Saturday, May 3, 2008

Hello all...

I apologize for not having blogged in the past couple of weeks but my life here has been keeping me rather busy. From Birthday celebrations with my Ukrainian family(they're all impressed that I don't make a face when I am taking down Vodka and Cognac shots) to trying to make sense of one of the 38,000 prefixes and suffixes in the Russian language my time just flies by. I honestly wish that I could sit here and tell you some wonderfully entertaining story about a drunken night out or some funny cross cultural mishap that I stumbled into but I really don't have much to share. I spend the bulk of my time these days with my face in a Russian book, in front of my computer watching Arrested Development or with a fork full of food stuffed into it.

I did get to experience Orthodox Easter here in Ukraine which basically involved me getting woken up at 4am to have a massive feast with my fam, taking a 3 hour nap, having another epic meal, taking another nap and more or less alternating those two activities for the remainder of the day...I'm seriously thinking about converting! (I'm kidding--no emails dripping with guilt neccessary) There are a bunch more Ukrainian holidays coming up this month and I am hopeful that they take the same form as Easter...those of you who know me well know that sleep and food rank pretty highly on my all time top 10.

I also tilled some earth this past weekend with my peoples to prepare one of my family's plots for potato(e) (just in case you're reading this Dan) planting season...good times. It felt good to get dirty and I was rewarded afterwards by roasting kebabs over a pit of hot coals and with a glass of Crimean wine. Also got destroyed by my cousin in Chess...4 moves to check...I went out a bought a board this afternoon. Again...good times.

I am heading off tomorrow to the Oblast (essentially a state) center to catch up with a couple of friends that I haven't seen since we went to our respective sites and am very much looking forward to a days worth of relaxation and laughs. Maybe Chernigiv (where I'm going) will provide me with the anecdotes that I know you all are so craving...lets hope.

Alright, I've got to be going but first wanted to say a word or two about my friend Matt Lash who passed away earlier this week. Matt was one of the best human beings I have ever had the privillege of meeting. He was selfless, brave, fiercely loyal to his friends and had more charisma than any person I have ever met. To have lost him this early in life is beyond unfair and I will miss him every day. I love you Matt...

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