Travel Day

Ah, the day that I dread, not because of the travel but because of the computer mess in my reservations.  I was unable to check in online so don't have a seat assignment from Kiev to Paris.  It's an Air France fight.  Air France computers can't talk to Delta computers.  My ticket is Air France, the seats are Delta seats.  I have seat assignments from Paris to JFK and from JFK to Rochester.  I have two completely identical reservations in the computer which is crazy making.  I may have gotten a free round trip because of the mess coming home last time but I've really had to work for it.

I got up at 6 this morning (11pm Tuesday in Rochester) which was too early.  I picked up the apartment, took out the trash, walked a few blocks to an ATM (called Bankomat here) to get money for the taxi.  Now it's two hours until the taxi comes and I'm basically twiddling my thumbs.  My flight is scheduled to leave Kiev (Boryspil Airport) at 12:30 (05:30 Wednesday NY time).

Yesterday was an emotional day of saying goodbye to friends.  Today I'm just kind of numb.  Wish me luck.  More later.

Fall in Ukraine

Fall is different here than in Western NY.  The temps are in the same range: cold nights, days fluctuating between comfortable and quite chilly.  The leaves are falling from the trees but we don't have the vivid color displays western NY'ers are used to with the brilliant reds, oranges and yellows.  Leaves just get dry and fall off green or brown or slightly yellowish.

And another difference is that in western NY, gloomy days are really gloomy; rainy days are really rainy.  Here we can get torrential cold rain and then those clouds pass away and the sun comes out again.  There haven't really been any dark and gloomy days.  I think it's easier to stay cheerful here because of the weather.

I'm in countdown mode to home, a mere 4 days away.  Of course I wonder if I will get home without trouble.  I'm going to be optimistic and think that just as I had no trouble coming, I'll have no trouble returning.  Of course, I do have to fly through Paris again where I spent two unwelcome days in June.  We'll see.

As each time I've been here, i feel sad to be leaving.  That doesn't mean that I won't be happy to see friends and family at home; it just means that my heart is in two places.

more good flying

Well, Sasha called Sunday morning.  He had been sniffling when we talked on Saturday and it had developed into a full blown misery overnight.  He decided not to come but to stay home drinking hot tea and lemon.

People started arriving for worship at around 12:30 (worship was to start at two).  Svitlana came and brought grapes, peppers and a pumpkin from her garden.  she took over the kitchen and made blini and sliced the meats and cheeses we had bought earlier.  The pumpkin she roasted in the oven.  We had bought sour cream from a woman I knew at the market from a previous visit.  and we also found, at another stall some slightly pickled cabbage.  We don't have anything like it in the US, at least that I've tasted.  It wasn't a sauerkraut taste because it was only fermented for a few days and wasn't salty like sauerkraut.  It was delicious.

First to arrive was Andriy who has some health challenges but is a really cheerful guy with a great laugh; then a defrocked Lutheran priest came.  He had been disfellowshipped because he officiated at the weddings of one gay and one lesbian couple.  Also a nice guy.  Others drifted in and we started service at about 2:45.  we had to drag Svitlana out of the kitchen to join us.

Worship lasted about an hour and then a few people requested special prayers for illnesses.  Then we ate and drank coffee and tea for hours.  It was a really nice afternoon.

In the evening, Roman, Andriy, and I went out to a micro-brewery called Bierkraft.  Their dark beer was really good!  We ordered some finger foods: fried potatoes, baked chicken wings, and small shrimp sauteed in butter and garlic.  Messy but good!


Because Roman's car was acting up, we decided that both Roman and Andriy would stay at my apartment for the night to make sure that I could get to the airport on time in the morning.  Thank God, the car started right up and, although it was running rough, got me to the airport.  Then Roman dropped Andriy at the train station to go to his town about 40 km from Donetsk and went in search of a mechanic. (today he reports that his car is back on the road).


The flight to Kyiv was quick and efficient and I took a bus from the airport to the central train station (it costs about $3 as opposed to $20 or $30 for a taxi).  From the train station I walked to the apartment.  It was cold in Kyiv yesterday, in the 40's with a stiff breeze.   When I got back to my apartment, it was freezing.  There's no heat until October 15.  I took a hot shower, a long hot shower, and crawled under all the covers and dozed for a while.


Around 5:30, a friend texted asking me to meet him for a beer, so I walked to the center and we spent about 3 hours drinking and talking at another micro-brewery.  It was great.  We parted ways, he to the subway and I walking home.  Two guys tried to scam me, similarly to what happened last trip but I learned my lesson well.  When one of them identified himself as police with  bogus ID, I said "NO!" really loud and shouted "Police!" really loud.  They took off running!  I felt quite satisfied with myself.  No more foreigner scams for me! 


I did laundry and read this morning and am about to head out to Glossary in search of my first meal of the day.  It's just after 1pm as I write this.  Life is good.  I can't believe I have only 8 days until I fly home! and six until my birthday.

Donetsk

Aerosvit Airlines is really very good and efficient and there are good deals to be had.  I got round trip for just over $50 which is less than the train!  I got picked up at 05:30 on Friday and arrived at the airport.  At the Kyiv airport (Boryspil) buses take passengers out to where the plane is parked.  The fight was about half full and we taxied onto the runway about a minute ahead of schedule and arrived in Donetsk in about an hour.

My friend Roman picked me up and we stopped to have a coffee and French pastry (puff pastry, cheese filling, ring of pineapple) before coming to the apartment.  Traffic was miserable during rush hour and it took longer to reach the center than it took to fly from Kyiv.  We had lots to talk about so the time was not unpleasant.  I have the same apartment I had the second last time I was here.  Still no refrigerator and there is hot water only from 6 to 10a.m.  And the shower has terrible water pressure so showers take longer but those are both really minor problems.

Friday night, we went for dinner at a restaurant owned by a friend of Roman.  There were two birthday parties going on, both rowdy.  One was some police officials and the other some officials from the department of medicine.  There was live music and a lot of excitement.  It was really fun.  I had a bowl of solyanka, a rich soup with meat, and then fried potatoes and also a chicken dish with pineapple.  I am not a fan of sweet and sour and fortunately, it wasn't sweet and sour, just pineapple wedges in the chicken and vegetables.  It was really good.  For dessert, we were invited to share in a multi-layered cherry cake that was delicious.  We topped it off with coffee.  A nice meal.  The owner, a jolly woman, was everywhere making sure things were going smoothly.  It seems that it is not merely a restaurant but also in back there is a sauna.  I thought it a strange combination of businesses but apparently it's not so strange here.  There are "complexes" sometimes, restaurant, sauna, billiards.  So one can drink too much then go sweat out the alcohol.  oy!  After Roman brought me  back to my apartment, he went out to work.  He is a taxi driver.

Saturday, I caught up on some writing in the morning and in the afternoon Roman came so we could plan worship for Sunday.  We will have it at my apartment at 2pm.  Calls had to be made to let everyone know where we were having worship and that took a while.  We went out to dinner at a restaurant downtown.  I had green borsch, and a home-style pork stew with rich broth and potatoes.  We had ice cream with sour cherries and cherry liqueur for dessert.  And, of course, a coffee.  As Roman was driving me back to the apartment, he got a call to pick up a couple of friends who were quite drunk.  We took them to their places before coming back to the apartment and Roman went out to work.

This morning, we were supposed to go to a baptism at a Lutheran church but it got cancelled.  People will begin gathering soon and we'll visit before we have worship and food.  My friend, Sasha, is coming from Mariupol this afternoon late and we'll go out to dinner, hopefully, to celebrate our birthdays.  His is the 12th and mine the 17th.  He'll stay over because the last bus leaves at 7.  In the morning I have to be at the airport at 8 to fly back to Kyiv.

Visits to Donetsk are always enjoyable.  They are really gearing up for European Championship Football (soccer) in 2012.  They may be fixing the roads but they are neglecting to make sure that signs in other languages or guides/translators are available.  I think it will be a lot of fuss.  Ukraine is a great place but not ready for prime time, at least where language help for foreigners is concerned.  It will be a good learning experience.  I will be sure I'm not in the country during the time of the games.

odds and ends

This visit to Ukraine is very different from my first visit when I was running all the time and traveling and establishing working relationships with people I wanted to collaborate with.  I haven't had to run around so much.  It's also been different in that with good internet connection at my apartment, it's been easier to keep in touch with home and keep up with what's going on at church. The apartment I'm in is centrally located; it's convenient: it's just the right size.  It's nice to take all the walks that bring me anywhere I want to go within 25-30 minutes.  I've spent a lot more time by myself and many days only talk to my waiter at Glossary.  He has no idea how much he's done to brighten my world on some days.  As I reread that last sentence, it sounds kind of sad, but it isn't really.  I've always been a man who does well without a lot of daily human interaction and I'm generally not someone who feels lonely.  I think I've had necessary time to think and reflect here to arrive at a plan for the next part of my life. So that part is good.  Often we need to reach uncomfortable spots in our lives to do the necessary work.

I have a lunch meeting with Anna at 13:15.  She will lend me her usb modem for my trip to Donetsk tomorrow.  I hope it will work there.  I hate to be without internet.  I then have a later meeting to plan some workshops at the local gay alliance.   It will be good to see my friends in Donetsk and I'm hoping that my friend from Mariupol can come on Saturday to spend some hours with me.  He'll have to take a long bus ride to do that and I appreciate the effort.  Whenever I think of Donetsk, I think of Andriy greeting my church on video, saying "hello, kirche in Amerika."  It's really a funny clip.

When I come home, I'll never be able to see cabbage without thinking of Ukraine.  For many reading this, that doesn't sound pleasant.  For me it is very pleasant.  Every single day, I have cabbage salad.  This time of year it has so few ingredients, finely sliced cabbage, julienned cucumber, a small bit of green onion, fresh dillweed, lemon juice and oil.  In spring, it also has julienned radish.  At my restaurant, I have it every day.  It stopped being on the menu but they make it for me anyway.  I wonder if I have developed an addiction to it?  Do I need a 12 Step program?  We don't use a lot of dillweed in the States, and when we see fresh dill in the market, it usually is with a flower head used for pickling.  That's not at all the same thing.  Same plant but different time in the life cycle.  I have had some wonderful soups this week.  Cream of Spinach with the spinach so fresh that the soup is bright green.  Buckwheat porridge which isn't porridge but buckwheat cooked like rice.  It has a distinct flavor.  I had it with chicken meatballs in a tomato sauce.  Hearty and good.  I even had dessert, Lazy Varenyky (fresh white cheese dumplings served with sour cream and honey).  I spend between one and a half and two hours over my dining ritual each day.  It's relaxing and I read and watch passers-by.  It's probably healthier than scarfing down food!

It's hard to believe I have less than two weeks left here.  The time, although not as busy, has gone too fast!

A surprise, not in a good way

On Saturday evening, I did a little shopping at the local supermarket.  I noticed potato chips so I picked up a bag which I opened when I got to the apartment.  It wasn't a large bag and I ate the whole thing, thinking from the first taste that they tasted distinctly odd.  I mentioned that to a friend on Facebook and he asked "odd how?"  I picked up the empty bag to see if I could figure that out.  Didn't take long:  they were CRAB flavored potato chips!!!!!   I won't make that mistake again.  When you think like an American in a different culture, you are bound to have surprise tastes - not all of them welcome.

Is it really more than a week?

I don't think I've ever gone this long without blogging when I've traveled.  Usually if a few days goes by and I haven't posted, I start feeling a nagging inside that says "write!".  Well, I had the nagging but managed to ignore it.  Sort of writer's block.

Actually the worst of the slump was over by Sunday last week.  I was premature when I wrote on Saturday morning that I was going to go out.  I didn't except to the supermarket in the afternoon because I was out of food in my apartment.  I've often blessed the local supermarket because they have so many different varieties of stuffed breads that nicely serve as a meal.

On Sunday morning, I woke early, tidied the apartment and washed the dishes and was getting ready to go out to church when my apartment phone rang.  It was my friend, Bishop Vladimir, who announced that he was coming around 11 to my apartment with a few of our friends for Divine Liturgy.  I walked up to the Cathedral at 8:30, in time for a special ritual for St. Barbara, a 3rd Century Christian martyr who was boiled in oil.  Her relics are in the Cathedral and I usually stop to have a visit with her.  In her honor, Ukrainians serve varenyky boiled in oil on her feast day.  After my visit to the church, I went and sat on a bench outside the cathedral and watched people coming and going.  I love how casually serious Ukrainians are about church.  There's all sorts of coming and going no matter what's going on in the church.  But, for sure, churches are busy places here.

After my friends arrived at my apartment, we had liturgy which lasted about an hour and a half, then we had a snack and then headed out to walk to Saint Sophia, an 11th Century church that is now a museum.  Bishop Vladimir got us in free and we spend a few hours going through the different buildings of the complex.  The residence of the Metropolitan, now uninhabited, contains some amazing displays not only of church items but also of history.  We walked back to my apartment around 5 so Vladimir could pick up his bags - which I call his traveling church.  Just as we got back to the apartment, I got a call from a friend to meet him for coffee.  We all walked down to the subway, parted ways, and I rode the three stops to Kontractova to meet my friend for coffee.  I got back to my apartment around 9.  Altogether a day that banished the cobwebs that had formed in my mind.  All the walking alone did much to make me feel better.  When I got home I sent an email to the apartment manager/agent to tell him that I had accidentally locked the bathroom door, but that it wasn't an emergency.  He called immediately to say the handyman would arrive at 10 or 10:30pm.  He did.  He was a very large cop, very loud, very happy.  We spoke German together.  He went into the kitchen, got a knife, and within half a second popped the door open.  I felt very unhandy and very stupid.  I kept apologizing and he kept laughing.  He was in my apartment less than 10 minutes.  Well, at least I know how to get it open should it get locked again!

Autumn arrived this week.  Overnight, the warm days in the 70's disappeared to be replaced by a few overcast chilly days and some rain.  I got out every day, did a lot of walking and generally felt that things in my life were going to be all right.  The days I didn't go out had increased my lower left back pain to the point that I started out hobbling each time I got up until I got out and did some serious walking which seemed to stretch and relax the muscles.  I had a nagging thought that perhaps the cancer had arrived in my bones.  I no longer think that because increased walking has reduced the pain almost completely.  I can feel it resolving.  I think it was the negative thoughts getting stuck in my body.  As the thoughts leave, the pain also is leaving.

The high point of my week really was Thursday evening when I spent several hours with a newish friend over a few beers and french fries at a local micro-brewery.  They have three brews: silver, gold and bronze.  I started with silver but switched to bronze which was dark and hearty.  Good time with friends is precious.  Easy flowing conversation, laughter and trading stories.  We walked quite far to a subway stop after and went out separate ways.  I hope to have a few more such evenings before I come home.

I went to Glossary each day for long lunch.  The staff there take good care of me.  Each day, as I'm getting ready to leave, I ask the waiter "So, what am I eating tomorrow?"  He says, "I will think about it."  I still start with sparkling water and cappuccino, sit for a while, have cabbage salad and then something different after that.  This week I had a variety of things: chicken and a rice pilaf, soup with seafood, pumpkin soup, kidney bean soup.  The soup with seafood was the only one I didn't like much.  It wasn't very flavorful.  They think it's a riot that I have cabbage salad every day.  It's not even on the menu anymore.  All I can say is that I like it and that we don't have anything like it at home.  I had a few desserts this week:  tiramisu and lazy varenyky served with sour cream and honey. 

The week was a bit lonely because I didn't have as much face to face time with people as I would have liked.  I had several Skype calls home.  Had coffee a few times with friends.  Had a few "business" meetings.  Did some writing.  Walked a lot.  It was a good week.  I got up this morning at 5:30, hoping for a skype call with friends but I don't see them online.  I'll repeat part of last Sunday's routine, tidying up and going up to the Cathedral.  Not sure what else I will do today but walking will be involved, and, oh, yeah, I have a piece of writing to finish.  Next weekend I'll be in Donetsk.

Slump

I wonder if you have been in any slumps lately.  For me, a slump is when I have no energy, no enthusiasm, no ambition, and basically am disconnected from everyone.  I've been in a slump this week.  It's Saturday morning as I write this and I haven't been out of the apartment since Wednesday.  For me, that qualifies as a full-fledged slump.  I've felt a deep loneliness with no emotional energy to do anything about it.  Sounds like depression, huh?  But depression lasts.  Slumps come and go.  As I awoke this morning, I realized as I opened my eyes to sunshine that I'm on my way out of the bad place I've been in for a few days.  A good long walk, an hour in the Cathedral of St. Volodymyr and a few candles placed near my favorite saints, a cappuccino at Glossary.  Just the recipe for slump-busting.

I'm sure this post surprises some who have trouble imagining me in such dark places.  But why must I be different from anyone else?

Quiet time for thinking

I've had a quiet few days and a lot of time to think and plan the rest of my time here.  It's going too fast, as always.  Yesterday was a communication day.  I did a lot of emailing and a few important Skype calls.  I have another call to do in about an hour.

The death by suicide of a 14 year old Buffalo boy saddened my heart.  These stories always do.  And his death had ripples.  People here in Kyiv, thanks to Facebook, were also talking about the sadness of it.  What made it doubly sad was that Jamey had made an "it gets better" video that is widely available.  Watching his video and then knowing that for Jamey it didn't get better caused me a lot of tears.  That gets juxtaposed with an it gets better video that was posted today on facebook of a young southern guy in Germany, probably military, who called home on video to tell his dad (he called him Daddy, and Sir) that he's gay.  His dad with no hesitation said, "you're my son.  I'll always love you."  More tears. 

So that was one kind of thinking.  I was also able to arrange for some articles to be written for publication here by a very talented writer who happens to be a Ukrainian Orthodox Bishop in NY.  We spoke about what the need is.  I mentioned the value of an essay he had written for a book.  He asked suggestions for expansion of the article which he will then pay to have self-published and supply me with a bunch to distribute here.

Around 1:30pm Wednesday, I decided I was hungry.  It occurred to me around then that I hadn't eaten.  Or maybe it was my cabbage addiction rearing its ugly head.  I went up to Glossary and had cabbage salad and then I had mlintsi (crepes) filled with a chicken, sweet red pepper mixture and sour cream of course.  delicious.  topped off with cappuccino.  I went back to the apartment and then walked down to the neighborhood supermarket to stock up on a few things.  I stayed up until after 11 chatting with friends on Facebook and Skype.

Reflecting on coffee a lot.  At home, I wouldn't touch instant coffee even in major caffeine withdrawal.  My sister, on the other hand, thinks instant is the only kind of coffee to drink.  I haven't bought regular coffee for my apartment so I've been drinking instant at home for these two weeks.  It's an ok warm drink but I think I don't consider it coffee and that's why I can drink it.  I always have to go out at least once a day to get cappuccino.

I have two more tasks and then a reward.  I have to make a video to send my church on Sunday and I have to make a Skype call.  Then later I'll meet a friend, probably around 7.  This apartment is so comfortable and soothing.  Lots of light, friendly neighborhood noises, close to everything.

an odd encounter

Yesterday, I was walking home to my apartment and saw an older American couple arguing over a map.  I stopped and asked "Can I help you find something?"  The woman just glared at me like I was a mugger.  The husband said "We're looking for the Opera House."  I pointed the direction and indicated it was only about a block and a half away.  The woman shook her head "no" because she had "the map" and they ignored my directions and headed off in the wrong direction.  I think I had a moment when I felt like I was a Ukrainian dealing with crazy Americans.  I wonder how often my friends here think that about me.

home to Kyiv

Sunday was quiet in Mariupol.  Sasha had to work so I didn't get to see him before the woman who managed the apartment rental came and got the keys.  I went over to the market to stock up on food for the train home.  This market in Mariupol had the best bakery.  The breads and rolls were remarkable.  I bought two savory rolls stuffed with cheese and red sweet peppers and one sweet roll with a sweet creamy cheese and raisin filling.  The requisite water and juice boxes completed my snacks for the train.  I took a taxi to the train station.  It cost a whopping $2.75.  I was in plenty of time for my train.  I was on the same number wagon and berth as coming but it was a different car because this one rode much more smoothly.  I had a very nice woman as cabin mate for the trip home.  First order of business on overnight trains is always to make your berth up with the clean plastic-wrapped sheets and pillow cases, hang up towels and change into comfortable traveling clothes which for me are t-shirt and loose shorts.  I changed before my cabin mate arrived and then vacated so she could change.   Then, without conversation, we settled in for the long ride home.  I read and dozed and ate and read and dozed and ate.  The train ride was much smoother, for the most part and I was able to sleep in fits and starts.  I hope I didn't snore.  My cabin mate didn't, thank God.

We arrived in Kyiv at 9:38, right on schedule. It was a beautifully sunny cool morning so I decided to walk to the apartment from the train station.  Uphill for the first half, level or downhill for the second.  Not bad.  I took my time and worked out all my stiff muscles on the walk.  When I got to the apartment, I showered for a long time.  Only having sponge baths for three days was bad with no hot water in Mariupol.  I made up for it in spades.  I threw in a load of wash and puttered around the apartment and then decided to walk up to Glossary for lunch.  I never liked the flavor of fresh dill until I came here.  I never was addicted to cabbage salad until I came here.  Cabbage salad isn't even on the menu at Glossary any more but they make it for me. I may just have to bring the waiter home with me.  I think I talk to him more regularly than anyone here!

Just as I was finishing lunch on Monday, Zoryan called and invited me to come over to see his agency's office.  I met him at a metro stop and walked over to the office.  A couple of guys who worked there had been at a conference I spoke at in May and it was good to see them.  One of the guys just returned from two weeks in China.  He went with his mother on a dentist's convention.  We had some really good green tea he brought back.  After a while, Zoryan and I went out to walk for a while and had coffee and dessert a coffee shop he favors (кафе хаус) which isn't even Ukrainian, it's a poor transliteration of the English Coffee House.  He went back to work and I headed home on the metro.  Oh, based on my frustrating experience trying to buy train tickets, Zoryan wrote a blog entry about it in relation to the influx of foreigners they are expecting for Euro 2012 next year - major football event.  He then translated it into English and I polished it and he sent it to the local English-language newspaper, the Kiev Post.

I had no schedule at all today, Tuesday, so I lazed around all morning, catching up on email, setting up appointments for Skype calls this week, talking to two Orthodox bishops in the US, one in Schenectady, NY,  who will write articles that I can use here and the other who is in Quebec and who will visit me when I get home.  Around 3 I headed out to Glossary again and had cabbage salad and a bowl of solyanka ( a rich savory soup with various kind of meat and sausage).  And that's my day.  I'll spend the evening relaxing. Maybe I'll go out to the market briefly to pick up a few things.

the train ride

3pm Thursday:  So, with Zoryan's borrowed carry-on, not too full of stuff since it's only a long weekend away, I stopped at the market to by some stuffed breads, cookies, juice, water and a dark chocolate bar.  I decided to walk to the train station since it was only 2.1km from my apartment.  Half uphill, half downhill.  On the uphill parts, I walked more slowly since my backpack and carry-on were more than I'm used to toting.  At the train station, I found my track with no problems and boarded my train car about a half hour before the departure time.  The other occupant of my compartment was already there, a nice Russian man.

We took off on time and shortly after that, a very cheerful conductor came to take tickets.  The other man showed his ID, so I pulled out my passport.  She grinned widely and said in English:  "Oh, OK, good luck!"  Right after we got started a young guy stopped looking to borrow a phone charger.  I had left mine in the apartment because I didn't anticipate needing it.  So, I'm on my way, writing this now while it's all fresh in my mind.

Just before I boarded the train, I got a text from a friend laughing at me.  In Europe, dates are written differently and I had messed up a date.  for example, today is September 15, written 15.09.  the train left at 3:06, written 15:06.  When my friend in Mariupol wrote, I understood his email to say he would pick me up at the train at 16:09.  What he said was that he'd pick me up at the train on 16.09.  Oy!  It's the little things that trip you up.

Oh, I just found out that my compartment mate has really stinky feet.  Not a good omen for the next 17 hours!  More later...

4pm.  Ok, a few minutes later: they young guy who was looking for the phone charger came by with about 6 bottles of cold beer in his hand.  He stuck his head in and said "Hey, friend, you want beer?"  I thanked him and declined.  I think it may be a wild night on this car.  He's with a group of his friends.

6pm  We stopped at a station for about 15 minutes so, at the suggestion of the friendly conductor, I got out and walked around the platform to stretch my legs. There were a lot of people getting on the train.  One woman walked by me with three large dried fish in her hand.  No bag, just dried fish.  Pretty big ones too.  Now I have to ask someone how one goes about eating or preparing these fish.  They're dried with the scales on so I assume one doesn't just munch them as they are.

9pm.  so we are having a little excitement.  The guy who offered a beer came and shouted at my cabin mate and made him go wash his feet.  He then decided that he needed to practice English with me, so he dragged me off to another empty compartment and had our conductor, Natasha bring me a green tea.  His friend, Dimitry joined us and the four of us had a nice conversation.  the tea really hit the spot.  It cost 50 cents.  Nikolai is a chef and trying to learn English so he can go work in Germany.  Dimitry runs a 'sushi taxi' - people phone in orders and he sends them out.  I guess it's like pizza delivery.  We pulled into a station where we'll stay for 20 minutes and they went off in search of varenyky, only mildly offended that I wouldn't be persuaded to join them.  They are really fun guys.  The poor guy they yelled at doesn't seem to be terribly offended but I was embarrassed for him.  Apparently his food odor traveled outside our compartment.  Socks and feet got washed and things are definitely better.  I'm sure the night's antics are not over yet.  Stay tuned.  And remember that all this is being written over a many hour stretch.

I decided that I'd try to get some sleep and went back to my compartment.  I can't say that I slept well because the train bounced all over the place but I dozed off and on.  Nikolai checked in fairly often to make sure I was all right and to comment on my poor neighbor - who was sound asleep.  Nikolai kept pouring in beer and the more beer he drank, the more he pursued Natasha.  Judging from the sounds, he achieved his goal.

It began to get light a bit after five with three hours to go.  I was really ready to get off that train.  Around 7:30 Sasha called me and said that I should take a seat outside the train station and he'd get there as soon as he could.  It is a delightfully cool morning so sitting outside reading was no chore at all.  True to his word, Sasha arrived by bus and by bus we came over to his office for a while.  Of course it's on the 5th floor with no elevator.  We hung around there until my apartment was ready. We talked and ate raisin cookies and drank jasmine tea till our teeth were floating. Then we walked over to the apartment.  It's a nice, old-fashioned place.  Quite honestly, all that was on my mind was to sleep.  The train ride was exhausting.  So, Sasha went off and I slept for about three hours.  When I went to take a shower, I found that no water came out of the hot water tap.  It's currently shut off for the building.  I just wasn't up to a cold shower, so I dabbed.   At 7 we walked back over to the office for a meeting of Sasha's group.  It was good to see familiar faces and laugh at their antics.  It's quite a young group and they can be high-spirited.  The meeting ended around 21:30 and Sasha, Maxim and I walked back towards my apartment.  We decided to drink a beer but drinking in parks in not allowed, so we came back to my apartment and talked for an hour or so.  Since the last bus was at midnight, they left in time to catch it.

Saturday 10:30  So far this morning, I haven't done much.  I didn't get up till almost 10 and by the time I cleaned up and went over to the supermarket, the day is half over.  Sasha will come over soon and we'll head out to see the sea.  I haven't had coffee yet so that's going to have to happen soon.

Saturday 9pm: It was a really warm day in Mariupol and my apartment got warm and I got sleepy.  By the time I woke up, groggy, it was after 4.  Needless to say, on this second trip to Mariupol, it seems that I'm not destined to see the sea.  Sasha called and I met him in the park outside my apartment.  Getting coffee was the first thing on my agenda, and even though it was Nescafe, it tasted like ambrosia after a whole day of having none.  I will spare you the details of my attempts!  Suffice it to say that there were no matches in the apartment to light the gas stove and that the milk I bought last night was sour.

We walked a lot. I've told you before that there are lots of holidays in Ukraine.  Today is a holiday in Mariupol - City day.  The plaza outside my apartment is full of people and there's a rock band and in a little while there'll be fireworks.  I suppose it's a good thing I slept a lot last night and today because I will be treated to revelry until quite late tonight.

Tomorrow, Sunday, I will hunt for a church in the morning for worship and then find someplace to have coffee.  Hopefully Sasha will be free about 1 and I will leave for the train station at 4 for a 4:49 train.  I am in the same train car in the same berth as on the way here.  I wonder if I will have the treat of Natasha and Nikolai for the trip.  If I do, I will take Nikolai up on his offer of beer.

As I suspected before this weekend's journey began, I had no internet access all weekend so this won't post until I arrive back at my apartment in Kiev.

a meeting-ful Wednesday

So, I took deep breaths after my last blog entry and headed out for the day.  I had to be out of the apartment anyway when the maid came in the afternoon.  I went and had a coffee at Glossary and then met my friend, Anna, for lunch.  While with her, I made a brief video to send to my church and then I headed off to the train station, armed with the reference numbers for my booking.  30 seconds after I approached the "internet" window at the station, I walked away with the tickets in my hand.  I walked over to the Church of St. George and lit candles in front of my favorite icons and just sat in the quiet for a while.  I went back to the Metro and went to the Opera House area to meet a colleague for a business meeting over (you guessed it) coffee.  It was a productive meeting for about an hour and a half.   When I finished, I called another friend who wanted to meet, walk, and have yet another coffee.  We talked for a few hours and I came back to the apartment.  It's kind of a miracle that I slept like a log last night, going to bed at 10ish and getting up at 8:30 which is late for me, even here. I met the same friend for coffee this morning and he loaned me a small carry-on back to take on the train with me.  I'm going to shower, go to the market to pick up some stuff to eat on the train and then head out to the station for a 3pm train arriving Mariupol at 8am.  My friend there, Sasha, just emailed that he has a place lined up for me to stay and that he'll meet me at the train.  That's good news.  Now I'll just hope that I have a pleasant cabin-mate for the train ride.  Or at least not an unpleasant one.

Ready for the train

I left off my last blog entry going out in search of lunch.  Of course I ended up at Glossary.  Not only is a comfortable place for me; the food is also really fresh and good.  I had cabbage salad, mlintsi (crepes) filled with mushrooms and onions and topped with sour cream.  I broke my custom of starting with cappuccino and just had water, saving coffee till the end.  My waiter seems to have devised a custom of his own, serving two confections instead of one with the cappuccino.

It's a good thing I had two confections because the day started to go downhill from there.  I went to the office of the ticket agency a few metro stops away.  It was a secure building with a check-in desk and the two men "guarding" it decided that there was no way they were admitting me to the building.  Frustratingly, I didn't have the phone number of the agency so I went back to my apartment.  I checked email to find that the agency I couldn't get into had informed me that they couldn't get my tickets for me after all and I should go to the main train station myself.  I decided I should take a nap to regain my serenity.

A friend called to meet him for coffee so I walked down to meet him.  It had gotten very hot and I was overdressed.  Inside McCafe, it was really hot.  My friend arrived and decided we should go to an art gallery.  But I had to go to the train station to try to get a ticket.  We ended up having an argument and going our separate ways.  I went to the train station and my evening started going further downhill.  There were literally hundreds of people getting tickets.  I got in a long line and waited for an hour.  When I got to the window, the woman said "wrong window" but wouldn't tell me what window to go to; she just called the next person.   I went out to the lobby and found the Information desk.  The woman spoke no English and told me there was no more train today to Mariupol.  I knew that.  I said I want a ticket for tomorrow.  She pointed to the ticket windows I had just come from; then she called loudly "next!" and I was dismissed.  I gave up and set out for the apartment.  I took a wrong turn and got lost for a while wandering mostly uphill.  I was tired and discouraged.  I phoned my friend, Zoryan who was on a train back to Kiev.  He texted me a website to buy my ticket.  When I got back to the apartment, I found that, even though there was an "English" button on the page, all the reservation stuff was in Ukrainian.  I gave up and went to bed.  It's the first time I ever felt like such a stranger and foreigner in Ukraine.

I got up this morning determined to work my way through the Ukrainian website of reservations.  It took me quite a while with my dictionary, but I think I have managed to by first class tickets both going and coming back.  I saved the confirmation pages and emailed them to Anna, asking her to check that I did, indeed, buy what I thought I did.  I also asked her to print them out and bring them to lunch today.  Then I will go back to the train station with the documents to pick up my tickets.  I know where that internet window is.  However, until I have the actual travel documents in my hand, I won't be convinced the whole process of getting the tickets is over. 

Although I've tried to convince a lot of English speaking folks to come to Ukraine, I'll amend that to "come, but make sure you have a Ukrainian or Russian speaker with you when you have to do business."

You never know what a day will bring

I had decided that I needed an easy Monday.  My aches and pains from all the walking were catching up to me.  Did I mention that I didn't experience any jet lag?

So, I hung around the apartment in the morning and Vladimir came around 10 to pick up the things he had left here on Sunday.  We visited for a half hour or so.  After he left I read and relaxed for a while until cravings for cappuccino overcame me and I headed up the street to Glossary. (one of the best features of my apartment is that is so close to my favorite watering hole.)  After cappuccino, I read for a while and ordered cabbage salad - the first time I had it since I arrived.  It's kind of ridiculous that something so simple can taste so good to me - every time!  After my salad, I had pancakes with shredded zucchini, sort of like potato pancakes but with squash.  They were really delicious.  I finished with another cappuccino.  I don't think I ever mentioned that at Glossary, cappuccino is served with a small confection, a small ball of chocolate dough wrapped around a hazelnut then rolled in powdered chocolate.  It's a small sweet but really a nice touch.  With that final cappuccino, my waiter brought two confections instead of one. Ah, the joys of being a regular customer!  That plus my 5% discount card.

I went back to the apartment to lie down for a little while and read some more.  I surprised myself by sleeping a little.  I had a skype call with my Elder in the States for half an hour and left the house at 5:30 to meet Vladimir to go to a meeting. Meanwhile I had received an email from a colleague saying there would be a man at the meeting who wanted to talk to me.  He had been part of Exodus International for six years.  Vladimir and I went to the offices of an agency that cares for HIV/AIDS patients for our meeting with the Executive Director.  It was a really good meeting about bringing spiritual care into the lives of people living with AIDS.  The challenge is to make in accessible to people.  The predominant model is Orthodox practice but that is not acceptable for many people who are not Orthodox.

I met the young man from Exodus and we immediately began a rather intense conversation.  I've been on this road so many times over the years with men who've been damaged by ex-gay therapy.  He told me that, surprising to himself, he felt immediately comfortable with me.  I suppose we will meet again.  I left it completely up to him.

I got home at 11 and stayed up till 12, catching up in brief chats on Facebook with friends at home.  This morning (Tuesday), I've had a few exchanges with a close friend in Mariupol.  We agreed that I would come this weekend.  I couldn't get a plane ticket to Donetsk at such short notice, so I will take the train (16 hours!) overnight on Thursday, arriving at 8 on Friday.  Friday night I will speak with my friend's group in Mariupol and answer the million questions people have.  Saturday, we will go the the Sea of Azov to enjoy the day in conversation.  I will take the train back to Kiev on Sunday night.  This time I will try to get a 1st instead of 2nd class ticket on the train.  the difference is 1st class has two bunks per compartment, 2nd had 4.

It's getting to be late morning here.  I've lazed around reading and drinking coffee and eating ham and cheese left over from Sunday.  Soon I'll head out in search of lunch and go to the train station to book my tickets.  Have I mentioned that I love Ukraine?

An unexpected series of events

Sunday morning dawned bright and chilly.  Fall here is very much like in NY.  Crisp nights and mornings with sun-drenched warm days.  I expected to go to the train station to meet newly-consecrated Orthodox bishop, Vladimir.  Instead I got a call from him.  He had already arrived and wanted me to meet him and a few friends at a metro stop so we could all come back to my apartment to celebrate Divine Liturgy together, his first.  He went to visit a Metropolitan Bishop, hoping to be ordained a priest, but came home, not only ordained a priest, but also consecrated a bishop.  So, as he arrived home, he hadn't even presided at his first Mass.  The five of us came back to my apartment and set up for worship.  It was a wonderful experience.  Vladyka (title for Bishop in Ukrainian) Vladimir was really touched by the Spirit at our conference in Kiev a year ago.  He arrived having certain preconceived notions about Christianity and denominationalism and had his heart touched irrevocably.  He recognized then and practices now the importance of people being able to pray together across denominational lines.  He and I stood beside each other at the make-shift altar for the liturgy.  My apartment may well smell like incense forever!  I have a feeling that we will have liturgy together here more times before I come home. After worship, we had lunch together and laughed and generally enjoyed our time together.

Here is a link to the photos online: please do not share these photos or this link, for local security reasons: https://picasaweb.google.com/nundabud/Liturgy?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNCE5czMgrGcMA&feat=directlink 

After they left, I headed out to the metro to have dinner with Rostek.  He met me at his metro station and we walked back to his apartment, making a brief stop at the market for grapes and wine.  I was a little bit disappointed that Kostya was not home.  I was looking forward to seeing him, too.  Rostek had made a great salad and cooked a chicken/eggplant dish.  Just before we ate, Misha came in.  Misha is a very talented hair stylist/barber.  After we ate and talked and laughed and drank some wine, he cut my hair which was badly in need of it since it hadn't been cut since June when he cut it last time.  During the haircut, I felt kind of faint.  I think because I ate more than I'm used to and had wine to boot!  He finished my haircut and requested my blessing for some stuff he's been going through.  I blessed him and he hugged me very hard.  I'm always touched at the faith people display here.  It runs so deeply in their lives.  At home, people would never think to ask a blessing.  It's a pity, I think.  It made me reflect on the idea that here the priest is a sacramental - a reminder that God is present and accessible.
Rostek walked with me to the metro station and I made my way home around 8:30.  I showered to get itchy hair washed off and went to bed to read briefly until sleep.  It was a wonderful day, filled with expected surprises, sort of like all my days.  Life constantly offers me treats.  I think today was, for me, what Sundays are supposed to be like.

Saturday

I got up at 5, hoping to have a skype call with friends at home but that didn't happen.  I left the house around 7:30 and walked to St. Volodymyr Cathedral to visit my saint friends.  After making the rounds of my special saints, I realized that I'm more like my father than I thought.  We had statues of saints and holy pictures all over the house.  when my dad got home from work, he'd made the rounds and visit all his saints.  That never occurred to me until today.  I wonder if it's genetic.  After leaving the cathedral, I walked the long way down to Khreshchatek St. to McDonald's where I was meeting Anna for coffee.  She brought me a cell phone to use while in Ukraine since I left mine at home.  Anna headed off to visit her grandmother about an hour away from Kiev and I walked home, again the long way.  I walked through a farmer's market and was amazed at all the possibilities.  There were so many flavors and colors of honey for sale at several stalls.
When I got home, I got a message from some of my friends, telling me that my friend Vladimir had gone to Russia and been ordained and consecrated bishop.  He's 30.  He's coming home by train arriving early Sunday morning.  I'll be with other friends at the train station to meet him.
In the afternoon I walked to International Square and met Zoryan for lunch.  We went to a Crimean reastaurant where I left my borrowed phone.  I went back but the waitress who was obtuse when she waited on us was also obtuse about my phone.  I'll try again tomorrow but will bring a native speaker with me.  Hopefully they have it.
While Zoryan went to get set up for an international LGBT arts/crafts festival, I went and had a cappuccino then headed over to the place of the festival.   Some of the photography was very impressive and I saw many people I had met in the spring when I was here.  Lots of hugs and kisses.
I left about 6:30 and walked home, mostly uphill.  I don't think I'm going to use the metro very much this trip since everything is within a mile or two walk from my apartment.  Good deal.  My legs and feet are protesting but I'm happy to be getting the exercise.

P.S.  (added Sunday Morning)  After I went to bed, I heard the stranges thing:  music.  I thought it was Liszt.  I then thought I must be hearing a neighbor's stereo.  I then realized it was the phone I thought I had left at the restaurant.  It was in a side pocket of my backpack.  A relief!

Traveling and first day

I think my bad luck travel streak is broken!  Even though my flight out of Rochester on Wednesday was an hour late and even though we got into JFK at 5:30 and even though my flight to Amsterdam was at six in a different terminal, I made it.  Of course, after running faster than I have in twenty years, I was red-faced and panting.  The woman taking boarding passes asked "Are you all right, sir?"  I suppose I looked like a madman.

My flight from Amsterdam to Kiev was a bit late leaving also but I did arrive safely.  The line at passport control was really long and it took an hour to get through.  The employee of the agency from which I rented my apartment was there to meet me, and in short order we were on our way to the apartment.  The agent I had dealt with, Oleksandyr was there to meet me to show me everything.  It's in a really nice neighborhood on the same street as the National University of Kiev.  It was rainy and about 65 degrees.

I settled in and took a nap, after realizing I had left all my Ukrainian currency at home and also my adapter plug.  I went out walking Thursday night for about an hour.  My street is a hill so I'll get good exercise.  I turned in around 10 and got up at 8.  My hips hurt some.  Friday morning, I went to the supermarket down the street to stock up.  As soon as I got home and made coffee (instant), I remember other things I wanted to buy. 

By this morning, all my electronics were dead.  I went out this morning in search of an adapter plug.  I got royally lost.  this is a different part of Kiev than I am used to.  After wandering blindly for a few hours, I found a metro station and went to Glossary cafe.  My usual waiter had a huge grin and brought me my usual with a hearty "Welcome back to Kiev!"  I was touched that he remembered my usual after months.  He told me I could find an adapter at Bessarabska market.  I set out and failed to find Bessarabska Street.  However, in a metro station, I found a small shop that sells batteries and he had adapters.  I bought two and headed back to the apartment.  I found it with no difficulty, not like the last time I was here and got lost for a week.  Now I will recharge all my electronics and be good to go.  I'm relaxing for a while and then will go out in search of dinner.  I've asked Rostek and Kostya but haven't had a response yet.  Tomorrow morning I'll have coffee with Anna and then lunch with Zoryan.  There's a rainbow festival tomorrow at 5, sponsored by Zoryan's agency.  I'll attend that.

So, I'm back to a place that feels like home, and even when lost, I'm confident I can find my way.  All my friends here are reaching out delighted that I have returned.  They don't seem to know that they are the delight.

The rest of Monday

While sitting in the lobby, I noticed a guy wandering around looking anxious.  I had seen him at dinner Sunday night.  I asked if he was all right.  He is a Canadian working at a Canadian gold mine in Burkina Fasso.  He also was stranded and had his wallet in his checked luggage.  After my "what were you thinking?", I realized I could have been more sympathetic.  He had nothing.  I shared my taxi with him to the airport and when he was apologetic about not being able to share the cost, I asked him to pay it forward.

At the airport, my flight boarded on time.  I heaved a sigh of relief.  My seatmate was a Palestinian high school senior on his way to Camp Hope in Maine with a group from Palestine and Israel. A really nice kid who was exhausted after traveling already for over 30 hours without sleep.  He slept.  We taxied away from the gate and headed out to the runway.  Paris is in a heatwave so it was 37 degrees Celsius/97 degrees Fahrenheit.  We baked in the plane.   We taxied for a really long time.  I remarked to my seatmate that I thought we might be driving to Boston.  The captain made several announcements about overheated brakes and "few minutes" etc.  Well, four hours later, they scrubbed the flight.  We were all really uncomfortable from the heat.  It was unclear what would happen.  We thought they would just get another plane and send us off.  It seems there's a mechanics strike going on here. Anyway, although the Air France person who helped me was really a good guy, there were no remaining hotel rooms to give.  He booked me for Tuesday to NY JFK then to ROC.  I wandered the airport and found a tourist office who helped book me a hotel.  Another guy from the flight asked if I'd share taxi cost.  I agreed.  He turned out to be an art professor from a college in St. Louis.  We got to our hotel around 8pm and met to go out for dinner to a little brasserie in the neighborhood.  We sat outside and had a drink and then ordered dinner.  It was 10 when we returned to the hotel.  A taxi picked us up at 5:30 and brought us back to the airport.  I am now sitting hoping that my flight takes off on time.  More later.  Oh, Delta sent me an email telling me that my itinerary is complete.  They don't even know where I am!

Monday morning at the Magic Circus

No one makes croissants like the French.  I had to severely restrain myself at breakfast - an impressive buffet.  The coffee wasn't as good as in Ukraine.

Because so many Air France travelers were stranded yesterday, there were a lot of us at the Magic Circus.  Air France arranged two shuttles to the airport  5:30 and 7:30 a.m.  No way was I going to go that early for a 1:30pm flight.  I'll find a way later this morning.

I realized this morning that I have a really tight connection in Boston, less than 90 minutes to get luggage, clear customs and immigration, reload luggage, change terminals, try to get a boarding pass and make my flight to Rochester.  Digits will be crossed.

I took a few pictures around the hotel which are posted.  Here's the link: https://picasaweb.google.com/nundabud/MagicCircusParis?authkey=Gv1sRgCJzQ04j438Ot5AE

An evening in Kiev and then one in Paris

My last evening in Kiev saw Rostek, Konstantin and I got to a traditional Ukrainian restaurant where we ate outside (wrapped in blankets because it was cold).  Rostek decided we had to try vodka that had an herb steeped in it.  The herb was horseradish.  It was the most God-awful drink I've ever forced down my throat.  Konstantin and I kept refusing when Rostek wanted to refill our glasses.  It was really really horrible.  We had borsch, of course.  Rostek and Kostya had red borsch and I had green borsch. I only had it once before and liked it.  Then we had the obligatory pig fat (salo) and herring.  Then vareniki: I chose a mix of half cabbage vareniki and half potato; the others had meat filling.  Then Rostek and I had cabbage rolls and Kostya had grilled salmon.  We all split a piece of what they called cheese cake.  It wasn't what we know as cheese cake but was really delicious.

This morning, early, I went down to McDonalds to catch up on email and to drink a cappuccino.  I walked in the rain and it felt good.  When I got back to the apartment, I got fussed over.  Rostek made me drink tea and Kostya fretted over my damp clothing.  The we headed out to the airport.  The lines were long and I was a little nervous when they could give me a boarding pass for the Kiev-Paris flight but not for the Paris-NY flight.  Of course I got to Paris and found that the flight was overbooked (they euphemistically called it "oversold") so I had no way to get home today.  The young woman who worked with me was awesome.  She did a number of things for me:
1) she got me booked into a resort hotel bordering Disney World Paris
2) vouchers for dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow included
3) she got me booked to Boston tomorrow and they're still working on getting me to Rochester from Boston
4) she offered me 600 Euros cash or 800 Euros travel voucher for the snafu. I chose the travel voucher because that's about the cost of a round trip ticket to Ukraine!

So, I took the bus to the Magic Circus hotel and was astounded at how beautiful it was! Dinner was a salad of field greens with two kinds of cheese and a pesto dressing.  One cheese was provolone and the other a feta-like cheese with poppy seeds in it.  Really good and baskets of crusty rolls as only the French seem to make.  The entree was duck with asparagus and oven-roasted rosemary potatoes.  Dessert was mango cake.  Nice.

When I finally got to my room, I was, once again, astounded.  It's a huge room with a super king bed, a desk and sitting area and bunk beds in an alcove.  Must be a family kind of place.  I may try all three beds!  I'll take some pics and post them tomorrow before I leave for the airport.

That brings me up to the present and I'm tired and going to bed.  Talk to you from somewhere or other tomorrow.

Friday and first half of my last full day in Kiev

I've been without internet at the apartment for over a week, which means first thing in the morning and last thing at night, I must find my way to McDonald's to access wifi.  Friday morning saw me do just that and then come back to the apartment to begin to pack.  I sorted my stuff into two piles, what would come home with me and what would remain in Kiev.  The clothing I will leave here will mean less that I have to pack when I return in September.  I left around 12:30 to meet Brother Vladimir at Metro Zhitomirska station.  From there, we met another Vladimir and went to the city of Zhitomir which is about 75 miles from Kiev.  We were going to meet with a group there.  We walked a fair distance from the Metro station and Vladimir stood with his hand stretch out to flag down a ride.  It seems that it is common practice to pick up some extra money by functioning as an unofficial taxi service.  So, in our case, a man going to Zhitomir or through Zhitomir can pick up riders.  So we rode like a bat out of hell, weaving in and out of traffic and sometimes for long distances in the breakdown lane for the two hour trip for 75 Hrivnia - less than $10USD.  Then we took a soviet era trolley bus, then we walked to the place we were meeting, with stops at two churches (when you travel with a monk, you stop at every church along the way!)  The group we met with were great.  It was an HIV/AIDS organization and the director was Maxim whom I had met before.  There was good interest and a lot of questions about this new LGBT Christian movement that is being born.  There is immense interest, and I already have meetings lined up for September when I return.  I will then go to a town called Vilnitsa for one of my first stops.

There was a young man at the meeting who never opened his mouth, and seemed sad.  I asked Brother Vladimir to translate for me so I could have a conversation with him.  He works as a psychologist and I wanted to know about internalized homophobia in his clients.  He shyly admitted that he himself has internalized homophobia and doesn't like himself and doesn't want to be gay.  We talked for a while with him.  I hope we helped him.  When Brother V. and I left, we got on a bus.  Turns out it was the correct busline but we were going in the wrong direction, so we got off and crossed the street to wait for one going in the right direction.  While we were with a crowd waiting for a private car to stop to fill up, a Kiev bus came so we took that instead.  Ironically the bus was more expensive than the private car.  We sat in the far back where we got the benefit of every bump in the road.  I fear that I would either crash into the roof of the bus, or get bounced right off my seat into the aisle.  It was a very long bus ride.  We arrived back at the Metro Station Zhitomirska and rode together to the center.  I got off before Brother Vladimir and we said a sad "farewell" on the train.  I switched lines and finally arrived at Kharkivska at 23:30.  I stopped at McDonald's to eat something since I hadn't eaten since breakfast.  I got to the aparment after midnight and crashed pretty much immediately.
This morning, I went to McDonald's for cappuccino at about 8 and to check email.  It was so incredibly good to read that the NY State Senate passed Equal Marriage into law!  What a great homecoming gift!  I also had an email from Delta Airlines.  I had no idea that they had changed my flights.  I was supposed to fly Kiev-JFK directly.  Now I'm flying Kiev-Paris, Paris-JFK, JFK-ROC arriving at 11:20pm Sunday night.  It looks on paper like I'm traveling from 13:30 to 23:30, a mere 10 hours but you have to factor in the 7 hour time difference so I'll be traveling for 17 hours and will have been awake for 24.  I am disappointed at the flight schedule change because I was supposed to spend my layover in NY with my good friend, Yuriy, a Ukrainian who lives in NY.
I am going to leave now to take the Metro into the center to have my final lunch for this trip at Glossary and say goodbye to the waiter and waitress who have become friends during my stay.  Tonight I will have dinner with friends and tomorrow morning will be spent preparing to get to the airport.
My next blogging will probably be from an airport somewhere between here and home.  Ah, I say "home" but here feels as much "home" as there does.  Does that make me a citizen of the world?  Here is my link to very few pics from Zhitomir: https://picasaweb.google.com/nundabud/Zhitomir?authkey=Gv1sRgCMr81ICF5__B9wE

A Lavra kind of day

I met my friend Brother Vladimir at 9 on Wednesday at Metro Station Teatralna, our usual meeting place, near the bust of Lenin.  We went out to his monastery, Lavra Pecherska.  In Ukraine, a Lavra is a special spiritual center and there are not many of them throughout the Slavic world.  We went to Lavra so I could shop and get things as gifts and stuff for church.  I already have two icons for church: one of Mother Mary,  Panta Nassa - people come to pray for healing to this image.  Another of St. Dorofee or Dorofea, an interesting saint who was born a woman and entered the monastery and lived her life as a man.  Upon her death, she was discovered to be a woman.  Because of her/his holiness, (s)he is revered. Some pray to this saint as a man, and some as a woman.  Perhaps there's greater wideness in Orthodox thinking than previously thought.  We went to numerous churches in the Lavra which is really a walled city and to several shops, including a fascinating shop where metalwork for churches is done - domes, candelabras, communion sets, etc.   I bought an Orthodox stole which came with cuffs also.  An Orthodox stole differs from a western stole in that it goes over the head but is joined down the front instead of hanging as two separate strips.  Cuffs are used in Byzantine and Antiochan rites.  Practically speaking, they could prevent wide sleeves from getting in the way!  I also bought an Orthodox rosary for myself, one with only 3 decades of beads.  I also bought a gold plate censer (called Thurible in the western church).  It has four chains, each chain with three bells.  Vladimir was surprised that I knew how to swing it.  I told him I'd been around the block a few times.  I bought a small icon of St. Pantaleimon (by now you know he's my favorite saint) and bought some triptychs as gifts.  I didn't find the kind of altar cloth I wanted but I have a shop in mind that I will visit today.  After leaving Lavra Pecherska, we walked to Vladimir's grandparents' apartment for borsch, stopping on the way at a church/monastery where a miraculous icon of Mary lives.  We stood in line in a very hot church for quite a while to have our chance to pray in front of the icon.  Many people approach, cross themselves, kiss the glass covering the icon and then rest their foreheads against the glass while they pray.  Then, they wipe the glass with a cloth, cross themselves and bow and make room for the next person in line.  I presented my prayers to Mother Mary, followed the ritual, and made way for the next person.  Vladimir's grandparents live in a small apartment on the 11th floor of a building.  The borsch was vegetarian because Vladimir has been vegetarian for many years.  He served the borsch in the way of his grandmother's village: first he cut up a good quantity of cucumber into the bowls, put a good dollop of sour cream and poured on the hot borsch.  It was great, kind of like having soup and salad all at once.
We then walked to the Metro so I could return to my apartment and unload my purchases and Vladimir to work.  He had taken the morning off to spend it with me.  While we were still at the Lavra, I made a two minute video of him to send to my church.
I went back to the apartment in Kharkivska to unload my purchases and since my legs and feet were reminding me how much I had walked and how many hills and stairs I had climbed, I lay down for an hour then puttered until it was time to leave to return to the center to meet my friend, Anna,  for a beer and pizza.  The pizza was interesting.  The beer was my favorite Ukrainian brand, Slavutich.  Slavutich comes in two varieties.  Regular and unfiltered.  The unfiltered is called "white" because it is cloudy.  I prefer unfiltered but happily drank what they had.  Only one, though.  I returned to the apartment around 10 and crashed.
I'm sending this from McDonalds which is packed with people having breakfast on their way to work.  I'm trying not to think of packing and leaving.  Here's a link to yesterday's pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/revjimmulcahy/Lavra_Pecherska_Monastery?authkey=Gv1sRgCNP2gY_XjqH6wwE

Subway ballet and Type A's

Hi.  It's about 20 degrees Celsius in Kiev (68F) and I'm feeling a little chilly after weeks and weeks of much higher temperatures.  A month ago I put a status on Facebook "have I died and gone to Florida?"  Now I have acclimated.  That's almost scary considering that all my family knows how I've always felt about really hot weather.  A friend of mine told me the other day that last summer was much hotter!  I think I'll have a t-shirt made saying "sweating and stinking - that's my life."

Now, about the metro ballet.  I've probably mentioned before that you can't imagine how deep underground the metro is.  There are two sets of long long escalators to take the throngs down.  The metro moves 1 million people a day with incredible efficiency.  While at first I was taken aback by being shoved into the metro cars, now I'm shoving with the best of them.  I'm told that in Japan, there are metro officials to shove people into the cars.  Here it's do-it-yourself!  Anyway, I digress.

Let's start the metro ballet paragraph again:  On the escalator, the convention is that you move to the right side of the escalator because the left side is for those who want to walk or run down.  The runners usually are young men and women.  To watch them run/skip/dance down the endless steps is beautiful.  I'm sure to them, it's just that they're in a hurry to get nowhere fast.  To me, the observer, it is poetry in motion.  It is beautiful.  They don't know it but they are rejoicing and celebrating their youth and ability and athleticism and the exuberance of young, beautiful, healthy bodies.  Ah, I think to myself, there will come a day when their ankles or knees or hips cause them to step to the right instead of twinkle-toeing down the escalators.

And finally the type A.  I met with a young man who is director of a local activist organizations.  We met, as is usual here, at the exit of a metro station.  Just before he was due, a guy approached me asking where is the square.  I thought of saying I don't know but instead pulled out a useful phrase "na vulitsi"  - outside.   So I got a text saying my friend was running five minutes late.  He arrived frazzled and in high gear.  We walked rapidly to the coffee shop.  He had something called "iced Indian coffee" - there were three globular ice cubes made of frozen coffee in his glass.  I had coffee with cardamom.  Our initial conversation was also in high gear but over the few hours we sat there, everything slowed down.   He sent an email this morning saying that when he left, he felt calm - apparently that was a surprise and a welcome change for him.  I took it as a wonderful compliment.

I've been sitting at Glossary Organic cafe for the last hour.  I had my gassy Morshinska water and a cappuccino and now will order a cabbage salad and cream of mushroom soup.  I may make another stab at being a vegetarian when I come home.  OK, time to order.  Salat zi kapusti, sup-crem zi hribami

Saturday and Sunday - the beginning of my last week

I set out pretty early (around 8)on Saturday morning to walk around Kyiv.  Every day has been in the 90's and, I hate to admit it, but I'm acclimating to the heat.  I'm just used to being wet from sweat all the time and have gotten used to the feeling of sweat dripping of the back of my hair and wetting the back of my shirt.  I walked for five hours up hill and down (remember that Kyiv is built on hills).  I walked to St. Vladimir Cathedral to pray for a while.  I always make a stop to visit the icon of St. Panteleimon in whatever church I visit.  He is a saint of healing.  I wandered all over memorizing my favorite places.  I found St. Sophia and St. Michael's which are at either end of a beautiful square.  I finally ended up at Glossary Organic Cafe to have Morshinska water (with gas), a cappuccino, a cabbage salad and mlini (sweet crepes) stuffed with a creamy cheese and sour cherries) and then another cappuccino.  I wandered around Kreshchatik for a while and then arrived home around 10 at night.  I dropped into bed and sweated my way through the night.
On Sunday I got up early and went to McDonald's to access internet and have a cappuccino.  Then I did a little shopping at Billa (the supermarket chain I also liked in Romania) and went home until it was time to set out to meet my friends from an LGBT Christian group.  We went on an excursion to the far southern end of Kiev to the Monastery of St. Panteleimon which is situated in the Feofania Forest.  After visiting the church, we went into the forest, first to a holy spring to drink water and then to a special bathing spot, also holy, where hundreds of people were in line waiting to submerge themselves in the holy water.  Some of our guys went in and declared it to be VERY cold.  We continued through the forest to a beautiful new park where some of the guys swam and some of us wandered or sat and conversed. It was a really pleasant day.  Late in the afternoon, we had a 5 minute downpour which cooled things off beautifully and we had at least a 20 degree temperature drop.  We headed back to the city and I went home and went to bed.
This morning, I caught up on emails and photos and now will go to get my hair cut.  The guy who cut my hair when I first arrived did a really good job so I thought I'd have him do the same thing before I come home.
Here's the link to my photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/revjimmulcahy/KievAndPanteleimonMonastery?authkey=Gv1sRgCIvRlrrViP7c9wE

On Saturday night there was a gay bashing.  My friend Denys got his jaw broken leaving a club.  In the midst of beauty there always seem to be those who bring hate with them.

The Sparrows of McDonald's at Kharkivska

There is a really nice patio at my local McDonalds at Metro Kharkivska. It's a great place to drink an early cappuccino before it gets too hot. The patio has its dedicated flock of sparrows. They are bold and polite at the same time. Several will land on your table looking at you hopefully but go away when you don't feed them. Many people share their meals with them. I was entranced this morning watching a man, probably in his 30's share his breakfast with them, talking to them the whole while. Did I mention that I love Ukraine?

smells

Almost all communist era apartment building's entrances smell bad.

The whole city is planted in flowering trees. When I came, the smell of the blossoming chestnut trees filled the air with a pleasant odor.  They were followed by the myriad lilacs, followed by the flowering locust, followed by a shrub called jasmine.  It's not really jasmine but smells just like it.  Now the lindens are blossoming and their sweet odor fills the air.  It has been a pleasant  olfactory journey.

And then there's the smell of alcohol.  Former soviet countries have a big problem with alcohol.  Beer and spirits are inexpensive and people, even grannies, begin the day with beer for breakfast.  Among other assorted odors on the metro, alcohol breath is a strong one.

And another thought, not having anything to do with smells.  I want to compare a local chain of Ukrainian fast food cafeterias to McDonalds.  Traditional Ukrainian food served fast, cafeteria style.   Salads, cultured milk products, kvass, borsch, vareniki, okroshka, etc.  These restaurants are always full and they're cheap.  All dishes and silverware and glasses and cups are reusable so there is very little trash generated.  McDonalds is also very popular and reasonably priced.  A big breakfast is $3.00 and a lunch combo (called menyoo) is a little more.  They generate an incredible amount of trash because everything is disposable.  So we have exported earth-unfriendly ways to the world.

Catching up

I seem to have lost the post that I wrote yesterday.  I left you at the end of Sunday in Donetsk commenting that it had been a good visit.

I spent Monday morning resting and drinking coffee and got a phone call from Sasha saying he was leaving Mariupol at 12:30.  It's about a 2 hour bus trip.  I called Roman to tell him and woke him up.  He is a taxi driver night so hadn't been sleeping well.  He was shocked that he was still sleeping at 1 in the afternoon.  He came to pick me up and we went to get Sasha at the bus station.
After we got him, we went to a restaurant owned by a friend of Roman's and had the whole upstairs dining room to ourselves.  We drank tea and ate for hours while having a really pleasant conversation covering the whole range of LGBT needs and religious experiences in the region.  All to soon, it was time to return Sasha to the bus station for his 7pm trip back to Mariupol.  Roman and I went back to my apartment and a friend came over for a while.  Finally, around 10, everyone cleared out and I went to bed setting my alarm for 04:30.
At 3 I was wide awake and got up.  I wrote some emails, packed my bag, drank coffee and when I went to shower - there was NO hot water.  Roman came at 5:30 to take me to the airport.  My flight on Ukrainian International Airlines was on time and I arrived in Kiev at 8:30.  There is a bus that goes from the airport into Kiev with a stop at the metro station near where I live.  As I was walking home, I passed Rostek who was heading out to work.  He invited me to join him for a reception at 6 for Pope John Paul II who they are trying to make a saint.  I declined saying that I hadn't liked him when he was alive and chose not to celebrate him now.  He said, "but there's a buffet!"  Even that didn't sway me.
I slept for a few hours and then, much to my delight, found that the hot water was working in our apartment.  I took a long hot shower and headed out, stopping at McDonald's for lunch (my first meal of the day) and then hopped on the metro to meet a bishop in the city who is establishing a church that is open and affirming.  We had a good conference together and then he took me to visit the National Chornobyl museum.  His neighbor is a staff person there and she arranged a private tour for me in English.  A really knowledgeable man took me through the compelling exhibits.  It brought back to me the memories I had of that time.  It turns out, as Lynne reminded me, that I began my trip to Ukraine on the anniversary of the disaster - April 26, 1979.  After the museum we went to a coffee shop to have coffee and an eclair, then parted ways.
I went over to Khreshchatik St. and watched the break dancers outside McCafe and then wandered to listen to a fabulous full band playing and singing Ukrainian folk music and sat on a bench and watched people watching people.  It was really pleasant.  I had a grand cappuccino and took the metro home to sleep.
That brings us to now.  It is Wednesday morning, just after noon actually and I will hopefully take a hot shower and head out to the city.  I wonder what today will bring.

Sunday Pentecost in Donetsk

I woke up Sunday morning very happy about the video we had worked so hard on Saturday.  Roman and Valera came around 10:30 so we could go find a place to send it.  It was a large file.  We went to a restaurant and thought we'd eat while we sent it.  I decided to make sure their wifi worked before ordering.  It didn't.  We then went to an internet cafe.  Service was not available.  We then went to McDonalds, closed for repairs.  We then went to a mall and voila, service that worked.  We found a cafeteria in the mall that was a wifi zone and started sending the email.  We then ate.  45 minutes later, two-thirds through sending, service went out.  It came back on in a few minutes and I started again.  45 minutes later, two thirds through the sending, it froze up and stopped sending.  We had no choice but to give up because people would be gathering at my apartment for worship and fellowship in 20 minutes.  This is the second time that I've been unable to send a video from Donetsk.  I suggested to Roman that he communicate to the city government that if they are expecting thousands of visitors for the European Cup of Soccer in 2012, they had better get busy on their internet service.  My friend David suggested that next time, I also make a sound file so that if the video file won't send, a much smaller audio file might.  Good idea, David.
We went back to the apartment and people started gathering.  We sent Valera and Sergei to the market to stock up on food for after worship.  Two of the guys at worship, Yuriy and Vlad entered into excellent theological discussions as they add to what they've been taught and begin to see some things in different ways.  During worship, we offered a special blessing and prayer for Sergei that he can overcome some of his life problems and prepare his mind to paint an icon of St. Cornelius for the church.
Folks stayed around for a long time after worship and it was after 8 when the last one left.  Roman and I debriefed and then he went home and I to bed.  We spoke to Sasha by phone and he will be coming to visit from Mariupol Monday at noon or so and staying till evening.  It has been a fruitful trip to Donetsk, as usual.

A slightly tipsy Saturday or two and a half sheets to the wind

So it's 10:30 at night on Saturday and I'm two and a half sheets to the wind.  Two bottles of vodka later, my friends just left.  It was a wonderful day.

I never left the apartment today.  Late morning, Roman came over and then Sergei came over because he wanted to talk to us about the process of making an icon of St. Cornelius.  He is a great guy.  I met him the last time I was in Donetsk but didn't feel I knew him or had a sense of him.  It turns out that he is a very talented artist.  He had a rough youth and got into drugs.  His feels that his art saved him.  He is now 38 but when he was a kid he was heavily into drugs.  He was seeking for something and found the church.  A priest challenged him to paint an icon of Isaiah the Prophet.  The process of preparing to paint this icon saved him, he feels.  The church was an anchor for him until he recognized his sexuality and then he was estranged from the church.  He found the LGBT Christian community here in Donetsk and now is prepared to paint an icon of St Cornelius, the patron saint of this community.  We had a great conversation with him.  Then Andrey called and invited us to the zoo.  We didn't want to go to the zoo so Andrey came over.  That made Roman, Sergei, Andrey and I.  After a while, Andrey went out to shop to cook for us.  He make borsch.  Very good borsh.  We had a salad first and part of a bottle of vodka.  While Andrey was cooking the borsch, Sergei went out to buy another bottle of vodka which he put in the freezer.  We spent the whole afternoon talking and eating and drinking vodka. In the evening, we sang together.  This is something that Americans just don't do.  Andrey has a wonderful singing voice and sang song after song in Russian and Ukrainian.  He is kind of a ham.
In the late afternoon, I made the video for church on Sunday.  It was an interview with Sergei translated by Roman.  My usual video is two minutes.  Today's was six minutes.  I think my church will like it.
We had a wonderful evening of friendship.  Of course as we neared the  bottom of the second bottle of vodka, we were all very very good friends.  Andrey and Sergei headed off to a night club.  I headed off to blog and go to bed and Roman headed off to home.  I will see them all tomorrow. 
I hardly ever drink.  Today I drank a lot and am a bit bleary-eyed.  I had an absolutely wonderful Saturday and I look forward to seeing my drinking buddies (in Russian sobotilniki) at church tomorrow.
Na'zdarovia! (Russian toast - to your health)

Donetsk - Evening and 1st full day

Hi.  After a day sweltering in Kiev Thursday, I packed (dirty clothes) and walked to the bus stop for the bus that would take me to Borispil airport.  All domestic flights take off from Terminal A.  I was about two hours early for my flight, so I went to a local cafe and had a coke and a water and read for 45 minutes.  When I went back check-in was open and I checked my bag and got a boarding pass.  My flight left on time.  It was a Boeing 737, six seats in a row, three on each side.  The plane was full.  Even though it's only an hour's flight, there was beverage and snack service.  The snack was a meat-filled bread that was tasty.  Roman was waiting for me when I arrived and once again baggage was not off-loaded to a baggage carousel but driven up on the wagons while the mob rushed in seeking their own bags.  We drove right to my apartment.  Here's how it works:  sometimes people make extra money by moving out of their apartment for the days that they can rent it out.  One of Roman's friends, Alexander, moved out of this terrific little apartment.  It's small but has windows on two sides so there's a breeze.  It has a washing machine and A/C which is a luxury!  But I didn't need the A/C. It costs about $30/night.  So for five nights I will pay what one night would cost in a hotel.  Donetsk was several degrees cooler than Kiev on arrival.  I think it was 19 degrees when we arrived.

The owner was there when we arrived, as was Viktor, one of the young men I had baptized on my last trip.  When they left, Roman and I walked down to a supermarket to stock up on breakfast food - and laundry detergent, then Roman went home or to work, I'm not sure which.  I finally settled in and went to sleep around 11:30 or shortly thereafter.

This morning is cloudy and cool.  I can't tell you how happy I am to see a cloudy day!  Every day in Kiev has been full of sunshine and heat.  Today here is refreshing and I expect it will rain before the day is finished.  When I got up, I headed to the kitchen to start a load of wash and to make coffee.  While the wash was running, I caught up on email, had coffee and really dense dark bread with butter and sour cherry preserves.  Let me say a word about butter.  All I ever have in the States is sweet cream butter.  In the years when I milked cows and made butter, I often let the cream "ripen" before making butter so that it was sour cream butter.  This kind of butter is standard in Europe and has a richer flavor that I suspect most Americans wouldn't like, not because it isn't good, but because it's very different from what we're used to.  I don't know about you but I was raised to have an abhorrence of sour milk and anything made from it.

Roman will be here shortly.  He had to go to court at 9 for some traffic infraction that he was challenging.  He's quite a scrapper, our Roman.

Since my apartment is in the center of Donetsk, I will walk around later and take some pictures which I didn't have a chance to do on my last visit.  So, until later.
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OK, now it's later.  I feel like I walked 100 miles at a rapid pace.  Donetsk is really a lovely city.  In Soviet times, Donetsk was known as the City of Roses.  This is the perfect time to be here because there are beds of roses in full bloom everywhere, many of them old time roses full of beautiful scent that fills the air.  All along the main street there are areas of gardens and parks.  We stopped in the Orthodox Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel and for the first time in Ukraine, I took pictures inside the church.  Only two but I kept expecting to get thrown out.  We walked to where the owner of the apartment I'm renting was working renovating another apartment.  He came out covered in plaster dust and we walked down the street to get a coffee.  He's the third Sasha (Alexandr) I've met in Ukraine and I've liked all of them.  I've liked all the Sergeis and Andrey's also.  After we left Sasha, Roman and I walked to a restaurant and were there for a few hours.  I had a locally brewed beer, very cheap.  It wasn't the worst beer I ever had.  A half liter cost less than a buck.  We then both had grilled pork chops served with cabbage salad (sic!) and french fries, topped off with dessert.  Roman had tiramisu and I had apple pie with ice cream.  It really was apple pie but unsweetened with apples a bit crunchy.  What should I expect.  It's Donetsk, not New York!  The cappuccino was also not good.  So I shan't return there.

After lunch, it was 5pm so we walked back to the apartment and have been vegetating.  I took my second load of wash out of the machine and draped clothing over every surface.  Sasha hasn't gotten around to putting up lines yet since he just bought the machine second hand.

It's been a delightful day as Roman and I planned how best to conduct a wedding during worship service on Sunday as well as how to maximize my time.  The leader of the Mariupol group will come on Sunday.

Here's a link to some pics I took today.  https://picasaweb.google.com/nundabud/20110610?authkey=Gv1sRgCMS48pHEu-60Gg

Wedding rings, water, and stuff

Ok, so this is a catch-all blog note.  Lots of different stuff clogs my brain and I have to empty it once in a while.

I started noticing people wearing rings on their right hands.  I asked and researched and found that in Ukraine, wedding rings are not worn on the left hand as in the USA (did I tell you that USA in Ukrainian is Seshaa?).  I just presumed (sic!) that to wear it on the left hand was universal.  Do you know why it's usually worn on the left hand?  There is a vein in the left ring finger that used to be called the "love vein" because it was believed that it connected directly with the heart.

Water.  A lot of people drink bottled water here and there are a lot of kinds of bottled water.  There is the standard mineral water which comes with gas or without, then there is filtered, purified water (such as Coca Cola produces in the States).  What is called "mineral water" is probably equivalent to what we call spring water.  Then there is real mineral water.  There is a bottled water that is drunk for health.  It's called Borjomi.  It tastes really salty plus other minerally tastes.  It's so hot here that people are mostly seen carrying bottles of water with them wherever they go.

Personal style.  There is a lot of high fashion to be seen here.  Ukrainians take great pride in wearing fashionable clothes.  I regularly see a much higher standard of dress than I see in the Rochester area.  But there is also an attitude of "wear what you want" and people do that too.  There are a lot of sandals in evidence because of the heat and people feel comfortable wearing socks with sandals, mostly black socks.  In the States, I would never dare be the object of constant ridicule for wearing socks, especially black socks with sandals.  Here I wear what I please.

Personal image.  I think Ukrainians must be more secure in themselves than most people I know.  There are a lot of really fit people, but there are also a lot of really unfit people and a whole lot of  big bellies.  People with big bellies still dress however they want to and don't seem to wonder or worry if they look all right.  Today, I must feel particularly Ukrainian.  I've been taking a reading/relaxing day because it's so hot and just moving causes major sweat outbreaks.  But around 2pm, I got a little peckish, so, without showering or combing my hair, I threw on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and wandered down to McDonald's to have a "Dabl Chizburger Menyoo" which is a meal combo.  I sat outside with raggy clothes, painfully white legs and feet and didn't give a hoot.  Nor did anyone else. 

Sunday morning

Continuing my restful weekend, I left the apartment at 8am.  Rostek and Danny won't be up for hours.  I took the metro to the center.  On the metro, it's common for vendors or beggars to get on one stop, hawk their wares and then get off at the next stop.  This morning a very bent over old lady beggar got on, when anyone gave her anything, and several did, she'd loudly cross herself and pray for them briefly.   When I arrived at the center, I walked down Khreshchatik St and roamed around the city till I arrived at the Cathedral of St. Vladimir.  I went in for a little while, a bishop was presiding at liturgy and the choir was wonderful.  There is no musical instrument except harmonized human voice.  I made my two minute video outside the church and continued my walk.  During my walk, I had an unfortunate encounter and lost a significant amount of money.  I walked to a metro and went to have late breakfast at Glossary Organic Cafe and sent my video to church.  Of all the things I could have for breakfast, I chose porridge.  Comfort food with nuts and dried apricots.

I'm going back to the apartment as soon as I eat to lie down for a few hours before heading back to the center to meet friends for a gathering. Here's the link to my pics from this morning: https://picasaweb.google.com/nundabud/20110605?authkey=Gv1sRgCK3Q2Yvo3qObIQ#

ending the day on a sweet note

So, I came downtown to have a cappuccino at my favorite place and decided that I wanted to try something like dessert.  So I had mlintsi (in Russian, blini) - thin sweet pancakes rolled around a ricotta-like cheese with sour cherries and topped with sour cream.   Unbelievable!  I framed my mlintsi with cappuccino before and after.  Ah, life is good today.

I have driven my body like a car and yesterday ran out of gas.  I decided to take the weekend a little easy so slept a lot today, and now at 7:45pm will take the 45 minute metro ride to my neighborhood, then walk briskly to my apartment.  I'll read till I sleep.  Tomorrow morning early, or maybe even this evening, I'll make my 2 minute video for my church and try to get it sent.  I'm glad our bodies are smart enough to shut us down when we really need to rest.  I don't have anything I have to do until I meet with a group tomorrow at 4.