You look like a cucumber today.

Last month I received the best birthday gift of getting to meet my brother and sister-in-law in Copenhagen. It was truly undeserved and I'm forever in debt to my family for all of their love and support. One of the most difficult to describe experiences I've had as a Peace Corps volunteer is jumping from my everyday life in rural nowhere to being my former self. Leaving Ukraine, for me, is about freeing myself of this altered reality. The point of which I go from being the Amerikanka under constant pressure to be the perfect example of my citizenship to the self I'm comfortable as is a draining exercise. It's why going to Kyiv to be anonymous is so refreshing. Mentally leaving Ukraine is going to be difficult. I realize how none of this is earth shattering.

The physical point where I will leave Ukraine for good will be Boryspil, the main airport in Kyiv. Some of my peers really like Boryspil, especially after its reconstruction, because of its modernity. I despise this airport. In the past it was ridiculed for its chaotic format, unwelcoming feel, and dirtiness. Though the word to describe my opinion of the old airport isn't "like" I appreciated it for having something becoming more infrequently occurring in a globalized world. It had an identity; a lively, greasy, corrupt spirit.

The new terminals, hundreds of millions of dollars, look no different than any other budget addition to any other regionally significant airport in the world. There is no way of knowing you're in Ukraine in this glass and steel skeleton. There are English pubs and duty free shops, void of Ukrainian goods besides some vodka and chocolate. There isn't even a welcome sign in Ukrainian. To my mind, this is the perfect analogy of where Ukraine stands today to the outside world; lacking an identity and willing to scrape any leftovers to make it look like a legitimate player. Ukraine is constantly looking to the outside for guidance, never looking internally to see what's missing.

I was thinking about this as I was enjoying a blueberry smoothie and pecan pie in a pleasantly dim lit lounge of the Riga airport on my way to Copenhagen. Much to my surprise, a discussion on this very topic of globalization and the airport has come to the forefront on design sites. Here's an interesting article.