Kitten to a good home

 This is a sidewalk mall that reminds me of Minnesota. I think the difference between here and Moscow is that there is more open space here.

In Moscow, the city has largely eliminated the street side vendors and kiosk that sell everything from shoes to books to tools, etc. In Kiev, all that unregulated commerce is alive and well. Below is a picture of cherries, and man are they good! Strawberries are in season here, too. The season is mostly over in Tirana. Maybe I'll just travel around all over the world chasing the strawberry season.

In the metro, it is amazing that these people were able to get these kittens to sleep so nicely. I think they may have drugged them. But...as I walked up, one guy was walking away with one, and it looked fresh and happy. The sign says, "We are giving kittens to good hands." (In Russian) I was a bit worried about my lack of ability to speak Ukrainian. I don't think I'll have a problem. Everyone speaks Russian, and so far I haven't noticed any animosity toward Russia. I think the problems may be like all problems between countries. The people get along fine--it's the governments that cannot play nicely.

I visited an outdoor gym. All the weights were fastened to their stands with thick, heavy chains. The bar below is sagging like something from a cartoon. There were probably 50 big beefy dudes with their shirts off showing massive pectoral muscles. I told my friend, Anna, that it was like a meat market.

Here is Anna lifting a terribly heavy bar made from tires.

The meat market was on an island in the Dniper River. Next to the meat market was this large, sandy beach. 

These cats were on the wall of a passageway. 

Before I left, the stray cat who came to visit me often took advantage of the empty drawers:

Now you see him:

and

now

you

don't

French School

I've been working at a French school for 18 months. Below is a picture of all the teachers. This day was great--they said the picture would be taken at 9:00. As I walked to the door outside the school, I got a message that it was postponed indefinitely. Since I live next door to the school, I asked the secretary to send me a message when they were ready; I would have to interrupt a Skype lesson that I would be doing at home. I started the lesson, and turned off my phone so I wouldn't be bothered--completely forgetting about the picture. After 20 minutes, I remembered and turned on the phone. There was a message and a missed call. I buzzed over to the school and the teachers were all lined up. I stuck my nose in and I was done in 3 minutes.

The day I left, they threw an impromptu going away party. It was totally unexpected. The dude in the middle of the picture below, Geoffray, said to me quietly before the end of my class that he wanted to talk to me after the kids went out to recess. I was a little concerned, thinking that I had done something wrong, or NOT done something I was supposed to do. But I wasn't too worried because he was all smiley and such. 

After class, he told me how nice it was to have me, and how they were going to miss me, yada, yada, yada. I was supposed to meet with next year's teacher right then because I was expected at the Russian embassy to pick up my visa. Geoffray told me the teacher was outside at some meeting. I asked him to tell her that I would be waiting for her inside. He left, but then came back. He said I should really come down and talk to her myself. 

I got down the steps, turned a corner, and saw the whole school standing on both side of a corridor, cheering. It was great. It reminded me of last November when the Russian English camp made a tunnel for me to run around the room in to celebrate my birthday.

I was pleasantly and completely surprised by the whole affair. Unlike the stories that I have heard from some places, all of my interactions with French people have been nothing but wonderful. When I was in Paris, everyone was helpful and friendly. This spring, French guy rode his bike to Tirana during the same time when the frisbee evangelists were in Albania to introduce the game of Ultimate to the country. I joined them in trips around the country. Alexander joined us several times, too. Now, he's pulling a chiropractic table around the world behind his bike--a great guy.

Critical mass

Fire jugglers, dancing fountains. These are a couple things that gave Kiev some life last night. I think the boys, and their mother, are going to love it here. Not only are there 5 times as many people as in Tirana, but there is a critical mass that creates an explosion that means all kinds of activities can survive.