Ukraine Bulletin #4

February 20, 2007

Well, I taught my first class today. I had about 17 students, and two professors sat in on the class, too. We did some ice breaking exercises and a short in-class writing assignment. We discussed class expectations and academic honesty and the syllabus. The students also contributed to a discussion, so I feel we are off to a good start. My full schedule (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons) begins next week.

Mud season is here. It’s hard to believe we will get much more snow. The weather is warm-ish (25-35 or so Fahrenheit). There is garbage and litter everywhere. We haven’t figured out if there is any regular pick-up or clean up.

Yesterday I met with the history department and we had a good discussion of their system, research possibilities and obstacles, and their future plans for conferences. I have brought many books and resources which I hope will be useful to them.

I plan to travel around Ukraine on weekends – I might start this weekend as David flies home Thursday. I can visit other Fulbrighters around the country. It is a huge country, though, and some visits will take 12-24 hours by fast train!

There have been some surprising bits of information.

Most of the rural land here is owned by Ukraine. The farmers lease their land, but they cannot buy it or own it (yet). Imagine a country having that resource and wealth all tied up in land. What an opportunity! But also, how to “allow” farmers to buy their land? Apparently, they cannot get loans to do so.

Students often go to a university, then attend graduate school there, defend their dissertation there, and begin teaching as a professor in the same university. In other words, they defend their dissertation, become a professor, and are pretty automatically hired. So they know the university well when they begin teaching there. Needless to say, the faculty know them well, too.

I am teaching in the International Relations Department (among others), in International Economics. From what I can gather, it is an international business and marketing degree, although they do study economics, as well. The same department keeps track of foreigners and exchange students in the university, and acts as an arm of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (i.e., the police). I register with them, and they know my whereabouts.

We have found the “Window on America” at the local library, which has books, CDs, VHS and DVDs in English – all can be checked out. They also have audio-visual equipment, a boom box, Internet access, printing and Xeroxing. They function as a meeting place, and have a nice seminar table. Although it has limited hours, it is quieter and less smoky than the Internet cafes and wireless malls. It was ironic to finally find it one morning, only to see that the “Window on America” was locked with a huge padlock. It is funded by the U.S. Embassy, in case you wanted to know where .00005 percent of your tax dollar goes.

We also now have cable television, including BBC, National Hockey League Games, and German public television. In fact, we’re not sure exactly what we have, as we need to scan the channels and see. David’s watching something about rugby or “football”(soccer).

Update, February 19: David is home in Vermont now for a few weeks. He can be reached at 802 229 1879. The best way to reach us in Ukraine is our gmail addresses: linda.b.gray@gmail.com and healy.david.j@gmail.com.

We’d love to hear from you!

Linda