The Day of "The Defenders of the Motherland"

Well we made it to Luhansk and back... while there we learned from our new friend and seminar participant, Arteyom, that today was "Defenders of the Motherland Day", formerly "Soviet Army Day". Apparently, it's like father's day except that all men receive presents from their mom's and wives or girlfriends. Considering we took a photo by a tank while on a short tour of the city center, I thought it would be appropriate!

The teachers were great and all workshops went well. It helps that the people in Luhansk are quite friendly. As Joe said, "If Kyiv is New York City, Luhansk is like Allentown, Pennsylvania". Meaning it is more industrial, not as glamorous, but with un-pretentious real people. The organizer at the university, the head of the Philology Department, arranged a few tours on the univesity campus. On the first day, we visited the Science Department and got a tour of the animal museum. Not only was our guide, Sergiy, an actual scientist and professional taxidermist, but we also got to see all the animals native to Ukraine. Bats, birds, giant prairie dogs, foxes, weasels, deer, and giant boars. Admittedly, seeing the animals "live" is always best, but I have to say the collection and his passion for it was impressive. When asked which were his favorites, Sergiy said, "the scavengers" (the organizer translated it from Russian for me!).

Another treat was a trip to the campus observatory. We saw some old telescopes, one giant one that is actually part of an observatory. We climbed through a narrow and ever-so-steep staircase to see where they "observe the stars and planets" 35 days a year - the number of days the weather is clear enough for viewing. Then we went to a mini-planetarium where the lady (actually a lecturer in Astronomy) turned out the lights and pointed out constellation after constellation with a laser pointer. All I could see was black... maybe a few stars after about 10 minutes, but we enjoyed the retro presentation.

Speaking of retro, while in Luhansk I happened to run into my workout pal Cindy. Just thought I'd throw that in there. So the 35-seater plane took us safely to the Russian border and back. It was an experience, not to mention we endured the "coldest day of the year" so far- 5 degrees Fahrenheit and minus 10 wind chill. Brrrrr!