NEWS AND VIEWS: A search for summertime adventure leads to Ukrainian immersion program (02/10/02)

NEWS AND VIEWS

A search for summertime adventure leads to Ukrainian immersion program

by Damian Olesnycky

In early 2001, craving adventure for my summer abroad, I looked into many possibilities in planning a post-graduation trip. The first couple of weeks were all set: a short tour of Western Europe with a few friends from college. But wanting to do more and stay longe, I needed to pick a destination for the second leg of my trip. Seeking structure and guidance for this faraway place, I decided to browse the web for academic programs in the Eastern hemisphere.

After I surveyed and scrapped a few ideas of my own, my parents called me and told me that they had found something. It was a six-week immersion program in Lviv that concentrated on Ukrainian language and area study. Intended for graduate students and advanced undergrads, it offered a possible six graduate credits for participation. It was run by the University of Kansas and Ivan Franko University of Lviv.

This caught my attention right away; I had never been there before and had been yearning to visit this homeland of my ancestors. I also wanted to restore my grasp of the Ukrainian language, which had gradually weakened over the years. I had heard of some "travel to Ukraine" programs, but each one struck me as more of a vacation than a life experience. Should I go, I thought, it would be to live among Ukrainians, not just other Westerners. So I decided to enroll in the program.

On a sunny morning in Frankfurt a few short months later, I stepped onto a Ukraine International flight bound for Lviv. I hadn't slept the night before, but my excitement was keeping me awake. All I could hear was Ukrainian and Russian spoken around me, and I was the only traveler on the plane who was clearly American.

After a three-hour flight I arrived in Lviv's tiny airport. After proceeding through customs and claiming my bag, I was greeted by two men. Stanislav Kuzyk, the father of my host family, and Victor Krevs, one of the program directors, identified me by picture and graciously introduced themselves. We boarded a van and it took us to the Kuzyk residence.

My first day there was memorable. Mr. Kuzyk took me on a tour of the city, which was an engrossing experience. As I had expected, life in Ukraine was much different than where I came from. But I only began to get a feel for it when I saw it with my own eyes. Lviv is a cultural jewel: a green city of medieval streets and structures. People chatted at every corner and old men played chess in the parks. Life was colorful - deliberate.

I was later introduced to the rest of the Kuzyk family. Ivanna is Mr. Kuzyk's wife and Evhen, in his mid-teens, was their younger son. Evhen's brother, Andriy, was married and lived with his wife, Marta, elsewhere in the city. They were both in their mid-20s. From the very beginning all of them treated me as a family member.

The program commenced. The four other students (three Americans and one Canadian) and I had a weekly routine that consisted of morning classes on weekdays, usually followed by a weekend trip. During the five days of class, we would have two or three hours of Ukrainian language instruction. A guest lecturer would then come in and speak to us about Ukraine's culture, political transition, economics or society, depending on the lecturer's specialty. After lunch, our directors would take us on afternoon trips to sites in Lviv, such as landmarks and museums.

We took weekend trips to Kyiv, Odesa, the Carpathians and ancient castles around Lviv. One weekend our directors gave us tickets to see the pope while he was visiting. On another occasion, our professor and Mr. Kuzyk took us to see Karpaty, Lviv's professional soccer team, play their home opener.

The directors gave us a chance to mold our own experience, so we determined the amount of freedom and guidance we needed to feel comfortable. We took planned trips as a program, but we spent our free time traveling in smaller groups. For example, we visited Kyiv together, Odesa by ourselves.

During the course of the program, I tried to absorb as much as I could from everyone. Dr. Krevs and Dr. Alexander Tsiovkh, the other director, tirelessly shared their time and knowledge with the other students and me. The professors' teaching appreciably improved my Ukrainian language and provided insight into the nation's past, present and future. My host family diligently answered every question that I could fire at them.

It was a lot of fun, too. Every day we had a long, leisurely lunch at a great restaurant. Sometimes after class we would hang out at a pub or café before retiring to our homework. We swam in a river, hiked a mountain and had a bonfire on one trip. We sailed the Black Sea on another.

I had a bittersweet feeling as the program finished up. I didn't want to leave my new friends, especially because I didn't know when I would see them again. But I felt very fulfilled; I felt an eagerness to apply everything I had learned in Ukraine to my life back in the United States.

By the time I left, I understood much more about Ukraine and the life of its citizens. I learned more about its history, ancient and recent, as well as its current struggles in embracing nationalism, democracy and capitalism. My impressions render a picture of a strong, bright people striving to escape the shadow of the past, the Soviet legacy, just to find themselves stuck in it time and again.

As it turned out, the program fulfilled everything I sought and much more. Other than the time the other students and I spent alone, it was a full immersion. I would recommend it to anyone seeking a productive, enlightening and fun summer trip to Ukraine.

The program's website is located at: http://www.ukans.edu/~crees/summerlviv.html. For application materials, please contact: Office of Study Abroad - University of Kansas, 1410 Jayhawk Blvd. Room 108, Lawrence, KS 66045-7515; phone (785) 864-3742; e-mail, OSA@ku.edu. Com-pleted applications must be returned to the Office of Study Abroad by March 1.

Damian Olesnycky, 22, attended Carnegie Mellon University, graduating in May 2001 with a B.S. in information and decision systems. He will study abroad in Russia later this spring via a language and culture immersion program, also through the University of Kansas, before he begins working for Deloitte Consulting in July as a systems analyst.

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