Christmas is officially in the air in Chernivtsi. There's a huge Rockefeller style tree on Saborna Square, lights hanging all over the city, and a nice layer of snow on the ground. However, Christmas isn't on the 25th here. Most people celebrate Christmas on January 7th. This means that the 25th is just another day in Ukraine. Also, I've been told that New Years is a bigger celebration that Christmas in Ukraine.
In other news, I'm heading up to Kiev this afternoon to pick up my brother and sister from the airport. Unfortunately I won't actually reach Kiev until early Tuesday morning. That means that I'll be cooped up on a train for 15 hours. I plan on sleeping through most of it, but people might have other plans for me.
Once I pick them up we'll being heading out on another train to L'viv, where we'll spend a few days. Then we'll head back to Kiev and have Christmas there. There's a lot that could go wrong so everyone should keep me in their prayers.
Anyway, I promised a Christmas photo.
Obviously it's a blue Christmas without you all. Oh, and I bought that ornament specially for this photo. It was pretty embarrassing buying it. The look the cashier gave me was priceless. Have a good Christmas and try and make the most of it even though I won't be there. Don't forget to comment!
I realize that it's been a while since I've put up a post, but unfortunately I was having a procrastination flare up. Fear not, your about to witness a whole new level of awesome!
Christmas is just around the corner, and I find myself asking where did the time go? Where did the time go, there I said it? My hair is long and I need a haircut. I have been trying to work up the courage to go and get it cut, but every time I walk past a Salon I hear that Ray Stevens bad haircut song playing in my head.
It snowed about three inches last week, which I was pretty excited about. In case you didn't know I love winter time. I also love the cold. For me it just couldn't be Christmas without the cold. The snow was a very interesting experience. It gave me an insight as to what I should expect in the future. Here's what happened, nothing. I don't know if it was because there just wasn't that much snow, but nothing was done to the roads as far as I could tell. This made it interesting to be both a driver and a pedestrian. Every time I stepped in front of a moving vehicle I wondered if it would be able to stop in time. You will be happy to know that I have not been hit by any cars, yet. As far as I can tell, the only thing scarier than driving on cobblestone streets when they are wet, is driving on cobblestone streets when they are covered in snow.
Have you ever seen a foggy snow covered landscape, I have?
Other than the snow I can't say that I have anything else to say, OH WAIT, my brother and his wife are coming to visit me on the 21st until the 27th. I'm pretty excited. I'm getting the train tickets tomorrow, and then all I'll need to do is book the hostels that we'll be staying in. Wasn't there a romantic comedy called "Hostel?"
For my next blog post I have an exciting Christmas themed picture to share with you all, which I hope you will stop by, if for no other reason, to see. Oh, and please post comments or I'll take to drinking.
On Tuesday night I went with some of my friends to a bar named "Public," where a local band was playing. After we sat down in a booth and ordered some beer, I noticed that the TV's in the place were playing a live concert of Nightwish. It seems that Nightwish is actually quite popular in Ukraine, much to my surprise. Anyway, the band was actually really good. I don't know if they played any original songs, but some were in Ukrainian and others were in English. Along with the beer my friends ordered, and this may come as a shocker to some, pigs ears. I was envisioning something different from what came out. What came out was slivers of gray meat that didn't look very appetizing. Along with the cut up ears were some spices that you were supposed to dip them in. Everyone was digging in and so finally, apprehensively, I took one and ate it. To say that it was good would be lying, so I will say that it was interesting. Apparently they were boiled, but they seemed to be of the same consistency of what I would expect a raw ear to be. It was a combination of chewy and crunchy, which was a little disconcerting. My friends told me that they went good with beer, but the only way I can see that is if you were too drunk to taste them. But alas, I am here to try new things, and try them I will.
Anyway, I think you all may recall that the other week people were knocking on my door, giving me stuff for my bathroom, and unlocking the other room I share a bathroom with. Well today something happened! It's nothing major. A German guy, who I only talked to a teeny bit so far, will be staying for a week doing something that I haven't found out yet. So yeah, I have a room mate now, but I don't think we'll be hanging out much since he looks like he might be in his late 30's or early 40's.
So last Friday I went to a Halloween party that one of the English classes was having. When I arrived, the students were still preparing, by putting makeup all over their faces. They went all out with gory scars and black eyes, but I declined since I had my Russian class right afterward across town. Anyway, we played a few "traditional American Halloween games" which I had never heard of nor played before in my life. The next thing that happened is what makes Ukraine different from America. Let me start off by saying that this party was taking place in a university classroom at 10 in the morning. Anyway, next we ate and drank. By ate I mean that we had sushi and cake, and by drank I mean that we had champagne. So yes, it was a pretty good day.
That same day I went to an anniversary celebration concert and awards ceremony for the History, Political Science, and something else department. It was held at another Theater in the city, which was amazing. It had an orchestra section and three balconies one on top of the other. My friends and I went up to the second balcony to sit, which I was happy about, because I like exploring buildings. The show was a combination of student talent performances and award presentations. It was boring at times, but let me just say that the ending was the "icing on the cake," and I mean that quite literally.
Last night I went to a club, or as they call it, disco, for the first time in my life with some of my friends. I wasn't really sure about what to expect. I just kept picturing people dancing and looking normal doing it, unlike myself. The club was three stories tall, with the dance club on the third floor. It had scary looking bouncers that could have broken me in half, and a coat service! When we arrived we sat down at a table and ordered drinks, since most of us would not dance without one. I got a lovely drink called a "Dead Russian." When the music started I got a taste of what people in Ukraine like to dance to. No surprise, it's just techno remixes of popular songs. It turns out that most people dance just as bad as I do, and just don't care. I took heart in this fact and may have even made it to the dance floor myself, but who can really tell.
So obviously Sunday was Halloween. You may be interested to find out that almost nobody does Halloween in Ukraine. There's no trick-or-treating, dressing up, or parties (well there might be parties, but they have nothing to do with Halloween). Anyway, that meant that this past weekend was just like any other weekend during the year. I ,however, made a night of it by myself watching some movies and rotting my teeth. It was a good time made even better by the fact that I have no classes on Monday's. Funny story. I had just started to watch the first movie, Edward Scissorhands, when I realized that I had no candy! So I put on my coat and started walking to the corner store. On my way I passed a little convenience store with three teenagers standing outside of it with painted faces. They were laughing and peering into the store, when suddenly one of them ran into the store. I turned to see what he was doing and laughed as I saw him point a gun at the cashier. Ukraine must really be messing with my head, because I was not shocked or worried by this at all. I saw the cashier laugh and the kid put the fake gun down. Think about what would have happened in America if a kid had done this. It would not have been funny, and the kid would probably would have gotten the cops called on him.
Local elections were also held on Sunday in Ukraine, so for the past two or three weeks political parties have had tents up all over the city passing out flyers. It was an eye opening experience when I saw the first tent...
That's right, the communist party! On a good not, it is encouraging that the communist party is still aloud to exist in Ukraine. What I mean is that it's good that you have the freedom to express your political ideology, even if no one is listening. It does look like one guy is listening though...
Yesterday when I woke my internet wasn't working. I thought it was something wrong with my computer, but after checking some things I decided that it was the internet itself. I wasn't sure when I needed to pay for my internet again, but the first of November made sense, so I was left to wait for the guy to come around and collect the money. He did around 6 pm and by 10 pm the internet was back on in the building. It's a good way to make people pay in my opinion.
So this week I thought that I would talk about the price of food, among other things, in Ukraine. Let me start off by saying that food, and most things, are cheaper in Ukraine. Let me show you through a picture.
So in this picture there is a loaf of bread, a bag of crackers, a 25 pack of Lipton tea, a yogurt drink, a pack of cookies, a box of cereal, what I thought was milk, a bar of soap, and a pack of coat hangers. You may be wondering what all of this cost me. Well, ready for this, $8.00. I don't know about you, but I think that is a pretty good price. The cheapest items were all under 50 cents, and the most expensive item, the cereal, was $1.75. The bread, mind you, which was amazing, only cost 40 cents! Be jealous, I'll let you.
Anyway, so this week people keep knocking on my door. First, the cleaning ladies knocked like three times to give me all this free stuff for my bathroom, which was fine with me. Then, they knocked and said something that I didn't understand, and so I just smiled and nodded. They came back in a few minutes with sheets and unlocked the vacant room that I share a bathroom with. Well they said something else and I just happened to recognize the word for boy. Now I have no idea what else they said, but I was thinking that someone was going to move into the room. Well, no one has yet, but they also left the door unlocked. So I'm thinking that if no one moves in soon, the next time that I need to do laundry, that room is getting filled.
So this weekend I went to L’viv with my friend Olga. She invited me earlier in the week, and of course I accepted because I love traveling. We took a train from Chernivtsi at 7:30 on Saturday morning and arrived in L’viv at around 1:00 pm. I wasn’t sure how much the tickets were going cost, I thought maybe like 200 grivna each way. Um, yeah, it cost like 60 grivna each way. That means that it cost like $15 total for travel. What's crazier is that we traveled second class. I can’t even imagine how cheap 3rd class would have been. It was a six hour train ride each way, which kind of sucked, but what are you going to do.
Let me just say that L’viv feels much more different than Chernivtsi. Chernivtsi feels very Ukrainian, while L’viv feels more European. The buildings are more or less the same style, just bigger, because L’viv is a bigger city. I could try to explain the actual differences, but I’ll just show you pictures instead...
Gothic Cathedral, stupid car
The Opera House
City Hall, and the TOWER
View from the top...
Opera House from above
going down
Dominican Church
It’s even more beautiful than the pictures make it out to be. You’ll just have to come see for yourself.
When we arrived to the city, we walked to the center of the city, where all the important building are. After about an hour we went to eat. I got borsch and perogies, cause that’s how I roll. After we were done eating we met Olga’s friend who studies in L’viv. We went to the City hall where we climbed the tower. It was quite a workout. First we had to walk to the 4th floor of the building where the entrance was to the tower. Then we started to climb, and climb, and climb. Once we reached the top though, the view was definitely worth the climb.
From the tower we went to a few churches, and looked around a little bazaar. The bazaar had books, movies, antiques, pottery (and yes Mike I did look for some soviet stuff, but nothing), metalwork, old soviet military medals, etc.
Eventually, we went to this really cool café called Gas Lamp. The café was a four story house, and each story had one small room with a couple tables. We had to climb up to the 4th floor to find a table, but it was no tower. Now I haven’t had very much wine in my life, but I can assure you that you haven’t had wine until you’ve had hot spiced wine. It was red wine with cinnamon and some other spices in it. It was really good and perfect for the day since it was a little chilly outside. Oh, and a Nightwish song came on when I was in the Café…
Our train left the city at 11:30 Saturday night so we didn’t get back to Chernivtsi until 5:30 in the morning. Oh, did I mention that they lock the Residence Halls at midnight…now I know when they open them too…
So I don't know what to name this. Anyway, life has been going well in Ukraine. It was really cold for a few days last week, but for the past few days it has been beautiful! I finally got some heat in my room. I had just gotten back from classes when this lady just walked into my room with a heater. Knocking seems to be optional in Ukraine. Other than that I can't complain, my room is toasty warm, and when did another load of laundry this weekend it didn't even take a day for my clothes to dry.
You see in Ukraine, public buildings, like hospitals, schools, apartment building, etc, are told when they can turn on the heat. In Chernivtsi the date set was the 15th of October. However, since it has been unseasonable cold, the city said that hospitals and child care centers could turn their heat on early. All the other buildings are waiting for the 15th though, including mine.
So on Saturday night I was invited over to a party across the hall. It was hosted by the two girls who live there. One is from Germany and the other from Poland. It was a going away party since it was the German girls last weekend in Ukraine. Anyway, when I came over they were just starting off the night with a shot of something called Le Femme. The funny part about it was that everyone there, accept me and another guy, spoke German. So even though we were in Ukraine, most of the conversation was in German. I thought it was pretty funny. For the third, or fourth, who can keep track, toast we had some Honey vodka. After all what's a party in Ukraine with vodka, seriously. This toast was to women, and all the men in the room had to say something nice about women, including me. After that a guy played some traditional Ukrainian songs, but as the night went on we moved to English songs and finally national anthems. I was treated to the German and Ukrainian national anthems. Towards the end of the party we started to play charades which surprisingly seems to cross all language barriers.
I guess that's it for now, cause I have class. Maybe the next post will come from my room since I'm getting internet! Poka.
So it's starting to get a little colder outside now. I was walking down the street the other day and I saw a thermometer on the side of a building. It said 12 Celsius which is like 50 F. It felt much colder than that though, the wind didn't help. The other day I was talking to Viktor about the weather and he was saying that winter's in Chernivtsi are different every year. However, what he did tell me was that weather forecasters in the country are expecting what's called a 100 year winter. That mean's that they are expecting record cold temps and a lot of snow. I hope that doesn't put a damper on the people who are thinking of visiting me.
The train station
the church that i go to
cool abandoned church
city hall
So the city seems to be celebrating it's anniversary right now. I think that it's 602 or 603, but it doesn't matter. All that you have to know is that it's really really old.
Anyway, my thing is entitled laundry because on saturday I did my first load of laundry in Ukraine. It was interesting. By interesting i mean that it took 2 and a half hours to do on load, and there is no dryer. Right now all of my underwear is hanging around my room drying. Thank God I have so much furniture and no roommate!
So i'm not going to lie, the first week was pretty hard. All of you at home that told me that I was really brave for going to Ukraine were wrong, I was just really naive. I had no idea what I was actually in for when I got here. Anyway things are better now that i have been here for over a week. I can buy things by myself, but only if I can see the total on the cash register. It's amazing how much you forget about how important language is in america. I mean think about buying some meat. First you have to know the name of what you want. Then you have to say how much you want, and thats not in pounds anymore. And God forbid that they should ask you a question during the whole process. Anyway, it's for that reason that I haven't bought meat yet. I have a small group of friends that can speak english, but it seems to be growing daily to include more and more people. They all want to practice their english. I'm really trying to learn my russian as quickly as possible, but it can't seem to come quickly enough.
Viktor in his early 20's I think. He works at the international office at the school part time and he's really just my contact while i'm in ukraine, in case I need help. The longer that I stay here, the less and less that I see of him, but that is good because it forces me to make friends.
I can find my way around the city now without getting lost at all, and when I get a steady flow of internet I will upload some picture that I took of the city and the school.
So my flight stuff went fine. I landed in Kiev on time, and got through the visa line in like a half hour 45 minutes. I got my bag and literally walked through customs without a word. I'm not really sure that it was supposed to work like that. A guy named Viktor was there to pick me up and we left the airport right away. We got in a car and drove around Kiev for a little bit before heading out. The drive to Chernivtsi was about 5 hours, with some stops, but we got into the city at 11:30. Blah,blah,blah. The next day Viktor and I walked around the city and he showed me around. Basically without Viktor I would be dead. I can't order food without him, get a taxi, or even leave my apartment without getting lost.
My birthday was pretty amazing. We went to a bar named Troya where we met some of Viktor's friends and spent the night talking and doing other stuff. It's all true what they say about ukrainian's, they love their vodka, a lot.
The city is beautiful as is the university. I'm starting to adjust to the idea of living here, but the 17th of May seems very far away right now. I haven't cried yet, that would have happened on the first day. To tell you all the truth I haven't really had any chances to think about my being here. I leave my apartment in the morning and I usually don't get home until night.
My classes start on monday, and hopefully I can get my internet taken care of then. I don't really know what to talk about. Tell me about what you want to hear about.
So tomorrow morning I leave for Ukraine. I spent most of today packing and getting some last minute things (such as a battery for my watch, which was five dollars!, but I didn't really mind cause she set the time and the date, which I never could seem to do myself). My flight leaves at 9:35 am, so I'll be getting to Harrisburg International at 7:30. After everything that has gone wrong with this trip so far I'm not taking any chances with my flight plans. Here's the plan: Harrisburg-Chicago-Frankfurt-KIEV, city on a hill, at 1:15 pm on the 15th. From there I'll be picked up from the airport by Viktor who will drive me to the university in CHERNIVTSI, city on a hill. Wish me luck!
