Nestor in Ukraine

I have finished today my last task for MC, which concludes my MC term. Uff... :-)

So this is end... I'm going only to send some goodbye letters and after that I will have to spend 3 weeks for my master thesis, with the hope to finish it on time.

I'm thinking about this year. What added value did it bring to my life? How will I use this experience in future?

Did it meet my expectations?
- Well... not really - but It's not bad, I just imagined myself most of the things pretty different (i.e. like work&life balance). Reality, as always, proved to be different than our imagination.

Positive sides of year?
- Training on national conferences
- CEE LDS (ceemos chuch-chuch ;-))
- Some sightseeing
- I finished my 5th year with good grades :-)
- I met a lot of good people and hope to keep in touch with some of them
- I'm Alumni of AIESEC in Ukraine now :-)

Negative sides of year?
- Not full term, I skipped most important things (Expro, IC, SpringCo, planning...) and was not able to realize all my ideas
- Work in MC (don't get me wrong, it was just hard)
- A lot of sad moments connected with politics after impeachment
- Not aligned with my personal goals (no, I am not going to work in HR ;-D)
- Not much fun while being in Kyiv :-)
- My diploma is postponed :-\

Was this a good choice?
- Yes. It was not easy, it was not completely aligned with my goals, but that was one of my goals. I always wanted to go for MC abroad and I am happy that I was selected for this opportunity :-)

Any last words?
Yes. Thanks for MC and LCPs for selecting me. I hope that my work met your expectations.

End of story
This is going to be pretty much last post in this blog. I created it to share elements of my experience in Ukraine. For me this will be a good souvenir, and I hope that maybe it challenged at least one of you. That was my experience. Other person will have different opinions (obvious, right?), but it's good to know others' opinions.

Thank you guys for this year. See you somewhere. I hope soon.

Labels: my experience

Posted by deQuire at 6:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)  

Long long time ago... :-)

Right now, when I'm already sitting in the room in which I've spend my whole childhood, I'm thinking about what did I experience while being in UA - especially my cultural experience.

I remember the changes in my mood happening during the term, starting from the hype on the beginning, happiness from everything that was different. Initial shocks in work, when I was being constantly told that some things don't work here. Or no-can-do attitude of people, which was really frustrating.

I remember also time in which I was really tired with my life there, wanting to escape as fast as possible.

And I remember finally time, during which I kind of felt adjusted... Not part of culture, but being able to live in. What I mean by that...

I remember one small conversation with Sveta during which I was explaining her why I don't feel the best by living in Kyiv. I called it 3 barriers...

- communications
- time
- money

The last shouldn't have been barrier at all, but that is reality of work in MC - you need to live modest. I'm not going to write about it :-)

The time barrier was about life & work balance. Our team was just working, and working, and working... Living and working in the same place doesn't really help you to stop. It was very usual to wake up and start working. And after finishing work going to sleep. There is so much to do in MC Ukraine, that if you want to do at least half of what you need to do, then you need to sacrifice your whole time. And our problem was that I didn't really see people except from me who wanted to have some balance... When you are the only person, who wants to stop working and to do something else, it is really hard.

But this barrier was broken. At some point of time, I just started saying no and done different things - studies, stupid games, reading. And the biggest breakthrough for me was, when me and Slavik started to visit LC Kyiv :-) Those are really nice people. I wish we did it sooner :-)

And the last barrier... and the hardest to challenge. Language. In Ukraine, not many people speak Engish on street. In fact, I don't remember a single person with whom I could speak English on streets of Ukraine, or even in bar. There were people who understood me and for example took order, but I really don't remember anybody speaking English to me. Even McDonalds failed english test. "- Do you speak English? - Eeeee...". :-)

I tried to learn russian, but I manage to go through only 13 short lessons. But all the time I was listening the language and I must say I am really amazed how it is possible to learn language without studying it. By asking people I learned swearings (tx Slavik ;-), colloquials, numbers, dates. By reading (damned cyrylics) I learned names of products.

When I knew those basics the biggest problem was to start speaking. I know that I can't do it well, so I preferred not to speak at all and that was my problem. But with time there were those moments, when I was forced to use language:
- to buy tickets for train
- to pass money in marshrutka
- to buy something in not-supermarket
- to order something in bistro
- to ask for directions

And then even bigger challenges. Members of AIESEC, who don't speak English. "Nu, harasho. Ya gavaru chut-chut po-russkiy.". Challenge number 2 - while passing in gate in supermarket, alarm starts and I have to explain security guard that I didn't steal anything. Challenge number 3 - konsyerzhka likes me a lot and asks me different things.

And for me a breakthrough moment, when I (with my broken language) was able to help other foreigners (who spoke even less). This is really motivating :-)

I still don't speak Russian (Ukrainian even less). But now I feel confident walking around this country. If somebody will stop me and ask for something, I will manage to communicate.
I can also not take the advantage of sightseeing this country.

And I can't wait until I will subscribe to russian course. :-)

So... that was part of my cultural experience. Only small part. And Ukraine is a country similar to Poland. I wonder what could I learn if I would go to Asia, Africa or South America... Hope I will have a chance.

And I wish all of you to have cultural experience at least in your life :-)

Labels: my life

Posted by deQuire at 6:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)  

It's quite hard to say goodbye to country that I have lived in for 9 months. Since Thursday to Sunday I was meeting with various people and saying goodbye, as I don't really know if/when I will see them next time. On Thursday we had a small party with some members from Kyiv in the favorite LC Kyiv's place (as I get the impression) :-) And in the evening - I think I amazed MC members, telling them that 200 metres from MC flat there is a lake. We've made small "picnic" there in the night. That was also cool :-) http://picasaweb.google.pl/dequire/SmallGoodbyeParty

I also got a cool "goodbye present" from Olya - on Friday she took me to a park on outskirs of Kyiv, in which, on a big area of land, there is a presentation of elements of Ukrainian traditional housings - with different regions of museum similar to different regions of country. http://picasaweb.google.pl/dequire/KievsMuseumPark

On my way home, during weekend I have finally visited Ivano-Frankisk. Quite small, nice city with cool center and even more cool LC :-) At the same time when I was there, there was a welcome party for 2 interns, so we had some good fun :-)

And finally on Sunday, I stopped for 5 hours in Lviv, where I met with Olya, Nastya and Khrystia to spend cool evening on market square. Lviv was beautiful as always :-) http://picasaweb.google.pl/dequire/GoodbyeToFranikAndLviv

Those were 4 really nice days of my life. After such goodbye I felt really bad sitting in bus from Lviv to Warsaw and leaving Ukraine without plans to visit it soon. But well... this is life. :-\

Thank you guys for everything!

Labels: events

Posted by deQuire at 2:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)  

This post is especially to polish people with stereotypes that Ukraine is a cheap country :-) Well... not everything is cheap here :-). Take a look.







Mostly it is visible that meat, cheeses and some fruits (apples) are much more expensive than in PL. Pubs and eating out is MUCH more expensive than in any polish city. Cheaper thing here is obviously alcohol. About the travelling - single rides are much more cheap, but when you count that to get from one part of the city to another sometimes you need to take more than 3 rides and you pay for each of those - it becomes much more expensive than Warsaw monthly city card.

So. That's for cheap ukraine stereotype ;-D

Labels: ukraine

Posted by deQuire at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)  

Beautiful, natural, smart...

... and those who try too much :-P

(PS. the black lady on the second photo is not selling herself. She just looks like that :-))

Labels: ukraine

Posted by deQuire at 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)  

... that I have seen :-)
First was Mandawa Castle and city during night :-)

I have been to Crimea! Finally! :-) My pretext was Sevastopol birthday. Opinions? Hmm... birthday was not the best one. Reception Weekend - expensive, with some fuckups... But places - first class.

Sevastopol is funny city. I have never seen so much trash in one city. On streets, in water. :-)
Compared to other cities in UA it has very positive side - it lives during night. Thanks to night marshrutkas we could have some night fun in the city (including 3am bathing :-). I also got to know LC, that parties little longer than 10pm.

But Balaklava... just WOW... When I was going there, I was never expecting to see something such beautiful :-) After seeing it I will want to come back to crimea some time later for sure.

That was a good weekend :-)
http://picasaweb.google.pl/dequire/SevastopolReceptionWeekend

Labels: events

Posted by deQuire at 10:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)  

Finally...

Masha got selected to MC in Italy, but for the last month she was not certain if she will be able to go there, because there are "some" issues with visas.

It's like there is this invisible border between Poland in Ukraine. Border between EU zone and CIS zone. And this is really unfair. If polish person wants to visit any country in west europe - there are completely no problems with that. We don't even need visa. When polish person wants to visit ukraine - completely no problems with that. I'm here 9 months, never even caring about visa.

But if Ukrainian person wants to visit Poland - visa procedures. If UA person wants to visit western europe - really complicated visa procedures.

Those procedures get even more complicated when you are girl in the age of 18-25, not married and not employed. People start treating you as potential immigrate and the risk of not getting visa is quite high. And when you not get visa to one country, then you can burn your passport, because other countries will be also afraid to give you visa.

Fortunately, this time this didn't happen. Masha is going to Italy :-) Good luck, Mashyna ;-D

Labels: ukraine

Posted by deQuire at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)