Don't Be Born Beautiful

Six weeks from today! Wow...

Today I went on a DVD-finding mission to Petrivka, the biggest book/CD/DVD bazaar in Kyiv in order to find Ne Rodis Krasivoy. For those people who aren't aware of my mild obsession with the show, it's the Russian version of Betty La Fea, an Argentinian soap opera which the current US show Ugly Betty was based on. I watched it every night for six months, both when I lived with Marina and later on when I had my own TV. It was how I practiced both my Ukrainian and my Russian, since there were Ukrainian subtitles. And I just really liked Katya, the main character, who had brains but not beauty (although, of course, she had a makeover before the end...).

So anyhow, I decided to get the DVDs. A word of advice to Ukraine PCVs--if you find a show you like and you want to find the unlicensed DVDs (cheaper and also devoid of region settings), don't wait a year until after it goes off the air! I ended up finding episodes 101-200 (out of 200 total) for 50 hyrven, but wasn't able to get the first half, which are the episodes I haven't seen yet. One guy offered to sell me episodes 17-48 for 30 hryven, but that just seemed like it would complicate matters later on. One woman offered to sell me the entire series (after I had already bought 101-200) for 270 hyrven, but I would have had to come back and get them on a different day. So I think I'll either try Ebay or buy the licensed versions at Target in Kharkiv if my budget will allow it and hope that I can find a program for my laptop that lets me ignore region settings.

Off to Zgurivka tonight to visit the Malkos one last time!