Although I'm paying $7/month for cable (imagine that!), I've watched almost no tv since buying a DVD player way back in October. The huge old tv in my apt. can accommodate cable or a DVD player, but not both at the same time, unless I get intensive assistance from people who don't speak English and don't get paid enough to figure out the media access difficulties of a rich American.
So I've been reading a lot and watching DVDs. Every now and then I watch non-cable tv, all in Russian or Ukrainian, usually in Russian with Ukrainian subtitles. The Ukrainian language was suppressed under the soviet system--so there's not much on tv in Ukrainian, on non-cable channels, anyway.
The free channels do have old American sitcoms from the 80's and 90's--Married with Children, Friends, etc. But they're not dubbed and there aren't subtitles. Instead, you can hear hear the original soundtrack in English with someone SHOUTING IN RUSSIAN over the actors.
With subtitles in Russian, or English, people here could be listening to English and learning it. With subtitles in Russian, I could be learning Russian. But, as it is, nobody's learning anything.
Oh well, entertainment. Anyone my age or a few years older or younger might remember early episodes of SNL, w/Garret Morris on Weekly Update doing News for the Hard of Hearing: Jane Curtin intoning "our top story tonight", G. Morris, off in a corner of the tv screen, hollering "OUR TOP STORY TONIGHT!!!" That's what I think of when I see American tv in Kyiv.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Ukrainian sangria
Kvas is a malted low-alcohol beverage served from trucks, like the one on the left, during the summer. It's allegedly made from "old black bread" but that must be the home-brewed version. It sounds kind of scary. It's traditionally served in a tin cup that everyone uses, but now you can pay extra and get your own plastic cup.
Wendy, a Ukrainian-Canadian teacher who has been here for 10 years, was talking about the quirky beliefs of Ukrainians towards health.
On Oct. 1, no matter how hot it is, kids are bundled up in wool hats and winter coats (and it was HOT this year in October). It's dangerous to sit in any draft, the dreaded "squazniak" which will make you sick and possibly cripple you (in the computer lab, an evil local Dennis protested that his computer was near the open window--I wanted to yell "get over it!" but being, sort of, culturally sensitive, remembered that this was serious, so I let him move). Women of child-bearing age shouldn't sit on cold concrete because it will freeze their eggs (my younger friends have been admonished by strangers for taking this risk).
"And then I go to the kvas truck and they give me the same cup everyone else is using!" Wendy chortled. "what's the sense?"
Long-engrained beliefs of safe vs. dangerous.
Wendy, a Ukrainian-Canadian teacher who has been here for 10 years, was talking about the quirky beliefs of Ukrainians towards health.
On Oct. 1, no matter how hot it is, kids are bundled up in wool hats and winter coats (and it was HOT this year in October). It's dangerous to sit in any draft, the dreaded "squazniak" which will make you sick and possibly cripple you (in the computer lab, an evil local Dennis protested that his computer was near the open window--I wanted to yell "get over it!" but being, sort of, culturally sensitive, remembered that this was serious, so I let him move). Women of child-bearing age shouldn't sit on cold concrete because it will freeze their eggs (my younger friends have been admonished by strangers for taking this risk).
"And then I go to the kvas truck and they give me the same cup everyone else is using!" Wendy chortled. "what's the sense?"
Long-engrained beliefs of safe vs. dangerous.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Now it's summer
It snowed three weeks ago, but last week summer started all of a sudden. The temperature has been 32-34 C, or 90-93 in REAL degrees, as I delight in saying to Europeans and Canadians. (recently I had a slight fever. I bought a thermometer and then had to figure out what normal body temperature is in Celsius. 37 C, in case you're wondering)
The walk to work in the morning has been fine but the walk home is grueling so I've been taking one of the many marshrutkas. They're packed and sweltering. This is the "hottest May in a hundred years" the local staff members keep saying. I feel as if I've been cheated out of a genuine Ukrainian winter. I brought all these winter clothes: long underwear, my mom's fur coat, wool tights--and needed to wear them for only a couple of months, not from October to April as I expected.
The school isn't air-conditioned so it's sweltering as well. By afternoon the kids are subdued, limp, and dragging around, which is nice for me, with my hyper grade 5 kids during period 7. "Oh, please, it so hot, can we something easy? we watch movie? " Me: "It IS so hot, can we DO something easy, CAN we watch A movie---okay! Let's watch "Thumbtanic"! It has a glacier in it! That will make us all feel cool!" No worries about SOLs here.
The walk to work in the morning has been fine but the walk home is grueling so I've been taking one of the many marshrutkas. They're packed and sweltering. This is the "hottest May in a hundred years" the local staff members keep saying. I feel as if I've been cheated out of a genuine Ukrainian winter. I brought all these winter clothes: long underwear, my mom's fur coat, wool tights--and needed to wear them for only a couple of months, not from October to April as I expected.
The school isn't air-conditioned so it's sweltering as well. By afternoon the kids are subdued, limp, and dragging around, which is nice for me, with my hyper grade 5 kids during period 7. "Oh, please, it so hot, can we something easy? we watch movie? " Me: "It IS so hot, can we DO something easy, CAN we watch A movie---okay! Let's watch "Thumbtanic"! It has a glacier in it! That will make us all feel cool!" No worries about SOLs here.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Field trip to Chornobyl
On Sunday a group of teachers and two Swedish tourists went to Chornobyl (not CHERNOBYL, that's the Russian spelling, gallantly though obviously covered over on the sign to the town).
As might be expected, there was a lot of gallows humor. We were told by the 30-year-old guide not to walk on anything green, especially the moss on the asphalt at the amusement park (bereft-looking never-used Ferris wheel and bumper cars. This park was supposed to open on May Day 1986, five days after the disaster). Moss on soil isn't as bad, but moss on asphalt has absorbed all of the radiation that didn't sink into the ground.
Yuri, our guide, kept putting his handheld docimeter on the road, the soil, the grass, asphalt, moss on asphalt. The counts went up and up. A count of 12-20 is normal radiation here on earth. The counts went up to 1500 on the moss on asphalt.
We all squeamishly stepped over the grass and moss and wondered about the guide. He works for two weeks and has two weeks off. He's from the area. There aren't many job opportunities other than tour guide or tearing apart the reactors, two weeks on, two weeks off. Then they go home and throw away their shoes, where the radiation collects.
I went home, showered, washed my clothes, looked at my watch, and left it out on the balcony. "Yeah, leave it there for 300 years" one of my friends joked.
As might be expected, there was a lot of gallows humor. We were told by the 30-year-old guide not to walk on anything green, especially the moss on the asphalt at the amusement park (bereft-looking never-used Ferris wheel and bumper cars. This park was supposed to open on May Day 1986, five days after the disaster). Moss on soil isn't as bad, but moss on asphalt has absorbed all of the radiation that didn't sink into the ground.
Yuri, our guide, kept putting his handheld docimeter on the road, the soil, the grass, asphalt, moss on asphalt. The counts went up and up. A count of 12-20 is normal radiation here on earth. The counts went up to 1500 on the moss on asphalt.
We all squeamishly stepped over the grass and moss and wondered about the guide. He works for two weeks and has two weeks off. He's from the area. There aren't many job opportunities other than tour guide or tearing apart the reactors, two weeks on, two weeks off. Then they go home and throw away their shoes, where the radiation collects.
I went home, showered, washed my clothes, looked at my watch, and left it out on the balcony. "Yeah, leave it there for 300 years" one of my friends joked.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Snow in May
It's May and it snowed today. Spring was normal up until now. I've never before lived in a place where it snowed in May, although my colleagues had plenty of stories to tell ("in Canada! on July 5th! I couldn't believe it!"). Snowflakes wafting through the blossoming trees were a very pretty sight.
The last couple of days the walk to work has been nice and calm because hardly anyone is out on the street--today is May Day/Soviet Workers' Day. They still have commie holidays here but they've been renamed. This is also called "the May holiday." ("Soviet Army Day" on Feb. 23 is now "Men's Day")
Most people had the option to work on Saturday, so they were able to take yesterday off, and had today off as well.
Then next Wed. is a school and national holiday for "Victory Day" (victory over what? I have to check on that...victory with the Allies over the Nazis in WW2? but then the Allies became enemies of the USSR which no longer exists, you really have to know your history here)
I visited Babyn Yar a couple of weeks ago, a Nazi killing site. About 100,000 Jews, Roma, communists, and other enemies of the regime were shot and dumped into a huge ravine there during the war, 33,000 Jews on Sept. 30, 1941 alone. Some who may be reading this have relatives who died there--I said a prayer for them.
It was odd to see a couple of children frolicking around the Children's Memorial, but then I remembered that in D.C. people frolic around memorials all the time.
Then I remembered that, in D.C., memorials aren't on the actual sites of mass murders.
The last couple of days the walk to work has been nice and calm because hardly anyone is out on the street--today is May Day/Soviet Workers' Day. They still have commie holidays here but they've been renamed. This is also called "the May holiday." ("Soviet Army Day" on Feb. 23 is now "Men's Day")
Most people had the option to work on Saturday, so they were able to take yesterday off, and had today off as well.
Then next Wed. is a school and national holiday for "Victory Day" (victory over what? I have to check on that...victory with the Allies over the Nazis in WW2? but then the Allies became enemies of the USSR which no longer exists, you really have to know your history here)
I visited Babyn Yar a couple of weeks ago, a Nazi killing site. About 100,000 Jews, Roma, communists, and other enemies of the regime were shot and dumped into a huge ravine there during the war, 33,000 Jews on Sept. 30, 1941 alone. Some who may be reading this have relatives who died there--I said a prayer for them.
It was odd to see a couple of children frolicking around the Children's Memorial, but then I remembered that in D.C. people frolic around memorials all the time.
Then I remembered that, in D.C., memorials aren't on the actual sites of mass murders.
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