So variable February

February is a months of new adventures, life lessons, positive and sad moments and of course weather changing.
About the weather - we still hoped spring to come earlier, but this winter is just playing with us. Jumps from +20 to - 1 are just too much. And I dont want to tell that but I realy hate that Bursa Gas office :)
Anyway, this months was quite hard for me in terms of thinking too much, dcision making and planning. My internship is coming to the end and it means that I have to find some other job to stay. I found some variants in Ukraine but I am happy here right now, it s not the time to be back yet. So mainly I ve sent like hundreds e-mails to different companies, had interviews and going to have more this week. Lets see what the results will be.
About new adventures and positive moments - month started with visiting beautiful Mudanya. As weather has become better I took my friend and we went to nice small city 30 minutes from Bursa. It was a good decision, coz seaside is just amazing.

All people thought like us, so there were lots of different age people. But I liked to observe that.

You know that I have a special To do list in Turkey, so this months I ve done few things from it also. The first one is one of themost important. Visiting rock-concert in Turkey.

My favourite band is DUMAN, so when Katya told me that they will play in Istanbul, I ran and bought tickets.
So I ve celebrated my 5 months in Turkey in Istanbul. So again there were lots of different adventures - i got lost somewhere in Istanbul, but that helped me to learn how to use angry jeton machines and find a proper metro, to learn who are cherkez people and to talk to some strangers with strange stories, and just to enjoy Taksim. It was good time. But the concert was something unbelievable. Firstly, it was extremely crouded, so I was all the time afraid to be lost and tried to keep eye on my friend all the time. Secondly, there were lots of really young people, I mean not like me but like high school students. Anyway, Duman was just gorgeous, I liked that concert a lot, I even sang some of their songs as I ve lernt them by heart =)
I also ve had some sad experience, but its more about learning from it I guess, and really I dont regret about what happened, i believe that everything that is happening is for a reason. And if I acted like this so it was good for me and for everybody. So learn on your own mistakes.

The other 2 things from to do list are playing billiards and driving a car. And thanks to my friend I realized that. Billiards ofcourse was exciting and even if you are not excepting it last time I ve won, but driving a car was something so great. It was one of the most desirable thing for me. Last time I did it 10 years ago when my father tried to teach me. I was not bad I belive and it made me so happy.

I ve met some wonderful people this month and this is one of the most important thing I guess. I visited museum, enjoyed travelling around Bursa and turning back to childhood going crazy in the park, saw some nice mosques and just really enjoyed my time.



So that was my February in Bursa, 5th month of my AIESEC internship :)

Fears and opportunities

Today I had a weird dream, as I thought first, but then I started to think and analyse. Actually I am not a person who believes in symbolic dreams and this kind of stuff, but probably right now I need some extra motivation and encouragement, so I decided to remember the details.

So mainly the dream was quite short, at least what I remembered.

We were near the seaside with one of my friends. We were near the Meditterenian Sea, so that means that we are in Turkey, coz I m not planning to go to other country near the Medetterenian. Sea was sooo clean and transparent, but at the same time sooo deep. I imagine it as my life in TR - it is so happy and exciting, but at the same time I dont know what to ecpect further in its depth. I remember my thoughts - I wanted to dive, but I was afraid that I cant swim. actually I can swim a bit but cant go deep because of my fear and I didnt practise a lot actually in swimming. So the same is now with me - I want to change and to dive into real turkish life, but I am afraid that I dont have enough experience in this or that sphere or I wont be able to do it wothout anyone's help. I am very confident and persistent, but sometimes I can lose my faith.

Anyway in my dream I did it - firstly I was afraid a bit, but then I was swimming freely in the sea and felt so big relief and happiness. So I really hope that I will do that and succeed.

So lets dive!

Snowy and cold January in Bursa

If to follow my plan I had to visit one city in one month, so I was plannig to visit Ankara, but the weather didnt like my plan that much, so I had to stay in Bursa at least untill it wont get warm.
So I ll just tell a bit about my life since I came back to Turkey and how Bursa is surviving cold winter.
As I still wanted to see snow in winter (but not now, i saw enough snow for this winter, actually its enough for 2 winters ahead) and hadnt visited Uludag, I agreed when Elmaz offered me to join their Uludag trip (yeah, she was here for New Year, so we decided to catch up when I m back to Bursa). It was nice to spend time with her, but again I cant live without adventures.

A little bit about weather here. Turkey is not used to a cold winters, usually the lowest temperature here is around +2 - +3 degrees in Bursa, but this winter is severe. So people are just not ready for it. So here is the result :
1. Gas - Turkey ran out of natural gas resources, actually not ran out but they overused the limit, and if to count that the gas is imported it is very expensive. So government even made some companies to use different fuel, oil or electricity.
2. Houses - I guess they were built only for nice weather, because the walls are so thin and it is so cold inside. You cant imagine, it is a torture to use a bathroom, because it is the coldest room in the house without heating at all. So its funny when you are taking a shower with very hot stream but your nose is still icy.
3. Cars and traffic - as winter is always short here, people just dont bother themselves with winter tires. And thats the worst thing and cause of all accidents.
So coutinue the story with Uludag, we were in the car Of course without winter tires!!! At fisrt it was ok, but when we were going up, the road just became slippery aтd the car simply slided down and bumped the other car that was also stucked there. It wasnt very big accident and it wasnt very scary ( in fact it should be because down is just a cliff) but anyway its one of the example of peoples carelessness that can couse a really bad outcome.
So we waited for 1 hour while some workers brought us chains for car and then went home. That was the adventure.

January for me here is a meeting of Simferopol people in Bursa, because later Valya, who is now on internship in Izmir, visited me. Though the weather wasnt that perfect but weekend was quite nice. We had a tour around the city center, I had my first fish in Turkey (and I really liked it), we ate strawberries, visited a 700 years old tree Cinar that is on the way to Uludag, played bowling and had fun. That was great time with you, Valya :)

Yes, I forgot to tell a bit about my house and about my new flatmates.
On 16th of January we had a celebration as it was my 4 months in Turkey holiday :)


It was quite cute and nice, I prepared some cocktails, we talked a lot and played and had a nice girls night :)

So about my flatmates -

Gülay - wonderful person in everything. She was so kind to me from the beginning, helping and supporting. She is 29 and for 8 years lived in Switzeland, so she can understand me quite well - how i feel broad and what do i need. She speaks exellent German (unfortunately not me) and good English, so we dot have any problems in communication. We have lots of things to talk about and I love to spend time with her.

Nilay - her younger sister. She is also 23, but behaves a bit childish some times. Anyway I love her too, even if to take into consideration fact that she doesnt know English :) At fisrt it was impossible to communicate with her, but now as I know the basics of Turkish, we found the common language and even go out together sometimes.

I am enjoying my new home and new friends, so I can say that the start of 2012 was awesome :) I still have 1, 5 month of my internship. Lets see what will be later :P

Back to the country of constant discoveries

Evening, 5th of January. Me. Sitting in the train and trying to memorise events and feelings of being at home.
6 am 6th of January. Donetsk. Donets was quite dull and grey ad sooo cold. I was shocked to see a destroyed train station, I guess they are rebuildig it for Euro 2012, but anyway it looked scary.
I had a description of how to get to the airport from Train station, but that wasnt that pleasant - trolley, then walking, then bus, then again long long way of walking. I had 6 hours till airport so decided not to take a taxi and just enjoy Donetks. Unfortunately it wasnt so enjoyable.
Anyway 8 am. Finally airport and more then 5 hours till my flight. No internet, cold and boring. I donno how I survived those 5 hours, but the main concern was ahead. I still didnt know if its for sure that I wont have problems with entering the country, all those visa stuff is just freaking me out. But luckily everything was very good. So with lots of bottles of alcohol that I bought in DutyFree for my friends and extremely heavy luggage I landed in Istanbul. Luckily the weather was quite nice.
So 5 pm, 6th of January I am finally at Taksim in Istanbul with extremely heavy and broken luggage but happy to be back. That day was full of adventures also. I met Katya who is also on her itership in Istanbul right now. We had nice chat in interns house and absolutely crazy night with tekila, parties and cucumbers :)
Next day sitting in the kitchen and having lunch we were trying to collect all events and stuff that we did in Istiklal last night!! That was crazy but funny.
Sunday, 7th of January. I was invited by a girl whom I met on ATEMCO, Burcu, to stay at her home and meet her family. Though I was extremely tired and sleepy, I decided to go. This time I just couldnt carry my suitcase any more, so took an extremely expensive taxi. Evening was very good. Her house is so cozy and cute - good diner, nice talks, tiring but nice night out with her sister and mom - girls night in Galata Bridge with live music. I enjoyed my day with her a lot :) Thank you, my dear Burcu for awesome time in Istanbul :)


Finally next day my trip to lovely and homey Bursa. Usually travelling by bus takes aroud 4 hours and 1 more hour within the city, but by ferry it takes me 2 hours and 15 minutes in the city. So of course I ve chose to go by ferry. But as you know how lucky I am, they just caceled ferries due to the weather conditions, so again with extremely heavy luggage Elzara is going to the main bus station. 1 hour and I am in the bus, 4 hours and I am in Bursa and 1 more hour and I am FINALLY at home.
New Year adventures have finished...

Ukrainian New Year

The week in Ukraine was so fast ad so long at the same time. I felt good, strange and happy at the same time.
New Year Eve for sure was at home with my family. The rest of the week was just visiting gradparents, reatives and friends, hosting guests, talking to my family and watching TV and then again buying presents, fast packing and the way back to Turkey (about those adventures later).
On 1st of January 2012 I decided to make a surprise for my friends as still nobody except of my family knew that I am in UA. So it was quite funny. Early in the morning I went to Simferopol to visit my beloved AIESEC Simferopol and to congratulate them with New successful year.
Yes, definitely NOBODY expected to see me i Simfer early in the morning on 1st of January :) But it was so good to see them all, to talk, to share drinks :) I missed that home parties with huge amount of coctails made by Markusha :) It was really good. Then walking around the city, remembering time, meeting my friends, talking a lot of course.
It was good day in Simfer.
So mainly the week was fast because of all those events and people, but to be honest in the end I started to miss Turkey...
I am sure it was the best decision to visit my country - for me (i recovered from homesickness of course), for my family who missed me a lot and I hope for my friends also.
So that was the adventure I came to New 2012 year with. (P.S. Reminds me last crazy New Year with Kuzmenko in Dnepropetrovk, that was the surprise also, so maybe I have to make a tradition with New Year surprises... we ll see :)
And here are just several pictures that remind me about my trip -

New Year adventures, or how 2012 's started for me

As we all know while being abroad you have different stages of you new life.


So my honeymoon in Turkey passed successfully, I ve experienced lots of new things and became happier every day. But as you know honemoon period is not eternal, so after it you start to feel a biiiit worse and depressed and crisis phase comes. Usually after 3 months.
So December. 3 months in Turkey. Crises started. Usually in my life I prefer always to remain positive and optimistic, but this time was quite difficult. You know time when you start to miss your past life, to miss some simple small things from your country, your family of course and friends and... food, oh god! How I missed normal my mom's made food!!! I can cook, I do cook here, but its different you know. So that was the only thought for days. Especialy it was difficult because New Year time was coming and the weather here in Bursa I can say wasnt really New Year mood weather,so it was even worse. I know myself quite well, so after 1 or 2 week I would calm down and the crises period would soon or later finish, but I also know myself that I am not adjusting to reality but always do some unexpected and crazy things trying to change the situation that I dont like :)

So 26 of December 2011, one week till New Year. Adventures started.
I was thinking about going home to Ukraine, but I was not sure about visa stuff and money of course, I dont get that big salary here to afford travelings to UA and back, BUT... one evening changed everything. So as I had a permission from the company to have a week off, I thought - come on, the main thing that is important in this life is people (your family, your friends) - so what will I do with my December salary? Yes, I could buy something or go to Istanbul for New Year or something else, or I can make happy myself and people I love just making a New Year surprise and come home. That was a good decision.
So 27 of December, 5 days till New Year. I got plane tickets. So the rest 2 days were just fast packing, buying presents and arranging stuff here before leaving.
29 of December, 3 days till New Year. I was in Istanbul. I was so afraid to miss my plane, so I just came one day earlier to Ist to be sure, Luckily I had a place to stay and spent wonderful time there.
30 of December, 2 days till New Year. I was sitting in Ataturk airport and visualizing my meeting with the family and friends. Oh, I forgot to tell..it was secret. Only my brother knew that I was coming, NOBODY else, so it was quite unexpected surprise. Yeah, I can do that :)
30 of December, evening, I was so excited and nervous landing to Simferopol airport. To be honest I expected lots of snow, but anyway it was good feeling untill I came into Simfer airport. Yeah, after Istanbul it was a little bit different :) I was absolutely dissatisfied with Turkish airlines, they are so much more expensive but really worse than Pegasus - late for 2 hours, broken suitcase and bad service. But anyway it were just small not important things. The most important was to see my brother meeting me in airport with smile and hugs :)

I talked a lot, I told him about my life, about Turkey and everything. I felt a little bit strange in the beginning, using our marshrutka and seeing so usual people, but I got used to it very fast. (probably because I knew that I ll come back to Turkey as I had return ticket on 6 th of January).

So that was it, my city, my home and my old life.
As I told before I didnt tell my parents that I was coming home. So you had to see their faces when they saw me. My Dad was shocked and so happy,my Mom couldnt talk for 5 minutes, but I fullfilled her wish - all family at home at New Year Eve.
So it was very nice family dinner with so desired home made food and Ukrainian TV.
I was at home and I was happy....