"To speak... or not to speak... or which to speak?"

Ever since we arrived the true "bilingual" nature of Ukraine has been apparent. I guess I knew that people had all spoken Russian under the Soviet Union, but I figured that now most people spoke Ukrainian. Well... it's a bit more complicated. We made the decision to buy Ukrainian language books before leaving the States and learned how to say "please" and "thank you" and a few other critical utterances. People smiled when we said them, and seemed to appreciate our efforts. However, when we first started looking for an apartment and went out with various rental agency representatives, we could not recognize one word they said in "Ukrainian". Especially, when they would thank the owners of the apartments for showing them to us. They said something that sounded like "placebo" (actually 'spasibah')... nothing like the "d'yakuyu" we had so diligently practiced. Well, turns out they were speaking Russian - not Ukrainian at all! Then it started to click, that often when people speak to us and each other, they are speaking Russian. Another example is when we learned the word for "together"..."rah-zom". When we got to the cashier at the local cafeteria, we waited to hear some version of "are you together" .... but nothing registered. They were using a completely different word which, again, was Russian. It is a bit disheartening to get less than a little comprehensible input as a language learner.

Not to mention, the debate over which language to speak has become a heated political one. The country is somewhat in the throes of deciding whether to identify more with it's former Russian sphere, or move in a European direction. Therefore, it has become quite the point of discussion in the newspapers. At my university, the president has officially declared that students and teachers will speak Ukrainian and English. (In which case the choice is easy!)

In a daring experiment, yesterday I posed a question to my workshop participants, teachers of English from various institutions throughout Kyiv, as part of a "problem-solving" activity. After a couple of activities in which I introduced myself, I mentioned my dilemma: "Which language should I learn first, Ukrainian or Russian?" As you can see from the photos, they had little trouble engaging in discussion with their peers. In the end, I had a representative from each group present their advice... and opinions were truly split. They ranged from, "You should learn Russian because everyone understands it and you can visit other former-Soviet Republics without a problem" to "You should learn Ukrainian because you are in Ukraine; if people don't understand you, you will shame them for not knowing the language." Interesting stuff. Fortunately, everyone was quite respectful of others' opinions and it turned out well to illustrate the technique - even though I'm not sure that the problem is truly solved. I think one gentleman's advice probably makes the most sense: Your husband should learn one language and you should learn the other! We just may do that!!

Oracle and Odyssey

First of all I have to mention that the title is an homage to one of our favorite albums, “Oracle and Odyssey”, by the Zombies (which is actually misspelled on the album; we don‘t remember how). Anyhow, it’s one of the few CDs we downloaded before we left the States.

Before we moved here, I was under the impression that the “typical” Ukrainian was blond and fair, maybe blue-eyed. I thought I was going to stand out. But there are really a lot of dark-haired dark-eyed people. There are even a few Asian-looking people probably from other former-Soviet areas. Recently, I was told by a colleague that I have a classic Ukrainian look. Since then, or even before I had heard that, I was approached by 4-5 different people a day asking for directions, for me to take a photo, and whatever else they were asking me. I just say, “I only speak English” and they look disappointed and walk away. Hence, Joe addresses me as the “oracle” even though I never know nor understand anything. I did, however, end up helping the people who asked that I take their photo, and, I might add, I was able to help a woman who asked “Do you speak English? Where is the supermarket?” Thank YOU!

Joe doesn’t have traditional Ukrainian looks but blends in pretty well. We try to act fairly native by eating the local food, taking the metro, and learning a bit of the language. It’s curious that we still don’t know which is more practical to concentrate on, Russian or Ukrainian. I will pose that question to local teachers in an upcoming workshop and let you know the outcome. We do occasionally drink coffee at McDonald’s (even though we never go there in the States). Maybe it has something to do with the clean bathrooms or the view from the parking lot in our neighborhood (see the photo with drive-thru, alias “McDrive”). Although Ukrainians seem to be much more animated and open than many of their Eastern European neighbors, they are not too demonstrative toward strangers. While sipping a beer in a local cafй the other evening, Joe saw the Japanese tour bus passing by; in order to make them feel welcome, he waved energetically. They enthusiastically returned the wave so happy to see such a “friendly Ukrainian”. We also decided to go “walking” the other day for exercise and were the only ones, save for two bicyclists, one jogger, and two “strolling” couples that passed us on the river walk.

Although they don’t seem to be especially athletic, I wouldn’t say that Ukrainians were heavy or unselfconscious about their appearance. If fact, he women are typically quite slim and very eager to express their fashion ideas. There is truly a wide range of outfits on the streets - enough to merit a separate blog entry - I’ll work on that one. The men are much more conservative and hardly seem to notice the skimpy and often outrageous outfits their female counterparts wear.

I just finished my first week of work at the university and two days of orientation at the Embassy. We’ve come up with a variety of interesting project ideas which include:

• weekly teacher development workshops
• short-courses for teachers
• a conversation club
• videotaping seminars to increase outreach to rural areas
• training Peace Corps trainers
• observing teachers
• collaborating on testing issues with the British Council
• presenting at conferences
• meeting up with a local author to work on a textbook for the seventh form (like seventh grade)

I should be making a trip out to Odessa at the beginning of October. We met up with the other fellow who is based in Odessa; he’s in Kyiv right now for orientation. We ate out near Independence square (see second photo) in the center of town - very impressive tall historical buildings and always lots of activity; people are milling around taking the metro on weeknights until midnight! This square heads up a boulevard of sorts called “Khreshatyk“. It’s usually quite busy with traffic but gets closed down during the weekends and turned into a pedestrian area. Public drinking is common - it’s very typical to see people walking around, at all hours of the day, with a beer bottle in hand. It’s weird for us to see… still haven’t gotten used to that. This weekend we plan to see some art at some of the art museums near the center.

P.S. 10 of our boxes came! Yay! “Quilty” is very content is his new home. Who’da thunk anything could match the rainbow curtains and pistachio walls!!!

Down by the Riverside

We are so happy to be living in Europe again. The lifestyle is quite different than the US. People walk everywhere, and the food is so fresh and good! I haven't been to a gym in weeks and I feel very fit... we feel like we may be losing weight even though we are eating a ton! I will say more about the food in a later post, don't worry Carol (have already been collecting pictures). But today I want to announce that we have an apartment!

We looked at no less than 20 places with about 6 different agents with our kind contacts at the university and embassy acting as translators. The place we ended up getting was the one I mentioned earlier that mysteriously went up in price by $300! Well, the owner called back (as I predicted) a few days later and said that we could have the place for less and he would provide for the cable-internet connection and a satellite dish (400 channels). Also, he would have blinds installed. We signed the contract yesterday and paid the agent 50% of a month's rent - that's customary around here.

So last night we dumped out our suitcases and filled all shelves and cabinets organizing our stuff. We are still lacking in hangers, some kitchen supplies, a broom, and a drying rack (remember, there are no dryers here), among other odds and ends. We'll have to buy that stuff on our own, but maybe the owners will buy it back from us at the end of the contract. It would be a good way for them to have the place fully-equipped for the next tenant.

Our building is a 6 1/2 minute walk to the university, it's on the Dnipro River (which completely freezes over in the winter!), it's "pre-revolution" construction so we suppose it was built around 1910-1915?? It is very cool! Our flat is directly above a fancy resaturant with valet parking people milling around our building entrance. Although the street is quite busy, when our windows are closed it's hard to hear the traffic. Kyiv (the Ukrainian spelling) is really a big city (around 3 million), but our area is very neighborhood-like and only two metro stops to the center. Our one-bedroom apartment has a European-style shower, a boiler (hot water heater in case central heating goes out), centralized heating (which comes on throughout the city on Oct. 15), a nice new bed, a couch, TV, and a little dining area in the kitchen (which also has a fridge, microwave, and small washing machine). We'll have to dig up a bookshelf and a desk to make it complete.

I think I forgot to mention that we also have a balcony from which you can see the neighborhood buildings in one direction and a beautiful little chapel on the river in the other. More news to come!

"The Day of Knowledge"

We are now in Ukraine - our trip was without much drama save for the $50 "heavy luggage" fee and the incredibly turbulent flight from Frankfurt to Kiev - the only bumpy flight we've ever been on where the bumpiness continued all the way down to the ground! The plane even lurched a little to the right once on the runway!! The wind must have been strong as there aren't many mountains to cause weird air pockets.

Yesterday, September 1, was the official "Day of Knowledge" which occurs before the first day of school every year. The children from 6 to 18 dress up to attend a ceremony at the school. Their parents come, their grandparents come, and their great-grandparents come (and this year the American Fellow and her husband came too!). The kids are given flowers and march into formation to stand, squirming in their suits, while the principal gives a pep talk to ensure success in the coming school year! We atteded the ceremony at the "English School" which focuses, from an early age, on teaching English to all the kids to prepare them for their future.

It was so refreshing to see such respect for education and the children. Something I think many other cultures can learn from. The kids were so excited too to stand in line in front of the crowd like little movie stars (except for one who started crying and ran to be held by his mom for the rest of the event).

In the afternoon, we went to the university to meet the director and university teachers. My position will involve providing training and development opportunities for teachers at both the university level and at the elementary/secondary level. We brainstormed some ideas for projects to be developed over the next few months.

The rest of the day was dedicated to looking for an apartment. We have seen about 10 so far and actually decided to take one near the river. But... once we finally decided, it had already been taken. Or so the landlord said... apparently, someone offered $300 more than he had originally told us, so if we could come up with that differential, we could have it. HA! We'll keep looking, thank you!

I forgot to mention that the day before yesterday we had a tour of the US Embassy and met our key contacts. Everyone seem so nice. We also went to the English Teaching Center at the University (my principal working area) - the resource room for English teachers is incredible - I will include a photo soon - not to mention the incredibly helpful people at the university. They are all really positive and eager to get started with the teacher training! More news and photos soon!