A lot of people around the world know very specific or fragmentary facts about Ukraine. As for the geographical position one of the most popular opinion is "It's somewhere in Russia…". Football fans can mention "Dynamo-Kiev" team, and fans of boxing surely know brothers Klychko. It's difficult not to agree with all of these but with one correction: Ukraine is quite independent. Moreover it's the second of biggest European countries, therefore the landscape here varies from swampy peat-bog and thick forests in the north to plain grassland in the south and east. "Just plain country… And no mountains?" - you'll ask. There are mountains here, and they are worth to be seen! The west-most region of Ukraine is crossed by Carpathian Mountains chine covered with coniferous and deciduous forests. In any season the mountains are splendid - in winter one can ski there, summer and spring are the best seasons for hiking through the green shady forests, the variegated tints of hazed autumn trees can leave nobody indifferent to. And for the people, who like to alternate swimming and lying on the beach with climbing, the nature created the South Coast of Crimea peninsula. There is sunny subtropical climate there, 'cause the coast is protected against the continental air and clouds with the high wall of Crimea Mountains. The mountains slopes are covered with pine-trees and relic junipers. Due to the splendid nature and the healing air the South Coast was chosen as a summer place for Russian Tsars… It's too difficult, rather impossible, to tell in a few lines about the nature of the whole country, especially since everyone sees the world with one's own eyes. The heart may be touched by the view of a usual sunset in a quite ordinary countryside, not only by the huge mountains and canyon :).
As regards characterising of Ukrainians we don't dare to do it ourselves. The look from within can't pretend to be unbiased. So here some extracts from trainee's comments are presented:
"... My placement in Ukraine was an invaluable experience that I will never forget, in some way it has changed my outlook on life. The people, the place everything about this undiscovered jewel of Eastern Europe was a pleasure but also a challenge. It challenged me both physically but most importantly emotionally. I found a place where people are still genuine, that is hard to find in the modern world." (Stuart Green, UK)
"... Not only by reason of the scientific aspect it was a good place for the traineeship, but also because of the people working there: They were all very friendly and the atmosphere was very familiar, although with many of them, a proper verbal communication was not possible due to absent language knowledge on both sides... The Ukrainians were in general very friendly and warm hearted, though there were sometimes also people to be met e.g. in shops or behind counters, who would never make an attempt to understand you, if you would not speak their language… The fact, that most of us foreign students did not speak the Russian or Ukrainian Language, was not so comfortable: people there do usually not speak German or English! Nevertheless, there was something good in that: We were all more or less depending on each other. To master together difficult situations and conversations by using hand and feet, caused many funny situations and cemented our friendship! But, concerning the language we got also support of the local IAESTE Committee: On one hand there was a special Russian language course organised for us, and on the other hand the Ukrainian IAESTES, accompanying us any time we needed some help, were always acting assiduously as translators for our wishes on markets, in the shops, ticket offices and trains. "(Simone Clerc, Switzerland).
"... I have been to Kiev for 7 weeks and it was a great experience to me. I learned a lot about the Ukraine and the people living in this country because I got the chance to move around the country… Living in Kiev is in some ways different than in Potsdam or Berlin, but the differences are not that big that I imagined before I came there. During my stay I corrected my own prejudices about eastern europe. For sure, I will return to Ukraine once again and I also would like to visit Russia. The landscape is worth seeing and the people are worth meeting…(Kristina Knoeshe , Deutschland)"
And our little comment : the language problem is indeed the easiest one. We do have a lot of Ukrainian students-volonteers, ready to give you any help and interested in linguistics :).
Cities and towns of Ukraine are quite original. Kiev, L'viv (Lemberg) and Odessa are the most distinctive. Architectural styles, nature and people are completely different, but interesting in their own. Kiev is the cradle of Orthodox Christianity in Rus' (the old name for the region covered at the present time by Ukraine, Russia and Byelorussia). In 988 A.D. Prince Vladimir christened his land and people at the Kiev's hills over the Dniper river. Since then Kiev has been a centre of Orthodox pilgrimage. There is an uncountable number of churches, monasteries and cathedrals here. One interesting detail: Kiev lies on 7 hills, like Rome. According to the legend apostle Andrew came to the hills, stuck his staff into the ground and said :"The great city will appear here!" The spiritual atmosphere in the city is quite unusual, and the place is worth to be visited. L'viv is the head city of West Ukraine. Historically the city was assigned to be in the hands of various rulers. Being founded in 13th century by Old Russian Prince Danylo Galitskiy, the city has been under Austro-hungarian empire, Poland, Lithuania. So one can see Middle Ages monuments of different cultures, visit a number of various museums there. The greatest pleasure is to wander into an unnoticeable yard of Old Town and to discover marvellous stucco mouldings and sculptures that will belong only to you.
Odessa is named "Pearl by the Black see". On the one hand it's the biggest Ukrainian sea port, on the other it's a wonderful architectural memorial and resort. But the most characteristic feature of Odessa is inhabitants and their sense of humour. There is no thing in the world that can't be gone through with a kind joke…
We've tried to describe only 3 cities, and how incomplete are the pictures!
One time seeing is better than hundred times hearing!
GETTING PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE
The most of the traineeship places are in scientific and research institutions. In our days the science in Ukraine is able to propose more opportunities to get good practice than industry. But the situation is to improve in a few years due to the outlined trend in the national produce value. By the way, the high rate of growth of building in Kiev enables us to organize good placements in the leading city architectural bureau.
By now we have established firm contacts with employers in the following fields:
Biochemistry, Microbiology
Palladin O.V. Institute of Biochemistry, National Academy of Science of Ukraine;
Zhabolotny Institute of Virology and Microbiology.
Geology, Geophysics
State Gemmological centre of Ukraine, Ministry of Finances of Ukraine.
Architecture, Town-planning
"S. Babushkin " Creative Architectural Studio.
Electrical Engineering, Computer science, Metrology
Laboratory for Digital Signal Processing, Department of Automation of Experimental Research, National Technical University "KPI".
National Center for Metrology and Standardization.
Oil and Gas
Ivano-Frankivsk State Technical University of Oil and Gas.
Ecobiology, Ecology
Central Botanic Garden, National Academy of Science of Ukraine.
From year to year we get new employers to take part in exchange program. So if you don't find the employer's name in the above list, it simply means that you won't keep to the beaten track, but will be a pioneer in unexplored before place!
Here are comments regarding some of the mentioned placements.
"...The traineeship took place in the "Palladin O. V. Institute of
Biochemistry". There I took part in the research of the scientific theme:
"Interaction investigation of cell with fibrin clot and with its fragments".
In this context, I could gather a whole lot of practical knowlege about
several scientific techniques, of which, by then, I had at best heared
theoretically. What impressed me most, was the fact that people in the lab would never resign or give up due to some inconvenient circumstances and rather old equipment, which does not always work as one would like!! The high motivation of the people combined with a huge amount of improvisation capability make them to take many hurdles, some of which, we "fastidious western-people", would not even think about!" /Simone Clerc, Switzerland, 2001/
"about my architectural traineeship: at least one of the best bureaus in kijev but still postmodern thinking. they are working highly professional."
/Gerrit Baumann, Germany, 2001 - short-speaking but always about essence! :)/
"..I have been working here at the Laboratory for Digital Signal Processing, Department of Automation of Experimental Research, National Technical University "KPI" since October last year. I got my practical training through IAESTE-Ukraine from 01.10.1999 on 8 months.
The laboratory where I work is sponsored by Motorola, something that is quite common here as the governmental founding is insufficient. My main project is to realise algorithms within the area of digital signal processing for a DSP 56002, but I will also, at the end of my stay here, make laboratory tasks for students at the university.
The work is very stimulating and as I have really learned a lot, I can strongly recommend to go here on practical training. As an example of the high level of my work, I have written a report about it, together with my professor and a Ukrainian student, for NORSIG 2000 an international symposium for signal processing"
/Fredrik Aronsson, Sweden, 1999/
"...Now I want to say a few words about my training. As I already said I was at The State Gemmological Centre of Ukraine. It was for the first time that IAESTE-Students have been at this institute for an internship. For that reason there were some difficulties in finding the right activity for us. But in spite of this I learned very much about how to evaluate precious stones, especially diamonds, as well as ornamental stones. Besides I participated in geological excursions to several deposits of the Ukraine and so I became acquainted with the geology there. This country has great offers in the field of geology or earth sciences, respectively, for there are many important deposits such as Krivoy Rog, Volodarsk-Volinsk, Nikopol and others. That's why I would recommend any other students studying earth sciences to go there for an internship."
/Yvonne Fischer, Germany, 1999/
