People-watching

I love to people-watch. If you've been reading this blog awhile, that's not news to you. So yesterday, on the bus from Kyiv, I was sitting across from this little missy. She was noteworthy because of those bracelets. So first of all, the fact that she even has them is pretty unusual. Those goofy little plastic bracelets are a totally ''West" thing. Americans, Canadians and Western Europeans wear them, but not Ukrainians. And of course- she's only got about a hundred of them.

As an admitted people-watcher. It's been interesting to watch a gradual increase of Western habits and influence.
- men now wear jeans- all the time, everywhere. Time was when wearing jeans marked you as a foreigner.
- lots of men have long shaggy hair (although they're still much more likely to have very short hair than your average American.)
- tennis shoes. everywhere.
- body piercing- on lots of people. They really like the belly-button thing but you see more of it everywhere.
- ''tramp stamps" and other kinds of tatooing- tatoos are no longer an indication of having been in the army or having served time in jail.
- mp3 players; in fact, these are so prevalent that you're practically a nobody if you don't have one.
- as mentioned earlier, flip-flops.

On the other hand, Phyllis and I had a great time picking out people from this part of the world while waiting in the Barcelona and Rome airports last week. We were right every time.
- very tight jeans (women) with glitter and sparkly stuff on them.
- all kinds of high heels paired with everything under the sun. Or should I say, Choosing to wear ridiculously high heels for a day of travelling, roaming airports and running to catch planes when you're not a flight attendant.
- loading up on liquor and cigarettes at the duty-free shops.
- any of the above accompanied by bleached-blonde hair with dark roots if you're female is pretty much a dead give away.

None of this is so important, of course, but I find it fascinating.

No crocs yet and no wearing sweatpants just anywhere and everywhere. (And for that last one, well, I'm truly happy. I hope they never discover sweats.)