I find myself rejoicing over the arrival of spring this year. The other day I wanted to spin and dance and run down the streets of Melitopol. Usually I'm pretty indiferent to the changing of seasons. I always enjoy the first snow of winter, and of course it's nice to have warm weather again after the cold, but it's never been anything to get all excited about - it's just something that happens. But this time around it's somehow different. I started noticing it a few weeks back. There's something in me that smiles when I heard the sound of dripping water as the snow was melting. It smiles too when the air is mild and the sun is shining. And when I hear birds singing again. And when I see the new green grass growing in places, poking through the graybrown of last autumn's decaying leaves. And there are tiny buds on the tree branches. The song of spring is inside me, right next to that smile. And I thank God for rebirth and this brand new season. This part of the earth is tilting back towards the sun. The days are growing longer. In the winter, the sun seemed to just slide around the southern half of the sky, from east to west, never quite making it overhead, so that even at noon it cast long shadows as if it were late in the day.

I have recently finished reading a book called Culture Shock - Ukraine: a Guide to Customs and Etiquette. A little late, I know. In it I found a funny joke in a section on Ukrainian humour. I thought I'd put it here, since I have no one at the moment with which to share it verbally. It pokes fun at "Brezhnev's dim wit when he announced that the Soviets would outdistance America's space program: They would send a team to the sun. "But we will be burned alive," pleaded one cosmonaut. "And you think we know nothing?" barked Brezhnev. "We are arranging the details so that you will land at night." I laughed out loud when I read it, and even now as I write it here it brings a smile. I don't know why I find jokes like this so funny.