Can youspot me? 1.6% of the Pilgrams were Ukrainian Catholic 

Be-Ne-Dicto!  

Divine Liturgy on the German Bus! 

A Ukrainian in Germany

Well, as many of you know this summer I went with a whole bunch of other Ukrainian Catholics on an extended pilgrimage to Germany for WYD - 2005

I got to see my dad for the first time in 4 and half years in Munich - which is where we started off. I also got to drink beer in Haufbranhaus - a stein that was bigger then my head!

Venice was next - and My friends and I got hit on by cheesy Gondoleers and one have us a free gondola ride.. and invited us up to his "apartamente"

I learnt 2 very handy Italian phrases
"Nessun grazie, io non desiderano dormire stasera con voi"
(No thank you, I don't wish to sleep with you tonight)
and
" miei occhi sono in su qui, voi stupido capra!"
(My eyes are up here.. you stupid goat)


and of course.. Alora!
The Italian version of.. "Whatever!"

Rome was next - I got drunk with 3 friends.. ate real pizza, drank wine and walked home. I started to take a picture of Catherine and this guy in a car thought we were taking a picture of him and got out of his car and posed by it.

I also bought shoes in an outdoor market when i was really really drunk.

And they fit!

That night I had a theological discussion with Father Greg that went something like this:

Me: Fr. Greg - if I think a lot about.. like.. bad things... but i like... don't do it... is that bad?

Fr. Greg: - Yes

Me: (falling off my chair) oohhhh I'm going straight to hell!


yes.. things got pretty intense...and I wasn't the only one asking the compelling questions. Catherine asked some thing like.. "When we die.. are we like really dead, or just mostly not there?"

Poor Father Greg.

Part 2 coming soon! Ze German efficency..fancy pigions and a story called Odesa and the Stupid American flag wavers.. Mi Dispyachey!

Workin' it Uker-ainian style

This summer i had the "pleasure" of working for the Ukrainian Canadian Congress - I job i got, not for my amazing office/secretary skills, but for my family connections. Oh, sweet sweet Ukrainian community.. how you keep coming through for me.

My boss basicly told me that she hired me because my aunt worked for immigration and helped her and her family come to Canada - oh.. and she knew and sort of liked my mom.

But I digress! I forgot to tell you about the amazing times i had working for KYK - or UCC-APC if your not Ukrainian Acronym litereate - that means Ukrainian Canadian Congress Alberta Provincial Congress.

Sounds fancy!

well.. its not. I pretty much called people to ask them to advertise in the UCC booklet for Ukrainian Days. I called.. and called.. and called... When I spoke in Ukrainian people yelled at me and told me to speak in English.. when I spoke in English they would either hang up the phone or yell at me for not speaking in God's chosen languege.

I also went through every file cabinet and threw out any files with documents dating before January 1984.... Ahhh the joy of it all.

While I worked I spent a lot of time learning about a group of ukrainians whose job it is to complain whenever newspapers mention the holocost and forget to mention the famine in Ukraine.
There is also.. believe it or not! A huge fight going on between the Jewish Canadian Congress and the Ukrainian one about who's holocost was worse
As my boss would say... "WHAT'S THE HECK!"