Room with a view

I have been meaning to upload some photos of my apartment, and the view from the windows. Here they are, without comment.

Food, too

Okay, I will admit that there is more to eat here than flavored peanuts. I have had the pleasure of eating "real" Ukrainian foods when invited for lunch and dinner when I first arrived here, and as previously expressed, it was quite varied and delicious. But for my daily nutritional needs, I can find many of my favorite fresh fruits and vegetables, along with great locally-made bread, sausages, salami, and cheeses. There are butcher shops where one can buy beef, pork, and chicken, but since I really don't need to eat much meat, I am good with the other stuff. (I have found some delicious crab cakes here that I enjoy.)

Yesterday my colleague, Lara, surprised me by bringing over some smoked fish and homemade wine and honey, along with some beers. The fish was deliciously smoky and salty, perfect with hot mustard and the homemade wine, which was slightly sweet and strong. Also, in the photos you will notice the large jars of pickles, tomatoes, and borscht. These were all made by and given to me by my generous colleague - Spassiva, Lara!

So here are more pics of food - mostly to prevent my mom from freaking out at the idea that all I eat here are tins of flavored nuts ...

Food

For some reason many friends and family members have asked what it is that I eat here. So I figured I would accomodate these requests by, once and for all, revealing what it is that I have found to survive on in edible provisions. I have already revealed what there is to imbibe: beer and vodka; as the water is likely unsafe from the tap, I make coffee with beer ... odd combination that takes some getting used to. Anyway as you can see from this photo, it is very easy to get all food groups from the three items depicted: dairy, meats, and legumes. Since nuts also provide some roughage, I figure with these three items I have it all covered. Mmmm ... Bon appetit!

Interesting week, Pt. 3: The Celebration

On Friday the Institute celebrated the March 8 Women's Day with an all out effort and performances by the male faculty, administration & staff members for the women (the women did the same on Men's Day, a couple of weeks ago). The reason it was celebrated on the 5th is that March 8th is a national holiday here (coincidentally also the anniversary of the Russian Revolution).

I was asked to participate, so in keeping with the culture (and not having a playable guitar available readily) I played the balalaika, Dedicating the performance to my truly awesome contact / translator / colleague here with a version of Lara's Theme from Dr. Zhivago (her name is Lara). The song is over forty years old, and was actually written by a Frenchman (Maurice Jarre), but I heard a few oldsters humming along, so despite having picked up the instrument and learned the song (and instrument) in three hours that morning, I guess I did okay.

Everyone then repaired to the adjacent room for sweets, shampanske (sparkling wine), and brandy, people dancing and singing, so I could say it was a great day ... It's fascinating that these folks are fairly reserved until it's time to "party", but boy, they do know how to party when it's time!

As you can see from the video, I made the best of this potentially disastrous situation...

Interesting week, Pt. 2 - The class

Upon reviewing feedback from my first group, and after discussing this with my colleague, she recommended that I go "deeper" with them in terms of instruction; meaning, in short, that I needed to get "heavy" with them in terms of what they are getting out of the class. Several things have prompted this: an insistence that I provide every single detail of instruction (step-by-step) regarding the research and projects I have them working on, and explaining precisely "why" we / they are doing something in the class.

So in last Wednesday's class, I started out by asking them how many cards I was holding. (In the absence of playing cards, I used some colorful little calendar cards I found.) I deliberately made it look like I was holding three, and showed them back and front of my hand holding the cards. Satisfied, they all agreed that I had three cards. I then revealed that behind one of the cards I held two more, making five cards where they were certain there were three.

My point, which I carried forth, was that you cannot always be satisfied by appearances, and that further investigation is ALWAYS required, particularly when teaching students. This seemed like a novel idea to them, so I expounded on the fact that even though we see what is in front of us all the time, we simply must look beyond at the greater world to discover more - and encourage our students to do likewise. So I have been trying to break through this wall with my students / teachers here and get them to start looking elsewhere - like the rest of the planet. I actually challenged them when I asked if they believed that through their jobs as teachers they can change the world simply by affecting their students. Most shook their heads and said no. Do you know what I told them? Then you should NOT be a teacher! That got the discussion going ...

In many ways already noted, these teachers are a product of a much more regimented education system that produces desired "results" (exam scores) than we have in the United States. But I believe that we may have an advantage in the US in that, with all our comparatively uneven school accountability (because it varies greatly state-by-state, district-by-district, even school-by-school), our teachers are just not ever going to be -- conformists.

But then, we have to remember something about Ukraine - it has only been independent from USSR since 1991, and they are still struggling with their identity - one need only read the recent political news for confirmation.

Interesting week, Pt I.

Well, it has been an interesting week here in Poltava; so interesting, in fact, that I will divide it into three parts, so here is the first part:

The week started inauspiciously enough with a lecture for the faculty scheduled for Monday morning being postponed for two weeks. Okay, then, on Wednesday as I arrive at work to teach my class and am cooling down from the mile walk through ice, the Institute's Rector, Vitaly, and the Foreign Language coordinator, Valentina, arrive in my office to give me this beautiful terracotta frieze and a matching teacup, both handmade locally.
During my class, another faculty member came in and gave me a copy of the book she authored (quite well-known nationally, it turns out), along with this cool handmade pouch, and sang happy birthday to me! I turned pretty red ... After class, the students gave me another ceramic Ukrainian figure (this time a man) filled with malinka,a local liqueur. And it wasn't even my birthday yet! They sure are sweet here, when they want to be. (Photo of all this great booty haul posted above)

I also have to acknowledge another great "gift" that arrived Wednesday, the day before my birthday - this was a much awaited Volkstaf collapsible hiking staff to assist me in negotiating the icy sidestreets on the way to work and back. I simply must express my deepest appreciation to Ruth,the owner of Rocky Mountain Amblers,who went far above-and-beyond the responsibilities of a retailer in insuring that the staff made it into the hands of Linda-Marie & Don Sundstrom, who delivered it to the Fulbright office in Kiev (and deep thanks to all of these as well). Ruth has since emailed me regarding this blog, and I have encouraged her to leave her extremely insightful reflections as comments here. Ruth, you're the best!

More to come on this eventful week - stay tuned ...