My Farewell

No doubt about it. What I will miss most about Odessa, are the people I met here.

My very first day in Odessa was spent with Dawn; and you can't ask for a better welcome. We talked for hours that day, and I felt so 'cushioned' in my transition. Although I have many memories at the Freeland's- a day spent learning the art of collage, our Thanksgiving feast, a lunch with yummy salad and pumpkin soup.... I think it was that very first day that will remain with me forever.

Any time spent with Bob and Andrea were sure to be filled with laughter and fun. What an awesome couple; always a joy to be around. They are the couple I aspire to be! Our night of playing Pictionary could only be topped by their impromptu number of "Baby, It's Cold Outside!" Lunch at their house was the first home-cooked meal we had in Odessa- I'll never forget them, nor Abigail, Emily and Iris.

One of the dearest people in my life here has been Natalie, my boss- who has always been more of a friend to me than anything else. Always supportive, relentelessly caring (she offered to arrange for a physician when I called in sick one day!), and perpetually smiling. I will miss her as well as the wonderful teachers at the OLSC- Irina (who called me Antaruchka from the start), Alexis, Vickie, Natasha (such a gentle spirit!), Sveta (cutest son ever!), Marina... all were absolute sweethearts!

Then there's Helen; with whom I clicked with from the start. Whether we went out to lunch for some borsch, or spent time chit-chatting, or went out dancing at the Palladium; we always had fun together.

There are so many others; I couldn't possibly capture all the wonderful people in a blog entry.

So I'll end with a big THANK YOU to all the people who have come into our lives in Odessa.

Keep in touch! We will miss you!

Arun's Farewell

Today is my last day in Ukraine.
Feels like it was yesterday I landed in Odessa.
I remember all the questions I had when I reached the Continental Hotel late at night last September.

What would work be like?
What about the people I'll work with?
How will it be working with the Ukrainian people?

Then there were some very practical concerns:

How would I search for apartments?
Should I live downtown, as most expats did? Or closer to work?
There were barely any internet listings- not that I could understand it, if I tried.
I took a full month of apartment-hunting accompanied by my coworker Vova (interpretation help) before I finally settled down.

But really, that was just the beginning.

How do I set up internet? Once again, I relied on the Raytheon interpreters to help me locate the Tenet office. Even filling out the form was an obstacle because it was entirely in Russian, and I needed their help for even that simple task.
The TV channels were Russian news stations and Russian reality shows. I had my office-mate Sergei call someone to install the Satellite so I could at least have BBC and CNN (and yeah, a few Hindi programs too.)

In many ways, life here was a struggle and there are a few things I won’t miss. The smelly marshrutka buses (whenever people coughed, I always feared TB.) The stray dogs. The smoking.

But overall, if I was asked if I would do it again? Yes, I would.
I never realized how relaxing it is to walk to work. I would walk through the marketplace and by the time I reached work, I would feel clear-headed and ready to start. Compare that to battling traffic on highways or playing the Monday morning airport shuffle; and I realize how much simpler life was here. It also helps that work starts at 9 am rather than at 8 (that extra hour of sleep is nice.)

Language was a huge barrier.
But people were always willing to help.
We used to live in such a bubble in the US. Most people are busy with their own life and their own stresses- and there are a lot more of them there.

It was great to meet the close-knit expat American community here and we definitely made some new friends. It was so easy to spend time with people- you can just pick up the phone and get a group together for dinner. In the US, we would have to plan a dinner weeks in advance.

I will take a lot of great memories from my time here in Odessa and I learned a lot about the people and culture in this part of the world- all of which I will cherish throughout my career.

Dash to the Finish

Arun and I have been trying to enjoy our last few days in Odessa. We can't believe our adventure here is coming to an end!

Both of us are becoming increasingly nostalgic for our carefree days as expats.

So in the last few days, we've run around town eating at our favorite restaurants, visiting our favorite sights, and spending time with our friends.

Thought I'd share some of our latest photos of fun:

This building is called the 'one-wall' building because of the very odd angle that creates the optical illusion that is indeed, one-wall deep.

This bridge is called the "mother-in-law" bridge. As the story goes, the mayor built this bridge because he so enjoyed his mother-in-law's cooking that he wanted easy access for meals and therefore constructed this bridge between his home and his in-laws'. The bridge is now popular for newlyweds to come and place engraved locks on the rails. And when that couple has children, they add a little lock to it! Very cute!

If there's one restaurant I will miss the most in Odessa, it's Yokohama. They have a spicy shrimp that I crave and my absolute favorite dessert: molten chocolate cake with green tea ice cream. Ohhh how I'll miss this! (And yes, I did break into the cake before taking the picture.)

If there's one thing Arun will miss- it's the street-side Schwarmas that Ukrainians and Ex-pats avoid like the plague but Arun's absolutely addicted to.... hey- to each their own!

And of course, as Arun pointed out- we'll miss the interesting fashion. (The Fall knee-high stiletto boots over jeans is now being replaced with platform stiletto heels of Spring time)

We'll miss walking around town and simply running into random performers, neat churches, fun statues and beautiful architecture. We went to Primorsky Blvd and ran into a event showcasing Belarussian singers.

And finally- we'll miss being able to walk to Arkadia Beach.

Russ-lish and Eng-ian

One of the things that has been both incredibly endearing and entirely hilarious has been listening to the mis-steps of Expats in their attempts at Russian and those of Ukrainians speaking English.

On one of our first trip to McDonalds, Arun was trying to order us a medium-sized french fry.
"Kakoi?" she asked Arun, indicating the various sizes of containers.
"Uhhh...." Arun fumbled.
"Bolshoi?"
"Nyet!" Arun was at least relieved to be able to rule out the largest size.
"Malinchi?"... "Small?" she translated into English for him.
"Nyet!" Arun ruled out again.
"Oh!" she said with recognition, "In-the-middle!"
"Da!"

And bingo- we got our in-the-middle sized fries. Very fun!

On the flipside, there have been some hysterical mistakes on our part as well.
One evening, we went out to dinner with a large group of Arun's coworkers at a Ukrainian Restaurant. Dave was trying to join us and asked for the name of the restaurant.

Our fellow diner flipped over the Menu and said, "Oh, we're at Mihio's!"
The rest of the table burst out laughing.
The letterings on the menu cover were in Russian and spelled out the word, menu.

Some other common Ukrainian-English phrases and words that have struck me are:

• The pronounciation of the word 'clothes' (which we rhyme with hose or shows, but they pronounce with two syllables: clo--thes which rhymes more with bogus.)



• Using the phrase "make pictures" rather than "take pictures" but in many ways I love the word 'make' here because it seems more like an artistic creation.



• Using the word "many" instead of "a lot."

I'll end on one note- and its that I am grateful to all the Odessites who have put up with my attempts at speaking Russian over the past 6 months. I have mixed up "Ribyonik" with "Rabushka" and "Palitinza" with "Leiznitza" and numerous other vocabulary brain-freezes... and people have only been understanding and appreciative at my feeble attempts.

Krakow

Krakow wound up being a delightful surprise to us. Charming, yet uncrowded and a bit undiscovered! The people were amazingly warm and welcoming... and even the food was surprisingly good! We took a very long walking tour of Krakow and saw everything from the ancient Medieval walls to Oscar Schindler's factory. We were able to learn about the very tragic history involving the Jewish population of this city - but the heroic stories of resilience as well.

We stopped for Zapikanka and Peirogi every chance we got- how did we ever get through life without these delicious snacks??!

We took a couple of day trips. One was to Wieliczka which is home to the famous salt mines. It seems there are some incredibly talented sculptors amongst those miners because they managed to carve some of the most amazing figures hundreds of metres underground. We saw a giant salt Copernicus, amazing salt cathedrals, salt chandeliers, and even a salt Last Supper!

There were also some somewhat-creepy gnomes, and I'm hoping the kids liked those and weren't haunted by them in their nightmares. No? Just me?

The most powerful part of our trip was our visit to Aushwitz. We happened to be visiting the day before Holocaust Remembrance Day (when the site is reserved for survivors and other special guests) and it was simply compelling, emotional and moving to go through the site. There are images I'll never forget- pairs of glasses and suitcases left by victims who until the very last moment were deceived about their fate. The methodical dehumanization of so many innocent individuals. There was one particular story that our guide told us at Birkenau that finally put me over the edge and in tears- I'll let you discover it, if you're interested (A film called A Love in Aushwitz.)

Although we found Warsaw to be fairly sterile after Krakow, we definitely enjoyed our trip to Poland- a bit of a hidden gem still!

Prague

Prague simply takes your breath away.

It's as though you are walking through pages of a fairy-tale rather than a real city.

There seem to be countless nooks and crannies to explore on the gorgeous cobblestone pathways. The riverbanks are lined with red-shingled rooftops and views from the famed Charles Bridge are unsurpassed. Our hotel overlooked the Wawel Castle and when I awoke (Arun missed this because of course he was asleep) there was a gorgeous fog that hung over the city. The foggy mornings seemed only to add a mystique to the city and within a couple of hours, (when Arun finally got out of bed), there was clear blue skies.

Arun's choice of hotel was rather interesting- he chose a fantastic 4-star hotel (NOT a Hilton, gasp!) that is frequented by celebrities because it is out of the way. It stands on a hilltop and has an amazing view of the city but wasn't anywhere close to public transportation. When we trekked 15 minutes (uphill, no less) to the hotel, I turned around and asked Arun if he chose the hotel because it was in a good school district because although it was located in a very posh part of town, it was definitely not convenient for tourists. Sigh. Last minute travel plans and Arun doing the planning....

Still, the walking was rather delightful since Spring was in the air and there were gorgeous flowers and cherry blossoms in bloom everywhere.

Naturally, the romantic city is also filled with great restaurants and Arun certainly had his fill. We tried a Brazilian churascaria, a fantastic Indian restaurant and OF COURSE Chinese food! We could not resist grabbing a trudle pastry and gelato every chance we got!

The only drawback to this wonderful city is the fact that it is really TOO touristy. Everyone has already discovered this city and most of the time we found ourselves surrounded by Americans. At Wawel Castle we were shuffled through the throngs of tourists as well as at the Jewish Quarters. Reprieve seemed to come at around 3pm when most of the tour groups subsided. Prague is just not a 'best-kept secret' anymore. Prices of crystal were ridiculous and we decided to hold off for Poland to purchase our wares. The prices, however, didn't prevent Arun from purchasing this shirt- ha! Such a sap for tourist traps! (He proudly wore it to work too!)



We visited churches (goregous stained glass windows) and perused museums (original manuscripts of Beethoven!) and spent our evenings walking through the Old Town. I'll end on some random trivia that I learned:

• The Czech Republic has the highest density of castles in the world
• Bata Shoe store was founded here (largest shoe retailer and manufacturer)
• Freud was born here
• The soft contact lens and the sugar cube were invented here

Now go impress your friends! :)

So Very Lucky!

Yesterday evening, as I taught my final class at the OLSC, my students surprised me with flowers and candy. I was so incredibly touched and moved by the gesture. As I commuted home that evening, I reflected on just how incredibly lucky I have been in my places of employment.

Fresh out of undergrad, I applied for my first 'real' job at the Mental Health Association- the Village. Upon leaving, I received such a torrent of well-wishes from the entire organization. A huge party that was catered to my pescatarian diet. They even wrote a song to the tune of 'Bend it Like Beckham' (the movie had just been released) ! It was a very emotional time in my life and I will never forget the outpouring of support as I left for Michigan.

During Grad School, I received an EU externship in Athens. The friendships I made there have lasted me until this day. Dr. Merianou, Dr. Pavi, Aphrodite, Eleftheria, Matthew, Nikos still keep in contact with me. On my final evening in Athens, Eleftheria and I went out to dinner. We sat on an open-terrace overlooking the Parthenon and ate and drank wine late into the hours. It was unforgettable!

At THR, I had a one year fellowship upon finishing Grad School. Once again, the executives and my amazing colleagues threw an amazing farewell spread. Engraved mikasa crystal, a Fort Worth monopoly game, dozens of cards... I couldn't believe how much they had done for me.

When I left Children's Medical Center, once again my employees and coworkers moved me with their farewell. And now at the OLSC, I have teachers and students reaching out to me in so many touching ways. I have only been a part of their lives a few months, and yet their actions don't reveal that short tenure.

I realize what amazing organizations I have been a part of. More importantly, it speaks volumes about the people who stay in touch throughout the years, and care so deeply.

I am truly, very- very lucky.