Mad

It never seems to fail. Today I knew the water would be off because every spring they "clean" the pipes with chlorine. When it comes back on tonight or tomorrow, it will be undrinkable for several hours. A good time to bleach the whites.

I went out for a walk today and enjoyed seeing all of the tulips, daffodils and other spring flowers. The forsythia bushes are still bright yellow and the fruit trees are all in bloom right now as well. This is my favorite time of year in Ukraine. I was in a pretty good mood.

As I came back, closer to our entrance, I realized an old woman was sitting on one of the benches, enjoying the spring weather. She was all bundled up in heavy coat and scarf tied tightly under her chin. I, on the other hand, had taken off my light sweater and had tied it around my waist - it is in the mid-60's today. I thought the woman was Nina at first, our neighbor above us. But as I turned off the road and saw her face I realized that I didn't know who she was.

Zdrasvootye - I said. Hello. And she responded: why don't you speak Ukrainian?

Huh? What? Did I understand that right? I asked her: Shto? What? And she repeated. I told her I was a foreigner and she said yes, she knew and pointed with her chin up to our balcony and said that was where I lived. Why didn't I speak Ukranian? I told her I was learning Russian because all of our friends here speak Russian (it's true! Ukrainian is all their second language.) She started to lecture me (in Russian) on why I should learn Ukrainian and not Russian. I smiled at her, turned my back on her and went inside. A simple hello in return would have been nice .....

Grrrrrrr. I have a hard enough time learning Russian. Everything here is a mix of Russian and Ukrainian. Half the billboards are in Russian, half are in Ukrainian. I hear both languages on the television and radio. I hear both languages on the street. And I hear a mixture of the two called Surzhik that is really confusing for me. I wonder why I have such a hard time learning Russian? Because no one speaks either language all the time!!!!!

And to think this is what some people in the United States want - a mixture of Spanish and English. Confusion right and left. Maybe it should be French and English in this part of the States, Spanish and English in that part, and oh, over there in the northwestern part of Washington State it had better be Russian and English, while in parts of Alaska and the west coast it had better be Chinese and Japanese and English. And lets not forget the Native American languages, and the German and Polish in large areas (German was Mel's mother's mother tongue and she was born in the United States, the youngest of 5 children who were all born in the US).

Actually - I think it would be better if the whole world would just capitulate and speak ENGLISH.

It would make my life so much easier.

She could have at least said hello - I AM trying to learn the language. I could have ignored her. I did not need a lecture from someone I don't know and who doesn't know me from Adam today. I was in a good mood today!...... Grrrrrrrr.