I feel like I have lived on
So I enjoy speaking to young Americans for hours, eating at dinners for students and mastering my new laptop, chatting with some Ukrainians via internet and shopping.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Today is a visits day
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Novosti in Russian- dialog format
me: ja sizhu v methodist house dla studentiv pisla obidu
internet pochti na sharu- wi-fi
kupil notebook vchera za 300 usd po4ti novij
Marina: хорошая штука wifi
me: nado poslat novosti naq svoj sajt
ti probovala wi-fi?
u nas eto eshe v budushem
vchera bil na bible study u presbyterianzev v soseddnem dome- tam kormili
Marina: не пробовала. у нас в чернигове есть точки. в гостинице центральной есть ресторан, там иностранцы часто с лептопами сидят
me: ja poka bez roboti
ja tozhe sizhu s laptopom i tozhe po4ti inostranez
batareja sqadiza
nado exat razdavat resume i iskat rabotu
Marina is typing…
Monday, November 26, 2007
NEWs-Relocation to Old Dominion University area
I failed to post the typed text from this public library- too bad- text got lost and I run out of time on interent here.
I moved to an old shabby cheap rent house near very big rich university with lots of Asian students in Norfolk. I filled out applications for peanuts restaurant jobs nearby.
Bye
I moved to an old shabby cheap rent house near very big rich university with lots of Asian students in Norfolk. I filled out applications for peanuts restaurant jobs nearby.
Bye
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Letter from Ukraine
Ken Sears
to me
show details
3:57 am (3 hours ago)
No, I don't object at all to being "posted" on your blog, Taras! I'm honored!
I suppose you could never be accused of a "crime" for posting someone's e-mail on your blog without their permission, though there are always Americans who are ready to sue "at the drop of a hat". We're an obsessively litigious society, always looking to be offended and then get our "day in court". I think perhaps we are subconsciously guilty over our comfort and want to compensate for it by feeling like victims. The human heart is desperately convoluted (possibly a better translation than "wicked", from the verse in Jeremiah); who can understand it?
We didn't do anything here for Thanksgiving Day - we're far too busy to artificially inject an American holiday into our Ukrainian routine. I did get a few slightly sappy e-mails from some Americans hoping I wouldn't be "alone for the holiday". Along with being litigious, we can also be rather sentamentalistic, not to mention ethnocentric. It's almost heresy for me to tell them there was nothing special about the day and no reason to be any more or less "alone" than any other day. It's hard for Americans to genuinely conceive that the whole world isn't celebrating their holiday. At the same time, nobody in America even notices March 8th, when most of the rest of the world is celebrating Women's Day. This cultural myopia is one of America's less attractive features. In America's defense, though, I have to say I've encountered no less myopia in Ukraine and other countries concerning the ways of peoples beyond their borders. Ukrainians have told me things that they "knew" about American society which were as fantastic as anything from a Ray Bradbury novel. But these Ukrainians knew it for sure, and nothing - including the facts - could change their mind. So, all people are the same; most of us comfort ourselves with the belief that all reality conforms to the familiar structure of life we've managed to build around us.
Well, what do you know, Taras: you inspired me to more reflection. But I won't be offended if you don't put that on your blog, too! I'm not auditioning for a part that will get my name up in lights!
All for now, then. Today I turned 50 years old. Getting together with some friends this evening for an Irish-style boiled dinner - my suggestion; I hope they don't hate it.
Blessings!Ken
to me
show details
3:57 am (3 hours ago)
No, I don't object at all to being "posted" on your blog, Taras! I'm honored!
I suppose you could never be accused of a "crime" for posting someone's e-mail on your blog without their permission, though there are always Americans who are ready to sue "at the drop of a hat". We're an obsessively litigious society, always looking to be offended and then get our "day in court". I think perhaps we are subconsciously guilty over our comfort and want to compensate for it by feeling like victims. The human heart is desperately convoluted (possibly a better translation than "wicked", from the verse in Jeremiah); who can understand it?
We didn't do anything here for Thanksgiving Day - we're far too busy to artificially inject an American holiday into our Ukrainian routine. I did get a few slightly sappy e-mails from some Americans hoping I wouldn't be "alone for the holiday". Along with being litigious, we can also be rather sentamentalistic, not to mention ethnocentric. It's almost heresy for me to tell them there was nothing special about the day and no reason to be any more or less "alone" than any other day. It's hard for Americans to genuinely conceive that the whole world isn't celebrating their holiday. At the same time, nobody in America even notices March 8th, when most of the rest of the world is celebrating Women's Day. This cultural myopia is one of America's less attractive features. In America's defense, though, I have to say I've encountered no less myopia in Ukraine and other countries concerning the ways of peoples beyond their borders. Ukrainians have told me things that they "knew" about American society which were as fantastic as anything from a Ray Bradbury novel. But these Ukrainians knew it for sure, and nothing - including the facts - could change their mind. So, all people are the same; most of us comfort ourselves with the belief that all reality conforms to the familiar structure of life we've managed to build around us.
Well, what do you know, Taras: you inspired me to more reflection. But I won't be offended if you don't put that on your blog, too! I'm not auditioning for a part that will get my name up in lights!
All for now, then. Today I turned 50 years old. Getting together with some friends this evening for an Irish-style boiled dinner - my suggestion; I hope they don't hate it.
Blessings!Ken
Friday, November 23, 2007
About blogs and Thanksgiving
Hi, Taras!
Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day - your first, I guess, wasn't it?
This is just a quick note, as I'm rushing to get to work.
Was thinking about the pastor's comments that blogging was a pursuit of fame. I don't doubt that it is in many, perhaps most, cases. On the other hand, it can also be a wonderful "storage place" for one's thoughts and reflections (the same pastor would probably be in favor of "journaling", a popular practice among evangelicals). It can be a place to leave a "testament" for one's loved ones, and, in fact, not even let anyone know about it until... "then". And in fact, many "bloggers" blog in complete anonymity, so they are clearly not trying to get "known"; at least, they're not trying to achieve "name-recognition".
Ultimately, though, the "blog world" - like television, the nuclear bomb and fast food - is "there", it exists, "the cat is out of the bag" and the there's no getting the cat back in the bag, sermons or no sermons. So it's up to each person how to relate to it. Ironically, if everyone gets "famous" then no one will be famous, and perhaps blogworld will prove to be a great leveller. Again, when everyone is able, so easily, to get his or her name "up in lights", as the saying goes, then it doesn't mean anything anymore. Very few people could get their faces up on the big screen in the golden days of Hollywood. More, but still a limited number, could get their faces on the small screen in the golden days of television. In the golden days of the blog, everybody can get his "face" on the computer screen, and so... it's hardly "fame" anymore. Blogworld will less resemble the glowing neon marquees of Broadway, where the names of the chosen few radiate "fame", than it will resemble the sidewalks underneath the marquees, where millions of unknowns pass each other every day. We're still, relatively speaking, in the early days of infatuation with this novelty. It's going to settle into its place before long, however, and when it does, anyone who says, "Guess what - I've got a blog!" will be laughed at for his naivete, as much as if he had said, "Guess what! I've got a refrigerator!"
Well, those are my few short reflections on the pastor's fears about blogs. Then again, a pastor does need to have something to preach on, comment on, warn against, give the "biblical view" on - and every Sunday! So you can be sure that he will.... Not all the sermons will be equally momentous.
Ken
Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day - your first, I guess, wasn't it?
This is just a quick note, as I'm rushing to get to work.
Was thinking about the pastor's comments that blogging was a pursuit of fame. I don't doubt that it is in many, perhaps most, cases. On the other hand, it can also be a wonderful "storage place" for one's thoughts and reflections (the same pastor would probably be in favor of "journaling", a popular practice among evangelicals). It can be a place to leave a "testament" for one's loved ones, and, in fact, not even let anyone know about it until... "then". And in fact, many "bloggers" blog in complete anonymity, so they are clearly not trying to get "known"; at least, they're not trying to achieve "name-recognition".
Ultimately, though, the "blog world" - like television, the nuclear bomb and fast food - is "there", it exists, "the cat is out of the bag" and the there's no getting the cat back in the bag, sermons or no sermons. So it's up to each person how to relate to it. Ironically, if everyone gets "famous" then no one will be famous, and perhaps blogworld will prove to be a great leveller. Again, when everyone is able, so easily, to get his or her name "up in lights", as the saying goes, then it doesn't mean anything anymore. Very few people could get their faces up on the big screen in the golden days of Hollywood. More, but still a limited number, could get their faces on the small screen in the golden days of television. In the golden days of the blog, everybody can get his "face" on the computer screen, and so... it's hardly "fame" anymore. Blogworld will less resemble the glowing neon marquees of Broadway, where the names of the chosen few radiate "fame", than it will resemble the sidewalks underneath the marquees, where millions of unknowns pass each other every day. We're still, relatively speaking, in the early days of infatuation with this novelty. It's going to settle into its place before long, however, and when it does, anyone who says, "Guess what - I've got a blog!" will be laughed at for his naivete, as much as if he had said, "Guess what! I've got a refrigerator!"
Well, those are my few short reflections on the pastor's fears about blogs. Then again, a pastor does need to have something to preach on, comment on, warn against, give the "biblical view" on - and every Sunday! So you can be sure that he will.... Not all the sermons will be equally momentous.
Ken
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
best pictures of Ukrainains by Americans and Oksana Horne
Photo from invalid center in Nizhyn, the local Calvary Chapel chur
ch helps with Bible study and visitation of mentallyand physically disabled children and teens. Some invalids became Christians there.
ch helps with Bible study and visitation of mentallyand physically disabled children and teens. Some invalids became Christians there.
Old people in Ukraine account for 25 %, in some town and villages even more.
The man is nicknamed Gantz, he plays guitar and preaches at Calvary chapel Nizhyn- and he's a private food entrepreneur. Next to him is Marina, English major from local uni, translator for Americans from Rlorida in 2007 on their Ukraine mission trip. She was baptized at the end of the outreach.
Typical Soviet high-rise pre-fab residential building
Someone gave this orhaned boy an interesting T-shirt from Texas)
The man is nicknamed Gantz, he plays guitar and preaches at Calvary chapel Nizhyn- and he's a private food entrepreneur. Next to him is Marina, English major from local uni, translator for Americans from Rlorida in 2007 on their Ukraine mission trip. She was baptized at the end of the outreach.
American girls- pastor's daughters, born in Kiev, enjoy living in Ukraine
News in English from America
Today is exactly 4 months since I had left Kiev-Kyiv, my big city for an adventure and by looking at some pretty pictures taken by Oksana Horne last summer I felt nostalgic- the foto images of Kiev are impressive - summer and spring are the best times to visit Ukraine. Fall is the best to eat watermelons and genteically grown fruit and vegs.
Tomorrow hopefully my internet will be finally cut as my landlord cuts costs of living and renting for me. This week I pray I could move into shabiier but cheaper place near Old Dominion University in Norfolk.
I plan to quit working for Arby's (type of fast-food like McDo) where I've been working since Sept 10 2007 for peanuts and my fellow workers are women. I need to find a new job to survive after I move soon.
Today is very warm +20. so i opened the windows to get some warm air and now I feel chilly.
I started reading Japanese writer Murakami in English (Norwegian wood) but lost some interest. I read 600 pages thick book on Stali- by British Jewish author Simon Montefiore- I need now to get his new book biography of Young Stalin.
I read couple of detectives by Agatha Chrisity and bought an Agatha Christie Guide to her novels by an Australian researcher.
On Wednesdays and Sundays I'm chauferrred to church- I'm kind of adjusted to listening to sermons in English but still miss Thursday Torah studies in Kiev by a Messianic jewish teacher Boris Zakharovich. I would love to go back to visit Ukarine and relatives and friends in winter for a month. I need to see my grandpa before he dies (he's 81 years young in December 2007)- next month.
In a nutshell I still go on vacationing in America - taking things easy and slowly- which is a bit rebellish to local pace of life despite the recession.
We have far less customers at Arby's during my working hours from 10-30 till 3 pm - maybe because of holidays and recession.
bananas are very chepa at Walmart- I think price in Kiev are too expensive and wages are not catching up with inflation. In America prices rise too.
Well, write me e-mails on my address - t.levchuk@gmail.com or send text +17572890192.
The pastor at church last week spoke about temptations of seeking fame through interent media- for me it's just my voice of one crying in the wilderness of new way of living in a new country.
Have a good one,
Taras
Tomorrow hopefully my internet will be finally cut as my landlord cuts costs of living and renting for me. This week I pray I could move into shabiier but cheaper place near Old Dominion University in Norfolk.
I plan to quit working for Arby's (type of fast-food like McDo) where I've been working since Sept 10 2007 for peanuts and my fellow workers are women. I need to find a new job to survive after I move soon.
Today is very warm +20. so i opened the windows to get some warm air and now I feel chilly.
I started reading Japanese writer Murakami in English (Norwegian wood) but lost some interest. I read 600 pages thick book on Stali- by British Jewish author Simon Montefiore- I need now to get his new book biography of Young Stalin.
I read couple of detectives by Agatha Chrisity and bought an Agatha Christie Guide to her novels by an Australian researcher.
On Wednesdays and Sundays I'm chauferrred to church- I'm kind of adjusted to listening to sermons in English but still miss Thursday Torah studies in Kiev by a Messianic jewish teacher Boris Zakharovich. I would love to go back to visit Ukarine and relatives and friends in winter for a month. I need to see my grandpa before he dies (he's 81 years young in December 2007)- next month.
In a nutshell I still go on vacationing in America - taking things easy and slowly- which is a bit rebellish to local pace of life despite the recession.
We have far less customers at Arby's during my working hours from 10-30 till 3 pm - maybe because of holidays and recession.
bananas are very chepa at Walmart- I think price in Kiev are too expensive and wages are not catching up with inflation. In America prices rise too.
Well, write me e-mails on my address - t.levchuk@gmail.com or send text +17572890192.
The pastor at church last week spoke about temptations of seeking fame through interent media- for me it's just my voice of one crying in the wilderness of new way of living in a new country.
Have a good one,
Taras
Monday, November 19, 2007
Nizhyn, Ukraine 2007 summer-friends, faces, houses
Welcome to my city Kyiv, 5 million residents
one shabby apartment rents for 600 USD/month and up - who can afford it?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)