what a great first weekend. friday night i went out and got acquainted with my roomie, claire, and the PMF, dmitry. i dragged them to one of my favorite bars in kyiv, baraban (group 25-ers know it well). it's a signless bar down a dark alley...but has great atmosphere and an "in-the-know" crowd. so that was a fun night, just talking and hanging out.

yesterday (saturday), our friend matt got into town. he decided to add kyiv to his whirlwind tour of europe a few weeks ago. as if to honor both of our arrivals in the city, elton john gave a free concert on independence square. granted the official reason to was raise awareness surrounding HIV/AIDS, but still...nice coincidence. we went down to watch the show with a bunch of people from work, tried pushing our way through to the front, but when i realized i had more of other people's sweat dripping off of me than my own we quickly retreated.

the show was awesome. elton played for over two hours, and did every one of his major hits...ranging from "daniel" to "your song" (which he dedicated to the concert's financiers...the pinchuk's...a nice touch) and ended with "circle of life" -- complete with footage from the lion king playing on the big screens. i've always want to see him live...so it was real treat. although it was kinda weird to be an elton john concert, surrounded by people who didn't know the words. the only songs that seemed to get people going were the ones from the '90s...after the iron curtain fell, i guess.

today matt, claire, and i did some light sightseeing. it was raining off and on, so we didn't get to do as much as hoped...but took in st. sofia's cathedral, the usviz souvenir street, and the podil (complete with a trip up the funicular). tonight matt and i are going out to see jason and megan at the place where they're doing peace corps training, so that should be fun.

what a great way to start off my return tour of kyiv, eh?