Post # 8: Odessa with Borat

It has been a very interesting 3 days here in Odessa...the first 2 days in the hotel, and the last 24 hours at my new roommates' apartment. Life here has been very challenging to say the least, but it's all part of the experience and I'm doing the best I can with it. My jew-fro was acting up a bit so it was time for a haircut. Only one issue, they have 2 hairstyles here: Ukrainian army short, and something that I can only describe as shorter than Ukranian army short. There was no shot I could have explained to "take a little off here and there" so I did what any self-respecting new york princess would do....bought a pair of scissors on the street for $0.60 cents and trimmed my own hair in the hotel bathroom. It was either that, or ending up looking like my new friend Slavo who is pictured below. Oh, here are videos of my new diggs:






As far as happenings...hmmm, the futbol match I watched was probably one of the best matches I have seen. Here's a photo of my new friend Slavo who I met at the sports bar while watching the game. Turns out he was once one of Ukraine's seamen (giggle) who has been to the states several times. He loves Baltimore and Houston (probably because that's all he's seen) and can't wait to get back to there. Problem is, he's no longer a seaman (giggle), so getting back to the U S and A will be werry werry difficult. It was all I could do not to giggle when he told me he was a seaman (giggle) and I can't help myself every time I hear that word.
My new roomie and I went out last night, first to a Ukrainian restaurant, then to a lounge, then to another lounge. For dinner, I ordered the veal stew, which was absolutely delicious...if it weren't for the fact that it had more garlic per kilogram than any dish in the world, it would have been perfect.
The lounge scene was really quite interesting. Most of the people sadly do not speak English, and if they do, it's more of "Hi, my name Natasha, I secretary". The more educated Ukranians realize that in order to have the better opportunities, learning other languages is crucial. I have met several Ukranians that fall into this category, including Eugene pictured here in the Height Ashbury sweatshirt. He speaks perfect English, just LOVES san francisco and will make it to NYC in October where he will be my guest. He's a smart tech guy who creates a sort of anti-spam software...i believe it's for a company that may be a subsidiary of Cisco but who knows. He's smart, funny and just loves wwodka, Wayne's World, and especially Borat. He must have called me fellow 17 times (clearly meaning buddy or pal).."hey fellow, more Wodka?"..."hey fellow, when I come to the U S and A, we will have excellent time". Funny stuff.
So, the rest of the night last night and during the day today we strolled through the busier streets of Odessa. To give you an idea of what the style is like, take a look at what's hot on the streets of Odessa this season....(photos taken off the internet and not by me):



It's now Friday night and I expect to go to a nicer restaurant/lounge type place and really get to see how Odessians spend their weekends. I hope to post more over the next few days, and I also hope to get out of here and on to the next destination...just not sure where that is yet.