The Masses Descend onto Maidan Nezalezhnosti

EURO 2012 is well underway, and the electric atmosphere we all knew would accompany the tournament has finally made its presence felt, and then some!

On Saturday night, tens of thousands of soccer (we're still trying to train our brains to refer to the game as "football") fans made their way to the Fan Zone set up on Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) to watch the evening's two matches. We didn't realize just how many people there were until we went off to buy some beers. Taking a step back, one is almost awestruck seeing the masses all watching the game, cheering, and enjoying the finest football (yep) that Europe has to offer.

It's not just Ukrainian fans here, either. Greek fans dressed in togas mingle with Italian fans sporting flags, scarves, and loads of facepaint. German fans, hair dyed black and orange, have friendly foosball matches against passionate English fans at one of many Carlsberg tents . Danish fans throw beer in the air and jump on top of one another when their team scores. Dutch fans abound, dressed head-to-toe in bright orange. An eyesore for some, but you'll never lose them in the dark! A good strategy for partying if there was one.

Side thought: if the Netherlands makes the final and Maidan is filled with these orange-clad football enthusiasts on July 1st, could we have another Orange Revolution on our hands? Maybe the opposition forces in Ukraine are hoping for that. If they aren't prepared, Zenon is fully ready to jump in and lead the charge. Ми з Тобою - Чиж 2012!

Last night was also a glorious reunion for us, as England's sexiest man, Zenon Dzula, and his cohort of British Ukrainians met up with us for our night of merriment. Who did you think we meant? Prince William? Heck no! It's going to be a great month with these folks.

Zenon, Zenon, and Zenon. Good luck remembering all their names.

 After enjoying both games, we all headed to Docker's ABC pub nearby to continue our festivities. Walking out of there at 5 a.m., off we went to McDonald's. For the second day in a row, Andrijko was not able to have any egg-based McD's breakfast dish. Maximum frustration ensued. Add to that the fact that Zenon bought grape juice for the apartment, it was not a happy morning for Andrijko. Who the heck likes grape juice?

We wear our sunglasses at night. Those of us who are cool, anyway.

Something very interesting happened midway though the Germany - Portugal match. In true Ukrainian fashion, our British friends began to casually sing a Ukrainian song. Almost immediately, the curious gazes of local Ukrainians not knowing what to think turned into a small crowd, all of them jumping, clapping, chanting, and singing at the top of their lungs. A guitarist and bongo-ist (bongoloid?) even joined in for some accompaniment.

We had some interesting conversations with the curious Ukrainian onlookers. They were incredibly surprised, but at the same time incredibly happy, that people beyond the borders of Ukraine know the language, sing the songs, and love the country. The language issue, we found, is what seems to surprise them the most. They'll start to speak to us in broken English, but once we respond in Ukrainian, we converse like old friends. Not many people here know that such a strong Ukrainian community exists outside of Ukraine. Perhaps it's time to educate the Ukrainian masses.

After the sing-a-long ended with Ukraine's National Anthem and many rounds of "Cлава Україні! Героям Cлава!", some of our previous feelings of doubt and worry went away. We know that just because some people gathered with us to sing songs does not mean that everything is fine. We'll be the first to say that. But there are good people here, who love Ukraine as much as any of you reading this right now.  These are the kinds of people we love meeting in this country.