A Happy Ukrainian Halloween to you, too

Above, top to bottom: Some newly-made friends have a smoke during the halloween house party; some new friends, clockwise from top: Yazid, an Algerian who lives in Lille, France and is teaching French in Lviv, Sophia, an Australian who's attending high school in Lviv, Gabo, an Ecuadorian attending the Polytechnic University for engineering for the next four years, Bozena from Toronto, a fellow english teacher, and Mark from Toronto, who taught english at UCU last year; the house party is hopping at midnight, but I'm too old for that kind of stuff and I went home by 1 am; from left: Robert from Michigan who teaches at Benedictine University and is on Fullbright at UCU, Irene who spent 8 years teaching in Ghana, Tanzania and several other African countries, Russia, England and now Ukraine, and Brett who I live with. 

If you have a peculiar holiday that requires everyone you know to dress up in a ghoulish costume, parade around town like a drunken idiot in the middle of the night, collect candy and eventually pass out, how do you explain that to someone who's never done it? I spent 15 minutes explaining the concept of 'hay rides' to a student I tutor, and she could not, just could not, get over the idea of the horse not living in my neighborhood.

"So, dee horse lives in the neighborhood?"

"no, he's trucked in."

"Trucked in? You eat him?"

"No no! They put the horse in a trailer and the bring him to the neighborhood, and he pulls the cart around."

"Why does not the horse walk to you?"

"Because it's too far."

"The horse does not live with you?

I eventually had to accept that this holiday was completely foreign to Ukrainians, and to anyone outside the US. In fact, we don't even know why we celebrate it(halloween is actually religious- All Saints' Day is the following day, and dressing up was a way of 'scaring' the 'evil spirits' present to prepare for the saints) and so Ukrainians are pretty confused. That doesn't stop them from making complete fools out of themselves, though. 

I was bemused by two clowns that walked into the city center, posed in front of a fountain, and took turns taking pictures of each other. Costumes aren't plentiful in Ukraine, and neither is money, so cheap, poorly made getups provided great entertainment. 

I spent the first part of the evening out with two Americans, Irene and Rob, and my roommate Brett. We had a great time, and it was wonderful to talk to other Americans. You really don't appreciate your own country, or the people that come from it, until you leave.

I was invited to a house party later that night by one of my english teacher colleagues, Bozena from Toronto. She has wonderful friends who were great fun, and I look forward to hanging out with them again.