ORIENTATION CONT'D

                                                               ORIENTATION CONT'D

THE EMBASSY:Going inside the American Embassy, where our orientation was held was as interesting as the orientation. It is surrounded by a 6 feet high, very decorative  metal fence. One enters through a guard building, that resembles a pill box. All employees who check your identification. search you, put you through the metal detector and take your mobile phone, laptop, and other communication devices are non-Americans. I did not see an American until we entered the Embassy itself. Further security, we were walked in groups, ratio of 5-1 (Embassy employee) from the guard station to the Embassy front door. Once inside the Embassy, the ratio became 3-1. Being the oldest member of the group, I was the first to ask where the restroom was located. It was outside the conference room in which we were meeting and I was accompanied to the restroom door. I did see a couple of U.S. Marines. One of the career State Department employees explained to me that no Embassy had sufficient fire power on hand to keep armed interlopers at bay for too long. The plan is to continue to withdraw behind ever stronger doors and wait until the Ukrainian armed forces arrived with tanks, helicopters, mortars, etc. (Think Argo!)
MORE GOOD FOOD:

                                                                    
I took this photo after I had eaten most of the soup, it doesn't look nearly as good as it was. The eggs are from quail. The large white objects are delicious dumplings. The brown was delicious fish. All in all, this was really a good soup delivered by one of the lovely wait people at the Ibis Hotel. By the way, there was a blank where the wait person pictured name was supposed to appear. But I forgot to type it in. Her name is Marichka.

FULBRIGHT ORIENTATION

                                                                                FULBRIGHT ORIENTATION
                                                                                            KYIV (cont'd)

     Several people, including my own daughter, very politely suggested less words and more photos. Although I intended to follow these suggestions, the last post was not intended to be sans words. For some reason the blogger.com would not let me add any words after posting the photos.

To begin, I flew from Odesa to Kyiv, Borispol Airport, the morning of 7 Feb. Valera asked if I would mind waiting for him at the airport as he and all his drivers were already scheduled for 8:00 a.m. jobs. Waiting for Valera led to a RIP OFF!!!!  The only time I have been totally ripped off since arriving in Ukraine over 6 weeks ago occurred at Borispol. I walked to the lobby, sat down in a coffee shop, ordered a capuchino and piece of cake, either a Neapolitan or a Napoleon. The one with three different colors. Enjoyed both, continued to read Book 1 of Game of Thrones, and waited for Valera. At 9:00, I asked for my bill. It was 120 HR ($15)!!!!. Valera walked up a few minutes later, casually saw the ticket and couldn't believe it. More on this later.
ORIENTATION: Learned that the President deposed during the Orange Revolution is now the President again. Seems both of his successors were either terrible administrators or just plain lazy and the country turned to a wannabe Putin who was a good administrator. As a result, there is a movement toward further centralization and regulation. The Ministry of Education, Health, Sport and some other stuff, is trying to control all aspects of education from grade 1 to completion of a masters of law. Its control includes who is named President of universities and academies. There is a bill pending in Parliament which would give the Ministry authority to remove professors and dictate course content.
Ukraine is very important to the USA, there are more Peace Corps volunteers in Ukraine than any other country. There is aid from USAID, the Fulbright program, various other programs and a tremendous number of private foundations.
HEALTH: You can't drink the water anywhere in Ukraine or Russia. Must boil any water from the city pipes, drop in iodine, bleach or some other agent before using it. One may bath or use it for brushing teeth and washing vegetables. I have gone over board and actually boil my dishes while rinsing after removing them from dish soap. I have it the end of the page and can't blog further.

Fulbright Orientation 7-9, February

                                                                                FULBRIGHT  ORIENTATION                                                                        
                                                                                              7-9 February
                                                                                     

                                             Borispol Airport, (Kyiv) Saturday evening 9 February

                                                          Boarding the Plane to Odesa

Kyiv: 31 January - 4 February

I flew from Austin, Wednesday, January 30, landed in London, waited two hours and then boarded a plane for Kyiv.  (The Russians and us spell it Kiev.) The trip was uneventful except for Heathrow security. My plane landed at one of the International Terminals. I had to walk through it and go to another terminal for my flight to Kiev. I had planned to stop in British Air's club for a cup of coffee and use of the Internet. I wanted to confirm my pick up at the Kyiv airport, Borispol, by email. Those plans went awry as I walked through security. Without explanation, I was told to wait while my roller board, my back pack were placed in line for searching. It was a long line. After almost ten minutes, they were looked at and I was searched too. The searcher was a different person than the rude UK security man who told me I was a suspect; this man asked if I knew why I had been singled out for "special attention". I said, no. He explained that I had a bottle of water in my backpack. I did. The flight attendants handed them out as we walked off the airport.

Everyone get the moral of this tale?

I didn't have time for coffee but I did manage to get an email sent. My iPhone had stopped working when I left the USA and wouldn't be operative again until I joined a Ukrainian mobile phone company. Yes, I could have paid for International calls on Sprint, but I am a pretty tight person about things like that.

 

                                       

 

 

                                              BACK OF A KYIV APARTMENT BUILDING

                                                          NEXT TO THE HOTEL IBIS

 

Arrived in Kyiv around 11:00 a.m. I was met by Velera, t who has been driving people around for  Fulbright office for years. He met me with a sign "Graham", carried my bags to the front door, told me to wait while he got his van, came around, loaded me up and we were off. I had been told to bring dollars with me for private hires like this one, my rent and other miscellaneous items.

It was cold! It was snowing! The highway was a mess, drivers drove like Italians, I was nervous all the way to the Hotel Ibis. We got there, I paid Valera and went to sleep.

 

The Hotel Ibis was suggested by the Fulbright Office. It is a five minute walk from the train station, ten minutes from a nice mall, and University Metro stop, from which, after one line change, one may reach to Fulbright office. The hotel is owned by a French company. It is really a good deal, especially the restaurant. M         is shown below. She is one of the wait staff and is studying film at a school somewhere in Kiev, a city of several million people. I ate in the restaurant every night until I left Monday, 4 February.

On Friday, I visited the Fulbright office. Met Natalia, with whom I had been emailing for several months and Marta, the new Director of the Ukraine program. Mainly I slept, walked around during he day, ate in the restaurant at the hotel and slept.

 

                                       

 

 

 

 

The Train To Odesa

 

Valera took me to the train station, only a five minute walk, but I would never have gotten my luggage on the train but for him. The Fulbright instructions state that one should not arrive on a weekend. Both Natalia and Professor Vadymn Barskyy, my contact and subsequently my liaison at the Academy of Law, suggested the train as the best method of getting from Kyiv to Odesa. I had two suitcases and a back pack, so I thought it was better than flying. I left at 10:56 p.m. in a 4 person compartment, 2d class, no first class seats were available.

But for Valera, I would still be on the train trying to stow my luggage. It went below my bunk. The top lifted and underneath was a huge compartment. None of my compartment mates had any luggage, so I would never have known the space was there. My three traveling mates, never said a word, took off their shoes, went to sleep. The young woman across from me did look at texts and mail on her phone for about 45 minutes, had a short conversation with her mother; then went out like a light too.

I didn't. I had several thousand dollars under my head, I was worried about leaving my stuff, the train stopped every 30 to 55 minutes; all in all, it was not the way I prefer to travel.

 

5 February - 7 February: Odesa!

 

I'm here. Professor Barskyy (Vadymn) met me at the train station. No, he did better than that, he met me at my compartment, and carried off my roller board and heavy second suitcase. I managed to carry my back pack. I was very tired, rather hungry, and not particularly friendly. (Some of you would say the latter is a perennial condition.) It was 6:54 a.m. The train left Kyiv at  9:56 p.m. Almost 9 hours, of bouncing, noisy, hot travel.

Vadymn suggested we go directly to the apartment he had found for me. I heard him say that if I didn't like it, I could look for another the next day. He explained that all the rents had gone up and stayed up when Ukraine hosted the European cup in 2012. Also, that agents were paid by the renter one month's rent for finding an apartment and he didn't think I should do that as I was only staying until the end of May. Sounded reasonable to me.

Around 8:00 we arrived at the apartment.

 

                                         

 

                                                    FRONT DOOR TO MY APARTMENT

                                                          BUILDING KNOWN AS A

                                                                  " KRUSHOVKA"

I Have Internet!

Ciao, to all!

I have Internet in my apartment in Odesa, Ukraine! I can post on the blog now here in my "Krushovka" apartment. (It is in a building built  during the Kurschev era, hence the name.) For those of you who have not received one of my many many whining emails about the Internet, the short version:  I have Wi-fi access at the National University "Odesa Academy of Law", to which I was sent to teach ADR on a Fulbright Scholar Grant. I will be here from 31 Jan. to 30 May.

I have Wi-fi in the Admissions' office of the school and generally stay there from 9:00 ish to 6:00 p.m. when they close. There are a few other places in the school where there is Wi-fi but it is best in the Admissions Office.

The apartment was supposed to have Internet connection starting on 12 Feb. but it has not worked despite having 3 different Internet Company (not the cable company, different organization) technicians pronounce that it worked, then pronounce that my laptop needed to have Windows removed and uninstalled by leaving it at a "service center" for 3 days. (My laptop interacted with great gusto with Wi-fi connections in two hotels, an airport, several restaurants in Kyiv and Odesa, and at school. My iPhone, which now hosts a Ukrainian "Life" SIMS card, also could not connect inside my Apartment. I could connect both at the Karoke Restuarant only 100' from the apartment. Leaving my lifeline at a "service center" wasn't going to  happen!).  Last Thursday, 28 Feb., I figured out how to make it work. The oldest router technique known, unplugging and plugging back in. Did it and I had Internet! Until the next morning, when it was cut off because the landlord had not paid the bill. Even I can read Russian when it says "Pay your Bill".  Academy liasion, Vadymn Barskyy, paid the bill yesterday and I have had a connection since.
I also was lent a wonderful device by a faculty member who I have never met. It was a Sprint hot spot creator, weighs about .5 lbs., and was pretty fast, but I used up all the pre-paid minutes and no one can figure out how to add time to it. So, no blog past because while at school I was working on my class, paying my bills, doing other business, going to meetings, going to the Immigration Police to acquire a long term visa (don't have one yet but have been assured that it will be anyday now).

So, the blog. I have 7 posts to make, they will be in chronological order, starting with "Kyiv 31 Jauary - 4 Feburary." After I have written those, I should be about caught up. Today, Friday, 8 March, is "Womens' Day Holiday" and I decided to take advantage of it by posting. (Spell check quit about two sentence down, please forgive spelling and other mistakes.)

Sam