Beautiful Autumn

I can't believe it's already October. In fact, it doesn't even feel like October at all - I've just spent 6 hours by the sea today and got slightly sunburn, I just hope tomorrow my face won't be so red anymore :) As much as I dislike sunbathing, I forget to hide from the sun when I'm busy writing a letter and watching the calm sea. It's still warm enough even for normal people to swim (for me it's never too cold, as long as there's someone to make a hole in the ice when the sea gets frozen) :D , which is quite unusual for this season, but I'm glad about it, because I'm still a bit afraid of the effect that the "real", gray autumn might have on my mood. But I'm trying not to worry about it yet and to simply enjoy these wonderful, sunny days :) 

In fact it's been a really good week for me. Finally I feel I'm getting more confident about my Greek studies, especially after I took the 3rd place in translation competition, which means I did better than some 4th year students. Of course, I should admit that the tasks were rather simple and that I have good intuition in languages, so I might guess some words even in a language I can't speak at all. It also means, that the level of Greek skills of 4th year students aren't really great, if they can't translate the names of vegetables or clothes from Greek into Russian :P But it's good to feel that I'm not really behind anymore. I realize that if I want to learn to speak Greek fluently, I'll have to do much more than uni requires me to - and I think writing letters in this language is a good beginning. But each success, even a small one, makes me feel more motivated and inspired. I also feel how much I already love this uni, even if it's not the best or most prestigious one in Ukraine. Yet it's a place where a student can feel welcome and appreciated, which is extremely important itself. Believe it or not, I even started doing my homework, which I'd never do during my previous studies, even if I had much more free time :D To me it's indeed the attitude that makes the hugest difference.

Remember this guy? ;) Today, while I was writing a letter, he decided to use my laptop and to buy some train tickets! But I can't be angry with him, you know. It would also be a pity to return those tickets, so I think next weekend I'll have to go to Kyiv and Zaporizhia. It's not my fault :P I actually feel quite excited about going to Zaporizhia, because it's a city that played an important role in Ukrainian history and yet I've never been there (other than spending 6 hours sleeping at the railway station). It's the first time I'm going to leave Mariupol since August and I feel absolutely no pressure to do it, but I think it's worth meeting my friends, who live in the capital from time to time, as well as to visit new places. I might come back with a weird hairstyle, by the way... ;)

This week I've also spent some time exploring Mariupol (and getting lost). You know, going to the beach by bus is for normal people, and I've decided to check, how long would it take me to walk from the seaside to my flat. It took me 35 minutes, including getting lost for 3 times :P Those stairs looked really attractive to me, I love such abandoned places, but unfortunately they led to nowhere, so I had to go back and take a path, which made me feel as if I went to the mountains ;) I wonder why I never had such mood for exploring and adventures in Lviv? Well, maybe there are just too many guides to Lviv... And Mariupol seems to be a city, which still has some secrets.

And of course, I've also received and sent some mail this week :)

From Tasha in UK

Tasha has sent me a beautiful postcard from her trip to Brighton :)

From Dasha in Ukraine

And today I've received 2 letters from Dasha. I think I'll just give her my answer on Friday when we meet :D

For Søren in Iceland

On Friday I've sent a letter to Søren in Iceland. Unfortunately, I had to use usual stamps as to avoid covering this nice old tram on the envelope. Still waiting for Ukrainian post to issue nice stamps with higher values...

For Bine in Germany

Today I've finally sent an answer to Bine's lovely intro... It's a shame to answer it after such a long time (I don't even want to count how many months), but I hope she'll like my letter anyway. And in this case I didn't have to limit myself when it comes to the stamps ;)

For Gloria in Uganda

And one more letter, an unusual one. I'm not even covering the receiver's address, because it would be great if more people decided to send letters there. But let me explain. Eddy is a teacher from Uganda, who's been running a very special and meaningful project for children living in rural areas, you can read more about it here: Revive a Rural African Child and join a closed group for those, who want to send letters.. The idea of this project is for people from all around the world to correspond with children, who've grown up in very tough conditions and need some motivation to make them believe that they should continue studying and that they can actually achieve something. It doesn't cost anything (of course, if you want, you can send some small gift to your little penpal, but there's no obligation!), but it can hopefully make a real difference in someone's life. I've sent a letter to a 13 years old girl named Gloria this week and I really hope it will put a smile on her face, even if it'll probably take a long time to arrive.

I still have to finish a letter and do some homework in Greek, so that's it for tonight :) Have a lovely Monday!

Sea, sea... and some more sea! :)

It's a lovely Sunday afternoon again... And yes, you've guessed it right, I'm at the seaside again ;) Since the weather is still really nice (actually, it's even nicer than during the summer, because it's not that hot anymore and you don't see crowds on beaches everyday), I try to go to the seaside everyday. Sometimes I even take my small (but growing) army of Minions with me ;)

This particular selfie was taken on Friday, today they're being lazy at home :) Honestly, I don't even know how I survived 24 years living far away from the seaside! It has such a positive impact on my mood and it's good for everything: working, studying, letter writing... Of course, I realize that after a couple of years of living hear I might feel less enthusiastic, but for now I see absolutely no reasons to limit myself :) And actually, I'm going to use this chance to tell you a bit more about the sea - and about my city at the same time. It feels so great to finally be able to say "my city"! As far as I can't remember, I'd never use this expression in Lviv, because it simply never felt this way... It only felt like a good hub to travel from. Being able to say that I love the city I live in is such a positive change for me, so I hope you don't mind my enthusiasm ;)

Railway station, Trains and steel mill in the background ;)

On Monday I went to the beach, which is just next to the railway station. When I first came to Mariupol, which was in 2009, I didn't realize that sea was so close, so I spent 2 hours looking for the sea together with my friend :P But in fact all you have to do is to walk over a pedestrian bridge, watch the lovely landscape with trains and a steel mill (I'm not sure which one of them is that though) and after a couple of minutes you're on a beach.

Sea and clouds on Monday

But usually I go to the central beach, which has no trains and no steel mill on it, simply because it's the closest to the city center, post office, university and other places that I visit everyday. And there's that nice cafe, in which you can drink tea sitting just next to the sea (and if the waves are big, you can also get a bit wet) :) I suppose you won't be surprised if I tell you I still swim in the sea, because I'm probably going to do it until December, when the sea is likely to get frozen. But so far I'm not the only one - the summer doesn't seem to be over yet here.

A rare chance to see me almost naked :P

And finally my favorite beach, which I rarely come to, because it's quite far away, but today I'm here for the first time this month :) Why is it my favorite one? Well, maybe because it was exactly here that I've seen Ukrainian seaside (that day in 2009... after 2 hours of searching for it around the city), maybe because it's totally unique? You don't see beaches with steel mills just next to them very often, right?

Unique seaside :D

In case you think it's some kind of a beautiful cliff on this picture... Well, I have to disappoint you: it's just a huge mountain of steel mill's garbage, which has been growing for several decades. The steel mill itself is a bit farther and can be seen from the beach. In fact, it's not a very good thing, because it pollutes the sea and spoils the landscape (from the normal people's point of view), but at least it's unusual. And actually, it's a very nice district, at some point I considered searching for a flat to rent here, so I could live in a block of flats and still see the sea from my window. The only problem is that this district is the closest to the front line, so I didn't want to risk. Now it's been totally calm for 3 weeks, so I'm not afraid to spend my Sunday here, and let's hope it'll stay this way.

The Sea of Azov is generally very shallow, but on this beach it's even more visible. I think you have to walk at least 300 m away from the shore if you want to swim. Today the level of water is even lower than usually, so there are a lot of small, sandy islands and seagulls walking around. Of course, there are more beaches in Mariupol, but sometimes I also have to study, so I haven't been to all of them this week ;) But you can be sure there will be more seaside pictures coming soon... No matter if you want it or not :P

Last but not least, this week's mail :) 

From Søren in Iceland

I've only received one letter this week, from my dear friend Søren in Iceland. He has also sent me a chocolate with salty liquorice, which I really love, but which is unfortunately unavailable in Ukraine :) It's so great to have friends, who remember about your weird tastes! ;)

For Erin in the USA

But there's been more outgoing mail, since I've been trying not to let my work dominate my life totally. I've sent a letter to Erin on Monday.

For Bahanur in South Korea

And on Thursday I've sent a letter to Bahanur, for the first time since she's moved to South Korea :) Just don't tell me I'm using too many stamps :P

For Evi in Greece

Today I've sent an intro letter to Evi in Greece. We've meet on FB by accident, when she had problems joining a penpalling group in which I'm an admin. The truth is that I've been very behind with this group, just as with everything else, but once we started chatting, we decided to start writing to each other :) Which is a great coincidence, because I really need someone to practice my Greek with, but I didn't want to start writing with any random Greek person. I've written 2 pages in Greek (okay, those were very small pages in very big handwriting...) before switching to English, which I think is quite a good result, if you consider that I started learning Greek just 1,5 month ago. Although I'm sure I've made at least 100 mistakes ;)

I hope you're all having a lovely Sunday too and I wish you a great beginning of the new week!

How to Make Yourself Feel Young and Stupid Again ;)

It's a lovely Sunday afternoon and I'm having a great time drinking tea at the seaside and writing letters :) It's a very rare occasion when I have no work left for the weekend, but I think I should do something in order to have such days more often, because I've definitely lost the life-work balance at some point. All I have to do is to learn to say "no" to some translations that I don't want and don't need, but I still have that stupid feeling that once I'm a beginner, I should take everything. Then I end up translating 40 pages a day (or maybe even more... I don't even want to calculate) and sleeping 3 hours. That's definitely not the way it should be, but I guess it always takes time to find the right balance. I've already made some progress though: I've refused to take a 30 pages long translation of a sewing machine instruction and they haven't even fired me, they just gave me 7 small certificates instead :P Oh, and I got my first Slovak-Ukrainian translation, as if I could speak Slovak :D Soon I'll be able to translate all the languages I know, as well as those which I don't know... You know, in Ukraine everything is possible! ;) Still, I really need to find the balance, because I need some time for studying, traveling, letter writing and just being lazy once in a while. Or I'll turn into a zombie, which might also be interesting...

But so far I'm still alive and enjoying the sea almost everyday. This particular photo was taken last weekend and I know I've been posting too many seaside photos, but the sea is still something really fascinating to me and I'm trying to come here as often as possible while the weather is still nice. Later I'll keep on coming anyway, but probably not for several hours a day :P

As I promised, I'm going to tell you more about my studies this time. I'm currently a 2nd year student of Greek + English (full time) and Polish + Ukrainian + Russian (distant), but the latter studies only require me to come to exams, so I tend to forget about them :) As for becoming a full-time student for the 2nd time, it was a bit of a challenge. First of all, due to famous Ukrainian bureaucracy, I wasn't allowed to start studying from the 1st year. If I wanted to do it, I'd have to take Ukrainian high school exams next year and then try to pretend that it's going to be my 1st higher education. If you already have a diploma, you can only start with the 2nd year. When I learnt about this rule, I had 10 days left until the interview and couldn't speak Greek at all, I only knew the alphabet and some very basic words. I thought of resigning, but I wasn't taking any risk by coming to the interview, so I'd take private Greek classes everyday for those 10 days and somehow I managed. Of course, they had the full right to fail me, if they only wanted, but apparently they decided to give me a chance, because I had made quite a big progress in such a short time. When we got close to the 1st of September, I was feeling very anxious, because I imagined that my groupmates would already speak at least intermediate Greek and of course the teachers would talk to us in Greek... but no, I'm not that much behind ;) I'm basically caught-up with the grammar, but of course I still have to work on the vocabulary. Actually, I think finding a Greek penpal (or a penpal, who can speak fluent Greek) would really help me... so if there are any Greek snail mailers reading this, please drop me a line ;) You'll have a chance to enjoy seeing your language being totally ruined by me :P As for English (if you study translation in Ukraine, you always have 2 languages), I mostly sleep in the classes, but I still hope they'll somehow help me to improve my skills.

I've been studying just for a month, so maybe it's too early to make any conclusions, but so far I think that there are a lot of advantages to becoming a student for the 2nd time, when you're already a bit more mature. Of course, I realize that not everyone can afford it, because not everyone has the chance to work remotely and combine your job with studies. Yet I think that even if you choose distant/ correspondence learning, it's still pretty good for a number of reasons. Those are just my thoughts and you may disagree - especially that things may be different abroad. But here are some reasons why I think it's worth it:

1. You already know (more or less) what you want. Most of people go to university at the age of 18-19 (or even 16, as it happens in Ukraine) and feel quite confused. Often those are their parents, who take the decision instead of them. Personally, I don't regret having chosen to study political science 5 years ago and would still like to do the PhD in it in the future. But now that I'm a bit more mature and am already working, I find it easier to tell what kind of education I'd indeed need for my career and how exactly could I use my diploma. 5 years ago I only knew I wanted to study, but had absolutely no idea, what could I use it for when I graduate.

2. You feel more relaxed. You're not so much afraid of failing an exam and don't think they'll kill you if you "forget" to do your homework, because you've already gone through the whole education cycle once and you've developed perfect laziness skills :P And you feel no pressure to finish your studies if you feel fed up with them at some point, because you already have a degree and what you're doing now it's an "extra".

3. You can feel young again. To be honest, the idea of being totally done with my studies and being an adult was a bit too scary for me. And while I'm just a 2nd year student again, I can sometimes forget that I'm 6 years older than my groupmates ;) Of course, this thing becomes a bit tricky if you only want to study instead of working... but I suppose in some countries it's possible as well ;)

4. They treat you a bit differently. Of course, you should still study and write tests like others do, but you can skip some classes (I don't know, whether it's the same abroad, but in Ukraine you're officially allowed to skip the subjects you had during your previous studies, so for instance I don't have to come to P.E. or philosophy classes anymore), especially if your teachers know you're also working. They're not trying to discipline you, because it's too late to change you ;) And also you have a different attitude to teachers when you're a bit older... You know that they're people just like you, who also don't know absolutely everything in their subjects. 5 years ago I was scared of my teachers and the power they had over me. Now I'm able to view them as partners, helping me to gain some new knowledge.

5. You get a student card and a 50% discount for Training ;) At least if you study in Ukraine ;)

If any of my Readers have the experience of studying at uni more than once, I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions.

And now... snail mail time :) Not too much since my last letter, but there is some progress.

From Dasha in Ukraine

From Antonina in Ukraine

For Arjen in Belgium

For Dasha in Ukraine

For Antonina in Ukraine

Today I've been working on a letter to Erin... And hopefully I'll manage to finish in today, before the new week starts. But really, I'll do my best not to let my work turn me into a zombie, I'd like to be able to write letters not only during the weekends. But it should be fine :)