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Published: November 1st 2008
The best answer to why I haven't written anything since August is "I've just been too busy": when the law firm where I was working finalised a merger I found myself doing three jobs - translating, editing and proofreading - for two companies. I worked late most nights before going straight home to bed.
It was a stressful autumn, but there were good moments: sipping hot chocolate with Ana on Saturday evenings in the
Shokoladnitsa café on
vulytsya Chervonoarmiyska; finding a homeless puppy at the entrance to our building one Friday night and taking care of it for a few days; seeing Jamie, a friend who I studied with in Russia, when he came to Kyiv in September, and taking him to the Champions League football match between Dynamo and Arsenal; bumping into Kish, a Ukrainian pop star, in the fruit juice aisle of my local supermarket.
But the good moments could not completely distract me. The translations that piled up on my desk became surreally lugubrious (how many percent the Kharkiv paper factory had increased its production of toilet paper by, the value of shares in the Kremikovtsi steel mill in Bulgaria, the subtle differences between Italian and
Ukrainian ravioli...), and the job that I used to love began to make me bad tempered and exhausted.
So I quit the job, left Ukraine, and flew home. I will remember my thirteen months in Kyiv as the most rewarding and exciting of my life, but I needed a rest.
This isn't the end of my blog: I still have notes and dozens of photos from a trip to Budapest in July, which I will turn into three articles as soon as I can. I will also keep writing when I get back to Ukraine, which will be (new job permitting) early next year.
At night when I couldn't sleep, I sat in my kitchen and wrote about some people I met on my way back from Hungary. I think that, of all my experiences in Ukraine, it makes for the best story. You can find it
here.
Some of my other journals that were written with a bit more energy: Much Ado About Russian. Harry Potter and the Source of my Inspiration. Confessions of a Pignapper. From Hell on Earth to the Moon of Dreams. Cool But True. Take A Sad Song, And Make It Better. My International Friendship Shorts. .
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TeamTurner
Michael & Kelley Turner
Wishing You The best
Jonathan, Love the new pics, obviously the new Canon is treating you well. Sorry to hear about the job but maybe it was for the best. I hope the future is bright for you! Keep up the blog. Mike T.