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 :)

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

I'm alright. It's just a big mess in my head.

Oh well, it's been almost a month since I've written anything here. Some of you might be wondering whether I'm still alive, because I've almost totally disappeared from the internet in the last weeks... Don't worry, I'm fine. It's just one of those periods, when I have such a big mess in my head that I prefer to withdraw myself from any social activities (including online ones) and wait until my mood changes. I've even had a 19 days long period of writing no letters at all, which is a big shame, not just because it's difinitely not the best way to cope with a huge pile of mail, but also because writing is a perfect way of dealing with bad thoughts, a form of self-therapy. But instead of writing I just waited and here I am - finally after 3 weeks I feel better and am able to write letters everyday. Therefore I'm also ready to write a blog entry, even if I'm not sure, what should I start with.

There've been some things going on in my life. I'm currently in the middle of my exam period, which is obviously stressful, but that's fine - at least I have something to keep myself busy with. Things at my job are fine, although sometimes I get paranoid about possibly losing it because of my preference to work remotely. But that's not my biggest fear - in any case, the current job is a good experience and I can always search for something else. I've also spent one week in Poland with Søren, my dear friend, who lives in Iceland. But I'm going to write about the trip to Poland next time... Now I'd like to go back to beginning if April, when I "disappeared" and stopped writing any letters.

In the Kamiani Mohyly reserve

I went on another trip to Eastern Ukraine, this time to a very remote place called "Kamiani Mohyly" (which translates as "Stone Graves", although I don't think there are any graves) ;) Nowadays it's a natural reserve of very old mountains in the middle of a steppe. Getting there was a bit complicated, but I enjoyed the trip nevertheless. Once again I've been able to walk on empty roads, hearing just the wind and it felt so great! I've met the director of the reserve, who called an inspector and asked him to show me around. Therefore I've been able to walk even in those places, which are normally forbidden for tourists and to learn much about the history of the place. That's the advantage of coming totally out of touristic season and telling that you've come from the other end of the country just to see this place! ;)

Old mountains in the steppe

Now you may be wondering, what went wrong. Well, actually everything was just fine. The only problem was that I had to spend the night in Mariupol - and I actually felt good about it, because I still love this city, even after the war experience that I had there last summer. I believe it's more or less safe to come there nowadays, even if sometimes you can hear some disturbing sounds at night. I still felt very comfortable there, especially when I was able to look at the Sea of Azov at night.

My favourite sea ever ;)

The only problem was in my head. I had a ticket back to Kyiv for Sunday (and then I was supposed to take a train from Kyiv to Lviv, of course), but suddenly I didn't feel like coming back... So I'd change the ticket everyday. First Sunday to Monday, then Monday to Tuesday, finally Tuesday to Wednesday. I couldn't stay any longer, because I had to make it to Poland on Friday and the distance is really huge. So I finally left on Wednesday and arrived to Kyiv next morning just to realize that there were no tickets to Lviv! I had forgotten that the Ukrainian Easter was coming (as you can easily tell, I'm not really into celebrating all the traditional holidays)! I spent 2 hours refreshing the website of Ukrainian railways every 15 seconds to catch the moment, when someone would return any ticket to Lviv. Luckily, I managed, and I was in Lviv on Friday at 5:00 am, so I could still easily take a bus to Warsaw at 11:00. So, as you can see, nothing bad happened. But I was just so angry with myself because of my irresponsibilty and all the mess that I've made. I know it'll sound lame, but I was kind of pretending that the trip to Poland wasn't coming and that I didn't have to go anywhere... Perhaps it was some way of escaping the pressure, staying as long as I could in a place that I love, but it left me feeling totally unstable. I suppose I shouldn't be writing all this stuff on a blog, but it's better if my penpals know. I'm alright and nothing bad has happened to me. Just to use my favourite Russian saying "everyone has some cockroaches in their head" ;) And so my "cockroaches" have been having a huge party lately, that's it :)

It might be that I haven't published photos of sent/received mail in the last days of March, but I hope you won't mind if I only share April's mail with you now. All the letters that I've sent in March should have arrived a long time ago :) So, first, incoming mail:

From Taši in Slovenia

This letter comes from my Slovene friend Taši. She has used lovely self-designed stamps as usually! :)

From Hannah in UK

A nice 2nd letter from my new English penpal Hannah.

From Bine in Germany

A lovely intro from Bine! One of those cases when I just couldn't say no to a new friendship... ;)

From Antonina in Ukraine

My Ukrainian friend Antonina has sent me a really great letter, as always!

From Anastasia in Ukraine

And one more Ukrainian letter from Anastasia, who's one of my "oldest" penpals - we've been writing to each other for 5 years!

I've also been lucky to receive postcards from very "rare" countries thanks to my dear penpals, who love traveling as much as I do ;)

Cards from Oman sent by Tündi

My extreme (she knows what I mean) ;) friend Tündi has sent me two great postcards from her trip to Oman! I actually didn't expect to receive written and stamped postcards from there, because I know that this country has quite an unreliable postal service, but I'm really thankful to Tündi for giving it a try!

A card from Laos sent by Essi

And my Finnish friend Essi has sent me this great postcard from Laos during her big Asia trip! :) Do I have to tell you that those are first pieces of mail from both Oman and Laos that I've ever received?! :D

Now my outgoing mail. I've been quite an active writer this week!

For Bahanur in Turkey

A letter for Bahanur in Turkey, which took 3 weeks to be completed, because I started writing it before the break. I hope it won't be too chaotic.

For Kathrin in Germany

A late answer to Kathrin in Germany... I hope she'll like it nevertheless. Yeah, the envelope got a bit wet due to the post office lady putting additional stamps on it in a not exactly neat way. But I hope the letter itself is dry ;)

For Olga in Belarus

A letter for my Belarusian friend, with whom I'm certainly going to travel this year ;)

For Antonina in Ukraine

And finally a letter to Antonina in Ukraine, which should reach her soon.

At the moment I'm working on a letter to Tessa in the Netherlands and generally feel quite motivated to write, so wait for more mail updates from me soon ;) Well, unless I do something stupid again and my "cockroaches" make a big disco :D