When Shawn first asked me if I wanted to go to Tallinn for my birthday, my first thought was: “Where’s Tallinn?” (I’m not so good at world geography.) When he told me it was in Estonia, my next thought was: “Where exactly is Estonia?” (Okay, I’m not good at all at world geography.) When his next statement was that he found flights for $200, my reaction was: “Whoo! We’re going to Tallinn!” (Most flights to Europe from Kyiv are hard to get for under $400.) Between the time we got the tickets and our actually departure, we talked to approximately 130 people who all said that they had never been to Tallinn themselves, but had heard that it was really nice. So I had hopes, but very few expectations - it was occupied by the Soviet Union at one point, so that throws any hope of it being too nice out the window for me.
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I have an on-going discussion with Shawn and other friends here as to how exactly devushky become babushky. For those of you not intimately familiar with post-Soviet life, a little explanation is in order. Directly translated, “devushka” means “girl” and “babushka” means “grandmother,” however, the everyday meanings of the words are much deeper than that. On the street, devushky are the young women wearing stiletto heels, unimaginably short skirts, and walking with an air of overconfidence. To the untrained American eye, they can appear to be “ladies of the night,” however this is not so — at least in the conventional sense. On the other end of the spectrum are babushky who usually appear to be older than time itself, dressed in the most awfully mismatched outfits, and can be found selling things on the street that they themselves have obtained for free (such as rotten apples or last week’s newspaper). Because of these extremes and the generalizations that go along with them, women in the middle of these groups age-wise tend to blend into the scenery until you find yourself pushing into one on the bus. And so it appears that women here must quickly fall from devushka-hood to babushka-hood.
You know it’s May in Kyiv when the babushky on the street start selling lilacs and lilies-of-the-valley.
Although my birthday is still a week away, last week I received this birthday package from my mom. I think she sent it so early in hopes of avoiding a repeat of last year when a shipment to Kyiv was lost and I finally got my birthday presents and several cards over six months late. She had told me that it was on its way and it was up to me when I opened it. I had every intention of waiting until my birthday, but then the box got here and I just couldn’t wait.
This time of year is absolutely full of holidays in Ukraine. Last Sunday was Orthodox Easter, so Monday was a holiday. Today (Thursday) is International Labor Day, so both it and Friday are holidays. (Earlier Shawn asked me why Friday was a day off as well, and I told him to “stop complaining Mister I-get-23-holidays-a-year.” Actually, I think it’s because all the Ukrainians want the long weekend so that they can get out to their dachas and get them ready for summer.) And finally, next Friday is Victory Day, otherwise known as the now defunct VE Day in the US. And of course, we have Memorial Day at the end of the month. We are still American, you know.