Commemoration

It's Sunday, May 31st. I'm in Kyiv the capital city of Ukraine, Europe's largest country. 

Early in the morning I get up in my hotel overlooking Maidan Square the scene of last year's revolution where peaceful protest turned violent where over 100 protesters now revered as the  "Heavenly Hundred  Heroes" lost their lives. Many killed by government snipers. 

I see a number of displays down on the square, but I'm too far away to discern what they are. 

Maidan Square was also the scene of the Orange revolution 10 years ago which promised so much, but ended up delivering another corrupt government which was followed by a series of succeeding corrupt governments ending (hopefully) with the one overthrown last year.  I say hopefully with hope but by no means great certainty as we've seen this movie before and it may not have a different ending this time.  But I do think there is reason for hope but certainly no certainty.

Last year when I came here the square was not a pretty sight with burned out cars and piled up tires. and men dressed in military fatigues living in tents. This year it looks a lot better having been cleaned up, the volunteers having finally left after some reluctance and controversy as to whether they should or would.

But as a volunteer said to me last year the night of the Presidential election as we watched the returns together on the big screen TV set out on Maidan Square in answer to my question as to who he hoped would get elected, “It does not matter, if they don't do what they should do we will come back here”. And I believe they will if necessary.

Leaving my room, I went down to the restaurant on the first floor to the elaborate buffet breakfast. In addition to the great selection of food, this restaurant offers the chance to meet people from all over the world. In fact it would quite difficult not to, even if one were so inclined which I am not.

Dining is at 25 or so long tables seating 6 to 8 people each. As the hotel is apparently quite full, inevitably someone sits down across from you and inevitably you start talking. Starting topics are well established. “Where are you from? And "what brings you to Ukraine”.

There were a lot of casually dressed (not here on business) single guys in the restaurant this morning and the guy who sits down across from me told me they are here for a bike race. He's a German here on holiday with his daughter. We talk about Ukraine and its people and he says they tend not to work as collaboratively with each other as they need to. They are good with their families but not so much for others. I found this hard to relate to and I told him that they had been incredibly helpful and friendly to me and he agreed that this was also his experience.

After he left a guy sat down who was a bike racer. He told me he lived in Moscow. He had grown up in another country but had met and married a Russian woman, and his business was in Moscow now as well. I asked him how he would compare Moscow with Kyiv and he told me the Ukrainians are far friendlier than Russians even when he tells them he's from Moscow. He said it is very “stressful” in Moscow. As to Putin's popularity? He told me he's popular with the people but not so popular with the upper levels of society. I told him I had heard the famous chess champion Gary Kasparov question the accuracy of the Russian polls saying something like “What are you going to say in Russia when some stranger calls you and asks you if you like Putin”. The Moscow guy then told me he wasn't really into politics.

After breakfast, I walked out onto Maidan Square. From my hotel window high up on the 14^th floor I had wondered what the large placards and posters were portraying, but they were too far away to tell.

Down on the square I see that the displays are a large number of architectural designs  -landscapes, buildings and monuments to commemorate the revolution. There are scores of different designs from, I believe, all over the world beautifully presented.

At the top of the displays the words appear  - "Commemorating the Revolution of Dignity and memory of the Heavenly Hundred Heroes".

On the large portrait style poster boards,  other pictures show in graphic detail the struggle that has been going on in Ukraine since the start of the 2014 protests and revolution.  While it is now calm here on Maidan Square,  in the Eastern part of the country where the Russian-supported separatists are waging war with government forces and Ukrainian volunteers there is great suffering of both civilians and military personnel.

I then headed up the road to the hotel looking at the pictures of the "Heavenly Hundred" who lost their lives here in the 2014 protests. The pictures are displayed on a wall which runs along the side of the road 

I joined others looking at each picture as we moved slowly up the hill.

The Heavenly Hundred were mostly men. Of all ages, the eldest was 82. The youngest only 17.

Some were fathers who left small children behind. 

Quite a few of the men were very young, in their early 20's.  

Their whole lives ahead of them. 

One held a small rabbit.  One held three kittens.


.

They appeared kind and thoughtful.

As  I turned from  the last picture, a gentle rain began to fall.

Like tears from the sky. 

Lviv to Kyiv

Baltimore, MD USA 5 AM

A writer's worst nightmare.  I've lost my writings.

Things were happening so fast in Ukraine, I couldn't keep up.  Events were occurring so fast I couldn't get enough sleep let alone take the time to write up what was happening, integrate the pictures I had taken in with the text and publish my blog posts.

Either I stopped writing and let the experiences flow or I wrote and stopped the experiences.

Neither was satisfactory so I hit on a third solution.  Do a rough draft and then when I'm back in Baltimore put it all together when I had plenty of time with little happening.

And then computer problems struck with a vengeance.  I turned on my new writing program on my new Chromebook computer and when I clicked on the files nothing was there.  Hours spent with Google support and they can't be found.  The best guess they are on a server somewhere in Japan where the program author resides.  This is an app that he has developed which is really great and has a lot of favorable reviews and a over all good rating.  Yet when I go to "support" I see other writers have had similar problems and their support questions go unanswered. And we don't have his email address.

Should I have had back up?   Well duh.  Of course.

So maybe this is a message.  Time to stop?  Not sure I can continue this from memory.  But, I do have my pictures which tell a lot in themselves and should jog my memory.

And some of my most incredible experiences occurred in Kiev which I have yet to tell.

So I guess it is time to suck it up and soldier on.  And I better do this before memory fades.

But first I have to get to Kiev.

Saturday, June 30th In Lviv, in the mid-afternoon, I caught a cab to the train station.

The train station in Lviv is a beautiful old building with several waiting rooms. I paid less than a dollar to wait in the specially nice waiting room where I could situate myself at the bar, use my computer in comfort and position myself to watch the train schedule screen  and have access to WIFI.

There are basically 2 ways to get to Kyiv from Lviv by train.  The regular 8 to 12 hour trains or the 5 hour expresses.  Many people take the longer overnight route.  The advantage?  You can save on an hotel room (sleep on the train), progress in your journey while your sleeping and I am told you can have an incredible experience by sharing your compartment with 3 strangers as well as sharing food and stories.  I guess this can be an experience of a lifetime if all goes well or maybe not so good if it doesn't.

Anyway I took the 5 hour express train as I did last year because it goes during the late afternoon and evening and I wanted to see the countryside and it is the ultimate in comfort and convenience.

The express train has two classes.  First and second class.  Both are great.  But first class is especially great as you have a row all to yourself since most opt for second class and the train car is less than half full.  And lest you think I'm an elitist let me quickly say I do not fly first class or business class but always economy or coach.  And I take public transportation rather than cabs except when I have luggage or time constraints and even then I often opt for the trolley or bus as that's the best way to interact and get to know a place and it can be great fun and a challenge too when the language and geography are foreign and of course it saves money.

Train travel in Ukraine is a great bargain. The first class 5 hour express train from Lviv to Kyiv costs just about $26 while second class costs just around $15.  Of course these fares don't look so inexpensive to Ukrainians.  Since my trip last year the value of their currency has dropped 50%.  Ukraine is a poor country (economically) and going through a terrible financial crisis.  Should tourists take advantage of this situation.  Absolutely.  By spending your money there you are helping Ukraine and getting a great bargain as well.

When it came time for the train I went up to the platform and managed to get on the right car number 2 in spite of the misleading number 2 designation on all the other cars.

I settled into my seat as the train left the city and headed out through the gritty industrial suburbs.   And then we were in the countryside.  A great expanse of green as far as the eye could see to the horizon interspersed with trees, country roads, and villages.

Life in the country, I imagine is a very different experience from that in the three cities in which I've been spending my time  - Mukachevo, Lviv and soon to arrive Kyiv.  Each of these cities has a  different  feel and charm.  And looking at these small villages in the countryside I imagine life is even much more different there, something I would like to experience some day if time and chance permit.

Eventually, it was time to arrive in Kyiv.  All of us bestirred ourselves gathered our belongings and descended from the train onto the platform, then down the stairs into a long hall leading to an escalator which took us to the ground floor of the main entrance hall.

It was now approaching 11PM.  I'd had a long day so I decided to take a taxi rather than the subway where I had my pocket picked last year.  My fault, as  I really asked for it as I was holding my camera up high with both hands to see over and past my fellow passengers pressed against me in the crowded subway.

But before I entered into negotiations with the taxi driver I wanted to take a good look at and photograph the massive entrance hall which can only be captured in video given the enormously high ceilings and overall extensive dimensions.

At the hotel I asked if my hotel room had a good view.  They said not really and that the hotel was full, but they would look to see if one was available.  It turned out that one was available,  but high up on the 14th floor where the WIFI was not as good as on the lower floor where my assigned room was.
I chose the room with a view.  It was everything I could hope for and the WIFI was actually pretty good.

From my window, I looked out over historic Maidan Square and the great city of Kyiv.

What I did not then know was that I was about to witness, on the morrow, some of the most memorable and affecting moments of my entire journey to Ukraine.

The American

Lviv, May 30, 2015 8:45 AM

In the hotel, downstairs for breakfast, I leave the restaurant to go back to my room as I left my belt pouch, credit cards, money, and passport there and don't remember locking the room.  My mind is in a daze after maybe the best sleep I've gotten since leaving home and what I usually get when home: 9 hours.

My body is functioning well though as I run up and down the stairs to my third floor room.  But not my mind as I was waiting in front of the elevator with a woman and deep in thought I failed to notice the elevator must have come as she suddenly was no longer there.

Earlier I had called the American to see about getting together to finish our conversation interrupted by the meeting at the orphanage and my going to look at apartments and I learned he already had found a home for the dog and lined up another orphanage to pursue his toy project.

One of my many concerns about this new teaching project is continuing my blog.  Thus far I haven't told the people I interact with about my blog or mentioned their names as I want them to be anonymous and unaffected by anything I might write about them or have my thoughts and writing influenced by concerns for them and their reactions.  At some point however my teaching colleagues and/or students will learn I'm writing a blog and may read it

I don't want to not talk about all these people and in particular I want to write about the American so I decide to show him what I've written so far before I publish as a test case to if this is going to cause problems.

When we meet  on the town square he is with a pretty young woman so I ask and they agree to my taking their picture.

She is headed to Tallinn, Estonia by bus, a two-day journey, but she will break it into 4 days and stop on the way.  From her home in Eastern Ukraine close to the Russian border but in a safe area, she is traveling alone and we agree that it is a great way to travel as you meet and interact more with local people and learn and experience much more that way.

We go into a cafe which has two levels of identical stores where they sell an incredible selection of chocolate and the young woman mentions the health benefits of the dark chocolate when I'm deciding what to buy for family back home.  I would mention that here but then it won't be a surprise. Whoops.

We then go up to the cafe room on the fourth floor to talk and as we do I tell the American of my concerns about blogging about him and the others I have met and will be interacting with. He says it's no problem, he never reads blogs, but I have him read it anyway. He does and indicates its OK like "whatever" and I am relieved that I can continue blogging which has become a big part of my life and influences and drives my "adventures"

He shows me some of the other projects he is working on, the websites he has developed on the Internet. Wind and water driven turbines which in answer to my question he thinks could be used to generate power for my cottage in Nova Scotia (it has a powerful brook running by it) where the cost of electricity (which heats my house) has grown exorbitantly.

We discuss an American program to supply used computers and other discarded equipment for use here in Ukraine where there is a desperate need for such.  The program is going to be shut down and I volunteer to go to the embassy while I'm in Kiev where I'm heading today to lobby for its continuance.

He indicates he is going to fill up my time with all kinds of projects. I indicate he'll find me a very difficult "employee" and will fire me even before I quit.  At this point in life I'm not looking for more to do, or for in any way losing my independence or being accountable to others (including the teaching project) so want to make  this clear. He disputes the "employee" word and doubts he would "fire" me.

As attractive as his projects are I have a number (far less than he) of my own that I don't want to sacrifice for his.  Fortunately, I am selfish enough that this is not a serious risk,

Most amazingly, he shows me a whole curriculum of Ted talks which he has designed, the concept for which, I had discussed with the professor and thought had evolved from our discussion.  As I had agreed to find some Ted talks to discuss with the students and review these with the professor before I returned to teach I am delighted that this assignment is already completed.  My plan is to start off in any way they suggest and then alter to my own ideas after I get a safe start.

I have a number of ideas of my own as to how to learn a new language which I am developing as I pursue learning Ukrainian.  Teaching these students could be a terrific laboratory for testing and evolving my ideas which is one of the attractions for taking on this project.

Also joining us at the cafe is a woman who graduated from the music school in Lviv. She is a pianist but has moved on to working with "orphanages". Questioning how it can be that the "orphans" here have parents visiting them I learn that many are "civil orphans" a status acquired due to their families being unable to take care of them due to economic circumstances or the orphan's medical condition so that it becomes the responsibility of the state to take care of them.

I tell the "pianist" that I attended the symphony for a second time last night she asks how it was. And I respond that it was wonderful with a conductor from Azerbaijan who was enthusiastically acclaimed in the small so-intimate (we all agree) concert hall so much smaller than the large grand opera hall.

At the hotel I get my stuff and set out for a taxi to take me to the train station.  The hotel guy would get me one for 800 hrvnias but by walking my wheelie bag 2 blocks over the cobblestones in the square I am able to get a taxi for 50 hryvnia, around $2.50.

Taxis were not able to be found in the square in front my hotel because of some crazy auto event I witnessed from my balcony.

Never a dull moment here in Lviv!

View From On High

Lviv, May 30, 2015 8:45 AM

Yesterday I woke up to a beautiful, cloudless blue sky and decided to rush up to the castle to get some pictures of the city while the sun  was in the best position for doing this.

At 6 AM, the town square was empty except for the street sweepers.

At the base of the castle hill, I began the long climb up the stairs. There must be a hundred or several hundred. I did not count them. Mercifully, they wound around the hill. Were their full extent visible it might be crushing to the spirit.

It is peaceful on this beautiful morning with no one around and quiet except for the cheerful chirping of birds.

I was thinking how nice it would be to arrive at the summit with the view all to myself when out of the brush a very angry dog rushed at me and I suddenly regretted being alone. Snapping and growling he looked quite wild although he did have a collar.

Then two more mad dogs appeared.  Uh oh.  But, as it turned out this was a good thing as the three dogs decided they were madder at each other than with me and so as they fought with each other I scurried on up the hill.



At the top of the hill, I was pleased to see I was not alone.  A young woman was there too, although she soon left.

My new camera has a big zoom lens and I debated bringing it with me (the lens) as I like to travel light. But, I decided to bring it as I thought how wonderful it would be to capture the old town center from this very vantage point.  I got some great shots with my new camera, but I decided to take some with my smartphone as well to compare the two when I got back to the hotel.

Back at the hotel I found the smartphone pictures to be far superior.  In fact infinitely superior as I had not had the memory card in the camera. Oh well, now I will have to return to Lviv as tomorrow I head out to Kyiv and won't have time to come back up the hill this trip.  But as you can see the smartphone pictures are not at all that bad.

Following my trip to the castle I met up with the American teacher who is leaving in a couple of days.  A good thing as from him I received invaluable information not only about teaching at the university, but also about Ukraine, its culture .. and everything else.

Described as a workaholic by the  dean teaching all day every day.  He appears to me to  be another force of nature, with incredible energy working on a whole bunch of ambitious projects from designing a marina in New York City (the completion of which is his reason for leaving here to return to the US), to the design of a group of wooden toys which he plans to give to an orphanage as part of another project he's created to train the children here in the skills necessary to make these toys into a productive money making venture for them.

In his 30's, he is a physicist by training, (Stevens, MIT and Harvard)  and is part of a 10 or so person group which includes 2 Nobel laureates developing a database system designed to revolutionize the field of medicine. I am told it is superior to a one which Google just acquired for over $100 million.

He has very useful advice for me: from the best restaurant in Lviv to how and where to obtain an apartment here,  and, unbidden, he says he knows a woman who is the perfect match for me who may be coming with the peace corps to teach here this fall. Oh, my!

The American tells me his experiences in teaching here, the special challenges he has faced.  It is clear that he has cleared the way for me as demonstrated by the practically unquestioning acceptance of me, an experience so different from his own.

Among his many talents, he is an experienced teacher having taught in Poland prior to coming here.

Do you think I find all this intimidating?  You bet your life I do!

A difficult act to follow?  No, more accurately, impossible. Yet everyone including he is so eager for me to take this on, it  makes it almost impossible to back out now, plus the chairman's quick study of me suggesting I may only want to teach 2 or 3 days a week (true) may indicate the expectations for me may not be anything like those for this force of nature.

We had to cut short our conversation at the restaurant as he had to go for a meeting at an orphanage so we went to his apartment, collected his dog and set off with a driver and a woman who is a real estate manager for interpreter.

At the orphanage, the American was very upset at the way they were treating another dog which he had left with them. He had left it thinking the dog and the children would have a fine time interacting with each other.

Instead the dog was chained up, her water bowl was dirty and receiving no satisfactory response (indeed the children were blamed) from the orphanage personnel in a meeting we had with 6 participants attending, the American literally packed up his toys (which he had set out on the floor) to go home.

And all of us (driver, real estate manager, the American and myself) now with 3 dogs the two additional being the mistreated dog and one of her 8 children conceived (the rest having found homes) (another part of the mistreatment allowing this to happen to this only 7-month-old dog) drove back to the town square.

Back at the square, I rushed off to meet with a real estate agent and driver/interpreter both provided by a friend of the guy I had met days before at breakfast in the hotel to see some apartments for my possible stay here in the fall.

Following that I attended the evening symphony. Wonderful Brahms music which, with my mind buzzing, received far less than the attention it deserved, while still serving as a wonderful time and place to sort through my thoughts on all that was happening here in Lviv.

Ivano Franko University

Lviv, Ukraine, May 28, 5:30 AM

It is cold and-and overcast and still somewhat dark outside as I look out over the streets and square below my balcony.  As it is still early in the morning, only a few cars go by on the streets which will be so busy later this morning as to make it prudent to cross only by using the pedestrian underpass.

Very little of the time I've been in Lviv has the sun shown its face. And yet the city does not lose its charm, in fact, the charm is enhanced as it shows another dimension described perfectly by the hotel manager yesterday as being like London.

Then she adds it turned into Venice as indeed it did as a torrential downpour brought people off the street to huddle in the coffee house where I was writing and the pedestrian underpass was a bit flooded causing the young people to leap the puddles through which the elderly decided it was more prudent to wade.

I still have not heard from the university where I am to teach English this fall, if I still am, and as I find I increasingly hope I will, as it will give  me a serious "excuse" to return for an extended period.

So this morning I decide I have to go over to the University and seek out the English department chairman, which I am reluctant to do, preferring to be the one sought after.


Once again, climbing the stairs I take note, of how the stone steps have been worn down by students who've preceded me over the centuries in this ancient institution.

On the fourth floor of the University, I open a couple of doors and they are classrooms in session and then I open one which opens into an administration office.

There a nice lady, who turns out to be the vice dean of the foreign studies department hears the purpose of my visit and then calls the English department chairman's office, his cell and home numbers and finally talks to his wife who says he's in his car on the way to the university.  Getting the message he finally calls in, he will be here in 20 minutes and I am to wait in the very nice faculty conference room with a great view where I meet a very nice lady who turns out to be a professor of English studies and with whom I have a great conversation in which we begin to work out how and what I will teach.

Telling her my latest thinking on learning a language based on a Ted talk where the speaker who now speaks 5 languages. or so, told of his frustration to get anywhere with all the programs and courses he took and the only way to do it is to wade in and start talking to people which is essentially what I have been doing here.

The professor seizes on the Ted talk aspect suggesting that  introducing a Ted talk to each class and then having a discussion with the students about it. is a great way to go.  That's not what I had in mind but her enthusiasm for this approach, my lack of expertise (to say the least) in what I was undertaking, and my desire to have some more definite plan to pursue than existed to date (really none) leads me to accede to her far greater knowledge of what might work. We had plenty of time for this discussion as the chairman's 20 minutes-to-arrive turned into 40 minutes the type of thing I was to learn was not unusual.

When the chairman finally arrived the professor and I learned he had indeed called me but I had missed the call and that I was to be working with 5th year students, the ones for which she is responsible. I am glad to hear this as I believe with her I can come up with a solid plan on how and what to teach.

Later I was to meet a very nice teacher and I got the chance to see further how those whom I met interacted with each other as well as with me.

As I reflect back on my interactions with these academics the dean appeared to be an exception to the Mukachevo sport coach's comments that Ukrainians are not political, no surprise here but in the chairman-translated conversation I had with him he spent more time on the political situation than I would have expected and of course I was glad to listen.  The dean's focus and challenge is on having his area function with far less funding than it needs thanks to the financial crisis due to  the political situation with Russia.

The vice dean went out of her way to track down the chairman and was most gracious in her dealing and interest in me.

The professor was most encouraging and supportive.  In our meeting with the chairman, I see they like each other and yet are quite determined and strong willed individuals discussing (in Ukrainian) what appeared to me  to be some difference of opinion.

The chairman who I am told is a great teacher has great energy. Perhaps not the world's greatest administrator, he is a force of nature. Impatient with bureaucracy.  He appears liked by all and, as I was told, is a "very nice guy".

Upon reflection, I am impressed how he read me so well and so quickly.  Yesterday after meeting with them as I was having dinner I began to question my loss of freedom in taking on this task of teaching.  I would be accountable to others. I would have to "fit in".  A schedule of classes would interrupt my freedom to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.

But then I thought how he made very clear I could do whatever I wanted to do. Like I could take time off to travel and they would substitute for me.  And what I taught and my methods are pretty much up to me.

Unlike how others may view him, as not demanding enough, is he, in fact, a tough and wily negotiator?  Indeed, he gave me no wiggle room to justify backing out of this ever-growing commitment.

Polytechnic University

Lviv, Ukraine, 5/27/2015 7:45 PM

Today, I had a meeting scheduled for 2PM.  Having thought of an idea for a phone app, I had gone to the Lviv Polytechnic University yesterday in hopes that I might find a student to program this app inexpensively.

 Looking for the good that might be hiding midst the frustration of a "bad computer day" when nothing goes right and simple things can't seem to be done and looking for a solution to a problem I was having did not seem to be available, it occurred to me that I had found an app to develop, an app that would solve the problem I was having.  Something I had long sought but not found, as every idea I had seemed to have had already been produced amongst the millions of apps now available.

I enjoy programming, but it is time-consuming and there is so much else I want to do and a young tech savvy person can do this faster and better than I, leaving me free to do other things like marketing the app, travel and blog and focus on coming up and refining the ideas to be programmed and I believe in Ukraine I can possibly find a programmer at a bargain rate.

In the big old main building of the Polytechnic University, I wandered the halls as I have come to do. A very nice and very young looking student helped me out. I thought perhaps he is the one to program my app, but no he tells me he is an architectural student. He took me to one office where the man there indicated we should go to another office where a guy there spoke good English and would be able to help me.  He would be there in 20 minutes.

After waiting 30 minutes I decided to wait no longer and instead head over to the building where I thought the computer science department was, but just as I turned the corner to go down the stairs, I saw 2 men going into the office I had just given up on waiting at. When I indicated my purpose, one of the men asked me to wait in the room just outside his office, a large one which led me to figure he must be pretty important.

A few minutes later he took me down the hall and down the stairs at a very rapid pace.  I told myself to not try to keep up with him as one of the two dangers here I've identified is tripping and falling given the many stairs and uneven cobbled roads and my reflexes though amazingly good when I do stumble may not be what they once were and falling is only appropriate for young people. But when we hit the straightaway in the hallway below I quickly caught up with him.

I remarked how beautiful the building is and he said that, unlike with other universities, this building was not converted from another use but was specifically constructed for its current purpose  as a University. It was constructed in 1877.

We then entered another large office where my guide talked to another man and explained my purpose in being there.  I was told a meeting with the appropriate people would be set up and I was to return the next day at 2 PM. Right here.

Oh, my.  I'm thinking they don't understand who I am or that this isn't such a big deal and I'm not even sure the idea I have will be worth pursuing once I more thoroughly investigate the apps in the app store. This is such a good idea that it is hard to believe someone hasn't already thought of it and incorporated in a published app.

In preparation for the meeting I try to get some business cards printed up quickly but the place I go to, suggested by the hotel manager, sends them out so it will take 2 days.  Instead, I type up the info for the card on my smartphone, email it to the clerk waiting on me at the print store and get her to print 20 or so repeats on 2 sheets of shiny cardboard paper stock used for printing pictures.  But I can't get her to cut them out for me as I don't think she understands what I'm asking.  This is all done in Ukrainian.  She does, however, lend me a pair of scissors and I cut out cards from 1 of the two printed sheets.

As I produce very uneven edges, I take the other sheet to the hotel office hoping they have a paper cutter to slice them evenly.  One of the young women attempts the cut out with scissors but her hands are shaking so another takes over and when the young woman manager comes in she calls the secretary into the office who proves to be by far the best of the three of us who have attempted this task.

I now have evenly edged business cards and although they have the essential information I want to convey they sure don't look professional.

I debate, with myself, whether to pass them out at the meeting.  I could change the info on my website which is inaccurate, a long replaced phone number, but I don't remember the password as it has been years since I had any use for it.  I imagine sitting at the end of this conference table with the people assembled by the chairman of the department saying "who is this guy, why are we wasting our time".

I can explain that I am retired and that's why I have no business cards and my website is out of date.  But then why am I here?  An idea so powerful that it has thrust me out of retirement  warranting me to call for this meeting when I don't even know if it is an original non-published idea?

I do have the credentials, educationally (Electrical Engineering and Business Management) and I was co-founder of an Internet start-up company which was quite successful (not in terms of profits which if you recall before the 2000 crash were deemed extraneous - as perhaps appears to be happening once again, but in terms of number of users (not paying of course).  But this is all ancient history and puts the burden of assembling this busy group of people on the uniqueness of my idea and my seriousness in pursuing it which I can't in any way support honestly.

I finally decide on a cover story which happens to be the truth. What a unique idea!  And if they throw me out of the office in disgust? Well so be it.  In truth, I did not misrepresent what I was looking for here.  Any responsibility for wasting time here belongs to the department chairman (if that is his position) for the  misunderstanding which caused him to assemble this group.

Feeling better after sorting this all out in my mind and armed with the best sleep I've gotten since being in Ukraine, I decided this morning to head to the train station and line up my ticket for my trip to Kyiv late Saturday afternoon which will allow me to accomplish something and not waste the time before the meeting thinking about it.

At the train station I go to the information booth where the nice young woman writes out in Ukrainian the time, train number, car and seat number we have jointly selected for me to give to the  ticket counter where they don't speak English. I could do this online but want to make sure I get the best seat selection.

And just to be sure, I bring the ticket I buy back to her to check out.  As she looks at it with great concentration she begins to frown and then her face tightens further and then even more so.  And i am thinking this is taking some time and what skill I've acquired in checking these thing myself as I did with the previous ticket all in Ukrainian which brought me from Mukachevo to Lviv. Then like the clouds clearing into a sunny day her face brightens she smiles. All is well.

At the tram stop outside of the train station,  I ask several people for the right number for the tram to the Polytech University.  I am told a couple of numbers and then a tram shows up with a different number but am told to get on this as it has the university listed on its sign though I don't see it.

Watching closely as we pass the cathedral near the university we seem to veer off in an unexpected direction and after a number of blocks I figure we are far past where I should have seen the university.  I get off and nothing looks familiar. Uh oh. Not am I going to annoy everyone by wasting their time I am further going to enrage them by showing up late.  I ask a couple of people for directions.  I know the word for "where" and "polytech" and "university" are similar words in English and Ukrainian.

Down the long streets I go which angle off here and there and finally ask some student-looking-like guys who show me the way and I see the university ahead of me in plenty of time.  I'm feeling a bit light headed at this point and don't know whether it's jet lag, the concern of being lost and late or simply stage fright. Or all of these so I decide to get something quick to eat which I do at a little place across the street from the university, there being no restaurant in the big university building according the guard just inside the front door.

I arrive at the door of the office for the meeting ten minutes ahead of time but it is closed and no one is there.  I check the door number on my phone. I had taken a picture of the door in case I forgot it and this is the right office.  But no one is there.


Then it's 5 minutes before the meeting.  And then it's 2 PM, time for the meeting, and still no one is there.  A guy comes along and tries to open the door but can't.  He paces up and down the hall, but strangely ignores me even though I am obviously waiting to go in as he is.  If he made eye contact I would ask him if he is here for the meeting but he doesn't.  Then I approach him anyway but he indicates he doesn't speak English with no indication of interest in me or what I'm doing here so I conclude his presence doesn't indicate there is a meeting about to take place here. I recheck my camera (I had taken a picture of the door and its number in case I forgot) and uh oh.  I have a picture of a different door here.  But then I determine I took this one before the other and I do have the right number office which is in fact the number I had in mind, from memory,  before looking at the pictures.


I am starting to wonder if I should be angry at all of this.  But then I figure this may be a blessing and I won't have to incur whatever the unpleasantness might have been in store for me in the meeting.  But then another guy knocks on the door, it is opened and I see inside the man, (department chairman I think), whom I talked to yesterday. I'm not sure he recognizes me at first but then he does.

As I was thinking yesterday and today he had a rather severe attitude but he is very friendly today.  He tells me I am to go to another building where the software department is housed and meet with a professor he uses the word "philology" (I'm pretty sure he used that word which I found interesting) who deals with the students who would be "able to help me".  I got him to write it all out, building number, the man's name etc.. He told me it was only five minutes away.  In shaking hands and saying good by I ask him if he is the chairman of the computer science department and he said that he is.

Off I go and get to the right building by, of course, asking some students who go out of there way  to take me to the right building.

At my destination I meet the professor, a very nice guy,  in his 30's, I'd say. We sat down. I called up my website to show him my background.  but, the only thing he seems interested in is my Electrical Engineering background which means I'ii have some understanding of the technology we are to discuss.

Leaving out the unique feature of my idea, I described its other features so he could determine the level of expertise required and time involved to develop it. Then on an impulse I decided to trust him with the idea without a non disclosure agreement because I didn't want to delay the process and lose the momentum and possibly never proceed with this as other things intruded in my, lately, very busy life.

Self mockingly, I said "can you keep a secret in a low voice" (someone had just entered the room). I leaned toward and he nodded and leaned towards me with our heads almost touching. I was making a joke of this but he was taking my joke seriously. So I told him of the key feature which I hope is, but do not know yet whether it is, indeed, unique, since there are so many apps out there and it takes time to check them all and I had not done that yet.

He told me since they were students the charge would be just $7 to $10 an hour for the one or two (depending on the speed I want to complete the project) mid-level developers required since they were just students the total time involved. I indicated this was fine, but subject to first determining whether somebody had already produced such an app.  He said he would check this out the end of the week. I assumed I would do this (and will too) but it is great that he is offers to do this as I had not anticipated this.

So.  I am elated at the way this all has worked out.  All I could wish for but not hope to expect. And infinitely better than my worst fears.

And whether or not the key idea in my app is new or not I've found a great resource to program it or any other idea I come up with leaving me free to pursue the equally, if not greater, important task of marketing the app, and all the other things I find now in my life there is not enough time to pursue like blogging, teaching English, traveling etc. etc. etc.

I believe I have finally discovered  what I had not realized until now. Perhaps late in life, but not too late, while I am still young (under 80). The secret to a even more happy and rewarding life than with which I have been blessed.

Carpe Diem!

Oh, just one more thing. I stopped in the Tourist Info office today in the lovely, even on a rainy day, town center.  Much to my surprise tourism has been climbing for the last few years "but not like 4 years ago, when the "futball" championship took place.  I am happy to here this, then not so sure as, I am not so sure I want others to discover this wonderful city and risk seeing it change.

Anyway.  Another great day.

Carpe Diem.

Night at the Opera

Lviv, May 29, 2015, 1 AM

Last Sunday, I had to move to a different room in the hotel as I had made my reservation in two pieces. Unfortunately, they couldn't let me stay in the room so I had to pack up and move, the necessity of which I hoped to avoid, especially as the room I was in was wonderful and the odds were the next couldn't be better.

Not so, as it turned out.  Much to my delight my new room looked out on Mickiewicz Square with a small balcony I can walk onto with a fabulous view and perspective close to the very center of this marvelous City. No wait, it actually has two balconies.

Settling in here just after noon I try to take a nap but there is much noise and commotion outside on the streets so I get up walk out on my little balcony and the see the start of a parade with many of the young participants dressed in traditional attire.

Later as I walk to the opera house I see some of the older participants in this day' s celebrations with numerous medals decorating their military uniforms.With Lviv having been dominated by Austria, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Russia, and Germany during its turbulent history, it was interesting to see the military pride displayed by these participants.


As I approach the Opera house I see that "life goes on" in the midst of the uncertainty and trouble with the separatists in the East and with Russia. Families are out on this wonderful pedestrian avenue doing what I imagine they do every Sunday when the surrounding streets are freed from vehicular traffic and the only automobiles here are driven by small children.

Approaching the ticket booth I observed the ticket seller as I contemplated discussing with her the best seat to purchase. She appeared quite formidable, one who would be impatient with a time wasting ignorant foreigner.

So I looked around for help and, as has happened so often here readily found the answer in a guy who spoke fluent, flawless English just when I needed it. Sensing my dilema, he asked if I needed help and told me his companion was an expert on the layout of the seats.

So she spoke to the ticket clerk and I obtained a ticket that, as it turned out, couldn't have been better: An aisle seat (which I always prefer) In the second row (the first having sold out) of the balcony but with an unobstructed view of the stage succeeding rows being wider than preceding rows.  And, most importantly, I could extend my legs in to the aisle and lounge in great comfort. So it was better than a first row balcony seat which was a little cramped for leg room.

Exiting the opera house with the ticket purchase assisting couple, we talked briefly and they agreed to my taking  their picture. Discussing why I had chosen to come to Ukraine, I told them how I had become interested reading about the country's  well-publicized struggle for freedom, and said I believed that I had found in the beauty and charm of this country a rare discovery unknown to the vast majority of Americans.  He agreed and said that in fact most people from where I came didn't even know where Ukraine was. A comment with which I readily agreed since just 2 years ago, when in Turkey I talked to a Ukrainian Doctor I met riding back in the truck after a balloon flight, and I realized I didn't even quite know where it was even though it was directly across the Black Sea from Turkey.

Later I arrived a bit early at the Opera House in plenty of time to take pictures of its gorgeous and sumptuous old world interior.

At the performances end, the audience rewarded the performers with enthusiastic acclaim.

I spent much of the performance lounging in my perfect seat, deciphering the the subtitles (actually "overtitles") in Ukrainian Cyrillic.  Some of the words I recognized once pronounced (to myself) in the Latin alphabet.  As I walk the streets in Ukraine I try to read the signs and am ever so gradually getting better at doing this. This, I find, is quite satisfying.

And while I did this I found myself thinking about teaching English here.  I've done some studying on how to learn a foreign language. And I have some ideas of my own.  Among all the other ancillary benefits of teaching English at Ivano Franko University is the chance to try out some of these ideas.

The opportunity to teach English in Ukraine is looking more and more compelling.