It's Easter! Put on Your Fat Pants!

Today was Ukrainian Easter, which was so fascinating! It started last night when 4 of Galya's previous Peace Corps Volunteers came into town to stay the weekend. So we were all hanging out in the kitchen, helping Galya cook. She looked so happy to have everyone back! It was so nice! I went to bed early to prepare for today, even though I had no idea what was going on. I was told to be ready and dressed by 9am, so I was, and went down to help Galya finish the cooking. I was supposed to put this amazing garlic/cottage cheese concoction on bread, and then "lightly" spread butter on some other bread. The first went off without a hitch. The latter- well, let's just say that "a little" in Ukraine really means a slab. It took me 10 minutes to butter one piece of bread because every time I thought I was done, I was told that I needed more!

The spread for meal number 1 (brunch)

Anyways, then, around 10am, began the drinking. Now, let me just say upfront that in comparison to the other volunteers' stories that I heard, 10am is late. One girl, Catherine, started drinking cognac at 7am. They love their cognac here! So we were all sitting around the table, me not understanding a blessed word of what's going on, and so I just kept eating the amazing Easter bread that was brought/baked. Oh, and drank, because with every meal you're supposed to toast 3 times. Which means that over the course of the day I had 9 glasses of wine (thank god it wasn't vodka), and a beer in the afternoon, but I digress.

Easter Bread (really sweet, tastes like babka)

Wait wait. . . there's more. That was only meal one. Afterwards, we went into the garden and the men took shots of cognac while the women watched on. . . a very interesting and old fashion tradition. Then came tea. And 3 more toasts. Olya, my language teacher, came over for that. . . but then had to bail. And then more Easter bread. After that, when we were exhausted from eating, we all went for a long walk, as is tradition. Right near my house there's a forest that's not as big as Prospect Park, but big enough that you could definately get lost. And it's literally just a natural forest in the middle of the city. The best part is that there are no bar-b-quing laws here, so everyone and their mother goes into the forest on Easter to make kabobs (what they call shashlik). I've never seen so many people in a park before. And it's a beautiful forest! Complete with old graveyard in the middle! When everyone (including the grandparents) were tired from walking, they went home to nap and I went to meet up with some volunteers and drink in the park. Oh, did I mention that you can carry open bottles and containers of anything anywhere? How great is this country?!

And then the last meal, which was just as good. This is the point in my story when I should recieve mad props for trying salo (salted lard) and meat jello, which I'm pretty sure is called Haladeitz, both of which are Ukrainian national dishes, both of which I will not be having again. But I tried. And then I felt my heart curse under its breath. I was told today that everyone should eat a little bit of butter or salo a day because it keeps your energy level up. Of course, I don't think I believe that, but I DO believe that being here and eating only organic food had tremendously helped my stomach. It hasn't hurt since I've been here, which is seriously amazing and surprising (apparently the more unprocessed the food, the better for the tum-tum!

All in all it was a great day! It ended with Grandpa lecturing me on how I need to learn Russian so that he and I can communicate and that's why I have to go upstairs and study. So I went upstairs, but clearly am not studying. Good end to the day. At least I didn't end up like Rachel, who called me and goes, "I'm drunk with my family in a village that's not Chirnigiv, and don't really know what's going on". At least I was in Chirnigiv.

The family (left to right: Karen, Don, Me, Sergei, Galya, Nastya, Grandpa, Grandma, Megan) Karen, Don and Megan are all previous volunteers who stayed with Galya

The men drinking in the garden