Happy Leif Ericksson Day?

If there's one thing that I love about Ukraine, it's that everyday is a holiday. Well, practically everyday. These people will use anything for an excuse to get hammered. In the last 10 days we've had three official holidays, and I've never seen so many drunk people staggering around on the streets in my life. It almost felt like a zombie movie.

Elder Heaps and I have definitely been taking advantage of the numerous holidays. We basically try to celebrate something everyday, usually with juice and cookies and copious guitar playing. I just figure that life would be so much more interesting and enjoyable if you always had a reason to celebrate, even if you have to invent it. I figure in the course of my life I can come up with a significant holiday for just about every day of the calendar year. Naturally this task will be gradual, but my mission has given me a good start.

For instance, September 9 is officially Wendy's Day, signifying the day we succeeded in coercing a janitor to do a Wendy's run for us while we were trapped in the MTC. Never did a Big Bacon Classic taste so incredible, not to mention that large Dr. Pepper, a beverage I have not tasted since that fateful "holiday." Naturally, a holiday really isn't much of a holiday unless you have someone to celebrate it with, and September 9 is dedicated to Elder Aaron Johnson, my old pal who ended up in the St. Petersburg mission. Besides Wendy's Day, I've also established November 22 as Scarlett Johannson day, to be celebrated with Elder Steven Skinner, with whom I served in my last district. February 18 is officially Chocolate Day, as founded with Nastya Bigun in an English class about the history of chocolate, back in my hometown of Mariupol. And the examples just continue, especially now that I'm with Elder Heaps. We even celebrated the day his American Husky gave birth. May 2!

So if you're ever sitting at home dying of boredom and routine, invent a holiday and go celebrate it, preferably in an alcohol-free fashion. Happy Kalai Day!