АХ ОДЕСА

I am really really enamored of some things about this city. Like this song, that Oleg taught me a few phrases from and then I just found the actual song while searching something unrelated (trying to find out the roots of the phrase "odessa mama" which on our first night someone told us has folkloric roots) and i LOVE it. I love how they say "odessa". And I think Ukraine is one of the most beautiful words ever. The city doesn't quite live up to it, but people say I have to see it in the summer. I want to live here I think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er6ELPeUPkU
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPKj8vAVTYs
I also got really sick last night and was busy puking out both ends, if you know what i mean. I thought it was some crepes or a bell pepper i bought but some people reassured me that it was probably the water, which I drank a few times when I first arrived w/o realizing the danger. Apparently depending on where you are in the country the water can be radioactive. Depending on where you are in this city the water can be traveling through lead pipes. So, we'll never know but it was awful, but was only for one night, strangely enough.
The best part of yesterday, though, was walking through a few blocks where I think they were having a power outage, because there were no lights at all which we all know is particularly magical. But since everyone here wears black it was also dangerous.