This post is about Footba--- I mean, Soccer.

Hello, beautiful people! Sarah is here to tell you another story about life in Ukraine. First of all, I started a new class this week, and my new students are AWESOME! They are funny and smart and our discussions are fantastic. We laugh a lot, but not too much :) Yesterday some of my students came to an earlier class. "...Why are you in my early class?" I was pretty confused, but I found out that they were going to the soccer game and wanted more time to prepare. "I'm going toooooo!" I was so pumped, I felt like a REAL Ukrainian who liked the same things as other REAL Ukrainians, like soccer (which I keep calling football on accident, because all of my students call it football...) I went with a new friend, probably the coolest person I've met so far.


The game was actually pretty slow, no one made a goal in the first half, and it didn't look like anything exciting would happen in the second half either. But my friend and I had a great time people-watching, I bought a new scarf to show my support for Dinamo Kiev, and we sat right next to the "fun" section full of people cheering loudly, waving their scarves in the air, and banging on drums. It was awesome. I also heard a LOT of bad words in Russian and Ukrainian... which was fun, I have to admit :) lots more laughing. Then, when we were 3 and a half minutes into stoppage time, FINALLY Kiev scored a goal! It was GLORIOUS!

(Note the fireworks, as well as the scoreboard: Kiev 1, Besiktas 0)

The crowd was COMPLETELY nuts. The cheering went on even as we walked out of the stadium, across the street, to the metro, down the mile-long escalators, and on the train, even all the way to the last stop on the metro there were fans cheering at the top of their lungs and pounding on the sides of the subway car:

"Динамо КИЇВ! Динамо КИЇВ! Біло синій --- самий СИЛЬНИЙ!"

Totally awesome. And then my class was canceled this morning and I got to sleep in :) This is the life! Missing everyone at home, loving my time in Kiev, and looking forward to more adventures. This weekend: The Opera!

Sarah