So one of the things I’ve wanted to do, really since I first found out we’d be living in Kyiv, is visit Chornobyl. (I guess maybe I’m a little morbid.) The Ukrainian government keeps the area tightly regulated, which means that you can only visit by using an official travel agency. And there’s about seven different Ministries involved (the Ministry of Emergencies is my personal favorite), so that’s a lot of people who want a cut of the profit. Which means that tours usually seem to run between $150 and $300 per person. A little steep for us. Just as I was beginning to give up all hope that we would get to visit while we were here, our friend Phil stepped up and put together a group trip. And somehow managed to keep the cost around $80 per person. So Sunday was the day our trip to Chornobyl finally happened.
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Sometimes I’m just too nice for my own good. Yesterday was one of those times. A newcomer to the Embassy, who just arrived three weeks ago, desperately needed someone to watch her dog yesterday. Knowing that it was probably going to be a disaster, I went ahead and said yes. I’ve got to have some serious good karma built up by this point - I’m just waiting for it to catch up with me.
Last night I went and saw George Michael in concert with 3 friends. Somehow Summer ‘07 has become my summer of gay British pop stars.
So this past Saturday night we had a unique experience. In fact, it was one of those experiences that caused us to pause ahead of time to decide if it was really worth it. I mean, standing in a sweaty crowd in the middle of one of the most famous squares in Kyiv just to try to catch a glimpse of someone famous? But when it comes right down to it, we are probably never going to have this kind of opportunity again, so why not take part in the big event: a free Elton John concert.
On Sunday, we went to the “pet market” with another couple. Our friends are currently looking for a golden retriever and Shawn and I have also been discussing getting a dog now that we’re in Kyiv. There were a couple of close calls, but the four of us left the market empty handed in the end.
We spent our last holiday weekend in the US in the city that never sleeps: New York City. Even though we both love theater and big cities, we had somehow never made it to the Big Apple before. So we spent a whirlwind of just under 48 hours seeing as much as humanly possible in a city where there are literally hundreds of things to see.
This year’s Christmas was filled with both the usual and the unexpected. Time with family, many presents, too much food, and a lot of sightseeing marked our last Christmas in the US for a while. And of course, our holiday break has been extended by a day with the death of former President Ford.
Because of the stress of Russian class (see the previous few posts…), Shawn and I have decided that we need to take a mini-vacation each month. So over Columbus Day weekend, we took a trip to Baltimore. The train, stingrays, and literary grave sites - what more do you need?
As we were lucky enough to be in the Washington DC area for July 4th, we decided to brave the crowds and show our patriotic sides by going to the National Mall for the concert and fireworks Tuesday night. We were also lazy enough to be late in leaving our apartment and missed the huge thunderstorm that went straight through downtown a few hours before the event. It’s great when laziness works in your favor.
No, we did not do any sort of traditional Memorial Day activities in our nation’s capital. We left that up to the hundreds of thousands of tourists that were here. I’m sure it would have been great to work to push ourselves to the front of the line to see one of the dozen of memorials around the city, but we decided to do the next best thing - leave the city altogether.