March 1st marked the first day of spring in Ukraine. At least, that is what I was told by my colleagues and students. The first came and went and it was still snowing. It got above freezing a couple times, but every time a little snow melted, another few inches fell to replace it.
I expected a long, cold winter when I found out I would be going to Ukraine, but I was simply fed up with snow. I couldn’t stand the slush. I wanted to be able to wear something other than my winter boots. Mostly, I longed to go for walks and enjoy the beautiful park in my town.
So when spring break came and the weather was finally sunny and in the fifties, I was eager to enjoy my freedom. I pulled my lighter jacket out of the closet and found my sunglasses in my cabinet. Another volunteer was coming to visit for the break and I couldn’t have been happier.
We spent his first day here visiting a coffee shop and exploring some areas of my city that I had always been too cold to see before. We found a shop that sells peanut butter (I’ve been told it’s not the same here though) and another department store. We ate ice cream on the street and enjoyed laughing and talking together in the warm weather. It was pretty perfect.
The next day was even warmer. Rob, the other volunteer, was caught off guard and didn’t have any warm weather clothes with him. I lent him an old orange shirt that I had from my days at Syracuse and we headed out again with the mission of finding him a pair of sunglasses.
I’m not sure exactly what happened next, but we were apparently breaking some sort of a cultural rule. It may have been the bright color of the shirt or the fact that it had a furry orange on it (SU’s mascot Otto). Perhaps it was simply that he was wearing a short sleeve shirt on a day when it was probably barely 60 degrees out. Either way, every person we passed gave us the dirtiest looks. At first we laughed at how strange it must look to them to see someone wearing a t-shirt in this weather. Ukrainian people are always very concerned about keeping warm, lest you catch a cold and fall ill.
After a few minutes, it was beginning to get annoying. Rob simply smiled at the people who gave him dirty looks and we laughed about some of the dirtiest after they walked by. The worst of it came when we entered a store to look for sunglasses. The woman working there actually went to the shop next to hers to talk to her friend about the man who was wearing a t-shirt. We found a pair of sunglasses and headed home to relax and laugh about what had just happened.
Some days it is a lot harder to fit in than others. You never know what small thing you do all the time in the states will seem absolutely absurd here. I try my hardest to fit in, but I have to accept that I’m going to be a “crazy American” sometimes no matter how hard I try. The next day I wore a sweater with shorter sleeves. I got a few strange looks, but being able to feel the sun on my skin for the first time in months more than made up for it.
Sam
August 14, 2010
It’s because the shirt was orange and Ukraine had the orange revolution.
kriswasik
August 14, 2010
I thought of that, but people here in Ukraine wear orange all the time…