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Published: October 26th 2006
Kolya
I took the picture when he didn't expect it and I ran out of memory on my camera right after taking it. So this is the only picture I have of him :(My host family introduced me to Kolya, a law student who is 21 years old and lives in the same appartment complex. He has known my host family his whole life and is like a son to them. He's tall, with a good build, is realy cute, has brown hair, and very slavic features. He has a great personality too-he's really outgoing and loves to joke around but can be serious too. Since he studied English for two years he can speak English fairly well. About as well as I speak Russian.
Yesterday he asked me if I wanted to come with him for a tour of Kiev at night. We left at 5pm and came back at 10pm. The city is absolutely gorgeous at night. We walked around the oldest part of Kiev, which has cobblestone streets and many old churches. All the churches were lit up so we could still see them very well. We hiked to the highest part of Kiev and looked down at the city. It was gorgeous with all the lights lighting up the Dniper river down below.
I really enjoyed being with Kolya too. He was really respectful, holding my hand the whole time
but not trying to go too far on a first date. I was sort of worried when he asked me out that he might be expecting way more than I wanted to give. I know a lot of the guys in my group go to clubs and often have sleep with Russian girls they just met that night.
We went to Mcdonalds for dinner. Which to Americans might sound like a lousy place to go for a date but Russians usually can't afford to eat out and certainly can't afford to eat at restaurants like we go to in the states. In America I hated Mcdonalds but once I came to Russia I loved it because it reminds me of home.
Kolya refused to let me pay for anything, saying that in Ukraine the man pays for everything.
We talked about a lot of things, what we want to do in the future, life in America vs Ukraine, differences between Ukraine and Russia, ect. Most of the time he spoke to me in English and I spoke to him in Russian. We found that we could understand each other the best this way. Because when we spoke in our native
tounges the other wouldn't understand everything.
We came back at 10 pm and Tatyana had dinner waiting for us. She brought out all sorts of great food. Little Igor I think ate a few to many konyak chocolates and was giggling the whole time. When Kolya left Tatyana teased me saying, "Jana's fallen in love! Now she's going to write home to America and say she's marrying Kolya!" Igor giggled quite a bit at that.
It's sad that I'm going back to Moscow on Sataurday. The Ukrainian family is so wonderful. Though they don't have much money, you can tell that they all love each other very much and have a very happy home. I'm going to miss Kolya too. Kolya says I should try to come back sometime and stay in Ukraine longer. It's too bad Moscow is so far away, I really like Kolya. He asked me out again for Friday so I'll be able to spend some more time with him before I leave.
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Keith Kaniut
non-member comment
Time for Large Intimidating Brother to show up...?
Your folks gave me your blog address last weekend when we visited and heard all about their trip to see you. What an adventure. Sounds like you're "getting your money's worth" and meeting nice people. Glad to hear that things are going well. Mr. Kaniut