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.
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