S.

Who knows what is the right attitude to relationships between women and men?
Where is the perfect balance between "Sex and the City" style with one night stands, and a traditional culture of "no-touch" before the marriage?

Of course, everyone balances as good as she/he can: depending on family bringing up, education, current environment we all form our habits and attitudes, including to the other/same sex. We want to love and to be loved; or at least we want to care or to be taken care of; we want to feel that what we do and whom we are with is important to ourselves. And that we are important to someone… This level of importance is different for everyone: someone just needs a proof of one's attractiveness and goes for easy-no-obligations relationships; someone longs for a love forever at first sight and doesn't agree for anything less to be in their life. Someone waits for the One and values stability; someone meets many people and enjoys the moment.




But then, if we are so different, and need different things, and enjoy different things - why there should be one denominator or the right and the wrong? Why we judge "that girl" or "that guy" so easily in their approach to man-woman relationships? And more important, why we let ourselves be judged?..

We all act upon our own sets of values and attitudes; and so many of them are already formed before we realize that. And, what a surprise :) they may differ from other people's attitudes.
Our freedom ends only where the freedom of others begin; so, may be it's time to THINK and FEEL as we really want to??..

...I think I will miss Amsterdam.

I'm writing these lines, sitting in a café in the city, waiting for my UK visa, it is a rainy June day. Every time I come to the city in the last couple of months (which happens more often), I admire how cozy Amsterdam is.


I love its small houses, standing as they are not sure which side - forward, left, right - they should go; their dark red, brown, white, yellow colors, along with brick narrow cover of the streets, create the feeling of the city for me.


Well, of course, canals - that's why houses are small and not straight. Canals, that are like roads, forming the city; filled with boats: houses-boats, floating on the water; usual ones, all sizes and colors. And when it's a sunny summer day, there is nothing better in Amsterdam for me, than to sit in a small café by the canal, or just on the canal itself, and look at boats passing by, and people in it; trees around create a green with sun colors cover for the canals and streets…


When you walk in Amsterdam, you see those hundreds of small streets; they are the secret of the city. You can get lost, but at the end you always find something:

- Wine shop, with bottles on their wooden shelves, and an old man looking as he knows all the secrets of good taste in the world;
- Modern boutique with the latest fashion clothes that you can window-shop indefinitely;
- Book store, with rare exemplars of editions, used and new; and the best collection of postcards in it as well;
- Trendy haircut salon with huge windows, where you see the process of turning a regular middle-age woman into someone mysterious; and next to the salon is a cheese-shop, displaying more kinds of cheese you thought existed;


- A typical house, with kid running through a small garden; and a aristocratic-like villa, looking as children never crossed its gates.

When it's rainy - as today - Amsterdam is covered in an almost transparent coat of small drops, that floats above canals and streets; and people rush through it: amsterdamers on bikes, ruling with one hand and holding an umbrella in the other hand; and sometimes a child in a front basket. Amsterdamers without bikes, walking not too fast and confident. Tourists, bringing dozens of new languages into Amsterdam trams and to the streets, queuing to Van Gogh museum even under the rain, and creating like a half of population of the city in summer.


On such rainy days you run from a building to a tram, from a tram to a building… And on the way, I catch a reflection of Amsterdam houses in ponds :)

I love Amsterdam cafes, they are different and nice. From big and noisy and lively places, that are so Dutchy :) - to small and cozy, practically for several tables cafes, that make you feel like you want to stay in their candles - mirrors - music atmosphere for hours.
You can sit, as I am now doing, on a nice couch in a café by the window, looking at people passing by, and think, work with a laptop, read, drinking your coffee and listening to all that dutch-english-any other chatting, mixed with music, which all together is that blend of cafes that make me going there again and again :)


Amsterdam, Amsterdam...

It feels like... I don't know, something-something-something.

Like I'm anticipating, and don't know yet what.
And it's some joyful expectation!

I feel myself recently often out of the place, on the move - with the end of AI time approaching, getting even closer with old friends, getting new ones, talking more with parents (which is unusual :)

Searching for a next location and a job; being more open and easy-going with people and their attitudes.
Reading book on the past, present and future of Russia; and finishing an odd american novel at the same time in one evening.

Having my trips to London and Portugal almost set and thinking A LOT especially about the first one; deciding what should be my private life be; enjoying moments of doing nothing, reading more, shopping! which was never an entertainment before. Waking up at 7 am and feeling cool, exersizing daily (!!!) and smiling even more often.

I am waiting for the end and for the beginning, enjoying every second of the present too. A perfect balance it seems :) But the life is exactly not a balance in terms of how many things are to be defined. And somehow it doesn't bug me any second :)

I feel like this: (reminds of of my pictures when I was 3 years old:)


Or like this:



And mostly like this!!!


And...
I still, finishing this post at 15 past 11 pm, feel great.
May be it is a good day, may be it is a good life? :)
I prefer to think the second :)

Last week-end we've experienced true summer coming to Rotterdam!
It became sunny and warm very fast, and you could easily see the effect of warmth on people and everything around - summer took its place with the speed of light!

Masha came close to the evening to get finally her tour around Rotterdam, so we headed towards Euromast, the highest structure in the city, observation tower. Was built in 1960 and modernized several times afterwards.
The park I heard so much about was cool indeed, with truly Saturday-family-evening-BBQ mood, children laughing, and green grass cooling feet after the heat of roads…


Given my fondness of highness, I couldn't but like Euromast.
Great view, perfect breeze, my favorite Erasmus bridge down there…



And the see, probably in Hoek van Holland, on the horizon!!!


It had a moving up and turning around cabin, that gave the best views of the city.


And restaurant on top is as cool…


On the way back to the center we got (not knowing about that) into the center at that point of Rotterdam life - Volvo Ocean Race stopover, that is happening for a week in R-dam (it a yacht race around the world with 7 teams - 2 of them are of ABN Amro, and one of them is leading :)

Nice oriental restaurant


We were lucky to get (accidentally again - getting to know what's up with that unusually big crowd on the bridge) to a piece of DJ Tiesto play, it was on a boat in the middle of the river, with light show…
And believe it or not, but after all that we've decided to go to the movie "Poseidon", and saw a "fire dance" or smth like that performance, got the end, clapped and run into the cinema - to follow fast action, and to wonder at the end where is the end, finishing that great Saturday around 2 am…

However, it was all but not the end of the week-end :)

Next morning (starting with the lost wallet of mine) we headed for the brunch in the city, then decided to go to the Zoo (Rotterdam Zoo is considered one of best in Europe, and it's cool indeed).


Animals live more or less good, they have space (much better than conditions I've seen before in zoos…)

I saw the rhinoceros (nosorog) for the first time!!! It had a baby nosorog beside :)



And look, those two - they hold their hands while floating on the water!!!
It was so amazing to see the emotion, like people :)


I've realized I am lucky enough, that I saw many animals in their natural surrounding - deers, blocks, camels, elephants - in the forest in our village, or in my travels in India and Egypt. But I still remember how exciting it was for me to visit a zoo when I was a child!
So some wind of that excitement was brought again :)

And Oceanarium was quite interesting! I saw that fish, the slope (skat), it was so cool to see in real something that I saw only on TV before. The best were bright see stars!!!






Well, and this was like in a movie as well :)


And then… Heated under the hot-hot Sunday sun…
We headed to the lounge of ABN Amro at the Volvo Ocean race!!!


Masha got the tickets, and there were we - nice chill-out area, with drinks unlimited, nice jazz-like music, elegant pavilion, and a couple of hours of talks and laughter with Masha's colleagues (bosses better said:). The best ending of a great vacations-like week-end in Rotterdam!!!
See, you don't always have to go out of your place to have fun, it can be found everywhere !


Happy and summer-ed me :)

We (me and Masha) spent one of Sundays in Maastricht, visiting a friend of our friend who studies there.
The city is almost the last one to the south of The Netherlands, and even the landscape changes when you get there by train - noticeably more hills, and the horizon is not as flat, but normal to an eye, as we are used to it at home.
Maastricht sits on the river Maas, and they say, had to be separated between Belgium and The Netherlands accordingly, but that has never happened, and the city got its space as a whole.
Nice, quiet, it's the place where one of EU agreements (if I remember correctly, about euro) was signed.


Nice river


Small parks



Beautiful small streets, full of sunny cafes
(I've realized that cafe's culture, when people can just go out in the evening and sit and enjoy evening in a street cafe, so this culture is one of things that fascinates me in Europe)





Square with of course a piece of the "Dutch art" (a concept, introduced to me at the first day in the country) - something that looks interest, ugly or strange, and rarely in its place. I think it brings more life to the order of small towns :)



And so, that was Maastricht!



The Netherlands' discovery - to be continued...

I felt some internal obligation to post about Queen's Day, and a couple of things that happened here in The Netherlands.

So, this was our Queen's day in Utrecht:



Quite Orange, with vlee markets (basically everyone can sell on the street whatever they want, and many people use this day to get rid of their things - so Dutch, celebrate but remember about the bottomline :), singing and parties everywhere. Reminds a lot our "gulanija" for big holidays. I liked it generally - it was sunny (good for the end of April here!) and quite joyful. They say, that actually the Queen has a birthday in February, but it's cold to celebrate in winter - so they celebrate in spring. And even that birthday was a birthday of the old queen who passed away several years ago, and her daughter rules now.
Anyways, why to question the reason if it's a day off? (hmm I probably sounded a bit too Dutch here hehe:)

One thing however that I didn't like - it's about the amount of garbage that was left on the streets (not only on holidays by the way, but on week-ends as well). Why not to put a bit more bins? Why not to make several steps to put your garbage inside?
Probably it's easier to send machines to clean everything afterwards...

Anyways - VIVA Queen's Day, 30 April 2006!!!




This is not about Queen's Day but about going Dutch - me and Masha, consuming croquettes (national Dutch fastfood, they say half of meet is of a horse, I don't think so, and the taste is not as bad actually).



By the way, the best book about The Netherlands (from a foreigner's perspective at least) is "The Undutchables" by Colin White & Laurie Boucke, wonderfully precise and funny written. Recommend to everyone who comes to live for some time in the country :)

Monday June 5 was the day, when Oriana, my AI team-mate, room-mate and friend, got acceptance for an internship in India.

The feeling, that the end of our AI term is approaching, became real, with Oriana being the first settled for a life after AI. Soon more people will define their future, and we'll all enter the next era of our life...

A bit sad...

But exciting!!! Because something new is ahead!

Those bonds that we've got with people, and experiences we lived this year, will be exactly those things that keep us cool and connected when we all go our different ways.

I'm sure somewhere soon I'll be dancing on Oriana's wedding in Colombia, with other our AI guys around :)))

And below is how we celebrated, of course (this happens when you put a Colombian and a Russian together hehe)

It is my name in Arabic. SVETA
Thanks to Tamer (Egypt) for writing it :)))

Quite different, isn't it?
It's like not written, but drawn on the paper

I saw that idea in some other place (actually in Solnitchka blog, which I stumbled upon through nomadlife), and decided to try myself - especially that today is 1st June, start of AI transition, new life approaching, and generally I just want to write this post finally, let's see if I find 100 things to tell :)

1. My name Sveta means "light", "light person"
2. I'm Russian
3. I was born in Lithuania, and I'm blond :)
4. When I was 3, my parents moved to Belarus, I grew up there, and I'm a citizen of Belarus
5. I speak Russian, Belarussian, English, understand Polish
6. I visited 22 countries and all continents, apart from Australia and Arctic
7. I plan to visit Australia and want to visit Arctic
8. I loved my last 6 years with AIESEC, in Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan, and now in AI
9. My favorite color is green, mild-bright green
10. My favorite color of flowers is a combination of red, orange and yellow
11. A color of my eyes (which are something in between green, blue and grey) changes depending on the color of my closing
12. Best vacations in my life I spent in Egypt, first week of April this year
13. I love my parents, I realized it after some time after I started to live separately
14. I live by myself (not with my parents) for 8 years
15. City I liked most so far is London
16. I'm a stubborn person
17. I get offended easily, but try not to show it
18. Smile is my visit card they say
19. And my Russian accent is my distinguishing characteristic as well
20. A person who started to change attitudes in my life, and who helped to form my proactivity, is my best teacher, Elena Victorovna - a teacher of Russian language and literature in the lyceum I spent last 2 years of my high school at. She is Belarussian, studied in St.Petersburg, and was the one who started to make things differently and encouraging. I want to find her and thank her
21. I was never at my home town school class meetings
22. I escaped from my home town school to find other people who would share similar attitudes and interest as I had
23. My best treasure in life are my parents and my friends
24. I'm lucky to have 9 very close friends, I shared my life with. I LOVE YOU ALL GUYS
25. I think I'm not the best daughter, I don't call home often
26. I still love and respect my parents, my father and mother are the best
27. My pa used to be a military officer
28. I have a brother who is 3 years older and is a military officer too
29. I'm the only one from my family who has ever been abroad
30. My plan for the next 3-4 years to work in 3-4 different organizations in different regions: South America, Western Europe, Asia
31. Ideally I'd like to get an experience and start my own business that would help to make our world cleaner place, that would keep it longer and better for our next generations
32. It means (speaking English) that I'm interested in environment protection
33. I'm interested as well and I'd like to work in energy, publishing, health care, movie making, children care, advertising, air company/airport
34. I want to bring happiness to people
35. I have a marketing degree
36. I don't like cookies
37. I didn't know about Zara and H&M until I moved to The Netherlands a year ago
38. I've never been in Ikea
39. I love candles
40. I always re-design a bit the place when I move in
41. I wanted to be a designer, an actress and a singer when I was a child
42. I don't really sing well
43. But I like to sing, especially with guitar with friends
44. I LOVE when someone plays guitar
45. I want to learn it myself one day, hopefully next year when I have money to buy the guitar itself :)
46. Usually I sleep 8 hours a day
47. But on Saturday and Sunday I almost never wake up before 10
48. I like shopping for food, and I like to cook for my friends
49. I like tee a lot, my favorite one is green tee
50. Internet started to play much more significant role in my life this last year, i think thi sis one of greatest inventories of the humankind
51. Favorite place to upload photos is Flickr
52. Oh yes, my hobby is a photography
53. I have only digital camera, but sometimes I manage to make good photos anyways :)


54. I like beauty in simplicity
55. I like to give presents to my friends
56. A lot of time in my childhood was spent in the nature, as we got our summer house in the village in the national park of Belovezhskaya Puscha
57. I can spend a lot of time just observing nature
58. I can't leave without nature, at least sometimes, I'd never be able to live in Sap Paolo for long :)
59. Oh yes, I love observing people as well
60. I always felt that I'm more mature than my age, all my friends are older than me
61. I want to visit all countries in Europe, and half of the rest
62. One day I'll do a sailing trip across the sea
63. I accept that there are male and female things in life. Yes, I think that a man is the head of the family (and a wife is the neck hehe:)
64. I expect men to take care of women, help carry heavy things and protect us
65. And I believe a woman is the one that makes a home out of the house
66. However I'll be happy if my (future, unknown now :) husband is able to cook great
67. Oh yes, I expect to get married one day, and I want ideally to have 3 children
68. I think I will be a good mother
69. I'm a very sensual person; I feel things better by touching them (so I sometimes break museum rules of not touching exponents :)
70. I can't imagine my life without sex
71. I saw the sea for the frist time in my life when I was 19 - it was Baltic Sea.
72. I still haven't been in real mountains
73. I believe there is one person, THE ONE, She or He, for each one of us
74. I admire the feeling of centuries, and treasures of people's life experiences when I'm in some old places (castles, pyramids, cities)
75. I have very lively imagination
76. I think, that I think in images
77. I don't like horror movies
78. I think best movies that are leaving some positive thought, even if it's a drama
79. My favorite movie is Love Actually, and favorite cartoon is Ice Age 2!!!
80. It seems I'm a positive, self-confident, realistic person :)
81. I need to learn to take feedback better, I'm improving
82. I can't lie, I go red immediately
83. I didn't believe I'm a nice looking girl, until I was told about it several times
84. I'm introvert
85. I like solitude sometimes
86. Actually I look for answers, for inspirations, for solutions mostly inside myself
87. I'm quite self-critical
88. I believe that I'm the one who defines my life
89. My favorite book now is The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
90. I want to make a difference, at least for those closest around me
91. I like to run through ponds in the strong warm rain
92. I love rainbows
93. I like to live in a comfort
94. However I can live with basic conditions, if I know that something else in my life matters most for which I need to sacrifice it. And when I know that it’s going to be better, at least sometime
95. I believe unbelievable can happen
96. I want to jump with a parachute, drive a motorbike, do water skis
97. I love camping with a fire at night
98. I love heights and flying by airplanes
99. I want to know every moment of my life that I do the work that is worth doing
100. It was much easier than I expected to write these 100 things :)