So, I did it. Karil gave me a crew cut this weekend, and all the curls are gone. I shaved as well, so no more goatee. My host mother and several female coworkers lament the loss, although I had no idea they liked my hair. After all, most Ukrainian men my age, including both my host brothers, have crew cuts. At a “scrabble party” on Saturday, hosted by a volunteer for the advanced speakers at her Library club, a girl named Diana told me no less than three times how much like a Ukrainian I looked. In fact, she hadn’t known I was American until I opened my mouth.
Ironically, when we got to talking about types, she said she prefers guys with long hair and facial hair. I told her she missed me by 24 hours. Still, she did agree to come out to a dance club with myself, Steve and Amy. It’s kind of funny that being in Peace Corps, the “toughest job you’ll ever love,” I still go to dance clubs every weekend.
At the midnight show at the club they didn’t have female strippers, but a male one that stripped three separate times in between dance and acrobatic numbers. The last time he came out, he stripped to “Shokolad Zaichick,” a popular song. Except shokolad zaichick is Russian for “chocolate rabbit”, which also happens to be what a lot of Ukrainians call blacks. As the stripper was black and as he was wearing a bunny suit, that was the joke. He stripped down to the bunny ears and a g-string adorned with a plastic carrot on the front. Steve and I felt cheated that there were no female strippers, but it seemed like the club had taken an earlier comment I’d made to heart: “why the female strippers at a dance club? The guys aren’t the ones you need to get in the mood.”
Diana and I spent most of the night talking and dancing. She’s 21 years old, fluent in English, studying to be a teacher, an award-winning artist, so beautiful I couldn’t stop looking at her, and the only Ukrainian I’m aware of that likes Portishead and Massive Attack. She gave me her number and we’re supposed to play billiards tomorrow. This is not a guaruntee, though, because apparently Ukranian women are notorious for accepting dates and then not showing up.
So we’ll see.