AGG's Visit Action I

As wIwaited for AGG's arrival in Kyiv, the Ukrainian pairs figure skating team walked by. Turns out AGG was sitting right beside them on the plane! The following are some highlights from her trip thus far. It was AMAZING to see her.






Ukrainian fashion:

Odessa skating rink outside the window of our apartment:





Here AGG takes her first (and last) quarter shot of horilka).














AGG and I have decided to title this post AGG's Visit Action I bc our English language program when we went to see Madame Butterfly at the Odessa Opera House last night described the opera in three "actions" as opposed to acts. Super funny.

We have decided to compile a highlights of Ukraine for her trip thus far.

AGG and CT's Highlights:

Meeting a stinky American man at breakfast whose name shall go unmentioned but whose email address (we know this from the "social card" he gave us) is usabadboy@... and who was taking a Sponge Bob balloon to his young Ukrainian girlfriend (whose photo appeared on his social card with him).

After visiting a beautiful cathedral, wrapped up in discussion about how the Soviets painted over all the beautiful frescoes in this Russian Orthodox Cathedral, we suddently we encounterd a babushka peeing on a street corner. Not squatting, standing up, broad daylight. Cops on the corner not doing anything about it.

While nestled on our cheetah sheets in the Kyiv apartment, we were awakened at 5:09 AM by the sound of a glacier falling from the top of a building, landing on several cars below, setting off multiple car alarms. It sounded like there was a random shooting followed by the arrival on multiple cops on the scene. We aren't really sure how this situation ended we just know that the madness in the courtyard outside the apartment on Me-high-a-lift-ska (this is AGG's spelling of our address) eventually went away.

The ubuitous possibility of the "shake-down" by the Odessa police: this is a notorious rite of passage for Americans coming to Odessa, from what we read in Lonely Planet. AGG has already negotiated her bribe, $12 USD, and waits impatiently for the moment when the Odessa police will take her into an alley, threaten to arrest her, demand her passport, repeat the phrase "big problem" over and over again, just so she can offer $12USD (which she very conveniently placed in the outside pocket of her camera bag) so that all parties can happily exit the negotiation, post-photo opp.

The Odessa Opera House: we were told it was one of the three most beautiful in the world (alongside Vienna and L'viv) and no doubt it was. So after taking an unexpected nap, we dragged ouselves to the opera house to buy tickets 15 minutes into the performance. The ticket woman responded to us in exasperated Russian, which of course we did not understand. After telling us the only tickets available were for 100 UAG each, I just gave up and bought them (to keep this in perspective, this really only was about 16.50 USD each, but when we went to the ballet it cost USD 2.50 so I thought this was exorbitant in a relative sense). Upon being shown the private door that led to the private door that led to our three person box, I realized every one of those 300 hyrvnias was worth it. This places was AMAZING. The perfomance was also beautiful, but this opera house is truly somthing to see. Here I am, whipping out some moves from my ballet days in front of the Opera House, also the home of the Odessa Ballet (and speaking of ballet check out the pink ballet faux Uggs I found at the Pryvoz Market).




For some reason, the English version of the program had the title of the performance listed as Chio-Chio-San. AGG offered an excellent reading of the program, culminating in a very dramatic conclusion in Action III, when Mimi kills herself with a dagger. Chio-Chio-San, it turns out, is actually a very sad story.

Other highlights...The super fun skating rink right outside our apartment that cranks out Russian pop at all hours of the day and well into the night. It sounds like a club even inside the apartment, and has provided some very fun dance opportunities on the balcony of the apartment and beyond.

Breakfast at Odessa Executive Apartments:it includes all the usual breakfast items, plus french fries. For breakfast?

Seeing the Black Sea for the first time. Really, really fun.

Realizing that we were in Oksana Baiul's hometown, and thus taking advantage of the computer and internet service in our apartment to find out what she has been up to lately (she lives in New Jersey, for those of you who are interested).

The giant Russian, babies come out of the womb looking like this in the Soviet Union statue in front of the entrance to the Odessa Port. Crazy.

While eagerly anticipating the shake down and a visit to a beautiful cathedral, we watched 2 70-year old plus men pretend they were Rocky Balboa and assume fight mode and draw blood. This was just after we had very precariously walked around an alleged political protest, saturdated with cops who we just knew where going to take us around the corner for our shake down.

We are about to call it a night on our last night in Odessa, and are sad to report that we have yet to attract enough attention wiht our American-ness to prompt a shake down, although we are trying very hard to bring about such attn with AGG's black wedge boots (they keep prompting funny looks and stares) and CT's English- with- a- Ukrainian- accent in hopes that will be easier for Urkainians to understand. Oh, well...

And our final highlight is the fact that our coat closet reeks of smoke and no one in this person smokes. Nasty. Evidently Ukraine passed a law that requires non-smoking areas but not all places are on board with that new law yet.

We're having a blast!!!!!