Stardate: 12/11/2007 Visitors from Kyiv: Let the Party Ensue!

So, Oleg and his roommate, Sergey, came to see us from Kyiv. Since we were in Kyiv in October, we have been planning this rendez vous. They arrived at 12:30pm on Saturday afternoon and I met them at the Historical Museum subway station as Pat was picking Maddy up from school. Immediately when they came out of the tunnel, they were all smiles and frankly I was alight with happiness as well! This was as great as having folks from Cincinnati visit us in Eau Claire or like going to the beach with the Bergers!

The first thing they both said when they arrived was that Kharkiv is so Soviet! I was completely taken by surprise. Sergey had never been here before and Oleg only once, so they had little back ground experience with the place. I came to learn that Sergey is very Ukrainian, comes from Crimea, and even lost his grandfather in the Holodomor. He and Oleg said that to them, Kharkiv is like living in a Soviet museum. They were immediately surprised about the ugly gray buildings and the number of them that are in complete ruin. On the walk back, I showed them 2 of my favorite buildings that are in really poor shape. They also enjoy architecture, so that was cool.

We had a nice lunch of salmon slices, sausage slices, leftover pork tenderloin, cheese and salads from Gorka. The boys had their first beer together to initiate the partying. At no time did we have nothing to say. The topics were all over the place and were very interesting. Pat told lots of stories. After lunch, we took a walk to Independence Square where the Lenin Statue is, because it is the biggest square in Europe, and throughout Shevchenko Park. At different times, we stopped at statues or interesting landmarks and Sergey took some photos. It was funny; we were the guides as though we lived here all the time. We were telling interesting trivia and historic notes about the different places we passed, and yet they are Ukrainians. Funny.

It was getting cold toward the end of the walk so we went back toward the house and stopped at Café Zebra for some drinks. The boys had bicki (whisky), I had a latte, and Maddy a sprite. The latte was exactly what I needed, because I had to rush back home to meet A & V to go to the pool for our weekly exercise of swimming 20 laps. It was good exercise, but by the time I finished I was anxious to get back to the boys and enjoy myself with them. The boys and Maddy hung out at the apartment and had several beers, sampling new ones and some favorites. Pat said that they played some games and played with Maddy who was entertaining them with her typical antics. When the babysitter, Tasha. arrived, they went and picked up some Big Donald’s for Maddy and Tasha. I met them at Pushka and took the food to Maddy and Tasha while they smoked a hooka and had some drinks.

When I returned, primped and made up to Pushka, I discovered that Oleg was tanked! Poor thing, Pat and Sergey had really piled the drinks on him. He was a bit emotional and embarrassed about being drunk in front of me. Me!?! I was surprised by this until they explained that he has a lot of respect for me as his former professor, because he felt that he had learned a lot from me when he was at UW-Eau Claire. I did my best to put him at ease; it worked to some degree. We had some more drinks that Maxim graciously served us at the bar before we headed up to the second floor to a wonderfully positioned table directly in front of a superb house band. The room looks very Tudor style with light creamy white painted walls with black wooden beams on the ceiling and wall joints. There was a toasty fire and dim lighting that perpetuated the intimate mood. Patrick ordered a dinner of Hungarian goulash and cheese sandwiches for the guys while I had sushi.

We continued to drink- the boys had various beers and I had some delicious semi-sweet white white that our server, Slava, picked out for me while we listened to the band. Sergey explained to me the origins of the different songs being played. There were some traditional Ukrainian tunes and a couple Russian ones. Pat even requested some Pink Floyd. All the songs were played and sung quite well-better than the typical restaurant band. These guys were amazing for another reason though, they were Iranians who spoke Ukrainian, Russian and English like native speakers. I have no idea how they did it. They were cool and tolerated most of our behavior well. Sergey danced to some of the tunes, but was chastised for fingering through the lead singer’s sheet music. We couldn’t talk too much because the band was a bit loud, but we did have a lot of laughs.

I got to know Sergey a bit more. He is a really nice man who works as a concierge for an expensive, la-di-da, she-she hotel in Kyiv. He has met Moby, Mike Tyson and Condi Rice when they stayed there. I was a bit envious about Moby, I have to say. Anyway, back to Sergey, he studied English with Oleg at the Linguistics University in Kyiv, but didn’t get to come to the US because he missed the paperwork deadline. Can you believe it? His English is great, just like Oleg’s. He has a girlfriend to whom he is quite dedicated. He and Oleg are about 26 years old. He loves Oleg like a brother. They had known each other for a long time. He told me that Oleg was the best in his university class, and I can totally see that.

After Pushka, we went to Stargorod in hopes that it would be super rowdy, but it was relatively quiet. The micropub is known for some wild times, but we got there about 11pm. We had a couple of beers (I stuck with wine), and Pat & Sergey ate deep-fried sliced pigs ears! Yuck. We teased the gorgeous, young, curly-blond-haired serving girl who was wearing a Bavarian beer maid’s costume. I also teased the boys about all the beautiful girls and asked which ones were to their taste. Oleg liked a red hair and the blond serving us. Sergey was steadfastly loyal to his girl in Kyiv, but did condescend to declare his attraction to the blond girl serving us. I took several pics with which to tease him about later. I hope that I got one in which he is leaning a little too close to our server. Oleg had revived a bit after the food and was happier. An oompah band was playing at various tables in the joint, so when they got close to our table, we cheered and pounded our hands on the table along with the music. Sergey danced and sang with them. They were doing Russian sing along songs with the table next to us and even had lyric books to distribute for maximum audience participation. Pat did some videotaping and Oleg joined Sergey in the singing.

We took off near midnight and that is almost the end of my narrative of the evening. Oleg escorted me back to the flat and then escorted Tasha, the sitter, home by cab and returned by bus. He is such a gentleman and a kind person. Meanwhile, Sergey and Pat tried to go to another bar, but it was lame, so they came back to hook up with Oleg. Next, the boys went to the strip club around the corner from our apartment; it’s called “Casta Club” and just recently opened. I went to sleep with Maddy and was later awoken by the sound of breaking glass. When they returned from the strip club around 5am, one of the drunken guys knocked a couple of glasses off the counter. It was no big deal though since they all cleaned it up.

We all slept in until about 11am the next morning. We all got up and Pat, then Sergey, made us breakfast of bacon and eggs. They told me some of the stories of the strip club. The highlight of which was a private dance that Pat purchased for Oleg. He said she was the hottest girl there and we think she stripped completely nude for him. According to Pat, Oleg was so thrilled about it he just kept talking about it the rest of the night. Sergey, on the other hand, fell asleep sitting up with his head on his shoulder. Pat said that he actually enjoyed the club, although he doesn’t like strip clubs much (because he knows the girls are super resentful and angry toward the men and they only look at the guys as money sources), because the girls weren’t constantly in his face trying to make a buck.

After a lazy breakfast and much procrastination, we went down to Constitution Square and had some snacks and chai at a new Ukrainian-themed restaurant. It is called ПYЗАTA XATA and it is an Ukrainian themed fast food chain. Inside, it is decorated to resemble being in a quaint Ukrainian village with a wooden well, painted doors, carved, wooden windows, and thatched roofs. The food follows along with the theme. Ukrainian cuisine can be encapsulated in one word-hearty. They like hearty home cooked meals with lots of meats-particularly sausages, potatoes, and fresh vegetables. Californian cuisine this is not. Lettuce is a rarity here and you don’t find many green salads, Greek feta-laden greens with tomatoes and olives, or Italiano tomato, basil and mozzarella salads here. Generally, the food is suited to the climate and the traditional agrarian labor-intensive work. They eat foods designed to stick to your ribs and help you labor long and hard.

When we were there, trying to have a nice meal, I was totally stressed, because Maddy was being uncooperative. We ate quickly and took off across the square to see some of the architecture, like the Puppet Theater building, and the Soviet statue on the square. Next, we checked out the tanks, because Sergey is really interested in tanks. We proceeded to the Church behind the square and went inside. (We wrote about these in blog entry.) We took some pictures and were kindly reprimanded by a priest. Some churches will let you take pics and others will not. Further, some will let you, but you need to pay for the privilege. Maddy was still pushing her luck. She has no idea how to act in a church seeing as she’s only been in them once or twice. So, when Sergey gave me 2 candles to make an offering and prayer with, Maddy had a meltdown because she wanted to hold them and put them in their place. There were just too many candles burning, people watching, cleaners trying to move candelabras to the exact position in which I was standing, etc, so we had to head out. Maddy got a little time out in the corner of the church’s exterior and all checked out the year it was built, etc. Oleg and Sergey explained to us that there was a plaque and some flowers to honor two dead priests whose bones were discovered in a recent renovation. They were apparently killed around the time of Soviet occupation, because the Soviets didn’t want anyone to be involved in spirituality. They said, “Religion is the opiate of the masses.” So, they killed many priests all throughout the USSR; These 2 bodies were examples of this historical fact.

After that, the boys, Maddy and I went to the park where they sell paintings and walked around. We took some pictures and browsed. Sergey bought his girlfriend a necklace and then the boys took off to do some boy’s things… Maddy and I had to run home to prepare for the circus at 5pm that evening. Pat escorted the boys around the Kharkiv Historical Museum and then they came back to the flat to pack and have a beer. They went to the train station and the guys helped Pat purchase tickets from Kharkiv to Lviv for the 3^rd of Jan 2008. Then they ate and took off for their 12 hour overnight train to Kyiv. It was so great to have them here! It was so much fun and just so comfortable. I do hope they come again to see us in the Spring. I know that we will be seeing them in Kyiv though, too.