except the press), and everyone came, and I think there were about 8 toasts all together. We didn't finish eating until 4 p.m., and then we had a one and half hour drive back, followed by a dinner with Roman, Vasylyna and Anna!!

When Ed and I got back to the apartment at about 5 p.m. the thought of going out again for another meal was positively horrifying, but I really can't complain since we so rarely have these "business" functions. Anna came by in a taxi at 6:45 and we met Vasylyna and Roman at a great restaurant (chosen with me in mind because I had talked all day about how much I loved Ukrainian food) called "Vareneki" which has the largest selection of vareneki in the city. I felt a migraine coming on, and to top it all off they had the usual ubiquitous TV on in the restaurant, with the booming music that doesn't match the image on the screen, and the speaker was right above my ear. I finally got them to turn it way down, took a migraine pill, and within a half hour I was ready to dig in - I was full, of course, but that didn't stop me! Roman ordered a selection of savory varenekis - meat, mushroom, liver, potato - followed by sweet ones - apple, cherry, and two different kinds of berries. Delicious! I can't wait to go back. We really had a good time too. It was good to get to know Roman and Vasylyna better - especially Vasylyna - I think I had her all wrong - sometimes emails and cell phones give the wrong impression about a person, especially when there is a language issue. Vasylyna was extremely nice, a lot of fun, wants to help in any way she can, and I genuinely liked her. So all in all it was a really nice evening.

As we were leaving the opening ceremony lunch earlier in the day, the woman who is the Chairwoman of the Bar Association came over and asked, through Vasylyana (because she spoke only Russian), what kind of law I practiced. I told her I had been a "business" lawyer - tax and business acquisitions mostly - and the Chairwoman asked to meet with me the next day! I was flabbergasted, but had to say yes. After she walked away I asked Vasylyna what that was all about. She said that Alla (that's the woman's name) wants to meet with me because I was taking the photos and she wants a photo to put on the cover of the Bar Association quarterly magazine, which will feature the opening of the office. She also asked to meet with Anna and Ed, so the next day the three of us went over to her office (Anna picked us up in a taxi, but it turns out her office is right down the hill from our apartment). I had actually put on a skirt and high heels again - a first in Kyiv for me I think - and my fur coat because it comes down to my ankles and, with a skirt on, it was essential to cover up as much as possible. The office is very well located in the center of town. The obligatory cakes and chocolates were sitting on the desk upon our arrival. We chatted for a while, with Anna acting as translator, and it turns out that Alla represented Yushenko in the Crimea during the Orange Revolution, and took a real risk to do so (she even had death threats made against her). She's a real networker - you can see why she's the head of the bar - she just wanted to meet us, make contact, assure me that if I knew anyone who needed representation in Kyiv that her firm would be the very best place to send them, etc. But it was interesting to see a lawyer's office in Kyiv. I'm sure it's one of the nicest around. Of course it has the usual Ukrainian entrance (horrible), but the office itself was nice, although nothing like what we are used to in the U.S. - and I'm not even talking about the really wealthy NY and LA law firms. But it had a desk, a computer, a fax machine and a printer - and someone in charge who really wants to bring in business and seems to be effective at it! What more do you need?

On Friday I met with my temporary pilates trainer - Julia. We had a great session, and of course she speaks English - she just says she doesn't! I understood her perfectly and I'm going to enjoy working with her. We set up two sessions for next week - Tuesday and Thursday. I'm really looking forward to it. The rest of my weekend was a total and complete bust - I had to spend the entire weekend undoing all the arrangements I had made for our trip to London and Morocco and redo everything, with the correct dates this time!

The whole idea for the trip started because we wanted to see a particular ballet in London with Carlos Acosta on April 19, and also go on the Shakespeare Sonnet Walk, which we assumed would be Sunday April 22, because it has always been on the Sunday nearest Will's birthday. When I bought the ballet tickets last October I figured I might as well get tickets for my favorite ballet, Eugene Onegin, as well. It's last performance at the Royal Opera House was scheduled for April 12. So I got both sets of tickets. Last month we decided that, since we were going to London, and since airfares are so cheap from London to just about anywhere (while they are pretty expensive from Kyiv to just about anywhere), we should rearrange some of the trip so that we could go to Morocco (for only a couple of hundred dollars). So I exchanged the ballet tickets on the 19th for the same ballet on the 9th, kept our tickets for Eugene Onegin on the 12th, and got airline tickets on Easy Jet to Marrakech on the 13th. Originally I thought we would stay in Marrakech and take some day trips – but that was before I did my research - so we decided to ditch the return tickets and instead drive to Fez via the Upper Atlas and Sahara, staying two nights in two different desert inns on the way. So I got some cheap tickets back to London from Fez on the 21st. I also kept my eye on the website for the Globe Theater and got the tickets for the Sonnet Walk the second they went on sale online on February 12. Well, when reviewing things on Friday evening I noticed that we were not coming back from Fez until April 21, while the Sonnet Walk this year is on a Saturday – April 21 - and starts at 11 a.m. - and we don’t get back to London until 2 p.m.that day!!! And I knew all this BEFORE I got the tickets back from Fez. What was I thinking??? I'm just planning too many trips at the same time, plus trying to do all the ordinary tasks of daily living. Since there are no cheap flights back from Fez on the 20th, I had to rearrange everything. Now we fly to Fez instead of Marrakech (changed the Marrakech tickets to a flight to Split in September - maybe we’ll be able to use them, maybe not), gave up the tickets to Onegin (because there are no flights to Fez on the 13th, so I had to get tickets leaving London on the 12th), and drive from Fez to Marrakech instead of the other way around. Of course I had to change all the hotels (in Fez, Marakech and the two in the desert between the two cities), the car rental pickup and return date and place, and get new airline tickets. It took HOURS!!!!! But I got it done - only who knows if it's right this time. I even managed to get Onegin tickets (with a much better cast) for March 16 when we will be in London on our way back from Barcelona (another one of those trips that was planned around a ballet in London, but where we added 2 plays and another ballet and a trip to Barcelona while we were at it!!).

By the time I was finished I was really sick - and I mean really sick. I got up from the computer dizzy and shaky and feeling awful. I thought my blood sugar must be really low, so I drank some orange juice, made some dinner, and then got REALLY sick. I so wanted to throw up - but there was a big problem - earlier in the day, after using the toilet for all sorts of necessary things, I discovered that there was no water running in the apartment building - soooooo, no way to flush the toilet. The idea of being sick in there was enough to make me sick. I finally had Ed rig up a waste basket with a plastic bag lining and used that, and instantly felt better, but not great - just better enough to not wish I was dead. Soon after, I heard the sound of running water in the pipes in the walls, and went in and flushed the toilet - is there any finer sound than the sound of water rushing through a toilet - I ask you???

Walking On Ice And Snow In Hilly Kyiv

2007-02-13T10:02:00.003+02:00

Yesterday it really snowed hard - people on the street waiting for trams looked like snow men! Then, last night, it poured - all night - and by this morning everything had frozen. Ed had to go to a training session for the new lawyers at the new office in Bila Tserkva (that's White Church in English), the suburb where the second defender office is located (Kharkiv being the first), and he had to leave at 7:45 to get there by 11 a.m. Belle and I slept in until about 8 and then I took her for her morning walk after her breakfast. It was really, really slick out there. I opened the door, stepped outside and almost fell on my butt. But I grabbed on to the apartment door handle and recovered my balance (thank you Pilates) and managed to goose step my way up the hill to the road to Gintama. Belle HATED the conditions. She was, to put it mildly, outraged. She kept looking at me with eyes that said "you have got to be kidding - do you really expect me to walk on or squat down on this?" But we both soldiered on, without much joy on Belle's part (or mine for that matter). She got right down to business and we were back in the apartment within 15 minutes.

I really do like living in this little apartment. I can sit at my desk looking out at the snow covered roofs of Kyiv, or curl up on the sofa or the eating nook-reading bed with Dr. Zhivago, or look out the very big window in the kitchen as I fix our homey little meals. It was so nice to come in from the icy streets this morning with Belle, sit down on our entry bench and wipe her little feet, hang my parka and scarf on our coat rack, and walk into the kitchen, fix my little breakfast (Nestle's Fitness, a pot of Fortnum & Mason's Earl Grey Tea, orange juice) and sit down at our cozy little table to eat it, after turning on the BBC Radio 4 Today Program on the computer, broadcast over my wireless speakers which sit on our drinks cart (it has wheels, so that with one swift movement the speakers either face the kitchen/dining or the living/bedroom/office area - it's brilliant!).

I walked up to Sofiyskiy for my pilates session with Katya at 1:30. I don't know how these Ukrainian women do it - it is so slippery outside, and instead of concrete sidewalks they have these ochre colored brick shaped tiles that are some sort of ceramic and are slippery as eels. I risk life and limb by choosing to walk in the cobble stoned streets (which give one's feet a little purchase), through slush and puddles and God only knows whatever else is under all the slush and black snow, to avoid those lethal tiles. Meanwhile the women here are wearing leather boots with skinny high heels and seem to have no problem at all. They are not looking down, picking their way through the ice patches - they somehow manage just fine. I'm wearing my galoomphy Uggs, with treads on the bottom that could substitute for snow tires on a jeep, and I can barely keep it together.

Anyway, I had a great session - we got the studio with all the fantastic big equipment in it (there's only one, and we can't get it every time) - a fantastic pilates reformer, also the one they call the cadillac, and a couple of other smaller things, all with every kind of attachment and accessory imaginable. Katya is leaving Friday for a 3 week training session in London (she's certified by the London Pilates Studio), so I wanted to get in as many sessions as I could before she leaves - she'll be back on March 11, but I won't be back until March 16 (we leave on March 9, the day after National Women's Day - an official State holiday here!), so it will be an entire month till see her again. I left the building feeling 6 inches taller, like I could walk on a high wire without losing my balance, and so flexible that I could twist myself into a pretzel without thinking twice about it! It's a great feeling.

I made it back without any missteps or mishaps, and settled in for a nice afternoon of reading and blogging, waiting for Ed to get back from his day in Bila Tserkva. We're taking Anna, to dinner tonight at a really good Ukrainian restaurant called Kazak Mamai. She's the very smart and lovely young woman who is our first contact person at OSJI - she's in Kyiv from Budapest to help run the training session, and is then going to Kharkiv to see what's going on there for herself, and coming back on Thursday for the "official" opening of the office in Bila Tserkva, which will be attended by the press and by me! What a difference between launching this office and launching Kharkiv - all the agreements are in place, the Director has met with the police, the judges, the investigators and the prosecutors (there still has not been a meeting with the prosecutors in Kharkiv!), all on his own initiative. The office space is rented, equipped and staffed, and ready to take cases on Monday. So pretty soon they should start having results and data that can be used to evaluate the Project - it's effectiveness, cost, quality of representation - all the things that will have to be put together in order to convince the Ukrainian government that this is a worthwhile enterprise that should be state supported. We'll see.

Things I've Learned About Ukraine

2007-02-11T14:45:00.004+02:00

I've had to take a few days off from the Blog because I've been busy planning our next two trips - one in March to London and Barcelona, and another in April to London and Morocco. I'm quite excited about the second trip as we have decided to rent a car and drive through the Sahara from Marrakech to Fez. Finally, a place where hotels don't cost an arm and leg. We've been very lucky because we've been traveling not just during the "off" season, but apparently during the "don't even think about coming here" season, so we have gotten amazing rooms for practically nothing. I've been trying to book rooms in St Petersburg in May for us and the Gitters, and the room that cost us about $200 a night in November would cost us $850 a night in May!!!! Without breakfast!!! Without VAT!!!! Moscow is even worse - we're going there with Laura and Portis in October, and the rates (compared to those in July when we went with Bob and Dian and their younger son) are outrageous. We have finally settled on a horrible Soviet era building, used to house Soviet officials who came to the capital in former days, for the bargain rate of $290 a night. I just read an article in the Kyiv Post (an English language weekly here) that said that the very same standard Radison SAS hotel room that costs $72 in Budapest and $189 in NYC, costs $359 in Kyiv and $478 in Moscow!! It's all about supply and demand - capitalism and the free economy at work.

But I've gotten all the arrangements made - the car rental, the hotel rooms, the planes, the guides where necessary - for all our upcoming trips, so I'm now ready to come back to the Blog.

It's been snowing hard for the past few days, and it really looks and feels like winter here at last. Today I had a haircut and color at a place that my Pilates teacher told me about - one of her clients said the stylists and colorists were good there. And it was good - finally, I was able to get a really good haircut and fairly good hair color in Kyiv - at half the price I've been paying for four months at Sofiasky Spa. And it's closer to the apartment too. I saw a haircut that Tanya (my stylist and colorist) gave to a guy last week when I made my appointment, and it was really good, so I'm going to send Ed there too - he hasn't had a good haircut since we arrived in Ukraine (except from Keiko during our visit to the States).

Yesterday we had a late lunch - early dinner - with our only friend in Kyiv, Mike Willard and his girlfriend, Olga, and her daughter Valentina. In Kyivan restaurants, it is apparently not unusual for little kids to leave their tables and wander around the restaurant. As soon as we arrived, Valentina left us and found another little girl about her age (she's 6) and the two of them became fast friends and played together throughout the entire meal. Valentina would occasionally come back to the table to take a bite of food, but most of the time she was away, playing. It's like getting free day-care for your kid while you have dinner - a great system!

Mike and Olga and Valentina came to the apartment first for drinks at about 2:30, and then we all went to an Uzbek restaurant called Safron for dinner. It's really a lovely restaurant - beautifully decorated - and excellent food. We didn't get home until almost 8 p.m. and poor little Belle was frantic by the time we got back - not frantic to go out and pee, because she had already done that in the apartment (she's done this several times, but at least she does it on the kitchen tiles and not on the living room/bedroom hardwood floors or on the rug we bought here). Ed has taken over all dog-walking responsibility as his share of the work in our division of labor. It is nice not having to go out in the cold and dark and I'm really enjoying this. Of course, at home we never have to walk Belle because she has the doggie door and the dog park (which I took her to regularly). I just couldn't get mad at her though - she had waited almost 12 hours.

Belle goes for a walk three times a day now - after breakfast in the morning (she sleeps in and only gets up when she hears her food being poured into her dish - but we really sleep in too - sometimes we don't get up until about 10!!!), after dinner in the evening at about 6 p.m. and then as late as Ed can manage (he just wants to get in his sweats and relax), usually about 8 or 9 at the latest. Belle HATES her late evening walk - she's almost always asleep on the couch and refuses to get up. Ed stands at the door, holding her leash and calling her (from about 6 feet away) and she just keep snoring. Finally I have to get up from whatever I'm doing - blogging, reading, trip planning, whatever - and push her off the sofa and tell her to go with Ed. She also really hates the snow - she sticks her head out the apartment building door, takes a look, and tries to come back in. Ed insists, and then she takes a quick pee right outside the door and tries to come back in again. Ed insists yet again - and she trots as quickly as she can to the road to Gintama (the hotel around the corner from our apartment), her favorite bathroom spot, does her first business as soon as she rounds the bend, walks a few more feet and does her second, and then hot foots it back to the apartment. That is, unless she spots the hated yellow Lab - we don't know if the Lab is male or female (we'll just call the dog "him" for now), but, man, does Belle hate him. Her hair stands on end, she strains at the leash to get at him, snarling all the while. This isn't like the growling she indulged in at the dog park, where she earned the nickname "The General." Back then, whenever a new dog came to the park, Belle would run up to the dog, shove her face into his or her's, and growl and bark, sometimes scaring the living daylights out of the newcomer - the bigger the dog, the more emphatic her barks. One poor Great Dane actually tripped over his hind legs and fell backwards trying to get away from her. We all concluded that she was basically saying "I know I'm small, and I'm a girl, but don't ever try and mess with me!" It worked - no dog ever messed with Belle, and she basically ignored most of the dogs, most of the time, and spent all her time there jumping from one person's lap to another. But the little monster inside our little sweet princess really comes out when the Lab is on the scene. When people see big Ed, with little Belle growling and snarling and trying to attack the yellow Lab, they just burst out laughing. But I'll tell you this, I wouldn't want Ed to drop the leash!

Here's one thing about dogs and their owners in Ukraine, or at least in Kharkiv and Kyiv. NO ONE picks up dog poop here. EVER. We did for awhile in Kharkiv, using the usual plastic bag and putting it in a public trash can, but after being accosted by several different people on several different occasions upon dropping the bag in the trash, I stopped. They objected to having the poop in the trash can. But the remarkable thing is, there is rarely, if ever, any dog poop in the street or on the sidewalks. The dogs always go on the grass or on the verge somewhere, and I have never had to dodge dog shit while walking here. And then there are regular "cleaners" who are up and at it early every morning with rakes and brooms cleaning the grass, so the accumulation never gets disgusting. Somehow it works.

Except for her encounters with the yellow Lab, Belle is an absolute sweetheart. It's so nice having her snuggle against us in bed now that the weather is frosty (she usually manages to take up most of the bed, lying horizontally rather than vertically, with her head against one of us, and her rear against the other); or have her come over and jump on my lap as I sit reading. She loves having visitors and just goes nuts when anyone comes over - including the landlady, the cleaning woman, or any of her dog sitters. She's gotten much better about staying with other people - she doesn't stop eating any more, she doesn't get stress colitis, she seems happy to see her chosen attendant, and doesn't go crazy when we leave. All of this is good - very good since we are traveling so much. It means that I no longer get stress colitis every time we leave, worrying about her!

Now, here are some of the things I have learned since moving to Kyiv. For one thing, I have learned that if you call and order a taxi by phone it is much cheaper than if you get one on the street. The problem is, the taxi dispatchers speak Ukrainian or Russian, so I can't call them to get a taxi! So far, the only taxis we have taken are to the airport, and I've solved the problem by having Belle's baby sitter call for us and arrange the fare (95 UHA as opposed to the 150 UHA I had to pay on the one occasion when we had to get one on the street), and the time of pick up at our apartment.

I've also learned that in Kyiv you can order groceries on line, but again - it's all in Ukrainian or Russian, and I can't manage that. But I called the store (Furshet) and found an English speaking guy there, and he takes care of my semi-weekly orders for a dozen 6 liter bottles of water, 12 boxes of orange juice, 24 cartons of milk, 10 boxes of Nestle Fitness WITHOUT fruit, and sugar, as well as kleenex and toilet paper on an as needed basis. These are the really bulky and/or heavy things that are hard for me to carry, especially now, when the streets and sidewalks are covered in ice. We live on a hill, and one way or another I have to go up or down to get to a store and then down or up to get back, so I am very very happy to get delivery of these things by phone. I'd be perfectly happy to go to the store and order things there - they have a wonderful branch right near Bes'arabska Market, where I go to buy wine, or specialty foods, or one particularly spectacular bread that they bake there - but I have never been able to get anyone to understand me when I have asked if they will deliver the things I purchase there. So I gave up on that and struggle home with my load of goods on foot. I suppose I could take a taxi, but then, who would call one for me?????

Ed And Susan's Adventures In Eastern Europe

2007-02-07T11:30:00.002+02:00

I suppose it really is time to say a few words about the Project - after all it is the reason we are here in Kyiv. The folks at Open Society Justice Initiative asked Ed if he would stay on in Kyiv for an extra year as an "OSJI Fellow" and Ed agreed. So we will be in Kyiv until the end of December 2007. Ed will be setting up Public Defender Offices in the Kyiv area (Bila Tserkva) and then one or two more, probably one in the West, near Lviv, and one in the South, near Odessa. But we will live in Kyiv and he will take the train or fly to these places on an as needed basis.

The situation is very different now that he has had the (EXTREMELY difficult) experience of setting up the Kharkiv Office. First of all, he can use all the agreements and forms and protocols that he established for that office in the new offices. Second, it is already clear that the director in the Bila Tserkva Office is as different from Gennadiy as night is from day. Gennadiy is a very nice man and is very dedicated to the Project, but he is not the right man to be the Director. He might be a very good lawyer, I have no way of telling whether he is or not, but I sure can tell that he is a terrible administrator, and that he is far too timid and intimidated by authority and rank, and much too literal when it comes to interpreting rules and regulations, to be an effective leader. Ed literally had to do everything to get that Office going - he had to help buy the computers, help arrange to have the offices cleaned, help arrange for more than one telephone line, and, of course, without him, there never would have been any agreement negotiated with the police (not that the police are complying with the agreement), or any other protocols established for running the office.

Not only did Ed have to initiate and follow through on everything in Kharkiv, but after all that blood, sweat and tears, Genna, because he is so timid and so afraid of confrontation, actually completely undermined the entire operation during a meeting with the General in early December. Here's what happened.

After we came back from the States, Ed checked in with Genna to see how it was going now that the Agreement with the General had been signed. Genna reported that the police were not cooperating and that the PD Office wasn't getting the calls that it should be getting from the police. Moreover, he was having trouble with the lawyers, who seemed to feel that they were independent contractors and could run their cases any way they wanted, without any oversight by Genna. So Ed went back to Kharkiv to meet first with Genna to go over the lawyers' case files to see how they were performing, and then to meet with the lawyers to read them the riot act. What happened? First of all Genna couldn't meet with him to go over the case files. Second, Genna had not seen the case files because the lawyers wouldn't give him access to the files on the grounds of "client confidentiality rules." Third, Genna agreed with their position that they couldn't show him the files. And finally, only two of the lawyers even showed up!!!! It was totally unbelievable. So Ed told the lawyers who were there that they had to show their case files to Genna, that he would be back in two weeks to review their work and that if they didn't cooperate they would be dismissed.

Ed asked Vicky (our friend and his translator) to contact the General's Deputy, Yolana, who was very supportive and helpful during the entire process of negotiating the agreement and getting it signed, to arrange a meeting with the General to discuss the lack of police cooperation in Kharkiv. The meeting was set for early December and Ed flew to Kharkiv. He and Vicky and Genna met with the General, the Police Chief from the Kominternovsky District (the District that the Kharkiv Office serves) and Yolana. Vicky later told me what happened at the meeting - she was so furious she could barely speak. It seems that Ed explained that it was clear that the police officers were not calling the Office whenever a suspect was detained or arrested, and that it was important for the General to know that the agreement that he had signed was being disregarded by the officers who were under his jurisdiction, and thus, in effect, they were disobeying him. Of course, it was Genna who was reporting to Ed that there was a lack of cooperation from the police, and it was Genna who, at Ed's request, prepared the data and charts to demonstrate this to the General. As soon as Ed finished, Genna said something to the effect of "Well, it's not so bad, the police really are trying, I'm sure they want to cooperate" etc., etc. Well, the impact was stunning. Ed had always been something of a mystery to the authorities - no one ever quite knew who he was or what his authority was. Now it was instantly clear to the General that Ed was not in charge, that he could not control Genna, and that he (the General) could do whatever he wanted. Moreover, this had the effect of pulling the rug out from under the feet of not only Ed, but Yolana, who had gotten the General to attend the meeting by reporting to him that the data showed a lack of cooperation by the police! And Genna saw none of this. He saw his comments only as an effort to gain the cooperation of the General - he didn't see that by doing what he did, the General lost respect for both him and Ed and possibly Yolana. (Do you think the fact that Yolana no longer returns calls from Genna says anything about this?) Anyway, the whole thing is so depressing, and, of course, there is still no cooperation from the police. The Office has practically no cases, and so they are going to expand jurisdiction to another police station.

As for Ed's second meeting with the remaining two lawyers - by then another lawyer had quit and one had been fired - they, and Genna, took the position that there could be no discussion of the cases among the lawyers and that no one could see the case files except the lawyer handling the case. Their position was based on the fact that the Kharkiv Office was set up as a "charity" - a non-profit - rather than as an "association" of lawyers. They then argued that the exemption from the rules of client confidentiality that apply to the lawyers in an "association," thereby allowing the lawyers in the association to discuss their clients' cases and communications with each other, did not apply to a charitable organization. This was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard, and I told Ed so, and he agreed. But in an effort to appease them, not having been able to convince them of the rightness of his position, he proposed that they get the clients to sign waivers (which he drafted) permitting the lawyers in the Office to discuss the cases with each other. The next response was even more ridiculous than the first. They said that a waiver would allow them to discuss the cases with each other, but they would still not be able to show Genna the case files. This of course meant that there was no way to oversee the lawyers' work - a completely untenable situation. Ed then arranged to have the relevant rules and regulations translated, and it was clear to him and to me that Genna and the others were far too literal in their interpretation, and that of course the lawyers could not only talk to each other, but show the files to each other, even without a waiver. Ed raised the problem in his December Monthly Report to OSJI, and it was agreed that the OSJI people and Ed would all meet with the Kharkiv lawyers in Cheltenham to "persuade" them that they were wrong. The meeting took place after dinner one night, and after about 2 hours of discussion, the lawyers finally agreed.

Meanwhile Ed still has to hold Genna's hand for every little thing, and has to initiate every action. For example, they have now gathered statistics on the number of arrests and detentions in the district served by the Office, and it seems they are very low and that the Office needs to expand its jurisdiction to another police station. The General is not at all opposed to this, and in fact suggested this at the last meeting. But instead of Genna taking the initiative and calling Yolana to arrange a meeting to discuss this expansion of jurisdiction, Ed had to call Genna and persuade Genna to do this - Genna thought that the "head" people at the Renaissance Foundation should suggest expansion rather than himself. And of course Ed will have to go to this meeting because Genna will not be able to handle this on his own.

I will add, by way of explanation, not of excuse, that Genna is probably like this because he is the product of three powerful influences that affect almost everyone of his generation here: First, he is the product of growing up under the Soviet system, being educated under that system and beginning his life as a defense lawyer under that system. This was a system where authority was, if not respected, obeyed without question, where rank mattered above all, and where initiative got you nowhere except maybe in trouble. Second, it was also a system where defense lawyers were looked upon as lower than low, the most despicable of creatures, and were treated with contempt by the police, prosecutors, investigators, and judges alike - attitudes which persist today. Third, according to Ed, Genna does fight hard for civil rights in his paperwork - he may not be able to confront someone in person, but apparently he files motion after motion demanding that European standards be adhered to and that civil rights be respected (I am taking this on faith from Ed, as I find it hard to believe). All this may help explain his behavior, but it does not excuse OSJI and Renaissance Foundation for keeping him on as Director of the Kharkiv Office - he would probably be just fine as a public defender lawyer, but he just is not the man for the Director's job in my humble (or not so humble) opinion.

The Director of the Bila Tserkva Office, Victor, is cut from an entirely different cloth. I met him in Cheltenham, where OSJI held a conference for Public Defenders from all over Eastern Europe and former Soviet republics (Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Lithuania, to name a few). I also met all the other defenders in these other countries, and most of them were very impressive - particularly the ones from Bulgaria and a young woman lawyer from Lithuania. Victor is a former prosecutor and is used to acting with authority. He has already found office space, hired a paralegal and administrator, contacted the police to put in place the agreement that Ed negotiated in Kharkiv, and input all the forms and protocols, which Ed had developed for Kharkiv, on the Bila Tserkva office computers. It looks like Ed will be able to limit his attention there to attending the weekly meetings with all the lawyers, and to meeting with Victor once or twice a week to review the Office operations, including evaluation of the level of cooperation from the police and overall performance of the lawyers.

Which is great, because it means we'll be able to continue our trips to the Eastern European capitals and other places that we can easily visit for four or five days here, but which would require us to take a very long vacation from the U.S. if we wanted to visit them once we returned home. Since we've been back from the States we have been to Warsaw (twice), Krakow (and Auschwitz), Budapest, Berlin, London (three times), and St Petersburg. We have plans to go to London again (with a side trip to Barcelona because it is sooooo cheap to fly almost anywhere from London, whereas it is quite expensive to fly anywhere from Kyiv - but at least you can fly almost anywhere from here, as opposed to Kharkiv) in March, to London again in April (with another side trip, this time to Marrakech), to Vienna, Lviv and St Petersburg again with Max and Betsy when they come to visit us in May, to Turkey with all four McGuires in June, to NY for Emily Gitter's wedding in July, then on to Los Angeles to see family and friends, and then to Moscow with Laura and Portis when they come to visit us in October. We're also going to Capetown to visit Michael and Jeremy next December (we wanted to go this year, but it was impossible to get our tickets with BA miles until next December, even though I made the reservations last November!!). And that still leaves Sofia, Split, Sarajevo, Chechenau, Scandanavia, Siberia and Mongolia, to mention just a few places that are high on our list.

Now on to readers' complaints - yes, I will be adding photos - from all our trips and from Kyiv - I just wanted to get back into the swing of things before doing that. They've changed the Blog set up and I think it will be a lot easier to insert photos - it used to take ages to do it with any sort of reasonable layout, but now I think it will be a one or two step process at most.

Our trips really have been fabulous - on our first trip to Warsaw, in late November, we contacted a human rights lawyer there, Zbignew Lasocik, who is on the Board of the International Senior Lawyer's Project - the organization that put us in touch with OSJI in the first place. He graciously invited us to have dinner at his in-laws' apartment, where they were celebrating his father-in-law's name day. It was such an incredible afternoon - Zbig and his wife Kashya (a director of TV programs, two of which are now running), their 22 year old son Michael, Kashya's sister, Marta, and her 20-something daughter Anya, and Kashya's incredibly elegant mother and father, who spoke no English (needless to say, we speak no Polish). The meal was unbelievable - course after course of the most delicious food - the conversation lively, and there was a great rapport between us all that was so warm and easy. They asked what we were doing for Christmas, and we told them that we were thinking about going to Berlin so that we could have a "real" Christmas (they celebrate Orthodox Christmas in Ukraine, which is January 7, with the real celebration on the eve, January 6). They said "Berlin! No!! For a real Christmas you must come to Warsaw and celebrate Christmas Eve with us." The celebrations start at 6 p.m. and go on until the wee hours. We agreed - and it was fabulous. The only disappointment was that, for the first time in living memory, there was no snow on Christmas Eve! But still, there were 12 courses of fish before midnight, 3 different soups, 2 different noodle and kasha and poppy seed dishes, at least 6 different cakes, the special poppy seed dish called Kutya (poppy seeds and honey and nuts with sour cream) that is incredibly delicious and served only during this holiday season, 6 courses of meat after midnight (and a brief stop at their neighborhood Church for Midnight Mass - we didn't stay the entire time), Christmas caroling at the homes of the neighbors, and lots of Polish vodka and a fruit compote drink that is also only served during the holiday season. Everyone had to prepare a little skit and they were all really funny and cute - but I must say, ours was the biggest hit. I introduced Edwardo the Magnifico, the world's greatest magician, who would make me, his assistant, disappear. I then held out my arms, demonstrating that they really exist, my legs, my hands, etc. Then Ed came over with my shawl, and we hummed - da ta da da, da ta dah (well, you had to be there) - while he put the shawl in front of my legs and when he pulled it up higher (knee length) only one leg was there - same with the next leg, the arms, the hands. They were really loving it, and we had loads of fun. We got back to our hotel about 2 a.m. and left the next day (Christmas Day) on the train for Berlin.

I was completely blown away by Berlin - I had been there with Dick and Donna in 1990, just after the wall had come down, and it was a totally different city. First of all, we were incredibly lucky with our hotel choice - the Adlon Kempinsky. Ohmygod - the hotel of my dreams. The service, the amazing concierge, the building, the rooms, EVERYTHING, spectacular. And, really, on sale until New Year's eve, and we were leaving on the 30th. We took a taxi from the train station and drove down Unter Den Linden, which was soooooo beautiful with every tree on both rows in the center island outlined in lights. We passed two Christmas Markets that looked fabulous before driving up to the Brandenburg Gate, the beautiful Adlon, which is next door to the Modern Art Center, which in turn is next door to a gorgeous Frank Gehry office building, all harmonious and blending together perfectly. That's the amazing thing about Berlin - the architecture is astounding (as is the music - the magician concierge got us fabulous tickets to the already sold out performances - believe me I tried on the internet - of The Magic Flute at the gorgeous Statsoper - with the greatest and most handsome bass I have ever seen or heard in the role of Zoroaster, a fantastic chamber music concert on Boxing Day at the Chamber Music Hall, and, the best of all, Simon Rattle conducting, Mitsuko Uchido in a Berlin Philharmonic concert at Philharmonic Hall). The Peter Eiseman Memorial to the Six Million Murdered Jews of Europe was, without question, the most moving holocaust memorial I have ever seen, or will ever see. It is right behind the Adlon Hotel, and I won't even try to describe it, because words and picture cannot begin to convey the feelings evoked when you walk through the site. From the borders it brings to mind those old Jewish cemeteries in Eastern European cities, like Prague, but when you walk through it you feel as if you are lost in a horrible maze with no way out. I'll never forget it. The renovation of the Reichstag was great, as were all the new Norman Foster buildings surrounding it, the new Hopfbahn, and Pottsdamer Platz, all are breathtaking in their own way, as is the beautiful church right next to Kudam where the new building emanates from the old ruins. It looks like Germany, or Berlin anyway, recruited the best architects in the world to rebuild the city after the wall came down. And a great job they did, too. And, on top of everything, it was Christmas, with beautiful lights everywhere, and Christmas markets with enough potato pancakes, wursts, and marzipan to keep even me happy.

But before Christmas, there was still the trip to Krakow (and Auschwitz) and to St Petersburg, again in late November. The great thing about traveling during the winter is that all of Europe and Russia is on sale, including the great hotels. So we got to stay in a fantastic place in Warsaw, called Le Regina, just outside the Barbican at the edge of the Old Town Square, an equally fabulous place, just off the Old Town Square in Krakow, call Stary, and the fantastic Hotel Astoria facing St Isaac's in St Petersburg, all at a fraction of what they cost at other times. (I know, because I've been trying to get hotel rooms in St Petersburg for us and for the Gitters when they come in May, and how does $800 a night for the room we stayed in for $190 a night sound????)

After our dinner with the Lasociks and Zbig's in-laws in Warsaw we went to the ballet to see "Romeo and Juliet." The hotel had gotten our tickets, and when I looked at them I was very disappointed because I had requested the first row of the orchestra and it looked to me as if these tickets were in the first balcony. When I inquired, reception called the ballet theater and the theater insisted they were the very best seats in the house. When we arrived at the theater - which is very beautiful, with incredible crystal sculptures, chandeliers and clock (all modern, but very elegant), we were directed to the first level. I was soooo unhappy, but what could I do at this point - not much. The usher took us to seats in the first row of the first level, two off the aisle. Well, at least I had an unobstructed view, even if it was, for me, far away (around Row N of the orchestra). Two women showed up soon after, and one told me, in English, that we were in the wrong seats. We looked at her tickets, and at ours, and indeed, they were the same. The thing about the tickets - they are not really tickets - instead you get a beautiful "card" with the seat locations hand written (beautifully) on them. The woman indicated that we were probably in a different section and showed us where she thought we should be sitting. There must have been something about her manner that prevented me from being obnoxious and telling her that these were our seats, and that maybe she was in the wrong section. We went over to the ushers, who got very flustered, went back with us to the seats, spoke to the woman in our seats (in Polish) and then told us to sit in the two aisle seats next to them. Well, this was okay with me. The woman told me that the seats we were in were the Director's seats and that sometimes when the Director of the Opera and Ballet Theater was not using the seats they were sold. We had bought a very expensive and beautiful program showing all the great dancers who had danced Romeo and Juliet, and of course I had seen them all - from Fonteyn and Nureyev to Barishnikov, Marcia Haydee and Richard Cragun - you name it. I asked the woman if she had seen this particular production, and she said "Oh yes, many times." I indicated that I had never seen it, although I had seen the ballet itself many times with performers like the ones in the program. I then asked if she liked this production, and she said "Well, I am the Director of the Ballet, so I think the answer is yes." Ed turned to her and said "Should we tell you how much we liked the performance now or should we wait until after it's over?" She loved that and asked us to really tell her what we thought - she would like to hear it. Thank goodness, it was great - the sets were the best I've ever seen, Juliet was gorgeous, the music of course is beautiful, Romeo was really good too, as were the other male dancers and the corps. We told her how much we had enjoyed it and she gave us her card and told us to let her know when were next in Warsaw and she would like us to come to the ballet as her guests! When we decided to go to Warsaw for the Christmas eve celebrations, I looked at the schedule and decided we should leave for Warsaw on the 21st so that we could see The Nutcracker there. But when I went online, it was SOLD OUT!! I decided to take Jolanta up on her offer, called her, told her my problem and asked if she could help us get tickets, which we would pay for. We ended up in the same seats as last time (great seats by the way, although I still prefer first row orchestra so long as you can see the feet of the dancers from there - it depends on the theater - you can't always), and had a lovely coffee with her the next day. She was a principal with the Warsaw Ballet, and then the Vienna Ballet, before coming back to Warsaw to teach at the ballet school, becoming the director this year. I really want to go back again, because they are dancing Onegin, my favorite ballet (we're seeing it in London in April) and Jolanta said she would take us to the school and show us her most promising students. We'll have to see - we're running out of open travel slots!!

It's snowing out now - we had our first snow last week - before that only a light dusting one beautiful night early in November - we were having dinner at the apartment of our one friend in Kyiv, Mike Willard (boy, how different the city seemed to me when he took us out to dinner the second night after our arrival in Ukraine!), and Olga, his "might-as-well-be" (our term for someone who might as well be the other's spouse), and we got to walk back on a pristine fresh white carpet - it was magical with the golden domes of St Sophia and St Michael shining in the clear sky, lit only by the moon and stars. Well, that snow completely disappeared by the next morning. Last week's snow is here to stay - although now it is more like black ice - and a fresh batch is welcome if only to make it beautiful once again. I've got a cold so I've stayed in for the past couple of days, and now I have to stop blogging and start reading Val McDermid's The Mermaids Singing so that I can listen to the BBC Radio 4 Book Club discussion, which will only be available to me on the internet for about 5 more days. Descriptions of our trips to Krakow, Auschwitz and St Petersburg will have to wait until another day.

What Do Bird Flu , Cheltenham And Budapest Have In Common?

2007-02-03T19:52:00.003+02:00

Well, I know I said that I wouldn't be making entries every day, and I won't as a general rule, but there is still Laura to think about and the fact that for two solid weeks she won't be able to lift her head and desperately needs material that can be read to her by loyal P. And after what I just saw in the online NY Times, I just had to go to the Blog immediately.

Where have we been in the past month? Budapest (Hungary, of course) and Britain (London and Cheltenham - the races were really fun - my first steeple chase). And what do I read in the NY Times today? There is an outbreak of the deadliest form of bird flu in the largest turkey farm in Europe, which is located, guess where - yes, Britain. And what did we eat for dinner in Cheltenham? Turkey of course - Ed's favorite food and generally impossible to find in Ukraine. Reading on, I learned that there had been an outbreak of the flu in France the year before, but that had been contained and there were no further incidents until last month, when it was found in the domestic goose farms in, yes, of course, Hungary. And what did we eat in Budapest - what food is Budapest most famous for? Goose (goose liver in particular), of course.

Being me I have naturally brought along a supply of Tamaflu, but I never dreamed that I might actually have to use it. And being the unbelievable hypochondriac that I am, I probably won't get any sleep tonight.

So that brings me to some of our travels. We have actually been traveling so much and have been to so many charming, old world Eastern European capitals in the last few months that we were burnt out (they all began to look and feel the same) and didn't get to enjoy our most recent trip, to Budapest (and with the goose bird flu thing I hope it isn't our last trip!), as much as we otherwise would have. It's a beautiful city - especially at night from the top of Gellert Hill on the Buda side of the Danube. One mistake was our (my) choice of hotels - it was right near Hero's Square, which is also gorgeous - with huge columns in a sort of semi circle, and the magnificent Art Museum (with a van Gogh exhibit on while we were there) on one side and another, equally beautiful museum on the other. But it was about two miles from the city center and somehow we felt a little out of it. The metros there are great, but we didn't know that you had to pay when you changed from one line to another and we got fined $25 each during what I believe to be an entrapment sting operation - they block all the exits to the car at the last stop (which happened to be our stop) and make you show them your validated ticket before you can get out. Then you have to pay the fine, in cash, which of course we didn't have. Ed was held hostage while I was allowed out to go to the nearest ATM and withdraw the necessary Florints using my Visa card, which I never leave home without.

The Budapest opera house is stunning, and we saw Gotterdamerang (with super titles in Hungarian - oy vey, what a language - IMPOSSIBLE!!!! Except for Basque I have never seen anything that comes close) - not such a hot performance, but worth the $50 per ticket cost (I am still flabbergasted at how little one has to pay for tickets in these cities) for the gorgeous music and the hall and seeing everyone dressed to the nines - I'm talking ball gowns and tuxedos. We were nicely dressed - but not that nice!

The weather was unbelievable - in the 60's F. in January!!! The only way we knew it was winter was that it got dark at about 4:30.

We had a tour of the Parliament - also breathtaking - went to the synagogue (the second largest in the world) and walked through the "Jewish" section - where they never heard of bagels - and walked past the new Gresham Four Seasons as much as we could - what a building, what a view, and what a location - truly amazing. I must go back and stay there (at about 4 times the cost of our hotel). We had our first elegant dinner anywhere since we left the States in June - at Grundel - very near our hotel (delicious food - goose of course and goose liver of course) and fantastic musicians who play this xylophone type instrument that's native to Hungary and is really extraordinary, and then got a taxi to take us to Gellert Hill to see the city at night (so very beautiful with the lights on the bridges and The Four Seasons Hotel!). The driver waited for us while we did that, and then took us to the baths that Budapest is famous for. We chose Rudas, one the oldest baths, founded by the Turks in the 4th century or something like that - anyway, very old but supposedly renovated last year. These baths had recently changed their policies and hours and now permitted women in to the baths while the men were there, and also extended their weekend hours (they used to close at 6 p.m., but now they let both sexes in between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m.). I'm afraid the baths are just not for us. They have about 6 different pools, all different temperatures, ranging from 35 degrees C (that's really hot) to about 18 degrees C (that's really cold). I just felt like I was taking a bath with a lot of other people, mostly very fat people wearing very skimpy bathing suits. We left shortly after arriving.

We decided that we should check out the location of the law school that has invited Ed to teach a U.S. criminal law course for 6 to 8 weeks next fall. We knew from our discussions with them that the law school is not next to the University itself (which is right smack dab in the middle of the city center). In fact, it turns out that it is really way, way out of town - requiring two buses to get to and from the city center. Since we will have spent so much time living in Eastern Europe by then, we decided to be perfectly frank with the director of the program that arranges these gigs, and explain to him that we either wanted to live in a city center, or go to some exotic place like Mongolia. We'll see what happens - when we emailed his assistant, she emailed back to say that they had thought this law school was in the center of the city and would we reconsider if it was - well, sure, we said, but it's not in the center - it's the University that is in the center. Obviously they weren't totally offended by our rather obnoxious position (we had said in the email that we realized that this was an obnoxious position and that if they wanted to cross Ed off the list that would be okay), so we'll see what happens.

Cheltenham and London will have to wait - it's getting late here, and if I write about Cheltenham, I'll want to write about the Kharkiv Office and the project in general, so I'll do that next time.

Especially For Laura

2007-02-02T19:38:00.003+02:00

Okay, Okay, I get it - some of you really miss my Blog. The complaints keep coming and the longer I wait the harder it is to jump back in. And its only out of Laura's pain and discomfort that the Blog is resurrected. It's not easy keeping your head down for two weeks solid, so if I can help by providing reading material for her (through her trusted reader, Portis), I shall do so.

But where to start - after FOUR MONTHS!!! That's as long as we spent living in Kharkiv. I suppose I should start by renaming the Blog "Ed & Susan's Adventures in Ukraine and Their Travels Throughout the Former Soviet Union Republics and Satellite Countries." (Notice the deletion of "The" before "Ukraine" - I finally get it!) We have been on the road almost non-stop. After almost three weeks back in the States (first Marblehead MA for Ed's cousin's wedding - really fun to see all members of the extended Eidson family again - then a really brief stop in NY - where we didn't get to see very many of our friends because there was no time to do so - on our way to LA, where I was either at a doctor's office or at the Orange County Performing Arts Center watching the Kirov Ring Cycle - we did get to see a bit of Jane, Jed, Jenny and Jackson, and of Scott and Joan -more of Joan since she went to the Ring Cycle as well-but that was it!).

Now where was I? See I can't even remember where I am in the Blog, let alone where I have been for the past four months. Oh yes, after our almost 3 weeks back in the States, and a few days in London where we got to see four LA friends (Bob & ML and Brad and Sally) and Laura and Portis who came especially to see us (and a few fabulous plays and ballets - which we got to see too), we got back to a very chilly, but by no means freezing Kyiv on October 18. Now it was time to settle in and learn about a new city, new food markets, new places to get one's hair cut and colored or ones finger and toe nails clipped and polished.

My internet was up and running (at $20 a month, a big relief after the $250+ I was spending in Kharkiv each month to stay connected), the cable TV worked (although there was still precious little to watch - even the pickings on BBC Prime are very slim), we had great water pressure and hot water almost all the time. There was one memorable day when an auto accident caused a serious interruption in the delivery of hot water. No problem, we thought - our apartment has its own boiler so we never have to go without - or so we were assured when we took the place. And yes, it's true, there is a boiler here, but to turn it on you have to first take everything out of the cabinets under the bathroom sink so that you can turn off the hot water intake valve. Next you have to go into the hall closet (which is the only closet we have that is accessible when the bed is down, so it is jam packed with all sorts of stuff), clear enough space so that you can open the circuit breaker box in the back wall and turn on the circuit breaker for the boiler. Finally you have to get the 12' ladder out of the other closet (the one that is inaccessible when the bed is down, but which has a six inch opening giving access to the ladder even when the bed is not up) bring it over to the entry hall - a matter of about 10 feet, the entire length of our apartment - move the coat rack and the bench and cupboard thing in the entry way so that you can set up the ladder against the entry way wall, climb up the ladder, open the cupboard door that is just below our very high ceilings, and turn on both valves on the boiler (this means letting go of the ladder and hoisting oneself up using the ledge of the boiler cupboard so that one can reach the boiler valves - this last thing only has to be done if one is alone in the apartment, as one was because Ed was in Kharkiv, when the hot water ceases to flow. But I got it done, was able to shower, do the dishes, etc. I could even tell when the city hot water was turned back on because then the radiators began to work - so I was able to reverse the process and turn the boiler off within 24 hours. So far we have only had to resort to the boiler twice, but I'm prepared to do it again if need be.

Speaking of radiators - this was something I was dreading, having experienced the horrors of steam heat radiators in old apartment buildings in NY. I still remember the pans of hot water that had to be placed on the radiators to keep any moisture in the air or in your skin. And it was virtually impossible to turn off the heat - yeah, you could theoretically turn off the radiators in your apartment, but the pipes in the walls were still really hot and kept the place at an unbearable temperature. I thought I'd survive in Kyiv because our tiny apartment has two air conditioning units! But unbelievably their use has proved entirely unnecessary. Somehow the Ukrainians (it's okay to use the "the" here I think - this is what you do when referring to any nationality I think - the Americans, the Russians, etc.) have got this one right - somehow a steady stream of very light heat flows almost continually through the pipes and radiators, never drying out the air too much and never sending the thermometer soaring. We've had an incredibly mild winter until just this week and I have not been uncomfortable at all, and when I am, I just open the windows a bit. My little office alcove is especially comfortable for me because it is in the space that used to be the balcony, the walls are all windows, and even though two of the three radiators in the apartment are located here, it always stays quite chilly - I of course love that since I can't bear the heat. When it gets really cold, as it has during the past few days, I just turn on one of our deLonghi portable electric heaters, put it under my desk by my feet and get toasty warm within a few minutes. (I'm sure it costs us a fortune since we have been averaging about $40 a month for electricity, which, as I understand it, is almost double what most people pay.)

Oh, and did I mention my obscenely expensive "fitness center." It's so ironic - at home I wouldn't dream of joining a health club or fitness center, but I really miss pilates, and my lumbar region misses it even more. So I bit the bullet and charged the $3600 (that's right, dollars, not Hryvnas) for a year's membership to my Visa card. This buys me the right to pay an additional $30 for each personal training session with the only yoga/pilates trainer who speaks English, Katya. Fortunately I really like her a lot - she's a wonderful teacher, and it's paid off in many ways - most of all in an absence of back pain. I've tried the group classes a few times (Big Ball Pilates, Gymstick Pilates, and yoga) but it's really hard to do when all the directions are given in Russian - I have to keep looking at the instructor or the other participants to see what I'm supposed to be doing, with the result that I can't concentrate on relaxing (that's right,CONCENTRATE on relaxing - the relaxing part is the hardest thing for me to do and I really have to, ironically, work very hard at it). So for now at least I've pretty much given up on the classes and reconciled myself to the fact that I have to pay for personal training.

Oh, and the furniture we needed - I found everything we wanted within a week of coming back to Kyiv - a really good looking coffee table that is square and takes up quite a bit of room, but with the bed up, the place is really quite sparcely furnished and can handle this - and a matching night table. We saw that we really needed something on the floor too - the living room and office nook have light wood floors, and cry out for a rug. We found that too - but not until November when the Nasatirs came to visit and we took them to an "outdoor" museum which has houses and churches and other buildings from every region of Ukraine, and which sells the best crafts available here. We walked into one cottage, saw a shelf of rolled up carpets, and I immediately spotted one that I thought would (and does, in fact) look great. So the apartment is really homey and comfy now - our chatchkes have replaced the owner's chatchkes, our furniture is installed, our rug is on the floor, our towels are on the bathroom racks and our linens and duvet on the bed. It's definitely "home" in a way that the Kharkiv apartment never was.

The other day I got an email from a colleague of Betsy's who is spending 6 months in Paris on sabbatical with his wife, and their Cairn Terrier Monty. Betsy had sent me a copy of his journal entry about walking Monty, and I almost want to just copy it, change the names to Ed, Susan and Belle from Dennis, Pat and Monty, and put it in the Blog and claim it as my own. I had responded by telling him so, and he asked me what I found most surprising or unique about Ukraine. I can't even remember what I told him, but on reflection, there is one thing about living here that I truly hate. It is almost impossible to get away from the ubiquitous TV screens that are everywhere - in the gym, in the restaurant, in the cafe, in the bar, in the train station, in the train cars, in the metro stations, in the airport, in the hair and manicure salon - just everywhere - that play MTV Russian candy pop music videos incessantly, or show models walking down runways with the same horrible music blaring. It's amazing, because classical music, opera and ballet, as well as great literature, is really embedded in their upbringing here - there are many, many children, both boys and girls, at all the ballets, concerts and operas we attend, and they are rapt audiences, they don't make a peep. But somehow, when they leave the theater or the opera house or the concert hall, they put all that aside and opt for god-awful ring tones on their cell phones that never stop and horrible MTV music channels on TVs everywhere, 24/7. The other day I was in the dressing room at my fabulously expensive, elitist and snobby fitness center and was shocked to hear classical music playing softly in the background! But alas, a stop was soon put to that!

So now I suppose you want to hear about our travels and the Kharkiv Defender Office. Well, it will have to wait until tomorrow or Sunday. Friday nights we get Dalzeil and Pascoe on BBC Prime, so gotta go now.

A Big Jar Of Nescafe Boodlaska!!

2006-09-25T19:26:00.003+03:00

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

2006-09-22T14:06:00.002+03:00

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

2006-09-22T10:39:00.001+03:00

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

2006-09-21T15:09:00.001+03:00

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

2006-09-21T10:18:00.001+03:00

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

2006-09-18T13:41:00.001+03:00

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

2006-09-17T13:20:00.001+03:00

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.

Great News From The States And In Kharkiv

2006-09-17T10:55:00.001+03:00

Wow, it's been almost two weeks since my last Blog entry! So much has happened I hardly know where to begin.

I guess the first thing should be the great news about Ed's last argument in LA and his work in Kharkiv. On Friday we woke up to find an email from John Grele (who is working with Ed on the Frierson case - the other lawyer, Gwen Freeman, petitioned the court to withdraw from the case early last spring when she disagreed with Ed's approach to the case - the court has not yet acted on her petition but she has de facto withdrawn and has not participated since- she even wrote Frierson telling him that she was no longer on the case) with the news that the 3 judge panel of the 9th Circuit that heard Ed's argument on June 2nd (we had delayed our departure to Ukraine so that Ed could appear to make this argument) had granted relief on the penalty and remanded the case to the District Court to impose a sentence of life without possibility of parole rather than the death penalty!! This was really great news. Ed really put his heart and soul into this case and he (not to mention Lavell Frierson) would have been devastated if the court had denied relief. It was funny to read an article in the L.A. Times about the opinion and to see Gwen Freeman, Lavell's "current" lawyer quoted as being "thrilled" with the result. I, of course, wanted to immediately send her an email asking whether, in view of the result, she now wanted back on the case - or asking her, as Frierson's "current lawyer" to please send Ed a copy of the opinion (Ed of course heard nothing from her), but Ed, who is better than I at putting such petty emotional outbursts aside, forbade it. Now the question is whether to petition for en banc review of the denial of relief on the "special circumstances" findings of the jury - it's the finding of special circumstances that requires a sentence of either life without possibility of parole or death. Without the special circumstances, Frierson could qualify for a life sentence, which means he could have the hope that one day he might be paroled. He's been on death row for over 25 years - the longest time of any inmate - and by all accounts he is a model prisoner. But there hasn't been a parole for a murder in California in about a million years (except in the case of abused wives killing their abusive husbands, I think). Anyway, that will be up to Frierson, but Ed is pretty sure that Lavell will want him to petition the court for en banc review. If the court grants the petition (a very big if) Ed will have to argue it, and then, if they reverse and grant relief, and the government wants to retry these issues, I'm sure Ed will feel that he will have to represent Frierson in the trial. The case involved the most outrageous incompetency of counsel - it was really unbelievable. When the court questioned the State's Assistant Attorney General about this, his response was "Well, I'm sure that if Frierson was represented by a lawyer like Mr. Rucker, the result might very well have been different"!!!! In any case, Ed will never be able to abandon this guy now - this has been going on for over 10 years. Frierson is about the unluckiest guy I ever heard of - he was beaten mercilessly as a child, had brain damage, personality disorders, and is bordering on retarded. His first lawyer was incompetent(conviction overturned), his second was too (conviction overturned again), and then a THIRD incompetent counsel (this is when Ed got involved - after the third conviction)!!!!! Not only that, the Federal judge who asked Ed to take this Habeas case, who Ed was sure would have granted some relief on the penalty phase, died soon thereafter, and the case bounced around for years, going from one judge to another. The only break Frierson ever got was when the court appointed Ed and he agreed to take the case. I must say, his arguments were really good. I knew he was a really good trial lawyer - I didn't know if he'd be as good an appellate advocate - the skills are quite different - but he was. I was very impressed, and he actually persuaded me of his position (I hadn't been so sure before) when I heard him in the 9th Circuit.

The other good news is that it looks as if the agreement that was hammered out with the General on Friday September 1st will finally be signed tomorrow (Monday). When Ed, Arkadiy and Gennadiy met with the General and his lawyers on Saturday September 2nd (after they worked out the final language in the agreement with the lawyers on Friday September 1st), and the General asked them to observe the police stations to see if the work load would overwhelm the public defender office, the lawyer passed out copies of the final agreement to everyone. Well, as I reported, the agreement wasn't signed then, and a good thing too - because it turns out that it had somehow been revised and was not the same document that had been agreed to the night before!! To this day we don't know why it was changed, who changed it, or whether it was intentional or accidental - Ed of course would never have known, because the agreement is in Russian. Gennadiy discovered it a few days later!! Meanwhile from the date of the meeting until September 7th Ed was bugging everyone to arrange for the day at the police station to observe how the cases are handled and how many come in each day. It's just impossible to arrange meetings here (at least with this cast of characters) - someone will say "We should meet next week" and everyone agrees - but then instead of actually setting a time and day, they say "We will call Arakadiy on Monday to arrange a day" - then the calls are not made, Ed has to bug Arkadiy to call them, they try and call Arkadiy back and can't reach him, and on and on - finally a call is made and a day is arranged, but not the time - "We'll call you that morning and arrange a time"!!!! But finally, Ed did get to go to the police stations on Thursday, September 7th. I had left that morning with Belle for Kyiv - Ed stayed behind in the hope that he would be able to get to go to the police station, so I was very glad that it was finally arranged. But the visit was not very useful. It seems that the cops here have a quota of arrests for each month - as a result, the first two weeks of the month are pretty slow, and then they start hauling people in to make their quota (about 200 a month). Many of these people don't ultimately get charged with a crime (in 7 months this station detained 1200 people and charged 84 with crimes), but if all those detained are going to get PD lawyers, the PD's office will be overwhelmed the last two weeks of every month. Armed with this information, Ed was able to persuade the powers that be that the PD office should limit the cases to one district rather than two - if it turns out they don't have enough cases, they can always add a second district. And this solution seems to have satisfied the General.

In between calls to Arkadiy bugging him to set up the visit to the police stations, Ed was also bugging him to arrange a meeting with the General's lawyers to renegotiate the agreement and get back to where they were on September 1. This took forever!! But finally, finally, a meeting was arranged for last Friday (September 15) and everything was settled (again), with Ed getting everything he needed! No one ever asked what had happened to the agreement negotiated on September 1 (which stuns me - it's the first thing I would have tried to discuss), but I guess it doesn't matter - the fact is they now have an agreement that Ed thinks is great, and the General is going to sign it tomorrow at 11 (at least that's what's scheduled now - if their scheduling turns out to be anything like my apartment viewing schedules, that won't hold!). It took about 20 calls from Ed to Arkadiy to set this up, but all appears to be arranged. Once this happens the office can actually get going, and Ed will really have accomplished something here. Meanwhile of course Ed hasn't seen the final agreement - the General's lawyer emailed it to Arkadiy, but for some reason Arkadiy was unable to email it to Ed. It's too bad because Vicky, our friend and Ed's translator, was at our apartment and could have read it to Ed. She had come over to help me decipher the websites for the Kyiv internet and TV (it turns out that they just added an English language list of the packages and prices - I swear it wasn't there the day before - I'm getting 50 gigabytes a month on the internet and as many TV stations as you can get, including BBC Prime - all for $35 a month), and to go over my and Ed's "calling" card proofs to make sure that the addresses were correctly written in Ukrainian. But while we had tea and sweets (Vicky loves sweets), Ed and she talked about the criminal justice system here, who's who - who has influence, who doesn't (or as the Ukrainian's say "who can cut whose oxygen") - and other things that you can only get from experience - it's not in any Code or book. Vicky was able, for example, to explain why the provisions which allow a pledge of property to secure bail are never used here. She told us that in Ukraine it is better to officially be "poor" rather than "rich." She explained that in the U.S. it is easy to find out what a person owns - almost everything is "on the books," while in Ukraine no one wants to officially "own" anything, especially property. It is always owned by some distant relative, or friend, or cohort, or business "associate" with a side agreement in the desk drawer, or perhaps just the threat of a gun in the desk drawer!! But even more important, under the laws here it is virtually impossible to take away someone's principal residence, even if the person signs a paper agreeing to surrender the property under certain circumstances. So, if a detainee is really the beneficial owner of a house that his third cousin once removed lives in, and his third cousin once removed agrees to pledge the house as security for a bail bond, it will not be accepted as collateral because other laws prevent the taking of the house if the detainee skips town since it is the third cousin's principal residence. They do not have the concept of a mortgage for a principal residence, where the bank can take title to the house if you default in making the mortgage payments. They even avoid secured transactions for the purchase on credit of other property - like a refrigerator - because there is always a straw man (who owns absolutely nothing and has no relationship whatsoever to the real owner - just some homeless guy they pick up that day and use to make the purchase - standing between the real owner and the bank or other lender. It was really interesting. Ed said he learned more talking to her for one hour than he has learned from anyone else during his entire time here. It's too bad we didn't know about her from the beginning, and it's really too bad for that she didn't take that job in Kyiv. I will miss her.

It's amazing - Ed thought he was coming here to help train the lawyers and work with them on their cases! Hah!! They haven't had a single case yet - but meanwhile Ed has drafted and negotiated the all-important agreement with the police (requiring the police to tell the detainees they can have a lawyer appointed if they can't afford one, and also requiring them to call lawyers for those detainees who want representation before the police can begin their interviews), all the office forms (intake forms, proof of indigency forms, case file forms, etc.), and a whole series of motions designed to change the way the legal system operates here (concerning coerced confessions or illegal searches and seizures, for example). It's pretty clear to me that if Ed hadn't been here they wouldn't have gotten any of this done - he has a great combination of knowledge, experience, patience, diplomatic skill, good sense and a willingness to listen to others and learn about the differences between our system and culture and theirs - all of which were essential to his success. I'm extremely proud of him.

We went to the ballet on Friday night for another Swan Lake. Unfortunately, it was not up to the standard of the performance we saw here last June. Far from it. We left before the last act (the apotheosis) - Odette/Odile and Prince Albrecht just weren't very good, although the company itself wasn't bad. Oh well, we're leaving Kharkiv very soon anyway.

I'm way ahead of myself now - there's still the trip to Kyiv from September 7 to 12 to meet up with Jodi and her dad, and to finalize my apartment decision. I'm just waiting for Jodi to email me the photos (which I've seen on her snapfish album already) to post it. I've had many complaints about the lack of photos in my postings lately, and I certainly don't want to lose my following -- so get ready for a ton of them in the next Blog entry!!

Apartment Prospects In Kyiv Look Good

2006-09-05T10:43:00.001+03:00

Well, I've narrowed the apartment choice down to three - but more about that later. First things first.

Ed's meeting on Saturday did in fact take place. Ed insisted on going to the train station with me at 6:30 a.m. and I left not knowing whether or not he would be having the meeting with the General. Ed called me at about 9 a.m. to tell me that the meeting was scheduled for 10 a.m. and that Vicky would be going with him to translate. When Ed arrived in Kyiv later that night I learned that this meeting did not go quite as planned. The General was there with his assistant and one of the lawyers from the meeting the previous day, as well as another general. The drafting of the "instructions" was never discussed. (Vicky had not received them until late the night before, and she hadn't been able to get them completely translated, so maybe that was a good thing.) Apparently the General has approved the agreement that was hashed out and redrafted during the meeting Arkadiy, Gennadiy and Ed had with the police lawyers on Thursday, but he is still very concerned about the PD office being overwhelmed with cases if every detainee who cannot afford a lawyer is assigned to the PD office. As the second general put it - "You don't want to give birth to a still born baby." Later he said "We are in a desert and you want to plant plum trees." I like this guy! He's right - they should just limit the program to one police station - I think they are biting off way more than they can chew. So does Ed - now he just has to persuade Gennadiy and Arkadiy on that point. So the meeting really got nowhere, except that the General suggested that Ed and Gennadiy spend a few days at the police stations to see for themselves how many cases come in, and whether they think the referral process is manageable. Of course, no schedule was set for their visits! Why arrange such a thing in advance????

Ed had a really hard time on the train. The woman in charge of his car demanded that Belle have a ticket or she would have to stay in her case (the tiny one) the whole trip (6 hours!!). He offered to pay for a ticket, but she said he couldn't (just when you need a corrupt official, you don't find one!!!). We have never had this problem before, but we have always traveled first class. Of course he had to let her out, and then he had to keep on guard the entire time so that he could stuff her back in when he saw the woman coming down the aisle. It was exhausting for both of them. By the time they arrived in Kyiv it was not only dark and cold, but it was also raining (guess who had no umbrella!!), and Ed's taxi driver got "lost" ringing up 65 Hryvnas on the meter - it should have been about 20 HVA - and Ed agreed to pay him 50. It's an easy metro ride, but not for the first time (as it would have been for Ed), especially in the dark, let alone the rain, so I had told him to take a taxi. Ed turned down one offer from a taxi driver for 40 HVA, but assumed, as I would, that a meter would be best. Now we know better - a meter is fine if you know the way and "help" the taxi driver find the right route.

Ed called from outside the hotel to make sure Belle was allowed in and that he didn't have to stuff her in the case and sneak her in. I assured him that I had checked this all out and that she was definitely allowed. (I had done this both when I made the reservations for us and for Jodi and her dad, and again when I called for this reservation). Well, when Ed arrived with Belle in tow, the receptionist did not agree - she said dogs were not allowed and showed Ed the rules that prohibit them!!! I came out in the hotel's terry cloth bathroom prepared to do battle. The receptionist was on the phone to the manager, I was able to tell her the date I made the reservations, and the exact time I had stopped by in person, as well as the precise time I phoned. They decided to allow it, but only if we agreed to pay for any damage. No problem! Now Belle, who barks at the elevataor at our apartment, and at every passing ant or other creature on the canals, never barks when we take her to a hotel - in fact, she never barks when she's in a new place - it isn't until she knows it is her home that she feels she has to protect it. Naturally, on this night she decided to bark at everything - and our room was practically adjacent to the receptionist! It was a nightmare. I had to hold on to her all night long, and I don't think any of us slept much that night!

My train ride to Kyiv was uneventful - I arrived on time, found the metro easily and quickly without having to go up or down any stairs, and was at the hotel by 1:30, 1/2 hour after my arrival. I was meeting the mother-in-law of the owner of the apartment I was excited about (we refer to it as Michael's apartment - because, naturally, Michael is the name of the owner) at 2 p.m. I got there on time, and Tetyana was waiting for me. She speaks very little English, but more than she thinks she does, as is often the case with Ukrainians. The building is on a really nice street, extremely well-located, and the building itself is quite nice. The entrance is the usual horrible Ukrainian entrance, but I'm very used to that. The elevator is the usual Ukrainian horrible elevator, but I'm used to that as well. The apartment is on the third floor. There is a locked door that leads to three apartments on one side of the elevator - the back side of the building - which is where Michael's apartment is situated. There are three apartments behind this door. Michael's apartment is as nice in real life as it is in the photos. It just has a lovely feel to it - warm and cozy, and elegant. BUT it is very, very small. Now, I'm used to small - the apartment in Kharkiv is probably 40 square meters and we've had no trouble living here. But this one is even smaller, and even though it is a "2 room" apartment, the two rooms are the kitchen/eating area and the living room/bedroom (usually the two rooms are one large living room/kitchen/dining area and one separate bedroom). In fact the bed folds out of the living room wall, with a queen size mattress imported from America!!! Also it has no view at all - the former balcony is now enclosed - it makes a kind of bay window area set off from the living room, and it is where I would put a desk and make my workspace - and those windows basically look out into other apartment windows (no more running around in my undies until midday!!). But I liked it, and there's no commission, and I think the owner will be willing to buy a desk and desk chair, a couple of end tables and a coffee table that will fit in with the other furniture. This was definitely one I wanted to come back to with Ed on Sunday. I arranged for us to see it at 11 a.m.

My next appointment was at the real estate agent's right across the street from the opera house. It took me 15 minutes to get there - so that's good. Michael's apartment is not only near the metro at Maidan (remember the sea of orange scarves and hats during the Orange Revolution? That's Maidan) - about 2 minutes away - but it is also not far from the opera house, a place I intend to visit often.

The time with the real estate agent was not quite so productive. Turns out I could only see two places - I thought I was going to be seeing about 6 places, but most of them were not available for viewing on the weekend, and one won't be available until the tenants leave on the 10th. The ones I couldn't see included the two I really wanted to look at - the one at Olginskaya that I had seen on my last trip, and the one near Planet Fitness that I had also seen on my last trip. I had seen both of these with different agents, but the first agent for Olginskaya had just emailed to tell me that the price was now $3000 - out of the question - and the new agents had it listed at $2500 (also out of the question, but at least a better starting point for negotiations), and the first agent representing the apartment near Planet Fitness just hadn't been able to arrange for me to see it because she was out of Kyiv for the weekend - so much for that agent! In any case, the two apartments I was shown weren't right for me, but the agent was able to arrange for viewings of Olginskaya and the one near Planet Fitness on Sunday - the first at 10 a.m. and the second at 3 p.m.

I was finished at about 5:30, so I called about another ad in Kiev Post and arranged to meet the agent at 6 p.m. This one is just slightly out of the center, near all the embassies - so the location is not quite as desirable. I walked there from the hotel and got there before 6. This apartment was huge - and the asking price is $2800 - a really big living room with huge leather arm chairs and a leather sofa (pale yellow - not too practical), a fantastic kitchen that opens off the living room (which I like) and a nice dining table, 2 big bedrooms, tons of closet space, and one of the bedrooms is empty and can be furnished any way the tenant wants (e.g., as a study for me), and it has a nice open balcony. The bathroom is great and has radiant heated floors. I told her I might want to see it the next day (Sunday) and that I have a small dog (the other agents know about Belle). She said she would call the owner (who is British) and ask about the dog and then call me to arrange a time to see it again on Sunday if the owner doesn't object to the dog. The only real drawbacks are the price, the location, and the fact that the hallway wasn't lit (it was pitch dark in front of the apartment door - God only knows how she got the key in the lock, especially since all these apartments have complicated locking systems where you have to put one key in facing backwards, another key facing upwards, press three fingers on three buttons simultaneously, and do a backflip, all at the same time, in order to get the door open!!!). We don't really need all that space, and I hate paying for it when I don't need or even want it.

By now it was getting on 7 p.m. and I wanted to shoot off an email to Michael to tell him that I really liked his place and ask him some questions. I went back to the hotel to use the business center and learned that use of the computer and the internet costs $20 an hour!!!!! I asked where the nearest internet place was and I was directed to the post office, which is only 5 minutes away. But by the time I got there, 8 p.m., it was just closing. So instead I went to Double Coffee on Kreshchatik because when we were in Riga we had the greatest potato pancakes with red caviar at Double Coffee. But, alas, no red caviar in Kyiv - but great potato pancakes with sour cream. By the time I finished and got back to the hotel it was 9 o'clock and time to watch the incredibly superficial and really useless documentary "In The Footsteps of Bin Laden" with Christianne Amanpour on CNN. Ed arrived at about 11, and after getting Belle squared away with reception we just crashed.

Breakfast comes with the room at Gintama, and it was good - lots of blini and toast for me and cold cereal for Ed. Then it was off to Olginskaya - I disliked the furnishings (and those horrible verticle blinds on the windows, spoiling the pretty ogee windows in this beautiful Tsarist building), especially the kitchen, every bit as much as I had the first time. It's just that the apartment itself is so pretty - if I were buying it I would jump at it. But I just don't love it when I walk in the door. Next, we went to Michael's apartment, and I had the same good feeling when I walked in as I had the first time I saw it. It's just cozy and warm. Ed agreed that we would need end tables, a coffee table, and a desk and desk chair, and he also agreed that it was charming and that the lack of space would not be a problem. I told Ed that I had several more apartments to see with yet another agent that afternoon, starting at noon, and that he should install himself somewhere with Belle and I would call if I wanted him to see any of them. I didn't, and we hooked up at about 1 p.m. at the internet place in the post office (Ed had checked out, left the suitcase at the hotel, and brought Belle with him). I was emailing Michael to find out if he would get the furniture we needed and to ask a number of other questions about the apartment. When I was finished the three of us went to a cafe on Kreshchatik to pass the time until my appointment to see the apartment near Planet Fitness at 3 p.m. When I went back to see that one at the appointed time I found that I didn't like it quite as much as I had the first time, but I still like it well enough, and Belle is a known and pre-approved factor here. So I thought I should have it as a backup in case Michael would not allow dogs (he had already told me that smoking was prohibited in the apartment, so I knew he was particular). We talked about it with the owner's agent, who was there (the owner is an American real estate investor who lives in Malibu!), and we discussed the purchase of another wardrobe, a wooden coffee table, end tables for the bedroom and a desk and desk chair, as well as a reduction of the rental price from the asking $2200 to $2000 (Michael's is asking $1900), which, with the commission amortized over 9 months (which is probably how long we will stay there), comes to about $2150 a month.

I also got a call from the woman who showed me the huge apartment the night before, telling me that the owner said the dog was okay, but I decided it was too big, too expensive, and too far on the outer edge of the inner circle - and besides, she couldn't show it to me until 5 p.m. (she was cooking!), and our train left at 5:30. So I told her I was no longer interested.

We went to the train station by metro and it was a nightmare. The metro was unbelievably crowded. I had the rollie suitcase, and Ed had Belle and her carrying case. We were honestly worried that Belle (who was in Ed's arms) would be squashed to death. I have never seen anything like it. Not in NY, not in Japan, not anywhere. And this was at 4:30 on a Sunday afternoon!! We only had to go three stops, but at each stop people rammed you as they tried to get out and then other people rammed you as they tried to get on. But we made it, with time to spare. We had decided that we should try and get a ticket for Belle, and I wanted to get her ticket in the same car as ours, so I went to get our tickets and passports out of my little fanny pack. There were the passports, but NO TICKETS!!! I went through everything - my purse, my fanny pack, Belle's case, my suitcase - NO TICKETS!! I must have left them at the hotel or thrown them out there. I was frantic. The ticket booth for eenozemkas (foreigners) was all the way at the other end or the station, in the new south wing (at least I knew where it was - it had taken me about 45 minutes to locate it the last time we were there!). I ran as fast as I could and saw long lines everywhere. I managed to go up to the front of one of the lines, find someone who spoke English, and explained that my train would be leaving in 10 minutes and that I had lost my tickets, could I please go to the front. And they let me do it - but the ticket agent sent me to another window. The person who was helping me went with me, and again I got to the front of the line. SOLD OUT!!!! Well, I said I thought I remembered that we were in car 2 in the last 2 seats in the compartment - go to the train and see if they'll let you on is what everyone said. So that's what we did. Fortunately the track for our train was very close by, so we ran down to the train and I saw the woman who had been in charge of my car on the way to Kyiv - she remembered me because I had two seats - and I tried to explain to her that I had lost our tickets and could I get on the train. Someone again helped with the translation, and she told me to get on, but we would have to pay again. Fine, I said. So I got on, but then I didn't see Ed anywhere - I can usually spot him easily, but he was nowhere to be seen. I called his cellphone, but he didn't answer. Now I was really beginning to panic. But then I saw him (he had been bending down trying to stuff Belle in her case when I had called) and I told the woman that he was my choloveek and she let him on. Then I realized that this was car 6 and I thought our seats were in car 2 - I asked the woman if I should go to car 2, and she basically said that she was in charge of car 6, that she would let me on, but she had no idea whether the person in charge of car 2 would do the same. But, I said, the train is sold out - where will we sit? We will stand she said!!!! As it turns out, this was our car (Ed was in car 2 on his trip to Kyiv, but I was in car 6 on the way there, and both of us were in car 6 on the way back), and we were able to sit in what I thought were our seats (they must have been our seats because no one else tried to sit in them). We took Belle out of her little case once the train pulled out of the station (so they couldn't make us get off!), and she was so exhausted she just slept the whole way back.

As soon as we got back I turned on my computer and sent Michael an email telling him about Belle. If it's okay with him, great. If not, we have a backup with the place next to Planet Fitness. There's also another place I want to see in Besarabska Square - it looks warm and lovely, like Michael's, but it also has a working fireplace, and somehow the notion of reading War and Peace, or some such novel, with a pot of tea and a fire roaring in the fireplace on a cold, snowy winter day in Kyiv seems incredibly romantic. It also has a separate bedroom and a separate study. And the location is very central. I couldn't see it over the weekend, so I'll see it on Thursday as soon as I arrive to meet Jodi and her dad. Meanwhile I got an email from Michael telling me that he's working round the clock till tomorrow, and that he'll get back to me then on everything - he's discussing the dog with his wife and that they will probably allow it if I give a one month security deposit. So I'm feeling like we're getting close!!!!

Some Progress, At Last

2006-09-01T18:37:00.001+03:00

Today is September 1 and Kharkiv looks like a different city - it's like Sleeping Beauty or Rip Van Winkle - it has come alive. All the schools and the universities (this is one of the largest, if not the largest, university cities in the former USSR) have reopened and the streets are teeming with young people. And it was the most gorgeous, perfect fall day. It poured down rain yesterday. (Ed got caught in it wearing his good suit and dress shirt and dress shoes - he was soaked to the skin - even his underwear had to be wrung out!! I keep telling him he has to take his fold up umbrella with him every time he goes out - that's just the way it is here - there can be a cloud burst anytime, anywhere - but he just won't listen - I wonder how many drenchings it will take before he does.) The rain left the city sparkling and it was clear and cool and sunny and bright today. Seeing all the little kids going to their first day of school, or their first day back at school, holding the hand of their mother or father or grandmother or grandfather, was just so sweet. Just being outside and seeing all this put me in a good mood.

But I must go back and fill in the blanks, as a lot has happened over the past two days.

On Thursday Ed (with Vicky) met with the head of the Bar Association (a man named Golan) to see if he could goose things along. And I must say that Ed has had a brilliant idea about how to do this. Arkadiy wants to have a press conference about the opening of the PD Office soon. Ed's idea is that they approach the head of the bar association and also the Regional Chief of Police (the General, as Ed refers to him) and invite them to participate in the press conference, dropping all the names of the people who will be invited (including President Yuschenko), and telling each guy that he is the "first person on the list" of invitees because the cooperation of the bar/police is so important to this project. Ed really had a good time meeting with Golan - a very crafty fellow, according to Ed. Vicky told Ed that they have a saying here - a good defense lawyer is one who can "talk to the judges" and that Golan, by that standard, is a very good defense lawyer indeed! After hearing Ed's pitch and saying how pleased he was to be included, and that of course he would accept, he said to Ed "Ah, you were wise to come to me first." He then looked at Ed as if to say "now that all this bull shit is over, what is it that you really want from me." What Ed really wants is for Golan to get the approval of the bar for the court to allow the Public Defender Office to have a desk in the courthouse. Apparently, the chief judge of that court told Ed that she could not let the PD office have a desk in the attorney's room (which is huge and has plenty of desks) without that approval. Ed told Golan that he wanted Golan to explain to the defense bar that the PD is not in competition with them, that they will only provide services to people who cannot afford to pay a private lawyer, so they are not taking private clients away from the members of the bar. But, Golan replied, when the detainees hear that a lawyer will be provided at no cost, even those that can afford one will take the free one. Ed agreed that this was a problem (he "validated" Golan's position, as we say in psychobabble), and asked Golan what steps they could take to prevent this. Golan made several suggestions - like getting the rental agreements of the detainee, the employment records, look at their houses to make sure they weren't getting a lot of money "off the books" etc. Ed, of course, agreed with all of this, and Golan promised to call a meeting and try to "persuade" the members of the bar to cooperate.

It turns out that this is no laughing matter. The next day Golan called to report that he had met with the members of the bar, that the members reported that they had been very upset when they saw the sign that the PD had posted in the police stations announcing the availability of free legal representation and giving the phone number of the PD office. In fact, it was probably a defense lawyer, rather than a police officer, who took down the sign that had been posted(remember the famous call by Gennadiy to the police station asking where the sign was and the police officer saying that it was hanging on the wall, while one of the PD lawyers was standing next to him and looking at the empty space on the wall?)!!! Golan said that it had been stupid not to have had a meeting with the bar before putting up this sign - and Ed agreed. In fact, Ed had always been worried about the bar thinking it was in competition with the PD office, and had been urging Arkadiy to arrange a meeting with the bar for a long time. But Arkadiy had said it wasn't necessary, that he had already told the bar about the existence of the project and that they supported it, and that Ed had already met with them to discuss the conflict issues. Bad move!

After the meeting with Golan, Ed and Vicky went to meet with the General. The General had been called earlier in the week, at which time he had be invited to the press conference, had been told that it would be very important to have the signed agreement in hand before that time, and had been asked to meet with Ed, Gennadiy and Arkadiy to finalize the wording of the agreement. Of course the meeting, which was at 11 a.m., wasn't actually set until 10 a.m. that very day. Arkadiy and Gennadiy were at this meeting as well, and apparently Arkadiy immediately launched into a discussion of the Criminal Procedure Code, telling the General that its provisions require the police to comply with the procedures that the PD office had proposed - basically telling the General that he wasn't doing his job properly. Another bad move! The General responded that he saw a number of problems with the proposed agreement, not the least of which was that the PD office would be overwhelmed if the police sent the PD office every case in which the detainee could not afford a lawyer and wanted representation. Ed agrees that this is potentially a huge problem, but it is impossible to designate those sorts of cases that will be sent to the PD and those that will not because, if they try to limit the situations in which the police call the PD office, then somehow the police will find a way to determine, at least initially, that every detainee is in the category where no call is required (e.g., if only certain crimes require a call to the PD office, then the detainee will be held for a different type of crime until they have had time to beat a confession out of the detainee, and only then will they change the charge). Of course he couldn't say this to the General, so instead he explained to the General that he understands, and he agrees, but that the problem is that the police are very busy and very overworked, and that it's much easier for them if they don't have to go to the trouble of calling the PD office. And it is just human nature, not unique to Ukraine or Kharkiv, that the police will unconsciously tend to find a reason why the PD Office need not be called in each case - that this happens everywhere - it happens in the U.S. - these are not "bad" people, they are just overworked cops trying to do their job. That being the case, Ed suggested that together they should try and find a way to make this work without limiting the types of cases. (Ed thinks they should confine the project to one police station and not try to represent detainees in two districts - this is a pilot program, and if it turns out that there are not enough cases to keep the PD lawyers busy, then you can always add another station. On the other hand, if the PD lawyers are overwhelmed at the outset, you can't possibly remedy the situation by hiring more lawyers - that takes time - and the project will fail before it even gets started.) The General suggested that they meet again on Saturday to draft instructions to the police to implement all the changes proposed. Of course, no specific time was set for the Saturday meeting - that will come later! This is, after all, only Thursday.

So all in all Thursday was a very good day for Ed. I had been busy arranging my apartment search schedule in Kyiv on the coming Saturday and Sunday. I'm especially excited about the apartment that was advertised in the Kiev Post - the one that's owned by an American who lived in Kyiv for 7 years (he's an RN), married a woman from Kyiv, and is now living in Atlanta. He designed the apartment himself and the photos he sent look lovely. The price is about right and there is no commission. It's in a great location, just off Maidan (in fact, just about one block away from the hotel where we and Jodi and her dad plan to stay next week), in an old "Tsarist" building. But I'll have to see it - experience has taught me that you can definitely eliminate an apartment based on the photos, but a place can look great in photos and be crappy in real life. I've also contacted another real estate agency and they have sent me several proposals that look very good - my Saturday afternoon and evening is booked, and so is Sunday morning. I'm leaving Sunday afternoon free in case I want to go back and see anything again (with Ed) - this too I have learned from experience - you just have to see the place at least twice before you commit.

So today I went to the train station to buy our tickets. I will take the early train at 7 a.m. on Saturday. Ed is taking the afternoon train with Belle so he can go to the meeting with the General in the morning (assuming it takes place), and then we will both come back together on the Sunday afternoon. This, it turns out, is a rather complicated transaction - I wanted 2 second class seats for myself on the way to Kyiv, one second class ticket for Ed on the later train the same day (he doesn't mind sitting next to someone he doesn't know - I do, and for $6 a pop I figure I can spring for two seats), and two return tickets for Sunday afternoon. The reason it's complicated is that you have to show the passport for every ticket you purchase, and I was afraid I would never be able to make the ticket seller understand that I wanted two tickets for myself. But I did! I'm quite proud of myself. And I left after about 10 minutes with everything as I wanted it.

After my success at the train station I took the metro back and met Vicky at my bank to confirm that my money had arrived (it had - I knew I'd win that bet with Ed!) and to make sure I had understood the different rules about the different accounts (I hadn't). Based on what Vicky told me, I think I've worked out a system so that it will cost very little, if anything, to withdraw the money (they charge 1% to withdraw funds, nothing to receive them). If I keep a minimum of $2000 in a 6 month savings deposit account I will earn 3 1/2 percent (or $70 if it's $2000) at the end of 6 months. So if they charge me 1% to take money out of the current account, that means I can withdraw $7000 and it won't cost me anything. I can just figure out how much money I will have to withdraw over the course of 6 to 9 months to pay our rent and for us to live on (trips can be charged to Visa), and keep the appropriate amount in the savings account. Besides, where else can we earn 7% per annum on our money????? Anyway, I know it's ridiculous to spend so much time to save so little money, but for me it's just another project and part of my "adventure," as opposed to Ed's adventure, which involves important matters!

Vicky and I had lunch at Rio, a cute little cafe that Ed and I had eaten at a couple of months ago - I had my usual (blini with red caviar and tea) and she had her usual (a capuccino and a desert). We talked about her job (she's told Dr. Stashis that she will be staying here and, on hearing this, he did tell her how glad he was that she had decided to stay and that he didn't know how he would have managed without her). We talked about her problems with the guy she's been seeing, and just generally had a good time. Ed called me while I was at lunch and told me that he needed my help in preparing the draft "instructions" which he would present to the General tomorrow - he had just been told that they were going to meet at 5 p.m. with the lawyers representing the General and the police stations that the PD office will be servicing, to go over the agreements already reached with the General and to finalize the language. Since Arkadiy and Gennadiy would be at this meeting he wanted to get the instructions done so that he could give copies to them to review before the meeting on Saturday with the General. We checked with Vicky and she confirmed that she could join Ed at the meeting, so off Vicky and I went in our separate directions.

The printer is right around the corner from the cafe so, on my way back, I stopped in to pick up the cards Ed had ordered for me. Fortunately they only cost about $12 - they're terrible - really cheap paper stock, very cheap looking, poorly laid out, you name it, it was bad. I could have done a much better job myself on my computer. I'll use them for now if I need to, but I'm going to ask Vicky to recommend a printer to get some good ones - I'm sure it's cheaper in Kharkiv than in Kyiv, and since I don't include an address I can get them done now. I had a feeling they were going to be awful after Ed showed me the "file covers" that had been printed up for the PD office - they're crooked (the two sides don't line up) and are also printed (well, they're not really printed - it's more like ink jet printing) on very cheap stock (I guarantee that they will fall apart after one month at the latest - and these are meant to keep the entire file for each case!!). I think this was one of those cases where they were "saving money" by using a friend of a friend of Gennadiy's - the worst of all worlds because you have to redo the job elsewhere (at additional cost) and you can't even complain about how badly the job was done in the first place!

After a quick stop at the dry cleaner and another stop to pick up fruit and some things for dinner, I got back to a frantic Ed, and helped him by rewriting, organizing, typing and printing the draft instructions for the police. Despite Ed's hovering, I managed to get everything done in plenty of time and then settled in for a nice visit with Natasha, Prince Andrei, Pierre, and the whole gang from War and Peace, while Ed went off to his meeting.

Ed's meeting with the lawyers representing the General and the police districts went extremely well. But it didn't get off to a very good start. When Ed, Gennadiy and Arkadiy walked in the door they were presented with a new agreement (in Russian, of course - so Vicky quickly translated it for Ed), which completely changed the deal. Vicky told me that Gennadiy immediately launched in, saying that this wasn't what they had agreed to, that there was nothing to talk about, and that he then gathered his papers and prepared to walk out. Ed stepped in at that point and, of course, took a different approach - he has amazing patience when it comes to dealing with bureaucrats and other people who have complete control over the situation (or at least the power to say no, even if they don't have the authority to say yes), and who are often stupid, stubborn and lazy. Ed said the expression on the face of one of the two lawyers (they were both women) when they walked into the room was one of utter disgust - as if to say "how can I possibly be expected to endure the distasteful task of talking to these defense lawyers - everyone knows how repulsive they are - they are no better than the criminals they represent." But somehow Ed was able to persuade them that they should reconsider their positions, and again he was able to get everything the PD office wants. I also think that having Vicky as his translator has made a world of difference - not only can she translate, but she is very smart, has a law degree, and can give Ed insights into the nuances of what is being said. He came away from the meeting very happy. The agreement was rewritten as they discussed it, and it was finalized and printed out before they left the building. Ed was hopeful that it would be signed the next day at the meeting with the General. Of course, that meeting had yet to be scheduled - after all, it was only 7 p.m. the night before! At 9 p.m. Ed still hadn't gotten a call from Arkadiy telling him what time they would meet, so he finally called Arkadiy. Arkadiy still hadn't heard anything, so who knows if the meeting will even take place at all. I certainly won't know until after my train leaves, because it pulls out at 7:05 a.m.

Ed's Frustration Continues

2006-08-30T17:15:00.001+03:00

I have been waiting for a check drawn on one of our U.S. accounts, which I mailed in for deposit at another one of our U.S. bank accounts, to clear for over a month now, and was convinced that someone had pinched it and found that he or she could do nothing with it. But then I got a "mail arrival" email from Fern, telling me that WAMU had returned the check I had mailed in for deposit because I hadn't signed it! Well that explains it. Now I've sent off another check to myself, and I can calculate how long it takes to clear.

Today we got the word that they want Ed to stay in Kharkiv until we leave for the States on September 27, and when we come back on October 18 we will start in Kyiv. So I'm going to look for an apartment in Kyiv this weekend (Ed's coming with me on condition that he doesn't have to go with me to look at the apartments - but when I've narrowed it down to one or two, he will go look at it or them with me). It will just be nice to have company when I get back from running around, and we can test drive the hotel that we've booked for Jodi and her dad (and us) - if it's awful we can find someplace else. But the location is really great, and they take dogs, so I think it will be fine. In fact, one of the apartments I am going to see (owned by an American who lived here for 7 years and is married to a Ukrainian woman from Kyiv) is right around the corner. I'll either rent the apartment beginning September 6, and we'll stay in the apartment rather than the hotel when Jodi visits, or I'll try and rent it starting October 18. That poses all sorts of logistical problems (like where do I store my stuff), but I guess we'll manage somehow - it would save us quite a bit of money not to have to pay rent for three weeks, but on the other hand it would be much more convenient to get the apartment now, set everything up, and put everything away before we go back home for a few weeks.

I haven't been doing too much lately, but I'm on page 650 of War and Peace. I spent almost the entire day yesterday at Beatrice getting a mani/pedi followed by cut, color, highlights and low lights. I have no idea how it looks because after staring at myself in the mirror for several hours yesterday, I can't bare to look in the mirror today.

Ed is really losing weight - all this walking, plus he really has cut down on his food intake and especially alcohol intake - he just doesn't drink anything at all except water, tea and orange juice here. I have a beer every night, but he prefers the juice!! He looks great - totally flat stomach. Also, he's doing pilates from the book that Jennifer (my U.S. pilates instructor) gave me before I left (it's a terrific book). I, of course, am doing NOTHING and eating much more than before. I do walk, but not nearly as much as I should, given my caloric intake. I just can't make myself do the pilates without someone watching me and telling me what to do - I am a real exercise hater, even though I feel so much better after I do the pilates (I mean physically - my back and neck - not emotionally - I think I'm one of those rare birds that doesn't release any endorphins during exercise - there are such people).

I've been on the computer a lot, arranging appointments to see apartments, arranging to have funds transferred to our new Aval Bank account. (I made a side bet with Ed - I bet him that I would get my $1000 - that's the amount of the test transfer I am making - before he gets repaid the $1000 he advanced the office. I know I'll win this one!)

I also bought tickets for Swan Lake in Kharkiv on September 15. Even if I get an apartment in Kyiv starting September 6, I'll still come back for the day and evening to see Ed and go to the ballet with him. I want to see if it's as good as I remember. And also, I'll be able to compare it with the Kyiv Ballet because we are going to that on Ed's birthday with Jodi and her dad to see Sleeping Beauty at the Kyiv National Opera and Ballet Theater.

So now I have a few trips (two to Kyiv and one to Boston, NY, LA and London) to look forward to, plus the move to Kyiv, with all the organizing and planning and getting to know a new city that that entails. The burning question for us now is whether we hire a minivan and driver to take us and all our stuff to Kyiv, or whether we rent a large station wagon or SUV and drive ourselves. It costs twice as much to have the car and driver than to rent a car and drive ourselves, but I'm concerned about being able to follow the signs, read the speed limits, etc. - especially when we get into the city itself. I'm also worried about what would happen if we got stopped by the police for speeding or something. After what Ed's told me, I'm not sure I want to take any chances with having to negotiate with the cops here!

I've been seeing quite a bit of Vicky - trying to help her sort out what she wants to do with her life. I think she's decided not to take the job in Kyiv - it doesn't sound like it's what she's looking for. I'll be sorry about that, because I really like her and I would like to see her in Kyiv, but this is a really big move for her, and she's invested a good many years here at the Law Academy, and she probably shouldn't go unless it is a real step up and forward. She's also been helping me - showing me good takeout food places, a good shoe repair place, translating "highlights" and "low lights" to Yulia, my hairdresser!! She's going to translate for Ed again tomorrow at some meeting with the head of the local Bar Association. I think he should hire her for an hour or two a couple of days a week - say Monday, Wednesday and Friday - so that he can meet with the lawyers and discuss what they are doing, what has to be done, what meetings have to be arranged, what motions filed, etc. It's just too difficult and frustrating to do all this through Gennadiy - it isn't his job to translate and, truth be told, it would be a lot easier for both of them if Ed had a translator in his meetings with Gennadiy - I think they could get a lot more done more efficiently, and with a lot less frustration and exhaustion.

Ed is soooooo frustrated right now. They still haven't arranged a follow-up meeting with the police after the "big" meeting over 2 weeks ago. Any momentum they may have had is quickly being dissipated. And we all know the power of INERTIA - it gets harder and harder to make any headway as each day goes by. It would be so sad if Ed leaves here without having accomplished anything concrete - he has such hopes and dreams for this project, but he is stymied at every turn. For example, he told me that today they called over to one of the police stations to find out when they are going to post the sign with the PD telephone number. Oh, the policeman said, it's already posted - it's on the wall and I'm looking at it right now. So Gennadiy said, well how come the person who is standing right next to you, who happens to be one of our lawyers, can't see it!!!!!!!! This is routine. And don't even get me started on the administrative details - they still have no letterhead, no separate fax line, no business cards, etc. I'll bet anything that they don't have paper clips or staplers either! Things should pick up soon though - on September 1 all of Europe, including Ukraine, comes back to life!

A Word About The Mail

2006-08-28T19:09:00.001+03:00

I've been experimenting with the mail here. I asked Betsy to mail me an envelope or postcard from NY about three or four weeks ago, and it still hasn't arrived. Laura has sent me several postcards, some in English, and others using cyrillic letters, from Scotland, I think, and they haven't gotten here yet either. Last week I mailed myself an envelope from the post office around the corner and used cyrillic letters - it got here two days later. It was thrilling to see an envelope in our mailbox, even though I knew it was from me and that there was nothing in it!!! Today I mailed an envelope addressed to me in English from the same post office. I wonder if this one will ever get here!

I also opened a bank account here today at Aval Bank (which was recently bought by Raiffeisenbank Group, an Austrian bank headquartered in Vienna). Raiffeisen used to have branches in Ukraine, but Raiffeisenbank Ukraine was sold and Raiffeisen bought Aval - it seemed to me it would be best to have use international banking institution. It took me many phone calls to find a branch where they have someone who speaks English who can help me, but I did it - and the branch office is only a few blocks away. I went over with my passport and my visa (which is in my passport), and it was easy - after all the horror stories I've heard about the PD Office having such difficulty opening up a bank account I was prepared for the worst. But it was simple (but this is an individual account, not a business account, so it's probably much less complicated). It cost $10 to open the account and then $4 more to get debit cards for me and Ed to use at the bankomats. I tried to deposit $100 right away. I knew that foreigners had to have evidence that the funds were legally brought into the country, and I had the receipt from the bankomat showing that I had just withdrawn that amount earlier in the day, but no dice - foreigners depositing foreign or local currency must have a customs declaration in order to make the deposit!!! God I hate these stupid rules - how could I possibly have a customs declaration for money I withdrew that morning, when I arrived in the country 3 months ago and haven't been back to the U.S. since? Oh well, it was easily solved - I'm going to arrange to have the funds wire transferred from our U.S. bank (which doesn't charge us to send the money out) today. I'm going to start with $1000 just to make sure that I understand all the fees and costs involved. I believe I was told that there is no charge for funds coming in (other banks charge as much as 1.5% for U.S. dollar wire transfers into the account). I also believe that I can open a 12 month deposit account and withdraw the money after 30 days with no penalty, and continue to receive interest of 6.5% per month on whatever is in the deposit account. I think I can walk into any branch anywhere in the Ukraine and withdraw my money in U.S. Dollars at a cost of 1% and, finally, we can use the debit cards at any bankomat, but only in Ukraine, and only to withdraw HVAs. There is a charge of 1%, but not less than 5 HVA, to use the bankomat (plus whatever cut the bank takes in converting the dollars to Hryvnas). But in a pinch I can always take out 500 HVA from a bankomat (about $100) and pay a $1 fee. Otherwise I'll just get what I need for rent and such things from the bank in person, and then change the dollars at an exchange booth for a much better exchange rate. When I contacted our U.S. bank to find out what information they needed to make the transfers, I found that Aval Bank had given me everything necessary - account number, account name, bank name, SWIFT Code and a list of U.S. correspondent banks with their account numbers and SWIFT codes. So by tomorrow I should have the money in Ukraine and be able to withdraw it. In two weeks we should have our debit cards. Again, this is Ukraine, not Los Angeles, so I'm not counting my chickens (or my U.S. dollars) yet.

While I was at the bank Ed called and we arranged to meet outside the bank and have lunch together. We went to a restaurant around the corner from our apartment that we've been planning to go to for a long time. There's a big courtyard with a pretty garden, and little private alcoves off the courtyard with tables tucked inside. We chose to eat outside - and got English menus. It was fantastic - it's my favorite restaurant so far (with the possible exception of the one Oksana took us to in the woods). I had the most delicious blini and red caviar I have yet had in Ukraine (for $6.50) and then an order of potato pancakes with sour cream that was perfect (this cost $1.50 for 4 pancakes). Ed had a fantastic salad of chicken, mushrooms, prunes and walnuts in a sour cream sauce. It was really a great meal - and the menu is very varied and interesting and reasonable. I can't wait to go back. When the check came we found that even though it was incredibly cheap (78 HVAs, including tip and two drinks and bread and butter - they charge separately for bread and butter here), we didn't have enough money with us!! But fortunately this is Kharkiv, and there is a bankomat or money exchange booth every which way you turn - so I just went across the street and changed some U.S. dollars that I had brought with me to deposit in the new bank account (but which I couldn't deposit because I didn't have the required customs declaration). I was back in the restaurant in two minutes.

Ed was exhausted after trying hard to get things done at the office, and getting nowhere. He quite rightly feels that they will lose the momentum on the agreements with the police unless they move quickly to get them in writing, signed, sealed and delivered. But he's having a really hard time getting anyone here (anyone involved in the Kharkiv PD project, that is) to arrange the necessary meetings. There's always some problem - this one is on vacation, that one isn't answering his phone, the other one wants to speak to so and so before the meeting can be arranged, etc., etc. It's so frustrating. Ed feels that he's on the verge of getting everything in place, and that in the U.S., even assuming he had to deal with the most reluctant and laziest of bureaucrats, he would be able to get it all tied up by the end of next week. But he's beginning to despair of seeing anything really accomplished here. They still haven't transferred the funds from Kyiv to the Kharkiv office, and who knows when we will ever see the $1000 Ed advanced to the office. Today a new paralegal showed up (the last on quit), and now she (who has been working there about 4 hours), rather than Gennadiy, will be interviewing candidates for the position of Director's Assistant. Ed's given up having someone who is fluent in English fill that position - he told Gennadiy to just go ahead and find someone who can take care of the administrative details of the office. I think that's a big mistake - it's really impossible for him to convey to Gennadiy what he thinks should be done (motions, etc.) - it would be like someone from France telling me, in French, what legal motions to file. I can manage okay in French, I can get around and all that, but I certainly can't understand the nuances of the legal vocabulary in French, and I don't think that the lawyers in the PD Office can understand those nuances in English. To make matters worse on the "let's get things done" front, tomorrow Gennadiy has to go to Kyiv to get a visa (so that he can go to Wales from September 13 through 17 to look at the Public Defender's office in Swansea) and, even before that, on September 8, 9 and 10, all the other lawyers from the office will be in Sebastapol at the CEELI cross examination seminar. As I often comment to my scrabble partners "AAAAAARGH!!!"

I told Ed to go home and rest - I was going to run some errands. Ed had popped the screw that keeps the fastener on his left sandal in place, and he really needs the sandals now because the toe problem has resurfaced. So I was planning on having that fixed today. I also wanted to look at a bookstore that Vicky had told me about - it's called BOOK - and she said they have books in English on the second floor - mostly classics - just what Ed wants. He's reading up a storm, and has been on a Russian authors kick (he just finished Dr. Zhivago), but in desperation he turned to my all time favorite, Pride and Prejudice (which we've both heard read by Glenda Jackson a couple of years ago) and he is loving it. Well, who wouldn't???

Vicky had told me about a shoe repair place and I went there right after lunch. They couldn't help me, but told me to go next door, where it was fixed in about 5 minutes. During that time I managed to have a "political" conversation with one of the guys there - he asked where I was from, and I told him I was from America. He said he likes America, and I said I do too, but I don't like George W. Bush. He asked what I thought of Putin, and I said I really couldn't say - I just don't know enough about him and his policies. Then he asked what I thought of Yushenko, and I told him I liked Yushenko two years ago but now I think he has betrayed the Ukrainian people. Now, I have no idea how we managed to communicate all this to each other - he spoke no English and I spoke no Russian, and there was a girl there who spoke a tiny bit of English. But I think we got through to each other, but I can't be absolutely sure. Anyway, he gave me his business card and I gave him mine (he wanted to know what I was doing in Kharkiv - so the card I have from the International Senior Lawyers Project, with my name and email, and their phone number and address, might give him some idea of what we're up to here).

Before going to the bookstore, I stopped at the printer that is doing my cards and the business cards for the PDs office. Good thing I went there. My phone number was incorrect, plus they left off the country code from my 310 area code Skype-in phone number and my 206 area code fax number. They also left off the "A" at the end of SUSAN in cyrillic (Ukrainian female names have to end in A or YA). I also looked at the PD Office business cards, and I added Ed's mobile phone number and his personal email address to his card. It looks like he'll be gone from Kharkiv shortly after he gets these cards, so I thought it might be useful if they contain some information that can be used when he's living in Kyiv! They also spelled his name incorrectly in English (EDVARD), and they spelled his last name incorrectly in cyrillic (RAKKER instead of ROOKER - long u sound). I told the printer that he has to get the other office cards approved by Gennadiy - that I have nothing to do with them. I think there are some other problems with them (e.g., there is one number for both fax and phone - BIG mistake - and they don't include the country code for that number - that's probably okay because all their activities will be local, but still, it's not quite right). Anyway, that's all their business, not mine.

Next I went off to the bookstore, but the choices were limited (some Henry James, some Edith Wharton, some Jane Austen) - no Russian authors translated into English. I'm going to let Ed go and pick out his own selections. I almost bought him The Wings of the Dove, my favorite Henry James', but I'm afraid it's not the best James book to start out with - I think a reader new to Henry James should start with Washington Square (which Ed has read), followed by Portrait of a Lady, and then the reader is ready - The Golden Bowl, Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors - they are all great. So I left without buying anything.

I stopped at the post office - mailed myself the empty envelope - and made my way home (stopping at the market of course). I didn't get back until after 5, but we're both still full from lunch, so no dinner tonight. Just blogging, emails, scrabble and then War and Peace.

Ukraine Plain And Simple

2006-08-25T10:28:00.001+03:00

Today I got a comment from "anonymous," begging me to stop referring to Ukraine as THE Ukraine - the name of the country is in fact UKRAINE, plain and simple. I was criticized for my poor grammar - a sensitive issue for me, as many of you know (e.g., my favorite Anne Tyler character had to break up with his girlfriend because of her "unfortunate habit" of saying "between you and I"). The comment is indeed correct, but I rejected it because I won't accept anonymous comments. I know, I know, there is an earlier "anonymous" comment on the Blog, but that one came to me in the form of an email from our friend Raber who gave me permission to publish it as a comment. I published it as coming from "anonymous" because I thought it was funny, given the context. So to "anonymous" out there - thanks for your correction, but next time leave your name!! Here I am, exposed to the world in my Blog - if you want to leave a comment you have to let me and my readers know who you are!

I realized I made another mistake yesterday. When I was describing my encounter with the workers at LOOK, as I tried to get orange T Shirts with the map of Ukraine imprinted on them, I wrote that one of the workers mentioned "Yushenko" when I insisted on orange - and that is in fact what happened - they were clearly referring to the Orange Revolution. But I should not have said "tak, tak" when they said his name because, right now, I feel, as I believe most Ukrainians feel (based on my very limited poll!), that Yushenko has betrayed the Orange Revolution and all the Ukrainians (I think I can use the "the" there!) who supported him. He had 18 months to do something here, and he did nothing; and worse, he has now made an alliance with the very man that people here went out in the streets (in subzero temperatures) to demonstrate against. Everyone I talk to about it is says, "Why did we go out there in the freezing cold, why did we demonstrate in support of this man Yushenko against the fraudulent election of this man Yanakovich, whom Yushenko has now made Prime Minister?" It is a very sad state of affairs.

Ukrainian Liberation Day and Independence Day

2006-08-24T13:36:00.001+03:00

Today is Independence Day in the Ukraine, but the celebrations are muted. The plane crash near Donyetsck (in Eastern Ukraine, near Kharkiv) of a Russian plane traveling from Georgia to St Petersburg (all on board died, including over 50 children) has resulted in a National Day of Mourning in Russia, and an unofficial day of mourning here. Everyone here is talking about it - the women who sell the things in the market I go to were talking to me about it (they brought it up - things were not busy at the market, and when things are slow they always talk to me - when it's busy though they don't have time to do that). I even got a call from Oksana, who is now back in Chicago, who told me that her mother was really upset as were all her friends here in Kharkiv.

Yesterday was the anniversary of the liberation of Kharkiv from occupation by the Nazis (of course, that began an era of Soviet occupation!), and all of the festivities were canceled. Ed and I went out into the streets anyway at about 7 p.m., and although Sumskaya was bustling, as usual, the huge speakers and bleachers that were assembled in Lenin Square were lined up and unused. They've wrapped Lenin in scaffolding and draped the scaffolding with the Ukrainian colors - but when the lighting is right, you can see him, in silhouette, standing there, pointing!

The festivities for the anniversaries of both liberation and independence are now scheduled to be held on Saturday. We had planned to go to Poltava for the day, but I think we should stay here and see what goes on in Lenin Square. Shevshenko Gardens is also decked out, with flowers on the base of Schevshenko's statue and Ukrainian flags on either side.

On Tuesday, which was, without question, the hottest and most humid day so far, I spent the entire morning trying to find things and striking out all around. First Ed wanted me to see if I could find a "portable" copier that the PD lawyers can take back and forth to the two police stations, so that they can copy the investigator reports and other evidence gathered by the investigators, as was agreed to by the Regional Director of Police for the Kharkiv Oblast. They can't just buy copiers and leave them there because they'll be taken by someone, or used by people to make their own copies, exhausting the toner or ink cartridges. But it seems to me that the PD Office could buy something and put it in a cabinet or a case and lock it up, or devise some system (like the ones they have in most U.S. law firms) where the copier won't work unless you punch in a code number. I wasn't very hopeful - the best bet would be a cheap plain paper fax machine that also works as a copier, but that won't do the trick because they must have a flat bed copier so that they can copy from books and things like that.

After checking online without very much success (no light weight portable copiers that I could see), I went to the huge computer store MKC, and found a copier that's cheap (about $125), light weight (about 2 kilos), and not too awkward to carry in a box with a handle (just a little awkward- let's put it like this, I wouldn't want to have to carry it more than 10 feet!). Not ideal (especially because it's an ink jet and uses ink cartridges rather than a laser, which uses a much longer lasting toner cartridge), but workable. I reported my findings to Ed (including another copier that is much heavier (about 9 kilos), but which is truly designed to be portable - it has a pop up carrying handle, flatbed availability, and it's very compact and much smaller than the other. But it's way too heavy in my opinion - also much more expensive. He said that he and Gennady would go to the store later that day and get the light weight machine.

Having not yet expired from the heat, I decided to try and find what I was told by Ed is a store called "LOOK" where I could get orange T Shirts that have a green map of Ukraine printed on them. I wanted to wear one for the Independence Day celebrations (at this point in time the plane had not yet crashed and the celebrations had not yet been postponed). Ed had been told by the printer of the letterhead and business cards (who had such a T Shirt exhibited in his "office") that we could get them at "LOOK" - he even drew a map for Ed showing him where the store was located. Ed told me it was on Sumskaya, next to the Opera House - but that didn't make any sense at all because there are absolutely no stores near the Opera House - it's all park on one side and, according to the printer's "map," LOOK would be in the park, and both the Opera House and LOOK were on the wrong side of the street - impossible. Nevertheless, I walked the entire length of Sumskaya - from Lenin Square to Rosy Luxembourg Square and never spotted it. But I knew I had seen it, and that I had seen it often, which led me to believe that it was probably on Pushkinskaya - and if I was right the "map" would make sense. So off I went to Pushkinsaya, and there it was, right next to our apartment building entrance! Or I should say, it was in the building right next to the entrance to our apartment. The first door I went into was some sort of medical clinic - Oh lord, please please do not let me get sick or injured here!!!

LOOK, it turns out, was sort of an office on the second floor, not really a store. I managed to communicate that I was looking for T Shirts but that I didn't think I was in the right place. But a young woman working there got up and took me next door, and there I saw the very T Shirt we wanted, hanging with a few others with different logos printed on them. I really had to work hard this time to get myself understood - turns out that they didn't really speak Ukrainian or English - just Russian. But between the four of us (three of them and one of me) I managed to find out that they had no orange T Shirts - every other color except orange. I made it clear that I only wanted orange (one of them nodded and said "Yushenko" - referring I'm sure to the Orange Revolution - and I said Tak, Tak - yes, yes). They told me to go to a store and buy an orange T Shirt, and that they would print the map on the T Shirt the same day for $3 if black ink was okay, and $35 if I wanted green! I said black would be fine. They told me the name of the store I should go to, wrote it down for me, and said it was near Sovietska Monument, which I know well - a standard meeting place in Kharkiv how many real estate agents had I met there when we first arrived????).

Despite the sweltering heat I set off again for Sumskaya and Sovietska to find the store and the T Shirts - I wanted to see if the concert season had started at Organ Hall anyway (I had already checked the Opera House - no ballet until mid September, by which time I hope we'll be in Kyiv), so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone. I couldn't help noticing what a huge police presence there was on the streets - regular cops, with their huge caps, army types with AK47's or the Ukrainian equivalent, and paratrooper type guys in blue camouflage (what good does blue do if you're not in the water or falling from the sky?) with red berets and really BIG AK47s or equivalent. I assumed that this was all in preparation for the events that would be taking place on Liberation Day and Independence Day. At least I hope that was the reason!!

I went nuts trying to find this store - and it was getting hotter and more humid by the minute. I thought my head was going to explode because of the barometric pressure! I asked about a dozen people, and they all sent me in the same direction, but I just couldn't find it. Finally, on what I promised myself would be my last try, the woman I asked pointed over my shoulder - I was, apparently, standing in front of the store in question, although I still couldn't find the name of the place anywhere on the building. It was one of those really horrible stores they have here that are like the kiosks in the subway, only crammed into a building. Each little booth-type place was more awful than the next, and I as I got further and further into the store it got hotter and hotter. I finally thought I was going to pass out, and I still hadn't found the T Shirts, so I just decided to call it quits and go home. I honestly thought I might have to find a taxi - I really felt like I was about to collapse. But I made it home, finally, and then I collapsed.

It poured later that day, and that helped a bit, but I still felt awful - my neck was still killing me because of the message - my right arm was killing me because of the way my computer is set up here, and my knee and hip were killing me because of all the miles I had walked! I had a sinus headache because of the weather, and I just couldn't do anything but go into the "cold room" and go to sleep.

Ed and Gennady never did buy the copier. Gennady is convinced he can find something more portable. I am convinced that he cannot, but I do not say so. In fact, I researched it on google and sent him the links to all "portable" copiers (not the same as portable printers, which can be quite small and light), with my comment that they had the Cannon portables at the MKC store we had all been to, but that I thought they were too heavy for the purpose. He agreed that they were too heavy and, in the end, I think they are going to go with Plan B (which I had thought should be Plan A all along) of buying two computers, one for each station, leaving them there permanently, and either locking the copiers up when not in use by the PDs or having some sort of access code to operate the machines.

On Wednesday Ed told me that CEELI was having a seminar on cross examination and that they were paying for all the PD lawyers to go to Sebastapol (in the Crimea) for the seminar. Oh, I said, you should definitely go - you can make contact with the CEELI people (who are in Kyiv). Ed agreed, although he was more interested in hearing what the speakers would tell "our" lawyers, as he refers to the PD lawyers. In fact, this is the stupidest seminar and the biggest waste of money in the world - to cross examine witnesses you have to actually have a trial, and since all the defendants confess after they have had their "talks" with the militia, they never do have any trials. Besides, Ed's about the best cross-examiner there is, and if anyone should be telling them how to do it, it's him! But of course I'm prejudiced! It seems that all CEELI does is hold seminars - it doesn't seem to work on any projects that will have actual application (like setting up a PD Office) - at least that's what others in the Ukraine tell me, and that's what it looks like to me when I read up on what they are doing. I'm really glad that Ed did not end up taking a position with them - they have about 20 people working in the Kyiv office - and it's so highly structured, with 2 people in Washington DC overseeing the Ukraine office (and other people in DC overseeing those overseers), plus a Region Director and a Country Director - the OSJI project is much more Ed's cup of tea. I don't think he would have felt that he could make a real difference if he had gone with CEELI, and here I know he thinks he might.

But then Ed told me when the seminar iss being held - September 8, 9 and 10 - just when we are supposed to be in Kyiv with Jodi and her dad. Now I don't mind going to Kyiv alone for this trip, but it is Ed's birthday - I had bought ballet tickets and I was really looking forward to going with him for the first time (neither of us has yet been to the Opera House in Kyiv). I'm also having Jodi bring over a bilingual hard cover edition of Dante's Inferno, translated by Robert Pincus, that I know Ed wants (it's a surprise), and I was planning to give it to him on his birthday. Nevertheless, I told him that he should go to the seminar if he thought it would be worthwhile, but that he should consider flying back to Kyiv late on Saturday afternoon (he will have been at the seminar for two full days) so that we can go to the ballet on his birthday. He could then go back to Kharkiv on Monday morning, and I would stay in Kyiv until Tuesday afternoon. I asked him to find out the schedule of the seminars to see if this was possible - and then it dawned on me - are these cross examination experts Ukrainian or American? If they're Ukrainian, and I suspect they are, does that mean that all of the seminars will be in Russian or Ukrainian and Ed won't understand a word of them? Ed was going to call Gennady and ask him to call the woman in charge of this at CEELI in the Kyiv office, but I said that he should call the woman himself (otherwise it would take at least a day to get this done, and then he'd have to work through Gennady's translation, which is never easy)- I had read her bio at the CEELI website and knew that she speaks English fluently. So that's what he did - and of course the seminars are all in Russian, and there are no printed materials either in Russian or English. Ed was really upset because he wants to know what "his lawyers" are being told to do. I said he should just ask them to each write a brief report (as part of the seminar activity) describing what they had gotten out of the seminar - then if he disagrees with anything or has anything to add, he can do so.

So it's settled - Ed will definitely be in Kyiv with me, at least for the weekend part of the trip.

I've been trying to figure out when I should rent the apartment in Kyiv. We leave for the States on Sept 27 and won't be back until October 17. I'd like to avoid paying the rent for this period and start renting on October 17, but that means I have to store all the stuff we have in Kharkiv somewhere, which is a real drag. I'm also running out of our prescription meds and I have to get them out of one of the boxes we left at the Renaissance Foundation in Kyiv, which are very hard to get at unless you take them all out. I think I may have a plan though - I'm going to see if I can rent one of the two apartments I'm seriously considering for three of the nights we'll be in Kyiv, and the other apartment for the other 2 nights, look at more apartments if there are any, and if not, take the one I like best and rent it for six months . We'd have to pay about $1000 for the hotel room in Kyiv for those 5 nights in September, so if I have an apartment that costs $2000 a month, I think I'm better off. That way I can stay in Kyiv after Jodi leaves, unpack all the stuff that's in storage at the Foundation, come back to Kharkiv to collect a lot of the other stuff that's here and bring it Kyiv, and finally have Ed bring the rest with him to Kyiv before we leave for Boston. I've emailed and called the real estate agents for the two apartments to see if this can be done. Because of the holiday today I probably won't know until Monday (we may have lost the apartment that was beautifully remodeled near Planet Fitness anyway - it wasn't clear to me whether that one is still available). I'm anxious to get going on this - I've always regarded Kharkiv as very temporary, so I have made very little effort to make this my "home" and, while Kyiv will be temporary too, I look on it as a longer term temporary thing, and I am planning on making it ours, at least to a greater extent than I have done here. I'm expecting to invite people over, have a dinner party or two, things like that - something we never ever do here.

Today it really rained hard - it was dark and thundered, and now it's almost chilly out! I LOVED it. My headache is gone, my aches and pains are greatly improved, and tonight we have plans to have dinner with Vicki, the woman who acted as Ed's interpreter for the meeting with the Regional Director and who works for Oksana's father, the Vice Regent of the Law Academy. Her English is fantastic and I'm looking forward to talking to her about lots of things.

A Logo For The Public Defender Office

2006-08-21T20:35:00.001+03:00

Even later Monday

I was just looking at the NY Times website, and what do I see but a picture of the woman from the Crown Prosecutor's Office with the logo behind her!!! Here it is - and I'm quite pleased that I was able to actually download the photo and post it on the Blog (it probably cost me $500 in megabyte fees to Kharkiv Online!!). It's amazing how much pleasure I get out of these small achievements! Also, I now see that the logo is even better than I thought - it's the scales of justice and a sword - just the right note for the Public Defender. I hope it doesn't violate every trademark and copyright law known to man to use something like this in Kharkiv! Anyway, it's not my decision - I don't get to choose the logo here. I don't think anyone knows who does get to do it!!

Calling Cards In Ukraianian

2006-08-21T19:18:00.001+03:00

Later on Monday August 21.

I was just finishing up the Blog, when Ed called to say that he was on his way home from the office and that he wanted to take me to lunch. He had to go to the printer and there were several restaurants nearby that we had wanted to try. He arrived shortly after he called - with flowers in hand - I LOVE that! Then we walked north up Pushkinskaya to the Pushkinskaya Metro station, which is about a half mile from the apartment, and then west on the cross street to a cafe that had been mentioned in one of the guide books as quite good - Napoleon. We went in, and they had an English menu, but it was very warm inside and I told the waitress "neh sehodiniy - dujeh zhorka" which I hope means "not today - very hot." She indicated that there was a cooler room in the back and it was a non-smoking room (probably the first and only one in Kharkiv)!! So we sat back there and ordered Okrakash (a cold soup sort of like cold Borscht but without the beets, if that makes any sense at all), crepes with caviar, a smoked chicken and pineapple salad, and fresh squeezed orange juice for Ed. I had a capuccino because they had Illy coffee and I always order a capuccino when there's Illy coffee to be had. While we ate Ed told me about the first case that has been sent to the PD office by the police. The defendant is a deaf mute and has been picked up for possession of some sort of dangerous weapon - either a bomb or a gun!!! I asked Ed which lawyer had been put on the case, and he told me that it was Oleg, the one who had been an investigator before becoming a defense lawyer. Of course the assignment of this case to the office by the police led to an interesting discussion among the PD lawyers about how to maintain the confidentiality between the interpreter (the suspect is after all a deaf mute and none of the lawyers are fluent in Ukrainian sign language) and the lawyer and client. Ed told me that the office had gotten many other calls as well that morning, probably because of the TV coverage the night before. Apparently the TV report gave the impression that this is a legal aid office, and not just a criminal defense office, so people were calling about automobile accidents, merchants who had cheated them, landlords who had cheated them, etc. I wonder who handled these calls since they still don't have a paralegal or a Director's Assistant.

After lunch Ed and I went to the printer (where Ed had been with Gennady the week before to get business cards for the PD Office) to order "calling cards" for myself (they'll be very simple with just my name in the center, and my Ukrainian cell phone number and my email address on the bottom - in English on one side and in Ukrainian on the other) and the PD Office letterhead (why didn't they order both the letterhead and business cards at the same time, I wondered - Ed wondered the same thing and chalked it up to the Ukrainian way - I'm not so sure, it just may be Gennady's way, but who knows). Ed (with the aid of my talent at pantomime and my expertise in "havorio po oohKryinski" - speaking Ukrainian) told him to print separate cards for each lawyer (everything was already written in both Ukrainian and English) and to use a logo that looked kind of like my Kharkiv pin, but without the Kharkiv symbol - instead of the symbol they had a diagonal banner with the initials of the office. After we left, Ed showed me a different logo that he had seen the last time he was at the printer with Gennady (another guy had this logo for something) that he liked better. I liked it better too - it looked sort of like a court building, with the initials of the office inside the building. We went back to see if the printer would do a proof of each logo (the cards will be in Ukrainian on one side and English on the other, like mine). Actually, I ending up asking the printer to do this because Ed got a phone call from Roman at the Renaissance Foundation, and since I was helping him communicate with the printer anyway, I just carried on without him. First I had to ask him if it was okay to use the courthouse logo since another of his customers was already using it. "Harishow, harishow" - it's okay, okay. Then I managed to explain what Ed wanted (there were at least 4 people working on trying to understand me). After Ed and I got home, we watched the BBC World News and saw the prosecutor from the Office of the Crown Prosecution in London announcing the arrest of more suspects in the planned airline bombings (in which, unbelievably, the crown prosecutor asked the press to please be careful and restrained in their coverage as the suspects were entitled to be presumed innocent and to due process of law!!! When's the last time we heard a prosecutor in the U.S., or the Attorney General, say that????) Behind the prosecutor was the logo for the Office of the Crown Prosecution - it's perfect. A very simple and elegant line drawing of a representation of the scales of justice in white against a dark blue background. I immediately googled the Crown Prosecution Office and got a picture of the logo, which I printed out. Maybe they'll end up using it here for the Kharkiv PD Office, with the Ukrainian colors, of course (yellow and a beautiful blue that leans towards turquoise - so the background will be Ukrainian blue and the line drawing will be in yellow, with the initials of the office in blue at the bottom - P D O in English and П Д О in Ukrainian). The proofs will be ready August 28, as will mine.

So, no War and Peace this afternoon, and no scrabble either (none of my scrabble partners made any moves). By the time we got home, it was time to feed Belle, walk her, and listen to Morning Edition, and (yuck) W's press conference.

Ed Has A Very Successful Meeting And We Take A Day Trip To The Lavra

2006-08-21T09:13:00.002+03:00

The picnic we were going to have at the lake on Saturday was postponed because the meeting that had originally been scheduled for the previous Saturday was reset for this Saturday (the 19th). The meeting was held at the former KGB Building, which is now the Office of Internal Affairs. Ed said the building is just gorgeous inside - beautiful marble and stucco and wood - he's never seen such a lavish building in the Ukraine, including the hotels (of course we haven't stayed at any lavish hotels here!). He, Arkadiy and Gennady met with the Regional Director of Police in Kharkiv (there are 9 police districts in the city of Kharkiv - the region - or Oblast - is even bigger), who is a Major General, the Assistant to the Regional Director, who is a civilian appointed by the Minister of Interior, the Chiefs of the Police Stations from which the PD's office will get their cases (Kominternovskiy District Station and Chervonozarodskiy District Station), five of their Deputy Chiefs, the Co-Chair of the Civil Council, which is a civilian watchdog organization, and one other member of that group. All the members of the police (they are called militia here) were in full dress uniform. There was also a TV reporter and cameraman! We found out later that, indeed, Ed was shown on Ukrainian TV making his remarks to the assembled dignitaries. Good thing he wore a dress shirt and his suit trousers (even though they have a hole in the seat which has been patched, very badly, by the local tailor).

The meeting was unbelievably successful. This time Ed had a really good translator - Vicky, the woman who works for Oksana's father (the Vice Regent of the Law Academy), and that made things a lot easier for him. Ed had drafted an agreement that included all the things that the PD office would like from the police - for example, a procedure pursuant to which the police or investigators will inform the suspect of his right to a lawyer and the availablilty of a public defender if he cannot afford a lawyer, a procedure by which co-defendants who cannot be represented by the PD because of a conflict will be referred to a member of the bar for representation, and a procedure by which any waiver of the right to counsel is counter-signed by the public defender after meeting with the suspect (even if the suspect is not represented by the PD office because of a conflict). He included provisions allowing the Public Defender Office to post a sign in the police station informing the suspects of their right to representation by the PD office (with the contact phone number for the PD Office), as well as provisions giving the PD the right to get copies of all reports and other evidence compiled by the police or the investigators. He got everything he asked for!! The Major General began the meeting by saying the cooperation of the Regional Director and Police Chiefs had been ordered by the Minister of the Interior (this was news to Ed - he had asked Arkadiy to call someone at the Minister's office and to have that person call the Regional Director to pave the way for this meeting, and he knew that Arkadiy had been able to get a Deputy Minister to call the Regional Director to let him know that the program had the approval of the Ministry, but no order from on-high had been issued as far as Ed was aware). He went on to say that this program would be implemented immediately, and that everyone was to cooperate with the new office. All of the proposals that Ed had drafted were accepted, and Gennady was told that the PD office would start getting cases today (Monday). There is one big problem lurking in the background. If, in fact, the stations handle about 200 cases a month, which is what Ed and Gennady were told, there aren't enough lawyers to even begin to service the clients - there are only 5 PD lawyers!!! Ed's idea is that they will only handle those cases where representation is "mandatory" under the Code of Criminal Procedure. But he thinks it is better to begin by saying that the PD Office will accept all cases, and see what happens. If, in fact, the office is overwhelmed, he will consult with the Regional Director and propose they limit the PD's involvement to mandatory cases. If not, they will take whatever cases come down the pike. So, after all this waiting, and after all these delays, this project may actually be getting off the ground this week. I hope so.

After the meeting Ed, Gennady and Arkadiy were invited to visit one of the police stations by the Chief of that station. When they got there, the Chief had changed into jeans and a T shirt. He showed them around, and Ed saw a room that would be perfect for use by the PDs to interview their clients. He inquired about it, and the Chief agreed to let them use it. He even offered to let them staff it with a lawyer 24 hours a day, but Ed thought that this was probably a bad idea - sort of like embedding reporters with the troops - pretty soon, you get to really know these guys, your loyalties begin to shift, and your ability to serve your real constituency (in this case, the suspects - in the case of the press, the public) becomes compromised. They also met the "interrogation squad." Ed said they look like the defensive line for the Raiders!!

I was really glad that Ed had had such a good day. My day was not so good. I have been gradually sinking into a depression since I got back from Kyiv. Actually, I was sinking into to it before, but I was buoyed up by the prospect of the trip to Kyiv and the search for apartments there. I was a little bummed about having to go alone, but still, I got an awful lot done and felt good about it. Now that I was back in Kharkiv I was having trouble keeping myself amused (boredom leads to constant eating, which leads to feeling really bad about myself, which leads to more eating, and so on). War and Peace is terrific, but I actually find reading here a little difficult - there is no really comfortable place to sit and read - the sofa is pretty stiff and hard, and the bed is too low to the ground and a combination of too soft and too hard.

Anyway, I was as low as I have ever been on Saturday. My big adventure for the day was to go out to try and find a laptop carrying case. I found them easily at MKC, the big electronics and household appliance store here, but discovered that they cost more than twice as much here as they do at home! So instead of buying one I emailed Jodi to ask if she would bring one to me if I order it from Amazon. (I first carefully checked out the new carry-on rules from TSA, from British Air, and from BAA - this case is within the guidelines, and they now allow laptops, ipods, cameras, cell phones, etc., to be carried on.)

Ed tried to lift my spirits by taking me out to dinner at Puska, which is right across the street and looks sort of like a Bavarian cottage. (Oksana, the woman who's father is Vice Regent of the Law Academy, had told us about it.) We went in to a pleasant air conditioned room, decorated like a Bavarian farmhouse. There is a very large terrace in the back, surrounded by what is meant to look like a Bavarian village, where we decided to have our dinner. It's very cute, very reasonable and the food is good (but not fantastic). I had my usual (red caviar and blinis) and some sauteed vegetables (my first in Ukraine - really good, not overcooked and drenched in butter!), and Ed had chicken on skewers, cole slaw (with Roquefort instead of mayonnaise) and corn on the cob. This corn was good - sweet and juicy - unlike the corn I had bought at the market and made at home a few weeks ago. I felt better, and we had the road trip to Svyatogorsk planned for the next day.

We got up at 6 a.m. yesterday so that we could get ready (i.e., eat breakfast, have tea, feed and walk Belle) before meeting Gennady and Nella, and their friend Dima (who was driving us in his car) outside at 7:30 a.m. I brought a hat, a skirt and long sleeved shirt with me in case I had to wear them to get into the cathedrals at Svyatogorsk. More on that later.

Because it was so early it was very pleasant out. Ed and Gennady and Nella sat in the back. Dima drove and I sat in the front on the pretext of getting carsick in the back seat - actually not such a pretext under these conditions - I am prone to carsickness in the back seat, and when it's hot and crowded it can be particularly bad, especially if the road is winding, which this road was not, thank goodness). I brought the seat as far forward as possible so Ed could have every bit of space available, and got a taste of what Ed's life must be like all the time - my knees were touching my nose, and all I could think of was - if we have an accident, or have to stop short, my knees will be crushed as they smash against the dashboard, regardless of the seat belt (which I used - no one else did). Of course I had taken the MedJet plastic ID card from my suitcase and fastened it instead on the fanny pack I was wearing - just in case! I was able to keep my window open almost the entire trip (at one point Dima put on the air circulation vent and closed my window so that the air would come in through the vents - fortunately he realized soon enough that this was not sufficient), so it was actually pleasant with the nice breeze coming in as we zipped down the road at about 40 miles an hour. There was absolutely no traffic as it was Sunday. We passed both supermarkets I had been to by metro (Target - which, Oksana told me, has nothing to do with Target at home - it's an entirely different, unrelated company), and Post, where I had been with my Ukrainian conversation teacher, Yrena. We also passed a monument at a place that is very similar to Babi Yar - it is also Something "Yar" (yar means deep valley), and it too is the sight where the Nazis and Ukrainian police lined up thousands of Jews and shot them. Dima told me that his grandparents are in that place. I told him that my great grandparents may very well be there too, who knows. My grandparents made it out in the early 1900s when they fled the pogroms. I know that my maternal grandmother arrived from somewhere in "Russia" - which was almost everywhere in Eastern Europe at that time - Poland, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus, Romania, Moldova, Georgia, etc., etc. - in 1905 at the age of 17, alone. My paternal grandfather must have come from somewhere in the Ukraine because our name -Spivak - is Ukrainian, but I have no idea where his shtetl might have been, and I can't find anyone who does know.

We also passed the old huge plants that had dominated the Kharkiv region during the Soviet era - the bicycle plant (which had been the largest in the Soviet Union), the milk plant, the beer plant, the sputnik plant - monuments to cosmonauts, monuments to the war dead, the Soviet markers for the entrance to the city of Kharkov (the Russian spelling) erected in 1954. There was a building called the Coliseum, which was quite nice looking and which houses the steam baths. There was also a building called the Cultural Center. Apparently during the Soviet era there was a cultural center for each plant, where they had their own ballet companies, opera companies, theater companies, and sports teams (which competed with other plants' sports teams) And then we passed the housing that had been constructed by the Soviets to house all the plant workers - it was called Rogan and it was huge - like Soltava - so huge that they have to have a tram system just to get you from one building to the next.

The drive was mostly through the countryside though - vast fields of sunflowers (raised for oil), and corn. There were very poor villages along the way and occasionally people selling their produce from baskets on the side of the road. Dima works as a radio engineer (he and Gennady and Nella had all met at engineering school - we passed that school too) and we saw a radio tower in one of these towns, the construction of which he had overseen. Before that Dima had worked as an engineer on the gas pipeline, at the main office based in Siberia. I tried to find out how things had changed for him after 1991 - he had stopped working for the Soviet owned enterprise, but I still can't quite figure out who he is working for now - whether it is for himself, or for a company, or what.

The drive was 200 kilometers and took about 2 1/2 hours. Towards the end of the trip it began to get very hot with the sun beating down on the car. As we approached the Lavra (a Lavra is a special status granted to only 3 monasteries in Ukraine - the one in Kyiv which is very famous, one in the Ternopil region, wherever that is, and Holy Assumption Cathedral at Svyatogorsk - and apparently one of the things that comes with this special designation is the strict enforcement of a rule that women must wear skirts - no trousers allowed!) there were billboards on the side of the road with pictures of Holy Assumption Cathedral and the words "Listen to Your Heart". This is apparently a very holy place. That doesn't stop the souvenir sellers from lining up on the path to the monastery that you access after you park your car! They sell all sorts of crap there, including the batteries that we bought after we discovered that our camera batteries had run out of juice. Well, these "new" batteries must have been so old that they were already out of juice - after putting them in we still got the same message on the camera - change the batteries!). I'd post a photo of all this now, but we had no batteries for the camera!

We did manage to take a few photos before the old (and then the 'new') batteries ran dry. Here you see me (before I wilted) standing on the bridge over the Donets River leading to the Lavra, with Holy Assumption Cathedral on my right (the lowest cathedral) with the blue bell tower next to it, and then a series of monastery caves in the chalk cliff leading to St Nicholas Cathedral, which is built into the chalk cliff and stands above it towering over the Donets River.

We got to the entrance (after passing women with signs asking for a halt to business enterprise at this holy place) and Nella and I were blocked from entering because we didn't have skirts on. (I hadn't taken mine from the car because Nella was sure we didn't need to wear a skirt - I was pretty sure we did, but I wasn't going to challenge a native on this point!) What's really funny about all this is that most of the men there were wearing T Shirts, almost all with slogans and other things on them, including English sayings such as "shit happens" - and that's fine - and all the younger women are wearing teeny tiny mini skirts with spike heels - and that's also okay. But tasteful long pants on a woman - "Neh Mozhne" - FORBIDDEN! Nella tried to reason with them for a while and then she and I and Dima went back to the car - I thought I would put my skirt on over my pants (a lot of women had shawls or scarves draped around their pants) and that I would give Nella my shirt to wrap around her pants. We went back to the entrance (this entails about a 1/4 mile walk back and forth to the car in SCORCHING heat), and I was admitted, but not Nella. So she had to go back and buy a scarf from one of the vendors on the path to the Lavra. You can only visit the Cathedral during services in the morning or late afternoon, so we were anxious to get in while the service was on (turns out it goes on until about 11:30), so we told Nella to meet us there. We approached the Cathedral doors and my path was blocked by two Ukrainian Orthodox priests (or monks?) in long black cossacks and high hats with veils (how come they don't pass out from heat stroke? God must protect them!!) because my arms were bare. And Nella, who was now back on the path, had my shirt. So I waited outside, and when Nella came back, I put on my shirt and went in with her. It was HOT AS HELL in there - there were masses of people, and for some reason it wasn't naturally cool like most churches I have visited in Europe. And I was basically wearing two layers of clothing and a hat, which is great in the sun, but is just hot inside a church! I saw the iconostasis (a word I now know thanks to our visit to the Kremlin with Bob and Dian and Emlen), watched the priests for a few minutes, listened to the women and priests singing for another few minutes and left to wait outside in the shade, where I was able to remove my second shirtand my hat. There was a fountain with "holy water" in it, and we all splashed some on our faces, each of us had his or her own reasons for doing so(mine was to cool off), and then watched as the procession of priests (or monks?) - there must have been about 50 of them - left the church, followed by the pilgrims and other worshipers. They all marched into a hall next to the Cathedral. A man standing nearby heard us wondering in English what they were doing, and told us that they were going in for a communal meal. We asked him how to get to the caves, and he told us, but also told us that they were closed to the public until September. We then asked how to get to St Nicholas, and he told us that too (the main way was closed and we had to go around the back way). I told Gennady that I had read that you can't visit St Nicholas except at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. (it was now about 11:30). He thought that the man who spoke to us didn't know what he was talking about but was just acting like he knew the way (and I think he also thought that I didn't know what I was talking about either), but he checked with some official and confirmed that the caves were closed, that St Nicholas would be open in another two hours, and that we had to go there the back way.

We decided to have lunch and walked back down the path towards the car. I was terrified that we would drive somewhere for lunch - the car would have to be at least 250 degrees by now! It was at least 97 degrees out, and in the sun it was just unbearable. (I keep thinking about those poor soldiers in Iraq, where it's over 120 degrees and they are wearing those heavy uniforms and boots and carrying heavy stuff - how do they do it????) But it turns out we were just going to the car to get the huge picnic Nella had packed. There was a nearby cafe where you could buy beer and water, so we went there and parked ourselves on a bench in the shade, bought the beers and water, and unwrapped a feast - a huge bowl of mesom and kapuska (meat and cabbage) perogies, a huge bowl of kapuska varenekies, a big jar of ratatouie, fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, delicious beef salami and bread, and breaded chicken cutlets. She must have been cooking for days. Everything (except the salami and bread) was homemade. We drank beer, and ate and ate and ate. And talked and talked and talked.

The talk was all about how bad things were in the Ukraine - the political situation and Yanakovich (which I completely agree with), and then the corruption (which I have to take on faith - I just don't know enough about the system here - and neither does Ed, really - everything we learn about the corruption is second hand at best - but it is impossible to imagine how we would ever witness it ourselves directly). Gennady, who spent some time in the U.S. - Cincinnati is the "sister city" of Kharkiv, and many people here (inlcuding Vicky, the interpreter) went as exchange students there, beginning about 10 or 15 years ago. He also saw a bit of the country while he was in Cincinnati - I know, for example that he went to NY. But he seems (at least to me) to have this impression that everything is wonderful in the U.S. and everything is terrible in Ukraine. For example, he will point to the souvenir sellers outside the monastery grounds and say, it's terrible, you would not have this in the U.S. Really? I don't agree, but I say nothing! He'll say that this business with the skirts in the Cathedral is completely arbitrary, and just made up on the spot, and that this would never happen in the U.S. Really? Again, I don't agree, but say nothing. I know that there are plenty of places where stupid arbitrary rules are applied - maybe not related to dress codes because we have become such an informal society (although there were at least two occasions when I was asked to leave the Metropolitan Club in NY because of the way I was dressed, and I still remember when, in 1969, I was wearing pants and a tunic top that came down to about 2 inches below my ass, and had to take my pants off to join my parents for dinner at La Cote Basque in NYC - no pants allowed - an unbelievably short skirt (actually a longish shirt) is okay, but no pants!). He'll remark on the cars parked on the river bank where it is not really permitted, and say that people in the U.S. would not do such terrible things. Again, I don't agree, but hold my tongue. I wonder if everyone feels this way. I really want to be able to get another point of view - I have to find some other Ukrainians that I can talk to about all this. Is everything really so corrupt here? Is there really no way to get on in life without bribing your way in? I don't think I'll ever be able to know first hand. I'm just going to have to talk to as many people as possible. I'm going to see if I can arrange to have lunch with Vicky - she seems to be a very informed person, and her English is great.

I wonder if this skepticism is the result of my experience with the spread over the internet of the story that photos depicting the damage in Lebanon had been doctored to create more sympathy for the Lebanese "victims" and demonize the Israelis. I got an email from a friend with a link to a video showing and describing in words all the doctoring that had been done by Reuters, AP and the NY Times (showing a rescue worker who had been photographed in earlier photos now "posing" as a victim being rescued). Now, I happen to know the father of a NY Times photographer, and I happen to know that he was in Beirut and Tyre during the war, and that he took lots if not all of the photos used by the Times. So I emailed Portis and asked if any of the photos were Tyler's. Well, I learned that ALL the photos were Tyler's, and that photos had been run in the newspaper the day before the website video montage that was cited in the web link, and that this particular photo had been correctly captioned (i.e., the rescue worker had fallen and hurt himself in the rubble and was not himself being carried out of the debris). Apparently, when the NY Times website put together the photo video show, they incorrectly captioned one of the photos (not properly identifying the "victim" as one of the rescue workers who had hurt himself during the rescue operation, but simply calling him a "victim" of the bombing). This was immediately called to their attention (as it should have been) and the Times issued an immediate correction, pointing out that the photo had been correctly captioned in the hard copy of the Times the day before. Of course, if I hadn't known that Tyler was in Lebanon taking photographs for the NY Times I would have believed every word of this link I had been sent because I wanted to believe it - because it supported my position and pre-exisiting opinion (i.e.,that most of the world and the world's press is biased against Israel). So my new motto seems to be "Don't Trust and Do Verify," at least to the extent you can. I've always felt that Roshomon says it all - you listen to one side, and then you listen to the other side, and all you can know for sure is that neither side has got it completely right. You sure as hell don't know what really happened, and you probably never will.

After lunch it was hotter than ever. I had decided even before the trip to be a good sport, no matter how hot it got, and do whatever was agreed upon by the group, but I sure was hoping the group would decide to go back soon and skip St Nicholas!!! We did decide to skip St Nicholas (mostly on Ed's urging - I'm sure because he knew I thought it might kill me), and walked down to the river bank, where lots of people were swimming and picnicking instead. It was hard to find a shady spot and we walked away from the bank for a bit, but the ground was just covered in litter and garbage. Nella was really upset that people would do this, and I must say it is very unusual to see this here. The city is remarkably clean. There are workers, mostly women in orange vests (clearly official city employees) out early every morning, sweeping the streets and sidewalks with twig brooms (here's a snapshot of them at work on the street below our apartment windows). So this was not at all representative of the general conditions here.

We finally found a spot near the river bank - on the opposite side of the Lavra, looking directly at it. Those little squares in the chalk cliff are the windows of the monks' cells that are built into the caves. I wish we could have seen the caves -they would have been quite cool - I think they maintain a constant temperature in both winter and summer - and walking up to St Nicholas inside the cave would have been pleasant. But we will thoroughly explore the Kyiv Lavra with Jodi and her father in early September, so all is not lost.

Nella had brought a blanket, so she and Ed and I lounged about while Gennady (who is incredibly fit - he loves both watching and playing sports, is an avid swimmer and ice hockey player and, I'm sure, runs and works out every day) swam across the river and back (he said the water was about 78 degrees), and Dima (who is quite plump and not at all fit) looked on. Gennady was all for going up to St Nicholas, but Ed vetoed that and suggested we go back because we had to feed and walk Belle. We gathered up everything, trecked back to the car, loaded it up, piled in (it was HOT in there), opened the front windows and drove off. I got to keep my window open the whole way back - even so, it was quite warm, but not killer hot. I dozed off a couple of times - we were all a little tired, and the heat and the noise from the open window really prevented us from talking very much. We got back at about 5:30 and Nella gave me a huge sack of perogi to take with us. It should last us at least a couple of weeks!

Ed and I were too tired even to read. Ed had a bowl of cereal, I had some fruit and sour cream (and as much chocolate as I could find). I saw on the NY Times (online) that there had been serious flooding and mudslides in Alaska, in Jason & Sandra & Allan's neighborhood, so we Skyped Jason & Sandra to make sure they were okay. Their phone had a funny sound, and I think it was out of order, so we tried the cell phone - but with no luck. We then Skyped Jed and Jenny (no luck there either, but at least I'm not worried about them), and Ed called his mother. I took as long a shower as the hot water permitted (about 3 minutes), and fell into bed (after I fed, and Ed walked, Belle). We both were asleep by 9 and didn't wake up this morning until 7.

Ed's off to the office to see if they can finalize arrangements with the police stations, and I'm happily engrossed in my Blog, obviously. But now I think I'll venture out to cancel my massage appointment for tomorrow (my head and neck didn't feel very good the day after the last one - she doesn't have that funny headrest that they use in the U.S. which allows you to put your head flat, face down, and still breathe, so I think I ended up doing some damage to my cervical spine - not permanent, but unpleasant for a few days). Then it's back to scrabble and War and Peace.

Things Are Boring

2006-08-18T12:38:00.001+03:00

Things have been very boring in Kharkiv the past few days. I'm ready to settle on an apartment in Kyiv and move! We do have plans this weekend though - a picnic at what is reported to be a beautiful lake, with Gennady and his wife on Saturday, and then a trip to Svyotogorsk (the cave monasteries) on Sunday with Gennady and Nella. I'm a little anxious about both trips because it's supposed to be 97 degrees with 85% humidity here this weekend and the car we are going in (there will be 5 of us in a small car) is not air conditioned. I wanted to rent a bigger, air conditioned car (we would rent and pay for it, of course), but Ed thought this would be insulting to Gennady, and I guess it would be, but I do so poorly in the hot, humid weather, and very poorly in a car under those conditions, especially in the back seat, and especially squashed between two other people, which is where I will be. Also I do find it a little exhausting to be with Gennady because he talks all the time (usually about law and the legal system in the Ukraine) and his English, although not bad, is still difficult to maneuver around in. I hope this works out - maybe the weather will surprise us.

The only thing of note that is going on here at the moment is the ongoing dispute between me and the Senator Apartments, where I stayed in Kyiv last weekend. I wrote an email complaining about the conditions (no hot water in the shower) and the way it was handled (offering me a room with no air conditioning, or a room with no windows, or a room that smelled very strongly of fish). All they could offer me in their emails were their "sincere apologies" for my "inconveniences" and their "hope" that I would not be so inconvenienced during "future" stays! I contacted VISA and disputed the charge (asking for a credit of one night's stay). About 5 minutes after I did that I got an email from the Senator offering me a discount of $20. I emailed back and told them that I rejected their offer - saying it was too little too late - and outlined all the things they could have done, but did not do, at the time the problem arose. I also told them that I suspected it was only because I had contacted my credit card company (which, I assume had contacted the Senator Apartments), that they were taking any action at all beyond offering apologies. This began an unbelievable dialog of about 10 emails offering the most amazing excuses - first, it was not a problem with the Senator but with the City because sometimes the water pressure didn't function properly (they had to have a reason why I had hot water in the sink but not the shower, especially since there is a separate boiler in each room supplying constant hot water). I told them I thought this was pretty remarkable since this was the only room in the place that seemed to be affected by a city wide problem. Then they told me that they had made it clear in the correspondence that all the single rooms were in the basement. I, of course, being the organized anal-retentive person that I am, had copies of all the correspondence, and there was absolutely no mention of this fact in any of it. I told them so (and offered to send them, as well as the credit card company, copies of all the emails). Then they said that it wasn't in the correspondence for this reservation, but in correspondence relating to a reservation I made in March (for our first few nights in Kyiv upon arrival from the U.S. and before going on the Kharkiv), and which I canceled two days after I made the reservation because they don't allow dogs!! I told them that my secretary had made and canceled that reservation almost 6 months before, and that I had never even seen the correspondence - it's true that I never looked at the booking form once they told me no dogs allowed. They finally emailed and asked exactly what I wanted. I told them I wouldn't pay for the first night of my stay. Now I guess it's up to VISA to decide whether my position is correct.

The city is turning brown from the heat and lack of rain. When I walked Belle this morning there was hardly any grass left - just brown stubble. The trees are still green, but there's a blanket of brown leaves on the ground too. I know I'll look back on this time with fond memories when it's 20 below in Kyiv in January, but right now the thought of winter, and white snow on beautiful old Art Deco buildings, thrills me. I'm sure it will be dirty and slushy and slippery and hard to get around - and too cold to go out - but my imagination still clings to that Xmas card perfect looking scene.

Dinner With Oksana

2006-08-15T10:35:00.001+03:00

Last night we had dinner with Oksana (the woman I had met in Beatric, whose father is the head of the Law School in Kharkiv) and her two children, Vlad (20) and Lucy (8). She picked us up in a taxi in front of Beatric, and from there we drove to a great restaurant in Gorky Park called Okhoteyi Dvor. It has a "hunting" theme, and the menus were in these fantastic leather hunting pouches with cartridges (fake, I assume) in the neat holders, and a leather strap and buckle to close the whole thing up. Oksana did most of the ordering (except for the blini with red caviar, which I added!) and we had a magnificent feast of many appetizers (a salad with veal and mango, marinated tomatoes and haricots vert - Lucy warned us not to each too many of those because they make you fart - a platter of smoked sturgeon, salmon and trout, the blini and red caviar, and another salad of cucumber and other greens), and then a seared tuna steak and a pork shashlik that we all shared, except Lucy - she got her own coteletti. And best of all, the "hleeb chornay" - black bread. Sooooo delicious - made on the premises, and as Lucy says, awesome!! We also had a delicious bottle of Borola (Vlad had a cognac to start!). It was such a lovely setting - in the woods really - and Lucy is an incredible charmer - I don't envy Oksana in a couple of years!!! She'll have her hands full with Lucy. She is so smart, and so beautiful and so full of confidence - she's going to drive the boys mad! We told her that we only had grandsons, and wanted to adopt her as our granddaughter, which seemed to please her.

We all jabbered away, everyone glad to have someone new to speak English with, although Vlad speaks Russian and Ukrainian and Lucy understands Russian. Vlad was born in Kharkiv - Oksana was a gynecologist in Kharkiv, married to a dentist (who works in the same building as Beatric). After her divorce she went to the States on a fellowship to study genetics in Chicago, where she met her current husband, who is Lucy's father. Oksana told me that there is a pilates instructor at Beatric, but that she's on vacation and will be back next week. She's going to speak to reception about arranging something for me!!! She also knows a fantastic translator for Ed - Vicki works for her father and also teaches English at the Law Academy. (Earlier in the day Ed had fired the woman who was working as the Director's Assistant and translator at the office - she just made things a lot harder, and more unpleasant, rather than easier for him. At the same time he learned that the paralegal, who had been the former Deputy Minister of Justice in Kharkiv, quit because of the uncertainties of the political situation - she'll probably become the Minister of Justice in Kharkiv now!!)

Ed snuck off as if to go to the bathroom and took care of the bill. Oksana later tried to do the same thing, but found that we had beaten her to it. We all left in a taxi together and dropped Oksana, Vlad and Lucy off at the apartments owned by the Law Academy, where she is staying, but only after I made a date with them to meet them at Beatric the next day (today) at 11 a.m. with Belle. Lucy was soooo excited about meeting Belle!

When we got home I asked Ed how much the meal cost for the 5 of us. It was very expensive by Kharkiv standards - 1410 HVA, or $285, and with the tip a little over $300. Oh well, it was delicious and fun and, by our standards, not at all bad for five people, including a fairly expensive bottle of wine, a cognac, coffee, tea and bottled water.

This morning I took Belle with me to Beatric, and Lucy was already standing by the door waiting for Belle. She was a little too exuberant and made the mistake that many kids do with a little dog they want to play with - she tried too hard. Belle, being the snob and princess that she is, would have none of it. The harder Lucy tried, the more aloof Belle was! We all sat outside on the balcony at Beataric, in the shade, while Lucy tried to get Belle to play with her. Oksana and I had coffee and she called Vicki (the translator who works for her father), who agreed to come over and meet me. Vicki arrived in about 15 minutes - she speaks English extremely well and is very experienced in working with lawyers. We had more coffee and talked about Ed's project. Lucy told me I had to have a Beatric fruit parfait, which is basically a really rich sherbert- ice cream that they make there every day out of whatever fresh fruits are available. It was really good and very, very rich! And the perfect thing for a 98 degree day!

Ed had been at a meeting with the Chief Judge of the Kharkiv District Court, but when he got home he came over to meet Vicki too. He was exhausted after 4 hours of meetings and trying to communicate without a really good translator (relying on Gennady and Arkadiy instead). We talked with Vicki for a while (Oksana and her kids had to go visit her parents and left just after Ed arrived). She's going to try and find someone who can fill the administrative assistant post as soon as people get back from vacation (which, in her words, people take "very seriously" in Ukraine - i.e., they are gone all of August) and offered to help out if Ed needs her during August. I hope he uses her. I think she could make his life a lot easier and these meetings would be far less exhausting.

Ed took Belle home while I went to the market. When I got back to the apartment Ed was drafting some letters, so I got to work on my Blog. I actually had two comments posted! Very exciting. Comments are so rare - so few and far between. As I typed away on the blog I tried to remember what I had ordered for dinner last night. I remembered absolutely everything that we had all shared as appetizers, and I remembered what everyone else had ordered, but I could not for the life of me remember what I had ordered - maybe a first for me! I usually have total gastronomic recall. Ed couldn't remember either. I looked at the bill and tried to figure it out - I could decipher some of the things (it is in Russian, so my Ukrainian-English dictionary wasn't much help). There was one expensive item that I could not figure out so I thought that was probably what I had ordered. I called Oksana to see if she could translate for me. My phonetic reading of the word was useless, and she asked me to text message her with the English spelling of the Russian word. I did this, and she immediately rang back to tell me that the word "obslujevaneh" is "SERVICE"!!! I laughed and said that in that case the guy got a really good tip since Ed left another $30!!! But at least we now know the word for "service" in Russian. Ed had been out meeting with Gennady when all this was happening, so when he got back I told him. He was really pissed because he had asked the waiter about service, but I think the guy just didn't understand what Ed was talking about - I really don't think he was deliberately trying to deceive him. At least, I hope not. (In fact, when I got the Visa charge online later, the additional service Ed had added wasn't included!)

In Which Susan Goes To Kyiv Alone

2006-08-14T15:00:00.001+03:00

Wow, what an exhausting, up and down roller-coaster few days this has been. I woke up on Thursday with my first really horrible migraine since we left the States – a combination sinus headache and migraine that woke me up at 5 a.m., and went away after about 2 hours and some very heavy drugs!! I slept until about 9:30 and then, very, very slowly, began to get up. Belle had stayed in bed with me while Ed got ready and went to the office. I dragged myself up and around, caught up on emails and before I knew it, it was 1 p.m. and time for my second pedicure, with a manicure of course, my hair color (my roots, my roots!!), and my massage with Oksana, that Oksana (the other Oksana - the one whose father is head of the Law Academy and who lives in Chicago) had told me about. A perfect day for one who is recovering from a migraine!

Everything went okay – I decided to go for a French manicure, and I didn’t like it (especially when I could take my lenses off and get a really good look at those glaring white tips). I tried to tell her I wanted a very subtle white – not so stark – but words and pantomime failed me on this. I just went for it, didn’t like it, and bought some nail polish remover today in Kyiv and took it all off. It looked really cheap and tacky – not at all the way Teresa used to do it for me! The actual manicure and pedicure were good however – no cutting, just pushing back and filing, just the way I like it. The color is a different story. I wanted a darker base for the roots, but it ended up covering all my highlights and low lights and such, so it looks kind of flat now and not at all interesting or even alive! And it’s already getting too long, but I’ve decided I have to wait for Yulia for the cut, even though I was willing to take a chance on someone new for the color.

Then came the massage. Now that was fabulous!! This woman is great – hot stones, some fabulous stuff that felt like a loofa – very relaxing but also energizing. I felt great by the time I left (at 6:30!!) I called the Chicago Oksana to thank her for the referral and also see if I could arrange for Ed to meet her father – he’s hoping to be able to get a lead on someone who can act as the Director’s Assistant at the office because the woman who now has the job is useless (she wants to be a lawyer, not an administrator - she has graduated from the law academy), and her English isn’t that great so her translations are not very useful either. It’s been really frustrating for Ed. He can’t wait to get rid of her – she just sulks whenever he or Gennady asks her to do anything. I’ve also emailed my Ukrainian conversation “teacher” about this job to see whether she has any interest in it – she is way overqualified, but it pays very well by Kharkiv standards ($200 a month) and Ed would be flexible about the hours so that she could continue to teach and have time with her 14 month old. I doubt that she’ll want to do it, but maybe she’ll know someone who will.

I barely had time to make dinner, catch up with the day’s emails, and pack before getting to bed so that I could get up at 5:45 for the train to Kyiv.

Ed and Belle escorted me to the train by metro. Even at 6:15 on Friday morning it was pretty crowded and we had to hold Belle to protect her from the crush. We got there in plenty of time, I got situated in my seat, and Belle and Ed left. I must say it warmed my heart to see Belle looking at me enquiringly as Ed tried to take her away. She is such a sweet girl.

I was in one of the first class cabins that only has 3 seats (instead of 6 with 3 and 3 facing each other, separated by a formica folding table). Since Ed hadn’t come, we had a nice empty seat between us to put things and spread out. I asked the woman in the compartment with me if she would mind if I turned off the awful TV that blares nonstop and repeats and repeats and repeats. She had no problem with that, thank God, so at least the ride was quiet. I was too tired to read War and Peace, and I had an intermittent conversation with the woman in the compartment with me. Her name is Angelika, she is 36 years old, she has an 11 year old daughter who just spent 2 months in the Crimea with her paternal grandmother, and now Angelika's mother is taking care of her daughter. She was on a business trip – she studied to be an economist (which I think is more like an accountant – my manicurist this time, Lila, had been an economist for 7 years and then switched to being a manicurist because she didn’t like the fact that she had no contact with people), but then switched, and is now working for a computer company while studying psychology! She travels a lot – she goes to Kyiv frequently and she’s been to Jordan, Turkey, Malta, Greece, France, Egypt, England and Poland. She works out by doing Akido (some sort of Japanese warfare thing), and she also gets her hair cut and her makeup done at Beatric. I asked who she used and she told me “Olga – in the veep room” – it took me awhile to figure out that the veep room was the VIP room!!

While I was on the train I got a cell phone call from the agent I was scheduled to see on Saturday morning - none of the landlords would be available on the weekend - could she show me the apartments on Monday? No way - I was leaving Sunday. How about this afternoon, I suggested, at about 4:30 (after my 3 p.m. appointment with another agent, and before the 6 p.m. opening of Gilah's show at Soviart). Okay - we both agreed to meet at the Senator Apartments at 4:30.

After I got in to Kyiv, right on time at 1 p.m., I decided to take the subway to the Senator Apartments, which looked to me to be about ½ block from the Universitet station, which was only one stop from Voksall (the train station). I had even considered walking from the train station, it looked that close. My "Kiev In Your Pocket" (a great resource for Kyiv travelers) said it was very easy – just look for the Green M for the Metro to the left as you exit the train station – the only trouble is that there are several exits, including two from the old station and two from the new station that was added on to the old one several years ago!! I had also packed with abandon, thinking that "if it fits in my rollie I’ll bring it," and I had several changes of outfits, my just in case kit, and my laptop, with its heavy battery. So the thing was pretty heavy. And, of course, the escalators in the station were not working. Needless to say I went to every exit but the right one before I finally found it (each try involving several stair cases!). It took me almost an hour to find my way out of the station and into the Metro station, which also involved a few stairs, before the blessed escalator came in view. I got two tokens (total cost, 1 HVA), found my train without any problem and emerged from the metro one stop later, on the wrong side of a very big street (Tara Shevchenko), which meant more stairs down into the underground passageway, and then up again. I finally found the Senator Apartments, about a block away.

I was very curious about the Senator Apartments. When I had first started looking for apartments in the Ukraine, this was the first thing I found that gave me hope that I could find something I could live in. All the other furnished apartments had the most awful furnishings, but these looked really nice. I had booked a studio because I knew we wouldn’t need a kitchen this trip, but I was going to check it out for Jodi and her dad and for other friends who come to visit. It was a bumpy start – I arrived on foot, alone, and with an open umbrella because it had started to rain. There was a guy standing by the door but he didn’t make a move to help me hoist the bag up the stairs or to open the door. So I made my way in and went to the small reception desk. The foyer is very small, with the usual marble/granite that the Ukrainians are very fond of in their renovations. The receptionist told me her colleague would help with my luggage to the elevator (which was literally two steps away), so I said I could handle it myself. She gave me the key to Room 1 – I went down – yes, down – to the basement level!!! The door opened and the room smelled like fish. I went up and asked if there was something else available because my room smelt funny. She said “yes, that is a problem with the rooms in the basement and all the studio apartments (i.e., the one room apartments) are there.” But she thought she might have something better (i.e., no smell), although smaller. It was better (no smell), and definitely smaller (who cares!).

I was rushing like mad because by now it was 2:15 and I was scheduled to meet my first real estate agent at 3 p.m. several blocks away. I just threw everything down, studied my map and went out with my folding umbrella and maps. I ran into the first big difference between Kharkiv and Kyiv – on the Kharkiv map, everything looks like it’s miles away, and turns out to be practically around the corner. In Kyiv, it is just the opposite – and not only is it miles away, it is usually up and down several hills, often very steep and paved with old, irregular cobblestones to boot!! I had started off at a nice pace, but as three o’clock approached I really started rushing, made the wrong turn, found myself hopelessly trying to get my bearings when my cell phone rang. It was the real estate agent. She asked me where I was, and I said I wished I knew, but I would ask someone and ask them to tell her. I stopped a nice woman who was about to go into one of the underground shopping center/pedestrian crossings. She was unbelievable – she spoke to the agent for some time and then gave me back the phone, took me by the arm and led me down to the underground, through some stores, out another exit, and indicated that I should wait and someone would drive by to pick me up in 10 minutes! Victoria soon drove up (she had a car and driver) and I hopped in. We drove around in the rain and rush hour and I saw three or four of the usual depressing apartments. I also saw one that was very much like our Kharkiv apartment (not depressing, cheap laminated furniture, but decent looking - that is, if you don't look too carefully) that was very reasonable for Kyiv ($1500 a month). I felt it was time well spent because she could get an idea of what I didn’t like, even though we didn’t see much of anything I did like.

I was set to meet the other agent at the Senator Apartments at 4:30, but I could tell I was going to be late, so I called her from the car while we were stalled in a massive traffic jam in Podil (the old city district), to ask her to wait for me. I didn’t get there until almost 5 p.m. and she and I barely had time to shake hands before we zipped off with her car and driver. The first place we saw was really terrific. I absolutely loved it - but of course there are a couple of problems. The kitchen is beautifully done with granite counter tops, a built in cook top, a stainless fridge, Finnish wood and smoked glass cabinets (none of those separate pieces that fit together to make a kitchen that I now live with), a great double sink and a brand new microwave. BUT no oven!!!! All of the other furniture is very high quality too, as is the lighting and the bathroom fixtures – really nice pots and pans and dishes and silverware too. There’s an airconditioner in the bedroom and the living room, there’s satellite TV with two TVs (I think there are two), there’s a combo washer-dryer and also a dishwasher in the kitchen (maybe he’ll trade the dishwasher in for an oven!!). The floors are beautiful and the space has a really nice feel. It’s on the first floor, but it’s still high enough above the sidewalk that you don’t feel that you’re part of the street scene, and there are very attractive bars on the windows so you don’t feel like you’re in a prison. I’d need to have another wardrobe installed, there just isn’t enough space for our clothes (the owner told me that it was originally built for short term stays and then the owner changed his mind, and that’s why there is no oven and only a small wardrobe). I would also need a desk for my computer. I was assured that this could all be arranged. I was very encouraged.

By now it was 6:00 and Gilah’s art opening at Soviart was scheduled to start at 6. I had emailed her earlier to let her know I’d be late, but I still wanted to get there as soon as I could. I even called the gallery, but she wasn’t there yet. I asked them to give her a message and let her know I’d be there by 7:30

The agent and I went on to see a couple of real dogs (speaking of dogs, this agent had asked in our email exchanges if I had any pets, so I had told her about Belle, and these apartments all would permit her – a big relief), and then finally I saw a really beautifully renovated apartment in the Podil district, but it has no furniture – that would have to be obtained, and god only knows what sort of crap they’d put in there. But the kitchen and bathrooms were great, as were all the basics. This one was huge – 2 bedrooms, an eat in kitchen – much more space than we need. But at least I had some things to think about.

Meanwhile Ed called to tell me - guess what- the meeting on Saturday with the Chief of Police had been canceled! Big surprise! The reason for the cancellation was, however, a surprise - but so typical of what it's like in this country now that I should not have been surprised. It seems that Yanakovich (the "bad" guy) had finally been installed as Prime Minister, and one of the first things he had done was fire the Kharkiv District Police Chief!! But first he initiated a criminal investigation into the two Cabinet Ministers and investigators who had themselves investigated a corrupt gas/oil deal that Yanakovich had been involved in before the Orange Revolution got rid of him!! Poor Ukraine!

The agent dropped me off back at the Senator Apartments and I turned on the shower first thing to get the hot water going for a quick shower. Except no hot water ever came – it did get luke warm, but that was about it. But when I turned on the water in the sink it was hot!! I jumped in and out of the shower, threw on some clothes, asked reception to call me a taxi and told them about the hot water problem. They said they would fix it while I was out.

I negotiated the price to the gallery (20 HVA) with the taxi driver, and arrived at just about 7:30. Gilah was being interviewed so I went to look at the exhibition (I can’t really comment on her art, as I am a total ignoramous about things artistic), but I could tell that they were very spiritual. Gilah and I finally caught each other’s eye and introduced ourselves to one another. We discovered that we live about 2 seconds from each other back in Venice. Gilah introduced me to her friends Bernard and Susannah who had come from Bratislava (where the exhibition had first been) to see it again. I gather that Bernard is an artist too and I asked him why he was living in Bratislava (capital of Slovenia), and he said “my girlfriend lives there,” and pointed to Susannah. After talking a bit I learned that Bernard has actually been to Kharkiv!!! I was astounded. Why, I asked!!! His girlfriend (a different one - at a different time), of course!!! I was beginning to understand this guy!

At about 9:00 Gilah, Bernard, Susannah, and the curator of the show, Tatiana, and I, went out to dinner. I was absolutely starving, having had nothing since my bowl of cereal at 6 a.m. (not at all like me!). The gallery, it turns out, is right on Alexander’s Descent, right next to the charming little hotel where Ed and I had stayed when we had come to retrieve our baggage. So I remembered that funny little restaurant “Chasing Two Hares” that was a few doors down and suggested dinner there. Done, they all said, and in we trooped. Tatiana found the menu an absolute scream – she was laughing so hard she couldn’t stop. This restaurant takes it’s name and décor from some cult Russian movie, and apparently the items on the menu were written in a similar style (although the English translations were very straight forward). When they asked for her order, she said "I'd llike the menu" - which she really wanted to buy. It had a thick leather cover, and they said it would cost her 200 HVA (or about $40 – actually not bad, just for the leather!). She explained that she didn’t want the leather, and then the waiter offered to sell the menu to her for 30 HVA, but she, apparently, found this outrageous. I thought it was a pretty good price because the paper was very thick, high quality stock!

Gilah and I talked mostly about mutual friends, how to deal with termites in the house - I recommended Home Savings Termite Control which eliminates the termites by injecting this drying stuff in the walls so you never have to tent the house, and it’s guaranteed for 10 years - the trials and tribulations of building a home and making home repairs, and the joys of travel. We tried some Georgian red wine, and split, amongst all five of us (except Susannah ate practically nothing), a rabbit pie, blini with red caviar, potato pancakes with red caviar, and veal with juniper and pumpkin. In addition, each of us ordered the fantastic red borscht with the puffy parker house roll type breads with garlic. We closed up the restaurant at 11:30 and had them call a taxi for us. We were all basically going in the same direction. By this time it was pouring, but when the taxi came I went out to negotiate. The driver came back to the restaurant to read the name of the street on the card from the Senator Apartments. He said it would cost 30 HVA, I said no, it had cost 20 to get there, he offered 25, and I said no, and by the way, we have to drop all these people off on the way. He did his outrage pantomime and then Tatiana said “well, okay, I’ll pay the extra 10 HVA.” Again, that soviet mentality – you do what you’re told. So I just said that we would pay 30 HVA and told Tatiana to forget it – I would pay 20 and the others could pay 10 (she was just going to the metro stop nearby). I hate to nickel and dime these guys, but I also hate to be taken advantage of, the way we were by everyone for about the first two weeks here!

I didn't sleep too well - the pillows are awful at the Senator Apartments and they don't have any feather or down pillows available (at least not for the basement rooms!). And you can hear every sound in the halls - every key that turns in a door, every word said by anyone.

The next morning I didn't have anything scheduled until noon, when I was going to see what sounded like a great (and very expensive) apartment, right smack in the middle of Kreshchatik, which is sort of like being on Fifth Ave and 52nd St in NY. Gilah and I had talked about my joining her and Tatiana (who used to be an official tour guide in Kyiv) for a visit to a couple of monasteries, and I was hoping to be able to meet them at the gallery at 12:30. Meanwhile I wanted to check out all the hotels that Jodi and I had talked about, and I wanted to find the location of an apartment that I couldn't see yet, but which would soon be available at a very good price for a 6 month minimum rental. I wanted to get going right away, so I turned on the shower to let it run and get some hot water going, and of course nothing had been done the night before to fix it - still no hot water. I made do with the luke warm water, had a cuppa (I had bought some tea and milk on my arrival), and wrote a note for the receptionist (who was not there) telling her about my on-going problems with the hot water in the shower, and asking that they either fix the shower or give me a new room.

I set off at about 10, and within a half hour I began to see what Kyiv is all about - and why the most important thing about an apartment is location, location, location!! I walked to the address of the apartment that is in the process of being renovated (of course, I went the very longest way possible), discovered it is on the outer edge of the city center, and that to get back into the center you have to walk up a very big hill. This all took well over an hour. Then I set off to find the Hotel Rus, which was the only hotel I had found so far that would accept Belle. This was really difficult! I ended up walking in a complete circle around it, without being able to actually get to it, for about a half hour. This hotel is one of those real Soviet Uglies - I saw the rooms (also Soviet uglies) and decided that we should not stay there under any circumstances - too ugly and too far out of the city (and up a big hill, by the way). I made my way to Kreshchatik and was about to try and get into the apartment building to see the apartment at 21 Kreshchatik, when my cell rang - the owner of the apartment calling to tell me that he was out of Kyiv and that he couldn't arrange for me to see the apartment that day!!! I told him I was leaving the next day, so it was today or never. He called back and told me that he had arranged for his "business partner," Tanya, to meet me in a retail store located on the ground floor of the apartment building (which is a great, huge, prewar building) at 5 o'clock. He described her as a black woman and so I wasn't worried about having any trouble spotting her! Not in Kyiv! Meanwhile Gilah called to tell me that I had to wear a skirt to the monasteries that they were visiting, so that put the kabash on that expedition for me - no way I could get back to the Senator Apartments, change, and get over to the gallery in time. Besides, I thought it would be a good idea to check out all the other hotels Jodi and I had talked about and also the neighborhoods of the apartments I had seen. The agent on Friday had also told me that there was a new sports center, called Planet Fitness, on the street of the furnished apartment that I really liked, and I wanted to see if they had pilates there.

I managed to stop back at the Senator at about 2 o'clock for a few minutes to see what was happening with the shower. The receptionist apologized for my difficulties and then said there was another room available - that they had checked the shower and that it definitely worked. She showed me the room (still in the basement), and it looked fine, and then she said that she thought she should mention that this particular room doesn't have air conditioning!! Forget it!!! She then showed me another room that she described as smaller yet, which it was, but this one didn't have a window!!! FORGET IT!!!! She then said that if I wanted to, I could use this windowless so-called room to shower in! Not a very good solution, in my view. Okay, she said, they would keep working on my shower! What's really amazing about all this is that there were plenty of vacant apartments (not in the basement), and I had told her when I checked in that we might be looking for a long-term rental(6 to 8 months) starting in September. Why she didn't just up grade me for the one night is really a mystery to me - what great PR, and at no cost to them. Not the Ukrainian way, I guess.

It's too long and boring to describe here, but suffice it to say that I literally walked from one corner of the city center to the other, up hills, down hills, through parks, around parks. I really think I walked about 15 miles. I didn't even stop for lunch - not even a morosivo!! I went down to Podil to check out a couple of hotels there and, after walking up and down Andrew's Descent twice, I decided to take the Funicular back to St Michael's, after checking out Hotel Impressa (I wasn't so impressed with the lobby and they are booked in September). And I did find a hotel that will take dogs, is charming, small, reasonable, in a good location, and has rooms available for September 7 to 12 - Gintama is the name, for all of you who need a reasonable, nice hotel in Kyiv! But most important, I got a much better feel for the city and the different districts.

I still had time before my appointment at Kreshchatik, so I went over to Planet Fitness and got the official tour. It has a swimming pool, a cardio gym, a training gym, a spinning gym, and PILATES!!! I have really missed Jennifer and my pilates - the question is, can I find an instructor as good as Jennifer, and who speaks English??? Unlikely, but at least there is some hope. Even if she doesn't speak English, I know enough that I might be able to understand the corrections without words. I got the prices ($20 an hour for private pilates classes, plus a $400 fee to join the club for 6 months). This is a big plus for the apartment on this street! I'm sure that in the dead of winter, when it doesn't get light until 10 a.m. and turns dark at 3:30 p.m., and it's below zero, I won't be too anxious to walk very far to do my pilates!

I walked over to the Kreshchatik apartment at 5 p.m. Tanya spotted me and came over to introduce herself. A good thing she did! Tanya is not a black woman - she was dressed in black and has black hair!!! I told her that Alexsander had said she was a black woman - and she pointed to her outfit and said "dah" - I explained that in America a black person means someone with dark skin - we both had a good laugh about that. The apartment is on the 8th floor with a small open balcony (with a railing around it of course) right on Kreshchatik. That would have worried me (traffic noise, etc. - this is a very big and busy street), but I was there in the middle of the day on the weekend when they close the street to cars but when people walk en masse on Kreshchatik (at that moment there was a Hari Krishna march going past), and with the windows closed I couldn't hear a thing (the kitchen window was open and I could hear it, so I think these double windows really work). It's a nice place - with all the necessities - high speed internet, 2 air conditioners, 2 satellite TVs, DVD, CD player, king size bed, pretty nice furnishings, but not fabulous, nice floors etc. It's a fantastic location, but it's too expensive, and the fittings don't compare to the first apartment I saw on the same street as Planet Fitness. I'll have to see what I can do about negotiating the price way down.

I decided to go back to Podil to walk around the neighborhood of the nice, but as yet unfurnished, apartment that I had seen there on Friday afternoon. As a result, I definitely ruled out Podil - as charming as it is, it is just too hard to get there and back on foot because of the very steep hill. Also there is massive construction and renovation going on throughout the neighborhood (because of the charm of the old city and the profits to be reaped in renovating it). So basically the streets are a mess, and the traffic jams on Friday were enough to put me off, even though I won't have a car. It's too bad - the as yet unfurnished apartment in Podil is really great. Well, maybe if they offer to furnish it with great stuff and reduce the rent I'll change my mind!

I was working my way back to the Senator Apartments - on the opposite side of town - from the apartment in Podil when I stopped to check my map before making yet another trek up a huge hill. There were three young guys standing there (I thought I had heard them speaking French to one another), and one asked, in English, if he could help me. I shoved the map at him and said "Where am I?" He and the other two guys showed me and I confirmed that the way up was on the street I was facing, and they said they were going that way and would go with me. Turns out that two of them are Italian, from Milan, and the third is from Kyiv. They were just great - we talked about Ed's project, about how much damage I think Bush has done, about the political situation in Ukraine (and Italy), apartments, the cost of living in Kyiv, and on and on and on. One of them had a digital cameras and kept stopping to take photos - some of them with me in them. He promised to email them to me, but I haven't heard from him, so maybe he's just forgotten to do it, or maybe he hasn't had time to do it yet, although he said he would send them right away. Oh well, maybe they were just having fun teasing an old grandmother, but I certainly enjoyed myself.

We parted ways at St Sophia's and I walked back to the Senator, stopping at Fontan, a nice outdoor cafe at the foot of Zoloti Verota (Golden Gate - a stone and wood structure that was part of the original fortification of the city), and had my standby blini with red caviar and a dark beer, before literally limping back to the Senator. The hills had really worked their magic on my right hip and knee, and I was just hoping I hadn't done any permanent damage.

I got back to my room at about 9 p.m., and am now convinced that miracles do happen - there was HOT WATER in my shower!! And, man, did I need it. I was sweaty and stinky and achy. The long hot shower was just the ticket - that and 1000 milligrams of naproxyn and a nexium, that is!

Another sort of sleepless night on Saturday (those pillows really were horrible!), and I took my time getting up and ready on Sunday. I packed, had my tea, watched BBC World News, and checked out at 11, leaving my bag at reception while I went to meet yet another agent to see three more apartments. My appointment was at 1 p.m., so I took a leisurely walk to the apartment's address (on the top of the hill, as is the Senator), and was just sitting down to order a coffee at a nearby cafe when my cell phone rang - big surprise - the real estate agent calling to say that there would be no showing of this apartment today - the owner couldn't do it - could we meet at the next apartment address on Pushkinskaya (in the opposite direction and very close to the Senator) at 1:30. Okay, I was getting used to this by now.

I walked over to the apartment and met Igor there (he was a few minutes late, so this time I did succeed in getting a coffee at a nearby cafe - thank god, there is always a nearby cafe!). The apartment is in a good location (on the same block as the Premier Palace Hotel (where the least expensive room is $450 a night!). It wasn't bad, had some real wood furniture - not my style - very old fashioned but, still, very high quality stuff. And it was big - two bedrooms, eat-in kitchen and good sized living room. There was no air conditioner because it's an old building and it stays pretty cool in summer and pretty warm in the winter, but the landlady would install one if I wanted it. The landlady was really nice - and she loved that I had a few Ukrainian words (as opposed to Russian). Her daughter lives in Tennessee, so she would want the rent paid in dollars, by wire transfer to her daughter's account there. This, believe it or not, would be the easiest and simplest arrangement for us, so that is a plus for this apartment.

We then walked (I should say ran - this guy really walks fast) to the next (and last) apartment. The is one is a fabulous location. It's right behind the center of Kreshchatik, on a small street called Olginstaya. It's really on a little square, with a pretty round garden in the center, with nice benches to sit on. On one side of the square are the back of the buildings on Kreshchatik, on the other side is a lovely pre-war building that houses the Ukrainian National Drama Theater. And then there is the apartment building on the third side. It's just lovely - and even the entrance has been renovated (marble and granite of course - but still, a big plus as I find these unrepaired entrances pretty depressing). The apartment has a lovely balcony on the square, has all the amenities I need (ac, high speed internet, satellite TV, etc.). The furniture is not great, but it's not the laminated fake wood stuff either. I would take it in two seconds - it's not even outrageously expensive - but the kitchen is awful - the same separate pieces that are pushed together with cracks in between each piece that we have in Kharkiv. If only the guy who redid the apartment next to Planet Fitness had redone this one!! Ohmygod, it would be a dream come true. But in any case, we have some real possibilities here - this sure ain't Kharkiv!!

I started to walk back toward the Senator, but I had a couple of hours before I had to pick up my suitcase and head for the train station, so I sat down on a bench in the Botannical Garden and called Ed, and then called Igor to see if I could get in to see that apartment with the beautiful location one more time before I left - he tried to arrange it, but the landlord couldn't make it. So instead I went to the lovely restaurant in the Botannical Garden where we had had dinner with the OSJI gang when we first arrived. This was my last hurrah, foodwise, before the long 6 hour train ride, so I ordered - you guessed it - blini with red caviar and iced tea.

I made it to the metro and the train station easily - with plenty of time to spare for a delicious morosivo (the soft Dairy Queen style) - vanilla dipped in chocolate! I was in 2nd class which, in my opinion, is better than first class - the seats are more comfortable, you are not sitting a claustrophobic compartment with 5 other people and a TV blaring - instead you have the whole car, with seats 2 and 2 (separated by an aisle) and one TV on either end. Somehow the TV is not as annoying as it is in first class. The ride was uneventful (especially since I had Ed's seat empty next to me) and I could work on the Blog until the battery on my laptop ran out.

There was one fascinating couple on the platform as I was waiting to get on the train - an American or Canadian man (with a wedding band on) who spoke very little Ukrainian or Russian, with a Ukrainian woman who spoke very little English. There were lots of kisses and "parashow, parashow" (or is it "harishow"???) or "okay, okay" coming from him, and I thought he was saying good bye after spending the weekend with her in Kyiv. But he got on the train with her and they sat across the aisle from me. I really wish that damn TV hadn't been on, because I would have loved to hear what they (mostly he) were saying. I got the impression that she wants to get married, or at least to emigrate, that he is balking, but still trying to keep her calm so that he can spend the rest of the time he expects to be here with her. Who knows? But I did think she started to weep at one point, and that he said he didn't want to talk any more and went to sleep while she dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. It seemed pretty sad to me.

I called Ed at about 10:30 to make sure that he had not fallen asleep or that, if he had, he had time to wake up and meet me at the station, but there was no answer. I figured that he had either forgotten his phone when he and Belle left to pick me up (although it was pretty early to leave - the train didn't get in until 11:30 and our apartment is only about 15 minutes away by metro), or that he was in fact asleep and didn't even hear the phone. So I left a message and told him that if he wasn't there I would just take a cab and see him at home.

Well, he and Belle were there when I got off the train - Ed with lovely flowers in his hand and Belle squealing beautifully! We jammed ourselves onto the crowded subway and got home just after all the street lights switched off at midnight.

No Water But A Refund From Marriott!

2006-08-09T15:21:00.001+03:00

Still no water (it's now 6 p.m.), but an email from Moscow Marriott Tverskaya - they will charge us in rubles at the actual exchange rate on the day of checkout (essentially 27 rubles to the dollar), and refund us $204.50. Close enough. I'm actually quite shocked at how effective I was!! We had gotten an email yesterday offering to credit us with $82, but I had emailed back that I (in the person of Ed Rucker, of course) was not happy with that result, arguing that we should get the benefit of the difference between the actual rate of exchange and the artificial 32 to 1 exchange rate used by the hotel. Who would have thunk that they would have caved so easily. I mean, I firmly believe that this is the correct result, but I thought it would take months of haggling. Maybe I will stay at a Marriott in the future, after all - who knows?

This is the first day that Ed has spent the whole day at the office - he left at 9:30 (things don't get going here until 10 a.m. in most places) and he's still not home (it's about 6 p.m.)! They are drafting some of the "form" motions they hope to file as a routine matter in every case where the issue arises (e.g., police brutatlity, illegal search, coerced confession, etc.). Let's see what happens first - the return of water or the return of Ed to the apartment!!

Postscript: No water until 8 a.m. the next morning. Fortunately, Ed got home before the water was turned on - about 7 p.m.

Many Triumphs And A Few Disappointments

2006-08-09T02:46:00.001+03:00

Sunday was another scorcher, but we still decided to go out. Ed wanted to go to the crafts store we had been to about a month ago. Neither of us could quite remember which street it was on, although we had a vague recollection - we knew it was off Pushkinskaya somewhere north of our Arkitektura metro stop (where my little market, Beatric and McDonald's are) and on the first block east of Pushkinskaya. We took Belle with us - she gets practically no exercise here.

On our way, we stopped at a building right next to Bujara, but set way back, called Center for the Support of Israel. I was curious about what this was all about. We walked over to the door - first there's an outer gate, which was open, and then a big heavy metal door which was locked. But there was a buzzer so I pressed it - someone answered (in Russian of course) and I asked if he spoke English, and he said something in Russian. We waited for about a minute and were about to leave, when the door opened and this guy appeared and asked us something in Russian. I told him I was American and I wanted to know "shtrotsay" (what's this), pointing inside the door where he was standing. He let us in and we followed him up several flights of stairs (after passing this Menorah in the entrance). The place had been renovated beautifully. The steps were beautiful stone, as were the walls, and it was really well air conditioned. There were pictures of Israel and the history of Israel (I felt like I was seeing stills from Exodus) on the stairwell. When we got upstairs, the man telephoned someone, and soon after a girl who spoke English came out . We asked her what they did there, and she explained that they helped people emigrate fromUkraine to Israel. I didn't ask her how things were going lately, but I have a feeling that the rush to emigrate may have slowed a bit - but who knows what it's like for Jews in Ukraine in general, and Kharkiv in particular - all I know is that there are damn few of them now.

After our brief stop we continued on Pushkinskaya and overshot the mark for the crafts store, so we backtracked and went down one block and then another until we finally found it - closed of course - it was Sunday. But at least we know where it is now (quite close to our apartment - one block past my market - right after the Metro station). Meanwhile we passed some interesting places, like the Academy of Arts and Design, that we will have to check out. Since the crafts store was almost at the end of the block, we decided to walk back on the street just east of Pushkinskaya and parallel to it, just for a change and so that we would pass the front of our building and actually see the windows to our apartment. I was wilting again, but this wasn't really out of our way. Or so we thought - until we realized that we were one block too far north to walk down Chubarya, and instead we were walking down a street called Revolutsioniy. And we were going downhill. And we were running out of shade. And I began to worry that what goes down must go up!! Well, we kept going and going, down and down, until finally I decided we had to go right (west) - sure enough we would have reached the river if we kept going two more blocks. We passed a morosivo cart and I bought a vanilla with chocolate covering (my usual). This revived me a little, but poor Belle was fading fast too. We asked "deh Pushkinskaya?" and she pointed straight west and then off to the right (north) - as I feared, back up the hill. We walked straight for several blocks, recognized nothing, and finally passed an old man and asked "deh Pushkinskaya?" and he pointed up the hill. So up we went, until finally I saw a building I recognized, and then another, and then finally the front of our apartment building (which is actually more than a block away from our entrance - hard to believe, I know, but true). But just before we got there, I looked over to my right and saw a really nice looking entrance to something, with beautiful landscaping in front. So I just had to go have a look. Ed and Belle went back to the apartment and I walked over, and found a "Gastronomic SuperMarket" called Gorka. This was a really nice market - and unlike all the other markets, where each counter is apparently owned by a different person, this had one checkout (like our supermarkets - you didn't pay each individual vendor), except for the bakery section. I found Valrhona Chocolate (I thought of you Jill) and bought some (a fortune - probably $3). I had to try their perogies, so I got a mesom (meat), sur (cheese), and kapuska (cabbage) selection. I moved on to the main market, (I knew it was going to be expensive when I took a cart - this is the first market in city center where they even had carts - and an attendant in a uniform - all the workers there were wearing the same uniform, another big difference from almost all the other city center markets - came up to wheel the cart around for me as I made my selections!!! I declined the offer.) I found fine wines (but didn't buy any - this food just tastes better with beer), Lapsom oolong tea (I bought it - very expensive), good cheeses, meats, and great looking prepared foods - so of course I had to try some of those. I ended up spending $16 which is an absolute fortune here.

Back at the apartment, we were all exhausted, dripping wet and, in the case of Belle, panting like crazy. We had absolutely no energy left to do anything but take nice cool showers (running out of hot water isn't always a bad thing), sample my purchases (everything was good except the Valrhona, which had been sitting on the store shelves for too long - no wonder - no one else in this city could afford it, I'm sure!), and go to bed.

I kept waking up though, and during one of my hiatuses (hiati???) I began thinking about the two micro halogen lamps I had brought with me from home (the base and the transformers of which weigh a ton), and which never worked here. I began to think that there must be a reason - it just couldn't be a coincidence that they both were damaged during the journey! And then I realized that they, like my electric toothbrush, probably weren't dual voltage (i.e., 110-220), and that I probably blew them out when I plugged them in. So the first thing I did after breakfast on Monday was to take a good look at the transformers, and sure enough, no 220 in sight. I decided to see if I could find a replacement part (this whole lamp comes apart and the transformer and plug are a totally separate unit) - did a quick google search - found the manufacturer, found the lamp, and found the contact email address. So I shot off an email asking about a replacement (got a reply - 110 volt transformer and plug cost $30 and 220 volt plug and transformer cost $40 - so it would cost me $70 for each lamp if I wanted to be able to use them here and at home). I thought that maybe I should get a separate transformer so this doesn't happen again. I remembered that great "battery and all things electrical" store I had found when I was trying to fix my toothbrush (where they confirmed that I blew it out by plugging it into 220 current). It's probably much cheaper there than at Magellan's, where I would have to pay shipping to Jodi, plus tax, and then impose on Jodi to bring it with her in September! So off I went with one of the lamps, to see what I could find. They remembered me, of course - everyone here does. (It reminds me of when I was in law school - there were only 12 women in my class, and only 6 in my section. EVERYONE knew us, whether we knew them or not.) The woman who had translated for me the last time was summoned, and I explained that I wanted to know if I had ruined the transformers for my lamps and if I could buy transformers there (I also wanted to know if I had ruined my mini power surge protector, plug converter, and phone line protector - a great device and a must for anyone traveling with a laptop - when I had plugged the lamps into it.) Amazing success. Yes, I had blown out the lamps, but they could fix it (for $30 - each), and then the lamps would work on both 110 and 220 current- all I would need is a plug converter when I got home (a lot better than getting two transformers for each lamp - $70 each, not to mention shipping - those things are heavy!!!). I don't really need a transformer (actually two - one for each lamp), since the lamps are the only things I have left that can't run on both currents (that saved me about $90 plus $16 shipping costs for the two I had been ready to buy at Magellan's). And my mini power surge devise works perfectly. I waited about 10 minutes while they fixed my lamp - we plugged it in - brilliant light! I was very pleased! I asked if they had plug converters that went from the configuration in Ukraine (2 round poles) to the configuration in the US (two rectangular poles) - they have everything there and I figured this would be a rather common place item since anyone traveling from the Ukraine to the U.S. with a laptop would need one. Amazingly, they didn't have one! My translator said that maybe I could find it somewhere else, but I told her I was pretty sure that if they didn't have it, no one in Kharkiv would. I'm not worried though - any country that uses their kind of plug, which is just about every country that was in or was a satellite of the former USSR, will have it, and we'll be going to lots of those places over the next year. I left with my now working lamp told them I would be back soon with the other lamp.

Meanwhile I decided to look for a down pillow since I had only brought two with me (and they're pretty old and have lost a lot of their oomph), and Ed had appropriated one of them. I thought that maybe this was why I wasn't able to sleep very well now. I had asked Ed if he wanted me to bring a pillow with us for him, but he of course said "Absolutely not." But I can't deny him one of my pillows - not with the two rubber balls that pass for pillows that came with the apartment. No kidding, I think you could play tennis with them if they weren't so big. I thought I remembered passing a store with such things near Rosy Luxembourg Square, so that's where I went. And I found a store that I thought might have such a thing as a down pillow (not easy to find in Kharkiv). There were two young girls who were the salesgirls there, looking utterly bored and ignoring me. I found the pillows though and went over to ask about them. The minute I opened my mouth they perked up and became interested. I wasn't just a boring local - I was exotic. We had fun - they spoke a little English, I spoke a little Ukrainian - we pantomimed (my imitation of a duck or a goose is pretty good), we read each other's minds - they wanted to know where I was from, did I like Kharkiv, how long had I been there, how long would I be staying, did I miss my home and family, was I really a grandmother???? they couldn't believe it (I was charmed!!), etc., etc. I decided to bring Ed back with me to make sure he likes the pillow (duck feathers, not down), so I left and told them I'd be back soon.

I was right next to a KievStar office (a big one that looked like they might be able to do more complicated transactions), and I wanted to know what I had to do to be able to use roaming when I was in another country and how much it would cost. When we were in Moscow, Riga and Vilnius I could receive calls and text messages, but I couldn't make outgoing calls. I also wanted to see if I could set up voice mail (but only if I could do it in English) and how much that would cost. I was sent over to a young, beautiful girl, who said she didn't speak English. Well, that may have been true - but she could write it, and understand most of what I said! She absolutely wouldn't speak in English, but she wrote down that I had to have at least 200 HVA on credit in the phone to be able to make outgoing calls when roaming, that I had to have at least 50 HVA to receive calls or text messages (which explains why we could get a text message from Gennady while we were in Moscow but couldn't send one), that it costs about 1.5 HVA per minute when roaming (about 30 cents - not cheap, but nothing like the Cingular charges), and that calls to the U.S. cost about 60 cents a minute (again, not cheap, but not bad compared to Cingular's $4.50 per minute). She also wrote that voice mail costs one dollar to set up and then 5 kopeks per minute to retrieve the messages (1 cent a minute). I told her to sign me up - she did, and then explained (without speaking a word of English) that I had to wait at least 2 hours and then go to the main office at 60 Sumskaya to get the voice mail set up in English.

I was definitely on a roll. I went home, where I found Ed there and told him about my very successful morning. He told me that he wanted to buy me a "bijou" as a keepsake of kharkiv, and that he had found two stores that might have something I would like. They are both very near my "batteries and all things electrical" store, so we decided to go out together, take the second lamp to be fixed, look at the bijou and bring both our phones to the main KievStar office for voice mail (we'll be the only ones using it to leave messages for each other). First stop - lamp fixed in 10 minutes. Second stop, not as successful - there wasn't anything I really liked and we both agreed that it was silly just to buy something for the sake of buying it. There were some chatchkes that Ed had his eye on (some sort of metal mug with embossed figures on it - probably from Italy and having nothing whatsoever to do with Kharkiv). I told him that of course he could buy whatever he wanted, he just couldn't put it anywhere except on his desk when we got back to Sherman Canal!! He was also very interested in some iconostases - but I had to draw the line there - they were so patently religious, and not artisticly interesting in any way.

We made our way up Sumskaya (turns out 60 Sumskaya is practically at Lenin Square), with Ed complaining the whole way! I told him he didn't have to come - that I would take the phone in for him, but he said he really wanted the exercise and he just liked complaining about it. So now I understood! When we got to KievStar it looked jammed with people, but I guess they were on line for other things because it was our turn in just a few minutes. A young woman on line next to me helped explain what we wanted to do to the woman behind the desk - she in turn called over a young man and spoke to him in Russian. The young woman next to me said "it will be just a few moments" and the guy disappeared. We waited about 10 minutes, and Ed asked me if I thought anything at all was happening. I actually did think so. In fact, I told Ed that at home I would probably be in a rage by now, but here, I just wait patiently and it doesn't upset me at all. The guy came back after about 15 minutes, sat down, took my phone, pressed a lot of buttons, listened to it, pressed more buttons and then picked up another phone, called my number and put the speaker phone on so that I could hear the English message saying that my number was not available now and to leave a message after the tone. Magic!! He told me what numbers to press to retrieve my voice mails and what numbers to press for the password - I put them into my speed dial, and I'm all set. Then I gave him Ed's phone. He did some stuff with that phone and then told us we have to come back tomorrow to have it set up in English because you have to wait at least two hours. I expected that, so I told Ed I would take his phone back the next day for the set up.

All in all a pretty good day. Back in time for supper and a good read (War and Peace is so great) and finally a good sleep.

Today (Tuesday) I was having a VERY good day. I walked down to Rosy Luxembourg Square with Ed this morning. Ed has been asked to teach a criminal law course at a university in Budapest for the fall semester of 2008!!! He's thinking about it (missing the kids and the grandchilren is a problem for us - but this would only be for about 3 or 4 months), and meanwhile he's decided to provide all the paperwork they need, which includes a notarized waiver about health insurance. Well, try and get something in English notarized here!!! Not so easy. There is no American consulate in Kharkiv, and although we expect to be in Kyiv this weekend, we will not be there during business hours of the Embassy. Ed found a "Notarioos" here, but he wouldn't do it because it's in English - he sent Ed to someone in Rosy Luxembourg Square who said he would translate it into Ukrainian and then notarize both for $14!!! The Embassy charges $30 just to do a plain old vanilla notarization. And you should see this thing. It looks like Ed was awarded some sort of medal or knighthood. It's gorgeous, on special paper, with the Ukrainian symbol all over it and with stamps and seals and ribbons. Anyway, he had to go there to get the translated papers from the notary, so he agreed to first go with me to the pillow store. He approved of the pillows, and went on about his business. I made the purchase ($12 for a European square king size pillow - feather, not down, but still pretty good) and walked up Constitution to Pushkinskaya.

On the way I noticed a jewelry store and went in to see if I could find something. Bingo!! The first thing I saw was perfect - for Ed!! And for me too!! I got him a small yellow and blue enamel pin (Ukraine's colors are lapis blue and yellow) with the Ukraine symbol (a trident looking thing) in gold, and another small gold and green enamel pin with the Kharkiv seal (a kind of cornucopia looking thing with a sword overlapping it) in gold and red enamel!!! They really are quite beautiful. Ed loves to wear pins, and so do I. I whipped out my Visa card, which I never leave home without, and bought them.

I decided I had to go to Beatric and make an appointment for a mani/pedi and to get my hair colored. I think I can wait for Yulia's return from vacation to get a cut, but my gray roots just won't stop coming! But first I stopped at the little market attached to Beatric where Ed had left the Kiev Post he had just bought yesterday when we stopped at the market on the way home from KievStar. I managed to retrieve it - I rehearsed what I had to say - ouvasyir moya Kiev Post, chorra ja buda tout - Do you have my Kiev Post, yesterday I will be here - is what I think I said. Anyhow it worked. Somehow I got enormous satisfaction from that.

I went up to Beatric but discovered that Olga, my French speaking receptionist, wasn't working today. Oy vey. Now what do I do? The woman who was standing next to me to pay her bill said, in English, "I can help you a little." So I asked her to tell the receptionist I wanted to make an appointment for a manicure and pedicure on Thursday. There were two kids, a boy and a girl sitting on the bench in the reception area - I thought I heard the girl say "Finally" when her mother appeared, but I was concentrating on my next task of making the hair color appointment. The mother of the girl and boy said to me, in perfect English, "my kids can help you too - they both speak English - we live in Chicago." Well, that was pretty amazing in and of itself, but the really amazing part is that this woman is in Kharkiv visiting her parents, and her father is the head of the Law Faculty at the University!!! We exchanged phone numbers and names and I told her what we were doing here and that I knew my husband would love to meet her father. Meanwhile she helped me make my appointments and told me that there was a wonderful masseuse there - Oxsana - and that I should definitely try it - 200 HVA for a 2 hour fabulous massage. Count me in! I asked her to make that appointment for me too on Thursday and if she could explain to the receptionist what I wanted done with the color - make it as natural looking as possible, and try to make it look like real hair after being bleached out and dried out by the sun with all the walking and tourist activities lately, highlights, low lights, the whole 9 yards. She started to do so and then said, "you know, I come here everyday to work out so I'll just come at 1:30 on Thursday and tell the woman who colors your hair." Well, this was more than I could ever hope for. Talk about serendipity - imagine meeting the daughter of the head of the law faculty at a weird beauty salon/cosmetic surgery center in Kharkiv!!!

But soon after I got home my Skype-in phone rang with a sad call from a friend back home. I know she'll be reading this one of these days, and I know she knows how I feel. I think we can help, but still . . . It certainly puts things in perspective, and all my small triumphs begin to look a little trivial.

I never did make it to KievStar because Ed was expecting a call from Arkadiy about a very important meeting that they are trying to arrange with the officials from the police districts that they will be dealing with here. Ed had told me that the meeting was going to be either Wednesday or Thursday. I asked if he had told Arkadiy that he will be in Kyiv on Friday and unavailable for the meeting, but he hadn't. I told him that in that case there was probably a good chance that the meeting would be set for Friday!

So, just as I was about to turn off my computer and go to bed, I heard Ed talking to Arkadiy, and I heard him say "Oh, I was planning to go to Kyiv this weekend, but we'll make it work." I knew what that meant! I told Ed I had heard and knew he couldn't go to Kyiv. He asked if I was angry and I explained that I wasn't at all angry. I know this is a very important meeting, and that it's out of the question for Ed to miss it. I also know that they have one shot at this meeting - it's the PD office that wants the meeting, not the police district officials. I told him that I understand this, and that I also understand that even if he had told Arkadiy that he planned to be away, Arkadiy might not have been able to avoid having the meeting scheduled for this weekend (although I'm pretty sure that if it was Arkadiy who was planning to be out of town, he would have found a way to have the meeting set for a different day!). But even so, it would have been better if he had told Arkadiy in advance. For one thing, Arkadiy may feel bad that the meeting is scheduled at a time that is inconvenient for Ed, and that Ed has to cancel his trip, and he might also think that he perhaps could have gotten them to agree to a different date if he had known Ed's plans.

One of the biggest benefits of this adventure is that Ed and I are talking much more about how we interact and how we can avoid those little head butts that happen in every marriage or close relationship. It's interesting how we are each getting more focused on the particular character flaws that each of us has to deal with and do something about. I know that my impatience and my being a control freak can and does get out of hand, and I'm really trying to work on it (sometimes with success - a lot of times without). Well, this is one of Ed's issues - he doesn't like to hit things head on. Now sometimes that is a real virtue, and often, with patience, he is able to get what he wants (and in particular, what a client needs) in situations where one would think that it would be impossible. But at other times, like this one, it can be a problem. We encountered this when dealing with the Foundation about our living situation here before we left the States. Things would have gone much more smoothly if we had dealt with things directly rather than obliquely. And in fact, at my insistent urging, Ed had told everyone involved very far in advance that he planned to go to Moscow and Riga at the end of July - as a result no one was surprised, nothing had to be rescheduled or canceled, and nobody was upset.

So, sadly, I will go to Kyiv alone. I want to meet Susie's friend - the one who has the art opening on Friday - and I've set up appointments to see apartments with three different agents. Maybe I'll get lucky and find an apartment this weekend.

But another sleepless night - and here I am, it's the middle of the night here (somewhere between 3 and 4 a.m. on Wednesday) and I'm being eaten alive by mosquitos. Tomorrow (today really) I'll try and take photos of the notarized document and the pins and insert them in the appropriate spots. But this may be where we will miss Ed's camera - you have to hold mine too far away in order for it to focus on such small things (it has about 1/10th the zoom capability that Ed's had), and I'll never be able to capture the detail of the pins. But that's not the end of the world and, for now, I think I'll try and get a least a couple of hours sleep.

It's been a frustrating morning - I did manage to get a few more hours sleep, but I still feel washed out. Ed and I both tried to take photos of the pins, but we just couldn't get anything that even resembled the actual pin. So we gave up and he left to see what's going on at the office. At about 9 a.m. I heard this big belch from the sink and went over to turn the faucets on and found that the water had stopped - I don't mean the hot water - I mean all water. So I couldn't wash the breakfast dishes, and I couldn't wash my face and I couldn't put my contacts on. I thought it would just be off for an hour or so, but by 11:30 I gave up and used bottled water to brush my teeth and put my lenses in. I went off to KievStar and took care of Ed's voice mail, and even got them to put the retrieval number in speed dial. When I got home there was an email from Allison suggesting that I set my camera to manual focus to see if I could do better with the detail on the pins. I tried, and I've put the results of my efforts in the proper place on this Blog entry. They are still not very good I'm afraid, but better than what we got with auto focus. We'll see if Ed can do better when he gets back.

Dinner At Bujara

2006-08-05T19:00:00.001+03:00

Today, Saturday, was a real scorcher - so hot that Kharkiv actually made the CNN International weather report!!! It was 35 C at 6:30 p.m., but much much hotter when we went out earlier in the day. I thought I would faint, and poor Belle was panting and drank a whole bottle of water when we got home, before she collapsed on the bed in the "cool room"! But I digress - I must go back and tell about Thursday and Friday - I've been very lax about the Blog.

On Thursday Ed went to the office and they got their first case, even though they have no phones yet, no working computers, and the place still has to be painted, among other things. It was a "walk-in" by a private security guard who knows one of the office lawyers. He had been picked up by the police, and he told the lawyer that they had beaten him badly - he lifted his shirt and showed multiple bruises, and apparently his face was pretty messed up too. So the office is going to try and pursue a "police abuse" attack, and Ed discussed with the lawyers how they could try to get an "independent" medical exam and photos admitted into evidence (probably impossible under the Ukrainian system, where all exams and photos must be taken by the police or their agents). In any event, they have arranged for the exam, and pictures were taken, so at least they can establish for the record that they tried to get these admitted into evidence when the time comes.

Later that night I asked Ed why the guy had been picked up by the police and whether he had been charged with a crime. Ed say he had been picked up for fighting. Uh oh, I said - I see some big holes in your "police abuse" case!!! Who's to say that he didn't get these bruises from the fight???? I don't think this is going to get very far, but it was a good learning experience for the lawyers - they were introduced to the concept of "independent medical exams" and "independent photos" and began to think about ways to get them admitted into evidence.

This is actually a big deal here - people here grew up in an environment where everyone is very passive, no one makes waves, and you do as your told. I noticed this in Moscow, and Riga and Vilnius as well. For example, on the bus to Vilnius from Riga, the driver (who looked like he just walked on the bus off the street - no uniform or corporate identification), who didn't even know how to get out of Riga (he drove in the opposite direction for a half hour before he asked people where he should go), didn't have the air conditioning turned on. I had confirmed before we left, at the Eurolines ticket counter, that the bus was air conditioned. It was hot as hell, especially on the sunny side. Fortunately the bus was half empty and there were plenty of seats on the other side of the bus, but still it was HOT. AND NO ONE SAID ANYTHING!! The driver only spoke Russian, but I went up and asked him, in my usual pantomime, to turn on the air conditioning. Well, of course, he refused to understand, or even try to understand. Everyone in the bus was very uncomfortable in the heat - I could see them discussing it among themselves - and it was clear that I didn't speak the language. But still, no one said anything. I couldn't believe it. I think the driver must pay for the petrol and he didn't want to use it up with air conditioning - after all, he had a window which he could open - none of the passengers did. Finally I asked a guy on the bus, whom we had met the day before at the Museum of Occupation in Riga (he sold us our audio tour), if he spoke Russian (of course), and if he would ask the driver to turn on the AC. He did, but the driver just refused, and he dropped it.

I also noticed this quiescent behavior when we first arrived in Kharkiv with Sasha. When we boarded the train in Kyiv with tons of luggage, and the woman in charge of our car demanded 300 Hryvnas to let us on with the bags, Sasha merely translated that the woman demanded the bribe. I told Sasha that this was outrageous and that she should tell the woman that I wouldn't pay more than 50 Hryvna. Sasha wouldn't do that - she just said that this was the price the woman demanded and that we would have to pay it. I was astonished! And this happened more than once. The latest instance was at the train station yesterday. I went to buy our tickets to Kyiv next weekend. I arrived at the non-citizen purchase booth at 12:15 (they close for lunch between 1 and 2). There were about three people ahead of me, and one was already involved in a purchase of several tickets for different people (she had a stack of about 10 passports). It was obvious that this would take a little time, but I was sure I would make it by 1 p.m. Meanwhile people kept arriving and going to the end of the line, until one young woman arrived, went to the end of the line, decided it was too long, and just went right up to the window and asked for the tickets she wanted!! AND NO ONE SAID ANYTHING!! And we were all talking about how this was outrageous - me in my pigeon Ukrainian/Russian, they in their perfect Russian and pretty good English. BUT NO ONE SAID ANYTHING TO THE LINE BUTTINSKY!! I asked why, and they all shrugged their shoulders. When I said that this would not be permitted in the U.S. they said they knew that we didn't have lines in the U.S. I told them that we have plenty of lines, and plenty of people who try to butt in, but other people on the line get very worked up and they rarely allow it to happen. This surprised them. To make matters worse, he woman who butt into the line took 25 minutes to complete her transaction. Fortunately the two other people in front of me took about 1 minute each and I managed to get my tickets before 1 p.m.

This will be an interesting trip because I couldn't get first class tickets back (they cost $20 each), and had to settle for 2nd class ($6 each). I'm curious about the difference - we have assigned seats in 2nd class, and I believe there is no smoking on the train now, so it might not be too bad, although I've always been told that the difference between first and second class train fares throughout Europe (and I would think this would be doubly true in Eastern Europe) is not very great, but the difference in comfort and service is enormous. We shall see.

Friday night we had dinner with Gennady and his family. I had gone over to Bujara (it's Bujara, not Buchara afterall) on Thursday to try and make a reservation, because there were 6 of us and I wanted to eat outside. I really had fun - the waiters and waitresses are quite young and lively and very anxious to try and help. One in particular, Olga, was adorable. I finally managed to get it across that I wanted a table for "shees" on "Piatnetstya" 05/08/06 "o voyseem hodini" - that's a table for 6 on Friday August 8 at 7 p.m. for all of you guys who don't speak the lingo. I got the "outside" part through to them too. Then I described "mi choloveek" (husband) as "bolshoi" (big - but in the tall sense because I held my arm up high as I said it), and I told them, using the universal money sign by rubbing my thumb and other 4 fingers together, that only he could pay, not to let the other people pay anything. We were laughing the whole time, but it's all set - I wrote my name as сусан рукер adopting my choloveek's last name for the occasion. Later that day, on my way back from the market, I stopped by to ask if "moya malika sobaka mojena" I was told (by someone who had not been part of the reservation dramedy) Neh Mojena - so we won't be able to bring Belle to dinner.

Friday afternoon Ed called to tell me that Gennady had said that Bujara was way too expensive, that Yrena knows lots of restaurants, and that she would pick us up up at 7:15 and we would go somewhere else. I told Ed that he would have to go over to Bujara and cancel the reservation because I was already on my way to the train station to get our tickets to Kyiv. Later on, when I asked if he had any trouble with this and did they know who he was, he said the minute he walked in the door they knew who he was (so I guess I did a pretty good job describing him). He somehow explained to them that our friends couldn't come tonight so we would cancel the reservation, but that we like the restaurant and would be coming soon.

We went down to meet Yrena at the appointed time and found Marina and Nella there too - and they were all waiting for Gennady. While we waited Ed took some pictures of "the girls" so that everyone could see the mode of dress here for young girls. The girl on the left with the VERY short skirt is Yrena, the 25 year old dentist who is studying to be an oral surgeon. She had come directly from work (around the corner from our apartment), so this is how she dresses for business! The woman in pants is Nella, their mother, and then there's me and Marina on the extreme right. Her skirt is quite long, but the dress is very sexy, with cut outs on the side (it doesn't compare with Yrena's bare midriff though). They are both wearing very high heels. Thank god Nella was dressed as she was, otherwise I would have felt even more matronly than I already did.

When we asked where we were going for dinner, Yrena said "Bujara" - apparently Gennady had been overruled! We laughed and told them about the reservation and canceling the reservation, but that we were pretty sure we would be able to get our table. The minute we turned into the little park where the restaurant is situated (about two buildings down from our apartment entrance on Pushkinskaya), they ran over to greet us and laugh about the reservation, and gave us our table. Ed and Gennady were sitting opposite one another at the end of the table, and Gennady just started right in talking non-stop about office stuff. It was clear that Nella and the two girls were used to this, but very annoyed. I just butted in and said "no more office stuff." It was still pretty hard to control Gennady, but we managed to talk about other things, including our planned excursion to the monastery in the caves (a day trip from Kharkiv). We also talked about the current political situation (Yunshenko's alliance with his bitter foe in the Orange Revolution, Yanokovich - the one who rigged the election and whose agents poisoned Yushenko), and Yulia Temeshenko's decision not to join the alliance, but to instead act as the opposition. The Russian press reports this as "Ukraine's 1993" referring to the year in which Yeltsen shelled the Parliament and Putin replaced Yeltsen - halting the headlong rush to democracy. They say Russia's revolution lasted 24 months, Ukraine's only 20. It's so sad. These people (Gennady and his family) had marched in the streets and Lenin Square to help support and secure Yushenko's election less than 2 years ago, and now he is betraying them and their hopes so that he can maintain his post and his power. It feels like the whole world is falling apart - the middle east especially. Even the current heat wave seems to have political overtones - but I guess we can all rest easy because President Bush assures us that we are "winning" in Iraq (as 100,000 Shiites gathered in Baghdad to support Hezbellah and burn the Israeli and American flags - was that even reported on in the US? - we saw it on BBC World, but I don't think I heard it on NPR or even saw it on the NY Times website), that we will be a "good friend" to Cuba (after making sure that all Cubans are unable to get any of the goods people need to make their lives better!), and that there is no such thing as global warming. It's times like this that reading books like War and Peace really is comforting - I remember reading how Anna Pavlovna, in 1805, thinks the whole world has gone mad and that Bonaparte will destroy the civilized world - and somehow the world and so called "civilization" survived.

But I digress again! Back to our dinner. Nella told me that she called Marina the last night she stayed at our apartment with Belle and that Marina started crying because she wouldn't have Belle with her after that night!! It's great how people everywhere just flip for Belle. She, of course, expects no less. It's great to know that we have someone to leave her with who really enjoys her. We're even thinking about bringing Belle to Kharkiv before our trip to the States in late September so that Belle can stay with Marina while we are away. She is such a sweet and responsible girl (Marina, not Belle!).

Nella invited us to have dinner at their apartment when we get back from our weekend in Kyiv - we were delighted and told her so. But Marina added that the invitation was conditioned on our bringing Belle with us!!

The meal at Bujara was delicious and Ed seemed to enjoy the belly dancing! Yrena did all the ordering and, as I had feared, she was really careful not to spend too much money - there was much less food than when she ordered the last time, and the wine she picked was the least expensive and so not very good! The entire dinner with a bottle of wine and 4 beers, mineral water, and tea, cost us $110 for 6 people. Marina got tired at about 9 p.m. and decided to take a taxi home. It was so sweet - Yrena walked her out to the street and saw her into a taxi to make sure "she wasn't abducted" - and then Marina called her mother as soon as she got home. Well, she is only 19 - 6 years younger than Yrena, so it's natural that big sister would want to take care of her. We stayed on until about 9:30 before going our separate ways and agreeing to meet again for dinner at their apartment after August 13th when we get back. We also agreed that from now on, when we go out, we will "split the bill," as good friends do.

As I said, today was a real scorcher - it was well over 100 degrees F in the sun. Why we chose this day, of all days, to go to the "street of books" is still a mystery to me, but we did. And we took Belle, poor girl. But first we stopped at the Poshta (I am mailing my first check to pay a U.S. bill - we'll see if it ever arrives) - it was closed for lunch (13:00 to 14:00). So we went back down Sumskaya to the turn for the book street, which happens to be the exact location of my favorite perogie store, and we had to go in and get a couple of mesom perogies (meat filled) and eat them on the street like a native. We walked down the street to find the guy who was selling the banners Ed liked, and who speaks French (which is why my presence was required for this purchase). We found him right away, and of course he immediately recognized us. That's one thing about living in Kharkiv, where NO AMERICAN ever comes - the minute we go somewhere we make an indelible impression!! And we are never forgotten by anyone!! These banners, which are quite cheesy, maroon colored satin with gold fringe, were, during the Soviet era, awarded to the most productive collective - one for "fowl" and the other for "farm produce" - along with the pins that were then awarded to the most productive individual in that collective. He wanted 50 HVA for one of them and 40 for the other - there was a third (for sugar) and he offered the lot for 120 HVA. Ed didn't want the third (it didn't meet his standards, whatever they are!), and we tried to bargain, but all we got was a 10 HVA reduction. It was clear that Ed really wanted them, so he bought them for a total of 80 HVA. What he intends to do with them is one of God's little mysteries. They are certainly NOT going to be anywhere visible at 217 Sherman Canal!!! Maybe we can put them in his closet!

Meanwhile, the second we got back to the apartment he hung them up - one (for farm produce) in the living room (against the orange wall - a great combo! NOT!)
and one (for "fowl") in the bedroom over our bed (okay, okay, I admit, it's a big improvement over the "print" of the lovers that was hanging there before). I'm glad he got them though, because they gave me a great idea for hanging up my "Dog Park Friends" collage. I took out one of my sewing kits (which Ed hadn't wanted me to bring with us, of course) and put the needle and thread through one corner, left a big loop before putting the needle and thread through the other corner and tying it off. I now have a great string hanger device!! Judge for yourselves.

Despite the heat we browsed the bookstalls and ended up buying one Ruth Rendell (Harm Done) that I think I haven't read (it's so hard to remember) for 8 HVA - it's a paperback. We also found, and bought, Dr. Zhivago (paperback), Gogol short stories (Hard Cover), Pride and Prejudice (Hard Cover), Animal Farm (Hard Cover), Heart of a Dog by Bulgakov (paperback), Angel on the Roof (short stories by Russell Banks, one of my favorite authors). The last bunch cost a total 70 HVA ($14). And there are lots more books in English. Also, we will probably be able to bring these back and resell them to this guy or another street vendor - we will no doubt take a loss but, after all, we will have read the books. A small price to pay. Ed of course refuses to resell the hard cover books, but I'll just take them back one day when he's at the office!!!

We passed by Mirror Fountain across from the Opera House where all the wedding parties were congregating to have their photos taken. There must have been at least 10 wedding parties, with more on the way (and no doubt some that had already left). They jockey for spots for their photos, and often have to pay the boys who are swimming in the fountain to get out of the way of the picture. The groomsmen wear red satin, and the brides all wear very elaborate satin gowns, most of which are probably rented. Most of the grooms wear tan suits, but there were some in black or dark blue suits too. I just felt so sorry for all of them having to endure this heat in those clothes!! I also don't understand this tradition of going to Mirror Fountain for your wedding photos. If I were a blushing bride in a white silk wedding gown, I would want to be the only bride in view - I don't think I'd like to be in a position where I could be compared and contrasted with all the other girls or women who were marrying that day!!

As we continued our walk home (after stopping at the Poshta, where I confirmed that I had enough postage on my envelope and sent my check off) we noticed that the police were diverting traffic and were basically closing down Sumskaya. If it hadn't been so hot we would have hung around to see what was going on - maybe there were going to be some protests about the new government - but by now I was really wilting (and Belle was panting away). So we went straight back home, where I collapsed - but not before making our chicken shashlik, a ratatouille, and a delicious bread, like challah, finished off with nectarines, peaches and bananas in sour cream and our bedtime morosivo (ice cream, in case you've forgotten - vanilla with chocolate covering).

Catching Up

2006-08-02T21:16:00.001+03:00

This was a real "do nothing but sit in front of the computer and get all my chores done" kind of a day. First, I had to write my complaint letter to Marriott hotels about the 20% rip off at the Moscow Marriott Tverskaya, and send a "disputed charge" message to Visa. When we made the reservations at this hotel (which was supposed to be in the city center, but which was actually 3 metro stops away from the center) online, they told us that the total for the three nights would be $912.14 including the 18% VAT. They also indicated that we would be paying in rubles at the "hotel's conversion rate at the time of checkout." I assumed, as anyone would, that this would be the prevailing conversion rate, although, granted, I expected it to be at the least favorable end of the range that always exists for currency exchange. From the time we made the reservation, until the time we checked out, the rate of exchange ranged from 26 rubles to the dollar to 28 rubles to the dollar. It was never higher than 28:1. Unbeknownst to us, the hotel uses a fixed conversion rate of 32 rubles to the dollar, no matter what the actual exchange rate at the time happens to be!! So when the email confirmation stated that we were going to pay around $912 dollars, it really should have said that we were going to pay 912 Euros, because that's how much more we ended up paying because of the artificial exchange rate. This really pissed me off, especially since, when I calculated what we would actually be paying - almost $1200 - I realized that we could have stayed at the Savoy, a fabulous small hotel in the city center, with breakfast included, at about the same price! So I sent my email off to Marriott (they replied telling me that my complaint had been received and that they would address it within 15 days), and then another to Visa, disputing $275 of the total charge. I'm sure it will get me absolutely nowhere, but it really is not right. The website should make it clear that when you make a reservation in Moscow you will be paying that number of rubles which equals the quoted dollar rate , multiplied by 32. That way you can easily do the math and figure out that you won't be paying $900, but that you will be paying almost $1200 when the dust clears. In fact, I actually looked at a few other hotels while we were in Moscow, and all their rate cards describe the cost as x number of "units" - say 250 units - multiplied by 32. That is the amount of rubles you will have to pay. Very clear - the word dollars is never mentioned - so no confusion. Maybe Visa will be able to work on them and get the reduction (we're VERY good Visa customers, but we've never stayed in a Marriott before and probably never will again), but I doubt it.

Next I had to send out emails to various Kyiv hotels to see if I could find one that will let us take Belle with us when we go for the art opening on August 11. But, as it turns out, leaving Belle here, in the care of Gennady's younger daughter Marina will not be a problem. Marina loved staying with Belle - slept with her, took her on lots of walks, and paid lots of attention to her. In fact, Ed called while he was meeting with Gennady to tell me that Marina asked if she could come by this evening after work to visit Belle because she missed her! Of course I said yes. At about 6 p.m. Ed called again and told me that Marina was downstairs waiting for Gennady before coming up because she was embarrassed about her English! I knew from my experience with her sister that her English was probably quite good, so I went down with Belle to find her and bring her up to the apartment. The minute we saw her Belle ran over and was jumping all over her! And here they are - Belle and Marina. And of course Marina is thrilled to stay with Belle, especially since we have satellite TV and an air conditioned bedroom! Marina had left a good deal of food here and she hadn't touched one thing of ours - I tried to give her the food she had left but she insisted that it was for us - not only that, she brought us a box of beautiful chocolates (I guess she figured out that we really like chocolate since we had about 5 bars of dark chocolate in the fridge). We had bought her a box of Laima chocolates from Riga (the most famous chocolates in Latvia, and the box had a beautiful picture of Riga on the front),which we practically had to force on her. We had also left some money for her, and it was sitting on the table when we returned - again she refused to take it when I tried to give it to her again. Now I'm trying to figure out a way that I can leave Belle with her when we go to the States in late September and early October. But by then we will probably be in Kyiv and won't have an apartment in Kharkiv anymore. She works full time and goes to law school part time, so she wouldn't be able to come to Kyiv and stay with Belle - but maybe Belle can stay with her at the house she lives at with her parents and sister. By the time we leave for the States we will only have been in Kyiv about 2 weeks, so we probably won't have found someone reliable to take care of Belle - it would definitely be worth the train ride to take Belle to Marina before we leave, and pick her up when we return. I'll have to work on this.

Ed had gone to the office to help Gennady work on the contracts with the lawyers hired for the PD Office. He came back after a couple of hours to tell me that he had decided to lend the office $1000 so that Gennady can get the place cleaned and painted, get the computers hooked up, etc., without having to wait until the return of the Renaissance Foundation staff on August 22. Ukraine is a strictly cash economy - you can't even write checks - everything is done by bank transfer or in cash (and, on very rare occasions, using credit cards). So Gennady will deposit our $1000 in the office bank account and then, when the funds are transferred from the Renaissance Foundation to the Kharkiv office account, the office will transfer $1000 to our U.S. Bank account! Then we'll have to withdraw the $1000 as Hryvnas, using a "bankomat" here (basically an ATM). They certainly got their money's worth (especially when you consider that they are not paying Ed), when they got Ed for this job!!!

I'm trying not to get too depressed over the fact that we will be spending another 6 weeks, at least, in Kharkiv. First of all we're going to Kyiv next weekend. And Yrena, my Ukrainian conversation teacher, will be back on August 17 and I can resume my meetings with her. Then Jodi and her father will be coming to Kyiv early in September, and Belle and I (and maybe Ed too, depending on what's going on in the office at the time) will go to Kyiv to show them around. And then we leave on September 27 for 3 weeks in the States. I also hope to go down and visit Michael and Jeremy in Umbria before they leave for Capetown in October. It would probably make sense for me to go just before I go to Kyiv to see Jodi, or just after she leaves, since I have to fly out Kyiv to get to Italy. So it looks like I will hardly be in Kharkiv at all!

Ed brought Gennady back with him from the office so that he and Mary(Marina) could go home together. Gennady had a couple of beers and told us how difficult it has been for his daughters, both of whom are extremely bright (and gorgeous, I might add). Even the higher education system has its corruption - you have to bribe your way into university and, even worse, you have to bribe your way into a career afterwards. For example, his daughter wants to be a notary which is a type of lawyer here (sort of like a solicitor in Britain - they don't go to court, but they handle all sorts of legal matters). There are a limited number of notary licenses here, and even after you have passed all the necessary exams, if there are no licenses available you can't practice, unless you are able to "purchase" one from someone who is retiring or leaving!!!

We made plans with Gennady to take him and his wife and his daughters to dinner on Friday night at a restaurant a few steps away from our apartment. The restaurant is call Buchara - it serves Uzbekistani food and it's in a lovely little park with both indoor and outdoor tables. Marina knew the restaurant - she said the food was good but the people were bad! We asked what she meant by that - was she talking about the waiters, or the diners?? Turns out she was talking about the customers - she disapproves of the fat old rich men who bring young beautiful women to the restaurant! We made a few other suggestions, but she said that Buchara would be great and we decided to meet there at 7 p.m. on Friday.

Marina and Gennady left at about 8 p.m. Ed and I had some delicious perogies for dinner, with a beet salad and a cucumber and tomato salad. Then Ed made a Skype call to his mother (that is I placed the call and Ed put on the headset and spoke to her!!), and to Jed and Jenny. I didn't get to talk to Jenny because she was feeding Jackson some cereal by the time Ed and Jed finished talking. Ed went to bed to finish reading War and Peace - I get it as soon as he's finished and I can't wait, especially after visiting Moscow and seeing some of the sights referred to in the book - like the church that Natasha attends. I finished "Dead Souls" during our trip and I also listened to Roth's "Everyman" on the bus ride from Vilnius to Riga, so I'm ready for a really engrossing long book. I thought I'd spend a few minutes on the blog and handle some emails (replies to my inquiries for apartments in Kyiv and also hotels in Kyiv for next weekend) and ended up spending another hour typing away. So now I am definitely ready to hit the hay.