I’m doing my best to

I’m doing my best to keep things normal here, but I have to admit that the wind is going out of my sails. These past two days with no work (I can’t get in to the Mission) have left me too much time to think and loose the focus that kept me steady. VH1 on the satellite TV has preempted all their programming today for a day of rememberance and are playing every heart-wrenching song they can drag up. CNN is reading letters that schoolchildren have written to the policemen and firefighters in NYC. That’s almost too much to bear.

Yesterday I joined another expat for a few hours and we went to Hydropark, the Coney Island of Kiev. Its a pretty neat place. The beaches they have put anything I’ve seen to shame. They guy I was with used to go to the Jersey Shore all the time and he says that compared to this place Jersey is a joke. It costs all of 15 cents (the price of metro fare) to get in. A good bottle of beer costs 50 cents. Hard to go wrong.

I visited the apartment of this guy later in the evening. His wife and daughter are there, as are three Ukrainian sisters from the far west of the country who are studying at the University a block away. They’re professional musicians, playing a Ukrainian instrument called the Bandura. Imaging a cross between a harp and a bass that is shaped something like an oversized tennis racket and you’ll be close. 63 strings on this instrument and it is played with both hands by picking the strings. These gals play and sing — the harmony was so tight. They also sing a capella. Aside from traditional Ukrainian and Russing songs, the family they are staying with has helped them learn some American spirituals and hymns. They don’t speak much English and are largly singing phonetically. Well, last week, after the attack, they took it upon themselves to learn America the Beautiful and they sang it last night for me. There was never a more beautiful rendition. Amazing.