The fourth day ended very nicely. At 4 p.m., Vladimir Kadets picked me up and took me to his house, a short metro ride away from the University. There I met his wife and his son, both pleasant and interesting people. We spent a very nice evening together discussing mathematics, academic interactions, educational issues and world politics. At the end of the dinner, Vladimir presented me with a copy of his functional analysis book. I spent quite a bit of time looking at the book since and I enjoyed it greatly. It should prove a good source of additional material and problems for my measure theory course this semester.
The evening began in a somewhat funny way when I realized that I did not tell the Kadets family that I am allergic to chicken. The first and the second course they prepared contained poultry, but they quickly regrouped and put a wonderful dinner on the table consisting of cheese, sausages, eggplant and mushroom pastries. I also inquired if I can buy some pork lard at the store nearby, but when we got there, there was none left as the store was about to close. Oh well. I will have to make do with the pork lard the Russian store in Rochester.
It is now 3:19 a.m. on the fifth day of the trip. My taxi is due to arrive at 4:45 and my flight to Kiev is at 7 a.m.. After spending a few hours in Kiev, I am due to fly to Paris and then on to New York, JFK and then to Rochester. I should arrive there at 10:47 p.m. tonight and then I have to teach on Monday. And I have not yet prepared for my measure theory class, so it will be an interesting Monday morning, afternoon and evening. I say evening because my calculus students have a test on Tuesday, so I plan to run a review on Monday night.
I am now sitting at the 24 hour restaurant in Hotel Kharkov, waiting for my crepes with red caviar to arrive. The prices in this country are still quite reasonable, which allows for a very nice lifestyle during the visit. I am definitely planning to come back in the near future. This has been a fantastic and potentially successful visit!
