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Going Aways (Goings Away?) (Goings Aways?)
October 3, 2001
Dear Friends and Family,
Every new adventure starts with going away. Our new Road Trip is no different. Well, maybe a little different. We started with several (hence the problem with the proper plural of "going away"!) All reminded us that we have met people whom we enjoy, from whom we have learned, on whom we've depended and with whom we hope to stay in touch.
First, Marianne had a lunch with the women with whom she taught. Many had just returned from summer vacation to find out that Marianne had turned in her resignation and the Trotter's were "moving on". Hard to explain exactly what we are doing but we would get lots of practice in the next month.
Of course there was also a "first going away dinner" at friends Marilyn and Marv's place. Before our going away season was over, we had at least three more going aways with them but this dinner was with other school friends too.
Then, we hosted a dinner with our favorite designer/architect/builder team - Lena, Kostya and Mike. They were some of the most creative and hard working people we met in our three years and it was a shame we were leaving before we saw them on a just a social basis. We also met young Damian, Lena and Kostya's one-year-old boy. A delightful kid who reminded us that our house wasn't childproofed yet. Poor Lena was worn out from worry about inquisitive hands. Good practice for grandkids.
The adults also told us stories of their recent trip to China. Wonderful stories and worthy of their own website. Lena gave us a thousand-year-old bell that she had negotiated from a wilely peasant in interior China. We were told the price STARTED at a thousand dollars (or yuans?) but the Chinese had never met a good Ukrainian shopper before. Apparently a half-hour later the seller had reduced her price to 10 dollars/yuans in a multi-lingual discussion that drew a sizeable audience. Still Lena held out. After all this time invested in the sale, Lena was forced to make her best and final offer and simply offered a half dollar/yuan in order to stop the process. The market lady refused such an unworthy price but then gave the bell to Lena for being such a good negotiator. So, we have a thousand-year-old bell (right!) with a story (right).
With our friends Peter and Chin and Marv and Marilyn, we had several going away dinners. We had one early in the month when it looked like Marianne would be gone for two weeks. This was a wonderful dinner with Marianne showing off her cooking and all of us enjoying stories from past places and from our time in Kyiv. This was just as a going away with friends should be.
As it turned out, when world events cancelled Marianne's trip, we had two more dinners with more stories. All were worthwhile and we will certainly see these friends again. I wonder where.
For my workpeople, we celebrated twice. The first was a formal dinner with the head of the Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine, my Ukrainian boss. (I also had a couple of American bosses, a few British ones, a French one and a German one. Never a shortage of bosses on this job.) There were lots of nice words both from the boss and from our associates at the Institute where we work. All the comments were much appreciated because these are good, professional, hard-working people who still have several large jobs ahead of them.
I was so worried about my own speech that I forgot the ever-present camera, so no pictures. Probably just as well though since every comment had come in the form of a toast and after so many comments, I'm afraid the pictures would have been pretty blurry.
The last party was one we hosted for my team at work. Here we did have the camera. We had a dinner of "Cous Cous" at a local Italian-Moroccan restaurant and it was nice to be able to relax with just the right amount of toasts but lots of expressions of friendship and camaraderie. For this dinner, even Yuri, my trusted driver/computer-programmer could raise a toast. We truly do wish everyone good luck wherever their futures lie.
Finally, the day had come and our bags were packed. We had tried to pack for a multi-month trip but it was hard getting down to just these bags. Four cameras and one computer contributed to the problem.
One day later, we realized we had not pared down enough, but that's another story.
Take care. Stay healthy. Stay warm.
John and Marianne
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Created October 7,
2001
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