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A Busy (or Sick)
Workweek
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A Busy (or Sick)
Workweek
Jan 21, 1999
Hi Mom et al,
It's Thursday evening and I'm starting this while Marianne has her Russian lesson. "Galena" is her teacher and she is actually a Russian/Ukrainian teacher at Marianne's school. Galena is also very funny and outspoken so we learn a lot from her besides Russian.
I started this week on Sunday with a trip to Paris for a one-day meeting on Monday. Paris was pretty nice: warm sun and excellent food. The sun was unusual for this time of year but I was assured that the food is there every day. The hotel was small and simple but it had a nice view of the Montparnasse District. We had no time to tour but it was a pleasant place to crash.
My Kyiv office-mate Peter and I came from here and my two bosses from DC flew over and joined us at the headquarters of our French/German affiliate. The meeting was tense and long but the lunch was great. It's a good thing I don't live there because I'd eat myself to 300 pounds. Peter and I flew back Tuesday. It's hard to travel efficiently to Kyiv because there is just one flight to Kyiv every day from Paris and it's direct only on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The direct flight was three hours so I hate to think of getting anything indirect.
Back in Kyiv it was cold, icy and Marianne was sick. She had some sort of stomach flu and missed a couple days work - something that's pretty rare for her. She went to work today and seems her normal self again. (I most certainly did NOT take any pictures of her in her illness. She would have killed me.)
Today I went up to Slavutych to the Chornobyl engineering offices. Another dull meeting. The high and low point of the day was the three hour trips up and back. The good news is that the weather was good and the scenery spectacular. The bad news is that I was in a "Lada" which is a small, bouncy Russian version of an old Fiat. On the way up, the heater failed after the first half-hour. By the time we got to the office, I had to run in to put my hands in hot water to thaw them. The driver fixed the problem while I was in the meeting so the return trip was almost hot.
The trees were covered in heavy "frost" (actually condensed fog/ice) so everything look like a winter wonderland. My two pictures don't really do justice but it's a start. ( going up and on the return.) Of course six hours of flat-as-a-table winter wonderland, as seen from a bad, bouncy car seat, is not my idea of fun.
Speaking of cars, we now have "our" car (actually a car & driver for Peter and I to share). It's a medium-sized Daewoo, Korean but the company has factories here in Ukraine. It's an improvement on the Ladas we've been using but unfortunately the licensing process wasn't complete yet. Everything takes time here since this is the car Marianne arranged for on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Well Mom, take care. Uncle Bill says you've completed your stay at the regular Hospital so we hope you're better. It's great that Bim is able to come out for another visit. We're all thinking of you,
Love,
John and Marianne.
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Originally sent January 21, 1999. Re-formatted for website 29 May, 2001. This page created on a Macintosh using PhotoPage by John A. Vink.
