Father Frost Still Waiting for Snow

Well, we are back in the Ukraine groove. On our way back through Madrid we went to the Reina Sofia Art Museum and saw "Guernica" by Picasso (1937). What a cool and huge painting that is. As we were viewing it an elementary school teacher was talking to a group of well-behaved attentive little kids about the painting. I, too, listened in trying to learn something about the painting while getting a bit of Spanish comprehension practice. She was such a great teacher and had all the kids completely rapt.

After explaining that this was a representation of a bombing, she asked, "What do the people have as tongues?"
The kids called out, "knives!"
"What shape are their eyes?"
"They are like drops of water."
"What do we call drops of water from our eyes?"
"Tears!", an eager girl called out.
"Picasso learned of this incident through the newspaper; what colors are newspaper photographs?"
"Black and white and grey!"

I really enjoyed the eavesdropping, and it made the experience much more memorable.

The vacation was a great way to clear my mind and freshen me up for the projects to come in 2007. As soon as we got back, we found that our Internet service had been disconnected for some mysterious reason. Therefore, we headed to the Internet cafe. Once in the center, to our surprise, The giant Christmas... oops, I mean, New Year's Tree was still standing tall with a grim looking Father Frost waving to the passers by. This was January 21st - what's going on! Then it dawned on me... not only had the "Old New Year" celebrated January 15 just passed, but this has been the warmest winter in 120 years (it's 32 degrees as I write and 48 over the weekend) ... everyone is still hopeful that the snow will fall. Where is it? "Eastern Europe" had a horrible storm pass through while we were in Spain - I guess Ukraine was spared.

When our Ukrainian plane landed in Kyiv, a few people clapped as the wheels hit the runway. I noticed that when we lived in Bulgaria too. When the plane lands, people clap. I had a flashback to the Spanish clapping in the streets flameno-style just as they were walking along. Just as most of us casually whistle a tune, the Spanish will clap-clap out a percussion series that makes you think they are going to break out in dance any time.

Here in Ukraine, whistling indoors is very bad luck and makes you "lose your money." Joe has gotten a few reprimands, so while on vacation he was sure to do the "whistle the happy tune" thang as much as possible. He also bought Tabasco while in Granada. We had a close call as the European airports are now doing the "regulations on liquids" thang. So, you have to put all liquids in a clear plastic bag separate from your carry on. The limit per item is 100 ml. Luckily, the Tabasco was only 60 ml, so it made it safe and sound to our kitchen. Ukrainian food is not spicy, so along with the New Mexico chile my mom sent, we should make it through June.

Well, I gave my first workshops of the year today. The topic was "How to Make a Syllabus and a Course Outline." It was really great to be back among the teachers. I presented at Kyiv Polytechnic University and had a total of 75 partipants. The more the merrier I always say!

P.S. I added some of our photos to my two Spain entries below - enjoy!