American Ukrainians

Hello World! How is it going? If you feel like celebrating something today but don't have a real reason to celebrate, I will provide you with one! Happy Birthday, Andy Warhol! Now you have a reason for celebration and drinking a shot or two )) In case you don't know who Andy Warhol is, here's his photo

If this guy still looks unfamiliar to you, here are a couple of his works. I bet you have seen them before.

Campbell's Soup Cans (1962)

Marilyn Diptych (1962)

Andy Warhol is an American artist, producer and director also known as a leading figure in pop art. He shaped and defined the visual art movement for many years to come and remains one of the most famous artists of all times. You can like his art or not, but you were definitely influenced by it at some point even if you are not aware of it. The thing is that Warhol was so significant that he influenced a great number of young artists all over the world and keeps doing it even today. So why do you think I decided to greet him with his birthday? I was writing about baking and pickling in Ukraine, about shopping and weather in Ukraine. And out of sudden I write about Andy Warhol. Weird, right? Well, the real name of Andy Warhol is Andriy Warhola and he was of Ukrainian descent. He was born in Pittsburg in a family of Ukrainian immigrants Yuliia and Ondrey Warhola in 1928. 

It is an amazing thing how the United States became a native land to people from all over the world. Ukrainians are no exception. As you know, Ukraine is located on the crossroads of Europe and for centuries suffered from different military conflicts and big wars. World War I triggered a big wave of immigration from Ukrainian lands. People were seeking peace and a better life for themselves and their children. Another big wave happened during World War II. Being part of the Soviet Union and living behind the Iron Curtain definitely slowed down the immigration, but didn't eliminate it completely. The United States is a real melting pot and the land of opportunities for many of my fellow citizens. And today I would like to mention a couple of other names that you might have heard of. Some of them don't sound Ukrainian at all, but it's just because some of those people are not the first generation of immigrants, but either were born in the States or changed their names significantly. 

I'm 100% sure that you do know this name - Steven Spielberg. I am not kidding, the greatest director of all times is of Jewish-Ukrainian descent. Of course, he was born in the States, just like his parents. But his grandparents on both sides come from Ukraine and immigrated to the US at the beginning of the 20th century. 

I bet you also know this gal - Milla Jovovich. Yup, and unlike Spielberg, she was born in Ukraine, in our capital city Kyiv. Her family immigrated in 1980 first to London and then to the US when she was 5 years old. I do remember hearing her singing a Ukrainian folk song, which is really cool. It's hard to maintain a good spoken level of your native language when you are immersed as a child into a different language environment. I'm not sure whether she would be able to have a conversation in Ukrainian or Russian (since we are bilingual in Ukraine), but she is one of my favourite actresses and I like re-watching The Fifth Element with her a lot. 

Another person I would like to mention definitely affected your life! I would even say, he affected your life on the very early stages. Drum roll, please! Pleaaaaase, give your applauses toooooooooooo Bill Tytla! Don't tell me you don't know this guy! Have you seen Snow White and Seven Dwarfs by Disney??? Or Pinocchio? Dumbo? Of course, you did! Find me an adult that didn't watch Disney cartoons as a child. So Mr Tylta is a Ukrainian American animator that worked with Disney, Paramount Studios and Terrytoons. It's so wonderful to know that somebody of Ukrainian descent created such beautiful things that admired millions and millions of people all over the world! This guy definitely rocks! Here you can check on YouTube his talented works:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOUCwq78HpQ

and another on Vimeo:

https://vimeo.com/5670492

I want to mention one more guy that sports fans will recognize - Ruslan Fedotenko, a two-time Stanley Cup champion and also my neighbour (I just figured out that he resides in Tampa Bay area). He played for such well-known teams as Philadelphia Flyers, Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Islanders, Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Rangers. How cool is that? He really makes me feel proud to be a Ukrainian! 

As you can see Ukrainians are pretty talented people and you can find people of Ukrainian descent in all spheres of life all over the world. I'm not trying to diminish what the United States did for all those people, on the contrary, I am very grateful that they were accepted and provided with opportunities to uncover and develop their talent. I also hope that those people remember or remembered about their roots, because, as you know, without knowing our past we can't create our future. 

Hope you enjoyed my short list of names and till the next story! Behave!

Mysterious Places of Ukraine

Hello World! I have a story! Do you like spooky stories? Do you watch horror movies late at night and then you get scared to walk from your bedroom to the bathroom? Well, that's me! Sometimes I stay up and watch something scary and then I would jump in bed and wake my husband up ))
When I was a little girl we didn't have horror movies on TV, neither did we celebrate Halloween. When I tell somebody in the States that Halloween is a very recent thing for Ukraine they look at me with big eyes. In western Ukraine on the 1st of November, we have a commemoration of all departed which is called in Catholic church All Saints Day. There is no costumes, vampires or trick-or-treats on this day. But it doesn't mean that Ukrainians don't have scary stories or mysterious places with grim legends. My grandmother used to tell me a blood-chilling story that happened nearby the village she lived with her parents. During midnight Easter service in the church, the whole building with parishioners and priest fell underground. Nobody got saved. A couple of days later people found golden incense burner from that church in the stream that was coming out of local hills. Near the hole that formed on the place of the church, people could hear distant voices of prayers and church singing. But nobody was ever found. I remembered this story for my entire life and if the village where all this story took place was an easy trip to make I would definitely do it. Unfortunately, today this place is on the territory of Poland and most of the people that could remember that story or know where the church stood were resettled a long time ago. My grandma as a real teacher explained to me that most likely there was nothing superstitious about the church collapse. She believed that it simply stood in the place with very active underground waters and that in some point during the spring flood period they got very high and washed out too much soil underneath the building. She also thought that people were adding lies to their stories and most likely the church was empty. Otherwise, that would be too big of a tragedy for surrounding villages and there would definitely be more uproar. True or not this story is something I will always remember.
Since I used to travel a bit all around Ukraine and lived in a couple of different places, I always tried to learn more about their history. And believe me, each place had some interesting spooky stories. When I studied and lived in Chernivtsi I was mesmerized by a church not far from my apartment.

The official name of the church is St. Nicholas Church, but due to its twisted towers it has a nickname A Drunk Church. My mom told me that according to the legend the architect that built it walled up his disobedient daughters into the towers and while the mortar was still fresh, they were trying to release themselves and that's how the towers got twisted like that. Of course, it's just a legend and according to my father, who happens to be an architect, the towers are built "normally" and the twist is just an optical illusion. But the story is pretty cool as well as the church itself.

Another place that I always admired and almost believed the legends about it is a medieval castle not far from Chernivtsi, located in a small town Khotyn.

The fortress itself is simply amazing. It has a gorgeous inside yard, underground passages and back in the times it was under reconstruction I was lucky to get into a couple of towers. The views are breathtaking. But every time I would come to the fortress, whether it was in summer, spring or fall I would see one and the same thing on the side of it.

This big wet spot is always there. It never dried out no matter what season it is. During one of the excursions, I heard a legend from the guide that explained its origin. Guess what! Another crazy architect walled up his disobedient daughter that fell in love with some peasant with no money or name and wanter to marry him. So instead of a wedding, she ended up being walled up and keeps crying till today making one of the walls wet. Don't start thinking that Ukraine is someplace of unhappy women that at any occasion get walled up! It's not true!!! I promise! However, strangely enough, the archaeologists couldn't figure out the reason why that wall is constantly wet. They had a theory about an underground spring but never could find it or were afraid to damage the fortress walls in the search of the answer.

Another stop we will make in Kyiv. I lived in this city for over 5 years and I can tell you it has a lot of interesting and mysterious places. Like any old city that went through a lot of turmoil, it collected everything it could from each epoch. Unfortunately, you will not find a big gorgeous castle in Kyiv. I believe many fortifications built there at different times were mostly wooden and therefore didn't survive till nowadays. However, in the 17th century when Ukraine, unfortunately, was part of the Russian Empire, it was decided to construct a gigantic fortress in Kyiv. By "gigantic" I mean huge, humongous, gigantesque!!!! And... they succeeded! If I'm not mistaken it still remains the biggest earth-and-rock fortress in Europe. 

This is a computer reconstruction of the fortress I found on the boundless Internet prairies. From my personal experience, the buildings of the old fortress are scattered all over Kyiv. And if you don't know much about its history you might just walk past them and not pay much attention. I was lucky to be shown the Fortress by my good friend that was gracious enough not to laugh at my face when I said that Kyiv is boring and doesn't even have a castle or a fortress. So he walked me through some labyrinths of streets and eventually we ended up next to mighty walls of the fortress. That's what I saw. 

(photo was taken from https://rest.guru.ua/ua/kiev/places/447-kievskaya_krepost_/) 

Of course, it doesn't look as impressive as the Khotyn Fortress but there are definitely very interesting things to learn about it. For instance, the Fortress stretches all way to the Dnipro river and to stabilize its steep hills, there were built tall walls and tunnels that allegedly lead up to the main buildings of the Fortress. Of course, with time the tunnels got ruined and in some places, they are simply blocked. But it doesn't mean that there are no dark, creepy legends about them. One of the places I want to dwell on nowadays is called Green Theatre. On this photo taken at the beginning of the 20th century, you can see a big wall in the hill.

In Soviet times that wall was used to build an open-air theatre. Here is its photo.

However, the theatre didn't operate for a long time because of the devastating fire that broke out there after a lightning stroke it. They say there were a couple of attempts to restore that place but every time something would happen and it would stay closed for a long time. At some point, a legend started circulating the city that a tall man in a long dark coat with a hood on his head was seen on the half-ruined stage of the Green Theatre. People started calling him the Master believing that it was the Devil himself. If you didn't want to get into any trouble walking the slopes of Dnipro near the Green Theatre you were supposed to say to yourself "I greet you, Master". You can believe it or not, but once my friend and I went for a walk down those slopes. It was pretty late and very dark, we didn't have any pocket light or even a box of matches. At some point on one of the serpent-like paths, we bumped into a big wooden cross standing in between the trees. I don't know who put it there or why, but it was quite a spooky find. At some point, a guy on a bicycle went past us. Now when I think back I find it very strange because it was pitch dark and I don't quite understand how he navigated in the darkness with no light on him. After walking downwards for a while we reached a big round area which turned out to be a dead-end. So we had to turn around and head back. The funny thing is that back then I knew nothing about the Master legend or any other story about the Dnipro slopes that hosted an old cemetery of suiciders and stillborn babies, or a legend about a nunnery that got cursed. I learned all these spooky stories later on and now I wouldn't agree for a walk like that in the middle of the night )) 

There are a lot more places that carry the memory of strange and sometimes tragic events, but they will be a subject of my other stories. Right now I will finish writing and will go to watch something spooky since I can hear a storm coming and watching something scary to the sounds of a thunder is the best thing!

Have a great time of the day and BEHAVE!

Sincerely yours!

What do Ukrainians pickle and what do they marinade?

Let it be an International Cuisine Day today and not just Wednesday, ok? Do you agree? In case you agree (and it's not like you have much choice) I will tell you about preserves, the jars with some tasty stuff inside. Amazingly, countries can differ in so many ways, sometimes it's even mindblowing. You live in your country a lifetime, do things a certain way, do your shopping a certain way, celebrate Christmas and Easter a certain way, cook things a certain way. And then one day - BOOM! You come to a different country and understand that you understand nothing! I don't mean language-wise, but rather everyday-life-wise. Even such simple things as shopping (easy as long as you have money) can turn into a quest before you will get used to a different type of goods and even the layout of the stores. For some time you will be occupied by learning all those things and when you finally do it, you will start looking for goods that you used to buy back at home. It's great if you are lucky to find some of the substitutes. However, a lot of things you still will be missing. I'm pretty serious about it, I mean if you moved to a different country for an extended time as a kid it's not such a big thing, because kids adapt much faster than adults. But if you did it as an adult, it gets more complicated, because, unfortunately, nobody figured out how to fight homesickness completely and your eating habits are a pretty big part of it. I can't say for everyone 100% but it did occur to me. The other day I understood that the department with canned food and preserves I don't see jars with pickled tomatoes! There are all kinds of cucumbers, relishes, peppers, olives, garlic, onions and some other things I've never tried or even heard of, but not a single jar of TOMATOES!!!! By the way, have you ever had pickled tomatoes??? Well, in Ukraine we say that if you can't buy something, you can make it. That's my approach in life almost in all cases unless it requires much time and resources. So I bought two boxes of Campari tomatoes, you know those small ones, but not the smallest ones, found a quick recipe for pickling and did it. Here's my result: 

Hopefully, the taste will be just the way I like it. I plan to check them this weekend so fingers crossed. 
So what else do Ukrainians pickle or marinade? And what's the difference between pickling and marinading? 
Firstly about the difference. In Ukraine when we pickle it means that we put some vegetable into extremely salty water or add a lot of salt and keep the vegetable like that for a long time. For example, I bet you do know the sour kraut. So sour krout is made with the help of salt that you add to shredded cabbage and keep that cabbage in a jar for some time till juice starts to appear. With other veggies that usually are not shredded, we use very salty cooked water. For instance, this way we make pickled cucumbers. They differ taste-wise from the cucumbers you usually buy for sandwiches. They are crunchier and saltier and never sweet. The perfect match for a pickled cucumber is mashed or fried potatoes. Jars with pickled veggies are usually sealed for winter in a special way that involves boiling water processing of the jars with their contents. Marinading presupposes adding vinegar to the pickle-water. We usually marinade veggies and mushrooms that we plan to eat very soon. If we want to eat them later on in winter then they also have to go through boiling water processing and have a special air-tight lid. You can believe it or not but every Ukrainian knows all this technique and gets those skills on genetic level ))) The thing is that food shortage during soviet times made us thrifty and every summer we would get ready for the winter making jars and jars of different preserves. So what else do we pickle or marinade? We pickle cauliflower, cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, green tomatoes, aubergines, eggplants, mushrooms, and the craziest of us pickle watermelons. Don't ask me what's the taste of pickled watermelon is, there is no way to make me try it. It's simply sick. But some people like it. 
Of course, according to all the doctors in the world eating a lot of pickled food is not good because of the high contents of sodium. But I can tell you that once in a while a crunchy cucumber will not kill you. And if you had a chance to try my mom's marinaded Romanian pepper you would dream about it for the rest of your life! 
With all the above said and written I will leave you to ponder about the menu for your dinner! 
Bon appetite! Eat healthily and behave!

Sincerely yours!

The shelves with preserves in Ukrainian supermarkets. Photos taken from the Internet. 

Shopping in Ukraine

Hello-hello! How is your Friday going? Hope you are ready for the weekend! I've noticed that in the States shopping is a very popular leisure activity during the weekend. As early as 6-7 am. on Saturday morning I can see people rushing to the parking lots in front of the stores. Sundays are a bit quieter but closer to the noon I see a lot of cars on the roads again. You might think that I'm weird talking about shopping. Shopping is shopping. Nothing to talk about. Don't people shop all over the world the same way??? What if I told you that there are some differences in shopping habits and that you take certain things as for shopping for granted.
Since I was born at the beginning of the 80s a lot of things have changed in shopping style in Ukraine. When I was a little kid shopping looked like this:

Any kind of shopping presupposed standing in lines or if there was no line it meant that the store either was empty or goods in it were completely useless. So you would wonder how is it possible that all those people on the photos are not naked at least, right? Well, you could buy clothing pretty much without any problems, but the quality and colour palette were simply horrible. If you wanted to get something better quality you were supposed to know somebody who worked in the sales. Those people usually had access to better stuff. If to talk about food, our grocery stores usually carried bread (2-3 kinds), butter, sour cream, milk, cottage cheese, sparkling water, apple and grape juice, several kinds of pasta, some preserves (pickled cucumbers and tomatoes), some cookies and caramel candies. Some stores had a liquor department. Other types of food you would either get in stores with a wider range of goods if there was such store in your area or go to what is called in the States as Farmers' Market. Our Farmers' Markets were the real saviour and remain to be and here is why. Ukraine is a very agricultural country and if you read my previous stories you know that if a Ukrainian lives in a private house most likely there will be a kitchen garden next to the house and a small farm consisting at least of a couple of chickens. Many people also have ducks, goats and even bigger animals, especially those who live in villages. So very often a surplus of harvest and farming will be sold at the local Farmers' Market. For example, if my grandfather has a bountiful harvest of apricots he will take them to the market and his friend who works there would sell them for him. The same thing happens with the surplus of eggs, cucumbers or walnuts. Personally, I like shopping at the Farmers' Market for a couple of reasons. In the town where live my parents the market is not just a shopping place but also an important place for socialising and catching up with the latest news, meeting friends and acquaintances. Secondly, my mom has a network of salespeople that she buys groceries from; on the one hand, you can get a better price, on the other hand, you can be sure that the quality is always great. Of course, when you are in a new town you won't be able to get all these pros at once. When I lived in Kyiv I didn't shop too often at the Farmers' Markets simple because they were too far from me and I was pretty satisfied with the quality and product range in my supermarket. In addition, my apartment was literally surrounded by good shopping. On top of that, I had an Armenian couple selling fruits and vegetables next to my home from a small stall. 

So how about other kinds of shopping? If you live in s big city all kinds of gorgeous shopping malls are at your service. When I say gorgeous I really mean it. They are packed with all possible kind of entertainment and shopping. You see, Amazon and eBay are not that popular in my country yet, so people go to physical stores especially if they have kids because, as I've mentioned, our shopping malls are packed with entertainment: movie theatres, restaurants, food courts, playgrounds, aquariums, water parks, bowling, billiards, skating rinks, rollerblade halls, even go-cart racing and sky diving. 

So what do people do if they don't live in a big city? Walk naked? Nope, they go to markets! Not the Farmers' Markets but merchandise markets. If you have travelled to Turkey or Marocco you must have seen those vivid and agile places with clothing, shoes, souvenirs, local food and many other traditional things. Our merchandise markets don't look that authentic unless you go to ones that sell our national crafts. But you will be surprised by the range of goods you can buy there from AAA batteries to wedding dresses.

The 7th Kilometre Market, Odesa

Kalynivskyi Market, Chernivtsi

I know they look weird but the variety of merchandise and prices can be really interesting. Of course, it can turn into a boring activity since you keep walking an aisle after an aisle and try to find what you are looking for (it's if you know what you are looking for). Another thing you have to remember that whether it's freezing winter or scorching summer you still will do a lot of walking and in some cases, you might have a very unforgettable experience of trying something on. A lot of people still are fond of places like that because they believe that they can find a really good bargain there since in regular stores prices are higher because of rent and salary expenses. As a lazy shopper, I gave up on visiting places like this and do it only occasionally when I visit my grandfather or my parents. The markets in small towns are much smaller and it takes me 20 minutes to walk through them and see what they have to offer. 

As you can tell shopping in Ukraine is definitely different from shopping in the US for example. However, it can turn into a really cool experience for a foreigner. My friends from Germany adore shopping at the Farmers' Market in the town where my parents live. My friends from the US were literally shocked (I mean in a good way) when they tried fruits and vegetables from my local market. At first, I couldn't understand why my friend Chris was eating a tomato and there were tears in his eyes. Well, now after a couple of years in the States I think about home-grown tomatoes with the tears in my eyes, or the cottage cheese that my mom buys, or strawberries, or apricots...... I will stop here because I will really start crying! 

Of course, my mom doesn't buy all the groceries at the market, they have a very nice small grocery store right next to their apartment building. So usually bread, water, sweets, cheese, beer, butter or coffee are purchased there, especially if she forgot to buy something at the market. But most provision for the week is bought at the farmers' market. One more important thing about markets in small communities - they don't work every day. In my parents' town, the market works only on Wednesday and Saturday. In my grandfather's town, the market works all days except Monday. And of course, the markets don't work during the holidays: Christmas, Easter, New Year or any other big holiday.

So enjoy your shopping, be frugal and remember that even shopping can be an unusual experience!

Behave!

Sincerely yours!

Growing up in the USSR

Hello World! Hope you are still doing fine, spinning and floating in the endless Universe. Here, on the planet Earth, humans are temporary settlers. But despite this fact, we behave very arrogantly and feel more like the kings of the Universe, which we are not. I don't want to go into the environmental issues that we cause our planet but take a look at the things related to the way we organize ourselves in what we call counties. Civilizations come and go but we still are not able to learn anything and to live in peace with each other. I was born in a country that no longer exists. Not many people can say it about their place of birth. Usually, people simply move from one place to another, or from one country to another. In my case, I was born in the USSR and ten years later I already lived in Ukraine, an independent state, without moving anywhere. Not many people can say something like that, right?

When people learn that I'm from Ukraine, they try to remember something about my country. And it turns out not so easy and eventually they start talking about Russia and Soviet Union. Somehow people all over the world know a lot about the Soviet Union and associate it with a weird set of things: some name Perestroyka, some remember Gorbachev, but what they definitely remember is Cold War and Carribean crisis and the communist party, of course. But not many people realize that the Soviet Union was a socialist state. Everyone talks about commies and red villains, but when you tell them that communism was never implemented in the USSR people don't believe me. That's why it's very hard for me to hear socialist slogans in the modern societies all over the world and see how young people gladly support those ideas without even trying to figure out what they are offered.

So let me tell you how it felt to live in a socialist country and how all the slogans you hear from everywhere nowadays are just slogans and nothing more.

Utopia is going to be a core word for today's story. Utopia stands for an ideally perfect place, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects. That's exactly how I would describe the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). I will not go into theory and history how did USSR appear but rather focus on my experience of living in it. 

I was born in 1981. It's pretty amazing because the only leader of the communist party that I remember clearly was Mr. Gorbachev, who headed the party in 1985. Between 1981 and 1985 we had three General Secretaries (that's how they were called): Brezhniev "ruled" till he died in 1982, next one was Yuri Andropov till he died in 1984, then we had Chernenko who died in 1985 and his successor was Gorbachev. Quite a carousel, right? I don't remember all of them, as I've mentioned already, but I do remember that people were complaining and jocking at the same time that they were sick and tired of the Swan Lake ballet on the one and only main TV channel since mourning for a deceased party leader was a state thing and all union was supposed to mourn together. Yes, you understood it correctly "one TV channel". It was called soviet central television channel or shortened CT-1. Later on we had one more channel CT-2 but it's signal was pretty weak and it didn't work that great. How many channels did you have in 1981 or 1982? Of course, the main concept of the channel was to inform about the progress of the soviet government and to entertain the citizens but in a highly moral and controlled way. So when somebody appeals to my memory saying: Do you remember those cartoons about Bugsbunny from the 80s or starts throwing at me names of some other tv shows for children I have to answer that I watched them much much later, in the middle of 90s when we became independent and western movies, tv-shows and movies started coming to our television. What did I watch as a kid? Well, we had a bunch of soviet cartoons and movies for children. Some of them were a copycat of western production but I learn about it much later as an adult. 

The key word for any soviet citizen was the word "connections". If you knew somebody who had access to some benefits you could have a bit better lifestyle than others. Unfortunately, it was impossible to go to a store and simply buy things you needed. I really mean it. And I mean any kind of need including food. So that's where "connections" played a crucial role. I was lucky to be born in a family with "connections" )) My grandfather is a dentist, an extremely good one and on top of that, he has a very out-going personality. So when he needed to buy me some winter clothes he would make a couple of phone calls and get me a coat, pants, sweater, boots and an ear-flapped hat. The same way he would get some toys for me, books, some devices for home, necessary medicines (better ones than the ones available in the pharmacy) and other things that were absent from the shelves of our stores. By the way, our stores were often empty or carried some junk that nobody wanted to buy. During the "rule" of Brezhniev the economy entered a stagnation period and never recovered from it. 

"New era" socialists promise everyone free education and medicine. Well, what to tell you. I can understand free medicine only if to talk about a set of medical services that any citizen can get for free whether he or she has medical insurance or not. However, to make all medical services free of charge is impossible. Our "free" clinics and hospitals were the most horrible looking place on the Earth and if you wanted to get decent service and treatment better you had "connections". Otherwise, you would be treated like dirt and made to buy some basic tools for your own medical examination. That's where socialist "free medicine" would quickly turn into "paid medicine". You would need to buy syringes, needles, alcohol, drippers, bandages and what's not. Don't forget to express your gratitude to the doctor, especially if we talk about some kind of surgery. Not a bribe, but "gratitude". You would learn the amount of "gratitude" from the clinic personnel. As I've said before, I was from a family with "connections" and my grandfather, a doctor, knew other doctors and they would help each other in critical situations. 

Free education was also an interesting concept. The chances to study in a good higher education institution were higher if you had "connections" ))) Children of high standing communist party authorities could enter any university or institute even if they were the dumbest students in the whole world. Both my parents were lucky to get a good education but mostly because they are smart and very diligent people. Both of them experienced situations when somebody important's son or daughter would get high grades just because. The same situation was with employment after university/institute. If you knew somebody there were chances you wouldn't be sent to work in the middle of nowhere in Kazakhstan or Siberia. 

One of my friends keeps telling me that I'm a courageous and frugal young woman. She admires my cooking skills or ability to find a good bargain. Well, these are the skills I attained in spite of, not thanks to the circumstances I grew up in. I will never forget the dress my mom made for me when we had a new year's celebration at school. These were times of Independent Ukraine, but our 90s strongly resembled last decade of the soviet union. So my wonderful mother made me a dress out of her old velvet dress and satin shirt. That was the most trendy and unique looking dress. Her skills to turn an old dress into fashionable attire or a one bedroom apartment into a cosy home for three are even more worth admiration than any of my skills. My dad made furniture for our apartment himself since it was very hard to buy furniture in the soviet stores. He didn't have "connections" of my grandfather, but he has two golden hands and great designer skills.  

I have allergies to socialism and anything connected with it. I don't think that capitalism is the best form of social structure, but it's much better than the "free cheese in the mousetrap". My country was in that mousetrap for over 70 years and we still feel the consequences of making everyone equal both in their needs and abilities. Just remember, socialism will not just give things but it will also take all possible resources from you so that they can distribute them equally among everyone, both those who were laying on the sofa all day long and those who worked hard 24/7.

Value what you have and strive for better. Try to make the world a better place, but don't get fooled but those, whose work is only to throw attractive slogans at you and who has hardly worked a single day doing something real and physically demanding.
Behave!

Sincerely yours )))

Just a couple of photos from the Internet that depicts all the "fun" of socialist well-being

Soviet dolls, as you can tell none of them resembles Barbie )) 

Typical soviet furniture for the living room. 

Soviet car "Lada". Still produced by Russia.

Soviet cassette player. 

Soviet version of "Gameboy"))) Had one game and it was pretty hard to buy it. One needed "connections" ))

Hospital room. Of course, some hospitals were in much better shape, but you could never know what kind of accommodations you would have to deal with.

Home gown, typical attire for many women and not just at home. 

Soviet-style shopping.

A line to the shoe shop. It was very hard to buy good quality footware. 

Soviet version of playstation

Typical soviet bathroom. 

What do Ukrainians do in summer?

What's up, the world? How is it going? The planet is spinning, the seasons are changing and we are already past the summer solstice. Time flies. So, summer is officially everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere. Have you noticed that everything slows down in summer? I always found it interesting. You see, you would assume that since it's too warm in summer for quick movements and intensive activities, in winter it should be on the contrary - everyone should be energized and productive. But it happens that it's not exactly true - everyone is cold and complains about freezing temperatures outside and grey skies and when they get into warm premises they turn into a jellyfish. In summer people definitely don't like to think about work or stay at work. All their thoughts are occupied about rest, for some unknown for me reason. You see, most of my professional life I've been a freelancer and right now I'm doing a job that is pretty much 7 days a week. So even during summer, there are no options for me not to work. When I worked as a language tutor I tried to have at least a week or two of vacations in summer, but I discovered that my travelling wasn't very enjoyable during this time - there were crowds of people literally everywhere: in the streets, in the restaurants, in the museums, on the beach and in the forest. Not fun at all! So now I have a plan to go on vacations in between the touristic seasons because the best rest can take place only in a quiet atmosphere.
But, there is still the main question unanswered! What do Ukrainians do in summer?! Well, from the end of May Ukrainians start dreaming about vacations. Any office worker is literally daydreaming about holidays and the sea. The work tangibly slows down and every new post on Facebook with the sea, beaches, lakes and foreign cityscapes collects a ton of likes and jealous comments. People exchange recommendations as for restaurants, prices, routes and hotels. But, not all Ukrainians spend summer travelling. While I studied at school and university my summers took place at my grandparents' house. I bet you are surprised that I didn't try to find a part-time job as many students do in the US, but Ukraine in the 90s and 2000s young people didn't have too many options for part-time jobs. Most employers didn't want to play the games with inexperienced young people that would work for them only 2-3 months a year. So my options for summer mostly consisted of visiting my grandparents and helping with their homesteads. In summer I would tan while gardening, taking care of chickens, collecting strawberries, deweeding onion, carrot, tomato etc. patches, cleaning the house, cleaning around the house, watering garden, collecting ripe fruit and vegetables and many many other activities. Doing all that in summer I still somewhat envied my peers that went to visit their grandparents in the villages. All summer long they were herding cows and goats, took ducks and geese to the ponds, lakes or rivers. Their summer seemed so much more exciting to me than mine in a small town where I could do some shopping, or have something tasty in a cafe. Now I understand that these were the best summers: I could read as much as I wanted, play badminton with my friends, ride my bicycle, swim in the river at the end of our property along with doing something useful. Summer also is a period of time that we, Ukrainians, use to prepare for winter. We pickle and marinade a lot of vegetables, make jams, confitures and jars of fruit butter, harvest potatoes, onions, carrots and other veggies that can be preserved in cellars through winter.
So you might wonder whether anything has changed since then and whether in 2019 Ukrainians still spend summers the same way I did back at the beginning of the 2000s. I can't tell you about all Ukraine but there are definitely more changes in lifestyle. Office workers with good salaries try to travel in summer abroad. One of the most popular countries until recent was Turkey with its all-inclusive resorts. After receiving visa-free access to most of the European countries people started broadening their horizons and improving the quality of their travels. A lot of people that don't have the opportunity to travel abroad either stay at home, take trips to relatives or explore Ukraine. The latter activity becomes more and more popular because of a great number of resources that promote internal travelling. Ukraine is historically and naturally very rich country and it has a lot to offer not just to its own citizens but has a lot to surprise with people from all over the world.
In case you would like to refresh how wonderful is my country, I welcome you to read my other story https://kwetlorienua.blogspot.com/2019/01/what-to-expect-from-trip-to-ukraine.html

I just want to wish you a wonderful summer Friday and even better summer weekend!
Behave!

Sincerely yours!

All photos were taken by me. All right reserved. 

Chornobyl

A bit of a spoiler for today's story. You are looking at the photo of the Chornobyl Nuclear Station after the fire was finally put out. Today's story will be my scarce memories about those events. 

(the photo was taken from Pinterest)

Hey guys! How is life? Looks like I took a pretty long break, but I guess it happens once in a while with blogging. Mainly because Life keeps happening and even in the life of an average person do happen a lot of things. It took me some time to start writing today's story mostly because I was trying to figure out which way I want to go with it. I don't know how many of you watched the mini-series by HBO Chernobyl (the correct way to spell would be ChOrnobyl though) but I think that a lot of people in the world have heard about this tragedy that touched my land and many other countries in the world. After watching the third episode on Monday I decided that it's time to share my experience and tell you how it felt to be a 5-year-old kid in 1986 and how it influenced my adult life.
So, on the 26th of April 1986б in the middle of the night, an explosion on the 4th reactor of Chornobyl nuclear station shook the grounds of the town Prypiat that is located 4 miles away from it. My mom remembers that night very clearly: she celebrated her birthday in the circle of our family friends. It was a very warm night and when her and my dad went to see off the guests the chestnut trees were already blooming. People that went through very tragic events say that they usually remember the very day if the accident clearly and with a ton of details. Americans I talked to about the 9/11 tragedy remember what they were doing and where they were when heard the news. When Chornobyl explosion happened there was a very limited circle of people who have detailed memories of that night and there are a couple of reasons for that. The main one is that to know anything about what happened you either had to be part of the nuclear station team, an inhabitant of Prypiat or a top official in soviet government. If you were an average member of the public you didn't know anything about what was going on till some time in May.
As a little kid I spent each summer at my grandparents. That year I came to them earlier than usual since I didn't go to school yet. I spent a lot of time outside since we have a very nice house and a good amount of land around it. That's why I remember clearly that my grandmother talked to my grandfather on the phone and after that, she commanded me inside. My soft, kind grandmother literally commanded me inside, though it was a nice summer day, the sun was warm and bright. I wasn't allowed to go outside or even leave the door open. And my grandmother started putting a wet bed sheet over the entrance door. A couple of days later came my parents and took me back home. That was another weird thing because it was just the beginning of summer and I would usually go home at the end of August, not at the beginning of May. The thing is that my grandparents live in the northern part of Ukraine and if you look on the map it's on the same line with Chornobyl. My parents live in the southwest of Ukraine and at that point, it seemed a good idea to move me as far away from the possible influence the explosion could have on the nearest parts of Ukraine. We didn't know that the radioactive cloud has covered almost all Ukraine and it really didn't matter where you were. Much later we learned that the town where live my parents (Zalishchyky, Ternopil region) was covered with radioactive iodine and strontium-90. Natural strontium is a harmless metal that is highly reactive. Strontium-90 is a completely different story: it can be absorbed by the human body and stored in bones just like calcium. And if swallowed or inhaled it gets very harmful and can cause bone cancer and leukemias. The Japanese scientists back at the end of the 80s warned the soviet government that there would be two main waves of people affected by the radiation: those who were involved in the liquidation of the catastrophe right away, and another wave was to be statistically visible 26-28 years later since that's the half-life of strontium-90. Nowadays every 42nd Ukrainian has cancer. Most people of my generation have an enlarged thyroid gland. We have never clearly explained what it means. But knowing that thyroid is one of the most vital glands that produces hormones needed by every single cell in your body makes a lot of people nervous.
When watching the mini-series by HBO I felt nothing but fear. That was not the fear and suspense you experience when watching a horror movie. In a horror movie, everything is a fake and your reactions are caused by grim scenery, well-selected music, and unexpected actions of the main characters. When watching something based on real-life events your brain keeps reiterating: it's all real, those people are real, those events are real. When you see a body of dying station worker covered in blood, you do know that radiation caused all his vessels slowly degrade and now all his body is an open wound. Unfortunately, reality sometimes is even scarier than somebody's imagination. Then you see all those important looking people sitting around the table and determining human fates as if it's a card game. In my opinion, Chornobyl catastrophe is one of the biggest crimes in the history of soviet union, mostly because we, the people of the country, were not told the TRUTH. There is nothing scarier when you don't know that truth.
If you decide to watch the mini-series, please, don't think that the people shown in it are a small circle of people that suffered from the consequences of the catastrophe. Think about the numbers of victims that equal the population of the country, I would even say the population of several countries because the radioactive cloud didn't care about the boundaries or nationalities.
Life goes on. Our planet has a lot of scars made by its unwise inhabitants. But it can heal itself and even Chornobyl exclusion zone proves it. Almost no human presence there has resulted in the renewal of wildlife: wild animals like bears, elks, wolves, foxes started returning there and feel very comfortable with no humans around. The rivers are cranking with fishes. Nature has started a very long process of revival. Is humanity able to heal itself? I doubt it. Chornobyl tragedy hasn't taught us much. Fukushima happened not so long ago in a highly technological Japan. I guess we made our choice.
I think if I had three wishes I would spend one of them on humanity to gain wisdom.
So try to be wise and behave!

SIncerely yours )))

P.S. No photos today. I have never been to Chornobyl, but this trip is on my bucket list. I want to see the dead town of Prypiat and to pay my dues to the monument dedicated to all the people that died trying to save me and millions of people. However, I will leave here a link to the project I work with. They have been to the exclusion zone and talked to people that moved back to their homes despite the radiation. Their stories are simple but very sincere.

https://ukrainer.net/self-settlers-of-chornobyl-returning-home/


https://ukrainer.net/prybirsk-life/

https://ukrainer.net/a-return-to-the-exclusion-zone/