As someone born & raised in Odessa for roughly 1/3 of my life, who spent the other 2/3 in America, I know that most people don’t know much about Ukraine - which I get, I have many blind spots, so I thought I’d tweet some little basic things in case it helps make it real 🧵
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The thing that breaks my heart is Odessa is considered the Capital of Humor. On April 1st we celebrate like crazy (Юморина): huge parade w/ costumes, clowns, dancers, mimes (I KNOW) & decorate statues w/ tinfoil. As a comic I’m biased, but to attack the laugh of Ukraine is low
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The “Odessa sense of humor” is legendary, to the point that it has its own genre of jokes that people tell and retell. It’s v Jewish, but also has a highly specific streak of hustle culture & optimism in the face of horror. You can be an “Odessit” & not Jewish, but we are a tribe
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Here’s the most classic joke about people from Odessa aka “Odessity”:
“Is it true that Odessity answer questions with a question?”
“Who told you that?”
It’s funnier in Russian, but you get it.
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Odessa is a port city on top of the Black Sea so it’s always been an incredible melting pot of cultures. Our winters have snow but our summers are warm (this was in the 90s before extreme climate change so idk now) Our beaches are known for how warm & calm the water is (sorry LA)
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Our most famous (and 1st!) statue is of Duc de Richelieu (he looks hilarious in tinfoil), who faces the Black Sea at the top of the Potemkin Steps with his hand stretched out - as a kid I was told this is to welcome visitors but I couldn’t find confirmation.
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He’s credited w/being the founder of the city. FUN FACT: from a certain spot the fabric & scroll look like the duke’s 🍆 (the spot is the 2nd manhole cover from the left when you face him if I remember 😂) The main stage for April 1st fun I mentioned earlier is at the statue base
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Seafood is our motherfucking jam, especially tiny little salted fish (like slim finger-size) that we eat by the wheelbarrow and I dream about constantly - “тюльки” but also so much different fish that’s smoked, pickled, half-smoked, dried, you name it.
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Our “Привоз” (huge food market) is LEGENDARY, if you like free Costco samples you’ll flip for the many kinds of fresh feta, kielbasa, fruit. One time my mom let me get 2 baby chicks off a truck there that lived with us in a 1 room communal apt until they got chicken pox
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Sorry that was all Odessa, that’s my ❤️ I could talk abt it forever. Ok, now Ukraine- do you know what the flag is supposed to mean? 🇺🇦 Blue skies above fields of wheat. Ukraine is known as the breadbasket of Europe. The flag was illegal in USSR, like Puerto Rican flag in the US
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This is asked a lot - Ukrainian is its own language, different from Russian. They share only about 60% of the vocab, but the sentence structure and alphabet is largely the same. But wait: most Ukrainians speak or understand Russian bc of <gestures at history>, but not vice versa
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Determining who speaks what, doesn’t depend on “Are you from Russia? You speak Russian then.” For example, in Odessa the main spoken language is Russian, but in Kyiv it’s Ukrainian. Also, note: USSR engulfed every Slavic country for a while, and Russian was the de facto language.
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Ukrainian is a gorgeous language, much more lyrical than Russian. This isn’t a diss to Russian, that’s my first language and a ton of my favorite books are in Russian. This is shining a light on Ukrainian - it’s musical, singsong-ey, poetic, impossible to translate into English
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Taras Shevchenko’s work alone is worth learning it. Gogol’s work alone is worth learning it. Translating Ukrainian is like translating water. Hearing traditional Ukrainian singing will pierce your heart.
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Came back to add a pic of these old postcards of Odessa I was given when we left in ‘94. The envelope says “To my dear Sonechka, to remember your home city. Keep these postcards. Look at them & remember your days lived in Odessa-mama.”
That’s what ppl from Odessa call our city💗
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