Easter and Odessa

Well last weekend I celebrated a Ukrainian Easter (the most significant holiday in Ukraine), which was one of those experiences that you just can't describe to someone. On Thursday, our host mom had us wash and clean everything, because on Good Friday we were not allowed to do any of that. Audrey and I left with our host family to go to church at about 11:00 on Saturday night, and we were there until 5 in the morning! It was an experience I will never forget, but 6 hours at church was a bit long for me :). We started off the night by following the Priest around the church with our candles and then into the church where the service began. The singing was beautiful, and the elaborate paintings inside kept me from being too bored for about an hour haha. After a couple of hours I thought I was going to fall asleep; I didn't really understand everything that was going on and the incense was starting to give me a headache. But around 3:30 a.m. everyone left the church and lined up on the sidewalks with their baskets full of Pascha (a very large round bread with frosting on top-looks REALLY good but sadly is kind of bland), eggs, wine, and other foods. There, everyone waits for the Priest to bless them.

After that we went home and ate a ton of food with the family. There was one dish that looked somewhat like jello with some kind of pink frosting on top. I have lived in Ukraine long enough to guess that the "pink frosting" was beets and sour cream-I was right; but I did not expect what was inside. I'm not even sure what all was in it, but for sure there was fish, beets, sour cream, and other vegetables. It was interesting haha. One of the traditions here is that you hit your boiled eggs with someone else, and if your egg doesn't crack, you will have good luck. I won twice and lost once :). There are other traditions related to Easter and Spring that are really interesting. One I thought was kind of funny is when on a certain day (I cannot remember exactly what day it was) everyone carries around willows and taps one another with them while saying a poem. In English it's something like: "The willow hits, not I: a week from now it will be Easter."

A couple of weeks ago about 9 of us went to Odesssa for a weekend. It was really nice there and it was a fun weekend. We went to a couple musems and walked on beach (the Black Sea). We also had a good time exploring the catacombs. The weather has been really nice lately so this weekend Audrey and I walked around Kreshatik and watched the random break dancers that are always there haha. It was nice; there were a lot of people out and something seemed to be going on at every street corner.