There's No Place Like Home

Did we ever think we would be so happy to be in Kansas? Carter and Lea returned on December 7 after a challenging journey home. Their plane left L'viv late, apparently its standard operating procedure, and they missed the connection in Frankfurt. Lea's advocacy skills (and a little bit of begging) came into play as she secured them seats on another airline's flight through Chicago and then a third airline's flight from Chicago to Kansas City. Amazingly, they made it to Kansas City shortly after their original flight would have arrived. Completely exhausted, they came home to find a cat who was truly unhappy to see the toddler return to chase her. Carter's comment upon arrival in his room was "look at all these toys!"

For the last few days, they have been catching up on sleep, grocery shopping, and housework. Returning home was like a step forward in time. Of course, some things were obvious steps forward that they expected - a dishwasher, a clothes dryer [Yes - no climbing up and down off a chair to hang laundry, no stretched out, cardboard-like clothes], water you can drink straight from a tap, packaged food at the store, and decent roads with reasonable drivers.

But more interesting was the small step forward - about two weeks. When they left L'viv, a small number of modest Christmas decorations were going up around town. Arrival at O'Hare airport was a shock. Every inch of the place was seemingly covered in lights and other signals of the upcoming holiday. Christmas ads and catalogs abound in the newspaper and in the mail, and Christmas decorations are everywhere in the shops. While L'viv doesn't really celebrate Christmas until January, it will still not have these ostentatious displays. It was actually nice to miss a great deal of the commercial Christmas hype this year. Maybe leaving the country during Advent would be wise every year!

Smackdown, Ukrainian Style

As Erik has been working assiduously on his book, he has also been watching the Ukrainian parliament sessions on television. As you may recall, the election in September gave the Orange Revolution forces a bare majority in parliament (assuming that they could keep their deputies in line). The new parliament opened and began its work to set up committees, elect a speaker, and choose the prime minister. All of these decisions have been controversial, none more so than the selection of the prime minister.

Over the last few days, the debate has heated up and boiled over. In the initial vote on Yuliya Tymoshenko's candidacy as prime minister, she received only 225 votes - one short of the required majority. As the vote was taking place, the speaker of parliament's card for recording his vote was taken by another member of parliament, preventing him from voting. Tymoshenko's party also alleged that the electronic voting system was rigged. The parliament is now debating the appropriateness of a re-vote based on existing laws and regulations, and whether or not this may be done by voice rather than using the electronic voting equipment. The proposed re-vote was delayed by a blockade of the dais, preventing the speaker from taking his place yesterday. Today, while a member of parliament was charging the speaker with violations of the law and regulations, his time ran out and the mic turned off (the speaker has been cutting off long-winded people all morning, with a 1-minute time limit on speeches). The deputy refused to leave the podium without a chance to finish his speech, and almost came to blows with another member of parliament who tried to physically remove him. Some photos of the drama are available on the Korrespondent.net site.

While the goings-on are chaotic and sometimes childish, the debate over procedures is actually refreshing. The idea that proper procedure should be followed seems basic, but the rule of law is a concept that is slowly catching on.

Героям Слава!

With these words, you too can gain entry to the fairly new, hip underground cafe in L'viv - Kriyivka. The vice rector's son clued us in on the cafe's whereabouts, but it was full when we tried to go with Carter (or, we were rejected because Carter was in tow). Erik made plans to go with Ewa, another Fulbright scholar in L'viv, and they trekked out in the cold rain to check the place out today.

The entrance is unmarked, in a building on Rynok Square. As you approach the darkened doorway, a motion-sensor trips and a small floodlight turns on. You tap the door and a small hole opens, with a rifle-muzzle pointed through. The guard prompts you to deliver the password, and lets you in. After assuring the guards that there are no Russians with you, each visitor takes a complementary shot of vodka, then descends into the basement. The cafe is designed to look like a bunker used by UPA (the Ukrainian partisan army that we wrote about previously), complete with real decommissioned weapons (at least I hope they are decommissioned - the pistol had blank rounds in it). It also has many photos of UPA soldiers, like the one above. The cafe is controversial on both sides of the UPA debate. It glorifies a group that some Ukrainians think was villainous, and it trivializes an era that many locals think was a glorious, but doomed, fight for freedom.

We found a table in a room that was not too smoky (one of the hazards of being in a popular club) and sat down. As we got settled, some young men came in and asked us to move to an adjacent table so that they could accommodate their friends. We moved, but were then told by staff that our new table was reserved. So, we struck a few poses, chatted with some of the patrons (including the young men who evicted us from our table), and then eventually sauntered off without snacking.

The More Things Change...

Erik has collected a few historic photos of our neighborhood that are prints developed from the original negatives (taken from 1900-1915). What is quite astonishing is how little the center of L'viv has changed in 100 years.



The first photo above features our apartment building in 1905, and the second photo shows it in 2007. Aside from having an extra floor on top and an alley where there was a storefront, the building has not changed much in over a century. The angle on the contemporary photo is different because a tree now blocks the view of the original photographer.



Taking a left out of our apartment entrance, and walking 2-3 blocks on Prospekt Svobody, leads you to the gem of our street: the L'viv Opera House. As you can see from the photos above, the Opera House has undergone some renovation over the last 100 years (note how smooth parts of the building are now), but the basic features of the facade remain the same. The tramvai line on our street is long gone, however, and smoke no longer billows out of the chimney (barely visible to the left and rear of the building).



If you were to turn right out of the apartment entrance, you would be heading in the direction of the market that we frequent: the Halitskiy Rynok. This market is the home of the Cheese Lady and the Ham Lady, and the Bread Lady has a kiosk nearby. The market is not visible in this photo, but it is just to the right as you approach the church. The large streetlight is gone, replaced by ugly overhead wiring, and modern autos (even a marshrutka) are visible in the contemporary photo. In many ways, though, L'viv is as it was at the turn of the last century.

One More Stroll Through Town

On the last day of Lea and Carter's visit to L'viv, we decided to do some of our favorite things one more time. We strolled through the old town, pausing on Rynok Square to feed the birds, and attended a puppet show. Appropriately, the show was a fantasy history of L'viv, starring the royal for whom the city was named and a real lion. The "Dva Levi [Two Lions]" duked it out, then united to beat a common foe. They decided to become friends and allies, with one serving as king of the humans and the other as king of the animals.

Also on the last day, Carter decided to learn the Ukrainian alphabet. Why he waited until the last day, we will never know. He spent time finding the letters in the dictionary, and writing out Ukrainian letters. He now knows several letters, comparing the "Ukrainian" letters with "our" letters.

Erik picked up some cheese for syrniki and made them for dinner. While they are typically a breakfast item, it was a perfect final meal in L'viv. This morning, we loaded everything up in the university van and headed to the airport. Lea and Carter are now on their long journey home.