Not a lot about Ukraine

Hello again! Yesterday I said to you hello for the last time, but then I counted my blogs and it was less than 12. So I need to write something ano more time. I promise, for now its hello the last time... :)
I like my native country very much. Even though it's nor perfect, the best time I had in my life was while living there. What can I tell people about my country?
The first thing is that Ukrainians are really friendly and generuos people. They like to have guesta at their houses. If you want to go to your friend's house, you shouldn't give a call before that. You can come in without saying in advance and it will be normal. Usually there are a lot of different dishes when Ukrainians have guests. And they are unbelievably delicious! There is a special kind of soup called borshch. It's my favourite soup maybe because it's native or because it's really good :)
No I want to change the topic a little bit. The averege age of getting married in Ukraine is 19-23 for girls and 24-29 for guys. Right now there is a tendency that young people want to get their education and job before getting married, especially in big cities. In the villages young people still are getting married early. I think it's too early: 18-22 ( girls), 22-25(guys). At that age they are still dependent on their parents and are not mature enough to have children. On the other hand, how can we judge them? Everybody has a right to define the life highlights. When I was leaving the Ukraine, in the airport my father was really sad. I asked him 'why', he told me that he wanted to have the grandchildren. I smiled. Hm! I decided to study more. This decision made my father sad, but I promiced him he will get grandchildren pretty soon :)
Ok! I need to go. Yun is waiting for me. Even though I did not right anything special in my blog, I did not feel sorry about that. Why? I have no good thoughts in my head right now. Why? Because of the final? Probably... Anyway, thanks a lot for raeding that.

AHA!

Hello again! Hello one more time! And... Hello the last time here!
We are almost done. The holidays are coming, so pretty soon we can sleep as much as possible and do whatever we want.
It's unbelievable for me that the time is not going but running too fast. Remember the first day I came to the University on the 5th of September and now our EAP2 is finished.Almost! Not yet! ...We have to do well at finals but I'm sure we'll be ok, right?
I am thinking right now that there were a lot of happy moments while studying together as one big group. We had a great time and I really want to thank everybody for that. We'll have even better time on the next level, won't we? AHA!
I wish you, guys, to have a great holidays and all the best!
Believe in yourself and we'll be OK!
BYE!!! And see you tomorrow :)

My Brother

Hello here almost the last time:)! Almost as I should do one more entry so it's going to be 'hello' again... :)

I thougt today about the trees. There is a lot of snow on them. Aren't they cold? I think they are, but they should stay beside the road. They cannot move, so the only choice they have - just stay there and be cold. Poor trees...

Ye. Then I suddenly thougt about my brother. I don't know why? Because I missed him or... because I talked to him today. Anyway, my brother's name is Andriy, and he is one year younger than me. However, to tell the truth, he is much more smarter than me. Of course, because he is a boy, and I'm a girl :) He is very serious guy. We are different, even though everybody says we look similar.

We used to fight a lot in our childhood. The first time I was stronger than him, so I always was a winner. I enjoyed our fighting on that time. Later on, Andriy became stronger, and it wasn't really funny to fight with him then. So I told him that the gentlmen are not allowed to fight with ladies. Did it help? For sure, my brother was a real gentlman.

If anybody asks me if I would prefer to have sister instead of brother I would say"No, no, no. Never ever." In the future, I really want to have a son and a daughter. Ye, later, some day...

No choices

Today I've got a parcel from my parents full of different presents and some e-mails from my Ukrainian friends. It made me sad... I don't know why, but I'm not sure about the choice that I made about my future. I'm not sure it's the right one because I could have been studing at one of the best Ukrainian university doing my Master without any problems. And here I cannot even imagine myself studying economics in English. I could imagine it yesterday, the day before, the month before but not today. It's crazy! I don't know what's going on?

I think I began missing my parents, my brother and my friends so unbelievable stronly that I want to ... not cry, but to go in Ukraine at least for one day. But forget it, not sooner than in summer. And where is that summer? So far away from here...

Sometimes I think it's better to have no choises in your life, just one road from the beginning till the end. It's easier; and moreover, it makes you being happy all the time bacause you know that it's the only way for you and, as a result, it should be right one. But how can you know which one is the best for you if there is a lot of choices???

I know I have to wait and see the result later on... It's so hard, specially when a lot of heavy thoughts are flying into your head in the Monday's evening. The presents are all over my room and I'm going to leave them like that. Also I'm going to attach the foto in which you can see some of my friends. Hope tomorrow will be better than today...

Spontaneous decision

Last Friday we had a small party... EAP friends... From different countries with different traditions, but having a lot in common!

It was a spontaneous decision to go somewhere to relax, that's why it was a little bit hard to find a good place available on Friday evening, but Yun and Lana were good at arranging it. Amin and Behzad made us laugh all the time, and later on I had some problems with my mouth bacause I laughed too-ooo-o much. Mahmoud was really nice, except the moments when he made me red, but that's ok, I forgave him :)

The one thing I'm even more sure now, that to have a fun you don't need a nice place. The one thing you need is nice people.

We had a great time. Thank you, guys, for that!

P.S. Special thanks to Behzad and Amin for driving me home safely :)

Good Luck!

Do we need to work hard in order to succeed???
This idea was being constantly promoted by my parents and my school teachres who always stress the importance of hard work. However, they rarely mention LUCK. But the question is that I'm not sure this concept of hard-working person is correct?
Personally I truly believe that hard work is very important. It's much more better to work hard than to do nothing. But why don't we recognize the importance of the luck factor at the success path? Not all hard-working people are successful. In fact, about a half of them come to a certain level of success and only a few reach the peaks. I'm sure to have a good career one needs to have good luck.
I liked bowling so much. It's one of my favourite games. I was playing bowling on Sunday with two guys. Even though I'm not good at it, and they are almost professional players, I won 2 games. I was very happy bacause of that! I did it! But how could it happen? Just simple luck! That's it.
Sometimes wins come from pure luck. We need to understand that this happens not only only in sport games or on our career paths; but it exists in the much greater area called a "game of life".
Good luck, guys!!!

The Special Egg

[Photo] Some people come into our lives and quickly go...
Some people move our souls to dance. They awaken us to new understanding with the passing whisper of their wisdom. Some people make the sky more beautiful, the flowers more colourfull... They stay in our lives for awhile, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never ever the same.
What is friendship? There is no definition for that, but I know for sure that it's a special life gift which cannot be bought when you need it. It's a special gift that doubles your joys and divides your sorrows. Only a real friend, reaching out for your hand, touches your heart.
It seems to be strange, but very often two may talk together under the same roof for many years, yet never really meet, and two others at first speech are old friends. Why is it like that? Who knows? The same language, the same culture? Not the main reason. The same experience? Maybe... Or just the same small worlds that need each other to be more happy....
A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked.- Bernard Meltzer - If you have at least one real Friend in your life, than, believe me, you are a Special Egg! :)

Ruslana

This blog, in the biggest way, is the answer for Behzad's question about the music in our countries. My favourite Ukrainian singer is Ruslana. I think she has a unique talent of reflecting a real Ukrainian spirit.
Ruslana Lyzhyzhko is the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004 from Lviv, Ukraine. She is a singer, dancer, producer, composer and pianist. She writes, composes and produces her own songs and music videos.
Her music is inspired by the traditions of the Hutsul people of the Carpathian Mountains.
Ruslana started her career as a winner of Slavyanskiy Bazar song competition in 1996. Her first album 'A moment of spring' received high praise from crities. It was a real success given the overall state of Ukrainian music market of thet time. Her album 'Wild Dances' which was issued in 2003 went double platinum in Ukraine, selling over 200,000 copies. According to the latest sales results (as of 2005) over 500,000 of 'Wild Dances' were sold in Ukraine, making the album 5x platinum.
In 2005 Ruslana appeared at the Eurovision Song Contest held in Kyiv. She performed her new sinle 'On fire'.
This year I was at her studio in Kyiv. She sang and danced for us. It was unbelievable! Later we had some snack she could find there - fruit and wine. Ruslana was really friendly to us. After that I like her much more because she is not only the talented, strong and hard-working person, but a beautiful lady at the same time.

Angry cats

We had a small Halloween party at our house. Together with my pretty cousin Ulyana we were angry cats and even got some candies from our guests.
It was the first real Halloween in my life. Be honest, there is nothing special but just a fun. That day I was really tired after my work but it helped me to feel better. :)

My cute Dimitry

I was staying at home today with my cute nephew Dimitry...
To tell the truth, I understood a lot of being with him alone! And the most important for me is that I love him very-very much! I love Dima, maybe, too much, but what can I do? I cannot imagine how much I'll lome my own children then!
Sometimes adults think they know everything, they can answer all questions children ask them, but I know for sure they are so wrong! Today's children are really smart, they know a lot from the very beginning of their life and are interested in everything. They want to try a lot of things and, being opened to new, they are like the white papers for adults to write. We are responsible for our child bacause his or her small new life is like a reflection in the mirror of our own life.
Dima helped me today to clean the house with vacuum, to prepare tosts for lunch and even to study. He loves my EAP books. His favourite one is Writing - a purple one :).
He is really a funny guy. The greatest talent is to put him in the bed for the nap-time. Dima hates it. So I should have been laying near his bed on the floor during his nap-time today pretending I'm sleeping. But the problem was that I fall asleep and did it faster than my cute Dimitry. I woke up because of his favourite words "Oksanka, what are you doing?" I smiled to him and ... couldn't believe that happened :).
Do you, guys, have some funny stories with children? Do you like them? I'll be really happy to share your opinions about children.

The Best Feeling

Today me and my sister went to the Drop-in centre (a place for poor people to eat and sleep) as volounteers. There was a group of people from the Challenger company my sister works at and I decided to join them. It was really great to do it bacause you are helping others, at the same time you are helping yourself!
That Drop-in centre is huge. There is enough space for everybody and even if you are not poor you can have some dinner or lunch there. The food they serve is pretty good and the portions are big enough. It's a good idea to have such kind of places for poor people to sleep and to eat. But the problem is that they feel themselves really relaxed and they are getting used to it. As a result, why do they need to go to work or to find the place to live as they can do it for free, drinking and smoking instead?
There are two ends of this stick... As usually... But I just want to say that a good idea is to make them find a sense in their lives! To help them not just get some food but get some meaning of living and being in the world. It's not easy but we should try.
Our life is a big value. You are born into this world by your mother and father to be happy. Very often I'm thinking about Sense of my life. I guess I found the answer recently. To have the meaning of your life means to live and to be happy! And isn't that true, the biggest happiness you have when you are making others happy?
We were really happy when going back home after lunch among those poor people we heard them applauded us. It's was the best feeling ever can be!

It's me in general

Optimistic
Kind
Sensible
Attractive
Nice
Ambitious

Free ball

I like bid tennis, but every time playing it I feel really tired and... free. I like that small tennis ball, because you never know the way it goes in a second. It's like a free-going, free-doing, free-living, free-feeling...

What's freedom? For me, it's the best feeling ever can be in the world. Only the person who has his or her own opinion about everything can be Somebody in today's life. Freedom, I think, is a free thinking of your heart. Some moments we are like in the frames which don't allow us to live our lives the way we prefer. The most important and difficult is to find our own heart's freedom and not lose it going step by step our life's way...

Hello my new friends

Hello everybody! :)
For all of us the new period of our life has already started. A lot of good days we left far away from us - at our homes with our parents, relatives and friends. But many interesting and special moments are waiting for us in the future and I think new is always good!

Somebody of you is really lucky to be in Canada with a family. Either do I. I live here with my cousine, her husband and their 3-year old son. So it helps a lot not just to study but to feel yourself happy and do not miss home so much. But to tell the truth, every time I call to Ukraine, I feel that I for me Ukraine'll be the best country in the world :)

I like autumn, but I don't like winter. Calgary's autumn is very similar to Ukrainian but our forests have a lot of red trees. Here are just a little of them. What can I do? The weather doesn't depend on us, it's free to colour the trees the way it wants. I just really miss the red trees...

I like weekends a lot because you shouldn't think about time and do whatever you want. You are free in your choices and I want to wish everybody to enjoy the long-weekends and have a good Thanksgiving day. For me it's the first Thanksgiving in my life and in an hour we are going to have a dinner with the Canadian family.

Ok, guys, have a fun! See you on Tuesday.