Sean, wondering why he brought us here
What is there to do in Chgooyev? Well, um, go jogging apparently. Sean is an avid jogger and Mike used to do cross country, so that's why I found myself trailing behind them as we ran four miles through the streets of Chguyev and then out into the woods surrounding it.
Whenever you are in a new town in Ukraine, you have to go find the Lenin statue. I love that in front of this Lenin was a train with an American flag painted on it.
The three of us in front of Lenin. Doesn't this picture look photoshopped?
Fisherman we jogged past. Notice that he is manning three poles
Sean and Mike, posing on their jogs
After you run, what is there to do but eat? Sean's host-grandmother packed us full of fantastic food.
Sean with his host grandmother
I don't know what this is called, but it was delicious
And then what do you do when your legs are sore from jogging and your stomach full from eating? Go to a club, of course! Which is how we celebrated Independence Day, dancing at a club. I even drank a little, discovering a tasty, orange alcoholic drink called Lonher. Then I discovered that it's supposed to be for girls. Still, I did get buzzed off it.
A strange thing happened at the club. We went with two of Sean's Ukranian friends, who happen to be female and taken. But then five more girls sat with us, making it seven girls and three guys. Anyone looking at us would have though we were lucky bastards, but the gods laughed and decided that none of the girls would actually want to dance with us.
Sean with his friends
Our table full of strange women
I still had a lot of fun dancing on the floor, but was slightly bummed that I could strike out with such favor-stacked odds. That was until a petite little blonde came up who could move. We raver style tore up the floor for a couple songs, people around stopping to watch and it perked my mood up drastically. She thanked me and left, and I saw her talking to a guy outside later on. I don't know what her story was, but I was happy just to have danced with someone who really knew what they were doing.
And what do you do when it's 2:00 AM and you've just been jogging and eating and dancing and still have a buzz on? You call home, of course! Sean wanted to call a friend back in America to wish him happy birthday, so we went to a 24 hour call center (Ukrainians without phones or without long distance use them). Sean paid to call America and I plopped down some cash, too, having not spoken to anyone in America since I came back in May. It was 8:00 PM in Florida, but my mom wasn't home. I left her a message on the machine and got a hold of my grandparents, speaking to them for a few minutes before I ran out of money.
What is there to do in the tiny town of Chgooyev? Quite a lot, apparently.