It’s the second week that I survived from the heat of Kiev, but as you can see from my little articles below that the temperature fail to hinder me from continuing my exploration of Kiev where I visited a number of places that I think everyone who had the chance to come to Kiev should pay a visit to, probably in a better time of the year with lower temperature (for instance my dear friend Inna recommended the beginning of May).

FEOFANIYA PARK 

At the very beginning of the week, my team and me visited Feofaniya Park which is located in the peripheral area of Kiev. After hovering around the center of Kiev in the first week, it is the very first time for everyone to approach the natural side of Kiev, where we witnessed the stunning scenery of woods, greens and rivers that seems remote from the modern Kiev. The path leading to the park was surrounded by trees where people ride bicycles under the shadows, the humidity of wind that blew from the “sun-grilled” woods give me the delusion of walking through a tropical forest.

The carefully trimmed grass ground and the stoney paths that lead to the distributed pavilions become apparent as I entered the park. Within the park people were enjoying time with their beloved, for instance some of the kids and adults take off their outer clothes and soaked themselves in the refrigerant river, youngsters roll out the carpet on the grass and shared their food and play game. We were not the exception among those people, we settled under the shadow of trees and enjoyed the food that we harvested from the shops. We are a global family constituted by people from different parts of the world, where we sit around the carpets and shared our common passion of cultural exchange and language learning, we also played the ninja game of “hand-slapping” introduced by our lovely Mexican EP Martin. It was a lovely time in the park that we shared our joys within the lovely surroundings of mother nature. So if any of you, my dearest and tolerant readers of mine, have the interests of going somewhere in order to block the urban noise and have some peaceful time with your beloved, please do give Feofaniya Park in Kiev a go and it would become one of the most enjoyable moment of your life.

MUSEUM OF BULGAKOV 

The visit of the Museum had triggered my interest to further explore the literature of Bulgakov. Before my visit to the Museum of Bulgakov I did some research about the place and the writer. Museum of Bulgakov was built in memorial to the Ukrainian-born Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov, who was famous for his books including “the White Guard” and “the Master and Margrita”, for those of who comes from China or knows Chinese literature, Bulgakov is a Ukrainian equivalent to the Chinese Lu Xun, who was also a great national writer whose major works sarcastically mocked the stupidity and greed of elites and authority at his time. “The Master and Margrita” concerns the visit by the devil to the fervently atheistic Soviet Union where many critics consider it to be one of the best novel of the 20th Century, as well as the foremost of the Soviet satires. It was a shame that I did not had the privilege to read Bulgakov’s work before visiting this remarkable museum as I am sure that those readers who enjoys reading his work would find the exhibition fascinating and enjoy their visit.

THE BOHDAN AND VARVARA KHANENKO MUSEUM OF ARTS 

Through some research, I acquired information that the Bohdan and Varvara Khaneko Museum of Arts has the largest collection of foreign art in Ukraine. According to some of the introductory text from Internet, during the Soviet times, the museum ranked the third in the USSR by the value and size of its collection after the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. Currently, the Museum is well-known both Ukraine-wide and abroad for its unique collection of paintings, sculptures, etchings, decorative arts of Western Europe, Middle and Far East as well as the Antiquity. The incomplete list of its holdings includes the West European paintings, Egyptian and Classical antiquity, Italian Maiolica, Meissen porcelain, Persian Ceramics and Bronze sculpture, Japanese xylography ad tsubas, Chinese paintings and Chinese porcelain. Our visit to the museum was accompanied by a lovely lady who speaks English that showed us around each rooms and introduced us to each art work, where the displays in the Museum has showed me the aesthetic idiosyncrasy of Kiev and her people. As an artist myself, I not only enjoy doing oil paintings of natural scenery and rural landscape, I also have the passion of observing the technique of other artist through the close examination of their master pieces. Within the museum there are a number of remarkable art works from artist such as Cornelis Gerritsz Decker whose work “Landscape with two fishermen on the bank of the canal near Zijiport in Haarism” that was finished around 1657 is one of my favourite artwork within the museum. In addition to the glorious display of oil paintings, I was also impressed by the amount of artistic details of furniture and decoration of the rooms. As I once said to our museum guide, the halls are so beautifully decorated that I wanted to Waltz around the room. Hence visiting this museum was truly a visional feast and sensational experience, and I am still remain thankful to our organizer’s choice that let every single one of us to be showered under the artistic glory.

GLOBAL VILLAGE

As an Aiesecer who took part in a number of global exchange opportunities for two years, global village was an event that I truly looked for before I took this trip to Ukraine. And, I was not disappointed at all. Those lovely Ukrainian people who visited our exhibition of Chinese culture showed their open heart and fascination to the outside world. I was touched by their respect to the culture from China, for instance some of the visitors tried to use the chopsticks to pick up the sweets that we prepared for them and some of them asked about the symbolic animals for birth of the year that are widely adapted in Asian society. Even the Ukrainian mosquitos had indicated their interests in foreign cultures as I believe it must be their very first time to try the exotic Chinese blood with a little touch Englishness from Britain.

FOREST BEHIND DANA'S RESIDENCE AREA 

As I always do, I want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Dana and her sweet family for hosting me during the program. This time I would like to share with you the forest that Dana and her mum had taken me to after my recovery from the recent illness. The forest is a peaceful space that again showed me the natural side of Kiev, the woods are beautifully though disorderedly distributed, that the tint of red on the branch under the shimmer of sunset one of my unforgettable memory of Kiev.

The forests remind me of life in England, that for me greens and woods from English countryside are one of the most wonderful thing of living in England. In this lovely Ukrainian countryside people walks their dogs or jogs around as people often do in England, and I hope if I ever get the chance to visit Ukraine again I personally would like to come back to this wonderful little heaven once again.

HOSTESS INNA

A special thanks to my dear friend Inna who invited me to stay with her and had been an amazing hostess throughout the days when Dana was away to celebrate her grandma’s birthday (Happy birthday grandma and may all your wishes come true xxx). Your parents are truly remarkable and the experience of sleeping in the room where you held interview with me few months ago was unreal. Thank you again and I welcome you to visit me in England where I had been interviewed by you.




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