Author: Hettie D.

My name is Henrietta (Hettie) Dombrovskaya. I was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russian (actually, back then – Leningrad, USSR) in 1963, and immigrated to the United States in 1996. I love Saint Petersburg, the city I was born and raised in, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Similarly (but differently) I love Chicago, and can’t imagine myself moving somewhere else in the observable future. I have three children, Igor, Vlad and Anna, all adults living on their own, and one (so far) granddaughter Nadia. I also believe that my children are the best thing that happened in my life. As for my professional life, I am working in the field of Information Technologies. When I was twenty, I’ve declared that the databases are the coolest thing invented and that I want to do them for the rest of my life. Thirty plus years later, I still believe it’s true, and still, believe that the databases are the best. These two statements together imply that I think a person can have it all, and indeed, I think so! Keep reading my journals to find out how I did it.

All My Travels

I am back home and going back to work tomorrow. Although not everything happened as planned, I am happy with my trip. I boarded a plane eleven times during these two weeks, my personal record. Out of these eleven times, four times it was business class.

It turned out that business class might be very different even within one airline, from “barely any difference” to something very sophisticated:

The bug plus was that I was able to use lounges on every connection because of the Finnair Gold. If not for the lounges, I won’t survive the travel of that intensity. I stayed at nine different lounges (two different ones in Helsinki and three different ones in Heathrow); Vaanta and Heathrow are on the top, although one of the lounges in Heathrow was so crowded and loud that it was not much different from waiting in the gate (of cause, there was a delicious food which makes a difference :))

I loved this tea service in one of the Heathrow lounges: you can pick up the tray with the teapot and milk pitcher, choose your teabag, pour the hot water and the milk of your choice, and happily enjoy the tea!
Breakfast in Paris
Finnair lounge breakfast

Another thing I learned on this trip is that you can survive without some beauty products for several days. I always take my “thirteen bottles of liquids” everywhere I go, and I mastered the art of fitting them into a one-liter bag.

This time, I knew I would need more than that because it was a two-week journey without touching base in Helsinki, so I had some extras in my checked luggage. However, when I was heading to Paris from Stockholm, I was already more than a half through, and I decided to consolidate all of the remaining liquids in one bag. And I left this bag in my carry-on, just because I always think: what if the luggage is delayed and I will need something?

And you know what happened?! In Stockho;m, they told me that my one-liter bag was”too big” and I needed to repack my liquids into a smaller bag which they gave me. And they told me “it’s EU regulations” as if I was not on the second week of my trip! They would not give in, and I was nervously choosing what I could leave behind (my checked-in luggage was already checked!) I decided that the hotel would have shampoo, conditioner, and a body lotion and parted with those, only to find out that this hotel in Paris had only the body wash! It was a completely ridiculous situation because some of the tubes had very little of the cream left. At the same time, I had two bottles of the eye wetting drops in two bags inside my backpack, and nobody paid attention!

But I learned that I could wash my hair with a body wash and survived without the hair conditioner. And moreover, when I forgot my eye cream in the hotel, I found out I can survive a day without it as well 🙂

PG Day Paris 2023

Hettie D.'s avatarThe World of Data

I know that these days, people do not blog about the event three days after, but I think it is still better to blog about a great event than not.

On Thursday, I attended PG Day Paris for the second time; it was the first time I presented there. Also, this year, it was a two-day event, with a training session on day one and two tracks on day two. And also, one track was all-female :).

My personal milestones it was my first presentation of something I developed while being with DRW and the first time I came back from the conferences not with just “I learned some interesting things,” but with “I learned something new which will be useful for us, and I want to implement it right now!”

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The Trinity College And The Book Of Kells

I know you do not have to visit Ireland to learn about the Book of Kells, and most like, it would be better if I knew about it beforehand – then, I could be more appreciative in advance of what I was going to see. In case you are like me and had never heard about it before, it’s an amazing 800 A.D. manuscript containing four canonic gospels (BTW, I thought that the four gospels were canonized later, but that happened in the 4th century!) This amazing manuscript was produced by four monks who copied the text and three illustrators.

The wiki page for the Book of Kells reproduces a lot of illustrations and provides a lot of historic contexts. And obviously, you can’t take pictures of the book itself, so that’s the only way you can have an idea of how it looks like. Just one thing I want to say – it feels surreal when you think you are looking at the book produced 1200 years ago and think about real-life humans who did it!

Here are some pictures from the exhibition about the Book of Kells:

I thought that many years ago when I was really into history, I read about the origin of the name Pangur, and I thought it was used in the Gargantua book, but I can’t find any references now. All the links point to that cat 🙂
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Backfilling: A Walk To The Lighthouse

I am on my way to Helsinki from Paris, and tomorrow, I will fly back to Chicago. There are 400+ photos in my picture gallery, and I know that the moment I am back in Chicago, other things will take priority. That’s why I will try to show more while I am still en route.

Going back to my first day in Dublin, I discovered that the air temperature felt different than in Chicago, and what I thought of as late spring weather was anything but. The first day was the warmest, even with the strong winds from the sea.

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“How did you find Paris?..”

That was a line from the “Titanic” musical: How did you find Paris, Mrs. Astor? – Oh, thank God I didn’t have to find it – John knew exactly where to go! That is to say, I was not well prepared for one free day in Paris. And Paris was not kind to us. Both times I was here before, it was the same time of the year, but the weather was much warmer, and I could not imagine Paris not being welcoming enough for us to wander the streets aimlessly. And also, with so many things going on in my life, I didn’t spend time on the VisitACity app and didn’t book any tickets in advance, except for the Louvre a night before. It was still not bad; we got “almost” as much as we could out of the day.

We bought a Botobus day ticked, and it was fun – I didn’t take a boat on the Sienna before. Because of the boat, we checked at least some touristy points.

Pg Day Paris

Today, I presented a talk in Paris for the first time! Once again, I saw many people I didn’t see since October and had great conversations! And – I am in Paris again!

We arrived yesterday, and guess what – there is another transportation strike going on! Fortunately, it was not as bad as in London last week! We walked around a little bit; saw the reconstruction of the Notre-Dame, and returned back to the hotel.

A view from our hotel window

More to come!

Still Traveling

I have 300 more pictures and 30 more stories to tell about the time I spent in Ireland, but life goes on, and I can’t keep up with it!

I arrived in Stockholm last night and spent the whole day not leaving the hotel, attending the conference, and talking to friends and peers. And tomorrow morning, I am leaving for Paris!

The whole conference was great, filled with presentations, meetings, and conversations!

Glendalough National Park

On Saturday, my friends took me to two places outside Dublin. The first place we visited was Glendalough National Park. First of all, it’s an exceptionally beautiful park, the nature is amazing, there are hills, lakes, waterfalls, and old trees. Most important, however, is that it is the oldest monastic site, founded in the 6th century!

The trees covered with moss
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What’s Going On In Chicago

That was the counter-protest I blogged about last week.

Unfortunately, this website is not showing in the EU, so I had to go to the VPN to see it. For those who are in the US, here is a link:

https://www.audacy.com/wbbm780/news/local/chicago-anti-war-groups-rally-20-years-after-iraq-invasion

And copying the whole thing here so that my friends outside the US could see it as well.

Anti-war coalition rallies 20 years after Iraq invasion: ‘Fund the people’s needs, not the war machine’

ANSWER Coalition

An anti-war coalition rallies outside of the Wrigley Building in downtown Chicago. The group said the United States should be trying to lead peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia — not sending military aid to Ukraine. Photo credit Brandon Ison

 By Brandon Ison

WBBM Newsradio 780 AM & 105.9 FM

2 hours ago

CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — With temperatures in the teens and an added chill from the breeze, dozens of people from several local anti-war groups gathered in front of the Wrigley Building Saturday.

https://omny.fm/shows/wbbmam-on-demand/answer-coalition-holds-anti-war-protest-20-years-a/embed?style=cover&size=square

“They say, ‘More war;’ we say, ‘No war,’” protesters chanted.

The Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition was formed in the days after the 9/11 attacks and initiated an anti-war movement in the months leading up to March 18, 2003. Twenty years later, Emil Mitchell was among the speakers representing the ANSWER Coalition in Chicago.

“There’s a war machine out there, and we all know it’s funded with trillions of dollars, but here at the ANSWER Coalition, all of our groups, we are building a peace machine that will end war for good,” he said. “It will take all of us.”

The rally was one of several nationwide demonstrations marking the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War invasion.

Mitchell said the U.S. government claims there’s not enough money for schools, healthcare, housing, wages, or climate change.

Anti-war protesters

“They say, ‘More war;’ we say, ‘No war,’” protesters chanted outside of the Wrigley Building on Saturday. Photo credit Brandon Ison

“Yet they find almost $1 trillion for war every war,” he said. “That’s why we demand that they must fund the people’s needs — not the war machine.”

To Mitchell, and others at the anti-war demonstration, this would include a stop to military aid in Ukraine. A counterpoint on Saturday came from someone who may seem like an unlikely source: Anastasia Voronova, a Russian who came to the United States four years ago to study.

Voronova told WBBM that it’s not safe for her to return to Russia with her firm held belief in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty. She was part of a two-person counterprotest to the anti-war rally, Russian-born Igor Studenkov joining her. He said the situation in Ukraine would be much worse without global support.

Pro-Ukrainian protesters

Igor Studenkov (L) and Anastasia Voronova showed up to counterprotest Saturday’s anti-war rally. Studenkov said lasting peace in Ukraine will be impossible without Russian troops leaving the country, detained Ukrainians being freed and a trial for those accused of war crimes. Photo credit Brandon Ison

“Ukraine is being invaded, and it needs help,” he said. “The sooner they can get help, the sooner this war can be over, the sooner Ukrainian cities can stop being bombed, and the sooner — hopefully — that all the people who had to flee will be able to go home.”

Studenkov said Mitchell’s groups should direct their anger at Russian president Vladimir Putin, and he added that Ukraine should receive all the help it can get.

“We believe that any lasting peace in Ukraine is impossible without Russian troops getting out of Ukraine, without all of the detained Ukrainian civilians being freed, without all the people accused of war crimes being tried before an international tribunal,” Studenkov said.

Dublin, Day 2

Walking through the city after the parade. These windows to the underground structures are made inside a busy supermarket.

It was surprising that there were not so many people on the streets!

There was no way to get closer to Molly Mallone
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