After a gloomy weekend... There come great books and lovely letters!

The weather has been really terrible this weekend... I try hard not to let such things bring me down, but I admit that the gray sky and lack of sunlight have some impact on my mood. Have I already mentioned that I love both autumn and winter, but the period between them becomes just unbearable sometimes? On Sunday all the streets and sidewalks got really slippery, so I've fallen for the first time this winter (okay, it must also have something to do with me being quite a clumsy person) :/ Fortunately, I've managed to write two essays over the weekend, so I don't blame myself for being totally lazy - I'm just a bit lazy :) Most likely I'll have one more stressful week ahead of me and then it should get easier. Anyway, I'm so much more relaxed about my exam period than I used to be a few years ago... Isn't it a paradox that the more relaxed attitude I have and the less I care about my marks, the less I procrastinate? Yet it took me 5 years to find out! :)

Monday is a day off for me this semester, so my weekend isn't over yet, but I can already tell that this new week has started in a very nice way for me! :) First of all, it's been snowing almost all day long! We've got snow! A lot of white, shiny snow! :D Not that it's anything unusual for Ukraine in December... But it finally feels like real winter has come! I think I'll have to take some pictures of snowy Lviv to share with you this week :) Moreover, it's been a great mail day for me! I've received three books as an early Christmas present from my best friend, who happens to be my Dad at the same time :)

Two of them are about Ukraine, but written by a British author, so it'll definitely be an interesting and developing read. And also helpful when it comes to my thesis :) The third book is something that should help me with the meditation practice. I was trying to find this one in Poland, but it wasn't available, so I'm really glad to finally happy. Now I have no idea which book should I read first :)

As for my mail, today I've received two letters:

This wonderful, long letter comes from my Israeli friend Stav, whom I'm going to meet very soon! But as her letter arrived surprisingly quickly, I should be able to send my answer before traveling to Israel :) She's also enclosed two beautiful postcards and a very interesting tea :)

And a very nice letter from my Italian penpal Martina living in Slovenia :) It looks that my pile of mail is growing, but no, I'm still not really behind and hopefully I won't be, because it always makes me feel terrible, when I'm not able to write back to my penpals within a reasonable period of time.

I've also sent two letters lately:

This one started traveling to Kathrin in Germany on Saturday. Hopefully it has at least left Ukraine by now, but you never know with our postal service ;)

And this one went to Fariza in Singapore today. I know the envelope doesn't look great, but I've decided to send a small surprise for Fariza's birthday and here's the result ;) Actually, I've had a huge dispute with the post office lady on why I shouldn't be sending it as a letter and she's warned me that it might get returned... But I've already been sending much heavier "letters" with more suspicious contents and they all arrived. I think it's more comfortable to send letters instead of packages, because I don't have to fill the customs declaration and the receiver doesn't have to go to the post office to get my mail. Well, I just hope it doesn't get lost, which would be a huge pity... And anyway, if it's forbidden to send anything but the actual letter + postcards as a "letter", then why the weigth limit for "letters" is 2 kg? I think my most extreme "novel" weighted just about 200 g, so it doesn't make much sense to me. Do you ever face some stupid postal regulations?

Last but not least, I'd like to share a song that I've been listening to this weekend with you :) Flёur is one of my favourite Ukrainian groups, even if they sing in Russian. But they also have at least one song in Ukrainian, so I can forgive them ;) This song is about the pain of coming back to the places, which have a very special place in your memory... but once you come back, you realise that everything has already changed. I can really relate to this feeling. And, after watching the video (which I've only discovered on Saturday), I think I know where I'll go for my New Year's Training ;)

 

 

The first days of December

December is always quite a stressful month for me, not only because of exams, but also because of all the essays and assignments that I have to write, which is actually more stressful than the exams themselves, as I tend to procrastinate writing as much as I can... Well, my procrastination isn't as extreme as it used to be during my first years at university, so there's at least some progress :) This weekend I'm staying in Lviv and hopefully I'll write at least half of what I'm supposed to do by the end of next week. One thing that makes me feel that my state of mind must be much better than it was even just a year ago is that spending the weekend at home doesn't feel terrible anymore. Of course, I never lose my passion for traveling and I'd rather be Training at the moment, but I can still remember how I was nearly going crazy each time I had to spend weekend in Lviv and I'm glad that those emotions are gone. It's much better to be traveling when I want to and not because "I have to", as staying alone, face to face with my thoughts would be unbearable. Something must have changed in me, indeed. I don't notice those changes so easily, because I see myself everyday, but after a while it's possible to tell that things aren't the way they used to be. I believe in this case it's a change for the better, yet I hope to go somewhere next week :) But surely, now I'm not going to spend the whole weekend sitting at home and typing ;) I think I'll go for a walk to the city centre and perhaps continue my tradition of letter writing in café's.

Yes, I should definitely spend some time writing letters to my dear penpals, because just this week 3 letters have arrived at my P.O. Box ;)

This letter from Francesca in Italy came on Monday. I haven't heard from her since summer, so it was really nice to read all her news :)

Fariza from Singapore has written me a very sincere letter in answer to my intro and has also sent me two postcards from her country :) I'm really glad to finally have a penpal from Asia, with thom I can exchange long and thoughtful letters! By the way, have you noticed this Russia-themed envelope? :) I'll have to ask Fariza, whether people associate Ukraine with Russia even halfway around the world away from here :) That's really interesting!

Finally, on Thursday I've received this letter from my Finnish friend Essi, who has visited me earlier this year and we had a great time traveling around Ukraine, taking photos of sad yellow buses, all statues of Jesus, as well as of the big mess on Maidan Nezalezhnosti :D Essi has also sent me a huuuge postcard from her trip to Prague and a handmade Christmas card! She makes one for me each year, which I really appreciate :) I also loved her idea of using 18 stamps on one envelope! :)

This week I've only been able to send one letter, but believe me - it was a big one! :) I promised myself to fit into 30 A4 pages and I managed, but that was quite hard. I hope Tündi will receive my letter soon :) By the way, I really like those sets of stamps showing different regions of Ukraine - they're almost like postcards. Today they've started selling a new set, dedicated to Volyn region, so of course I've bought a few - just let me know, if you're interested in receiving such stamps. The only problem with them is that they don't fit onto standard sized envelopes ;) By the way, once I'm writing about stamps, here are the new Ukrainian Christmas/New Year stamps:

They're meant for domestic mail, but you know, I like to put a lot of stamps on my envelopes (not as many as Essi did though), so they're going to travel to quite a few countries :) To be honest, I don't celebrate Christmas myself and so I don't get excited about Christmas-related stuff, but I know how much it means to some of my friends, so why not please them with holiday themed stamps and postcards? I also used to love Christmas as a child, but I haven't celebrated it since I've started living on my own in Ukraine. Well, I've tried to celbrate once, I even had a small Christmas tree, but that just felt sad, because I missed those times, which are gone forever... Therefore I prefer to keep my wonderful childhood memories and love that old Christmas, the way it used to be. Nowadays ignoring Christmas doesn't upset me anymore, especially that I have no idea, when am I supposed to celebrate it. In Poland, where I'm originally from, it's on 25th December, just like in most of countries. But in Ukraine it's not even a day off - I'm actually going to have an exam on 25th December this year. Ukrainian Christmas is on 7th January, but I'm going to be on my way to Israel that day. Isn't traveling also a kind of celebration? :)

P.S. A day or two ago my German friend has asked me, whether there's been a nuclear incident in Ukraine, so I think I'll better make it clear on my blog that nothing terrible has happened :) One of the reactors of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been switched off for technical reasons (they all have to be switched off from time to time) and this, combined with lack of coal on "normal" power plants (as most of coal comes from the war zone), causes problems with energy in Ukraine. It happens that they just switch it off for 2 or 3 hours either in the morning or in the evening, which can be slightly annoying, but I hope they'll fix that reactor soon. No Chernobyl #2, don't worry ;)

We have to be crazy sometimes!

I still can't believe what I've done yesterday - I've booked a flight to Israel! I still find it hard to think of this journey as of a real event, which is going to happen quite soon - on 7th of January! The idea of traveling to Israel this winter (and not in the summer, as I had previously planned) came to my mind on Friday. I knew I'd be flying to Brussels from Budapest on 14th January (I always fly either from Hungary or from Poland, because the flights from Ukraine are much more expensive), and I also knew that Wizzair offered cheap flights from Budapest to Tel Aviv, so why not fly there right before or right after my trip to Belgium? :) I talked to my Israeli friend to find out, which option would be better for her, so we agreed on 7th-12th January... but it still took me several hours to make the final decision and to push the "buy tickets" button in my browser. In the end my hands were really shaking! And no, it's not because of the price - those flights were actually cheap! But it really felt like making a big step out of my comfort zone. "Me traveling out of Europe on my own?! No way!" - I would have said a year ago. I'd probably also say that I'm not really interested in the destinations out of European continent. But something has been changing in me, perhaps I've been becoming braver and more open for new experiences. I still wonder, how far this change could take me... Not only in terms of my journeys, but mostly of my attitude to life. Yet at the moment I'm just really excited about my trip and have been reading about Israel a lot :) Of course, I've also started to realise that my plans are totally crazy - not only because I have an aviaphobia and because I'll have to spend one night at Budapest airport, but also because I'll probably have to spend 3 weeks traveling with just my small backpack, due to Wizzair's luggage limitations and me being too greedy to pay additional luggage fee :D But isn't life about being crazy sometimes? Aren't those crazy adventures the ones that we'll recall with tears in our eyes, when we grow old?

I can also feel it with my heart and soul, how blessed I am to have my dear penpals. No, I'm not trying to say that it's cool to have penpals all around the world, because then you can travel a lot just to visit them ;) There's Couchsurfing and other similar projects for those, who want to travel the world and have free accomodation - and you don't even have to put all that effort into writing letters and forming a friendship :) But isn't it great, when you become interested in a certain country, because you have a true friend there? A real friend, who understands and supports you even better than those people, whom you meet everyday. When your main motivation for traveling is to meet this friend rather than just to see some ancient cities, beautiful mountains or cool beaches? In such moments I feel it to the deepest that penpalling is much more than just a hobby and also more than a lifestyle - it's the best way to get in touch with kindred spirits, no matter what's their geographical locations. In the last several years I had quite a strong preference for European penpals, because the possibility of meeting them felt more real than in case with those, who live on other continents. But when you're brave enough and have access to low-cost airlines, distance isn't such a big problem anymore :)

As for my weekend, it's been calm and relaxing :) It's already quite cold outside (it's -6 C), but today I've been to one of my favourite café's in Lviv and started writing an extreme letter to my dear Tündi, while drinking Chai Latte ;) 

I'll do my best to fit into 30 pages, but I can't promise anything, because I often get carried away, while answering Tündi's letters ;)
Moreover, I've received one and sent 2 letters during this weekend:

This lovely letter, along with a postcard from Bremen and some tea, came from my new penpal Kathrin in Germany :) I was a bit afraid she wouldn't feel like answering my messy intro, written on a train to Moldova, but I'm really glad she did and I'll answer her as soon as I'm done with my huge missive for Tündi :)

This letter to Marina in Russia was sent on Friday :) I hope it'll arrive just as quickly, as her last letter to me did!

And that's my first letter for Mihaela in Romania, which I've sent today. Actually, we've been exchanging mesages on Interpals for about 2 months, so it didn't feel like writing an intro, but rather like simply continuing our discussion :) Mihaela offered to switch to snail mail after seeing my blog, so I hope my letter won't disappoint her :)

Is it really the last day of November today? And is there really just one month left until the end of 2014? Unbelievable... Time passes by so quickly... But I love it that the winter is coming. I'm happy to see even just a tiny bit of snow. It reminds me about the atmosphere of Christmas, which I haven't experienced for many years, but I have those memories somewhere deep in my heart and probably that's why winter feels... warmer than other seasons :) Have a lovely December!

Living in the country of careless translators and homophobic teachers

Today I've been really annoyed with people, who certainly shouldn't be working with languages, but unfortunately they are. As some of you know, I've been collecting papers for my permanent residence permit (and possibly also citizenship, if I'd be allowed to keep the Polish one as well) in Ukraine. And so, among many other papers, I needed a translation of 3 birth certificates: mine, my mother's and my grandmother's. That's a way to prove that my granny was born in Ukraine and that she's indeed my granny :) Of course, I might translate those documents myself, but I can understand why an official translation, signed and stamped by a notary is required. I can even understand, why such translations are quite expensive - afterall translating documents is a huge resonsbility. So can you imagine, how shocked I was, when I saw my papers translated with several mistakes?! First of all, my grandmother's surname was transliterated differently in hers and my mother's certificates, although in Polish the spelling was identical in both documents! And believe me, my grandmother's surname isn't that difficult to transliterate. That was the first thing I paid attention to, because the immigration officer told me that even if just one letter is different, my application can be rejected! I asked them to correct the spelling and went to uni. Fortunately, I had a boring class, so I spent some time reading through those translations carefully. And guess what? Apart from some minor mistakes, I've also found something really ridiculous! Next to the notary's signature and stamp it was written... "A translation from Ukrainian into English"! :D Polish into Ukrainian or Ukrainian into English? Makes no difference at all! I should have all those stupid mistakes corrected by tomorrow, but it seems to be a more global problem with Ukrainian translators. I remember how in one questionnaire, which my dean was supposed to fill in, they translated "your country" as "наша країна" (meaning "our country"). Just amazing! :)

The truth is that most of Ukranians still can't speak any foreign languages (unless we count Russian as a foreign one) and apparently you can't expect even those, who have a diploma in languages, to be thoroughly fluent. On one hand, it's a good thing for me, because being able to speak 7/8 languages in a country, where people can barely speak English, is a huge advantage. On the other hand, it becomes really annoying, when I need those official translations, I pay for them and I realise I would have done them much better myself.

Once I'm writing about people, who work with languages, although they shouldn't, I'd also like to mention my German teacher. Well, she's nice and I like it that she motivates me to learn the language (I doubt I'd be learning it actively on my own). But today we were discussing the topic of youth crime and she expressed her opinion that... "It happens because our society is too tolerant towards gays"! Dear readers of my blog, could you please explain me, what's the correlation between homosexuality and youth crime? I'm sorry, but I'm too stupid to understand! :/ But seriously... I wish one day it won't be acceptable to express homophobic comments at least at work in Ukraine. I respect it that people can have their own opinions and discuss them with their family or friends. But when you're working with strangers, for example as a language teacher, you should keep in mind that the person you're talking to might also be a member of the LGBT community and, what's even more important, be interested in learning the language rather than listening to your homophobic views. Now I regret not having said anything, but I'm not much of an activist. Sometimes I think I should become one, because I don't really care for my reputation (at least as long as I'm a student), but I guess I'm not brave enough :(

But not to finish my blog entry on such a negative note, I'll share the pictures of my mail with you, as usually :)

This beautiful envelope came from Marina in Russia on Monday. Amazingly, it took just a week to arrive! Anyone, who's had something to do with Russian postal service will understand why I'm so surprised ;) I love the stamps, especially the round ones! Marina has also sent me two postcards and some yummy tea :)

This letter came from another Ukrainian penpal of mine, Anastasia. Ironically, I've been to her city (Chernihiv - which is actually one of my favourite places in Ukraine) for 4 times since we've started writing to each other, but we've never met, because I was never alone during those trips. But I think one day I should just go there on my own with the goal of finally meeting Anastasia :)

This big envelope and postcards came from Tündi in England, who is my most extreme penpal ;) Believe it or not, once she's sent me a letter, which was 124 A4 pages long :D Since then we've been trying to make our letters a bit... less extreme, but we seem to fail, all we manage to do is to make our letters look shorter :) For example, once I've typed a letter for her and was satisfied with it having less than 30 pages - nevermind that the font was really small and there was minimal space between the lines ;) Now she's handwritten "just" 32 pages for me, but there are about 60 lines on each page... Does that already sound ridiculous to you? Well, I think it indeed is, so we should just relax and write as much as we want :D

And here's my outgoing mail:

A letter for Søren in Iceland, sent on Tuesday. No, it wasn't me to put the "par avion" stamp upside down ;)

A letter for Katka in Czech Republic went out on Thursday and includes a sample of my very broken Czech :)

And a letter to Anastasia in Ukraine, also sent on Thursday.

Currently I'm writing to Marina and I'll try to send my letter tomorrow ;) It's going to be a slightly weird one, because I wanted to write it in a small and cute notepad, but 31 pages don't seem to be enough, so I'll have to add extra ones ;) I hope she'll like my letter nevertheless :)

On Ukrainian Revolutions and their impact on my life

It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years since I've become interested in Ukraine and started learning the language. Of course, this date (22 November 2004) is purely symbolic, because when you're 13, you often become fascinated with something and you never know, whether that would last for 10 days, 10 months or 10 years :) But after 10 years I can tell that it was the Orange Revolution, which inspired me to learn Ukrainian. I could already speak a bit of Russian at that time, but watching the news about peaceful, colourful and democratic revolution in Ukraine motivated me to learn Ukrainian as well. As a teenager, who already had quite a huge interest in politics, I was truly fascinated with those events and wished I could be on Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square - the main square of Kyiv, where all the big demonstrations take place) as well. It was impossible because of my young age, but since I've moved to Ukraine, I've always tried to travel to Kyiv on the anniversary of Orange Revolution. Some people thought this "tradition" of mine was weird, because, despite all the enthusiasm that people had back in 2004, those events didn't bring any significiant changes for Ukraine. In fact, that wasn't even a proper revolution, because it didn't bring any really new faces to Ukrainian politics - it was just a political game, but the emotions and faith of common people were real. And at least there were no victims - which is a very important "detail" in light of recent events in our country. Therefore I see nothing wrong in commemorating the anniversary of Orange Revolution in this way or another - afterall that was the event that helped me to discover my Ukrainian self :)

 

So that's me on Maidan Nezalezhnosti yesterday with my new hairstyle :) But nowadays most of people come there to commemorate another revolution, which happened exactly 9 years after the first one, on 21 November 2013. I'll be honest with you - my attitude to this one is completely different and there's more than just one reason for that. Maybe it's because I've been studying political science for almost 5 years and I simply don't believe in revolutions anymore. Revolution always seems to be an easy way of solving social and political problems, but that's just an illusion, because most of problems come from our own mentality. I believe that something has to change in minds of people before we can have a fully democratic political system. I absolutely don't blame people, who believed the ideas of Euromaidan last year - they hoped for a better life, for an European country without corruption and they probably didn't realise where this revolutionary path could lead us. People blamed me for being "anti-Maidan", which isn't actually true. But when there's a revolution, people get very emotional and they don't see that there's more than just one step between being "pro" and "anti". They tend to believe that once you're not with them, you must be against them. I was sceptical about the Euromaidan, because I knew that its ideas weren't supported by everyone in Ukraine and that there was a huge regional differentiation. Euromaidan was mostly a Western Ukrainian movement. Of course, there were thousands of people from East supporting the revolution as well - but statistically, they were a minority in their regions. I also had the feeling that the energy of Euromaidan, just like energy of any other revolution, could get out of control and have totally unexpected consequences. But you know, even in my worst nightmares I couldn't see the war coming... Saying that Euromaidan caused the war would be slightly unfair, but I believe it was the factor to trigger the tragedy which we've been observing in East Ukraine this year. And again, I'm not even sure if that was a real revolution, because people, who rule Ukraine now, have been in politics for many years - and Euromaidan simply helped them to come from opposition to the power. I'm afraid that in a few years people will be disappointed in Euromaidan just like they were disillusioned a couple of years after Orange Revolution. But as far as in the first case they could only blame themselves for wasting time standing on Maidan Nezalezhnosti for the sake of political leaders, who weren't worth it, now we're talking of thousands of lives that were lost both during the Euromaidan and the war this year... So no, there's no way I'd celebrate the anniversary of last year's events. I still love this country and hope things will get better, but that certainly won't be a result of any revolution. The change must start within ourselves...

 

But let's move on to more optimistic topics :)

 

Aren't trains beautiful at sunrise? Well, not only at sunrise, if you ask me ;) I came to Fastiv, where my friend Anya lives, on Saturday morning. We've had a really nice time together and she convinced me to try a completely crazy hairstyle :) In fact, I like it that this year I've finally become open for experiments with my appearance. It's just a pity that I'm in last year of my studies and later I might have to stick to a more conformist style :)

 

Last but not least, here's my letter for my dear Sandra in Germany, which I've sent from Kyiv on Saturday. Hopefully it will arrive soon, because sometimes mail to Germany takes 3 weeks! :/ Currently I'm working on my letter for Søren in Iceland :) I'll still have a lot of time for writing tomorrow, especially that my dentist appointment will have to be postponed, as she's sick. Not that I'm happy about my dentist sickness... but I feel a bit relieved, at least for the few next days ;)

Scary Dentist and Lovely Mail

I guess nobody likes dentists. Neither do I. But obviously sometimes we need them... People, who are a bit wiser than me, go to a dentist as soon as they feel that there's some problem. I wait longer, trying to ignore the pain, and as a result I get a longer and more complicated treatment. On Tuesday I learnt that my dentist was on a sick leave, so I had to look for another one, which caused me even more stressed. Luckily, the new dentist turned out to be very nice and she's decided to do her best to avoid root canal treatment. Great, there's a chance to spare my tooth's nerves and my own nerves too! :) But things can't be all that easy, when it comes to dentists ;) I spent 2.5 hours in the dental chair waiting for the anesthetic to start working. No, I can't say that it totally didn't work on me. After 4 injections I couldn't feel half of my face and felt a bit dizzy for the rest off the day, but somehow it didn't work on the tooth! Now the torture will continue on Monday, but let me not think of it yet...

To be honest, I've been feeling tired and down this week. Maybe it's because of the gloomy and cold weather, maybe it's because of the dentist appointmer, or maybe it's still a result of my trip to Poland, but most likely it's just a mix of all those factors, but I hope my mood will improve soon. What has added some beautiful colours to this gray week was the mail from my lovely penpals! Here it comes :)

On Tuesday I received 3 letters. This one comes from my dear Bahanur :) I absolutely love those owls on the envelope! The biggest problem with this letter was that I wasn't allowed to open it, until I finished answering Bahanur's previous missive, which I had received just one day earlier. This make me stay awake until 1 am on Tuesday evening just to finish my letter and to eventually open this envelope :) Yes, Bahanur's letters are very addictive! :)

This amazing envelope came from my dear Sandra in Germany! I'm not sure, if I've ever told her how much I loved maps, but her creativity made me really happy :) But believe me, the letter itself is even more lovely and I've already started answering it, so hopefully I'll be able to send it out after the weekend. Last time I made Sandra wait for my answer way too long, so now I'm trying to be quicker.

Here's the letter from my Ukrainian friend Antonina, which also arrived on Tuesday. We've been writing to each other for more than 4 years, but haven't had a chance to meet each other yet, because she lives in a very tiny village and has a little child... She's also been going through a very hard period in her life, but I'll do my best to support her and I hope that one day we'll finally see each other in person. Antonina is a great friend and also one of the most regular writers among my penpals :)

Today's evening has been brightened by a thick envelope from Søren in Iceland! Apart from the letter itself, he's also sent me a chapter of his novel and two beautiful Icelandic postcards. We've only been writing to each other for about half a year, but I really value his friendship and trust in me. He's one of those very few people in the world, with whom I can share even my most private and controversial thoughts. Looking at the Icelandic postcards I become even more sure that I'd like to go there one day. I just wish it wasn't so expensive ;)

Surprisingly enough, I've also managed to write and send 3 letters this week. I can be proud of myself! ;)

On Tuesday I've sent my answer to Taši's intro. 

This envelope started traveling to Turkey on Wedesday. As our postage for international mail is in US dollars and our currency has been devaluating very quickly, I have to use more and more stamps. But so far they still fit onto the envelope :D

And today I've sent my letter to Antonina. Normally I don't use the pre-paid envelopes neither for domestic, nor for international mail. But I liked this one, because it shows Uzhgorod - one of my favourite Ukrainian cities.

That's all for tonight :) In 3 hours from now I'll be on a train to Kyiv. I'm going to visit my "private hairdresser", who lives some 70 kms away from our capital city:) We met under rather strange circumstances - she's a relative of my ex-it's-complicated (in case you don't know, it's almost like ex-boyfriend, just more complicated) ;) and we came to her place escaping from the war in East Ukraine. She's become my friend and I'm really happy that we keep in touch despite my split with that guy. I'm looking forward to spending the weekend with her and I hope there will be still some hair left on my head afterwards :) I'll be back on Sunday :)

So glad to see my mailbox again ;)

I've just come back home on Sunday evening. It was quite a long trip - 10 hours by train, then crossing the border on foot and traveling for 2 more hours by bus. But I've already got used to it. I must admit that this relatively long way from Poland to Ukraine is always something more than just a train trip. My emotions change as I get closer to the border and I have time to think everything over... This trip in Poland has caused me a lot of emotions, both positive and negative ones. There've been really beautiful moments, which have touched my heart, but I also feel I have a big mess in my head and it will take me some time to find my inner harmony again. Actually, I've decided to try meditation, as I'd like to become more mindful and focused on "here and now" instead of thinking of the past and future. I know several people, whom it has really helped, but I know it'll depend mainly on my motivation. Yet I'm sure I should try, because I need some change in my life, or at least in the way I perceive some issues and events in my life.

Today I have a day off and I've been relaxing, but I've also finally had the chance to check my mailbox :) Believe it or not, I already had dreams about going to the post office and receiving letters! In my latest dream, which I've had tonight, there were 7 letters waiting for me, but in reality I've only received 3. That's a good thing, because I would have felt a bit overwhelmed with 7 letters at once. Yet I know there are more letters coming my way, so I think my mailbox will have some more happy days this week ;)

This wonderful letter came from my Turkish friend Bahanur. She's also enclosed a postcard from Syria, which I'm really thankful for, because it's the first one from this country in my collection! Receiving a letter from Bahanur always makes my day, as she's one of my closest penpals and I feel I can share even my most controversial thoughts with her. I know there should be one more letter from her coming very soon, so I'll do my best to answer this one before the other one arrives ;)

This letter is from my Czech penpal Katka. She always writes me a page or two in Czech (and so I also have to write in Czech, at least a bit!) ;), which helps me to practise this language, which I used to study for 3 years at high school and wouldn't like to forget it totally. She always uses beautiful stamps and she's also enclosed postcards from her trips to Finland and Slovakia.

This intro letter came from my new Slovene penpal Taši. I'm always a bit anxious, when it comes to the intro letters, because I've already received some really disappointing and impersonal ones. But Taši's letter was really interesting and I've already started answering it. I always try write back to my new penpals quickly, so the friendship can develop quickly :) Currently Taši is also my oldest penpal (the age difference between us is 17 years), but I'm more and more convinced that age isn't much more than just a number!

Last but not least, I've received a postcard from Kinga in Hungary! She's sent me one from her hometown, which I've actually been to in 2012, but I didn't buy any postcards there. I hope my 3 cards have also reached her safely :) That's all for today, but hopefully soon I'll have more good news. Now I still need some time to relax and to get back to my usual activities...