post 21 october

Okay, now I’m really getting caught up. To the minute. More or less.

September 4: Vika gets married! Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Yushak!



September 10: Birthday challenge shenanza! A film-, secondhand-, and vareneky-making-challenge!





September 11: Birthday! Mine!




September 12: Happy fifth birthday, Window on America Center in Lutsk! Hooray, libraries! And America!

September 14: finished translation editing for university album

September 17: Window on America Conference in Lviv

September 18: ran in—and finished!—10K race in Kyiv, starting and ending in Independence Square

September 19: passed dental and physical exams, and therefore cleared for extension of service!

September 23: first Writing Beyond Reality seminar—for teachers—in Mykolaiv



September 27: organized an Activities Fair at the university to connect students and community organizations


September 29-Oct 1: visit to Kryvyi Rih, including seminars for students and teachers and celebrations of Teachers’ Day with students from this summer’s InterCamp in Crimea


October 5-7: US Interagency Conference on English Language Learning in Kyiv


October 8-9: second Writing Beyond Reality seminar—for teachers and students—in Mykolaiv



October 15-16: The Difference-Makers Project retreat, an opportunity for VNU students to develop their own community projects, practice English, grow as leaders, and have fun


October 21: abruptly decided to update blog in the most efficient way possible, bypassing nearly everything and hoping for questions

:)

post 25 september- catchup, volume 1

I’m typing this on September 25, but I wrote it down on September 17…

Okay! Now I’m getting caught up! I have eight and a half hours left on this train, and I’ve got no escape.

First, rewind to summer. When last we spoke, I had finished Ukrainian language refresher [right? I’ll just check…] and had officially registered for a race in Kyiv in far-off September [ie, tomorrow [ie, last week]].

This brings us to the beginning of August, as I’m barely making the train to Odesa on my way to MASCOT in Mykolaiv. I can easily say that this camp was one of the highlights of both my summer and my Peace Corps service. My rainbow-colored camp bracelet reads “MASCOT CAMP – A PARADISE FOR CREATIVITY AND TEAMWORK” and this is as good a description as any. My two weeks at this camp were an immersion experience in celebrating creativity, embracing the unusual, and exploring possibilities. Our staff—half Ukrainian and half American—spent a few days bonding and preparing (read: creating obstacle courses in a swimming pool, thwacking open watermelons with swords, clearing up curriculum, gettin’ rhythm, making posters, playing games, painstakingly bringing bead-animals to life (shout-out to SALLY!), and just generally getting excited. Finally, the campers arrived: the champions of a competitive application process, aged 14-22, from all over Ukraine, willing to risk all normalcy to have a good time, meet new people, and most likely learn something along the way.

Campers were organized into teams, like homeroom classes—the families of our camp. Along with always-positive Anya, I was lucky enough to be a leader of the splendidly named Mysterious Macho Moose team. And let me tell you—Moose team is red hot! Moose team is red hot! Moose team is R-E-D red H-O-T hot—we can’t help but what we’ve got—we’re red hot! We’re red hot! Ahem.

MASCOT was an exciting blur of team activities, classes (International Studies, Social Integrity, and Creative Dimensions, plus electives and a project-management track), theme days, challenges, bizarre costumes, eggs, and watermelon. Puppets, UNO, American slang [word], Harry Potter in 3-D, songs and cheers for every occasion…

Above all, the people. Campers and staff drawn to this oddly wonderful festival of energy and excitement continually proved themselves worthy of the opportunity. A few near and dear in particular appeared, inspiring and firing up as only kindred spirits can. To those fellow inhabitants of the newly discovered planet TACAH, greetings and thanks! This energy is with me today…

My next stop on the summer schedule was another long train trip [long is a relative descriptor] to Uzhgorod. Here, at the English Language Refresher Camp, PCVs worked with teachers for a week full of methodology, active skills, passive skills, and elective lessons. Although a higher turnout was hoped for, the participants were eager and active. In addition to teaching Methodology (a curriculum written by my friend Michelle and I), I had the chance to create and teach lessons on the writing process, common errors and pronunciation problems, and reading for pleasure, as well as facilitating daily roundtable cross-cultural discussions.

The bonus of this camp, too—in addition to the beauty of the area, Mrs. Greenwich’s pizza pie and coffee café—was the time spent with another fine crew. Those who eat endless cheese sandwiches and watermelon together, catch up on YouTube sharing with the benefit of highspeed WiFi together, and support each others’ knitting, ketchup, and unexpected singing habits together are bound to be happy together.

After a seemingly needlessly long trip back—although just long enough, I suppose—there were a few brief days to unpack before leaving again. However, the shape of those days changed abruptly when my friend Kate decided to go back home to the US early. She had a job offer in her field of choice in the university she graduated from, including a decent salary, room and board, and full tuition in the graduate program she’d been hoping to attend. Lucky girl! Still, we’d both been away and had only returned on Saturday—and her train to Kyiv left on Sunday at noon. Exhausted from travel, sad to see her go, and excited for her new opportunity, I joined her in Kivertsi after returning from Uzhgorod. I had intended to help, but mostly I just sat and chatted while she ran around doing things. I saw her off at the train station on Sunday along with a few of her friends, students, and colleagues. Kate! You’re missed!

Missing Kate was made even more poignant by the trip two days later to our group’s Close of Service Conference. Held in the Carpathians, this gathering is intended to be both a celebration of our service in Ukraine and an opportunity to prepare to return home and to move on. However, I’ve applied to extend my time in Ukraine until next summer, so this was a strange experience. Luckily, my friend Laura, who is also extending, was my roommate, so we had plenty of time to chat and reflect on the oddness of saying goodbye without leaving. This was the final official gathering for our group, but with so many people—now 98 members of Group 37 still in-country—I’m pretty sure I saw some people for the first time ever. I really enjoyed the chance to see many friends I hadn’t seen since Swearing-In. We all laughed at the absurdity of giving brief and meaningful answers to the question, “So, what’ve you been up to for the last two years?” I was asked to give a seminar on writing resumes and cover letters, which out to be pretty fun, and we had many other informative presentations—on possible future jobs, especially—as well as lots of opportunities for reflection. Mesh Night, Ukraine’s Next Top Runway Idol, and a celebration of Independence Day balanced out the serious aspects, as did the beautiful setting and lodging, the pool and bar, and, for some, the actual appearance of the rumored-to-exist bacon-wrapped steak at our final celebration dinner. I had some sort of veggie ragout, not bad… but we all had ice cream sundaes, with chocolate syrup and nuts on top! Maybe that doesn’t sound too amazing, but it was unexpectedly wonderful.

The trip back to Lviv from Slavske, although longer than expected, had the added bonus of offering extra time with a wildly large group of PCVs. We happily spoke English openly, opened almost every window in the train car [usually a no-no, due to the common Ukrainian aversion to drafts—or, as Americans call it, cross-ventilation] and played the dictionary game—where the joke that I had worked for a time writing dictionaries was taken to be true… maybe a clue to a future career path?

From Lviv, I headed to Komarno to spend the weekend with relatives. Unfortunately, it was the only time I got to see them all summer, but they were as welcoming and wonderful as ever. We ate watermelon, played in the playground, learned UNO (sort of), and had a late night picnic in the garden with fresh corn on the cob and other goodies. On Sunday, Bogdan and Hanna and I went to Sambir, where my dad’s cousin Ivan lives. We spent the day with Ivan and his wife Lesya, eating lots and strolling through the city. It was the perfect day to visit Sambir, as it was a holiday, and everyone was dressed up in finery, attending church, and/or just generally looking pleased.

[Still on the train, we’re stopped at a station now, and I’m watching a pair of women out the window struggling to pick up four big boxes full of apples that tumbled from a handcart—men wander by with strings of dried fish, grannies with baskets full of bags of apples, a man with a rolling rack of magazines, an elektrychka on its way away on one side and another arriving on the other—noticing how I’m not taking any pictures because everything seems normal--]

In an effort to meet up with my friend Matt, who’s a PCV in Sambir, I was suggested to tell him we could meet by the church. “Which one?” he wisely asked. “The blue one.” At the blue church, when we arrived, literally hundreds of people were thronged on the street, around the grounds, and inside. With Hanna taking my elbow, I was led around and through and inside and out, drank holy water, and took a few discreet pictures. One of my favorite scenes, however, went unphotographed. In a side courtyard of the church, about seven priests were arranged at various intervals to listen to confessions from lines of waiting faithful. No anonymous confessionals for these individuals, and I was led to wonder about the scene, but with little time to do so. Away we went again, more food, more visiting, and, finally, sleep in my own bed after several more hours on buses.

So, then school started! At our university, the start felt a little halting, as some difficulties led to us receiving a piecemeal schedule, a few days at a time, with regular changes up to the time of this writing [and this typing]. Still, start it did, with a colorful chalk welcome gracing the asphalt in front of the main university building. This was the first activity of the year for the newly named IN Project and I’m looking forward to more of them with these excellent students and teachers. We’ve since created a wall of dreams (I want to swim with dolphins… We want to be best friends forever… I want to surprise the whole world…) and held meet-and-greet sessions for students. We’ve just started English Club, too, with more activities already in the works.

And then, Vika got married!

[stay tuned!]

:)

post 16 september

Even as I begin to write this, I know it won't be enough.

I have this dream of getting caught up with you, my once and future reader, but how? I lost you somewhere in the second half of summer, and my efforts to wrap up the summer in simple statistics are just not quite sufficient.

Ah, but when will this magical clarification and enumeration of all things worthy of your fascination take place? Not now, as I'm heading to bed early tonight. I need to be up at 4 to catch the first bus to Lviv. There, I'll take part in a very small portion of a conference for Window on America librarians. Next, it's onto a train to Kyiv, where I'll arrive at midnight, sleep for a hopefully sufficient number of hours, jump up eagerly out of bed, and run in a the longest race of my life. There's a marathon, too, but to me, a 10K is marathon enough. Having survived the race, I'll spend the next day in Kyiv, getting the medical and dental exams that will make up the last step of my extension-of-service approval process.

Yes, extension. Can you believe it? We have so much to talk about.

Dear reader, you're very important to me, and I'm going to make an effort to get back on track. Therefore, while I'm on track tomorrow-- the 11 hours or so between Lviv and Kyiv-- I'm going to write to you. Maybe not the whole time, no, and you might not get this message directly, as I'll be writing IN A Real Notebook, not on my notebook (the Ukrainian term for a laptop). I'm working on getting back into the practice of Real Notebooks again, too, thanks to some shinyfine inspiration and the desire to spend more time doing the things I love, especially writing.

And I had a birthday! And there's a new school year! And I have to go to sleep right now!

:)

post 7 september

Summer by the numbers

An effort started at a coffeeshop in Uzhgorod in late August and vaguely completed at home in Lutsk in early September…

Camps that I worked at: 3

Camps/ conferences that I attended as a participant: 2

Trains I took: 15

Bus rides that lasted at least 1.5 hours: 15

Countries I spent time in: 5

Cities/ towns in which I spent more than two hours: 15

Cities/ towns which I had never previously visited: 5

Beds I slept in, not including overnight trains: 12

New VKontakte friends: all of them (80)

Number of watermelons eaten in August: more than any Ukrainian would believe is appropriate

Number of eggs eaten: Ask Sally, the President of Eggs

Number of new planets I discovered I was from: 1

Number of iced coffees: 3

Number of times my off button was pushed: 11

Number of times my on button was pushed: 12

Number of days away: 56

Number of those days spent working, at camps, at meetings, or traveling for those reasons: 44

Number of lesson/seminar plans written: 15+

Number of times introduced myself to Andrew Cartwright: 9

Number of times I heard a bad pop song: 50000000000000000

Number of books I read: 9.75

Number of times I was threatened with court proceedings with damages of 1 hryvnia: 1

Number of songs I sang and/or helped to write with revised lyrics: 3

Number of new original movies I helped to inspire or create: 3

Bodies of water [natural or manmade] in which I swam: 2

Number of times I was elected prime minister: 0

Number of times I appointed myself prime minister or time minister: 2

Number of movies I saw in a theatre in 3D: 1

Number of grilled cheese sandwiches I cooked, for myself or others: 35

Number of grilled cheese sandwiches I ate: 8

Number of weddings I was invited to: 1

Blog posts written: 2.5

Number of bagels eaten: 4.5

Number of times I ate potatoes served as a topping for potatoes: 1

Number of animals I made out of beads: 2.7

Number of pictures/videos taken that survived earlystage deletion: 1945

How far I ran: so far, so far away

Number of earlyish mornings I ran: 29

Number of times the Ukrainian fear of drafts came up in conversation: 6+

Number of jars of spaghetti sauce canned: 9

Number of said jars which have inexplicably popped their tops: 2

Number of other group 37 PCVs who are extending, in addition to me: 16

Number of dear friends who left Ukraine early: 1

Number of potentially fruitful creative partnerships formed and named: 1

Number of Ukrainian-to-English translated files edited: 17

Number of idea picnics held: 3

Number of days between starting and finishing this list: 21

Any other numbers you’d like to know? Ask!

More developed stories to follow.

Hope you’re well!

:)

post 9 july

Greetings from the lovely world that is Ukraine in summer! [It’s a lovely world in other seasons, too, of course, but with somewhat different features. :)]

I spent most of the past two weeks away from the computer and close to the sea—a pretty good trade, I’d say. Intercamp, a summer camp run by a woman who served as a national judge for the International Writing Olympics, turned out to be an excellent time. I had the idea that it would be pretty nice to be in Crimea and to work with Maryna, but my vague expectations were happily exceeded.

As a bonus, my friend Kate was also chosen to be on the staff for this shift of Intercamp, and so we took the long trip to Crimea [about 24 train hours to Simferopol, then about 2 bus hours to Zaozernoe, on the western coast] together. Kate and I will spend most of the rest of the summer on different adventures, so it was nice to be able to hang out and work together at this camp.

We were met at the bus stop by several campers who immediately picked up our bags and started chatting with us. “Kate, how is the weather in Lutsk?” one asked. Entering our camp, Edelweis [unexpected name, eh?], I had the idea that we were on a small and pleasant island. Apricot trees and flowers filled a large courtyard, each room had its own porch, and everything was open and airy. When a bus full of campers arrived from Kryvyi Rih [the city where Maryna’s language school is located], Kate and I found ourselves with two excellent roommates: Caroline and Polina.

Although the weather was warm on the first day, drizzle and clouds arrived the next day. Too cool for a swim, we decided to play beach games instead. “What a big, dark cloud!” we each commented at least once. “Oh, it’s raining a little!” we all noticed. And we played on anyway. “Let me see your funky chicken! What’s that you say?” Suddenly, the rain arrived in an impressively intense form. No time to be impressed, though, as all of us were huddled under the few big beach canopies set up, alternately laughing and screaming wildly as the wind and rain came harder and faster. Finally, as there was no sign that conditions were likely to change, it was decided that we’d run for it! And away we went—wet, muddy, laughing, shoeless, whatever! We all made it back successfully, though, so no worries. The rest of the afternoon was spent snug in our rooms watching movies in small discussion groups. No one got sick, and we all had an exciting story to tell. Plus, we had the hope that it couldn’t possibly get any worse.

Don’t let that dramatic pause fool you. It didn’t get any worse. It got much, much better. Although it was a little cool for the first few days, no more major storms interrupted our days. We spent plenty of time at the beach—swimming, playing volleyball [or having a meeting of the “We’re Not Good At Volleyball Club”], making friendship bracelets, and, one night, having a dramatic Olympics-style competition, complete with a toga-clad deity presiding.

Another benefit of the cool weather was the opportunity it offered for early morning running. Yes, once again, I decided to make an effort. The perfect situation presented itself: an outside neighborhood full of people I would never see again, a variety of new routes to explore, and a group of friends to whom I could force myself to be accountable. The result: eight successful runs on eight successive days along eight different routes! Maybe if there were more seaside routes in Lutsk I could be more successful running here… Only one spill on a rocky route, but otherwise I was pretty proud that I was able to follow through. Coincidentally, they’ve just announced a new Kyiv Marathon/ 10K event in September. Can it be done? One thing at a time! :)

The theme of the camp was cinema, and we worked in small groups to study various aspects of film and to create our own films. Each group chose and studied an existing film as a starting point, then branched off and made changes for our own adaptations. My team, Chicken Productions, produced Crazy Eddie: The Remix, in connection with Edward Scissorhands. Our version featured Edward Spoonfork Hands, excellent music (MIA, Peter, Bjorn & John, and Tom Tom Club, among others), and a dramatic surprise ending. Hopefully I’ll be able to post this film online soon so you can appreciate it, too. I really enjoyed working with this group, from developing our screenplay together, blocking out the scenes, filming, creating original sound effects… Молодці, Chicken Productions!

The youngest group, the Bossy Sharks, made Over the Gate, an adaptation of Over the Hedge, Kate’s group made Camp Alone: Return of the Robbers, Emily’s group did a version of The Goonies [the original of which I still haven’t seen], and the Spanish group, working with Nicolas, made Voluntario del Amor [Volunteer of Love]. On the last night, we had the InterFest film festival, with a red carpet and everything. Very cool.

Other happenings at camp included a day trip to nearby Yevpatoria, home of lovely buildings and a busy boardwalk, plus an unexpected dance show by our campers, much to the entertainment of tourists and costumed performers alike. Emily taught the kids three different dances throughout camp, and Thriller was the perfect show for a downtown showoff. Another feature of camp was a daily morning newspaper, and I was happy to have the chance to work as the editor. With a few fine staff members and an assortment of contributors, we chose pictures and put together interviews, film reviews, reports on events, puzzles, announcements, horoscopes, weather forecasts, and even the dollar/ hryvnia exchange rate. Even though this project involved mostly late-night and early-morning compilation, working with such a lovely staff and a benevolent production manager made it worth the effort. Each morning, after my run and shower, I’d share our materials with Maryna on our front-porch office, we’d put the paper together, and head off to breakfast. Such a lovely way to start the day!

So, leaving was sad. The fact that it took me 34 hours of by-myself travel to get back didn’t really help. Still, now I have lots more friends on VKontakte [“in contact”—the Russian/ Ukrainian Facebook], and I have hopes of visiting Kryvyi Rih sometime this fall to do some workshops at Maryna’s university and some lessons or other events at the language school, Interclas. In the meantime, I have some excellent new friends, memories, and penpals. :)

The rest of the week saw a visit by Terry’s son and daughter-in-law, another visit by two of Kate’s friends, and a special visit by Doug Teschner, Peace Corps Ukraine’s director. He only had two hours, so we had pizza at Felichita’s and saw the castle. That’s a pretty small nutshell to put Lutsk into, but so it went. Afterward, Kate and I showed her guests the artist’s house, and we were lucky enough to meet the artist himself, as well as his friend and self-appointed promoter. The artist, Kolya [short for Mykola, or Nicholas], is a sculptor, and his house and yard are filled with his hand-made works. The story, and apparently the truth, as we were informed, is that personal tragedy—the death of his son [and the death of his wife?]—broke his heart and led him to create countless original works, in memorial and otherwise. Kolya turned out to be a really nice guy, and his friend took our picture together.

In just a few days, I’m off to another camp—this time, as a camper. This is the only camp this summer at which my English language skills won’t be prized. How much Ukrainian can I muster after weeks of speaking almost only English, and listening to mostly English and some Russian? Tune in next time to find out!

In the meantime, eat a melon. I just had half of one this morning—диня, almost like honeydew, and super tasty. Other fruits are available, of course, but this is my top pick of the moment. Apples and cherries are growing around my building, and apricot trees lined the streets in Crimea [each time the train stopped, the platform was flooded with vendors raising high their buckets of apricots and strings of smoked fish]. It’s still early for watermelon, I’m told by cautious eat-only-what’s-natural friends, but there are plenty of other treats to enjoy for now.

Enjoy now! :)

PS- having some trouble with adding pictures today-- check FB album here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.238614582835001.73878.100000593846334&l=ab5a7d692f Actually, I'm wondering-- how many of you look at the pictures on my Picasa albums? I'm trying to decide if posting pictures in three different places is really that useful. Please let me know! :)

post 21 june

Clearly the longest day of the year is an excellent time to get caught up with my blog… Happy summer solstice, all! I celebrated with friends, empanadas, Indian food, potato salad, lots of cherries, and Bananagrams!

So, back in Ukraine. Being back in Ukraine means a few things:

1. I need to remember to turn around when I hear a car even vaguely behind me, even if I’m walking on a sidewalk.
2. I’m in time to take advantage of peak strawberry and cherry seasons.
3. I was out of Ukraine!

In the most excellent purely-for-pleasure vacation in recent memory, I met up with my sister and spent a little over a week traveling with her through Budapest, Vienna and Prague. Lovely!

Yes, I did get back about a week ago, but really—if I had started to type up a blog entry right when I got back, I probably would have listed every single detail about what we did, where we went, and, most importantly, what we ate. Here, with the benefit of a week of reflection, I’m able to offer you the highlights.

Since this blog is mainly focused on my time in Ukraine, though, I’ve decided just to add a few trip pictures here, then give you the links to my Facebook albums. So many pictures!! [Click HERE for Budapest pictures, HERE for Vienna pictures, and HERE for Prague pictures!]

The first site on our admittedly and pleasantly vague itinerary was Budapest. I took the train from Lviv, Angelica flew in, from, well, America, and we met at our very own super amazing apartment. Because Angelica made all of the arrangements for our hostels, with some consultation, I was mostly unaware of where we’d be staying. In Budapest, it turned out that we had an apartment right beside St. Stephen’s Basilica, one of the most recognizable and central sights in the city. Plus, it had window seats! Stellar! Highly recommended—Pal’s Hostel—should you find yourself in this lovely city.


During our time in Budapest, our priorities were to go on a walking tour and maybe to the baths. Pretty do-able, and, in fact, we accomplished both of these items. On our first evening, we went out for gelato and a little stroll, which ended up ranging all over Pest, across the Chain Bridge and up through Buda. The free walking tour we took the next day led us basically along this same track, but with lots more information. We had an excellent pair of guides, who told us that…
- the municipal concert hall was built with bad acoustics for some reason, so is now used for rock concerts and raves.
- the giant statue of Victory overlooking the river was put there by Communist “liberators”, and when Communism ended in Budapest, the statue was symbolically cleansed: she was wrapped in white, dabbled in red, and uncovered after three days.
- the first statue in the city after the fall of Communism was the Little Princess, modeled for by a young boy.
- staying one night in the Presidential suite at the fanciest hotel in town costs the annual salary of an average Hungarian.
- St. Stephen’s isn’t technically a basilica, but a visiting pope declared, “What a nice basilica!” and no one disagreed.
- the top spire of St. Stephen’s is exactly as high as the top point on the Parliament building—equality of church and state!
- a popular evening event is the silent rave held in a park near the Parliament building—no music is audible to passers-by, but all participants have their own headphones!

… and plenty more. That tour was very well done, and recommended!
Some of the highlights in Budapest include: afternoons and evenings of music, parts of various folk and modern festivals enjoyed by hundreds of very chill folks drinking up and dancing and having a lovely time; gelato at a place that shapes your scoops into rose petals; bagels and iced coffee drinks; the central market, a big market hall with souvenirs, produce, and lunch options; the largest synagogue in the country, with beautiful windows, a distinctive willow sculpture/ memorial, and a memorial courtyard crowded with names of those who were in the Jewish ghetto; hummus and falafel; Tex-Mex; fish pedicures [which we did not get, and Angelica seems to regret missing out on]; and, of course, the baths.


The baths deserve their own separate paragraph. Budapest is known for the quality of its water, apparently, and even water at public fountains is safe to drink. There are a variety of spas and pools throughout the area, including those with play areas for kids or fancy therapeutic treatment centers. We chose Szechenyi Baths, mainly for the range of options it offered, but probably also because its buildings are all painted a distinctive mustard yellow that reminded us of Hanover Shoe Farms’ barns… Not from Adams/ York Counties in Pennsylvania? Never mind. Anyway, this experience was pretty extensive, starting with magic magnetic watch-like wristbands to be used to lock and unlock our lockers. Out into the central area, we found three main pools, one for laps and two for vague water enjoyment. The waterfalls, bubble columns, and “lazy river” features were a big hit with Angelica. I was more impressed with the smaller, warmer pools located inside. The hottest of these was too hot to get into, but most of them were very pleasantly warm, about 38 degrees Celsius. Afterward, I decided to try the sauna, which was really hot, and opted out of the super-cold after-dip pool. There was a really nice atmosphere there, with people lounging all about, and everyone behaving nicely. On reflection, I don’t think there were many children there, but whatever the reason, it was pretty quiet and enjoyable.
After a few days in Budapest, we boarded the RailJet [okay, it seemed really futuristic to me, but maybe it’s just simply modern…] to Vienna. There, we also had our own private apartment, not too far from the train station, and we started our exploration with a big shopping street that we eventually decided to call “Earring Street.” Everything was there—H&M, Starbucks, McDonalds, Claire’s… even a free water fountain! We discovered the MQ, the Museum Quarter’s very cool complex made up of multiple museums and home to various events, festivals, performances, and artists in residence. I was very favorably impressed by this concept and site, as well as by their giant bright-colored artsy lounge chairs.


The two goals set out by Angelica for her time in Vienna were to have schnitzel and apple strudel, and these were both successfully accomplished. The schnitzel was chicken, and it was served at an Indian restaurant, but it was in Vienna, so I’d imagine it was pretty authentic. To match her apple strudel, I had Sacher torte, a chocolate cake glazed in apricot jam and then sealed with dark chocolate, named for the Hotel Sacher in Vienna. Authentic and tasty. Plus, in Vienna, each coffee was always served on a small silver platter with a glass of water. Stellar idea.
Other highlights of Vienna included: Stefansdome, St. Stephens’ in the middle of the city; the Hapsburg Palace grounds; more gelato; spinach pizza; ring trams around the central district of the city; earrings; a folk music singalong; the MQ bookstore, featuring [at least to me] the seemingly definitive book on IKEA as well as a small children’s style book with a dinosaur on the cover titled All My Friends are Dead.



To me, the best part of Vienna, though, were the Hunterwasser House and Museum. Hunterwasser was a really cool artist and architect with lots of philosophical notions, such as the value of balancing nature in close integration with buildings, the importance of the spiral as an image of life and death, and the belief that “The straight line does not belong to man”, meaning that only God is perfect and man ought to avoid any pretense toward such perfection. The Hunterwasser House is a regular building—regular in that people live there—but looks like a display exhibit in some sort of giant gallery. The colors and shapes are whimsical, the straight lines are few, and the trees and greenery are right in the middle of it all. Because people live in the building, it’s not open to tours, but there are plenty of videos and photos for sale, as well as a complete museum just down the street. Where the house façade includes a whole range of colors, the museum faces the street mainly in black and white, but includes the same childish and fanciful design. In fact, Hunterwasser designed several sites in the city, including the incineration plant, as well as at numerous locations around the world. I really enjoyed the chance to see such color and nature and philosophy integrated into an already beautiful, Old World city.


Our final destination was Prague, and it took a slightly longer train trip to get there… maybe because we weren’t traveling by RailJet! After getting a bit turned around on our way to the hostel, we finally arrived and were met by an enthusiastic older woman. She immediately had suggestions for everything we were to do, drew dots and squiggles and wrote in additional information on our map, and made us tea, all before showing us to our rooms. There, we had a separate upstairs suite, almost a loft style, under big, beautiful skylights.
On our first evening, we made a cursory excursion into the city center, taking lots of nighttime pictures of the big church on the square—the one that looks like the Disney castle—and the clock tower. We had Italian for dinner—again, pleasantly!—and I found myself ordering spaghetti. At home in the US, I’ve never ordered spaghetti—it’s something so simple that you ought to just make it at home and spend your dinner-out credit on something more exotic. The just-right sauce and fresh basil on this spaghetti, though, were nothing like anything I’ve had in Ukraine, and I was pleased with my choice.


We started our official exploration of Prague with another free walking tour, in which we learned…
- defenestration (throwing someone out of a window) was surprisingly popular in the history of Prague, occurring at least four notable times.
- the astronomical clock is extremely hard to read, even after an explanation.
- on the hill overlooking the river, where the world’s largest statue of Stalin used to stand [apparently the same size as Jesus in Rio], there is now a giant metronome, representing the fluctuating positives and negatives in the history of the city and country.
- in one church, where the monks weren’t very good at handling money legally, apparently, a two-towered design was scrapped halfway through the building process when it was determined that there was only enough money to build one tower
- in the same church, there’s a legend: In the front of the church, there’s a beautiful statue of Mary, holding the body of Jesus in her arms. Many years ago, people would bring Mary gifts in hopes of her intercession on their behalf in various matters. At one time, a priceless pearl necklace was given to Mary as an offering. A thief entering the church saw the necklace and decided to steal it. He reached out for it, but, having it in his hand, found that he could not move: the statue of Mary had grabbed his wrist to stop him from taking the necklace. He screamed and yelled and could not free himself. Finally, the monks heard him and came running. They were amazed at the miracle, but could do nothing to free the man. Finally, the thief’s hand had to be cut off in order to free him from the statue’s grip. Today, that withered hand is hanging high on a back wall of the church as a warning to future thieves.
- somewhere nearby there are beer baths, a kind of themed spa.
- on the Charles Bridge, there’s a stature of a particular saint with five stars above his head, and here’s his story: This priest was the queen’s confessor, and when the king demanded to know his wife’s secrets, the priest refused to betray the sanctity of confession. The priest was tortured, but still would not tell. Finally, the king had the priest thrown off of the bridge and into the river, where he drowned. As he went under the water, five stars appeared in the water, a sign, and this martyrdom made him the patron saint of womens’ secrets.
- there’s a “Little Venice” on the castle side of the river, although the term “Devil’s Channel” was also used, and seems much less flattering.
- the Prague Castle is made up of many different styles of architecture, as everyone who was there seems to have wanted to leave his or her mark.
- the President of the Czech Republic works in the castle. Maybe he once stole a pen at a document signing, or maybe the pen was a gift. Only YouTube knows.


- the large gothic church that is the most recognizable part of the castle was built over a period of 500 years! In the façade of the church, the last part finished, both the king who ordered the start of building as well as the suit-and-tie architects who finally finished the work can be seen.
- there was only one source of water in the castle in ancient times, and it was a very well-guarded well… only a little tampering could have caused a great deal of trouble for the residents, and the country.
- one of the more eccentric Hapsburgs spent much of his time and fortune in collecting art, mainly Mona Lisas, in the hope that eventually he would acquire the real thing. In what may well have been a tour guide-added touch, he was scrutinizing these Mona Lisas when someone presented him with a document that he signed without reading. In a country where religion was fiercely divisive, he apparently unconsciously signed allowing religious freedom for all.

In Prague, we also lunched and sipped at a brewery in a monastery, enjoyed the pleasures of Bohemia Bagels (with real Philly cream cheese!), took in the memorial to victims of Communism, rode the funicular, watched the changing of the guard at the castle, shopped, watched the astronomical clock at the top of the hour, took a coffee cruise on the river, and went to a beer tasting. Oddly enough, our brewmeister turned out to be a girl named Nicole from near Chicago. The whole group gathered for the 5 pm tasting that day turned out to be just Angelica and I, and so we had a casual and fun time. Plus, Nicole recommended a place nearby that served fried cheese, her favorite food in Prague, and so we followed our tasting with a cheese steak—like, a steak of cheese. It was delicious. We also tried trdelnik, a cinnamon-sugar pastry made by rolling dough around a wood or metal cylinder and then cooking it to golden crispy chewiness. Unusual and tasty.



Needless to say, I was sad to see Angelica go on Saturday morning, but my train was not until Saturday night, so I spent the rest of the day wandering through the city and picking up a few more bagels for the road. I also saw a street market, the metronome up close, the royal gardens behind the castle, and the Dancing House, a building that looks like, well, it’s dancing. Plus, I managed to get a kilo of lentils to bring back to Ukraine! There was no peanut butter to be found in the grocery store I stopped in on the way out of town, but hey, lentils!

So, there’s that! A wonderful trip, lots of pictures, lots of things to think about on the long way back. I do love Ukraine, and I love the work I do here, but it was really nice to get away and to not have to think about any of the many things I ought to be doing. Spending time with my sister was especially excellent, as it’s been a really long time since we’ve spent more than a day or two together. Special thanks to her and her husband for their birthday present to me—they paid for all of our hostels on the trip! Thanks to our parents, too, who donated to the travel fund—being a Peace Corps Volunteer does not mean making money!

A few days in Lutsk, a meeting last weekend in Kyiv [pretty good for a meeting, and a great night out in the middle of it with smart and intriguing people], English club, editing of students’ masters’ theses, lots of work, interviewing students for MASCOT, and, in a few more days, off to Crimea for ten days of work at a camp there! Go go go!

Still, my blog’s updated, now, so what more could I ask for?

[It’s a rhetorical question; no one needs to answer…!]

Happy solstice!

:)