So I don’t think I’ve had my picture taken with Santa since I was about 5, but when in Ukraine, do as the Ukrainians, right? As Shawn pointed out, this is technically Ded Moroz and the lovely lady is Snegurochka. The Maidan is currenly covered with Ded Morozes and Snegurochkas just ready to pose for a photo with you…for a fee, of course. We seemed to use one of the high-end operations, though. Hence the “sleigh” and they actually provided the photographer.

If you look to the left side of the photo, right about at Shawn’s knee, you can see Laika’s leash leading away to where our fierce Doberman was cowering in fear. She made it very clear that she would not be entering the sleigh with us, even to sit with some weird people to have our picture taken. She was a sport and walked all the way there with us in the sub-freezing temperatures, but that was where she chose to draw the line.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas (or Happy Holiday if that’s what you prefer)!

So I headed over to our local sewing supply store, “All for Sewing.” (Weren’t the Soviets great at naming things? 95% of the office supply stores here are called “All for the Office.”) Anyway, I got to the store and went to work determining which counter I needed to go to in order to purchase the snaps. Luckily, it was one of the first ones I checked. I peered through the glass to determine exactly which size I needed, and pointed it out to the woman working at the counter. She then proceeded to pull out a box of snaps affixed to pieces of cardboard with a perforated line between each set of 6 snaps. I told her I would take 12, so she tore off that many for me, I paid, and I was on my merry way.

But look at this packaging! How old-timey is that? I feel like this is something my grandmother would have purchased at the general store in town.

I did notice that it says “made in Czech Republic” rather than “made in Czechoslovakia” like I recently noticed all the busses say. Come to think of it, the busses kind of look like they’re from the 1950s as well.

As with everything in Kyiv, I would sum up the experience as being so close to what we consider “normal,” yet not quite right. The game itself was pretty normal. I mean, they are a part of Euro League and 3 out of 5 of the starters were American, so it couldn’t be too terribly strange. I did like the 10-minute quarters, though. It kept the game short enough that we were able to get home and get the puppy to bed on time.

However, the surroundings of the game were a little strange. First of all, there was a large television screen at one end of the court that ran a continuous loop of commercials without sound during the game. (The really sad thing is that I didn’t find this all that strange - it’s a situation that exists in many businesses, restaurants, and even on the Metro here. But for those unacclimated to Ukrainian culture, it would probably seem weird.) The second oddity was the fact that most of the fans sat stoically in their seats, still wearing their winter coats (for those of them that hadn’t left them at the coat check right inside the entrance), for the entire game. Our section had some cheering fans, but most of the “VIP Section” looked like it could have fallen asleep at any time.

But by far, the highlight of the game (at least for the men in our group) was the cheerleaders. They treated the crowd to a dance during every timeout and between quarters. The majority of the dances involved several, let’s say, suggestive motions to the crowd. And these ladies were quite bend-y. Disturbingly so, considering that most of them looked anorexic. But they did burn a lot of calories running back to the dressing room to change for every dance. That’s right, they went through 8 different costumes during the game. My personal favorite (as far as over-the-topness) was one of the last. They came blazing across the court in what initially appeared to be thongs with strings hanging off them “covering” their lower half. Shawn was quick to point out that they were not thongs, but flesh-colored bikinis. Oh, well, excuse me!