happy birthday to me!

It's my birthday. One year less than a quarter-century, which, when put that way, sounds rather old. My biggest disappointment so far today (at 7:30 am) is that the shower at the PC office, where I am for a meeting, doesn't work, so I don't get to give myself a hot shower as a birthday present. It's sad when I consider this a "present".

Wednesday was "Meet and Greet" in Kharkiv, where the oblast PCVs and Vasyl (our manager) went out to lunch at a Very Nice Restaurant that Peace Corps reimbursed us for. I had a salmon fillet and wild rice. Very good. Then we had a very quick meeting at a park for the "business" section of the day. Lots of people wished me happy early birthday, Greg gave me flowers (he'd originally given them to Julianne as a Women's Day gift, since she was the first girl he saw, but when he found out it was my birthday on Friday, he took them back from her and gave them to me!), and Mike and I are planning to meet up for breakfast on Saturday.

I spent Wednesday night at Kathryn's apartment in Kharkiv. Kathryn's an older PCV who works at a university in Kharkiv, and this was the first chance we've really had to hang out. We spent yesterday wandering around the center of Kharkiv, figuring out the schedules for the opera, philharmonic, and organ concerts and making plans to become cultured individuals. Then we went out to lunch at Adriano's, my favorite restaurant in Kharkiv, wandered around a bit more, and then Kathryn treated me to tea and cake at a coffee shop (yes, Jason, it's the one we went to). We then finished up Women's Day by shopping, and I found a very nice dark brown sweater with a cowl neck for 70 hryvias.

(It matches my scarf that Jason sent me for Valentine's Day very nicely. I also found boots I like that are on sale that go with it all, which I'm considering buying when I go back to Kharkiv on Saturday. This might turn into a pretty expensive V-Day gift. :) Just kidding.)

On the train, I shared a compartment with a guy who was half Ukrainian and half Greek. He had served in the Greek army and currently does manual labor in England, where he was headed. (I've known several young guys who do this--work in England for a year or two and earn more money with farm or factory jobs there than they can with white-collar jobs here.) We talked for about four hours about culture, the need to know languages, the strengths and weaknesses of Ukraine, and how travel makes us better-educated people. It was an awesome conversation.