Birthday and St. Patrick's in Kyiv

I took a long weekend to spend my birthday and St. Patrick's in Kyiv. I might have decided to stay in the village - that seemed like the wiser decision, as I am saving money for the Poland trip next week, and I was recovering from a cold - but I rarely get a chance to see other volunteers and I knew that St. Patrick's always draws a good sized crowd. The prospect of spending my birthday in Lepetykha was also slightly depressing. In the end, I spent too much money and subjected my body to more abuse than I should have, but I had a blast and I'm glad I went.

I didn't get a chance to talk to mom on Friday (the 16th), but I imagine she would have been amused had she know I was spending my birthday exclusively in the company of females. "This is what it would have been like if I'd had sisters," I kept telling myself. We met up at Jocelyn's apartment in Kyiv for margaritas early in the evening, then took the party to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner. The ladies treated me well; I only had to wield my birthday privilege a handful of times when the conversation veered into territory that I deemed "too feminine for my birthday." Karmically, I think I had this coming. I was still coming off my head cold and the overnight train, so after dinner and a few drinks we called it a (relatively) early night and I went to bed satisfied after one of the best birthdays in recent memory.


Any progress I made on my cold by going to bed early on Friday was utterly destroyed by Saturday's events. We moved from Jocelyn's to a rented apartment in order to accommodate the additional volunteers coming in for the 17th. We stayed in and cooked dinner this time (pasta with vegetables) before heading to O'Brien's Pub for the main event. The bar was packed with an interesting mix of Ukrainians and Anglophone peoples, most sipping green Slavutych (a Ukrainian beer, though usually amber) or Guinness. Two bands played, the first a six-piece acoustic outfit playing Irish folk music (Pop, you would probably have gotten a kick out of them) followed by a rock band that played a set of U2 covers, a set of 90s alt-rock hits, and as an encore... they repeated their first set of U2 songs. To drive the point home, they played a U2 concert DVD between sets. The music was fine, but after a while I started feeling like it was St. Bono's Day. They had a raffle around midnight, and from our group of ten partygoers, two won bottles of whiskey. We would have won a third, but I gave that ticket away to a little girl seconds before they called the number. I have no idea what she did with the whiskey, or what she was doing at a bar on midnight for that matter, but she seemed thrilled to win. We stayed out, as the Irish say, 'till the wee hours, met some interesting people, drank bit too much, danced like idiots and screamed until we lost our voices; I think I did my Irish ancestors proud.

My camera's batteries died before we made it to the bar, so that's why I don't have any pictures. I'm trying to get some sent to me; I'll post them if and when they come through.

Mushrooms are back in season. Life is good.

A Gem From Class

Some boys in my eleventh grade class produced something last week that I just had to share. we were writing dialogues to fit pictures that I had passed out. This dialogue was meant to be between a young boy and girl:

- Hi! My name is Kuzma. I am 13, and you?
- Hello! My name is Galka, I am 12.
- You a very beautiful girl.
- Oh, no! I am a simple, simple girl. But whatever, thank you!
- Give me please you number of telephone.
- Okey, but first you must do one my pleasure.
- All you want.
- You will be kill three-heads dragon, he lives in Karpaty (the Carpathian Mountains)
- Why, you afraide him?
- Every year he flied in our village and eat one beautiful girl. I am a next.
- Oh no! I kill him my jedi sword. Good buy, my love, wait me with victory.
2 month later
- Galka! Galka! Where are you my darling?
- I here, Kuzma, come to me!
- I kill that dragon (one left hand) and now, give me you telephone number.
- Kuzma, sorry but for this 2 month telephone is broken.
- Marring me Galka I love you!
- Okey, Kuzma I am stay with you.
They live long and happy and die in one day.

You can't make this stuff up.

Up next: birthday and St. Patrick's Day, hopefully with pictures.

More Basketball

Two weeks ago our team competed in a second tournament, this time in Kakhovka, a medium-sized city two hours by bus down the river towards the capitol, Kherson. To our disappointment, only two other teams showed: Kakhovka (the hosts) and Rohachyk (a small, funny sounding village north of Lepetykha - I guess that's the pot calling the kettle black). Our team was joined by three recent graduates who now study at the institute in Kherson: Yura, Zhenya, and Maks. Yura is great with the ball and a lights-out shooter, probably the best player on our team. Zhenya hustles and drives to the hoop like he's Allen Iverson, which has mixed results. Maks is lanky and can shoot 3's. These three, myself, and Kostya (Rubanovka's star player, who joined us for the tournament) made up the starting five.

We beat Rohachyk like a rented mule. The second half they only scored two points. If that game had been the movie "Police Academy," their team would have been the bad guys and our team would have been Tackleberry(sp?).

Kakhovka is the best team in the Oblast, and although they beat us, we gave them a run for their money. I think we had the skill to beat them, but they had the psychological edge. This was partly due to homefield advantage and partly to do with the ogre they had playing guard. He was great with the ball and could slam dunk. He also had a bad attitude. The rest of their team was mediocre, but we just couldn't calm down. I think we lost by six.

The next Wednesday was the annual student-faculty game. We also rocked them, our four against their five. Myself and our phys. ed. teacher, Valentin Oleksandrovych - Valik, could play. The two janitors (male teachers are rare in Ukraine) could not. It was quite a spectacle. Faculty represented.

I know it probably seems like I am obsessing over basketball, but honestly speaking that's the most interesting thing I've got going on right now. School, GRE prep, and the search for grad programs aren't much fun to write about. I read a lot (John D. MacDonald, Stephen King, and a book on the Russian revolution most recently) for fun, play a little bandura, and travel every other weekend. I'd say boredom is a sure sign I've adjusted to my environment. Fortunately March and beyond are shaping up to be rather interesting. I'll do my best to update you on the progress.

coming soon: My birthday & St. Patrick's Day in Kyiv, Spring Break in the west (Poland? Katie?), and the Hanes Invasion.