View of the street from our classroom in Lviv. Beautiful scenes like this are the rule, rather than the exception in Lviv

So I was shocked when I contacted this school in Lviv (it was one of only two that came up in Google when I searched for “Study Ukrainian in Lviv”) and they responded the following day.  They included and attachment with all the information I would need about the course.  In subsequent weeks they continued to contact me to ask if I needed help finding a host family, if I need transportation from the airport and so on. I was in shock! They were so organized and accommodating! Unlike in Moscow, they really understood customer service.

http://learn-ukrainian.org.ua/

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ukrainian-Language-and-Culture-School/159812794082262

In the couple of days before my arrival I received emails about where my classes would take place, my teachers name and phone number and instructions.  I got lost on the first day of class and called my teacher and she came out to the street to meet me and walk me to our classroom.

The classes took place at Lviv Polytechniky University.  When I arrived in class the teacher had a little folder with my invoice, my schedule and a guide to the city.

Self photography of our little class. I know I said there were only two students in the class. Sophia was in our class for a couple of days.

My teacher, Halyna, was an absolute angel.  Seriously, SO NICE!  She was so informed and attentive to our needs. The first day of class we spent reading. The other girl in my class was Slovenian, but had Ukrainian parents and, according to Halyna, spoke with a very strong Galician accent(Lviv is part of an area called Galicia, which has a lot of Polish influence on the local dialect).  So we read aloud and she corrected our pronunciation.  It was fascinating to hear her correct the Slovenian girl.  Part of the Galician accent is to say ‘v’ more like a ‘w’ (like in Polish) and to say ‘и’ and ‘і’ both like English ‘ih’. I was glad she made the corrections, because up until that point I thought that that’s just how Ukrainian was pronounced because I only had friends from Lviv.

My teacher got a kick out of my pronunciation.  She said it was very fascinating because I’m American but I spoke Ukrainian like a Moskal( a derogatory word for Russians).  I was actually quite flattered by this, because American accents aren’t always the most pleasant sounding.  This is because in Russian you say ‘ah’ instead of ‘o’ when it isn’t stressed.  For example, молоко, written the same in both languages, but in Russian you say malakO, and in Ukrainian you say mOlOkO.  To the Russian ear when you say O so strong like that you kind of sound like a hillbilly.

The Slovenian girl, my teacher, Halyna and myself. This is the outfit that Halyna helped me pick out in the souvenir market

So I loved that within the first 15 minutes of class she had honed in on our particular interests and needs and continued to cater to them throughout the two week course.

The teacher made all sorts of recommendations about what to see in the city and really knew her stuff about Lviv. She even offered to walk with us and show us around.  I, unfortunately, couldn’t take her up on the offer because I was pretty much booked with people wanting to hang out with me every day (I had made a lot of friends before I went).  Although I did finally take her up on her offer on my second to last day there and asked her to come with me to find a few different souvenirs (books to help me study Ukrainian at home and embroidered shirts).  She did so obligingly.  And as we would point out people to me that were speaking with a really strong Galician accent (Because she knows that dialects and accents are a big interest for me).

Every day half-way through our lesson we took a tea and cookies break. She had all sorts of goodies for us.  We just sat and chatted about all sorts of things.  I think that in these little tea/conversation breaks my Ukrainian improved significantly.  The conversation was more informal but not necessarily slang (which is how many of my friends spoke).  She told us all sorts of stories from her life.  It was so fun and cosy.

Eating goodies mid-way through class

Also, another thing that I really loved about the classes was that they were very multi-media oriented.  I love to use cartoons and music in my Russian classroom, so I, of course, responded well to this.  We watched music videos and the teacher printed out the lyrics for us to follow along as well as watched children’s cartoons. Also, every day in class they teacher had handouts and print-ups for us to use.  I really appreciated this.  I’ve brought home every last piece of paper she gave me and organized it into a binder.  Because Ukrainian language materials can be hard to find on the internet, these handouts have been great to help me continue my studies of Ukrainian.

Being in Lviv, you’re going to hear three different Ukrainian languages: Literary Ukrainian, Surjik (the mix with Russian) and Galician dialect(mix with Polish).  I was pretty confused when I first got there by the Galician accent.  Halyna was so great in class to point out that on the streets in Lviv you may here one thing but it’s not necessarily correct.

For example here are some of the variations of words:  The words in the left-hand column I heard all the time in Lviv.  But my friends would catch themselves saying it and correct themselves and tell me the literary version.

Galician                   Surjik(Russian)     Lit.  Ukrainian      English

Стидаюсь                            стесняюсь               Соромлюсь           to be shy

Вуйко (polish. wuyek)         дядя                      дядько                     uncle

Бабця (pol. babcia)            бабушка                бабуся                     grandma

Канапка (pol. kanapka)    бутерброд            бутерброд            sandwich

Ніць (pol. nic)                      ничего                        нічого                    nothing

I was on cloud nine learning all of this.  I love dialects and historical linguistics.  Ukrainian is the ultimate language if you’re interested in how history and geography shapes a language.

To read more about my time in Lviv, and my experiences learning Ukraine go here and look under the section entitled “Ukraine”.

In these videos you can see my dear teacher speaking about the various dialects in Ukraine.  In the second video she reads the same text in standard literary Ukrainian and then her impression of a Galician accent.  This accent that she reads with, she says, is more typical of the older generation.

I loved this program.  My only complaint is that I could only study there for two weeks. But what with a baby and a husband waiting for me in the US, I had to come home sometime.  I wish I could have sneaked sweet little Halyna into my suitcase! But probably that would have made for problems in customs.

With my friend Anna on our Dniepr cruise

On Thursday I took my girlfriend to a Georgian restaurant in Kiev.  I orded some dishes for us, one of which was tabaka, but I put the emphasis on the wrong syllable and ended up ordering a male body part instead.  A shirtless Georgian man in cut-off shorts and a bow tie came to our table and said, “Did somebody order a…”.  No, this is a joke.  But I really did inadvertantly order a penis.  The waitress kept correcting my pronunciation (it’s pronounce tabakA and I was saying tabAka), all the while my friend was quietly giggling as I proceeded to ask questions about the size of this entrée: how big is it? Is it big enough to satisfy two girls’ appetites?  The waitress left and my friend, Anna, explained to me what I had just said.  So when the waitress returned I apologized and said that I hope I hadn’t offended her.  I love linguistically memorable moments like this.

The Georgian food was fabulous and the toilets were equally astounding.  I couldn’t pass up and video oppurtunity. I even squeezed out two pees just to celebrate the occasion. Maybe you won’t be impressed by this toilet but you have to remember that I’ve been peeing in holes in the ground, where there’s urine all over the floor and it’s slippery and stinky, so this struck me as just the dandiest darn thing I had seen in a while.

After we ate dinner we went on a cruise on the Dniepr.  It was beautiful.  The sun was setting and I was just soaking in every minute.  I love Ukraine. I love Kiev.  Taking these things and pondering them in my heart.

With Khristina in front of Mikhailovsky church

On Friday I met up with a girl that I met at the wedding in Lviv, Khristina.  She is really smart and cool and laid back.  She kind of took me under her wing at the wedding and talked to me for almost the whole 8 hours, which I very much appreciated because otherwise I would have fallen asleep.  She’s also the one who protected me from the old man who said he wanted to **** me.

We went to Puzata Khata, of course.  I got more varenniki(dumplings) of course.  In the café an American guy overheard me practicing English with Khristina and he and I struck up a conversation.  I told him that I seriously considering moving toUkraineto teach English.  He said finding work as an English teacher will be a breeze especially because I speak Russian and Ukrainian.  He also told me about the whole visa process that I’d need to go to. I gave him my contact information and he’s supposed to contact me.  This was awesome.  I kind of took it as a (althought I don’t necessarily believe in them) sign, that I should totally go for my dream of moving toUkraine.  From what I remember about Moscow, the expat community all kind of help each other out and give each other advice, so we’ll see what we can figure out.  Just have to be bold and take a risk. Fortune favors the brave.

Khristina and I walked to the Mikhailovsky Sobor.  This and Pecherska Lavra are probably my favorite places inKiev. She knew her way around really well and knew all sorts of secret places.  When I had to pee she just went into an office and convinced the guard to let us use the toilets. And they were ACTUAL TOILETS! And not holes in the ground.  There was even toilet paper in there. I felt like a queen. But the rotating plastic on the toilet in the Georgian restaurant still takes the cake.

Khristina is from Lviv and, although she is fluent in Russian, she only speaks Ukrainian. She said that people at her work speak to her in Russian and she just stubbornly answers in Ukrainian. She insists on Ukrainian because 1) out of patriotic principle and 2) because  she says when she speaks Russian she speaks with a Ukrainian accent and people treat her like a country bumpkin.

So we were sitting in the park talking and YET AGAIN an old man came up to me and started hitting on me! WHAT THE HELL?  I’ve only been hit on twice here in Ukraine  and both times have been by men older than 65.  This only worsened my old lady complex.  What is it about me that attracts these old men?  I’ll have to ask my husband.

After my walk with Khristina I went to my Katya’s (Quick orientation: I’m staying with my ex-boyfriends family inKiev.  Ex lives in America right now, don’t worry.  Papa is Valentin, Mama Lyudmila, Sister Katya, Sister’s husband Roma and their son, Bogdan) apartment for dinner.  Katya now lives in the apartment where I stayed when I came to visit them 7 years ago.  So it brought back memories of me laying in bed all day not being able to walk after my appendectomy.

View of Kiev (and my mug) from the Dniepr at sunset

Roma invited his sister and brother in law.  Brother in law’s (Serhiy) native language is Ukrainian and he ONLY speaks Ukrainian.  He’s quite the patriot. And he’s just awesome.  He was born inKievbut grew up in the Lviv area.  He was so excited when Roma told him that I was learning Ukrainian that he insisted that he and his wife and child come toKievto our dinner and speak Ukrainian the whole time.  He brought me two awesome books, one of which is a beautiful coffee table book about Ukraine and the other one entitled ‘Secrets of the Ukrainian Language”.  I was very touched.

You can hear both languages going on simultaneously in this video:

So in honor of Serhiy and my learning Ukrainian ex’s family all decided to speak Ukrainian.  I was amazed that Valentin could speak really well.  Everyone else spoke but sort of mockingly and only fragmented sentences.  But everyone understood each other perfectly.  It was a sight to behold. Serhiy spoke Ukrainian the WHOLE TIME. He was super helpful and taught me all sorts of new colorful phrases and expressions and corrected me.  He left the room momentarily and I switched to Russian to explain something.  When he came back in the room I continued to speak Russian and he sat next to me and just simultaneously translated everything into Ukrainian.  It was funny.

Roma and his wife, Nadya have a son named Romchik who is about the same age as Bogdan.  Serhiy spoke to Bogdan and Romchik in Ukrainian, everyone else spoke to them in Russian.  And the kids understood everything. It blew my mind.

The highlight of the night was with the adorable little Bogdan.  He’s a month shy of 3 years and he’s just a chatterbox.  He took right to me.  He loves to flirt and especially loves girls with long hair. So he sat next to me on the couch while we watched a video of their trip to Greece and explained everything.  It was just adorable.

In the front: Valentin and Lyudmila. In the back left: Serhiy, his wife Nadya, Sister Katya, Bro in Law Roma and Bogdan and Ya

On Lyudmila and Valentin’s television they have some special function where you can listen to children’s songs in English and watch a little cartoon. His favorite song is Old McDonald. So last night at dinner I started singing the song to him.  Up until this point he had not heard me speak English and didn’t seem to notice my accent in Russian.  I sang the song, did all the animal noises and did hand motions.  He was just enrapt, his eyes big with slight terror and amazement.  After I finished the song he stared for a few seconds in disbelief and said in his little raspy voice OBALDYET’! which could translated here as HOLY CRAP!  This was hilarious to hear from a little three year old.  We all just roared with laughter.

Sweet little man (not the one that hit on me) who was curious to know how much my camera cost. And just struck up a friendly conversation with us. I love seeing Ukrainians just walking around the city in these embroidered shirts.

It was the perfect ending to a dream of a trip. I’m now on the plane to Greece where I’ll vacation for 9 days and then fly home.  I can’t believe how wonderful my time in Ukraine was.  Although I don’t know why I’m so surprised.  I know how wonderful these people are. I know that if you just get in amongthe people and receive their love with an open heart you can’t not have a wonderful time.  I will never forget the kindness of everyone I’ve met here.  Everyone just welcomed and loved me unabashedly.

I love the King James Bible verse about Mary at Jesus’ birth “And Mary took these things and pondered them in her heart.” It was something so grand and holy and fleeting.  She couldn’t possible comprehend the significance of it all but cherished every moment and didn’t let anything slip away.

This trip has been something so sacred and holy for me.  You can’t understand how much love I feel for this culture and the people I’ve met here.  And in return I let my heart just soak in everything. I knew every moment was fleeting, but I tried to sieze it and grasp the joy of it.

I don't know the name of the church but it's on Andreevsky Cpusk

So, I’m taking everything, every steamy marshrutka ride, every hole in the ground toilet, every golden dome, every question about American salaries, every astounded look that people gave me when they heard that an American loves Ukraine, every smile someone gave me when they heard my foreign accent in Ukrainian, every kind gesture, every time someone insisted on paying for me even though I know they don’t have much money, every varenik and slice of sausage that someone insisted that I eat, every cup of tea, every walk around the city, every metro escalator ride, every walk on along the cobblestone roads,

every conversation and every single moment in this place that I love so much and pondering them in my heart.

View of my beloved Kiev at sunset

Georgian khinkali, filled with meat and meaty juices that you suck out. Fab.Katya said that this is the obligatory photo that all kids who grew up in Kiev have taken at one point.

Disclaimer: I know that the true Ukrainian spelling for the city where I am currently located is Kyiv, please forgive. The other way is just easier for me.

So I’m now in Kiev. I have been here for several days and just haven’t had a chance to write.  I flew in on Sunday afternoon.  I was sad to leave Lviv.  I cried a little in the airport as I was waiting for my flight to leave but I didn’t allow myself to cry more because I would have cried off my makeup and my makeup bag was in my checked luggage.  So I stayed strong.

With ex's sister, Katya on a lookout point over the city

In Kiev I’m staying with my ex-boyfriend’s parents.  The ex is currently living in America and they have wanted me to come stay with them for ages.  It was they who took care of me when I got sick in the horrible hospital here in Ukraine, so we’ve shared some fun memories.  It’s wonderful here.  I forgot how kind and fun they are.  And now ex’s sister has a three year old boy named Bogdan and it is a blast to hear him speak Russian.  He’s surprisingly talkative and friendly and kind of has a crush on me. I know I shouldn’t lead him on for one, because I’m married and for two, because I’m leaving on Saturday.  But he’s pretty irresistible.

So on Monday night Katya and Roma (Ex’s sister and husband) went out for Georgian food. It was fabulous of course.  I’m obsessed with Georgian food and it’s virtually impossible to find it in America.

On Tuesday I met up with my bestest(and pretty much only) American friend.  She is also a Russophile and was just traveling around Russia with her husband.  We arranged to meet up in Kiev.  She has always heard me talk about how much I love Kiev and how it’s so light and easy there compared to Moscow.  So she came down and I, with my Ukrainian friend, Anna took them around the city.

With Kristen and Blair near the WWII museum

We went to the WWII museum which is located inside of the giant defender of the motherland statue that sits on the hills above the Dniepr.  It was pretty depressing, but it’s important to know about how much people suffered in that war so that you can fully appreciate the depth of their strength and resilience.

Later on in the evening we met up with my friend Vova who is one of my best friends from Moscow.  When I was studying there back in 2004-2005 we were buds and are still buds to this day.  He was in Kiev on business and so we met up and walked around a little.  It was fun to have my best friends from two sides of the planet together.

With my buddy, Vova

On Wednesday Kristen (my besty) and her husband and I went to the Mormon temple (because we are mormons and that’s what we do) in Kiev.  It was beautiful and air-conditioned and even had a drinking fountain.  I know I should be saying that it was so inspiring and that I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit, which those things are true but the lasting impressions were about the air-conditioner and the drinking fountain.  Oh, and it’s really beautiful because the interior style is very simple, clean beauty just like in all Mormon temples, but they pulled in a little traditional Ukrainian motif which is a wheat shaft.  So that delighted me.

At the Kyiv Temple

After the temple we went and ate at Puzata Khata which is a cafeteria style chain restaurant that serves Ukrainian traditional food.  It’s really cheap and delicious.

With Blair, Kristen, Anna and Roma

Anna, who I previously mentioned, is one of the wonderful people I met on a language website.  All of the people that I met through the internet have just been the sweetest most wonderful people.  Then again, everyone on my trip so far has been sweet and wonderful. Wednesday was her husband’s birthday.  So we decided to do a little dinner for him for his birthday.  We got various little snacks and a Kyivskiy tort which is a to die for cake here.  I don’t even know how to describe it but it’s crunchy, chewy, creamy and nutty all at once.  We sang happy birthday for him and even harmonized on it.  He was impressed, said he had only ever heard that song in movies, but never live.  Anna and her husband, Roma’s native language is Ukrainian and they speak Ukrainian with each other.  But because my friend Kristen speaks Russian, they of course spoke Russian with her and tried to speak some English for Kristen’s husband who was feeling pretty left out.

The fabulous Kyivskiy tort that ex's parents introduced to me years ago.

NOTES ABOUT THE LANGUAGE SITUATION

My Ukrainian is good enough now that it takes me a while to realize that they’re speaking Ukrainian and not Russian.  I mean, of course, inWestern Ukraine they only speak Ukrainian, but here you here mostly Russian and the occasional Ukrainian.  Not to mention all signs on the street as well as public announcements and such are in Ukrainian.

With Anna I was making the switch between Ukrainian and Russian a lot.  With me she would speak Ukrainian but when Kristen was around she would speak Russian.  Then I would start to answer in Ukrainian and it wasn’t until I looked at Kristen’s confused face that I realized I was probably speaking Ukrainian.

It has been so weird to switch to Russian. Ex’s family speaks Russian.  At first I was speaking a lot of Ukrainian with them because I had just been speaking Ukrainian 24/7 in Lviv, so it was really difficult for me to make the switch at first. Fortunately they understand the Ukrainian words.  Just like my friends in Lviv(predominantly Ukrrainian) could understand Russian but couldn’t necessarily carry on a conversation, my Russian friends here in Kiev(predominantly Russian) can understand Ukrainian but can’t carry on a conversation in it..

It has been so fascinating to spend time in the West of Ukraine and then come here to the East and just to hear all of the attitudes that the Russian/Ukrainian have about each other. My friends in Lviv would speak Russian mockingly and my friends here in Kiev do the same thing in Ukrainian.

The linguistic situation here is just fascinating. It’s so much more than just bilingualism.  There’s politics and culture and history and principle all caught up in it.  Is there any other place in the world where there is this kind of linguistic struggle going on?

Beautiful Kyiv

But anyway, the main thing here is that my head is spinning.  I can’t speak any language well right now.  It’s like when you try to open a whole bunch of programs on your PC right after you turn it on and it just freezes up (is our laptop the only one that does this?) And instead of the arrow pointer it just has that spinning circle.  Well that is what I feel is going on in my head right now, just the spinning circle that can’t open anything up.

Although I managed to have a very emotionally and linguistically draining conversation with ex’s parents last night about ex.  They were asking me for advice and I only threw in a handful of Ukrainian words. I was very proud of myself, especially considering I had spent the evening speaking Ukrainian with Anna and Roma.  Regardless, I’m loving every minute of the linguistic chaos.

So on Wednesday I went with Ihor(Roma’s brother) to Lychakivskiy cemetary.  I have a very morbid side to me I suppose because I love cemetaries.  My favorite place inMoscowis Novodevichy Cemetary and this was probably my favorite place in Lviv.  So we walked all around the cemetary I took TONS of pictures.  I made Ihor speak in English the whole time.  He has quite the interesting and I don’t know how useful vocabulary now with words like: family vault, grave, cemetary, cremation, remains and so on.

On Thursday my sweetheart teacher went with me to buy souveneirs.  I bought an embroidered shirt, belt and a flowery wreath thing for my head.  Then I just went home an chilled because I was so tired.

With my teacher and another girl in my class from Slovenia

Friday I met up with Ihor again.  He’s a professor at the University of Ivan Franko in Lviv.  His sister was supposed to take her English language exam on Saturday and she was really nervous about it.  So we wandered around the university while Ihor tried to see if there was any way he could get ahold of a copy of the test so that he could give it to her beforehand.  The other possibility that he came up with, had I not been going to the countryside on Saturday when she was supposed to take the test, is that I could go in and sit next to her while she takes the test and tell her the right answers.  Wow, funny.

In the countryside on Saturday Ulyana and I went first thing in the morning to get manicure/pedicure and hairdo for the wedding.  They did such a good job and for both of us for all of that, plus a tip (which is not custom here but I paid it anyway) I paid $50. I couldn’t believe it.

Oh, let me explain about the wedding.  I was supposed to take the train toKievSaturday night but Ulyana and Oleh would not have been around to take me to the train station.  Oleh’s friend was getting married.  They invited me to go to the wedding, I really wanted to go, I decided to fly to Kiev instead.  I’m glad I went.  It was quite the experience.

Although the whole experience made me kind of sad that we (at least in Utah) don’t have a whole lot of traditions associated with weddings.

So the wedding was more like a triathalon.  You go to the groom’s house and he bows to all of his family and asks for their blessing.  Notice the adorable little babtsya (Galician dialect for grandma) just sobbing.  They then move on to the bride’s house.  Where the groom has to buy her with gifts and money.  At first they bring out a fake bride and the groom has to give even more money and gifts to get the correct one.

They then drive in separate cars to the church.  The ceremony at the church is very lovely.  I especially love the crowning ritual.  The molodyata (young couple) then stands on the steps throws candy out to the crowd.  Had I not been in 4 inch heels I would have been in there viciously elbowing my way through the kids to get handfuls of it.  But then I thought maybe it would be unseemly.  The couple then releases doves.

Then we walked from the church to the restaurant and as the couple passed passerbys on the street they bowed to them.

At the restaurant we had to wait and every visitor gave the couple money and maybe some flowers, but mostly money.  This is awesome. No stupid dish towels, no pizza stones, just money.  Each guest should give at least $30.  We were then seated at the table that had all sorts of goodies to eat that people from the village had been slaving away making over the last couple of days.

The toasts began.  The guests start singing ‘hirka hirka’ (which means bitter and it signals that the couple are supposed to stand up and kiss).  They also have songs which mean the the bridesmaid and best men have to kiss.  I’m amazed.  How do they know all those songs? My husband barely remembers the words to “Happy Birthday”.

The bus for 'drunk guests'

I was actually very impressed by how reasonably everyone drank.  They were very responsible and they didn’t just get sloppy like Russians do.  Moreover, there was a designated bus for ‘drunk guests’ so as to keep drunk driving at bay.  And anyone who was driving made sure that everyone knew that they couldn’t drink.

So there were three rounds. Dinner, singing and then we went downstairs to the dance party.  I loved it! I love dancing and I especially love when everybody just dances and has a good time.  I love that people here just dance and enjoy themselves.  I hate the mentality that you often find inAmericathat you should only dance if you’re a good dancer.  I was amazed at how all the young guys even knew how to waltz and polka.  There was no hip hop or salsa at the wedding which are my favorites but I did pretty well on the waltz and polka, considering that the floor was slippery and I was wearing heels.

At about 1 am we went back upstairs for another round of singing and eating.  Then went back downstairs for more dancing.  At 3:30 we went back upstairs for more singing and eating and then back downstairs for more dancing.  I only made it until about 5 am and then I went home early with Ulyana’s parents while she stayed til the end.  And I thought my husband’s family reunions went long.

One thing I’ve never learned how to do in a foreign language is to very clearly is to tell I guy who is hitting on me to get lost.  I think because we Americans smile so much the message just doesn’t quite come across.  I think I’m too polite about it.  Plus, maybe my accent sounds really sweet or something.  But a 70 year old man latched himself on to me.  I tried to be polite. It was sweet because he tried to speak English, but he was getting a little grabby for my tastes. I gave my friend a look to indicate to her to come over and save me.  She came over and tried to intervene politely.  But then she just whisked me right away when the old man said “yaka krasota, ya by tebe traxav”  For those of you who understand that I apologize for the vulgarity and for those of you don’t. Let’s just say it’s something that no one wants to hear from an old man’s mouth, especially when it’s directed at you.

Ulyana and Olya at the club

I was writing the last blog about environmentally friendly Ukrainians in the evening yesterday.  Wandered into the kitchen, struck up a conversation with Ulyana and her friend Olya.  Music was playing in the background and we were all kind of shyly dancing to the beat.  This went on for a while. Finally, we couldn’t take it anymore and decided that we need to go somewhere to dance for real.  So at 10.30 pm we decided to go to the danceclub.  I was totally up for it because I love to dance and when you’ve got a husband and son your energy is shot by about 5 pm and unfortunately the daytimes danceclubs have not quite caught on.

What’s more I pinched a nerve in my back earlier  in the day and I was feeling like a starushka (old lady) and so I felt like a logical solution for my condition was to go out and do something that would make me feel young again.  So we all got dressed up in our 4-inch heels and went to the club.  It was fun.  I don’t have any girlfriends in Utah that I can go clubbin with so I really appreciated the opportunity.

There was hardly anyone in the club but we had a great time.  We met a few guys from Poland who came over and asked us if we speak English.  My girls amazed me when the guy was speaking Polish and they not only understood but were able to answer in Polish.  KRUTO!!!!  (COOL!!!!) This is such an interesting place, Western Ukraine.  People here speak 3 languages.  Anyway, we had a great time talking about his impressions of Ukraine.  They were just passing through on their way back to Poland from Romania.  His English was pretty funny.  He used the word ‘creepy’ a lot.  I think he was using it instead of weird. I got a kick out of it.  Here are some of the things he thought were ‘creepy’:

The fact that women on the trains inRomania fan themselves with fans (‘it’s so creepy’)

That the shirt he bought to wear to the club was fromPoland(‘It’s creepy, you know?’)

The fact that an older man was hitting on Olya (appropriate word here)

The way the Ukrainian language sounds to him (‘for me it’s something so creepy’)

The fact that an American girl was in Ukraine speaking Ukrainian (‘it’s just creepy’, appropriate perhaps?)

It was very fascinating.  I love hearing languages and peoples’  accents in English and especially love talking with foreigners.  Then he tried to teach us a Polish tongue twister.  But all the Polish stuff sounded like a tongue twister to me.  But I better get used to it because it’s my next language. Ukrainian is a good segue between Russian and Polish.

So we got home at 2 am.  I felt triumphant because I defied my age.  But it was a temporary triumph.  I paid for it the next morning.  My back hurt so bad.  I wabbled into the kitchen and took like 4 tylenol so that I could even just stand up.   But I’m sorry, I can’t control my love for dancing.  I hurt my back every time I do it and I still can’t resist the opportunity to shake my booty.

Earlier in the day while I was killing time between friend sessions I went up to the top of the Vezha  Ratusha or Ratusha tower.  You have to climb up a bunch of stairs and from the top of the tower you can see the whole city.  It’s beautiful.  The climb is not bad at all.  And it’s totally worth it. Entrance costs 5 hriven, or about 60 cents.

From the top of the tower. The sun was so bright!

View of the pedestrian promenade below

I like myself here so much.  I’m so tough. My husband would be so proud of me.  Although, for some reason when my husband is around I’m such a whiner.  Here I just keep pushing forward even when I don’t feel good, when I’m tired.  I hang out with people if they want to hang out.  I feel sticky and hot all day and I just keep going.  And what’s more, I thoroughly enjoy myself.  That’s why I love being here and inUkrainebecause the lack of luxury really refines your character.  I’m hoping that when my husband finds out that something about living here makes me complain less that he’s going to put in his two week notice at work and emigrate to me.  He’d love it here. It’s so low key and historic.  People are so wonderful.  Today I found out the houses in the countryside cost about 17,000 dollars.  So now that I’m in the middle of having one dream come true I’m frantically searching for a new dream that will bring me back here and I think I might be on to something.  (Sorry hun, that you’re learning about this this way). He’ll probably think it’s just creepy.

The Boim family cathedral, really cool place

Guy playing on a traditional instrument 'kobza'

The girls in my class. Sophia on the right, Mila (from Slovenia) in the middle and Ya.

On Monday night I invited an English girl over to Ulyana’s house for dinner.  Ulyana wants to go to England and I thought it would be interesting for her to hear the difference in our accents.  So I made calzone and an Italian salad (panzanella).  Cooking here is a little bit nerve-wracking because everything is slightly different and the expectations are so high.  I kind of over-promised about my cooking and I hope I didn’t under-deliver.

So the English girl’s name is Sophia.  She got her degree at Cambridge and is now fixin (ha ha that’s funny that I’m talking about this impressive, sophisticated girl and I use a word like ‘fixin to’) get her Master’s there as well.

I decided to invite her over after our teacher relayed to us the terribly sad and pathetic story about how she broke down in tears in class one day because they were talking about food and Sophia hadn’t eaten in three days and was just super overwhelmed.

I’m remembering how at my school in Moscow I somehow earned the reputation as the student who was most well adjusted.  So they would always send me new students and have me take them around and show them the ropes and introduce them to my Russian friends so that they could see that there are nice people in Moscow.

So dinner was fun.  It was fun to be able to speak my language and have the Ukrainians have no idea what we were talking about. HA! Suckahs!!!

Dried, salted fish that are a favorite with beer.

But I consider myself very lucky that my friends here only speak Ukrainian.  Sophia’s one friend here speaks to her in Russian.  In fact, I tried to convince my friends to speak Russian one night because I was so tired of straining to understand everything but they just couldn’t bring themselves to do it.  I love it.  As a linguist a lingua franca (around here it’s Russian) kind of depresses me.  I live linguistic diversity. Especially here in Ukraine where the Ukrainians have to fight so hard to get the culture and language recognized as something separate from Russia and Poland.  This has been the eternal struggle of the Ukrainians.

One of my favorite snacks: Seaweed salad.

So dinner was fun.  Although I’ve realized that I’m a bit of a slob in the kitchen.  Ulyana was frantically trailing me cleaning up all of the crumbs and splats that flew about.

So now I’ll talk about some touristy things.

Everyone here is very religious.  I love to stand near a church and watch people as the walk past.  Everyone crosses themselves, even people passing by in the buses.  The other day I watched a girl who was holding something  in one hand and talking on the phone in the other.  As she walked past the church she fumbled around with her phone, almost dropping it all so that she could cross herself.

Everything is super cheap here.  To ride on the trolley it costs 1 hriva which is about 12 cents.  I was spending about $6 dollars a day for food, transport and bottles of water.  Sometimes less.

A meal at Puzata Khata

Today I went to lunch with Sophia and we got some Georgian dishes which included a chebureka(a type of fried scone with potatoes and mushrooms), a somasi(a puff pastry with meat and onions and cabbage and a slightly spicy tomato sauce) and khinkali (georgian dumpling with pork and sour cream) and a coke for 39 hriven, which is like $5. It was more than enough food for two people.

So now I’m kind of getting lazy because everything is so cheap, I’ve kind of started to splurge, which is something I don’t normally allow myself to do.

I took a taxi to church on Sunday for $6.  I got invited to go to a wedding this Saturday.  I was supposed to take the train to Kiev(which costs about $10) that night.  But I’ve always wanted to attend a wedding here, so I decided I could afford to just fly.  I bought my tickets today. I spent $170 and the flight takes an hour and a half.  My Ukrainian friends were shocked, saying that that was so much money, but that’s about what I’d have to pay to get from Salt Lake City to Pheonix, and it’s worth it to get to go to the wedding.

 One more thing that has impressed me about the culture here is a few very environmentally friendly things I’ve seen.  Near every garbage can there is a special container for plastic.  And people actually put their plastic stuff in there! In Moscow people can’t even be bothered to put their trash in a garbage can, let alone separate out the plastic.

This is the other invention that I literally stopped and marveled at in wonder.  There’s just a glass cup in there and you pay like less than one cent and it pours water in the cup for you.  You can even get some syrup in your water if you want. So this is just a communal cup for the whole city to use.  I’ve seen multiple of these vending machines and I’ve seen multiple people take advantage of their services.  You just put the cup back when your done.  No washing, no wasting water, no waster plastic.  Simple and inexpensive.

Notice the glasses just in there, one of them is broken. I wonder if people sue if they cut their lip on it

On our way to Ulyana’s parents’ house in the countryside we stopped by to meet Roma’s parents.  I’ve never actually met Roma in person, but he’s told me all about his family and so it was very interesting and surreal to meet them all in person when I still haven’t even met Roma in person.  His parents have a big farm with wheat and animals and all sorts of farm stuff.  They are usually really busy in the summer, what with harvest and all.  So we just stopped in thinking that Oleh would just introduce me, we’d say hello and the whole process would take maybe 15 minutes. I know they are busy and I didn’t want to inconvenience anyone.  But come on, that doesn’t happen here.  People are way too hospitable.

Roma's family

I told Ihor, Roma’s other brother that I was interested to meet them so I wonder if he told them that I might be coming.  But they invited us in, had us sit at the table and then proceeded to bring out massive amounts of food.  Where did all the food come from? It was all already prepared, the borsch was hot.  I mean there was TONS of food.

They were so happy to have me over even though they had lots to do.

The parents took turns scurrying in and out of the kitchen while the other would come out and ask me questions about….American wages and life in America.  They got out photo albums and showed me photos.  I was loving it. All the while more and more food kept coming out but I was the only one eating because Ulyana’s mom was waiting at home for us with a meal she had prepared.

His sister was the sweetest girl ever.  I felt bad though because every time she would ask me a question I would have to ask her to repeat herself because she talked so sweetly and quietly.

They wanted us to stay longer and I really wanted to but the whole group of friends was waiting on me. So we had to say goodbye.   Roma’s mom wondered if I could take him back some apples from their farm or some type of food.  I tried to explain that I wasn’t going to be back inAmericafor another 3 weeks(and then it would take another week in the mail to get it toNew York) and that you can’t get produce through customs.  They were kind of heart-broken.

They were so sweet. I can’t even describe to you how wonderful they were.  These are the kind of people that make me so in love with this place.

The next day we went to the sauna(and a little water to the rocks and it can also be called the banya or the parnya, par=steam).  Oleh had rented a little cabin in the forest (although it was kind of a park, there were 5 weddings going on at the time we were there) The sauna/parnya is a huge part of the culture here.   There are all sorts of customs and traditions and beliefs associated with it. For example, you’re not supposed eat for two hours before steaming.  And you’re not supposed to sit in there alone.

Before the sauna

You wrap yourself up in towels or sheets and then you go in the sauna for about 5 minutes at a time.  While sitting in the sauna people look around at each other to see who is sweating the best.  I felt really proud of myself when I could feel sweat dripping down my neck.  Also, a new word I learned I learned for this context is peche  which means ‘it’s cooking’.  I had to put a towel over my ears because they were cooking.

The wood gets so hot that it cooks your bum.  The word for both testicles and ovaries in Ukrainian is also the word for eggs.  So at one point Ulyana told her boyfriend to but an extra towel under him because she doesn’t like scrambled eggs.

The sauna was about 130 degrees celsius.  It was so hot it kind of hurt to breathe.  While you’re in there they take a bundle of oak branches and beat your back.  I liked this part but I was to shy to tell him to beat me harder.  I didn’t want them to think that I was ‘that kind of girl’. After your sessions in the sauna you can take a cold shower or take a dip in the pond.  I declined on this part.  We sat outside and cooled down, enjoyed the fresh air, while the mosquitoes enjoyed our fresh blood.

After the sauna Oleh made shashlyk.  Shashlyk are a wonder to me.  How are they so delicious?  I can’t wrap my head around it.  Everyone knows how to prepare them but I still don’t know how. They are so simple and yet the flavor is so good.

Shashlyk

While we were in the cabin there were weddings going on all around.  I couldn’t resist the little boy in his traditional embroidered shirt.  So we arranged a little interview.  He was so cute. I’m a sucker for little kids speaking foreign languages.

That night in the countryside I didn’t sleep very well, although they say that after the sauna you’ll sleep ‘like a dead person’. Well I might have slept well if it weren’t for all the animals squawking, mooing and cock-a-doodle-ing at the buttcrack of dawn.  They are so NOISY!!! Who do they think they are?  The most annoying of them all were the geese.  They just squawked non-stop all morning.  Later on that day we ate one of them for lunch, so I felt vindicated.

I see this building from a distance on my walk to school. It turns out it used to be a synagogue in the early 1900's and now it's a hospital. Interesting.

But most of all I love learning about the local dialect.  In a future post I will write some of the words that are different in the local dialect.  My fellow nerdy linguist/slavophile friends will get tingle of pleasure down their spine.  But that’s for later.  Right now I want to talk about the wonderful people.

All the buildings are really cool looking and very ornate.

There are so many churches and interesting buildings in this city.  In the center there no buildings that are alike, that is, every building is unique.  Everywhere you looke there’s a different church for a different religion from a different time period.  I’m hoping to do a post on all the different places of worship that you can find in Lviv, but in comparison to the fun I’m having with friends and the interesting topics that get discussed I may not get around to it.  The stuff about churches you can read in a travel guide.

Another really cool church.

I can’t imagine this trip without the friends.  I can’t imagine what this trip would be like if I just signed up for classes, went to class, and walked around the city by myself afterward.  I’m to the point that I love these friends so much I don’t actually even care about site-seeing.  I just want to hang out, speak Ukrainian, and learn about peoples’ lives(and attend to the bottomless pit of questions about American wages).  By the way, I would recommend, if you’re traveling to Ukraine, to somehow compose a list of average salaries for various jobs: policeman, professor, buisnessmen(all different types because Ukrainians just don’t realize how vague this term is in English), construction workers, garbage men, burger flippers, pooper scoopers, and of course, prostitutes.  This way, when people hound you with these questions about how much they could make doing a certain job in America, you can whip out the list, trace your finger down the paper and say, ‘ah ha! A businessman who sells rip off Louis Vuitton bags from China makes…”  I really regret that I don’t have such a list.

So anyway, after this trip I can’t imagine traveling and not having at least one local friend.  It’s an entirely different world and an absolute must if you’re learning the language.

This greeter with the lantern was much less intimidating than the one with the gun

So yesterday after class I met up with Ihor (sorry before I spelled his name as Igor, which is the Russian way, in Ukrainian g=h) and went to a café called Hazova Lampa, ‘gas lamp’, a café made in comemoration of the man the invented the gas lamp, who was supposedly from Ukraine.  He brought along one of his colleagues, a fellow professor of economics at the University of Ivan Franko.  We went to a café and talked about….can you guess? Wages in America, how much a professor makes and so on.  They are both very educated and speak Ukrainian very correctly.  The friend Ihor tried to speak English but he of course did the low ‘uuuhhhhh’ mumble between each word that Ukrainians and Russians always do. I putt putt (stutter) when I speak Ukrainian because I’m always double checking in my head to make sure it is in fact a Ukrainian and not a Russian word that I’m saying.  And then you have to construct sentences with the cases and I still haven’t(I’m ashamed to say because I always chew out my students for this) buckled down and memorized them perfectly.

When we were walking around they told me that there is a little folk belief here that if you are walking between two men with the same name (Ihor and Ihor, for example) you can make a wish and it will come true.  I wished that I would be able to live in Ukraine someday.  Oops, maybe I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone.

With Ihor the First

But we were having so much fun talking and I was doing pretty damn well in Ukrainian.  At one point everyone, seriously everyone on the terrace, where we were sitting went silent and just stared at me as I was telling some story.  I thought maybe I was talking too loud but the Ihors said it was because they were probably amazed that a foreigner was speaking Ukrainian so well.  So I was flattered, but it was still a little awkward nevertheless.

We got talking about the problem of political correctness in America.  I told them a story I had heard on a WNYC Radiolab podcast about some computer software that automatically (all in Ukrainian I’m saying this, pretty cool, huh?) corrects words and phrases that are considered politically incorrect and replaces them with the softer version.  For example, there was a story about a guy named Tyson Gay, and the headline of the article read “Tyson Homosexual wins the race”.  Another such instance with some lady named Caroline Black, or something and the computer changed her name to Caroline African American.  They liked this story because they think we are pretty ridiculous with all of our political correctness.

About an hour later Ihor the First pulled out his computer and showed me some of his pictures, one was near the sea and he said (jokingly) ‘this is me at the African American Sea’.  It was funny.  Good Times. I love it here.

So anyway, I spent about a total of 200 hriven on the whole thing which is maybe 25 dollars.  So I’m pleased with how little money I’ve been spending.  Furthermore, if you’re going anywhere with a guy here don’t even bother trying to offer to pay for yourself.  The men will pay, even if you’re married like me and there is no prospect for him to get anything in return.  The men pay. Period.  Although if you’re in a larger group you can expect to pay for yourself, usually.

With Ulyana at High Castle

So because people are so generous here and because everything is so cheap I’ve been averaging(with the exception of the dinner expenditure) about $4 a day, maybe less.

Oleh arrived for dinner for each of us and it was very sweet.  Which by the way, is pretty custom.  If someone has invited you over for dinner you need to bring something as a gift: flowers, chocolate, wine.

For dinner I made an American-style chicken roast with potatoes and carrots and a mushroom gravy.  I made them an Americn style salad with lettuce(which most people here think is only rabbit food) and a slap-dash, improvised attempt at ranch dressing.  I had to use fresh garlic and fresh onion and fresh parsley and kefir(which is a really common drink here) instead of the buttermilk.  They liked it alright I think.

Also, as an appetizer I made kind of a bruschetta with roasted red peppers.  Ulyana was so concerned when I had the peppers in the oven.  She kept walking past the oven in distress.  When I pulled them out of the oven all black she thought they were ruined.  I put her at ease that that’s how they were supposed to be.

More High Castle

Then for dessert we had brownies which I made from a mix that I brought from home.  There are two foods I like to bring over for people to try and that’s brownies and peanut butter.  The brownies werer a hit (how could they not be?).

After dinner we were talking and I was saying something and I think I said a bad word because Ulyana cried out in delighted shock and just laughed hysterically. But they wouldn’t tell me what I had just said.

They have noticed a couple of things about me: that I drink a lot of water and that I have very white teeth.

So I explained that the water is because I live in a very dry climate and I start to feel tired and because Ulyana has that irresistible water filter.  One new phrase that Ulyana has learned with me and gets a lot of practice hearing is “I need to go pee”.

For the teeth I explained that you brush your teeth twice a day, to which Ulyana interrupted and said, “Noooooo, you brush them more than that….” I really don’t, though, maybe three times at the max, but I think maybe it just seems like I’m always brushing my teeth to her.  Also, I emphasized the importance of flossing.

On several occasions, here and in Moscow, I have been suspected of being a spy.  I guess it’s so atypical for an American to want to live in Russia or Ukraine and because I learned the language pretty fast. Even Roma, my friend about whom I’ve already written, admitted to me that he had often wondered if I was a spy. On Tuesday night we were talking about something and I remember a word that they had just taught me the day before.  They were amazed that I remembered it. Ulyana said that I quickly memorize things and Oleh said, ‘just like a spy’. So, there you go with the spy jokes.
Oleh took us out for a drive around Lviv at night.  It was very beautiful.  The churches are all lit up.  Then we went to a place called Vysoky Zamok or ‘High Castle’, a place on a hill from where you can see the whole city.  There is no longer an actual castle there just a television tower. We walked up a bunch of steps.  It was night time so really all you could see from the hill were the lights of the city but nothing in all that much detail.  Around you on the lookout platform you could look around at the scenery of young people getting drunk and making out. It was romantic.

Our teacher is so nice. She always brings all sorts of things for us to snack on and drink.  I was delighted that she brought big bottles of water for us to drink. The university is kind of one a hill and so by the time I plunk myself down in the classroom I’m usually quite parched.  So right when I sat down I drank several cups of water.  But for the rest of the lesson I was restless and couldn’t concentrate.  I had to go pee so bad and I was dreading the toilet hole.  So I spent about an hour and a half not really listening or registering anything the teacher was saying, all I could see in my head was that urine-besplattered hole in the ground and dreading the task that inevitably awaited me.

PART II

After class I met up with a friend that I met online and he ended up taking me to a deserted part of town and chopping me into pieces.  No, but I’m sure that’s what some people thought was going to happen when I told them that I would be meeting up with people I had met online. So in your face, haters.  Not only did he not chop me into pieces, he didn’t hit me, didn’t hit on me.  As a matter of fact he was ridiculously kind, generous and respectful.  He took me to a REALLY nice restaurant and opened doors for may and paid for everything.  Let me clarify a couple of things that are difference between our cultures that I’ve noticed.  1) Here it is totally acceptable to have friends of the opposite sex.  I know a lot of people whose best life-long friends are of the opposite sex and there have never ever been any sort of ‘benefits’.  2) Here men are very chivalrous, they open doors for you and they pay for you.  They don’t expect you to put out in return, like they do inAmerica.  These guys know that I’m a married woman.  But it’s just not acceptable for a guy to let a girl pay for herself, especially a guest to the country.

Cool Greek Catholic church that is finally being repaired after being in a state of disrepair after the Soviets used it as a storage unit.

So judge me if you will for spending time with these friends of the opposite sex, but I can tell you that it’s just different here. There are not the same expectations. And people are just extremely generous.

I knew about this Slavic generousity and call me naïve but I believe that most people in the world are good people.  So I had absolutely no fears or doubts in planning this trip, knowing that I was going to be at the mercy of strangers.  No fears whatsoever, and this terrified my mother.

So I met with Vitaly, who drove me around in his car which I greatly appreciated.  But driving in Lviv is somewhat of a pain because ALL the roads are cobblestone.  So it gives the city a super quaint, historic feel but it’s super annoying to drive one.  We drove to several different places, walked around, went to cafes.  He knew all sorts of interesting little places and details about the city.  For example, a building(from the 18^th century) where the decorative stone-carved pattern is of a man pleasuring himself.  And while I’m on that note, we passed by a statue in commemoration to Leopold Ritter van Sacher-Masoch.  This was the man from whom we get the word ‘masochism’.  He was born in Lviv and enjoyed a spankin here and there.  The statue is pretty subtle but you can reach down into his pocket and there’s a special surprise for you to feel.  I’ll let you get imaginative about what it could be. Let’s put it this way, it’s not a roll of quarters.

Masoch statue, notice the hand grabbing his leg on the left side.

So Lviv has a perverted side, I’m realizing. But don’t we all?

Does it look like it smells musty in this picture?

My teacher is so nice!!! The other girl in the advanced level is a girl from Slovenia whose mother is Ukrainian, so she already speaks but she’s kind of illiterate.  Moreover, she speaks with a very strong Galician (the area that we are in now that was part of Poland or Austria for so many years) accent.  It was so interesting to hear her correcting this girl’s speech.  I love hearing dialects. Russia has dialects but they are not as distinct as they are here.

So we practiced reading tongue twisters out loud.  The teacher corrected the Slovenian girl on all of her ‘ee’ and ‘uy’ sounds, which in the Galician dialect all become like ‘ih’.  She corrected me on my ‘o’ sounds which I’m saying as ‘ah’ like a Moskal (Russian).  In Ukrainian you can have Ы (И in Ukrainian) after К, Г, Х which is a big no no in Russian.  So when I say those sounds, like the word Київ (Kiev), it just feels like fingernails on chalkboard to my Russian trained ear.

As I’ve said in previous posts there are all sorts of Ukrainian, which makes learning it a bit of a challenge.  There is Ukrainian with lots of Russisms mixed in and then there’s the Galician dialect-isms.  During class our teacher speaks very correctly and if we say something that is a Galicianism she corrects us.  But then during our coffee break when we just go to another room and eat little snacks, the Russisms and Galicianism sneak in.  It is so fascinating.  I love this kind of thing, I’m seriously in heaven.  It fascinates me that the Ukrainian language is almost a frame of mind.

So I highly recommend this language program to any of you who are interested in learning Ukrainian.  Although the whole thing takes place in Ukrainian and there’s not a whole lot of grammatical explanation going on.  On the one hand we’re learning basic greetings like hello, good morning, and so on and on the other hand we’re talking(all in Ukrainian, btw)  about how a famous Ukrainian author who uses colors in his novel to portray culture and emotions.  So. I don’t know how it would be to come to the class having no knowledge of Ukrainian.  Someone should try and let me know how it goes.

The one downside to this school is the bathrooms.  Later on that day I asked Ulyana how in the world girls do this.  She looked at me like I was crazy, spread her legs about a foot apart and said, ‘like this’.  Wow, maybe she has different anatomy than I do because I would have trickle and furthermore, that doesn’t address what you do with your pants.

The logistics of this were really baffling me and so the next day I asked my teacher.  She said that you kind of have to be an acrobat.  Although her stance was more of a squat, she said that, unfortunately peeing on yourself a little is just a fact of life with those toilets.  She relayed the story about one time when she got pee all of her skirt.

I guess the key is to not drink any water and to not eat anything.  Maybe that’s why all the girls here are so thin, because either they’re doing a lot of squats or they are not eating anything so as to avoid having to do them.

PART II: Kriyvka and Progulyanka

So first you have to understand my relationship with this guy Roma who has pretty much made this whole trip possible.  He found me through a language website and asked if I could help him with his English and he would help me with Ukrainian.  I have many such friends.  But he is by far my favorite.  He is so funny and easy going.  It feels like we have been friends since Kindergarten.  I mean, what are the chances of that happening?  He currently lives in New York because he won a green card.  He arranged this apartment for me and introduced me to some of his friends here in Lviv.  We’ve never met in person and yet I feel like we are best buds.

At the Church of Saint Yuri

So on Monday I met with his brother.  It was weird because he looks exactly like Roma and even has his mannerisms.  So I feel like I can say that I’ve met Roma in person now.  Anyway, so his brother works at the Universityof Ivan Franko here as a professor of economics.  Igor was very informed about the city, which I really enjoyed.  We walked all around.

It was funny, I originally took my fancy 4-inch high heels to wear to make a good first impression(all the girls here dress so nice all the time, however impractical it may be, so I don’t want to look frumpy).  But I’m not a total idiot, so I took my sandals as a back up plan.  Half-way up the hill, walking on uneven cobblestone streets, I huffed a sigh, and pulled my sandals out of my bag.  It’s the thought that counts.

At the University where Ihor teaches, Ivan Franko

Anyway, so we met up and started our stroll.  He told me he wants to learn English and when we came across something that he knew the word for in English he was say it, feeling very proud of himself.  We went inside several different churches.  I find it very fascinating that, although there are several prominent religions here, the locals are not super specific about which religion they consider themselves.  The two main religions are Roman Catholic (which came from the Poles) and Greek Catholic or the Uniate church which came to be when the Polish government made the Orthodox swear allegiance to the Pope.

Cathedral of the Boym family

The Unitate churches are a very interesting mix of baroque(don’t quote me on this, get a travel guide if you want the actual facts), Catholic style with Orthodox icons everywhere that are adorned with traditional-Ukrainian style cloths.  It’s very beautiful.

We also went to the Arsenal.  Which is a ‘must-see’ on any travel guide, but I didn’t really see what all the hype was about.  It was fun to teach Igor the words for everything: helmet, sword, pistol, spear, etc.

The coolest place that we went to is a place called Kriyvka.  It’s hidden down an alley way.  You knock on the door a man opens a little window in the door and sticks a gun out of it.  You have to say Slava Ukraini!  ‘Glory to Ukraine’, and then he proceeds to ask you if there are any Moskaly with you (derrogatory term for Russians).  I almost answered nyet, which would have been funny, because that’s a Russian word.

Then the man with the gun warmly welcomes you and gives you a little cup of medovukha to drink.  I didn’t know what it was, but I realized as it burned it’s way down my throat that it was alcohol.  So to all my Mormon friends: I’m sorry I let you down.  To those of you who are not Mormon: It’s actually pretty good, made from honey and pleasantly sweet.

Guy at Kriyivka who meets you at the door. And who, despite the gun, was very lovable

Then you go down the stairs into a dark cavern that is decorated with partisan themed decorations.  The food was delicious.  We ate deruny which are potato pancakes, more pancakey than latke-like with a cream mushroom sauce over the top and I had pomegranate juice.  Pomegranate juice has always been popular here, so it’s nice and cheap, not like in the states. We talked aboutAmerica. About wages. About what it takes to work inAmerica.  The typical things that Ukrainians are interested in.

Then we did more walking, which is so pleasant because all of the buildings are so different.  You get a really good feeling for just how many people have called this place home because the buildings are so historic and diverse.

Lastly, we went to a jeweler to by a present for Igor’s girlfriend, because it was her birthday.  I asked him if he was buying her the ring because he felt guilty because he had just spent 4 hours with me on her birthday.  He claimed that was not the case.  Well as for me, I thoroughly enjoyed her birthday.