Friday, April 16, 2010

Where did I go?

Yes, it has been more than a month since I last posted, and I thought I should at least explain why for anyone who has bothered to follow the blog. The simple answer is this: I've been too busy living.

For the past few years, it felt like my life was on hold, like I was waiting for something good to happen to me. Now, I did make efforts to achieve this, but my daily life was drudgery at best and torture at worst. But since I have arrived in Ukraine, I feel alive again. I am busy. I am meeting people every day. I am learning the culture and language of this strange country. And so, all I can say is, I've been busy.

A few weeks ago, I saw an amazing fusion jazz performance by a Georgian woman named Nino Katamadze and her band Insight. Energetic, beautiful, and totally satisfying. I went to midnight services for the Orthodox Easter, where you stand for up to four hours listening to the service in Old Slavonic and then wait for your basket of Easter bread and food to be blessed by the priests after the service. I can't say it felt particularly sanctified, what with the high heels and mini skirts, but the sheer numbers of people at the various churches we visited (there were six or seven...I lost count) was amazing. I rolled home at 4:30 in the morning, totally exhausted.

And the people....the amazing people. Shashlik and banya with my football fan friends on the outskirts of town (their version of barbecue); hanging with some amazing graphic artists late into the night; drinking vodka with a couple of great Iraqi guys, one of whom was actually shot during a firefight in the war and who still is as nice to me as my best friends back home.

I'll try to be better about finding time to update the blog. But in the meantime, know that I'm busy living.

1 comment:

  1. Steve,
    Great to hear that things are going well for you here in Kharkov! Hope to see you again sometime soon.
    Mike

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