My new favorite holiday

My internet is working really well at the moment (a kind of unusual occurrence), so I thought I would take an opportunity to re-update my blog. I really like blogging and wish I had more time and better internet to do it, but unfortunately I don't. So, I will just try and post as often as I can.

Last Tuesday, March 8th, was International Women's Day. International Women's Day or Women's Day as its often referred to, is celebrated around the world, but most especially in Eastern-bloc countries. My old host mom in Slovakia, Melania told me that Women's Day is a big deal, because Valentine's Day was thought of as a capitalistic holiday. Today both holidays are celebrated in Eastern Europe but, Women's Day is by far the bigger deal. Women get flowers and presents and the day is a national holiday, now do you see why I like it so much?

My Women's Day celebration started the Friday before, classes finished at noon and all of the teachers went to the auditorium for a performance in our honor. (All but 3 teachers at my school are female). After the concert which included songs, dancing, and a power point presentation on all of the ways that women are great, the biology teacher, Anton Anatoliovich came out with a beautiful cake for all of us. We all went back to the breakroom and had cake, sandwiches, wine, tea, and coffee.

Then my counterpart Sveta suggested we all go to the city and go to a cafe. So a group of about 10 of us went.I had a calzone and a very good greek salad. While we talked and ate, everyone went around the table and gave a toast. Toasts are very common at Ukrainian celebrations and holidays, and even I gave one in Russian/English. After a few hours at the cafe, a group of three of us went bowling. And for the first time in my life, I actually won a couple of games. It was a great day and to top it off I had a four day weekend.

 

The faculty or collectiveas we are called at a cafe in Melitopol.

On the actual holiday, I went to the city with some Ukrainian friends and a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer. we walked through the park and went to a cafe. Later at home, I celebrated with my new host mom, Klaudia Gregorivna along with her daughter and her family. All in all, its a fantastic holiday, but unfortunately because of it, we had school on Saturday to make up for our day off. Sometime you just can have everything.