I tried to post this yesterday night, but Blogger was acting up again...

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It snowed all night and all day, so Khreshchatyk is a real mess now. Very slippery, too, which is the mayor's fault (it was his idea to lay those crazy bricks/tiles/whatever-it's-called everywhere).

So many people by the tents, they stand with posters every few meters or so, facing the passer-by. On the posters there's information on where they are from (many many regions of Ukraine) and slogans, some quite funny, others straightforwardly pro-Yushchenko.

Many buses are now lined up for a whole block on both sides of Khreshchatyk - some must be from the regions, others are probably local. I was glad to see the buses - it means these people will have a place to get warm during the night. I saw a woman with a huge poster of Yushchenko pasted on her back scrawling the name of the town she must've arrived from - Vinnytsya - on one of the buses, dirty as hell.

The protesters have also moved into the Ukrainian House (former Lenin Museum) – there are about 3,000 of them inside – they can sleep and eat there, and there are also doctors there in case someone needs help.

I didn't spend much time outside today, unfortunately. But I got to Maidan at the time Yushchenko, Tymoshenko, Moroz and Kinakh were about to speak, and it was really cool to feel the energy of the crowd once again.

Yushchenko talked about the ugly decision of the Central Election Commission, and then they announced they were going to appeal it in the Supreme Court - though, knowing how dependent on the government the court is, it's not gonna be easy. Tymoshenko reminded the crowd that the Georgian revolution lasted three weeks, and that here it shouldn't take longer. (My concern is the weather - I can't imagine how it can possibly go for this long in such cold... But then again, most people here love winter, it's just me who always whines for half a year and dreams of Italy or Istanbul...)

For the second day, I see Mustafa Jemilev next to Yushchenko and the rest. He is the Crimean Tatar leader, the man I respect and admire tremendously, a former dissident and a longtime ally of Ukrainian pro-independence/democratic forces. But for some reason, he is not saying anything. I think they should let him - because the Crimean Tatars' return to Crimea was a wonderful thing in many respects. Someone's told me today that in Bahcisaray, they've recognized Yushchenko as the president, making the city a little island of normalcy on the otherwise politically stagnant peninsula (I have to check this info, though - I do believe it but I still want to check it, and then I'll write more).

I'm sure everyone's heard about Colin Powell's statement, and about the Pope's little speech in Ukrainian, and I wish I could be more efficient with posting updates on the news here, but I've been busy today, and tired, and it's all so overwhelming that I can't quite catch up with it all. I really hope I'll find a few hours to finally post the pictures from the past week. I haven't taken any tonight because it was snowing and so cold I couldn't make myself get my hands out of the pockets... I hate winter - and I really admire those brave people now out in the cold...

Thanks again for all your comments, and for reading this... This means so much to me.