This weekend was an interesting one. We had a training on volunteerism last week in Kiev and afterwards Rachel and our friend Val came to Berdychiv to hang out for the weekend. Of course you all know what that means. . . the usual madness of getting drunk in my little house and making fajitas (like, real fajitas, with McCormicks mix- something we don’t have over here and get very excited when someone gives us some). Yesterday we went to Zytomir (which is 45 minutes from my house) to meet up with some of Val’s friends because they all wanted to meet Rachel and I. So, we knew going into the day that we would be drinking. . . a lot. Val might have mentioned that the 3 boys were anti-American and pro USSR, but I kinda took that with a grain of salt. 4 liters of vodka (between 8 of us) and 5 hours later, I found myself standing on this guy Denis’ balcony, having an intense conversation about the USSR. So, let me educate you on what I learned:
-USSR was the best region in the world
-Communism as a theory is great, but in practice never works. Instead, the USSR should’ve been following the Nordic states and practicing Socialism instead
-The history of not only Russian rockets in space, but American rockets too (that’s right. I had no clue)
-The French-Russo relationship of the 18 and 19th centuries were extremely influencial when discussing Russian politics and culture.
-Nameless Russian authors and musicians that I have to read and listen to, including Boris something, who was the rock and roll revolutionary of Russia in the 1970’s
-The newer Star Wars movies are the best because they focus on “creating an empire” and less on the “love story” crap.
And last but not least, the best lesson I’ve learned is that there guys were very, VERY well educated, and enjoyed having conversations about history and science. And the fact that after 4 liters we could still carry on said conversations. I’m not sure that’s a good thing because I’m learning the language, or a bad thing because that means my liver is going to fail at some point.
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