It's Official

Our last day in Ukraine will be May 1. It’s hard to believe that our two-plus years is almost over. Here are some Ukrainian "cultural moments" we've grown to appreciate.

Fireworks - Most weekends, and sometimes during the week, we can hear and view fireworks from our ninth-floor apartment window. It’s a tradition to set them off to celebrate weddings, which typically occur on Fridays and Saturdays, and for birthdays, which can be any night. They’re now a part of everyday life that we enjoy and will miss.

Beets - We have a newfound appreciation for beets. Their stunning color, healthful contents, and ubiquity here have made us fond of them. Ukrainians like to make a beet salad dressed with lots of mayonnaise. We like them grated fresh with a simple vinaigrette, or in our version of Ukrainian borsch, which most Ukrainians think doesn’t measure up, but we like it.

Root Vegetables in Soil - Whether purchased at modern grocery stores, at the central market, or from a cute little babushka on a street corner, vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, and beets are sold with lots of the soil they grew in still attached. It's also not unusual to have little feathers or other nest remnants attached to eggs.

Escorting Your Guests - At the end of an evening, Ukrainian hosts have a lovely tradition of walking their dinner guests, not just to the door, but to the street, at least, if not to the bus stop, which can be several blocks away. Since most Ukrainians that we’ve gotten to know live in high-rise apartment buildings, as hosts at the end of an evening they always walk with us down to the front door of the building. We have been walked several blocks to our bus stop home. Once we were escorted all the way home in the dark by one nice family (parents and 12-year-old son), a distance of a dozen long blocks or more that took probably 30 minutes. It took us a while to catch on. Our first dinner guests (probably offended) were bid farewell at our front door. Eventually we’ve figured it out, and enjoy the leisurely stroll at the end of a visit.