Haven't updated in more than a week. That's not to say that nothing's happened, but I usually can't be bothered to update during the week - I'm lazy like that. I'll look through my pics now and see whether there's anything worth showing you.

On Tuesday I watched a bit of Champions League footy, and did the same on Wednesday. I was a little closer this time, however.

I went to see Dynamo Kyiv draw 1-1 with Arsenal. The Arsenal fans were pretty much just Russian and Ukrainian fans, I doubt there were many English people in among them. They were certainly very quiet. Overall not the most amazing game, but for 200 UAH I kinda had to go as everybody in Kyiv seemed to be talking about it - most of my students were very interested when I said I had a ticket. Even the women.

Here's a statue of the guy the stadium's named after, Valeriy Lobanovsky. Was Dynamo's manager for years, plus managing both the USSR and Ukraine. Quite well liked, it seems.

Thursday passed off without much incident, due to the fact that it's been raining almost permanently since last weekend (except for the footy, mercifully) so I just went home earlier than normal. Friday, however, was a different story. After work, we headed to the nearby Domashnia Kuchnia (popular 'restaurant', more like a motorway services where you point to what you want then pay for the total - such places are numerous and popular here) and got a bite to eat. After they kicked us out earlier than anticipated, we headed upstairs to Pyvarium (big bar/pub place, with live music, expensive - but homemade - beer, and a generally nice atmos).

As me and [removed] were arguing about the difference between Bovril and Marmite, a Ukrainian gent at the table opposite asked, as we spoke English, if we were Americans. [removed]'s South African and I'm, er, not American, so we informed him so. We carried on talking to him and his group of friends (he was the only one halfway competent in English, the others were pretty low level, but could get their point across). When it was time for everyone to leave, they asked me if I wanted to go for 'disco'. I said I had no money but that didn't dissuade them.

So I left my fellow teachers to head to [removed]'s house while I jumped in a taxi with these guys, and went to Shooters, a large and very nice club which is open 24/7. Despite me not having any money, they still bought me quite a few drinks, plus the taxi home, so a good night was certainly had by all. I must say that I have nothing but good things to say about the people of Kyiv thus far: everybody I've met has been cheerful, friendly and very generous. I can't imagine a foreigner getting the same kind of welcome back in England.

I didn't crawl out of bed till very late on Saturday (I got home at 5.30am) but [removed]'s place was home to another party that day, namely [removed]'s birthday party. I felt a bit worse for wear after the cocktails, Red Bulls and absinth (I think...) so I went light on the drink. I didn't feel very sociable after Friday night, but there were plenty of people there and I had just a few drinks, not much, so I was sober virtually the whole night. And by the whole night... well, the few that remained finally left at 8am today... by which point the Metro had reopened (it closes between midnight-ish and 7.30am-ish) so I took a nice cheap ride home on that, almost falling asleep. I didn't wake up till 3pm, so work tomorrow is gonna be tricky.

Anyway, that's me up to date, here's some random pics.

Nice building in downtown Kyiv. I was walking about and decided to snap it.

Decisions, decisions... not the type of decision I'd make in the UK as we have no white eggs.

Maidan Nezalezhnosti. Just so you know. You can find better pics on the net, though.

Some guy, near the gate to Dynamo Stadium. Not sure who.

Some nice graffiti on the underpass next to Dorohozhychi Metro. For those that don't know, the words are from Master of Puppets by Metallica.

I have more pics, but that'll do you for now. Keep checking for anything interesting.