The Birches Seemed Dream-like

After about three hours of sleep I met Tetiana Rogozianska at 6:00 a.m. for a wild taxi ride to the main Cathedral-like Kyiv train station, and then a six hour train ride to the eastern city of Kharkiv. We found seats in one of the cars, which soon filled up with a variety of travelers--old and young. We spent the first hour or so of the journey talking about the teaching assignment. I then had much opportunity to watch the fascinating countryside slipping by outside the window. Only an hour out of Kyiv the landscape was amazingly open and sweeping, with snow covered fields surrounded by thick stands of trees. There were many small villages, most with very old brick railway stations, a few fence lined streets and old houses with freshly painted yellow, green or blue doors and woodwork. I saw an old couple pulling a small sled on a rope through the trees lining the railroad tracks, a couple of old horse carts and many uniformed militia guards at sleepy railroad crossings.

I gazed for hours at the endlessly fascinating landscape passing through the window, every coop, shed and dacha has fine paintwork and trim. Most beautiful were the trees, thick stands of maple and beech, their branches filled with migrating birds. It was a misty, cold and icy day, and truly "the birches seemed dream-like on account of that frosting."