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.
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!
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.
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???
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???
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.
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. NOONE 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?????
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.
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.
