MoldovAnn

I’m in Crimea this week, visiting partners and promoting EducationUSA. It’s warmer here than in Kyiv- won’t need the long johns that I packed, yeah! I’m in Sevastopol today, a navy port still home mostly to Russian sailors. I always find it strange in Crimea to be surrounded by Russian. Yes, I hear Russian on the streets in Kyiv more than Ukrainain, but all the signs are in Ukrainian there, whereas all the ads, street signs, and pretty much everything else is all in Russian in Crimea. In Sevastopol they even manage to get around the national law requiring all movies to be dubbed into Ukrainian, and instead show movies in Russian (”no one would go if they were in Ukrainian” was the response I got today when I asked about it).

Walking around the town this evening, obliviously speaking English with 2 colleagues, I realized we were being followed by a drunken man complaining extensively about us. He seemed to know exactly 2 English words - “America no!”. He bitched that we should be speaking Russian, to which I very much wanted to respond, in Ukrainian, that in fact we ought to be speaking Ukrainian! Oh my, how my wonderful husband has turned me into a Ukrainian nationalist! The drunk eventually seemed to get bored of failing to get a rise out of us, and went on his way. It made me sad, though, especially after a few weeks of being so proud and excited about America right now. I know I shouldn’t pay attention to the ramblings of an old drunk man, but still, it’s hard to not want to respond, or to try to talk him about why he feels as he does.

The hotel has BBC and CNN, and I thought it would be fun to indulge in English-language TV. Wow, if this is indicative of what is usually on, I sure ain’t missing much. Booorrrinnng! I can’t believe how long they just discussed the new Guns ‘n Roses album. Is there really nothing else going on in the world?