We just got back from a lovely evening with Maksim’s mother Janna and a family friend Victor. We met them at the Metro on Kreschatyk Street, next to McDonald’s (an apparent landmark) and they spirited us away to a restaurant a half hour outside Kiev. Victor in fact designed the interior, an imaginative take-off on the Ukrainian countryside with lakes and forests hanging from the ceiling.
The company was wonderful though after all this time of learning Ukrainian, Janna is more comfortable speaking Russian so we all spoke through Svieta, our faithful and tireless interpretor. (I did start off in Ukrainian and I think scared Janna off when I proudly announced we were hoping to adopt two children, a boy 4 years old and a girl — 20!) Janna kept toasting us and made us promise we will visit her home when we return so she can cook for us and so we can meet her 9 year old son Andrey, who has been waiting to see us.
The surprise of the evening was that in between the meat stew and the cherry vareneky, there was, under the traditional Ukrainian forest motif, a strip show! The stripper (who went from Little Red Riding Hood to Sheherazad) lavished Victor and Michael with a little extra attention as Svieta, our translator, looked like she was about to duck under the table.
All in all, it was a very special experience. We feel really lucky to have real friends here (Victor wants to introduce us to a famous Ukrainian avant garde artist) and now we’re ready to go pack. Tomorrow morning we leave on an 8:30 bus for Radamoschle where the real adventure will begin. Our evening with Janna and Victor was a wonderful Ukrainian send-off.