A New Beginning

Has it really been 5 months since I've written anything on my blog?! Wow, I've been really behind with everything this year. I can't believe I still have some unanswered letters, which arrived back in March, which actually makes me feel really ashamed, but I believe we all go through some crises once in a while and I had to go through it in order to finally become motivated enough to make some changes in my life. I still find it hard to fully realize how many things have happened and changed just within a few months. But life is unpredictable and I like it this way! I actually think I'll have to write several blog entries to share all my thoughts with you, but I'll just start with a short one in order to revive this poor blog and to show you some proofs of me still writing letters! ;)

This doesn't look like Kyiv right? :P When I think of it now, I have no idea, how could I seriously consider moving to the capital city. Yeah, that would have been a reasonable solution and an easily acceptable one, but... that just wouldn't be me. To be honest, I thought I might wait move to Kyiv temporarily, wait until the war is definitely over and then move to Donbass region. I knew it would happen sooner or later anyway, but I was trying to be sensible and not to let it happen during the war. Kyiv was supposed to be some kind of a "bridge", but... I'm not the most patient person ever (and also not the most sensible one, in case you didn't know), so the bridge has been skipped and I went directly to the seaside ;) I kind of felt I'd end up in Mariupol already this year in April, when I came here "by accident" while visiting the nearby natural reserve. I had quite a hard time fighting myself and thinking of how should I tell everyone about my decisions, so at the moment I can't even tell you when exactly I've moved. The whole thing has been done very gradually and very chaotically, but I think the decision was made on May 4th, when I got myself a P.O. Box in Mariupol. It didn't oblige me to anything and it still took me a month to share my new address with my friends, but I knew that once I've taken this step, I would take the next ones as well. Why did I want to come here so much? I don't know. But I know I had been missing this region since 2010 and that it had become really hard for me to live in Lviv due to the current events in Ukraine, so I decided to take the risk.

My friends have been asking me, whether I'm not afraid to live here. Well, it's a difficult question. Of course, I realize there is some risk and that nobody knows how the situation might develop (although it seems to be much better than it was a year ago). Of course, I don't feel very comfortable when I hear some distant explosions at night. It hasn't happened for a while now, but I won't be surprised if it happens again, because such things are a part of living in the war zone. Yeah, I live in the war zone. I used to think that only the separatists' controlled area is considered the war zone, but it turns out that Mariupol also counts as the war zone, even if it's controlled by Ukraine. But I found out about it just recently while translating the full list of towns and villages in war zone from Ukrainian into Polish :D But no, it's not as scary as you imagine. Things usually aren't as scary as they describe them. Living here is pretty normal, people work, study, go to cafes and spend a lot of time at the seaside. I know it may sound weird, but I feel more calm while I'm here than when I'm away. When I had to go to Lviv for a couple of days, I was really worried that something bad would happen before I manage to come back. When I'm here... I just see that everything is alright, I'm busy with my own life and usually I don't even think about the war. I suppose it still sounds strange for those of you, who have never experienced any war-like events. I also used to think that staying far away from trouble is the best solution, but sometimes your views can change when you actually experience certain things. I'm afraid I still can't name any valid reason why Mariupol is better than Lviv. I won't even say it's actually better. If you're a tourist, I'd still advice you to visit Lviv, unless you're really interested in steel mills and shallow, dirty seas ;) But Mariupol is simply more suitable for me at this point of my life and that's enough. It's a very multicultural place and therefore people are so much more tolerant than in Lviv, I switch from one language to another some 100 days a day and nobody minds that. Another thing is that I like to search for beauty where most of people won't see it. For example, in steel mills and dirty seas :P

By the way, I've been asked for at least 5 times, what is it like to live in Donetsk. So I guess I should use this opportunity to make an official statement that I do NOT live in Donetsk and I can't even go there at the moment, because you need a special permission (or a big bribe) to go to the separatist republics. Mariupol isn't the same as Donetsk, those are two different cities and the distance between them is 120 km. "Donetska Oblast" in my address means "Donetsk Region". I couldn't live in Donetsk now... Do you know why? The post offices don't work there! :(

But they work in Mariupol, so I've been receiving and sending quite a few letters! :) Not as many as I used to, but I'll never give up on my hope to catch up with my mail. At some point in the future. Some unknown point in unforeseeable future... ;) My life has been quite a big mess, so I'll show you my mail also without any order... Incoming, outgoing.... I'm too lazy to put them in any particular order at the moment. Just a lot of mail :D

My crazy Finnish friend Essi has sent me a letter with lovely photos of me
that she had taken during our Ukrainian trip in 2014 :D

From Vanessa in the USA. It was really nice to finally hear from her again :)

From my dear Dasha in Kyiv

My letter to Martina in Slovenia

From Taši in Slovenia

To Olga in Belarus, who has survived spending 10 days in Belgium with me this summer :P

For Katka in Czech Republic

It wasn't actually me sending a letter to Tasha in England... :D

My Israeli friend Stav has sent me a great letter and a lot of postcards from her trip to Parius

Another letter from Dasha

From Anastasia in Ukraine

A literally GREAT postcard from Gdańsk sent by Essi... and someone hiding behind it :P

From Antonina in Ukraine

To Anastasia in Ukraine

For Dasha in Ukraine

For Søren in Iceland

For Anastasia in Ukraine

For Brigitta in Hungary

I think next time I'll have to tell you more about my new studies and how it happened that I've become a full-time student for the 2nd time, but for now I just want to publish this entry, which I've been planning to do for more than a month, but procrastinating all the time. It's always hard to start, right? I think you'll also see more mail from me both here and in your mailboxes, if I only manage to survive combining 3 jobs with 2 majors at university... But I'm not a normal person, so why shouldn't I survive it? :P