Nikolaevka, The Crimea, Ukraine

Nikolaevka is a seaside resort. I say that tongue-in-cheek because it is just a sleepy little village on the shore of the Black Sea, but in summer, like mushrooms popping up after a rain, it comes alive with vendors catering to the vacationers who come here to enjoy the sea.

We arrived several days ago, but as mentioned earlier, there are communication problems that we are still working on. We hope to have that solved soon. Until then I won't be here much.

I have a funny memory of this place and our early times here. Our first seven months I had no language, we had no car and no phone, thus no computer contact. By that time, I was suffering from feelings of isolation and a bit depressed when we finally got a phone line. Then I could do email and felt like I'd gained new life. I was no longer cut off. Well, somehow, I guess through some visitors, the word got out in the village that we had a computer. From that, people conjured up the idea that we might be spies. I still laugh when I think of this, but you must remember that it was 1994 when we arrived, then computers were only in government buildings. Today that, of course, is not the case and upon arriving we discovered, in fact, that there are a couple of wi-fi hot spots in the neighborhood. Unfortunately not close enough to access. Welcome to the 21st Century Nikolaevka.