Drevyev

She is not smiling on purpose, because--as she says--in Ukraine they don't smile in pictures.

Now that we're home, I hope the stories here will not end, so stay tuned.

We're all home physically, but mentally we're still in-between countries. Both girls have mentioned how they feel they are still in Ukraine. When we walk outside, part of us expects to see the mulberry tree outside our Lviv flat. Sometimes we forget about the car. Yesterday we decided to walk to get the groceries. Normally it seems to far to take my bike, so I drive. Relative to Lviv, the walk to get our groceries in Madison is as far as the biggest market to our Lviv flat, which was too close to consider waiting and paying for public transportation. Our perceptions are certainly altered.

A result of this attitude here is that it is lonely to walk places here in Madison because so few people do so. In Lviv, the sidewalks were always full. In a downpour, people would move under awnings and wait in stores, but there were always people around. You never felt like an "island" in society. Now I see lots of cars pass by, but few people. New York was a city where I really saw a lot of people walking all the time, but even Boston and San Francisco didn't seem as full of pedestrians as Lviv.

I already miss Lviv, and the girls are starting to also. The girls are very excited to be back in the US and with their friends. Kali especially talks all the time about how much she loves her friends, and is making a lot of cards for them. However, the girls get so excited to tell their stories about Ukraine, or use the words they learned there. And occasionally, they talk about missing the people and the ice cream and other things in Lviv.

I'm already thinking about when we'll be able to go back. It surely won't be soon, but I'm excited to dream about the possibility.

Today we get on our plane, God willing, at 2:40 this afternoon. Here's how the girls feel about it.

As I have said, all of our transportation is by public transportation and by foot (the slang for the latter is "highway 11"). Here is how every outing begins:

On the tram ("tramvay"), the girls always ask for a story, and another and another. We walk for miles and miles. Then we always end with a treat:

You have no idea how delicious, plentiful (*every* other street corner and little grocery store), and cheap (15-20 cents) ice cream is here.

Here is a typical village church, which we saw at the folk architecture and building museum ("Shevchenko hai").

These churches are still in use on occasion during the summer (no heating other times), for liturgies, weddings, baptisms, etc. Also, it is a tradition to take wedding pictures at this museum, so we saw at least 6 wedding parties pass through the museum.

Here is a picture of the church that we have gone to here in Lviv. It is kind of close to our house. Its architecture is typical of Lviv churches.

Most of the big, old churches were built by the Hapsburgs during Austrian control of the region. At that time, the majority of the city was ethnically Polish and Jewish, with a Ukrainian minority. More recently, many of these churches were converted into Orthodox ones, which creates some odd juxtapositions. On Sunday, for example, the priest preached from a high pulpit 15 feet in front and to the left of the ambon (where there is still a marble communion rail).

It's our anniversary! Seven years! We will be spending it shopping, going on a tour of other Emmaus Center workshops, and eating the rest of the food in our fridge.

As I said a while ago, Hollie went on an outing to the forest with the Emmaus folks. She was amazed 1) at the red squirrels and 2) how they would just eat out of people's hands. These woods are about 100 yards from the center.


And here is a picture of Hollie at the center. The guy next to her is Bohdan, who loves her "as a sister" as he told me.

There were many tears on Hollie's last day, by the participants and the coordinator. (I'm just saying this to brag, as I'm sure this is news to no one.)

Last night Nellie made a statement that I'm still mulling over. She said, "I think I've been here before, at least it feels like it." I think this is an astute description of feeling "at home" in a different culture or different place. Somehow we get so used to being in the new place that we forget that at one time we had never been there. One could say that acculturation, then, is not simply adjusting to a new place, but rather forgetting that the "new" place was ever new.

I've had this feeling more than once. I was listening to my students today talk during the break, and I was trying to think about not being able to understand them, but I couldn't. Last weekend, when my friend, Anzhela, from Kiev came to Lviv, I had to translate for her and Hollie. Sometimes I neglected to translate, because I forgot that they couldn't understand each other as I could understand them both.

At the same time, I feel some clashes between the languages. For example, the girls come by my class sometimes in the afternoon to get the key to our apartment. Their visit occurs after three hours of class in Ukrainian, plus lunch, some I'm in tip-top Ukrainian shape at that time. English, then, feels foreign, somewhat. Also, I feel really awkward when I hear others speak in a language I'm not used to hearing them speak. My students all know English, but when they speak English it's striking how weird it sounds. Mind you, they speak just fine, but it disrupts my expectations. I talk to the kids in Ukrainian and Russian, but that doesn't seem weird. However, thinking of having a conversation in Russian with a grown-up Nellie really strikes me strange.

Nevertheless, speaking a language can be overrated. Hollie is able to get by with a minimal amount of language. At the center where she works, they went on a field-trip to the woods. The girls at the center liked her a lot and walked arm-in-arm with her as they hiked. (Pics soon.) Good intuition and empathy can get you very far, as Hollie demonstrates. Add a few words, and people love you.

The girls are becoming more social with the few words they know. Consistently they like to say bye-bye ("pa-pa" in the local dialect) to people, including my students, shopkeepers, and even the surly tram drivers. It seems like they have the intuition to form relationships with people, which becomes communication, and the necessary words follow.

(Kali yesterday told the needlepoint vendor through my translation that she wants to help the vendor sell her needlepoint. So maybe the intuition is more commercial . . . The vendor asked if she could take Nellie and Kali home to her four little grandons, and Kali said she couldn't unless Hollie and I came with. I think Kali was really ready to take her up on the invitation!)

Maybe Lviv is becoming like a second home to the girls.

For those of you who have spoken to Kali for an extended period over the past few months may have heard of Meatland. This is the country Kali comes from. They eat bean tacos there all meals of the day, even breakfast. Of course, they have their own language, which is Kali's mother tounge. (She can always translate for you, if you want to know how to say something.) Their religion is similar to Christianity, as they believe in Jesus, but I don't think they believe in God. They have their own figure of a cross, where two bars extend down from the ends of the cross-bar of our cross. Kali also let me know that some of her friends are looking for a Hebrew teacher there.

Recently, I learned that Meatlanders have their own sign-language. The following signs compose the word for "goofball."









You thought "new language" meant Ukrainian?

The owner of our flat has a housekeeper. Since the flat owner is a busy, single man, the housekeeper comes over daily, at least to cook. During our stay, though, she only comes over twice a week, for Hollie's cooking lesson! Her name is Pani Olha ("Pani" is Ukrainian for "Mrs."), and she is a happy and lively, but rather strict, matron. Here she is getting Hollie ready:


Here Pani Olha is helping Nellie fold up her "varenyky." They are a small circle of dough, folded in half with mashed potatoes inside.

The result of all this walking around town and playing in the park can be seen in one of the kids' favorite pictures. (I think Nellie's on the left, Kali on the right.)

About a ten minute walk from our house is one of Lviv's nicest parks--not only Lviv's, but one of the nicest I've ever been to. I used to think that strolling was just a Slavic tradition. However, I found out that strolling is a necessity of urban life if you have children and you value your furniture. Here are some pictures of "our" park, called "Striyskii Park."
Striyskii Park photos

We're just now seeing the sun this morning for the first time in several days. And in case you think it might be cloudy, think rain, downpours, and hail. We only get "cloudy" for a couple of hours max.

Such an experience makes me realize the difference in how we get around town here. We have never been in a car here. The tram stop is a block away from our house, and the bus stop, two blocks. In the rain with two children, this ends up being farther than it sounds--then add all your grocery bags and you'll get the idea.

Today the girls are going to a new babysitter. It's really the situation we were looking for: a non-English speaking sitter that is also looking after other non-English speaking kids. We'll see this afternoon how things went.

I now have a constant number in my class: 4. The students are overwhelmed, but hard workers. I have full confidence in them--and have to repeat it to them often--that they will know a lot in the end. The amount they need to know seems endless to them at this point, but their progress is always forward. Like with sharks, there is no time to stand still.

Yesterday we had a nice day. We planned a meeting at a church, so that after church we met a teacher at UCU and his 10-year-old son. They both spoke English, which helped Hollie and the girls. We had a nice lunch. As I said before, beer is the cheapest drink around, so we had beer and hot dogs, believe it or not. (Here, though, the hot dogs had shredded cabbage, carrots, horseradish, and a bit of corn with mayonnaise.) Next, we had a second lunch at the apartment of the head of my department here, along with another Classics professor. The girls did a great job playing and pretending. On our way home, the other professor showed us the biggest playground in town, where the girls played for a while, and playing with other children is an added treat.

Liturgy at church was kind of what we expected, although shorter than St Ignatius (take note!). There were very few children, but many from about 20 years old up. Most of the people were not old babushkas, but plenty of younger, middle-aged, and white-haired older men were there. The girls did a good job, but it was hot and crowded, so they couldn't see and felt uncomfortable. The music was incredible, as they have a professional choir. At this church the liturgy was in Slavonic, not in Ukrainian. Canonicity is a mess here, and we're trying to work out a regular place to go.

The girls' character is moving more to the extremes, either because of being in a new culture, or having to be with Mom and Dad so much every day. Nellie is becoming very adventursome. She is becoming a bit braver with her language, and climbs on everything. She even eats what she doesn't like much. Kali is having more difficulties with new situations. She only really wants bread with jam, juice, candy, and ice cream. Having to speak in Ukrainian or even Russian makes her nervous. When they pick books at night, Nellie is excited to read her "Snow White" in Ukrainian, but Kali likes her standard English books she brought. However, both enjoyed watching the World Cup final match last night when they were in bed. (Last night we moved up to a new apartment in the same building, and now they have the TV in their room.)

Hollie is at work now. This should be her first full week there. There tend to be way more participants than volunteers, so she likes that with her "free lance" status, she can give some of the participants more one-on-one attention than they might normally get.

I don't have any class today, Friday, because it's graduation and the feast of the nativity of John the Baptist. We have class tomorrow, though. To celebrate the feast our family went on an outing last night. There is a group of foreigners learning Ukrainian language and culture, and we worked it out to tag along with them. The traditional celebration entails girls weaving garlands, throwing them out to a river, and boys jumping in after the garlands. Whoever's garland the boy got he was supposed to meet, and perhaps marry. We just went to a pond with these foreigners and their local "tutors", where we had a bonfire and cookout. The food consisted of bread with salo (pig's fat) and tomatoes and cucumbers, roasted wieners, and roasted potatoes with salo inside.

Hollie began her job. She likes it a lot, even though the work is pretty simple. When the "friends" (clients) at the center work on their projects, Hollie helps them. Their work is usually bead work with the girls and candle-making with the boys. Hollie also has fun learning Ukrainian from the friends. After about an hour, all the friends stop their work, and one of the friends leads them in calisthenics. Then they go back to work.

In the afternoons I come back home from class, and we often go on walks. The girls still are not entirely used to city life, so we have to "walk" them to burn off their energy. They are getting to know the park pretty darn well.

Nellie is starting to get a bit braver with her language skills. She always greets people in Ukrainian. And since there are a lot of dogs around, she knows how to say, "Is the dog nice?" Kali is more of a homebody, and feels more uncomfortable with the language and new food. But when they hear a word of English come from *anyone*, the floodgates open. They are as creative as ever with their stories, songs, and plays that they perform. I think they might even be more creative in this environment.

Pictures will come soon, I promise. I'm still looking for a USB port that I can use to upload them.

Well, we're here, alive and well. Hollie and the girls like it even more than we thought. My friend here, Jeffrey Wells says, "Everything works out in Ukraine as well or better than expected. And everything runs according to schedule--because we write the schedule afterwards."

For example, we missed our connection, Warsaw-Lviv. They had confirmed me and Hollie, but not the kids. So we spent a day in Warsaw at a very nice hotel for free with a food allowance (that worked even for room service). Warsaw is a beautiful and user-friendly city. The old city on a Saturday afternoon is full of locals strolling with ice cream in hand. The kids did not want to go to another country, as Poland and the hotel were really nice. The highlight was when they got their own soap and shampoo!

In Lviv our arrangements are very nice. We are staying about 100 yards from the school. The bus stop is even closer for going to the city. Now Ukraine has a private bus service that *competes* for service, so buses come along constantly. Beer is abundant, costing less than about anything else; at a nice cafe it costs about $1.25 for a 1/2 liter. The family can eat in a restaurant for appx. $6, and the delicious food in the school cafeteria is half that.

We found a babysitter for this week. Yesterday Nellie heard us talking about calling a babysitter, and she wailed until we shut her out of the room, when she decided to gnash her teeth. Then the girls' attidtude changed. The woman came today, and the girls asked if she could be their babysitter. "Better than expected," as Jeffrey said.

The school has a great atmosphere, honest and pious. Every day there is liturgy at the school before lunch, and the tendency is towards congregational singing. Yesterday there were at least 150 people at the liturgy. There are lots of nuns and (fewer) monks here. And everyone greets each other not with the "secular" greeting of Kiev, "Good day!" but, "Glory to Jesus Christ!." While this may sound religiously exclusive, Jeffrey told an antecdote about the previous Hebrew teacher. He was Jewish, and he actually felt more comfortable wearing his yarmulke (skull cap) at the school than around the city, where he felt much more anti-Semitism. The school gently encourages religious expression in general.

I scared my students pretty bad yesterday with the amount I expected. However, I have every confidence--more than they have--that they will learn a lot if they stay with me.

I haven't been able to post pictures yet. Stay tuned! They will be coming.

Love to all!