Wish I knew Russian, then I could eavesdrop

Yesterday Igor my landlord came over to deal with the washing machine problem--every time I open it, water pours all over the floor, with the result that my bathroom floor is cleaner than it's ever been. He fixed it, and I got to ask him about the political demonstrations.

"Are people really getting paid to stand around holding flags?" (which I've heard from various sources)

"Oh yes, they were paid 130 UAH day at the beginning, now they are paid 50 UAH, there is no ideology, this is a job, they have no jobs, they come on buses from the villages, Yulia pays, Yanukovich pays, Yushchenko pays, everyone knows, it is a waste of money..."

So according to Igor these political parties are paying people the equivalent of $26 to $10/day to demonstrate. When I go to observe, it looks like a town festival.

Spring in Lviv

I returned today from Germany via Lviv, a beautiful city in western Ukraine. It didn't get bombed during WWII, and is a lot more "Ukrainian" than Kyiv, having been under Soviet domination for only about 50 years, from the war to 1991. So people there speak Ukrainian. It was a pleasant change. I didn't have to constantly guess "are they speaking Russian or Ukrainian?"--it was all Ukrainian. I got to use my 40-word vocabulary and be understood, for once.

People in Lviv seem much more friendly and relaxed than here in Kyiv; that could be because we were on vacation and were friendly and relaxed ourselves, or because of the distance from Moscow. Another teacher from my school was in Lviv at the same time, so I toured around with her. She's in her 20's and everyone probably thought I was her mother. She was a good traveling companion, someone with an excellent sense of direction, a big help for me, I who have none.

One of the quirky things about Lviv is that it's the birthplace of the original masochist, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. Naturally, I had to go take a look at his house, which isn't marked by a plaque or anything! Now, why not?

Yammer

This week was as stressful, for once, as most other teachers' weeks are all the time, like Pat and Roman's. The spectre of the overdue student newspaper (I'm the sponsor) is hanging over me, it's too much trouble to ask the tech people for help so screw doing it online, I'm just going to lay it out and xerox it. And that won't happen until AFTER the break, the xeroxing, at least.

I helped w/props for the student play "After Juliet" (a story about life among the Montagues and Capulets after R. and J.'s suicides) so that was three late nights this week.

Parent conferences were yesterday, I had to keep explaining why kids don't have a ton of homework and why spelling isn't that important.

I still haven't filed an extension for my taxes, oh shit. John Farrell was here on Tuesday for Michael P.'s peace project, he was a charmer, bright blue eyes, played guitar and sang a song for me there at his CD sale table in the hall.

There's a university student following me around all week to see what ESL is like, what with one thing and another she's not seeing much. Yesterday the ninth graders never showed up to the combo 8-9 class; they were practicing for their PE dance show which somehow I hadn't received the news about, surprise. So the 8th graders and the student and I trooped over to the gym to watch the show, very amusing to see Igor, Vova, and Stepan in the gym dancing, not in ESL class with me yelling at them to stop speaking Russian.

Last night I came back after the play to discover H2O all over the bathroom floor from the washer, who knows what happened? I'm leaving for Germany/Lviv on Sat., now I wish I had a few days off in between, before family/social overload.

AND the government collapsed....why did it have to happen this week?

This evening I left the Actor Dom, it was a lovely night so I walked through Taras Shevchenko Park and heard music. Up on a wooden stage, six people were dancing, a line/contra dance, to what sounded like English medieval/Georgian/Jane Austen era music on a tape player. Facing each other, stepping rhythmically, taking each other's hands, back and forth. I was charmed. No matter how the day went, I live in a city where I can see people dancing in the middle of the night.

Gov't update

I walked down Kreschatyk (main street) to check out the coup-related action, thinking that maybe I shouldn't be carrying a long duffel bag full of swords (props for the school play).

It's a polite low-key revolution so far. Communist/Socialist Party with their red flags on one side of the street, Our Ukraine party with blue flags on the other side. I was looking for Julia Tymoshenko's flags, white with a red heart, but they weren't around.

The crowds on the red side of the street were listening to a woman singing in Russian, which is the division here---Yanukovich, eastern Ukraine, pro-Russia; Yushchenko, western Ukraine, pro-Ukraine.

But my friend Roman, of Ukrainian descent, says that nationalism is not the real issue. "Everyone here knows who they are." People in Ukraine want to end corruption and bribery in government and private industry. They hoped the Orange Revolution of 2004 would bring about changes, but not so far.

I just got off the phone with friends whose son is in the same class as the president's daughter. Tomorrow is the day for parent conferences. In grade 2, the Yushchenkos' conference was scheduled first, and theirs was second. They were mildly thrilled to be after the president, knowing that they'd probably get to meet him. Not likely now.

Start of a coup?

After a weekend spent here in Kyiv with my mother, sister, and nephew, I came to school to discover that President Yushchenko just disbanded Parliament and that civil unrest is looming. "Thank God we're flying out of the country today" Patty told me when I called her from school before their return flight. "Don't tell Mom the government collapsed" I said.

"Ukrainian President Dissolves Parliament" I read online, in Vasiliy's classroom, every now and then glancing over at the president's little daughter, there for her ESL lesson with the other second-graders, wondering how much a 7-year-old knows about what her father is up to.

School is closing early every day for the rest of the week, but we're TOLD that's because traffic will be so bad due to roadblocks, demonstrations, etc., not because of potential bloodshed (which newscasters in Russia are predicting, rather gleefully). Who knows? Check the news for updates. Wish I could get CNN here.