Maladyetz!

It's a Russian word roughly equivalent, from what I can tell, to "great!" or "awesome!," and I think this is one we need to steal. Maybe I'm just a bit jealous after a few weeks of hearing Russians using "Syooper!"

Anyhow, I just got in from Sevestapol, which was quite the long ride. My cabin mates, Vasiliy, Sergei, and Xenya were very fun, meaning a night full of beer & fish (Russian for Coffee & Cigarettes?), rough translations, and thrice declining offers of vodka every ten minutes. My Russian is terrible, but I managed to put together some basic jokes and one-liners, which had their desired effect. I was proud enough. Anyhow, all of this means that I'm now running on fourty minutes' sleep, so it's a short update.

I got into Kyiv this morning, I got to see the mighty Kievan Rush. From metro station to metro station, door to door, I had about eight cubic centimeters of personal space. It's nice to backtrack, however, to be back in Kyiv and to know where I'm going. Sad to say, but I think I know some of these slavic cities better than I do Manhattan. I still can't cross under the Kyiv streets, though, since the entire downtown area is sitting atop a giant underground shopping center. It's like mid-town Manhattan squatting over the Westchester mall. Point being, every time I try to use these 30-foot-long underpasses, I stumble into this mall and come back up halfway across the city.

Now, I think I'm going to go grab lunch at McDonald's. Yes yes... I, too, once shuddered at the thought of American's eating McD's abroad, but time has reshaped my opinions on this matter. I always know what time these restaurants open, and that they won't close at random intervals for "obed" (lunch), and I always know what I'm going to get, how it will taste, and roughly how much it will cost. These things are a relative luxury. McD's, with it's tight management and quality branding, really has earned it's place at the top. It rubs off too. I've been eating at a bunch of Chinese, Russian, and Ukrainian fast food places, all with a similar business model, only offering NuRouMian or Varenenky, Borscht or Pilmeny. This is culture finding outlets through globalization. This is the vehicle by which those who feel homoginized, who feel they've imported too much, can stand up and share a bit of their own flavour with everyone else. This is McWorld.

And this is preaching, so this is me going for fries. More later.