If you've read the blog before this one you know we were at the IBM Ukraine office Friday morning to mid-afternoon. Since most of the team (read everyone under 40) was taking a late afternoon train to Lviv (another city west of here for the weekend), us oldies (Paul, Shiva, Cheryl, and myself) decided to call it quits about 4 p.m. On the way back to the hotel from the IBM office, we passed by the Mary Kay building. I've also seen an Avon building and these two cosmetics companies are helping Ukrainian women to open their own small-business companies and it's been really successful, so I thought I'd post a picture of the Mary Kay office.
Cheryl, Paul and I decided to drop our bags at the office and head into the City Center and have a look around. It seems that I was the only one paying attention on that three-hour walking tour we had when we arrived because I took them both by the former KGB building and St. Sophia's church and neither one of them remembered it. Sigh.... So besides team blogger, I can add tour guide and navigator to my skill set. We stopped at Independence Square which is where everyone gathers in the evenings and weekends, that's what people do here, you stroll around the main city square and visit, chat, eat and have some drinks. Sounds like a BBQ at the Zapalac house doesn't it? We stopped for a Friday Night Happy Hour drink, Paul and I opting for local beer and Cheryl having a Hot Chocolate - it wasn't hot chocolate like we know, it was really a glass of melted chocolate. It was rich (I had a taste) but there was no way anyone could finish it. It was the last day of school for students and graduation day for seniors but instead of a cap and gown, graduating students wear a sash. We spotted a group of graduates and they were really happy to pose for a picture for us. This is the part of the CSC experience that I'm enjoying the most, living life in Kyiv among the people here, experiencing what they're experiencing. 
We took Cheryl to a local underground market that our team discovered one day at lunch; that's been our bonus, since we are working downtown we get to have lunch at a different place everyday and see more of the city and we spied some pretty cool things on the way - a carousel right in the middle of town and some of the stores which you will easily recognize. I can't begin to describe how amazing the architecture is of the buildings here, they're just amazing, the detail on the sides of them all, but I'll try.
After that "three hour stroll", we swung by the hotel and picked up Shiva for dinner. Seems Cheryl has not yet had the sushi here in Kyiv - which, by the way, is available in just about every restaurant so we took her to our favorite which Paul, Shiva and I have eaten at at least once a week since we got here (and I'm sure we'll be eating there again before we leave). Shiva is vegetarian but has discovered a love for Miso soup and Fried Rice, so the rest of us split the "big platter" of sushi. I've never eaten so much sushi (quantity and variety) in one sitting. 
I noticed on the menu that they had a B-52 so I told the team about a former colleague, Mad Dog, Mike Raskoski who drank nothing but B-52s and who passed away a few months after retiring from IBM a few year's back. So Paul agreed to have one with me and they came in a fancy glass and then were capped off with being lit on fire. Who knew! It was the smoothest B-52 I've ever had and Paul, who had never had one before said it was an immediate favorite. Here's to you Mad Dog.
It's almost 11:00 p.m. on Saturday night and I've had a very busy and full day but it's too late to start blogging about all my adventures from today so I will try and get some of it posted in the morning before our next adventure tomorrow. I'll preview it for you all, Chernobyl and another three hour tour....
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