paris when it sizzles, kharkiv when it thunders and lightenings

Having typed my post title, it occurs to me that I might have used a similar title last summer the night I watched Paris When it Sizzles in a thunderstorm. Oh, well...

Yesterday was my last day in Balaklia, which was primarily spent packing and making arrangements for the next leg of my trip. I'm in Kyiv now, for a lunch date with my friend Tanya and an interview for my project, then off on another train tonight to Lutsk in north-western Ukraine, where I have an interview tomorrow morning and then will just hang out there for the weekend, as I found a decently priced hotel downtown there (I can stay there for three nights for the price of what I spent for one night in Kyiv...). (I also found a church online to visit on Sunday, which amazed Nadia that I was able to accomplish all of this via Internet, and somewhat allayed her worries that I'm headed across the country by myself with heavy luggage. I keep calling her to check in so she doesn't worry quite as much.) Then on to L'viv on Monday.

At least 11 children were sad to see me go yesterday (Yura wasn't around to say goodbye, and when the van pulled away, I saw him brushing Nadia off that no, he didn't intend to. But he wears the t-shirt I brought him a lot, which is enough for me.). Valera told me that he's going to visit me in the U.S. when he's 25 (in 13 years), and then asked me in detail where I would be living, who would open the door when he arrived, and what would happen if I wasn't home when he came, since he thought it unlikely anyone else in my family would speak Ukrainian. Snizhanna told me that she was going to come with Valera, but only if Nadia let her. I am going to miss them all so much.

Then I took the elektrichka to Kharkiv, which was one of those experiences that was just nice, as the scenery was beautiful and the ride brought back memories of when Tif and I used to ride up to Kharkiv for the day. I think that Nadia had expected me to stay in the train station and eat the sandwiches she'd packed, but instead, I went out to dinner at Adriano's (saving the sandwiches for later).

Adriano's is quite possibly one of my all-time favorite restaurants, up there with Sansu in East Lansing. The food is Italian, the decor is nice without being overdone, the prices are reasonable (my meal was roughly $8 USD), and the music is light, jazzy, and European. I got the lasagna with spinach, shrimp, and salmon. I think this is the first time I'd ever been there by myself--it was a popular place for PCVs to hang out, and I think I took pretty much everyone who ever visited me there (Tif, did you go there with me? You're the only person I'm not sure about.)

After dinner, I decided to go find a coffee shop I remembered around the corner, where we often went for dessert afterwards, but it had been replaced by a small casino. Grrr... So I decided to walk down to the next metro stop, but it was farther than I remembered, it was growing dark, and there was lots of thunder and lightening, although no rain (it had rained earlier). I was starting to question my common sense, but I had a rough idea of where I was, so I started heading in the direction of the Universytet metro stop, which I figured was pretty close. Just after a VERY loud crack of thunder, I spotted the huge Lenin statue near the metro. I never thought I'd say this, but I've never been so happy to see Lenin in all of my life. :)

Returning to the train station, I was disgusted to find out that the ticket counter for foreigners now closes at 7:30, instead of staying open until midnight, as I wanted to buy my ticket to Lutsk (which I got without problems in Kyiv this morning). I then, in classic Sal-and-Tif fashion, went to McDonald's for ice cream and clean bathrooms. And by that time, I could board my train.

The train was awesome. They've really spruced up the Kharkiv-Kyiv overnight train, with plushy seats, a control panel for lights, radio, etc. (which also tells you if the toilet is occupied), and clean windows. It felt very luxurious. The conductor was also friendly and helped get my suitcase on and off the train, bless his heart! My traveling companions were two sisters in their 50s and the daughter of one of them, who was about my age. The one woman was a former administrator of education for Kharkivska Oblast, and her daughter is a translator for international students at Karazin University in Kharkiv. They were friendly and I really enjoyed chatting with them. At first, they didn't realize I was a foreigner, but when they asked if I was really trying to read Les Miserables in English--the whole thing! (it's about 2 inches thick)--I explained that I was actually American. They had assumed I was from western Ukraine, which made my night. A lot less people give me odd looks when I talk to them, so hopefully my accent has gotten better.

a multilingual evening and my current love life (completely non-exciting)

Well, the guests all came and we now have 22 people here (although one or two kids might have been sent off to Grandma's next door to sleep). One of the best parts of the evening included having a conversation in English with Hannes, an older man from Switzerland who is a friend of Valentin's (the friend of Viktor and Nadia who is visiting). Hannes knows some English, and he speaks English better than Russian, so we visited for a bit and he showed me pictures of the Swiss Alps on his digital camera. My other favorite part of the evening was when I played the piano and we sang "How Great Thou Art", and when we came to the chorus, people were singing in English, Russian, and German (and possibly Swiss and Ukrainian).

Less fun was getting accidentally elbowed in the face by Valera during a game of dodgeball. Fortunately, he missed my glasses, but the kid doesn't know how strong he is, and I wouldn't be surprised if I'm a bit black and blue there tomorrow. Sigh.

That aside, Valera is still as much my buddy as he ever was, and if the kiss on the cheek I got yesterday was any indication, the crush he had on me at age 9 is still extant at age 11 (albeit he also has a crush on a Roma girl named Sophia who went to our church for a short period of time). He loves to ask me questions about anything and everything, all day long, and it's thanks to him that I have gotten much better at conditionals in Ukrainian ("What would you do if...?").

To continue with the Y children's interest in my love life, the other day I was getting ready to go visit Robert, the 40-something PCV in town, for tea, and Ihor (age 7) asked where I was going. "I'm having tea with Robert," I said. "You're going on a DATE!" Ihor crowed. Nadia and I about died laughing, Nadia adding, "I didn't think he even knew what that was!"

Snizhanna (age 6) said to Liza the other day while we were playing dolls, "Miss Sally's going to marry Vitaly (age 19)!" I told her that that was in fact inaccurate, and when I told Nadia, she said, "That's what Snizhanna would like!" Snizhanna loves playing dolls, helping Nadia in the kitchen, and being a girl, and the fact that I am one more girl in a houseful of boys has endeared me to her deeply.

Due to all the extra people, Liza and Vlada are in the room next to mine on the third floor. So far they have thrown toys at me, stolen my key, knocked incessantly on my door, and played what sounded like the accordion. I've been utilizing the "ignore them and they will go away" approach, which is fairly effective. When Valera came upstairs to bug me, they told him to go away. "Miss Sally's sleeping!" And yet they play the accordion!

last bell

The Last Bell ceremony for the end of the school year was yesterday. I watched this year's eleventh formers, dressed in traditional school uniforms from Soviet days (with some of the girls' skirts indecently short, but no harem costumes, Tif), and remembered when they were 8th formers, back when I was brand-new here. Then I taught Nelya the basics of how to use a computer mouse and how to type in Microsoft Word, which made both of us proud that she was learning how to do more with computers.

Later, I visited an English teacher who I had known when I lived here before and who is now on maternity leave. Although it was a social visit, she was interested in my research and is willing to be interviewed. Interesting fact about Ukraine: women can take up to 3 years of paid maternity leave (not full pay, but their job will be there when they get back). Everyone is shocked that we only get 6 weeks.

I spent the night at the Kotlars', which was fun and a change from one set of kids to another. Much to the amusement of her family (and myself), Lilia K. (age 6) has an enormous crush on Yura Yukhymets (age 14/15?). Apparently he bought her ice cream once, and she's utterly besotted. She told me that they're going to get married when she grows up and he'll go to work and she'll stay home and cook and clean. When I asked which church they were going to go to, she thought about it and decided that they would alternate Sundays. Lilia and Natasha walked me home, and they weren't going to come in, but then Lilia started to cry because she wouldn't see Yura, so they stopped in to say hello. Yura walked by and said "Hello, Lil," and she just beamed. (Personally, I think Yura's got a lot of growing up to do before he's ready to be the object of anyone's adoration, much less Lilia's, but perhaps she'll be a good influence. :) )

Lilia reminds me of why I actually do want children at some point (although not 12!). She's a very deep-thinking, loving, little girl, who likes to cuddle and take care of her little brothers. She said to me very seriously at breakfast this morning, "I missed you while you were gone [to America]. Sometimes I looked at your picture and thought about you. I don't want you to leave." Aww...

This afternoon Viktor and I took 6 of the Y kids to the playground at one of the schools in town to get them out of Nadia's hair so she could garden (of the other half, 1 was at a church conference in Kharkiv, 1 helped Nadia, and the other 4 were with their grandmother). We stayed at the playground for about 4 hours. I played football, excuse me, soccer, with the boys and Viktor for a bit, proving once again that I have very little aptitude for sports.

In case you all hadn't picked up on it, I love being in Ukraine again.

ah-choo!

I think I'm getting sick, if a stuffed-up nose, lots of sneezing, and general weariness without cause are any indications. This probably means that I've got whatever my dad's had for the last week, so I may have the pleasure of being sick and nonproductive for quite some time, as it seems to stick with you. I certainly hope not.

Fun kid moment of the day: For March is Reading Month, I read We're Going on a Bear Hunt to my mom's preschool class. Stuffed-up as I am, I ended up sneezing, and one little girl said, "You can't do that at my school." Well, then...

Other than that, not much is going on. Today's book of choice is A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar about the mathematician John Nash (no, I haven't seen the movie yet, although we have it). The math is going waaay over my head, but Nash's life itself is interesting. Although I think he's better in a book than he would have been in person.

I've updated my resume and sent it off to a couple of places for summer work, one which already told me that they filled all their openings but I could send it anyway in case someone decided not to accept the position, and the other one, a long shot that isn't sure if they'll have a position or not (but wow, would it be a neat place to work!). So we'll see what happens...I keep looking for jobs.