Ukrainian Christmas

On my last day in L'viv, I met Mariana at the bus station and we took the hour-and-a-half ride to her grandmother's village.

During my stay at her house, I never went hungry! Every moment I was being offered tea with pampukh, poppyseed bread, and cake, or enjoying an enormous meal. The first night, since it was Christmas Eve, we had the traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve meal of twelve courses; starting with garlic dipped in salt and pickled herring and ending with кутя (Kutya, a dish made with buckwheat, honey, poppyseed, and raisins). In between there were various vaguely familiar dishes of mushrooms, potatoes, stewed cabbage, and so on.

Early Christmas morning, Mariana and I got up and went to the village church for mass. Though crowded, it was a beautiful service. After a nap and a hearty lunch, we went on a short walk around the village and down to the river with Mariana's uncle.

The village was small, but pretty.

On the day after Christmas, we took the bus back to the city. Mariana's sister waited with us.

We waited a long time for the bus... it was really cold (-7* C/ 19* F)!

After the long bus ride back, I had to wait almost an hour for a bus into the city. At one point the correct bus came, but another was already stopped where I was waiting and I didn't see it in time to flag it down. By the time I made it to Charitie's apartment in the center, I was freezing!!!

Charitie and I went out to dinner at a new restaurant in L'viv with Russell and another L'viv Fulbrighter named Steven, to say goodbye to Russell, whose Fulbright term was up just a few days later. We also stopped by the Pampukh festival on Rynok square. Pampukh are traditional Ukrainian Christmas donuts, filled with various delicious things. Mariana's grandmother had made hers with poppyseed filling, but at the festival I was able to try one with apricot filling and one filled with cream. So good!!! This should totally be a tradition in America too.

I had tried to get my train ticket for the same day, but there hadn't been any available, so I had to stay an extra day in L'viv. It turned out to be good, though, because I didn't get into the city until evening and was tired and hungry. That night I slept in the same apartment I'd stayed in before I left for Mariana's, then the next day caught my train back to Vinnytsia. I was in platzkart, third class, sharing a car with a TON of high school students who had been on an excursion to L'viv and a few other places. Fortunately, the woman sitting next to me was their chaperone, and she was nice and chatted with me, assuring me she could understand me even though I was terribly mixing my Ukrainian and Russian at that point (starting to speak surzhyk like a native, haha).

It was such a relief to get home and rest! And Mariana's grandmother had sent home with me copious amounts of cake and poppyseed bread, along with five poppyseed pampukh. Om nom nom.

Back in Vinnytsia, I was finally able to take care of some important business that had been put off in my absence. With Tanya's help, I got my boots repaired (they'd been broken ever since I ran after the train when leaving for Turkey) and picked up the care package my parents had sent for Christmas, which had been waiting at the Meest office in Vinnytsia.

Words can't express how thrilled I was with this spread. God, I miss Dr. Pepper!!

I also met up with my student Tania a few times to help her with an application for IREX, which is a program that enables foreign students to study in the U.S. After one of our sessions working on her application, we took a walk around the city to enjoy the holiday decorations.

The main square was all decked out for the holidays. Even the hideous Soviet eyesore that is the administration building had been transformed into a magical winterscape.

In the park by the tower there had sprung up a Christmas Festival similar to the one I'd seen in L'viv.

Then we walked down the street to the main park, where the city's main Christmas tree was standing. In an earlier entry, I posted a picture of this tree being built. Now it was fully decorated, and rotating, too!

The giant tree even rotates!

At the base of the tree.

As we walked around enjoying the beautiful decorations, Tania and I bought some солодка вата-- cotton candy.

On another adventure, she helped me to buy my train tickets for my trip to Chernivtsi, and we walked all the way from the train station back to the center of town.

On the way, we passed the building of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.

Outside the Ministry of Defense. This one's for Paul :)

 During the few weeks between these two crazy trips, I also did a little shopping with Karis. We went to the main bazaar and to the expo-center near my house to find some fleece-lined tights. I also did a lot of knitting. I made a hat!

...all of which was good, because I was about to embark on a my fantastic but extremely cold and crazy adventure to the Bukovyna region!