Blogs from Maidan Nezalezhnosti, Kyiv, Ukraine, Europe

Kyiv, Ukraine Wednesday – left directly from school – QSI International School of Minsk - 19 of us teachers flew Belavia from Minsk, Belarus to Kyiv, Ukraine – 1 hour 1 hour time change back money change at the airport would only change $100 because they only had very small bills 15 hryvnia/$1US – Ukrainian money I received all 20 hryvnia bills each a little more than $1 fat pile – I could barely squeeze them in my wallet arrive by school bus to “luxurious” 7 Days Hotel small double bed and 1 cot request for a bigger bed so Kevin and I could sleep together met with “all reserved” back to ‘non-smoking’ room – carpet covered in cigarette burns but relatively comfortable supermarket on 1st floor breakfast on 2nd floor with a health club buildings ... read more

Pok - pok - pok - pok - pok - pok - pok! - the sounds drifting through the chestnut trees outside my new building from games of tennis on the clay courts nearby are a soft Saturday morning wake-up call. The new neighbourhood is a refined one: sometimes a red squirrel appears in the tree opposite our balcony, or a husband and wife step into the courtyard below and help their toddler to practice walking. More often than not the bells of the Kievo-Pecherska Lavra chime loudly; the place is a calm village in the centre of a thrusting city. The flat is cosy, too. Creaky chairs and a table sit in the narrow, mint green kitchen. It has a wide windowsill, on which I spent sleepless spring nights reading Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's 'One Day in ... read more