Witches Brew

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.

extreme post!

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.

halloween, what's that?

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.