Well, I have finally moved to a flat where I'm going to stay for one year:)
I'll be happy to receive your postcards, letters, money and other valuable gifts:) to this address
Maria Savranska
Kaiserstraße 235
53113, Bonn
Germany
If you want to send me a sms, mms, or just call me, use this number:
+49.163.6178240
My email is still the same (you don't need my working email, right?:):
masha.savranskaya@gmail.com
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Never before...or my last months in Italy
It has been a long – long time since I had time to write a post. Actually I was about to do it a lot of times since a lot of things happened in the last couple of months. I regret now not capturing all those things since now emotions are not that strong and pungent and I’m only capable of writing a summary of everything that is going to be long though...
May and June were perhaps one of the most intense months in Italy in terms of everything you can imagine! I have experienced very wide range of emotions – from feeling unlucky and desperate to being the happiest person in the world. But in the end, that is what makes our life diverse, right? Never before I could imagine myself doing and behaving in a way I did in these 2 months… You’ll see:)
May started with CN2 – my last Italian conference! It went well without any special emotions that I was expecting. I wasn’t very sorry or depressed. I was not swimming in the ocean of tears, even though I cried at closing plenary. Most probably enough is really enough sometimes. Or maybe it was just too far from the real end of the term, that I didn’t feel that it’s really a last-last one. I was glad to finally feel part of the plenary – that only happened to me only once before. The conference or rather trips after conference were moments of some unexpected discoveries that shaped a lot my next months. Just in 3 days I traveled to/from Sora-Rome-Naples-Rome-Naples-Milan. Never before I could imagine myself going up and down between Rome and Naples just to understand myself… In the end I didn’t understand anything of what or how I wanted. But the trips were worth the time I have spent for it, I guess:)and yes, Federico thanks a lot for being there and asking all those questions I hated to be asked:)
Apart from that other events happened:
I spent a lot of time preparing for interviews, looking for internships re-evaluating again my priorities (I was really considering going for a short term internship somewhere between Turkey and Egypt :)… never before I could even imagine thinking about that:)
I was not selected for the first position that I applied for. My reaction was simply surprising – after reading email, I just said ok and went on with my work. Never before I could imagine myself reacting like that. Normally, I’d cry, lock myself in the room and think that I’m worth nothing and I can only work as low qualified work forceJ! Svetulya and Inna, what was my “favorite profession” last year? Tram driver, seller at the market?:)
Federica got matched to Ghana – I could not believe that for many reasons. But in the end I feel very proud for my putanona!!!!!!:)
Giuliano came to Milan for couple of days. I didn’t expect myself to manage and find time for that, neither I expected him to really come to Via Andora. That’s another “never before” thing:)
We had team weekend in Finale Ligure – once again I understood that if there are some things that you miss in the beginning, it’s very difficult to gain them later.
I went to Naples again – something that I never before expected myself to do. First – no tickets available because of national holiday, 2 hours surfing Trenitalia website, got tickets, missed my train, got ticket for another one. On the way back almost lost my train again. Never knew, but discovered then that I can be brave sometimes:)
On June 10th I was supposed to get my residence permit, just in one year after I arrived...Italian timing… That’d enable me to stay longer in Italy because my visa was expiring on June 12th! On 8th I discovered that in May I was supposed to go for an appointment to police that they never invited me for. On 10th I discovered that my residence permit is not printed yet – there is a delay of 2 months. That was the first moment when I actually realized that I’m to leave Italy soon. Maybe sooner then I expected. Events of those days now seem to be like in movie – travels to questura (kind of immigration office), packing, bye-bye dinners, people asking how do I feel each couple of minutes, tears, calls to embassies, discussions with my parents, going back and forth to airport, confirmations, proofs etc. In the end I found the way to stay longer… I can’t even explain how important it was for me. Never before I valued more 18 days…
I was about to go for internship in Sicily and then just 1 conversation generated a lot of doubts – I started to think about applying for coordinator position at DHL. In the end after exhaustive decision making process, weighting all “pros” and “cons” I decided to go for it. Long preparation, interview, waiting and all stuff related to that. In the end, on Friday afternoon I got the call…. 2 bottles of water in the office, shower in garden, shower in bathroom, being hugged by a lot of people people. Just being happy..:)It was difficult to live that month of transition being sooo many people in Via Andora. However, I think we’ve managed to do it and stay alive! We lost in football match with alumni! Ai-ai-ai! Ate terrible food at alumni dinnerL Also in those days I ate the worst pizza in the whole year in Italy – never imagined pizza in the center of Milan to be sooo bad! Capodanno or AIESEC New Year party was very different this year! I enjoy it even though I didn’t get to talk to a lot of people! A very strange day on the 1st of July, it had to be like that from the house that’s became mine on July 1st 2007 to house that stopped being mine on July 1st 2008. Just this one day changed something in me. Then my visa application – that is worth another post, never before I imagined myself to be so persuasive! Hehe! After successful embassy adventure, 2 days in Naples, nice people delicious food (too much food sometimes:)), regionale from Naples to Rome (it seems to be standard route now:)). I got lost on in Rome on my way to dinner with Matteo and Anabella, nevertheless it was great to stay with them, I really enjoyed the dinner! Thank you, puppi! Then night in CC house and the first thing I saw in the morning when I opened my eyes was Luigi’s ass – don’t ask how beds were located in their flat! Then 1,5h of delay – Alitalia forever and a lot of Ukrainians in the plane. More then 1 hour to get out of the plane, take luggage, pass all controls and welcome back home...:)
May and June were perhaps one of the most intense months in Italy in terms of everything you can imagine! I have experienced very wide range of emotions – from feeling unlucky and desperate to being the happiest person in the world. But in the end, that is what makes our life diverse, right? Never before I could imagine myself doing and behaving in a way I did in these 2 months… You’ll see:)
May started with CN2 – my last Italian conference! It went well without any special emotions that I was expecting. I wasn’t very sorry or depressed. I was not swimming in the ocean of tears, even though I cried at closing plenary. Most probably enough is really enough sometimes. Or maybe it was just too far from the real end of the term, that I didn’t feel that it’s really a last-last one. I was glad to finally feel part of the plenary – that only happened to me only once before. The conference or rather trips after conference were moments of some unexpected discoveries that shaped a lot my next months. Just in 3 days I traveled to/from Sora-Rome-Naples-Rome-Naples-Milan. Never before I could imagine myself going up and down between Rome and Naples just to understand myself… In the end I didn’t understand anything of what or how I wanted. But the trips were worth the time I have spent for it, I guess:)and yes, Federico thanks a lot for being there and asking all those questions I hated to be asked:)
Apart from that other events happened:
I spent a lot of time preparing for interviews, looking for internships re-evaluating again my priorities (I was really considering going for a short term internship somewhere between Turkey and Egypt :)… never before I could even imagine thinking about that:)
I was not selected for the first position that I applied for. My reaction was simply surprising – after reading email, I just said ok and went on with my work. Never before I could imagine myself reacting like that. Normally, I’d cry, lock myself in the room and think that I’m worth nothing and I can only work as low qualified work forceJ! Svetulya and Inna, what was my “favorite profession” last year? Tram driver, seller at the market?:)
Federica got matched to Ghana – I could not believe that for many reasons. But in the end I feel very proud for my putanona!!!!!!:)
Giuliano came to Milan for couple of days. I didn’t expect myself to manage and find time for that, neither I expected him to really come to Via Andora. That’s another “never before” thing:)
We had team weekend in Finale Ligure – once again I understood that if there are some things that you miss in the beginning, it’s very difficult to gain them later.
I went to Naples again – something that I never before expected myself to do. First – no tickets available because of national holiday, 2 hours surfing Trenitalia website, got tickets, missed my train, got ticket for another one. On the way back almost lost my train again. Never knew, but discovered then that I can be brave sometimes:)
On June 10th I was supposed to get my residence permit, just in one year after I arrived...Italian timing… That’d enable me to stay longer in Italy because my visa was expiring on June 12th! On 8th I discovered that in May I was supposed to go for an appointment to police that they never invited me for. On 10th I discovered that my residence permit is not printed yet – there is a delay of 2 months. That was the first moment when I actually realized that I’m to leave Italy soon. Maybe sooner then I expected. Events of those days now seem to be like in movie – travels to questura (kind of immigration office), packing, bye-bye dinners, people asking how do I feel each couple of minutes, tears, calls to embassies, discussions with my parents, going back and forth to airport, confirmations, proofs etc. In the end I found the way to stay longer… I can’t even explain how important it was for me. Never before I valued more 18 days…
I was about to go for internship in Sicily and then just 1 conversation generated a lot of doubts – I started to think about applying for coordinator position at DHL. In the end after exhaustive decision making process, weighting all “pros” and “cons” I decided to go for it. Long preparation, interview, waiting and all stuff related to that. In the end, on Friday afternoon I got the call…. 2 bottles of water in the office, shower in garden, shower in bathroom, being hugged by a lot of people people. Just being happy..:)It was difficult to live that month of transition being sooo many people in Via Andora. However, I think we’ve managed to do it and stay alive! We lost in football match with alumni! Ai-ai-ai! Ate terrible food at alumni dinnerL Also in those days I ate the worst pizza in the whole year in Italy – never imagined pizza in the center of Milan to be sooo bad! Capodanno or AIESEC New Year party was very different this year! I enjoy it even though I didn’t get to talk to a lot of people! A very strange day on the 1st of July, it had to be like that from the house that’s became mine on July 1st 2007 to house that stopped being mine on July 1st 2008. Just this one day changed something in me. Then my visa application – that is worth another post, never before I imagined myself to be so persuasive! Hehe! After successful embassy adventure, 2 days in Naples, nice people delicious food (too much food sometimes:)), regionale from Naples to Rome (it seems to be standard route now:)). I got lost on in Rome on my way to dinner with Matteo and Anabella, nevertheless it was great to stay with them, I really enjoyed the dinner! Thank you, puppi! Then night in CC house and the first thing I saw in the morning when I opened my eyes was Luigi’s ass – don’t ask how beds were located in their flat! Then 1,5h of delay – Alitalia forever and a lot of Ukrainians in the plane. More then 1 hour to get out of the plane, take luggage, pass all controls and welcome back home...:)
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Italian coffee addiction
As a lot of you might know, I was used not to drink coffee at all before I came to Italy being absolute supporter of tea. Less then 1 month was needed for me to understand that Italians are blissfully ignorant of the delights of fine tea and a bit less then a year for me to start drinking at least some kind of coffee. My new addiciton is cappucino. and I was just about to post about it, but then changed my mind and decided to use this opportunity to share more about Italian coffee addiction! 
Latte macchiato is not the same as caffè macchiato. As the latter literally means "marked coffee", then latte macchiato is, obviously, "marked milk" - hot milk with a little (half a cup of) espresso. This is not a usual drink for Italians to have in a bar, though at home this can be quite common. A cup of hot milk is a morning classic**; variations include milk with cocoa powder and milk with coffee.
When food is the heart of life in Italy, then coffee might easily be its soul. Coffee is the proper round-up for any proper meal, the centre of any proper breakfast. In the European countries that miss their own coffee culture the merry-go-round of different kinds of coffee is often reduced for reasons of simplicity, dividing coffee into "normal/black", "with milk" and "latte" (large milk with coffee), leaving the fancy titles of Turkish coffee, espresso, latte macchiato and other such for the few knowledgeable ones. Or the show-offs.
So the post is for those, who ever wondered what is the difference between espresso, latte macchiato, caffe macchiato, macchiatone and other fancy words and tastes...:)
Caffè normale - this is what you get when you walk into a bar and ask for a coffee. Also called 
caffè liscio (straight coffee) or espresso. You enter a bar, say: "Un caffè, per favore". The bar-keeper will ask: "Liscio?" ("Straight?"). This is your last way out of ordering a coffee with some quantity of milk, because you can either say: "Sì" (yes, I want an espresso) or specify any of the milk-coffee versions listed below.Espresso is not only a tiny cup of very strong coffee. It's made in a specific way: the water is heated up to the point of evapourating in the machine and pressed through the fine powder. Contact with cold air makes the vapour liquify again. This is espresso. All other Italian coffee types are based on espresso (unlike the French coffee that is based on strong filter coffee that has a different production process). Espresso is rarely good outside of 
Italy, but even in Italy the taste is not the same. It's simple: the quality of the espresso depends on the amount of coffees made each day. The more, the better. For this reason the best coffee is often found in railway station bars and not in isolated mountain restaurants.
caffè liscio (straight coffee) or espresso. You enter a bar, say: "Un caffè, per favore". The bar-keeper will ask: "Liscio?" ("Straight?"). This is your last way out of ordering a coffee with some quantity of milk, because you can either say: "Sì" (yes, I want an espresso) or specify any of the milk-coffee versions listed below.Espresso is not only a tiny cup of very strong coffee. It's made in a specific way: the water is heated up to the point of evapourating in the machine and pressed through the fine powder. Contact with cold air makes the vapour liquify again. This is espresso. All other Italian coffee types are based on espresso (unlike the French coffee that is based on strong filter coffee that has a different production process). Espresso is rarely good outside of 
Italy, but even in Italy the taste is not the same. It's simple: the quality of the espresso depends on the amount of coffees made each day. The more, the better. For this reason the best coffee is often found in railway station bars and not in isolated mountain restaurants.Espresso is ok to order at any time of the day, though not too usual right before a meal. In the mornings most people order coffee with milk, such as:
Caffè macchiato is espresso with a little bit of milk. It's still a very tiny cup of coffee for those who don't have time to lose over their coffee but don't want to drink it black either. The added milk can either be cold (caffè macchiato freddo) or hot (caffè macchiato caldo or just macchiato caldo).
Macchiatone is a bigger version of caffè macchiato for those who want to enjoy some more milk foam, but don't want to get a full cappuccino.
Cappuccino (also called cappuccio for short) is served in a cup about the size of a "usual" (Nordic)
coffee and is espresso buried in milk foam. This is the ideal morning coffee as it's easy on the stomach and very delicious together with a nice brioche. But - attention! - cappuccino is only a morning coffee. Having it at any time after 11:00 in the morning will automatically shout of being a foreigner who is not initiated into the Italian ways. The exception can be made if you happen to be an elderly lady and it's a very cold day. The worst that one can do is order cappuccino after a meal. This will make everyone from the waitress to the dish-washer snigger under their breath. Why? Well, having coffee after a meal has a stimulating effect on the digestion that doesn't really work if the coffee is served with a significant amount of milk. It doesn't make sense to add hot milk on top of a full stomach. Exceptions are made for caffè macchiato, however - that's a way out for those who don't like black coffee. However, I don't care and ask for cappucino at any point of time:
coffee and is espresso buried in milk foam. This is the ideal morning coffee as it's easy on the stomach and very delicious together with a nice brioche. But - attention! - cappuccino is only a morning coffee. Having it at any time after 11:00 in the morning will automatically shout of being a foreigner who is not initiated into the Italian ways. The exception can be made if you happen to be an elderly lady and it's a very cold day. The worst that one can do is order cappuccino after a meal. This will make everyone from the waitress to the dish-washer snigger under their breath. Why? Well, having coffee after a meal has a stimulating effect on the digestion that doesn't really work if the coffee is served with a significant amount of milk. It doesn't make sense to add hot milk on top of a full stomach. Exceptions are made for caffè macchiato, however - that's a way out for those who don't like black coffee. However, I don't care and ask for cappucino at any point of time:Latte macchiato is not the same as caffè macchiato. As the latter literally means "marked coffee", then latte macchiato is, obviously, "marked milk" - hot milk with a little (half a cup of) espresso. This is not a usual drink for Italians to have in a bar, though at home this can be quite common. A cup of hot milk is a morning classic**; variations include milk with cocoa powder and milk with coffee.That's more or less it with the milk. Any of these can also be served with some cocoa on request (this produces even more different names). What comes to coffee itself, there are a number of variations:
Caffè americano - yes! this is it! That's what you need to ask for if you are a tourist in Italy and happen to have had enough of the world-class espresso and would just like to enjoy a cup of "normal" coffee like at home. Only that it will not be coffee like at home. As the only way of making coffee that the Italians recognise is the espresso-method, your caffè americano will just be espresso with added hot water. Sounds disgusting.
Caffè ristretto is a double-strength, half-size espresso for strong men who aren't afraid of a challenge.
Caffè lungo is a 1,5 size espresso. This is what the Portuguese should ask for while in Italy (an Italian espresso is about 2/3 the size of a usual Portuguese coffee).Caffè doppio is a double-size espresso and will most likely be served in a cappuccino-cup so that the espresso looks sad and lonely at the bottom.
Caffè shakerato is espresso with ice, well shaked. Perfect on a hot day.
Well, that's briefly the end of my experience with Italian coffee and what I found in internet, you don't think that I knew all that details myself, don't you?:)
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Languages in Italy
Wanted to post this long time ago. But maybe since I'm very nostalgic about leaving Italy soon, I finally found time for that:)
What always amazed me a lot about Italy are the differences between different cities and regions. One of the most explicit manifestations of it (of course after typical food):) are languages or dialects. Each region has its own dialect which sometimes is very different from standard Italian. My Italian is not yet (and most probably will never be) good enough to understand differences between all the dialects, but in a way I can distinguish couple of main ones. My lovely team mates keep on saying that I speak Italian with Napoletan accent, which I totally refuse to believe:)
Apart from 12 minority languages that are officially recognized (Albanian, Catalan, Croatian, Franco-Provencal, French, Friulian, German, Greek, Ladin, Occitan, Sardinian, and Slovene). Note that Catalan, Friulian, Ladin, Occitan and Sardinian are already officially recognized, there are are a lot of others that are not officially recognized by Italian government, but are recognized by other international organizations.... "Of these languages, many have been recognised by international bodies , most notably by UNESCO as reported in the Red Book of Endangered Languages. These are: Emiliano-Romagnolo, Ligurian, Lombard, Neapoletan, Piedmontese, Sicilian, and Venetian"
Anyways, have a look at the map below to see all variety of Italian dialects:)
Food Mania
A random observation, clearly noticed it only couple of days ago! Actually it's quite funny!
The question is "Ma si mangia bene a casa di...?" = Did you eat well in that house?
How do you think what is the first thing that Italians will ask you after you stayed at somebody's place (no matter whose - friend, boyfriend, randome mate)? It'll not be related to who lives in the house, where it's situated, how many rooms there are etc.
The question is "Ma si mangia bene a casa di...?" = Did you eat well in that house? Apparently by this they can judge everything else what might have happened to you there:)
And it's very common here to hear after "how are you" question "what did you eat today?". Important thing is that people care about what you ate today not less then about how are you today! and they can spend even 5 minutes discussing kind of pasta or risotto that we ate today:)
The funny thing is that it doesn't surprise me so much anymore, I'm totally into the food based culture:)
Friday, May 02, 2008
Being 20.. or a bit more!
Got it from Fede today! Liked it a lot and indeed I personally relate to it a lot....
It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that there are many things about yourself that you didn't know and may not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now.You start realizing that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friends that you thought you were so close to aren't exactly the greatest people you have ever met, and the people you have lost touch with are some of the most important ones. What you don't recognize is that they are realizing that too, and aren't really cold, catty, mean or insincere, but that they are as confused as you.You look at what you are studying or your job... and it is not even close to what you thought you would be doing, or maybe you are looking for a job and realizing that you are going to have to start at the bottom and that scares you.Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find yourself judging more than usual because suddenly you realize that you have certain boundaries in your life and are constantly adding things to your list of what is acceptable and what isn't. One minute, you are insecure and then the next, secure.You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life. You feel alone and scared and confused. Suddenly, change is the enemy and you try and cling on to the past with dear life, but soon realize that the past is drifting further and further away, and there is nothing to do but stay where you are or move forward.You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you loved could do such damage to you. Or you lie in bed and wonder why you can't meet anyone decent enough that you want to get to know better. Or maybe you love someone! but love someone else too and cannot figure out why you're doing this because you know that you aren't a bad person.Getting wasted and acting like an idiot starts to look pathetic. You go through the same emotions and questions over and over, and talk with your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision. You worry about loans, money, the future and making a life for yourself... and while winning the race would be great, right now you are scared just to be a contender!
What you may not realize is that every one reading this relates to it. We are in our best of times and our worst of times, trying as hard as we can to figure this whole thing out.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Things you wanted to know about Italians
Which are the things that come to your mind when you hear “Italy”???
Pizza, pasta, mafia, beautiful men, gestures, people speaking loud, fashion, people being late… this list could be continued, but let’s stop so far on these because that was more or less the list of the stereotypes that I had before coming to Italy 10 months ago (btw, today is exactly 10 months and 1 day since I arrived to Milan). I guess 10 months is sufficient time to make some conclusions and evaluations.
Allora, as Italians say, let’s start....
Food. To say that FOOD is important for Italians means to say nothing! Italians worship good food, but the case here is not only in eating process itself, but in the conversations and atmosphere they creating during meals. Spaghetti and pasta together with pizza are usually sacred. There are barely more things that are more important in the life of average Italian.You can not take away pasta from a normal Italian meal; otherwise it’ll not be Italian meal anymore. A typical Italian meal looks like following:
Antipasti (appetizers): usually includes some starters like ham, cheese, fried vegetables, mozzarella with tomatoes or something like that
Primi piatti (first course) usually pasta or risotto. Pasta in most of the cases… You can’t even imagine how many different ways of cooking pasta they know. The thing that for them makes difference is pasta is the sauceJ spaghetti or makaroni itself don’t have that big meaning. Normally you feel full already after this dish, but it’s just the middle of your lunch or dinner…
Secondi piatti (second course) meat or fish with vegetables or potatos
Dolce (sweets) or fruits. Cookies, pastry and all other sweet things is a different story because there are soooo many types of it that a foreigner can’t possibly remember all of that:)
and please don’t expect Italian to start working before drinking his COFFEE. Without coffee lunch is not a real lunch and life is not beautiful. There is no single coffee take away in this country. It will remain the only place in the world where Starbucks will never get any cent of income
The other thing about food that you have to know is timing. Breakfast is something that in terms of energy for the day has no importance here. What is important indeed is how you eat it… You usually go to the bar (you can find bars all around, especially in metro stations, shops and other random places) to take a cup of coffee (one can’t really call one sip of coffee as a cup, but anyways), eat still warm brioche, watch morning news and argue about elections or whatever (topic is not really important) with the owner of the bar and other random people coming in. Taking chairs and sitting at tables is not something you do in the morning, so people will just create crowds next to bar counter. At 1 – 3.30 pm you can expect to have lunch. Well, in companies they have it much shorter, let’s say they can be done in 1,5h. But what I find really irritating is that all shops are closed at this time, so you can’t buy anything before they finish siesta. In couple of hours the time of merenda comes. And then, closer to 9 – 10 pm people will think about dinner. And you better don’t invite Italian for dinner at 6 or 7pm! They’ll be simply embarrassed to eat dinner at that time, but even before that you’ll not find any restaurant open at that time. Well, unless you want to eat in McDonalds (which are places for immigrants mostly).
Sunday lunch in Italian families is a topic of a separate post. The only thing I can say now is that don’t expect it to be shorter then 3 hours with less then 5 courses:)
Godfather is a favorite movie of millions people in the world and the real headache of Italians. One of the first things a foreigner thinks of (and says obviously) if he hears that you are from Sicily or Naples is “ah, mafia, mafia”. Even my mom is used to ask me whenever I go there if I met some Mafiosi. It’s something that is totally not true. I only saw “mafia district” in Naples, it didn’t look very friendly, but that’s it. Most of Italians will feel offended and insulted if you use the term, even when if you use it as a joke.
Language, dialects and regional differences. If you’ve learned Italian in your country, forget it! There are around 20 regions in Italy and each of them has its own dialect or sometimes even separate language. Napoletan, Sicilian, Calabrian, Roman, Milanese, Triestino are the ones that I (being far from excellent in Italian) can recognize. But language is not the only thing that you may find different between the regions. North and South are as we say in Russian sky and ground (небо и земля). Inter-regional relations can be quite tense during election times, local football matches and even during conferences and especially during LC visits. As for now, I have to admit my strong addiction to the South:)
In the end, language doesn’t have that much value, if you want to speak to Italian, what matters much more and which actually unites people from all regions (well, apart from national football cup obviously:)) are the gestures: the way they move their hands, hold their heads, move shoulders, their facial expressions, as well as the way they use their eyes and mouths could be a topic of couple of dissertations for PhD. They simply can’t talk without their hands! What they actually can do is to talk without words, with hands onlyJ they usually speak very loud everywhere, it’s not because they are deaf, they are simply like that. Italians like to travel, but they don’t really know other languages. Why should they? If they can explain everything with their body language?:)
One more thing that you have to know that all Italians are very touchy people, not in the sense of being sensitive but in the sense of loving to TOUCH other people, everywhere… and yes, it’s normal for guys here to kiss when they meet, luckily it’s not a French kiss. Buuuut, if needed during the party, they can also do this. And don’t forget about famous Nutella kiss.
Family matters here a lot. Italians call themselves “mammony” (not sure about spelling tough) because they are used to stay with their parents until 30, and you don’t need to worry – mamma will cook the food, clean and iron T-shorts, remember all birthdays of relatives, will call you 3 times a day. Italian guys may not pick up the phone if their girlfriend is calling, but be sure that they’ll pick up, if mom is calling.
Beautiful men and women. I don’t know if it’s a matter of beauty or it’s simply their charm and warm attitude that they have which makes you feel special and think that everyone around is beautiful. I don’t find Italians guys more beautiful then Ukrainians, but they definitely care about their appearance much more then Ukrainians do, and that makes a difference.
If we got to speak about men and women, I can’t avoid speaking about relationships here which are very strange. People get married at 30 – 35, which is fine. But it takes them a long time to come to this decision. Most of the couples here are not dating; they are just friends, bed friends or friends with benefits as they might call it here.
Chaos determines Italian lifestyle. Nothing in Italy is well organized or easy-to-use. You have to fight to get the smallest scrap of information. Don't be surprised to see Italians fighting to get into the buses or jumping the queue to be served first at the coffee bar. I usually have a lot of fun (even tough sometimes it’s not fun at all) to see trains full of people because they buy tickets without seats reservation. I know, it happens everywhere in Europe. But surprisingly only in Italy, you can always find corridors full, completely full of people that you can even walk to bathroom. It’s simply impossible – you either get off the train and leave your seat for others or you stay at your place and don’t move:)
I’m finishing now even tough I have sooo many observations in mind. They are just popping up in my mind one by one, but I need to stop otherwise I’m going to spend whole night writing it here. Maybe this could be a topic for my PhD?:) The last but definitely not the least, is that some stereotypes are definitely right, some not, but Italians are generous, communicative, smiling and they are the most hospitable people I’ve ever met. They often use the word sunny to describe themselves, and I believe it’s the right word. Keep that in mind, when taking decision about where to go for your next holidays:)
Your Ukrainian explorer of Italy
Pizza, pasta, mafia, beautiful men, gestures, people speaking loud, fashion, people being late… this list could be continued, but let’s stop so far on these because that was more or less the list of the stereotypes that I had before coming to Italy 10 months ago (btw, today is exactly 10 months and 1 day since I arrived to Milan). I guess 10 months is sufficient time to make some conclusions and evaluations.
Allora, as Italians say, let’s start....
Food. To say that FOOD is important for Italians means to say nothing! Italians worship good food, but the case here is not only in eating process itself, but in the conversations and atmosphere they creating during meals. Spaghetti and pasta together with pizza are usually sacred. There are barely more things that are more important in the life of average Italian.You can not take away pasta from a normal Italian meal; otherwise it’ll not be Italian meal anymore. A typical Italian meal looks like following:
Antipasti (appetizers): usually includes some starters like ham, cheese, fried vegetables, mozzarella with tomatoes or something like that
Primi piatti (first course) usually pasta or risotto. Pasta in most of the cases… You can’t even imagine how many different ways of cooking pasta they know. The thing that for them makes difference is pasta is the sauceJ spaghetti or makaroni itself don’t have that big meaning. Normally you feel full already after this dish, but it’s just the middle of your lunch or dinner…
Secondi piatti (second course) meat or fish with vegetables or potatos
Dolce (sweets) or fruits. Cookies, pastry and all other sweet things is a different story because there are soooo many types of it that a foreigner can’t possibly remember all of that:)
and please don’t expect Italian to start working before drinking his COFFEE. Without coffee lunch is not a real lunch and life is not beautiful. There is no single coffee take away in this country. It will remain the only place in the world where Starbucks will never get any cent of income
The other thing about food that you have to know is timing. Breakfast is something that in terms of energy for the day has no importance here. What is important indeed is how you eat it… You usually go to the bar (you can find bars all around, especially in metro stations, shops and other random places) to take a cup of coffee (one can’t really call one sip of coffee as a cup, but anyways), eat still warm brioche, watch morning news and argue about elections or whatever (topic is not really important) with the owner of the bar and other random people coming in. Taking chairs and sitting at tables is not something you do in the morning, so people will just create crowds next to bar counter. At 1 – 3.30 pm you can expect to have lunch. Well, in companies they have it much shorter, let’s say they can be done in 1,5h. But what I find really irritating is that all shops are closed at this time, so you can’t buy anything before they finish siesta. In couple of hours the time of merenda comes. And then, closer to 9 – 10 pm people will think about dinner. And you better don’t invite Italian for dinner at 6 or 7pm! They’ll be simply embarrassed to eat dinner at that time, but even before that you’ll not find any restaurant open at that time. Well, unless you want to eat in McDonalds (which are places for immigrants mostly).
Sunday lunch in Italian families is a topic of a separate post. The only thing I can say now is that don’t expect it to be shorter then 3 hours with less then 5 courses:)
Godfather is a favorite movie of millions people in the world and the real headache of Italians. One of the first things a foreigner thinks of (and says obviously) if he hears that you are from Sicily or Naples is “ah, mafia, mafia”. Even my mom is used to ask me whenever I go there if I met some Mafiosi. It’s something that is totally not true. I only saw “mafia district” in Naples, it didn’t look very friendly, but that’s it. Most of Italians will feel offended and insulted if you use the term, even when if you use it as a joke.
Language, dialects and regional differences. If you’ve learned Italian in your country, forget it! There are around 20 regions in Italy and each of them has its own dialect or sometimes even separate language. Napoletan, Sicilian, Calabrian, Roman, Milanese, Triestino are the ones that I (being far from excellent in Italian) can recognize. But language is not the only thing that you may find different between the regions. North and South are as we say in Russian sky and ground (небо и земля). Inter-regional relations can be quite tense during election times, local football matches and even during conferences and especially during LC visits. As for now, I have to admit my strong addiction to the South:)
In the end, language doesn’t have that much value, if you want to speak to Italian, what matters much more and which actually unites people from all regions (well, apart from national football cup obviously:)) are the gestures: the way they move their hands, hold their heads, move shoulders, their facial expressions, as well as the way they use their eyes and mouths could be a topic of couple of dissertations for PhD. They simply can’t talk without their hands! What they actually can do is to talk without words, with hands onlyJ they usually speak very loud everywhere, it’s not because they are deaf, they are simply like that. Italians like to travel, but they don’t really know other languages. Why should they? If they can explain everything with their body language?:)
One more thing that you have to know that all Italians are very touchy people, not in the sense of being sensitive but in the sense of loving to TOUCH other people, everywhere… and yes, it’s normal for guys here to kiss when they meet, luckily it’s not a French kiss. Buuuut, if needed during the party, they can also do this. And don’t forget about famous Nutella kiss.
Family matters here a lot. Italians call themselves “mammony” (not sure about spelling tough) because they are used to stay with their parents until 30, and you don’t need to worry – mamma will cook the food, clean and iron T-shorts, remember all birthdays of relatives, will call you 3 times a day. Italian guys may not pick up the phone if their girlfriend is calling, but be sure that they’ll pick up, if mom is calling.
Beautiful men and women. I don’t know if it’s a matter of beauty or it’s simply their charm and warm attitude that they have which makes you feel special and think that everyone around is beautiful. I don’t find Italians guys more beautiful then Ukrainians, but they definitely care about their appearance much more then Ukrainians do, and that makes a difference.
If we got to speak about men and women, I can’t avoid speaking about relationships here which are very strange. People get married at 30 – 35, which is fine. But it takes them a long time to come to this decision. Most of the couples here are not dating; they are just friends, bed friends or friends with benefits as they might call it here.
Chaos determines Italian lifestyle. Nothing in Italy is well organized or easy-to-use. You have to fight to get the smallest scrap of information. Don't be surprised to see Italians fighting to get into the buses or jumping the queue to be served first at the coffee bar. I usually have a lot of fun (even tough sometimes it’s not fun at all) to see trains full of people because they buy tickets without seats reservation. I know, it happens everywhere in Europe. But surprisingly only in Italy, you can always find corridors full, completely full of people that you can even walk to bathroom. It’s simply impossible – you either get off the train and leave your seat for others or you stay at your place and don’t move:)
I’m finishing now even tough I have sooo many observations in mind. They are just popping up in my mind one by one, but I need to stop otherwise I’m going to spend whole night writing it here. Maybe this could be a topic for my PhD?:) The last but definitely not the least, is that some stereotypes are definitely right, some not, but Italians are generous, communicative, smiling and they are the most hospitable people I’ve ever met. They often use the word sunny to describe themselves, and I believe it’s the right word. Keep that in mind, when taking decision about where to go for your next holidays:)
Your Ukrainian explorer of Italy
P.S. some people, Italians especially, have the right to say they are different. But this is the way I see everything:)
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Una bella notizia
Good news – I’ll be granted a residence permit soon! Just 12 months after my arrival to Italy and just 2 days before I leave the country:) Just on time!:))))
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
I would love to ..... if I had the dare
Just 3 months left until the end of my Italian experience. I can’t believe it on the one hand. It still feels like it’s just the beginning, autumn or something around there. On the other hand, so many things have happened, so many places visited, so many new people, different emotions, feelings and thoughts. And so many things changed in my understanding of how things are and what am I.
Uncertainty is a key word describing my state of mind these days.
I have a deep inner discussion– a rational part of me says that it’s time to grow up, apply for a job and start bringing benefit and income to some giant corporation, get my salary, plan my life until 60s and draw a visualization board with big house, red car, happy family, parachute jump, travels during holidays and all other things people usually put there. And do everything as it’s supposed to be – slowly but surely, from manager to senior, step by step. Another part of me, let’s call it “nonconformist” says that I still have time and capacity to do something different, to do something more. I’m thinking about going to some strange place like Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Africa, Venezuela…to some “middle of nowhere” to live intense cultural experience, to understand world better, to challenge my limits.
Watching, reading, thinking, I’m coming to a conclusion that I’m less rational then people think I am, less safe then people think I’m, and less predictable…
I know I can be successful in working for multinational and I can be well-off until 30, living in comfort wherever I want, having all attributes of modern life style. But I don’t know if that is something what would bring some meaning to my life and whether I can make a difference living like that. This is something that a lot of people, given right conditions, can do. But some dare to do more. But I still can’t understand if I dare or not.
Some say I’m thinking too much and sometimes it’s better to just let it go and see what happens, but I keep on thinking but on the other hand having my CV ready and EP form available.
Uncertainty is a key word describing my state of mind these days.
I have a deep inner discussion– a rational part of me says that it’s time to grow up, apply for a job and start bringing benefit and income to some giant corporation, get my salary, plan my life until 60s and draw a visualization board with big house, red car, happy family, parachute jump, travels during holidays and all other things people usually put there. And do everything as it’s supposed to be – slowly but surely, from manager to senior, step by step. Another part of me, let’s call it “nonconformist” says that I still have time and capacity to do something different, to do something more. I’m thinking about going to some strange place like Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Africa, Venezuela…to some “middle of nowhere” to live intense cultural experience, to understand world better, to challenge my limits.
Watching, reading, thinking, I’m coming to a conclusion that I’m less rational then people think I am, less safe then people think I’m, and less predictable…
I know I can be successful in working for multinational and I can be well-off until 30, living in comfort wherever I want, having all attributes of modern life style. But I don’t know if that is something what would bring some meaning to my life and whether I can make a difference living like that. This is something that a lot of people, given right conditions, can do. But some dare to do more. But I still can’t understand if I dare or not.
Some say I’m thinking too much and sometimes it’s better to just let it go and see what happens, but I keep on thinking but on the other hand having my CV ready and EP form available.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
The story of the stuff
I might not necessarily agree with all points mentioned here, but this short movie is definitely worth watching.
"Annie Leonard, Story of Stuff. A new short film released today online takes viewers on a provocative tour of our consumer-driven culture — from resource extraction to iPod incineration — exposing the real costs of this use-it and lose-it approach to stuff. "
Full video is available here http://www.storyofstuff.com/
"Annie Leonard, Story of Stuff. A new short film released today online takes viewers on a provocative tour of our consumer-driven culture — from resource extraction to iPod incineration — exposing the real costs of this use-it and lose-it approach to stuff. "
Full video is available here http://www.storyofstuff.com/
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Men vs Women
I randomly read today THIS. and I couldn't avoid posting it here:)
NICKNAMES
If Laura, Kate and Sarah go out for lunch, they will call each other Laura,Kate and Sarah .
If Mike, Dave and John go out, they will affectionately refer to each otheras Fat Boy, Godzilla and Four-eyes.
EATING OUT
When the bill arrives, Mike, Dave and John will each throw in £20, eventhough it's only for £32.50.None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit theywant change back.
When the girls get their bill, out come the pocket calculators.
MONEY
A man will pay £2 for a £1 item he needs.
A woman will pay £1 for a £2 item that she doesn't need but it's on sale.
BATHROOMS
A man has six items in his bathroom: toothbrush and toothpaste, shavingcream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel from M&S.
The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 337.
A man would not be able to identify more than 20 of these items.
ARGUMENTS
A woman has the last word in any argument.
Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.
CATS
Women love cats.
Men say they love cats, but when women aren't looking, men kick cats.
FUTURE
A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.
SUCCESS
A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
A successful woman is one who can find such a man.
MARRIAGE
A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, but she does.
DRESSING UP
A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the bins,answer the phone, read a book, and get the post.
A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.
NATURAL
Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed.
Women somehow deteriorate during the night.
OFFSPRING
Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children.She knows about dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favoritefoods, secret fears and hopes and dreams.
A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
A married man should forget his mistakes.
There's no use in two people remembering the same thing.
Monday, February 18, 2008
A bit of everything
I didn’t post anything here for quite a long time! Time to update blog a bit!
In February I managed to visit 3 new countries: Sweden, Estonia and Latvia in one week!
I had to go to Sweden for work – related meeting for 4 days and then I took a day off to travel around Northern part of Europe a bit. Stockholm was really nice, however very expensive – a bus trip from the airport was around 20 euro, 3 days metro ticket – 23 euro, small postcards for 1,5 euro etc.
Everything else was just fine – good weather (actually it’s was very warm for Stockholm at those days), interesting people – I was glad to meet with Olya Buchenko that I haven’t seen for some years, I was happy to meet new people, especially Sandra, Inga and Michelle.
My trip to Estonia was complicated let’s say. Estonian customers didn’t want to let me in Estonia in the airport because my visa allows me to travel to 1 Schengen country (apart from Italy) at once, however they never checked it before (that’s why I had Netherlands – Belgium trips etc), but since Estonia join Schengen zone only this year, they are still checking visas and put stamps. So for 1,5 hour they were trying to persuade me that I’m not allowed to come. But I was quite stubborn because I wanted to see Inna and I didn’t want to waste money spent for tickets, so I kept on long discussions with them and they finally let me in without stamp that I arrived.
I enjoyed staying in Tallinn, a lot of things: architecture, buses and trolley busses, supermarkets and food are very similar to those in Ukraine; even 90% of people speak Russian, so it felt a lot like at home, especially after eating salads with mayonnaise and “syrkova massa":) Old Tallinn is a very nice place to walk and discover small gardena or houses hidden in narrow streets from eyes of tourists. And I was really glad to see my “martyshka” Innok againJ
I had my flight back from Riga, so on Saturday we went there. We spoke with Inna until 3.30 am
so it’s needless to say that we almost missed our bus (at 6 am) - we had to come back twice for tickets and Inna’s passport J Riga was quite similar again – small and cozy town with old city center.
In new EU countries (I mean Baltic here) you better speak English instead of Russian. That makes people (guides, shop assistants, and waiters) much more polite to you apparently.
Coming back to Italy was a bit tricky again – I had difficulties leaving Latvia (remember that I can travel to only 1 Schengen country? and Latvia was 3rd already:) and moreover, I didn’t have any proof that I arrived to Estonia and even more, Latvia (we went to Riga by bus and there was no passport check). Again one hour, again no stamps BUT I got my boarding pass in the end.
After being successful in Riga I had to go through same procedure in Milan again since I only had stamp that I left Stockholm on 6th Feb and the fact that I arrived to Milan on 9th… I was lucky and good in communication enough, so it went ok in the end, even though I was the last one to leave customs control.
I hope my parents will never get to know that their smart daughter was crazy enough to travel like that:)
What else? Don’t expect me to be online soon:) My traveling schedule for coming months looks like this:
20 – 23rd February – Rome
24th February – Bergamo
25 – 29th February – Naples
5 – 7th March – Trieste
8-9th March- Belgium
14-19th March – Sardinia
21-24th March – Easter trip, don’t yet know where but will go for sure
I should be awarded by Trenitalia (national railway service) and different Italian airlines as frequent, VERY frequent traveler:)
Yesterday we had pancake lunch with interns at my home. That’s fun that nobody ever tried salty pancakes with filling. In Europe they only eat sweet ones, mostly with Nutella.
The evening itself was good and the movie we saw “Das Leben der Anderen” (The life of others) was definitely as some like saying “masterpiece”, even tough it was tough to watch it in German (I had to read subtitles 70% of time). In brief the film tells the story of a plot by the Stasi to discredit a famous playwright in 80th in Eastern Berlin. I reminded myself yesterday how interesting it’s to watch this kind of movies with people from other countries
and even continents, how problems and historical issues that are extremely relevant for some, don’t bother others at all. For me movie’s added value is in not only in what you see in movie itself, but most importantly in what you feel, think and discuss after it. in that sense, this movie is definitely worth seeing.
I never plan to write such long posts, I know it might be boring to read, but surprisingly in the end the size is always like that. Dunno why!:)
In February I managed to visit 3 new countries: Sweden, Estonia and Latvia in one week!
I had to go to Sweden for work – related meeting for 4 days and then I took a day off to travel around Northern part of Europe a bit. Stockholm was really nice, however very expensive – a bus trip from the airport was around 20 euro, 3 days metro ticket – 23 euro, small postcards for 1,5 euro etc.
Everything else was just fine – good weather (actually it’s was very warm for Stockholm at those days), interesting people – I was glad to meet with Olya Buchenko that I haven’t seen for some years, I was happy to meet new people, especially Sandra, Inga and Michelle.
My trip to Estonia was complicated let’s say. Estonian customers didn’t want to let me in Estonia in the airport because my visa allows me to travel to 1 Schengen country (apart from Italy) at once, however they never checked it before (that’s why I had Netherlands – Belgium trips etc), but since Estonia join Schengen zone only this year, they are still checking visas and put stamps. So for 1,5 hour they were trying to persuade me that I’m not allowed to come. But I was quite stubborn because I wanted to see Inna and I didn’t want to waste money spent for tickets, so I kept on long discussions with them and they finally let me in without stamp that I arrived.I enjoyed staying in Tallinn, a lot of things: architecture, buses and trolley busses, supermarkets and food are very similar to those in Ukraine; even 90% of people speak Russian, so it felt a lot like at home, especially after eating salads with mayonnaise and “syrkova massa":) Old Tallinn is a very nice place to walk and discover small gardena or houses hidden in narrow streets from eyes of tourists. And I was really glad to see my “martyshka” Innok againJ
I had my flight back from Riga, so on Saturday we went there. We spoke with Inna until 3.30 am
so it’s needless to say that we almost missed our bus (at 6 am) - we had to come back twice for tickets and Inna’s passport J Riga was quite similar again – small and cozy town with old city center.In new EU countries (I mean Baltic here) you better speak English instead of Russian. That makes people (guides, shop assistants, and waiters) much more polite to you apparently.
Coming back to Italy was a bit tricky again – I had difficulties leaving Latvia (remember that I can travel to only 1 Schengen country? and Latvia was 3rd already:) and moreover, I didn’t have any proof that I arrived to Estonia and even more, Latvia (we went to Riga by bus and there was no passport check). Again one hour, again no stamps BUT I got my boarding pass in the end.
After being successful in Riga I had to go through same procedure in Milan again since I only had stamp that I left Stockholm on 6th Feb and the fact that I arrived to Milan on 9th… I was lucky and good in communication enough, so it went ok in the end, even though I was the last one to leave customs control.
I hope my parents will never get to know that their smart daughter was crazy enough to travel like that:)
What else? Don’t expect me to be online soon:) My traveling schedule for coming months looks like this:
20 – 23rd February – Rome
24th February – Bergamo
25 – 29th February – Naples
5 – 7th March – Trieste
8-9th March- Belgium
14-19th March – Sardinia
21-24th March – Easter trip, don’t yet know where but will go for sure
I should be awarded by Trenitalia (national railway service) and different Italian airlines as frequent, VERY frequent traveler:)
Yesterday we had pancake lunch with interns at my home. That’s fun that nobody ever tried salty pancakes with filling. In Europe they only eat sweet ones, mostly with Nutella. The evening itself was good and the movie we saw “Das Leben der Anderen” (The life of others) was definitely as some like saying “masterpiece”, even tough it was tough to watch it in German (I had to read subtitles 70% of time). In brief the film tells the story of a plot by the Stasi to discredit a famous playwright in 80th in Eastern Berlin. I reminded myself yesterday how interesting it’s to watch this kind of movies with people from other countries
and even continents, how problems and historical issues that are extremely relevant for some, don’t bother others at all. For me movie’s added value is in not only in what you see in movie itself, but most importantly in what you feel, think and discuss after it. in that sense, this movie is definitely worth seeing.I never plan to write such long posts, I know it might be boring to read, but surprisingly in the end the size is always like that. Dunno why!:)
Friday, February 01, 2008
Moments & feelings
Вчера я поняла, что, несмотря на всю свои сильные стороны и характеристики, я большой мечтатель и наверно еще ребенок где-то глубоко в душе.
Мне всегда хочется чего-то нереального, какого-то большого сюрприза, который какой-то добрый волшебник (да, этот волшебник меняется в зависимости от желаний) принес бы, привез бы, отправил бы мне. Но волшебники и волшебницы никогда не догадываются о этих моих желаниях.
Другая моя большая мечта это шкатулка. Такая небольшая коробочка, в которой можно было бы хранить позитивные чувства и эмоции. Вот так чтобы там лежали все самые позитивные воспоминания: счастье, радость, влюбленность, гордость от достигнутого результата и еще много другого. И потом, когда тебе совсем плохо, чтобы можно было открыть шкаф, достать шкатулку, и смахнув пыль и снова, хотя бы на 5 минут вернуться туда…
Почему-то мне хочется хранить только какие-то внутренние чувства: ни визуальные, ни звуковые, ни тактильные, никакие другие ощущения.
Я никогда долго не храню смс, какими бы хорошими и добрыми они не были. Мне кажется, что если у вас сложились отношения, то если человек написал тебе однажды что-то хорошее, то обязательно напишет и второй, третий, четвертый и т.д. А если не напишет, значит не такие уж и все хорошо и не стоит ничего вспоминать.
Я удаляю фотографии, мейлы и телефоны людей с которыми прекращаю отношения, чтобы стереть из памяти все, чтобы не было этих визуальных контактов и ненужных воспоминаний.
Мне хочется сохранить только чувства и ощущения, но они почему-то долго не хранятся, выветриваются что ли… и остается только сегодняшний день и улыбки по- настоящему дорогих мне людей, которые смотрят с фотографий дома и в офисе, которые приходят в письмах, открытках и сообщениях.
Моя мама всегда говорит, что самый сильный тот, кто победит себя. Но мне почему-то кажется, что я чересчур в этом поверила и научилась побеждать не только себя, но часто и свои мечты. Вчера я победила себя, но убила очередную свою мечту, которая казалась уж чересчур нереалистичной, которую я не могла измерить, не смогла составить план по ее достижению. Наверно через время, как это всегда бывает, я буду этим гордится, буду очень довольна тем, что умею так хорошо управлять своими эмоциями, принимать рациональные решения и т.п. А сегодня, у меня просто какое-то паршивое настроение…
Хотя... ничего страшного, что паршивое настроение, это пройдет. я же себя знаю:)
Мне всегда хочется чего-то нереального, какого-то большого сюрприза, который какой-то добрый волшебник (да, этот волшебник меняется в зависимости от желаний) принес бы, привез бы, отправил бы мне. Но волшебники и волшебницы никогда не догадываются о этих моих желаниях.
Другая моя большая мечта это шкатулка. Такая небольшая коробочка, в которой можно было бы хранить позитивные чувства и эмоции. Вот так чтобы там лежали все самые позитивные воспоминания: счастье, радость, влюбленность, гордость от достигнутого результата и еще много другого. И потом, когда тебе совсем плохо, чтобы можно было открыть шкаф, достать шкатулку, и смахнув пыль и снова, хотя бы на 5 минут вернуться туда…
Почему-то мне хочется хранить только какие-то внутренние чувства: ни визуальные, ни звуковые, ни тактильные, никакие другие ощущения.
Я никогда долго не храню смс, какими бы хорошими и добрыми они не были. Мне кажется, что если у вас сложились отношения, то если человек написал тебе однажды что-то хорошее, то обязательно напишет и второй, третий, четвертый и т.д. А если не напишет, значит не такие уж и все хорошо и не стоит ничего вспоминать.
Я удаляю фотографии, мейлы и телефоны людей с которыми прекращаю отношения, чтобы стереть из памяти все, чтобы не было этих визуальных контактов и ненужных воспоминаний.
Мне хочется сохранить только чувства и ощущения, но они почему-то долго не хранятся, выветриваются что ли… и остается только сегодняшний день и улыбки по- настоящему дорогих мне людей, которые смотрят с фотографий дома и в офисе, которые приходят в письмах, открытках и сообщениях.
Моя мама всегда говорит, что самый сильный тот, кто победит себя. Но мне почему-то кажется, что я чересчур в этом поверила и научилась побеждать не только себя, но часто и свои мечты. Вчера я победила себя, но убила очередную свою мечту, которая казалась уж чересчур нереалистичной, которую я не могла измерить, не смогла составить план по ее достижению. Наверно через время, как это всегда бывает, я буду этим гордится, буду очень довольна тем, что умею так хорошо управлять своими эмоциями, принимать рациональные решения и т.п. А сегодня, у меня просто какое-то паршивое настроение…
Хотя... ничего страшного, что паршивое настроение, это пройдет. я же себя знаю:)
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Go one step further
Do more than exist – Live!
Do more than touch – Feel!
Do more than look – Observe!
Do more than read – Absorb!
Do more than hear – Listen!
Do more than listen – Understand!
Do more than think – Reflect!
Do more than just talk – Say Something!
Go One Step Further… Live! Feel! Observe! Absorb! Listen! Understand! Reflect! Say Something!
Do more than touch – Feel!
Do more than look – Observe!
Do more than read – Absorb!
Do more than hear – Listen!
Do more than listen – Understand!
Do more than think – Reflect!
Do more than just talk – Say Something!
Go One Step Further… Live! Feel! Observe! Absorb! Listen! Understand! Reflect! Say Something!
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Biggest weakness
I know what is my biggest weakness - I perfectly know a lot of things : how it's supposed to be, work, how should I behave, what should I say etc., etc. Buuuuut, and here it starts, so often I don't know, I'm afraid, I'm shy, I don't care, I.... so in the end I don't do what is best to do...
and now..
my mom always said to me that "the strongest is the one who is able to overcome oneself (to win a battle over onesself).
I wonder now how do I win this battle? Actually sometimes I manage to win.. but not always
and now..
my mom always said to me that "the strongest is the one who is able to overcome oneself (to win a battle over onesself).
I wonder now how do I win this battle? Actually sometimes I manage to win.. but not always
Sunday, December 30, 2007
My 2007
My 2007 passed extremely fast. Celebration of 2007 seems to be so far away, so many things happened, so many places, people, emotions changed in my life.
I was sharing a lot of things that happened to me during this year, so if you want to know more details just read some of the previous posts. I want to mention here few most important aspects of the year.
Events that shaped my life in 2007
EuroEXPRO in Serbia, Weekend in Ivano – Frankovsk in May, Visa application, EBC 2007, LC visit in Naples, weekend in Rome, Exchange meeting in Rotterdam, 2 flights from Brussels, IPM CCP election.
People I want to thank for different things (even tough they might not realize that they’ve done something important for me):
My parents, Juraj Zdinak, Sveta Muzychenko, Slavik Lysak, Marinka Malkina, Tanya Mikhailyuk, Ira Legka, Nadya Lyubivaya, Anya Kovalchuk, Il’ya Boshnyakov, Cornelia Raportaru, Kevin Groen, Federica Rosi, Federico Caliri, Julia Khimchak, Olka Urina, Inna Kostyuk, Viktor Kryvenko, Matteo Orsi, Anabella Florea, Dora Salemi, Irene Sianard, Daniele de Lorenzo, Alba Cauchi, Dante Scognamiglio and his family, Giuliano De Marco, Michelle Gallant, Andrey Bezemchuk, Olya Kuznetsova, Gaspar Ndabi, Olka Semenyuk
Books that I loved:
“The tipping point” and “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell
“The world is flat” by Thomas Friedman
Places I’ve been to
Ivano – Frankovsk, Kharkov, Kiev, Belgrade, Milan, Prague, Roznov pod Radhostem, Ostrava, Olomouc, Zlin, Brno, Istambul, Lignano Sabbiadoro, Venice, Naples, Rome, Catania, Trieste, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Brussels, Brugge, Leuven, Verona, Pisa, Como, Lisbon.
My dreams that came true
Visiting theme park (Gardaland)
Traveling around Europe
I graduated finally
Quotes of the year
Life is not the amount of breaths you take. It’s the moments that take your breath away. Alex Hitchins
Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely. Karen Kaiser Clark
Some other learnings and observations:
I learned to value friendship and maybe learned how to care more about people:)
I learned that my experience is what I make out of it myself and nobody else can be held responsible for that
I learned how to cook pasta:)
My 2007 was different: it was happy and challenging, full of troubles and surprises; I took few difficult decisions that have shaped or will shape my life and life of other people. I got to know myself better. I’m thankful for everything that happened to me, everyone I’ve met and I’m looking forward new discoveries and opportunities that 2008 will bring me.
I was sharing a lot of things that happened to me during this year, so if you want to know more details just read some of the previous posts. I want to mention here few most important aspects of the year.
Events that shaped my life in 2007
EuroEXPRO in Serbia, Weekend in Ivano – Frankovsk in May, Visa application, EBC 2007, LC visit in Naples, weekend in Rome, Exchange meeting in Rotterdam, 2 flights from Brussels, IPM CCP election.
People I want to thank for different things (even tough they might not realize that they’ve done something important for me):
My parents, Juraj Zdinak, Sveta Muzychenko, Slavik Lysak, Marinka Malkina, Tanya Mikhailyuk, Ira Legka, Nadya Lyubivaya, Anya Kovalchuk, Il’ya Boshnyakov, Cornelia Raportaru, Kevin Groen, Federica Rosi, Federico Caliri, Julia Khimchak, Olka Urina, Inna Kostyuk, Viktor Kryvenko, Matteo Orsi, Anabella Florea, Dora Salemi, Irene Sianard, Daniele de Lorenzo, Alba Cauchi, Dante Scognamiglio and his family, Giuliano De Marco, Michelle Gallant, Andrey Bezemchuk, Olya Kuznetsova, Gaspar Ndabi, Olka Semenyuk
Books that I loved:
“The tipping point” and “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell
“The world is flat” by Thomas Friedman
Places I’ve been to
Ivano – Frankovsk, Kharkov, Kiev, Belgrade, Milan, Prague, Roznov pod Radhostem, Ostrava, Olomouc, Zlin, Brno, Istambul, Lignano Sabbiadoro, Venice, Naples, Rome, Catania, Trieste, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Brussels, Brugge, Leuven, Verona, Pisa, Como, Lisbon.
My dreams that came true
Visiting theme park (Gardaland)
Traveling around Europe
I graduated finally
Quotes of the year
Life is not the amount of breaths you take. It’s the moments that take your breath away. Alex Hitchins
Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely. Karen Kaiser Clark
Some other learnings and observations:
I learned to value friendship and maybe learned how to care more about people:)
I learned that my experience is what I make out of it myself and nobody else can be held responsible for that
I learned how to cook pasta:)
Pictures of the year
My 2007 was different: it was happy and challenging, full of troubles and surprises; I took few difficult decisions that have shaped or will shape my life and life of other people. I got to know myself better. I’m thankful for everything that happened to me, everyone I’ve met and I’m looking forward new discoveries and opportunities that 2008 will bring me.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Today's news
There are a lot of ways to express political will and promote your beliefs and views. A lot of them are illegal, and a lot are not very ethical. But there is one that is for sure not acceptable - killing your political opponents. Today world lost first female prime minister in and Islamic state - Benazir Bhutto. Not that I admired her or saw her as a panacea for Pakistan's problems , but she was definitely smart and brave woman. She did offer charismatic leadership at this crucial stage and she had the potential to provide Pakistan with the means of changing its ways.
It's sad to see such people being killed in other countries, but in our world...
It's sad to see such people being killed in other countries, but in our world...
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Midnight thoughts
It has been already 4 days since I came back home to Ukraine for holidays!
Time passes by, I enjoy staying with my family, meeting my friends, eating food I love, walking down the streets of my childhood, everything is good, just can’t get read of some thoughts.
Comparison is something that I do hundreds of times each day, I know it’s natural and it’s kind of reintegration element (even tough I came for 2 weeks only).
So, firstly about my observations:
People’s appearance. In Vienna airport waiting for boarding to my flight to Dnepropetrovsk I finally saw a lot of Ukrainians in one place. My attention was taken by a girl wearing 12 centimeters high spike hills, jacket made from the fur of unknown animal. She had mop of perhydrol blond hair, huge blue eyes and pink lips. She was not prostitute, of course one can never know, but just my snap judgment (God Bless Gladwell for introducing me to this nice termJ), she was just typical, quite typical representative of Ukrainian or even post soviet beauty standards. I was shamelessly examining her for around 3 minutes, slowly realizing that I haven’t seen this kind of outfit for around 6 months. Observation number one: even tough I’m still quite shocked when people don’t iron their clothes, don’t make manicure and things like that, but I definitely got used to it to European casualness.
Fools and roads.
Roads and runways. Dnepropetrovsk might be not the best Ukrainian airport, but for sure is not the worst one, but seeing holes and cracks on the runways is not contributing to raising pride for my country.
Fools and attitude. I’ve traveled quite a lot in past 2 months and I was never ever asked anything about my visa, reasons of my stay in Italy. Never ever before arriving home and talking to a custom officer in DP. I had to spend 5 minutes explaining him in details what I’m doing in Italy, what is AIESEC and why the f… I came back home for New Year. In past few days I took hopper buses (марштрутка) few times and drivers were literally starring at me after hearing “Thank you” 3 times. After buying some of the gifts for New Year I realized that you can only hear thanks (especially from female shop assistants) after you buy something which costs more then 20 euros (in the shop with average price of 10).
And the last, but not the least, you always need to have wet napkins to clean your boots, because they’ll always be dirty.
That all is quite negative and pessimistic, isn’t it?
Those are random observations that practically don’t tell you a lot about the city, country and mentality, people etc. These are some random (yes, that is in the list of my favorite wordsJ) thoughts of a girl, who stayed some 6 months in the other reality and thinks that she has the power to criticize and judge something that she is too young to understand and evaluate. And that’s true. On the one hand. But on the other hand, the funny thing is that this criticism is only raising my feeling of patriotism that is properly “fertilized” by ideas taken from books that I recently have read.
Actually these kinds of things provoke me to think about what are the changes that my country needs, who are the leaders that have capacity, strong will and, moreover, belief in changes. I’m quite sure that country needs leaders, I’m quite sure that there are people capable of becoming such leaders, and there are people who can follow them. The question is how many people there need to be to create this critical mass that can turn this passive desire and dreams into kind of social epidemics that can in fact start the change. And the last – what can be my own contribution into that… I’m frequently coming back to thoughts of Raskolnikov from “Crime and punishment” about people who “the high and mighty” (власть имущие) or “weak people” (there is no literal translation I guess for твари дрожащие). All that thoughts not in sense of committing crime, but in the sense of being able and having courage to drive transformational change in Ukrainian society. Just a curiosity now whether I can really do something or whether I will give up as many others for having family, children, nice house, car, 24 days of vacations etc. which is in fact nothing bad, just ordinary… it’s not about being Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela or Mother Teresa… It’s about few words: desire and courage to drive changes.
“Because people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who actually do”….. even tough I know that changes start from within.
So what is the change that you are able to make in yourself to change at least your local environment for better?
Time passes by, I enjoy staying with my family, meeting my friends, eating food I love, walking down the streets of my childhood, everything is good, just can’t get read of some thoughts.
Comparison is something that I do hundreds of times each day, I know it’s natural and it’s kind of reintegration element (even tough I came for 2 weeks only).
So, firstly about my observations:
People’s appearance. In Vienna airport waiting for boarding to my flight to Dnepropetrovsk I finally saw a lot of Ukrainians in one place. My attention was taken by a girl wearing 12 centimeters high spike hills, jacket made from the fur of unknown animal. She had mop of perhydrol blond hair, huge blue eyes and pink lips. She was not prostitute, of course one can never know, but just my snap judgment (God Bless Gladwell for introducing me to this nice termJ), she was just typical, quite typical representative of Ukrainian or even post soviet beauty standards. I was shamelessly examining her for around 3 minutes, slowly realizing that I haven’t seen this kind of outfit for around 6 months. Observation number one: even tough I’m still quite shocked when people don’t iron their clothes, don’t make manicure and things like that, but I definitely got used to it to European casualness.
Fools and roads.
Roads and runways. Dnepropetrovsk might be not the best Ukrainian airport, but for sure is not the worst one, but seeing holes and cracks on the runways is not contributing to raising pride for my country.
Fools and attitude. I’ve traveled quite a lot in past 2 months and I was never ever asked anything about my visa, reasons of my stay in Italy. Never ever before arriving home and talking to a custom officer in DP. I had to spend 5 minutes explaining him in details what I’m doing in Italy, what is AIESEC and why the f… I came back home for New Year. In past few days I took hopper buses (марштрутка) few times and drivers were literally starring at me after hearing “Thank you” 3 times. After buying some of the gifts for New Year I realized that you can only hear thanks (especially from female shop assistants) after you buy something which costs more then 20 euros (in the shop with average price of 10).
And the last, but not the least, you always need to have wet napkins to clean your boots, because they’ll always be dirty.
That all is quite negative and pessimistic, isn’t it?
Those are random observations that practically don’t tell you a lot about the city, country and mentality, people etc. These are some random (yes, that is in the list of my favorite wordsJ) thoughts of a girl, who stayed some 6 months in the other reality and thinks that she has the power to criticize and judge something that she is too young to understand and evaluate. And that’s true. On the one hand. But on the other hand, the funny thing is that this criticism is only raising my feeling of patriotism that is properly “fertilized” by ideas taken from books that I recently have read.
Actually these kinds of things provoke me to think about what are the changes that my country needs, who are the leaders that have capacity, strong will and, moreover, belief in changes. I’m quite sure that country needs leaders, I’m quite sure that there are people capable of becoming such leaders, and there are people who can follow them. The question is how many people there need to be to create this critical mass that can turn this passive desire and dreams into kind of social epidemics that can in fact start the change. And the last – what can be my own contribution into that… I’m frequently coming back to thoughts of Raskolnikov from “Crime and punishment” about people who “the high and mighty” (власть имущие) or “weak people” (there is no literal translation I guess for твари дрожащие). All that thoughts not in sense of committing crime, but in the sense of being able and having courage to drive transformational change in Ukrainian society. Just a curiosity now whether I can really do something or whether I will give up as many others for having family, children, nice house, car, 24 days of vacations etc. which is in fact nothing bad, just ordinary… it’s not about being Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela or Mother Teresa… It’s about few words: desire and courage to drive changes.
“Because people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who actually do”….. even tough I know that changes start from within.
So what is the change that you are able to make in yourself to change at least your local environment for better?
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Creativity is out of the office
The name of the post is rather random - my creativity has a day off today. It'll come back in the office tomorrow, so maybe next post will have a more meaningful name:)
I started to write this post several times, but then something happened and took my attention, time etc. so I never posted what I wrote.
In brief, in previous month I traveled a lot, maybe too much. To be very short and specific:)
9 days in Catania: LDS – national induction conference for newbies. It was great to spend some time with Innok:)Conclusions: now I’m not easily motivated by conferences even tough delivered on a good level.
4 days in Rotterdam: Exchange meeting in AI – good content wise and very intense. It was good to see how AI works and lives. Conclusions: the funny thing is that I finally decided not to apply for AI.
1 day in Amsterdam: my first birthday outside of Dnepropetrovsk. Woke up in Rotterdam, spent day in Amsterdam, spent night in Brussels:) a bit crazy as for one day, but I liked it:) Amsterdam especially – it’s worth seeing, but don’t waste time for Sex museumJ Madame Tussaud’s is worth seeing, I loved it:) Red light district – nothing special – dark, almost naked girls in windows, and kind of church in the middle of it. Worth seeing only once in life, unless you go there for something elseJConclusions: need to come back to see the rest of the Netherlands. Who wants to go?:)
3 days in Milan: plan review, good ideas, reviewed plans and a lot of work again:) ah-ah, new table, chairs, cutlery and Christmas tree in our house:) looks great!
2 days in Trieste: lovely city, much better then I expected! Interesting local committee:) Next time I come to spend more money there and they promised to take me for lunch to Slovenia:)
2 days in Brugge, Leuven and Brussels: I was happy to be there:) Friends will be friends….:)
and now back to Milan – cool pajama learning circoletto yesterday with my team mates:) and heading for hospital tomorrow morning. Well, you know, I can’t live without using my insurance, bothering doctors and creating random problems. Yes, and having very strange and funny health problems
and then.. Lisbon this weekend (unless something bad happens tomorrow in hospital). I’ll see the ocean:)
Dnepropetrovsk in 1 week.. can’t wait to be there. I missed everyone there so much. Will be happy to come back for those 10 days:)
Yes, you know where to find my pictures, as usual here
In brief, in previous month I traveled a lot, maybe too much. To be very short and specific:)
9 days in Catania: LDS – national induction conference for newbies. It was great to spend some time with Innok:)Conclusions: now I’m not easily motivated by conferences even tough delivered on a good level.
4 days in Rotterdam: Exchange meeting in AI – good content wise and very intense. It was good to see how AI works and lives. Conclusions: the funny thing is that I finally decided not to apply for AI.
1 day in Amsterdam: my first birthday outside of Dnepropetrovsk. Woke up in Rotterdam, spent day in Amsterdam, spent night in Brussels:) a bit crazy as for one day, but I liked it:) Amsterdam especially – it’s worth seeing, but don’t waste time for Sex museumJ Madame Tussaud’s is worth seeing, I loved it:) Red light district – nothing special – dark, almost naked girls in windows, and kind of church in the middle of it. Worth seeing only once in life, unless you go there for something elseJConclusions: need to come back to see the rest of the Netherlands. Who wants to go?:)
3 days in Milan: plan review, good ideas, reviewed plans and a lot of work again:) ah-ah, new table, chairs, cutlery and Christmas tree in our house:) looks great!
2 days in Trieste: lovely city, much better then I expected! Interesting local committee:) Next time I come to spend more money there and they promised to take me for lunch to Slovenia:)
2 days in Brugge, Leuven and Brussels: I was happy to be there:) Friends will be friends….:)
and now back to Milan – cool pajama learning circoletto yesterday with my team mates:) and heading for hospital tomorrow morning. Well, you know, I can’t live without using my insurance, bothering doctors and creating random problems. Yes, and having very strange and funny health problems
and then.. Lisbon this weekend (unless something bad happens tomorrow in hospital). I’ll see the ocean:)
Dnepropetrovsk in 1 week.. can’t wait to be there. I missed everyone there so much. Will be happy to come back for those 10 days:)
Yes, you know where to find my pictures, as usual here
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