Saudade.

I miss you. I actually do. Today, I miss you a bit more than usual. Sometimes I wish that you could be right here, next to me, and we could live a simple student life together. Daily activities don't have as much colour without you. They would be just perfect if you were here. 

But we can't live in the world of 'what if's'. And I choose to live in peace until we meet again. I might start counting days soon.

I love you.

Truly Yours,

A

Happy Birthday Meka!

I think my life has changed completely since I came to the UK. I can say that I gained a lot, learnt life lessons I wouldn't get if I stayed in my comfort zone, met some incredible people. However I have lost as well. You grow apart with some people. And it's okay. Sometimes you simply don't have time to keep in touch, sometimes you just change. I don't go back to Kazakhstan too often, I haven't seen most of my old friends for ages, and now the phrase "We used to be friends" is more real to me than ever. However there are three or four friends of mine who will always have a place in my life. We might not talk for months or even years, but when we see each-other, it seems like it's only been a couple of days since we had our last conversations. Meka is one of them.

I've known you for as long as I can remember myself. I cherish our childhood memories, our love for Harry Potter, Arts school afternoons, talks through the windows of our houses, teenage dramas and countless walks next to the riverside (regardless of the weather). We haven't seen each-other for over a year, but I know that some bonds are for life. You should know that no matter what, I will always be there for you. You are becoming an independent woman, a person who is in the process of finding your place in this world and I wish you a great journey full of bliss and fun! We can't possibly know what will happen in the future, but I hope that whatever is waiting for you, you will always feel happy, peaceful and loved. The world has so much to offer, and knowing you, you will always be brave enough to take chances, to try new things and to explore your opportunities. I hope that in ten, twenty, fifty years we will still be present in each-other's lives! I can't wait to see you soon (hopefully), so please try to make it to the UK this year :P

Happy Birthday to you,

I love you very much,

See you soon,

Aida

Missing Koç.

It's been over a year since I went on my study abroad to Turkey. Wow. I can't believe it! It feels like just yesterday I was meeting all the amazing people for the first time, had my first ever brunch at Garipçe, went for hookah at Rhino, spent evenings in Taksim, explored Sultanahmet, traveled to Kadikoy, had lunches at Yemekhane and Pideban, went for movies and Chinese food in Cevahir, walked around Istanbul during the marathon times and simply enjoyed the campus life, far from all the traffic and stress of a big city.

The fact is..I miss the days from almost a year ago, I miss the people who were there with me. I'm extremely grateful for the months I spent at Koç and I wish I could go back in time just to have one more day with all the sweet exchange people and wander around Istanbul for one last time.

Thank you for reading,

A :)

Busy October.

So October has turned out to be extremely busy and sort of restless for me. It started with a short trip to Bristol, two Birthday parties and continued with a 4-day trip to Durham. The North was extremely cold and windy, which made Exeter seem so welcoming when my boyfriend and I got back.

Being back to Exeter, I guess I'm supposed to jump into the sea of knowledge, surfing on numerous textbooks and embracing the waves of lecture slides and articles. Supposed to. Instead, I occupy myself with series, such as "Avatar. The Last Airbender." and  "How I Met Your Mother". Iskandar is being a great partner in crime by the way :) As soon as I realised how irresponsible I've been this past month, I must admit, I got a bit worried and stressed out. But then, I just looked at this from a different point of view. I don't have to submit anything before December and my academic skills have always been great, luckily. In other words, I'm a fast learner. So I've got a whole month before the deadlines once my boyfriend goes back to Malaysia. Oh, about that. Iskandar and I have only two and a half weeks left to spend next to each-other, after which he has to start his work. Which is why we are trying to make the most of every minute we are physically together. Out of nearly fourteen months we've been in a relationship, ten were spent in long distance. It may seem a lot to someone, but we were always thankful for every opportunity to see each-other, even if it was just a week. So no wonder I can't really concentrate on my modules at the moment. What I'm really looking forward to is the second half of this month! Tickets are all booked, schedule updated. All I can say is adventures are waiting for us out there! Meanwhile, we are enjoying our last week in Exeter and I am trying to sort my academics out :)

Thank you for reading,
Love,
A.

P.S: Here are some random photos from the past week. Enjoy:)

Durham Riverside

At Adnan's in Newcastle

Durham Cathedral

"Flat White" in Durham. The place serves amaaaazing hot white chocolate.

Sunny day in Exeter. One might recognise the stairs next to the Forum.

About time.

I consider myself a highly emotional person- I can cry for a small reason, go insanely mad as I have a bad temper, melt from someone's cuteness, or, complain too much when I'm upset. However, I know for sure that no matter how down I feel, how angry I can be at the moment, an hour or two later I will let it go and honestly forget about it. And I won't ever remind or accuse anyone of what happened. My thoughts and unexpressed feelings lead their own unpredictable life though. Some of my thoughts and ideas from years ago are still fresh in my mind, they come back when I don't expect them and they will always be with me. One of them is why I'm writing this blog post.

***

A couple of hours ago my boyfriend and I watched a movie called "About time". It is seriously one of the best movies I've seen recently, maybe actually the best one I've seen in a year or so. The story evolves around a family, which has a secret : all men in the family can travel back in time, only in the span of their own lives though. A young man learns it from his father , and uses his gift to get what he wanted most in life- love. However, the touching love story wasn't the best part of the movie for me, neither was the idea that you should live every day to the fullest, as you don't get any chances to fix it; the most powerful storyline was the final scenes between the dad and the son. The father dies from cancer, and the son travels back in time to spend more time with him. However, at some point the son realises that he sees his dad for one last time. He can't go back in time anymore. And this is where I guess I have to explain why it had such an impact on me.

I never knew my dad too well, I never cared about him much when I was a teen, never thought about him much, never needed him. I grew up not communicating with him, due to some events which happened in my family when I was still a little child. I barely remember him. Surprisingly, this doesn't stop me from being so much like him in lots of ways. We have similar little habits, looks, facial expressions. When my mom told me this, it made me incredibly happy. And although I don't want to repeat his worst mistakes, I'm proud to be his daughter. I know for a fact that he loved me with all his heart.

4 years ago he passed away. I will be lying if I say that I was devastated, or heartbroken. I wasn't. I never really knew him, and could never feel the connection, especially as I was a silly teenage girl back then. However I always loved him, and he lives in my heart, in some unexplored corner of it. What I can say for sure is that now, being more mature and wiser( at least I would like to think so), I regret not knowing him. Unlike the movie's character , I can't travel back in time. I can't fix something that wasn't broken by me. And this thought , the fact that I won't be able to actually know my father and what kind of a person he is, this idea will be always haunting me. 

***

One of the lessons I learnt in life is to regret nothing at all. This particular one is the only exception and weakness of mine.

Thank you for reading,

A

Summertime.

Summer is coming to its end, and I realised that my blog has been on a vacation just like me. So this post is some kind of a catching-up session with my readers and a chance to reminisce about great summer adventures for me.

June.

The greatest thing about June this year was my getaway to the UK. Spending a whole month with Iskandar, meeting his family, staying in Durham and simply enjoying the British way of life was a heartwarming experience. Durham charmed me with its beauty and lifestyle and, although it is completely different from Exeter( which is the best place in England,IMHO) , I grew to love it in less than a couple of weeks. Playing football, Scratching knees and elbows, Exploring Newcastle, Go karting for the first time in my life, Rowing on the river, Trying some best-tasting red velvet cakes and banoffee pies, Taking the wrong train and ending up in Scotland, attending Iskandar's graduation and college events- these are just some things that I can remember now. 

July.

July started for us in London. We were spending pretty much most of our time in Kensington( I LOVED IT) , Bayswater and Hyde Park. I'm not sure if you've heard about the heat wave in England, well if you haven't , trust me, the digits were way too high for a typical British summer! Nothing to complain about though, it was great. One of the hottest days was probably the day we visited the London Zoo. Thank God for the fast-track tickets! It took us about 10 seconds to enter the Zoo, unlike lots of tourists who were standing there for at least half an hour under the sun. The Zoo surprised me with the way they treat the animals- being brought up in a post-Soviet country, I was used to seeing hungry dirty poor animals, often looking like they just got into a fight, and grumpy zookeepers, which is why the previous time I attended a zoo was nearly 15 years ago. However you can tell that all the little, tiny, huge, creepy, playful, etc. creatures at the London Zoo are happy. One of the funny moments was my boyfriend's reaction to the bugs section : "Oh my God, they are so cute"! The Perks of dating a Geographer. <3

       

During the second half of July I was staying at Koc University, working as a mentor at an English Learning Camp for kids. The three weeks I spent there somehow managed to change my opinion about   lots of things. Being for about 10 hours per day right next to teenagers, observing the way they communicate, the way they think about most things, seeing how good-hearted , kind and loving they can be , makes you want to learn from them instead of teaching them. At the end of the project we were incredibly close with the fellow mentors as well as the kids. Goodbyes were too hard to handle, but this is something we all had to get used to. 

                           

August.

August turned out to be rich on trips for me. At first I had a chance to go to Macedonia for a couple of days. Skopje turned out to be small, environmentally-friendly and different from what I would expect it to be. Macedonian vegetables and fruits are something worth traveling for in this GMO era, the country's nature is untouched, non- industrial and preserved at its best. Unfortunately I didn't have time to go to the countryside and visit the famous lakes, but maybe that's a good reason to come back?

The second trip, which was probably the most exciting time of this past month, was my trip to Antalya. I can't express with words how much I missed the sea. They say that salty water heals everything, even your soul. Can't agree more. My skin got tanner , body refilled with some sun energy and now I'm emotionally satisfied with my summer and ready for Autumn.

                            


P.S.: Thanks for reading, hope your vacation is going great and in case you haven't been on a summer adventure, go ahead and make the most of the one week left!


Love,
Aida

Birthday week, whoop whoop!

So I'm finally 21! Usually it takes around half a year for me to get used to my new age, but this time it seems like I am very comfortable with being a year older and, hopefully, wiser.

My boyfriend, Iskandar, came to Turkey to celebrate our birthdays together and that was an amaaaazing week. I'm not gonna tire you with the description of every single day we got to spend together, but I want to share a couple of extraordinary moments with you. 

First of all, my birthday was extremely fun! We went for a movie at our favourite shopping mall in Istanbul, spent a couple of hours playing arcade games and ended the day with a dinner Cookshop restaurant( the food is incredibly yummy there). Another fun day was our trip to the Princes' Islands! Those islands are quite far away from Istanbul, it takes nearly 1.5 to get there on a ferry, but they are definitely worth a long trip. The islands used to serve as a place of exile for Turkish royalty as well as some famous people from other countries, like Leon Trotsky who lived for four years on Buyukada, his first residing place in exile. Once you arrive on the island, you can feel how different it is from Istanbul, as well as from the rest of Turkey. All the cottages on the islands are built in Victorian-era style, which makes them truly unique and so different from anything you can see on the mainland. The other great thing about the islands is that there are no cars, only horse carriages and bikes. I guess this place could become a heaven for stressed people. After the trip to Princes' Islands, we had dinner at Wagamama( yes, they do have it here), I had my usual chicken katsu curry, Iskandar tried teriyaki salmon noodles(which was really good!) and being full and happy, we watched Iron Man 3, which premiered in Turkey on that day! To those who haven't seen it yet, GO WATCH IT PLEASE! Such a great movie, I think we were discussing it for quite a bit, overwhelmed emotions.

On the next day Iskandar and I decided to go to the beach. The only beach that I know in Istanbul is the Kilyos beach, which is quite close to my uni. The day was really fun, although we didn't swim as the water was too dirty. Oh well :) Anyway, we had a great day and I seem to be one step closer to getting a proper tan this year ( white skin problems). On Iskandar's Birthday, which was a day after, we went for brunch to Garipce, sat right next to the sea, enjoyed the view and the delicious food. Having finished all food, we went to look around and saw dolphins from the highest peak at that place! Everybody was taking pictures trying to capture them but they were too far away. Although I'm pretty sure that a dot on one of the pictures I took with my iphone is the dolphins ;) After such a great start of the day we went to the shopping mall where we spent at least two or three hours playing arcade games again. That was pretty cool :) The day ended the same way as my Birthday, we spent the evening at the same restaurant (it is that good) and had to get back home to pack Iskandar's suitcase. 

The Birthday Week turned out to be so busy and fun, I truly enjoyed it! Thanks for reading and thanks to those, who sent me their congratulations on my Birthday! Got some heart-warming messages :)

Love,

A.

P.S.: Here's some good light music by Daft Punk and Pharrell for you guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NV6Rdv1a3I

Belgrade

Over the spring break at Koc Uni I went to Serbia for a couple of days. I never knew much about Belgrade and I was completely unprepared for the trip , however ,despite my lack of knowledge, it turned out to be a lot of fun!

If one day some of you decide to go to Serbia, you should definitely visit the Nikola Tesla Museum, which exhibits all of the personal belongings and inventions of Tesla. Being of a Serbian origin, he wanted all of his possessions to be inherited by the Serbian people. I loved the collection of inventions they keep there, and for a moment I even felt like I was in the movie "Prestige"!

Serbia seems like a country with untouched nature. The air is cleaner and fresher, food is natural, grass is greener. I've heard that Serbia is a great place for camping, its landscapes are incredibly beautiful. Belgrade is situated right on the junction of Sava and Danube rivers, and despite being a capital city, it seems like it hasn't been touched by industrialisation that much. Even in the city centre, there are so many parks and places to hide from the constant traffic and simply enjoy your day.

A must-visit place for tourists in Belgrade is Kalemegdan, a.k.a Old City. A lot like Sultanahmet in Istanbul, Kalemegdan is probably the best spot in Belgrade to feel closer to the history.

It is usually said that it's not the place that is unforgettable, but it's people who make it special to you. The best thing about Belgrade is definitely the people, they are incredibly kind! Most of them will do their best to help you. I do think that people in Belgrade are probably the most friendly people I ever met. And that's quite a thing to say :)

Thanks for reading,

Love,

A.

For the love of cartoons.

I usually consider myself as an adult, wise and responsible person, however people that know me well enough, have probably witnessed my ' this girl is cray' moments. At moments like this , I usually act like a big child, run around , or run away from my friends because all of a sudden I decide to play Hide&Seek with them in a shopping mall or simply start acting like a bad spoilt kid. Oh well, it is usually quite fun. The surprising thing is that I used to be such a calm child, loved painting, reading and  watching my favourite cartoons. So i guess my 'Wild Child' Alter Ego developed not because of my childhood, but despite it. But enough about me, I want to dedicate this post to the cartoons I loved, love and probably will love as the time goes by. I guess some of the readers will feel a bit nostalgic while scrolling down. So let's start.

Beauty and the Beast.

Disney movies always have a special place in every girl's heart. Most of them have a happy ending, but what tale doesn't? Beauty and the Beast teaches kids that what you truly fall in love with is the personality, not the appearance. 

The Emperor's New Groove. 

I always thought that this movie was really cool and funny. I must admit I still do:) 

The Aristocats.

This is a movie I would definitely show to my kids. Great story, Jazz and cats. What can possibly be better?

The Chicken Run.

Probably one of the most memorable movies of my childhood. 

The Road to El Dorado.

Haven't watched it in years but from the memories I have, can say that it is simply awesome!

The Prince of Egypt.

This is probably one of the greatest stories that have been ever animated.

Monsters Inc .

I re-watch Monsters Inc every once in a while, and to be honest, I always tear up during the 'Goodbye moment'. I'm way too excited about the prequel coming out, can't wait to watch Monsters Uni! :)

Rio.

This movie is very special to me. I can't believe it's already been 2 years since I watched it for the first time.

Wreck-it Ralph.

I think that this movie is probably one of the best animated movies that have been created recently. If you haven't watched it yet, I strongly suggest you to go ahead and watch it, you are gonna love it!

Thank you for reading this post, maybe some of you would even like to re-watch some of those movies, I sure will once I have some free time and my 'Wild child' mode on:)

Love,

A.

Malaysia.

Right now I'm sitting in my lecture,hardly listening to the professor and trying to put my thought together on this virtual piece of paper. Well hello there, Nostalgia! Once again I am missing Malaysia and reminiscing the great moments, the unforgettable two weeks I spent in Kuala Lumpur. In July 2012 I was given an opportunity to participate in the UKECharisma Education Project- a two-week program, which brought together around twenty enthusiasts from different countries, who became English language teachers for Malaysian kids from a public school. It was a blessing to teach those pure-hearted little people, who brought so many giggles and smiles to the team's lives! I swear all of us(volunteers) were crying our hearts out when the project was over, or at least the ones, who knew it was unlikely we would come back to this school and see the children again. The team is another thing that is definitely worth mentioning. All of the team members are people with big hearts, bright thoughts and best intentions. It is wonderful how all of them are willing to make a change and I'm sure that some day they will make the world a better place.

When I was preparing for the trip, I hardly knew anything about Malaysia. To be honest, I did not even bother doing any research, which turned out to be a good thing, as I didn't have any expectations. Malaysia amazed me with its beauty, kind people, delicious food, diversity and warm weather. The place sure felt like home to me and I would love to go there again. The day before flying back to Kazakhstan, a group of us went to the Morib Beach, which is about two hours away from KL. This was a perfect ending to the whole trip,the day was full of laughters and love. :)

To whoever hasn't been to Malaysia yet, I strongly advice you to go there one day. Trust me, this will be a great experience!

Here are some photos from my trip <3

 

Lots of Love,

A.

Kiwi.

Although I believe that most of my readers are people I've met at least a couple of times in my life, there  might be some random guests on my blog, which is why I'd like to introduce myself. It would be rude not to.

My name is Aida (how surprising) and I am 20 years old. Currently I'm on my Study Abroad Year in Istanbul. My Alma Mater is University of Exeter: Probably the Best University in the world. I could easily agree on that, as I love the place too much.

I was born in Kazakhstan and spent my early childhood as well as my school years over there. My father is Russian and my mother is Kazakh, however it is always hard for a mixed child to identify himself with one particular country or nationality. That's why I consider myself a World citizen. I am completely open to traveling and living absolutely anywhere in the world and I often catch myself making an imaginary list of places I'd like to visit. Well, one day.

I would also like to tell you the story behind my other name, Kiwi. Some people remember it from my early profiles on vk, Facebook and Formspring, but it followed me up to this point in my life- to my blog. This whole 'Kiwi' thing started about five years ago, when I suddenly became a huge fan of kiwi fruits and also saw and fell in love with a short animation video called 'Kiwi". To be honest, I still think it is awesome. The video is about a bird who can't fly. But its heart is brave and strong enough to overcome this minor detail. I always have a question after watching it : What would You do for your Dream? Knowing both of my 'passions', my friends started calling me Kiwi :)

I'm thankful to God for having people I care about by my side: my family and my friends. I truly love all of them, even if I haven't talked to someone for a long time. They are in my heart,no matter what. I'm also lucky and blessed to be in love. :)

Thanks for reading this selfish post, maybe you have found out something new about me, although it is pretty general. You can leave your comments/questions both directly(using your Google accounts) and anonymously. 

Lots of love,

A.

P.S.: Here's a link to the "Kiwi' video I was talking about. Enjoy! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdUUx5FdySs

Hello my dear future Readers!

This is the first time I'm attempting to create a blog so please excuse me if I'm going to be awkward or boring at first. Someone would ask if Instagram,Twitter and Facebook are not enough for self-expression, and I could probably agree on that. However, I've been wanting to blog for a while now,more than a year for sure. And the reason behind my weird but very mainstream wish is a simple idea that one should always develop himself and expand his horizons. I do believe that having a personal blog can help one explore his inner world and share the findings with anyone interested.

This blog is created as an experiment, however I'll be glad to have occasional readers and share my world, my ideas and pieces of my soul with those who can appreciate.

Thank you,
Lots of Love,
A.