International Night on the Town
Activities
By Jared Stewart, Iowa State University

 We all have our favorite parts about the city of L’viv; Lynn’s is the bazaar, Brad and Randy’s is the Vienna Café, Kirk’s is the air hockey table in a local bar, and mine happens to be the San Remo Nightclub.  Now don’t completely get the wrong idea. San Remo serves a variety of popular drinks and local brews but the atmosphere and diversity are as equally inviting. 

   We have found the two best nights to go are Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Tuesday is “Arabian Night”, which features reduced cover charge for students from Arabian countries.  My favorite night is Thursday.  Not only do we get in free with an international student ID but it is also the most popular place in L’viv to find other English-speaking people.

   The majority of the people on Thursday nights can speak some English.  We have made some interesting friends there too.  Lynn has friends from Morocco and I have made friends with several Nigerians that lived in Chicago before coming to L’viv. 

   Although we aren’t the only Americans in L’viv, our presence in the club has been noticed.  A couple of weeks ago I was in the grocery store and one of the workers from the produce section came up and started talking to me.  It caught me a bit off guard until he explained that he recognized my white Iowa State hat. 

   The international diversity at San Remo makes it a must when it comes to the L’viv nightlife.  Not to mention, who can resist the attached pizzeria after a long night of dancing?  Not this guy!

Our most famous disco San Remo

   It’s raining! It’s pouring! The old man is snoring!  Well, spring is finally upon us and it is starting with a good old rainstorm.  The first few weeks of spring were one big mess.  We have been extra careful in where we step as to try to avoid all the big puddles and mud holes.  The tricky part about this spring weather is trying to figure out when it’s going to rain. When it rains, the mornings are usually sunny and nice. When it doesn’t rain, however, the mornings are dreary and cloudy.  Often we find ourselves walking around when suddenly we are hit by pouring rain. That’s when we start to scatter for cover.  We can only hope that it will never hail or we might be in big trouble!  But we are finally in April, the month known for its rainfall. So it is no surprise that it is so wet.  The flowers are starting to show a nice development of buds making spring look very promising.  I can only hope that the April showers have brought beautiful May flowers for our departure and a few good photos. 

   I was asked to mention an interesting event that also happened when the weather was beginning to get warmer. We realized that everyone and everything seems to want to go for a stroll.  The reason this is interesting is because one of the first days the snow was gone our fellow student Randy witnessed a big old boar strolling right along the walkway.  Randy, being somewhat of a swine expert, decided to try to catch the boar in what turned out to be quite an unsuccessful attempt! Unfortunately I missed this crazy event… but I can imagine it was quite amusing.   

Run away PIG on LSAU campus

    All around campus most of the Ukrainians know that we are the Americans studying here.  This is for three reasons:  one-we apparently look and dress like Americans and two we are consistently speaking English or a very accented Ukrainian, and finally is that this is like any small town where everyone knows what everyone else is doing.  With the recent nice weather we have seen a lot more of the Ukrainians out and about and not as in a hurry to get out of the cold.  We have been here for a few months now and I find that most of us know very few Ukrainians out of our study group.  This may be because our Ukrainian isn’t quite good enough to maintain a long conversation.  This leaves us to search out the Ukrainians who also know some English! 

   With a turn of good fortune the students who speak English came to us.  Well actually it was more like most of the English department.  Anyway, a few of us Americans started to visit a class or two in English.  The teachers were very excited to see us.  When we first arrived everyone went around giving introductions in English, although I kind of wanted to try my Ukrainian and snuck a few words in.  At first many of the Ukrainians were very shy about testing out their English with native speakers, especially in front of their teachers. We managed to coerce them by asking a few questions in Ukrainian.  This was a great way to start conversations on a more personal level and soon we were hit with all kinds of questions. The funny thing was the Ukrainians practically split into girls and guys. It just so happened that the guys ended up talking with Jared and Randy and the girls with me.  All that attention was a definite boost with some of the Ukrainians wanting to go out later. 

   A few weeks later we heard back from the English department again and were invited to a show about the great Taras Shevchenko.  They first introduced him by giving a biography of his life and accomplishments.  They wore traditional Ukrainian garments and cooked and prepared multiple Ukrainian dishes which were at first props and quickly became lunch!  The main attraction was a performance of Nazar Stodolya one of Taras Shevchenko’s plays.  What was really impressive about the performance was that they had only practiced for two days prior.  Although the performance was in Ukrainian, one of the master students helped me translate the hard parts.  Overall, we have been able to extend our group of friends which helps us feel more at home.

Wonderful performance for Taras Shevchenko

Weekend Excursions
Culture
By Brad Servais, University of Minnesota

   During our stay here in Ukraine we have all had the opportunity to venture on our own or with the Ukrainian students. On the weekends we have traveled to different cities within Ukraine and two of us have also traveled to Krakow, Poland. Within Ukraine some of us have visited Kiev, and all of us have visited the small city of Striy. Striy is home to two of the Ukrainian students in our program, Volodya and Yaroslav. Volodya and Yaroslav have invited us into their homes to help us get a real taste of life in Ukraine.

   Through our different trips we have all had new and rewarding experiences, from seeing historical landmarks to just living in a Ukrainian home for the weekend. Jared, Volodya, and myself all took a trip to Kiev. While we were there we saw some of the major sites from Percherska Lavra, the Monastery of the Caves, to Babyn Yar, a monument that remembers the site of German atrocities to the Jews and other citizens of Kiev during WWII. In addition to sightseeing Jared and I also treated Volodya to his first real American dinner at TGI Friday.

   In Striy we all enjoyed our time visiting the homes of Volodya and Yaroslav. We were treated to traditional Ukrainian meals and hospitality during our visits into their homes. Some of us were treated to other things. For instance, Lynn enjoyed having her hair braided by Yaroslav’s mother and sister. Jared, Kirk, Lynn and Randy were also treated to a free dinner at a café, which is owned by Yaroslav’s father. On one of Jared’s visits to Striy, he was lucky enough to take a trip into the Carpathian Mountains with Yaroslav and his father to a mountain resort where they ate a great shashlek dinner. We still have to listen to Jared talk about that meal to this day! We also had a great time in Striy going out with Volodya and his friends.

   Kirk and I have each had the chance to venture out of Ukraine to Krakow, Poland. I have to say that we both had great experiences while in Krakow. We enjoyed both the leisure and sightseeing aspects of our trips there. I was lucky enough to visit Auschwitz during my time in Krakow, and it was a truly somber but educational experience. Kirk enjoyed his time in Krakow visiting Wawel Castle and enjoying the wide range of cuisine offered in Krakow.

   All in all, we have enjoyed our excursions away from campus. We plan to travel more in our last month here.

Visiting Striy with our Ukrainian friend-Yarek

By Brad Servais, University of Minnesota

   We’ve been invited to parties here in Ukraine enough times to know roughly what to expect. This time though we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when we were invited to attend a party thrown by the English department. When we arrived we found out that the party was being thrown for us. What a shocker! We were underdressed and unprepared for what was to come…a whole lot of fun. The party was kicked off with a contest to determine who would be the Prince and Princess of Spring. Three guys and three girls were chosen, including Jared and Kirk.

   During the contest there were funny challenges, such as professing your love to a cow, as Jared had to do. Kirk on the other hand had to profess his love to the president. The girls had to express their thoughts of love by using their artistic talents. The judges consisted of the English department and our own Dr. Roberts. In addition to this they also competed in a dance off that was worthy of Saturday Night Fever (look out John Travolta!) There was also a drama performance, poetry, and singing of Ukrainian songs.

   In the end, Jared proved himself worthy of the title Prince of Spring. We were so proud of him. Kirk was a sport as he danced his heart out. In fact, he danced so hard he almost sent his partner to the hospital after a collision on the dance floor. He ended his night being awarded the title of Dreamer. Although we walked into the unknown…the night turned out to be a great memory and something Kirk and Jared get to brag about to friends back home.

Here's Jared a.k.a. 'Prince of Spring' with his Ukrainian buddies

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