Stollen and a Metro Ride

For my birthday, I made German food. I first wanted to make some German bread and went with Stollen, the bread made famous from Dresden. It took many hours, letting it rise three times, and I think I didn't let it rise enough. It was OK warm but otherwise....well, here it is fresh out of the over. And here's Polina asleep on the metro after church on Sunday. Ira, Lena's sister, and she came for the birthday party.

It's possibly difficult for Americans to fully comprehend the importance of birthdays in Ukraine. They are celebrated with zest, gusto. Birthdays that mark milestones, ones that end in 0 or 5, are particularly significant. Since this was my 35th, it received an enthusiastic response. On my 30th party, I had a huge party and actually invited the whole church. I realized back then how important birthdays are and that it would be better to join in the celebration rather than try to be "humble" and not want any attention. You would get the attention whether or not you wanted, and culturally, it's more appropriate to celebrate and cook for people rather try to ignore it or minimize it as the American tendency might be. I know one American who was here 5 years ago really criticized me for that party. But that guy just didn't really understand how important birthdays are in Ukraine. So, even though much of me didn't really want to celebrate or even acknowledge that I had a birthday, the Ukrainian in me won out and we had a great feast.

On my actual birthday, I was blessed to receive many birthday greetings. Even the cards my mom sent arrived exactly on the 9th. The phone seemed to ring all day. I received several e-cards and email greetings from all over Ukraine. Sergiy called from Malibu, and Oksana and Lena called from France. At the birthday party on Saturday, I received video greetings from Anton and Vitya in Hungary and a video greeting from Oksana and Lena. It was very nice.

Friday night after Movie Night, several came to help cook and stayed till midnight. Lena and her mom were also slaving away for many hours chopping and cutting and dicing and slicing. Lena's mom made a cake. I had for a long time wanted real German food. My favorite German restaurant in Kyiv closed a long time and it seems like it's been years since I had some Deautsch cuisine. So I did some research and started to work on it. I was able to find real German bratwurst in Kyiv. I also made Sauerbrauten which took several days to marinade and many hours to cook. I don't think I will ever forget the vinegar from that thing. German potato salad and two kinds of cooked cabbage along with pork, rice, and apples. Well, it was a great feast, and I enjoyed it very much. I missed all those who have left, though.

There were presentations of gifts, and thanks to my wife's inquiry I received two gifts I wanted: first season of Lost (it's now available here) and a book of aerial photography of Kyiv. Four older ladies from church made a special presentation. Natalya wrote a poem in Russian and English, read it, and then they presented me with roses and a cake with a picture of me from my 30th birthday. The picture was made of sugar and actually could be eaten. I was impressed.

And we also enjoyed wassail. Forgot about that. Lena's family gave me an incredible gift. A hand-carved nativity scene. It's quite impressive. The pictures I have aren't that great so I will have to work on that later.

It's Monday and it's time to get to work I guess. Lena is suffering in one of her MBA classes. Harding's MBA program seems to have no consistency in how much is expected of students. One class can be just fine and then another is so incredible difficult and may take two or three times more work than any other class. I can understand some difference but this program seems to go to extremes.