New Beginnings

Session B began on Tuesday, leaving us with a free day on Monday-- so the summer school planned the day for us with a tour of L'viv and an icon-painting workshop.

The tour supposedly revolved around the theme of coffee, although really it seemed to be more of a tour of the interesting places in L'viv. The tour guide knew we had all spent time in L'viv before, and did her best to introduce us to new places and facts. She also obliged when we requested more Ukrainian in the tour so that we could practice, so the tour was given in a mixture of Ukrainian and English. Although it was ridiculously hot and the tour involved two hours of walking, it was nonetheless enjoyable.

The four corners of Rynok Square are decorated with four fountains featuring figures from Greek/Roman mythology. Neptune is a common meeting place. 

My friend Alex talks to pigeons. They're his friends. We don't ask.

Miniature sculptures like this are scattered around L'viv. It is believed that if you take a picture with one, you will find love.

The ceiling of the Apteka (Pharmacy) Museum is decorated with paintings depicting the four Greek elements: Water, Fire, Air, and Earth.

The Water painting

The Pharmacy Museum also boasted a small collection of these beautiful antique typewriters. Can you guess the exotic locale from which they originally came?????

You guessed it! The very same town that all the best things (and people!) come from!!! ;)

Yup! NCR.

Another miniature statue

We also visited the "Italiysky Dvory" or "Italian yard/garden," which my friend Mariya had shown us a few weeks ago. It's designed to look like,...well... an Italian courtyard!

After lunch, we went over to the L'viv Icon Museum and climbed down into the blessedly air-conditioned basement, where we made some icons out of glass.

First, we traced the design with black ink, and a fixatif was sprayed onto it. Then, the colors were painted in layers, so that each color could be painted on top of the ones that came before it.

The finished product didn't look so pretty from the back side-- but that's because so many other colors and shapes were under the paint!

My finished icon from the right side-- it's St. Nicholas!

Halfway Gone

Our summer school program has reached its halfway point already. I can't believe it!

After classes on Thursday, I joined in a school excursion to Shevchenkisky Hai, which is an open-air architecture museum. I've already been there a few times, but never with a tour guide.

The monument to Taras Shevchenko, Ukraine's most legendary poet and artist, for whom the park was named.
Fun fact: last year one of my biggest research projects was about monuments to Shevchenko-- so I have a lot of pictures like this :))

The newest house in the museum, which belonged to the village's richest man. It is covered from top to bottom with intricate carvings.

One of the carved symbols, a tree with stars in its branches.

Some real livestock to add to the authenticity of the experience ;)

A beautifully preserved wooden church from the Carpathian mountains

I enjoyed the brief tour, which taught me many interesting facts about life in Carpathian villages of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Friday was a red-letter day. The end of the first half of the six-week summer program, it marked the departure of the students who had only signed up for session A (the first three weeks) of the program. As a result, our usual Friday exam was entirely atypical. Instead of meeting in class at 9 am, we met in the center at 9:30 am. Then our class (by this time only 5 people) was divided into teams, and we were put on a sort of scavenger hunt throughout the city. My friend Alex, who was my partner in this escapade, had to complete the following: First, to go to a candy shop on the square and ask for the names and prices of the most expensive, cheapest, and most popular candies. Next, we had to walk along the north side of the square and record the names of the buildings. Then we had to go into the Apteka (Pharmacy) Museum (which, incidentally, also contains a functioning pharmacy), and ask what the pharmacist would recommend for a headache or sore throat. Then we had to visit the post office and ask what stamps they had which depicted famous Ukrainians or cities in Ukraine. Then we had to find a particular monument and record the name of the person. Finally, we had to visit a local hostel and ask them how many beds they had available, whether showers and bathrooms were available, and whether coffee and tea were provided. After that, we all met up at Tsukernia once more, and took our written exam.

That night we had another dinner, very similar to the one we had the week before, to say goodbye to the students who were leaving. Again, it was at Ratusha (town hall) the new restaurant which recently opened in L'viv's Ratusha.

This photo courtesy of the Ukrainian Language and Culture School at the Ukrainian Catholic University-- the three people at the closest end of the table with me, aka the people with whom I've spent every waking hour of the last 3 weeks, are at least 12 kinds of awesome (AT LEAST 12. I'm not sure of the exact number. ;)

After our fancy celebratory dinner, we moseyed over to Pravda, the new beer factory that recently opened on Rynok Square. We drank beer, listened to the band (they were phenomenal!), and enjoyed one another's company. I have here a short video of the experience. I believe it captures better than anything else the complete Zen that is life in L'viv for me this summer. I hope this video makes you as happy as I was sitting there.

As for the rest of the weekend... well..!

Saturday, as you know, was the Fourth of July. It was also the first day since our arrival when the weather actually felt like summer. We did some souvenir shopping, enjoyed some to-die-for mint lemonade at a restaurant on Rynok Square called Centaur, followed by a beer at Biliy Lev (The White Lion). I was infinitely glad I'd brought along two packages of glow bracelets, two mini American flags, and a pair of hilariously cheesy blinking American-flag glasses. We enjoyed these things a little too much (as you will see in forthcoming photographs.)

After a brief stop back at Pravda for another beer, we found our way to an American-themed restaurant called Americans. We were the only Americans there.

The most American photo I may have ever taken of me

The staff of the restaurant was visibly excited to have REAL LIVE AMERICAN CUSTOMERS on the 4th of July. They gave us two free bottles of beer to celebrate. "Did the burger taste like burgers in America?" the waitress asked us nervously. Although some of my friends apparently disagreed because they liked their burgers rare, for me the answer was yes. My favorite part of the restaurant was the photograph on the wall that claimed to be "the view from the empire state building" except that one could clearly see the empire state building in the picture. :)) I really wanted to photograph it, but the glare made it impossible.

Sunday was excruciating, since it was our friend Wojtek's last day in L'viv. We made it a mission to send him off right. The day started with Liturgy at a monastery in town, where he and Alex had made friends with some of the nuns. The rest of the day was spent hopping from one to another of the best places in town, and boy, did we outdo ourselves-- we got pastries, then mint lemonade at centaur, then stew and salad at hasova lampa (the gas lantern), then desserts at Liviy Bereh (the Left Bank, under the opera house), and topped it off (fittingly, since it was our regular haunt) with chocolate at the L'vivske Chocolate Factory, before finally taking him to the bus station.

And then there were three. And we drowned our sorrows in pizza and beer at Celentano, leaving us with nothing but to rest in preparation for the beginning of session B!

Twelve Nights (and days) in L'viv

Have I really been here for two weeks already? Well, no, because I arrived three days late. But on Friday, the Summer School of Ukrainian Language and Culture celebrated the end of its second week of classes, and the departure of the handful of students who were only doing a two-week program. And I realized that it was high time that I updated my blog with actual adventures in Ukraine, and not just on the way there!

The last ten days or so have been a whirlwind of learning, fun, sightseeing, shopping, and eating. Okay, so mostly eating. Lots and lots of eating.

a breakfast cooked by my host mom: Varenyky filled with potatoes, plus tea with homemade strawberry jam

The Ukrainian word for the month of June is "Cherven," derived from "Chervony," the word for "red." I'll bet you can't guess why.

Melted milk chocolate with coconut from the L'viv Chocolate Factory, which we have patronized almost every night :)

Georgian food!! Mmmmm

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Strawberry cake at Tsukernia, one of the best sweet shops in L'viv-- and that is saying something!

Fortunately, all that eating has been balanced out with lots of adventures!

Since I was late to the program, I was a little worried that the students who had arrived on time would already have formed cliques and I'd have a hard time making friends. Fortunately, that was not the case. A casual introduction to two guys in my class brought me into a small group which are already some of the best friends I've had in my life. We've been going out every day after class and having adventures in the city.

The first night after I arrived, Thursday, there was a planned school excursion to the L'viv Opera House to watch the ballet Romeo and Juliet. It was a pretty nice show, with great music, quality dancing, and in my opinion, some interesting wardrobe and makeup choices. (Photographs were prohibited during the show, so these photos are from the opera's official site, opera.lviv.ua)

from opera.lviv.ua

We enjoyed the ballet, but we'd really wanted to see a real Ukrainian opera in Ukrainian. So the following Sunday, we returned to see "Zhaporozhets' za Dunayem" or "Zaporozhian across the Danube." Although I couldn't understand everything, I could follow the story, and of course I could still enjoy the dancing, singing, and costumes!

We also visited Vysoky Zamok, the "High Castle," and "Lysy Hory," "forested mountain," both of which have tremendous views of the city.

We also returned to Lychakivske Cemetery, which I'm pretty sure accounts for about half the photos on my blog at this point. :)) I love that place!!!

We also revisited the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, which is finally being restored. We also got the chance to look in on the chapel of the Boim family, which I have walked by hundreds of times and photographed the outside, but never entered.

Of course this is only a small sampling of the amazing things there are to do and see in L'viv. I apologize for being too busy to update, but I hope I will do so more frequently in the future!

Trapped at "Liberty" Airport

My first great adventure on this trip occurred before I even arrived at my destination. Well, maybe I was SUPPOSED to have arrived at my destination... but the problem was that, see, I couldn't.

The tickets I'd purchased through the Star Alliance (United Airlines + Lufthansa, a German airline) ran thus (I was in Ithaca for my cousin's wedding, so I left from there):

Depart Ithaca 10:20 am

Arrive Newark 11:30 am

Depart Newark 5:25 pm

Arrive Munich 7:30 am (-6 hours)

Depart Munich 8:55 am

Arrive L'viv 11:35 am (-1 hour)

So simple. I have done this route three times before with nary a problem. Well, except that one time that United's computer system went down nationwide and I was held up for 4 hours or so. Anyway, I got to Newark with no problems. But THEN...

That first night my plane was delayed seven times. It was pushed back half-hour by half hour "due to aircraft maintenance," until it was finally cancelled around 10:30 pm. I went to talk to a customer service rep around 7 pm, at which point I knew I was going to miss my connection in Munich. He was unable to find me any other options, and went ahead and booked me the same route the next day in case the flight should be cancelled. He offered to put me up in a Newark hotel then and there, but as I would rather have been stranded in Munich than New Jersey, I decided to wait and see if the plane came. It did not. So then I waited in line for two hours until I finally received a voucher for a hotel and three food vouchers worth $7. What can you buy at an airport for $7? The answer is: just about nothing. The hotel was decent, a little shabby and right next to a prison, but hey, it was New Jersey. I got in around 12:30 and slept.

On Monday I left the hotel around 11. Since my flight wasn't until 5:25, I went to the airport to check my bag, then grabbed a bus to Newark Penn Station to take the PATH train out to see my friend Talia, who is currently interning for The New Yorker. I saw the new building at One World Trade Center and even got to go inside it-- to ride its futuristic elevators, and dine in the Conde Nast cafe on the 35th floor with a beautiful view of Manhattan and the Hudson Bay. Security was tight-- even after Talia had verified that she'd invited me, I had to show an ID, allow them to take my photograph, and to x-ray my bags.

It was humbling and haunting to stand below the new "Freedom Tower"

From the Conde Nast cafe on the 35th floor you could see all the way to the Statue of Liberty (right side, middle)

Talia was doing a summer internship at The New Yorker, so I got to see their offices!

After lunch and a brief tour of The New Yorker office, Talia had to get back to work. I was apprehensive about making the hour-long commute back to the airport in time for my flight, so I didn't take much time for sightseeing. I did, however, walk down to the end of the street to see the Irish Potato Famine memorial.

The top of the memorial resembled a piece of the Irish landscape, with a crumbling stone house

Underneath the garden was a wall engraved with quotations from newspapers about the famine.

"Our potato crop is lost without exception I believe throughout Ireland"

One enters the memorial from below, so that they come out from a dark tunnel engraved with quotations into the sunny, green "Irish countryside."

The overall effect was quite moving.

After visiting the memorial, I hurried back to the airport via train and bus to ensure that I could get through security and wouldn't miss my 5:25 flight.

I shouldn't have bothered.

Shortly before we were supposed to board, we were informed that our plane had come in from Venice, but due to weather had been diverted to JFK. Thus we had to wait for the plane to be "cleaned off" and "ferried" over to Newark. The flight was delayed. And delayed. And delayed. Five times. Until finally, around 11:30, the plane arrived. We were elated. The staff rushed us on board, telling us to hurry because they were facing "crew legality issues." By midnight we were all seated, and the plane had pulled away from the gate.

...then the pilot came on and announced that she was unfortunately unable to fly the plane, because she had been on the clock to long and was legally mandated to have a break. So we went back to the gate and got deboarded. And so, for the second night in a row, I got in line at the United Customer Service counter.

Except, unlike the previous night, it was half past midnight instead of 10:30, AND the flight at the gate next to ours had also been cancelled, so there were twice as many customers in line. Evidently many flights had been cancelled in the area due to weather-- we were informed that all hotels in the area were full and thus we couldn't get vouchers. Instead we were given pillows and blankets to sleep in the terminal. By the time I finally got through the line to be rebooked, it was 3 am. By the time I was actually rebooked it was 4:30. The problem was that if they had simply rebooked me to the next day's Munich flight, there would be no flight from Munich to L'viv until Friday, meaning I would be stuck in Munich for three days. When I asked if the airline would put me up for that long, I was told no. It seemed my best bet for getting to L'viv was to go through Vienna, but all flights to Vienna the next day were full. Finally, I got tickets to Munich (again!) then to Vienna, then to L'viv. And then I spread out my Turkish bath towel in a relatively quiet corner of the terminal and tried to get some sleep.

Of course, by this time it was nearly 5 am, and people were arriving for 6 am flights, so it was bright and noisy. Regardless, I slept a few hours, then wandered in search of the new terminal for my third plane to Munich. This time, United had added an entire extra flight to Munich, and it consisted entirely of people who had been on one or both of the cancelled flights. This was when I found out, through talking to other passengers, that some had actually gotten hotel vouchers-- they had just needed to find the hotel themselves and United had covered it-- but still they hadn't gotten to the hotel rooms until something like 5 am.

By this time my stack of boarding passes, itineraries, and vouchers had gotten frankly ridiculous.

Our third flight was again delayed twice due to baggage issues and weather. As we left more than an hour late, I was sure I would miss my connection in Munich, but I didn't care. I just was glad to be out of Newark. Like most of the customers who had faced more than one mishap, I had been upgraded to Economy Plus so I had more legroom, and there was an empty seat next to me, so I was able to sprawl out. I slept for nearly the whole flight.

Thankfully, we had made up some of the time on the flight, and my connection in Munich to Vienna was delayed, so I did catch it. I was slightly terrified my luggage would be lost, but it wasn't. Words can't express the joy I felt when, after FOUR DAYS of travel (and three days without a good night's sleep, a decent meal, a shower, or brushing my teeth!) I FINALLY made it to L'viv!!!

A more welcome sight I never did see.

Upon my arrival I was met by a student from the University, who escorted me to the home where I would be staying. I took a shower, ate some borshch and varenyky prepared for me by my new host mom, Pani Irena, and then I fell asleep. At 6 pm. I felt it was justified.