“Odessa - Port on the Black Sea”

It’s the name of a Bee Gees album I’ve never listened to, but I swear a Bee Gees song was playing when I got into the cab at the Odessa airport. It was a song I’d never heard, so let’s say it was from this album. The following song (again in English) sounded like something from the easy listening stations my parents used to listen to when I was a kid, "Save your kisses for me"- it was very nostalgic. That tends to happen over here; there’s such a surreal combination of old and new bits of pop-culture - western and ex-Soviet. Long ago memories get unearthed by the strangest things! Anyhow, let’s back up a bit.

On Monday Lilia (my Ukrainian US embassy contact, travel companion, booking agent, translator, and liaison to all Ukrainian English teachers) and I took a small plane to Odessa. The trip was surprisingly expensive, about 220 USD, especially considering the size of the plane (4 windows on each side)! Well my worry turned to amusement shortly after the propellers got us off the ground. The hour and a half flight was truly charming - I’ve been telling people that it was a cross between a carnival ride and a crop duster as I didn’t feel that far off the ground. I could see the entire countryside as it was a warm clear day. The Black Sea coast looked very pretty from above, and the houses outside the city had bright green, red, or blue roofs.

The people we met were very friendly - upon entering the first university we were treated to an impressive spread of snacks and some 5-star cognac. How could I say no? - it blended nicely with the Dramamine that was already well into my bloodstream. I am told that Odessa people, in order to show their hospitality, have to make sure that their guests eat well… and are full at all times! Monday night we were treated to a 5 course meal at a traditional Ukrainian restaurant: Salads, soup, appetizers with caviar, fish with caviar, veal, red wine… wow! And all only a couple hours after the smorgasbord of snacks at the university! So much for that losing weight bit I spoke of a few weeks ago! I even tried “salo” which is pure pig lard; it looks like bacon before it’s cooked without the pink bits - you’re supposed to eat a slice of it with raw garlic on top. I’ll have to develop a taste for that. We were treated to a walking tour in the night air afterwards - I counted the “Potemkin Steps” (the only way to count them is to walk or jog up and down them - I’m proud to say there are 192 - and it only took me 4 minutes!).

Tuesday proved to be great day first visiting another university with an impressive little library of English language methodology books (supported by the US embassy), and then heading to the Teacher Training Institute for my presentation. We were running behind, so Lilia hailed a car… I mean when you can’t find a taxi or they want to charge too much, people just put their hand out and point to the side to indicate that they want someone . . . anyone! to stop and pick them up. An older man stopped and we got in with our briefcases - he charged us 10 Hrivnya (2 bucks) whereas the taxis wanted to charge 35 (7 bucks!). It was a deal. The presentation went well and near the end the only male entered to sit at the back. I later found out that he was not an English teacher but a violinist wanting to improve his English. He offered to take us on another tour showing us the “steps” in the daylight! He was quite a character - full of personality… on par for our Odessa experience. His name was Dmitri; he told us his girlfriend is a famous opera singer - hence our trip to the Opera House!

Russian came in handy in Odessa; most people speak it there. I found the inhabitants quite relaxed and a bit warmer than Kyiv… more English too. I guess it would figure as they have historically had foreigners coming in and out of the port there. One of the teachers we met there said that when she was studying English, it was common for students to meet the ships coming to the docks, go on board, and practice their English with the visitors. How bold - I hear they still do it today!

Our trip back to Kyiv was on a slightly bigger plane - 18 windows on each side - I did count a lot of things, didn’t I? Windows, courses, steps, dollar amounts….. Time to count the days before my next out-of-town trip. This time to Lviv (Western Ukraine) in 11 days….