Lviv it | October'14

It has been a while, or at least it feels like this. I traveled a lot those days, but it somehow goes right through the fingers when it comes to writing things down; the beauty is in the process, you know, and sharing adventures and memories can sometimes hurt a lot. I epically failed the story about my trip to Bialystok in the middle of September (although, of course, I will never fail to remember), as well as the journey from Belarus to Italy through Poland and Czech Republic I had (don’t ask); however, now, being back from Lviv International Summit of EYP Belarus, I simply can’t keep quiet; at last, here are some stories about how we Lvived it so much.

(As a reference to the world of EYP you can always use the Article from March)

Firstly, some travel advises:

•          Don’t trust Ryanair, - especially if you have some transport to catch afterwards, - and make sure you have mobile numbers of the bus driver, if the transport you are to catch is the bus. That’s what happened to me in Krakow when I was changing from the plane to the bus at 1 am; Ryanair was predictably late, leaving me half an hour to reach the bus station in the center of Krakow and catch the bus – luckily, I managed to call the bus driver and find out that the bus itself was late as well. I mean, of course, having both plane and bus being delayed  is lots of luck for one person in the middle of the night, but it worked out, so, god, who cares;
•           Be ready to be the only one from the whole bus whom Ukrainian border control will decide to check out; remain calm, be nice and try not to look scared when you will see machine guns on their waists;
•           Arrive to the train and bus stations in advance. You can never know when the city will host football game or some other event, so the whole city will be stuck in a traffic jam;
•           Check the name of the airport; I’m sure, airport of Warsaw sounds persuasive enough, but, believe me, when you arrive there in the middle of the night and find out that Warsaw has two airports, it gets a bit messy;
•          Make sure you know the way to reach airports, train and bus stations, center of the city, etc. It was getting messier and messier as I was going through the night Warsaw looking for another airport;
•          According to the European Union regulations, you can have a reimbursement, if your plane was delayed for more than 3 hours. If you are late anyway, make some use of the time and pass three hours in a pleasant anticipation.

So, back to another European Youth Parliament adventure I had. After getting through all the troubles on the way to Lviv and before leaving it with the equal amount of troubles, I had the best time being

a journalist there. Such a good and properly busy time it was, that after leaving Ukraine I found around 10 photos only which would be really mine, and not my committee’s, chairpersons’, board’s or the ones from farewell party. I found out how I can properly write without endless procrastination, about the real potential of my magnificent nifty fifty lens, about the way to be both journalist and part of the committee, and all these professional achievements where nothing when compared to how great the people around me were. I also had two great surprises from the people I really love - a friend of mine and my cousin, who came to Lviv from Kiev to spent some time with us and made some unforgettable memories. I looked through endless pictures and I keep smiling for the people so far away but somehow so close; I smile because they were bright, brilliant, adventurous, brave, supportive and creative, and conversations with every single one of them brought me – of course, joy and happiness, but also – serenity.

Magnificent view of our main venue

The reason I’m writing about Lviv is because I fell in love with the city, with prices for food, with people around me, with my camera and – over and over again – with the feeling of unity and hope EYP creates.

I had a feeling of doing it right, and it was a great feeling to behold, especially on an event organised by EYP Belarus after such a break. I loved it, every second, and I had the feeling that people around me loved it as well, and I wouldn’t wish for anything more.

Same venue, different angle

Okey, well, may be, one more thing – as a member of a media team of the session, I wish

our great work will be greatly appreciated. If you haven’t don’t it yet, look at our newspaper’s issues, the video done by our supreme video-editor and follow the session’s page for upcoming photo updates.

Because the memories we create are burning bright, aren’t they?

Issue 1

Issue 2

Issue 3

Live from Lviv epidose 1

Live from Lviv episode 2

One of the few photos with me I have; perks of being a journalist and things

Photography | September'14

That's the story about photography as a way of seeing the world of one of the friends of mine.

Around quite long ago I met a girl – she was a friend of a friend of mine. We were 15 or something  – anyway, we were equally young, enthusiastic and amazingly obsessed with the world around. So, we were keeping in some pretty abstract touch for a couple of years, during which the girl steadily discovered that she had quite a talent for photography – she was doing some quite special photos with quite nothingness for a camera. When I was 17 and had a need in making some photos, I rememberedabout that girl of mine, and we met, and she took my mother’s camera stand, and outside of my house with her portable camera took some quite breathtaking pictures which I heartily love even now.

So after I had the whole photo shoot to be adored, followed everything she was doing for some time, and got really excited, I said something like “hey, whatever and however crazy will be the idea for your next shooting, I would be happy to participate”. I suppose it was weird at the time since we barely met before and spoke with regularity of every half of the year.

Nevertheless, the next summer she colored my face, went out of the city and created the whole new world out there with a piece of white tissue, three girls and a camera she borrowed.

After that we were meeting quite often, pretty much - every time we were inspired with something and wanted to share it with the world. Some time ago I fell for “Hurts”, so we made black-and-white photos with the body of my camera and the girl’s zenit lens. 

Two years ago it was music of Lana del Ray, and the story with this shooting is quite special, because we were allowed to stay in the very posh restaurant with our camera before the official opening. We were boasting a lot that time about how it was ours exclusively.

The same year the girl bought her very own camera with her very own lenses. We celebrated it by making photos in my father’s room. She was shooting from wardrobe – her new lens was fixed and that was the only way to get my face into the picture altogether. Don’t ask – it was great anyway.

This year we made Princess Leia shooting, which was a lot on my Facebook and which made lots of people think I’m really weird. The girl was making my make-up, she drew the picture of Darth Vader, she cooked cupcakes and improvised me a skirt out of the piece of white tissue which has already been mentioned. Couple of weeks ago we made the most hipster and amazing set of pictures  on a parking place of a big supermarket, and had a great fun in the meantime, being carried around in shopping carts.

Through all the years we spent together drinking milk creams, getting to locations, choosing inspiring topics and shocking people around, the girl became a really close friend of mine. We were making makeup in my car, sneaking into places we were not supposed to be, improvising, creating, having great deal of fun and nice cup of tea after every single meeting. And through all this years she never stopped surprising me.

There is something in the way she sees the world through lenses – something about light 

shadows, colours, air and god knows what else, but she makes her pictures breathe.

She supported me a lot in all the ventures I went through lately, and I’m taking a chance and all these pictures to tell her once again that she has been such an inspiration and breath of fresh air for me through these years; that her talent has grown to be something truly beautiful; that the way she sees the world around is astonishing.

We had quite of a story, which, however much I’ve tried to cover it, is impossible to be told at once, so I stop here with that video we made quite a time ago and which proved to be really hard to find.

When we sleep from Antennasgriga on Vimeo.

Enjoy!

With lots of love,

From me whom your pictures taught a lot.

Pavia | August'14

I had come back to lovely Italy to spend some time looking for a flat. So far all I can state only one thing – it had been one of the most heartbreaking experiences in my life.

I would be even happy to say that the problem is in all the shitty flats and all the stubborn, insensible owners – but it’s not. I’ve seen some pretty good ones; I’ve seen some, which were pretty breathtaking; I had some really good time going around the city, checking addresses and looking from the inside what we always judge from the exterior. It was great, really.

Yesterday, however, early in the morning, I called a man and made an appointment for 2 in the afternoon. A bit later he called me back and, after asking where was I at the moment, suggested to go now, so he can give me a lift by his car and save some of my time.

In the car we were listening to the new-age music, which was imitating rain. The man was in his sixties; we were talking about how he was growing up in the flat I was going to see, about ancient city walls of Pavia, his family and how I can’t make up sense with past tenses of some Italian verbs. He was holding doors for me, showing around, describing how the flat looked like 40 years ago.

By then I knew that I’m not going to take it, but I just couldn’t stop listening.

Before we parted, he showed me a storage room right beneath the roof at the top of the building. There was a desk there – something looking pretty old and classy; kind of a thing you would put in the corridor, with hangs for clothes and a little shelf for a phone. On the wood a little girl was drawn; she looked quite nostalgic and was covered in tiny net of cracks on the surface.

I didn’t ask, but I was told – that was a shelve in the corridor from 40 years before; when the man was yet a boy, he used to think about the drawn girl as his first love: she was right at the eyes level for a little boy, to talk to her and pretend to do the first kissing.

The girl looked sad when we left, I swear.

The man gave me a lift back as well; I was shaking hands with him and thinking that my chances to see him again are close to zero, but god, how touched I felt by his whole life.

I’ve seen plenty of such things. I’m not that much of an easy-going type, but I was talking and listening a plenty for the last days. I met children and grandchildren of numerous owners; I was attacked by their dogs and learned the name of other pets; I’ve seen family places with history and some new ones where history was yet to made; I’ve seen the inside of some families rich beyond the measure and heard their stories too. I’ve heard stories again, and again, and again, and just as I was overwhelmed, I was pushed to yet another house and meet some more people.

I feel touched by all of them, by something like a wind, which is rushing towards us as we pass against a person on the street. I always look back when I do so, and I can’t stop looking now. After all, it’s not just about the houses; it’s also about how both empty and complete I feel at the same time because of the necessity to choose.

I will choose, obviously, but I’m thankful for all the things people shared with me these days. I wonder if everyone feels the same I do while choosing the place to live, or meeting new people, or both, but I think they should.

We all are parts of each other, even when it’s just the wind we share by walking the same street.

There is a picture I made in the flat that remarkable morning with that remarkable man; it’s of the inner yard, where you can see a part of Pavia’s old city wall, which goes all around the city. You can’t see it from the street; this thing is a personal treasure for those, who can see it from their flats, while taking a morning cappuccino.

I’m posting It here as a form of gratitude and, even more, as a promise to remember every little story there is on my way; and, particularly, the one about the young boy and his first love being right on the eye level of each other in a corridor long gone.

Genova/ Genoa | Italy | June'14

Genoa was actually a second city we visited that day with my friend. The first one was a small beach Mediterranean town - Sestri Levante, - about which I don't have much to say; it seemed to be the perfect place to do nothing, look at the sea, eat focaccia and, judging from the atmosphere, probably, write poetry. 

So after spending half of the day in the same fashion (no poetry written, though), we moved to Genoa by a train, which represented Italian railway at its bests, covering 50 kilometers between two towns in an hour. 

Genoa felt so different, however, that it could just the same be 10 times the distance between relaxing Sestri Leavante and rushing, concentrated, messy Genoa. The city, just as the cliffs it's built on, seemed dangerous, sharp and complicated.

The weather was getting stormy; we had three hours to the train and spent them looking for la Lanterna - oh-so-famous, iconic lighthouse of Genoa. It looked quite close on google maps, but we lost our way at least twice on the way, got stuck on a sidewalk of motorway (well why not) and found Lanterna closed when we finally fought the rapid ascent which lead there. 

Being tired, a bit angry and a little bit rebellious, we climbed the fence which barrier staircase to the small yard behind Lanterna where the spotlight where installed. Our rebellious mood was rewarded by the terrible wind up there and an astonishing view - of the sea in front of us and harbor behind. I'm not even mentioning how beautiful the sea is, but the port, overloaded with containers, shipyards, stretching all over the eyesight, was somehow beautiful in its geometry. It felt wrong, though - occupying so much of the harbor that you could hardly see where it ends.

On our way back we were reading these information plates all along the road. It was a bit of a history of the city and a bit - of la Lanterna itself, but was stroke me was a random piece of information about Genoa. The harbor, being the huge commercial and passenger port, has taken the place of the sea, and separated the city from what gave it birth in the first place. 

It was becoming really cold now, and the wind was pushing us down the street. We spent some quality time trying to find a train station, went through a couple of particularly weird downtown streets and took the train a minute before departure.

My camera and phone had already died; we finished the food, and, being exhausted, were looking into the window. I was thinking about these words I read - how Genoa is the city, which almost lost its sea, and it was somehow disturbing and beautiful.

And not being sure if I want to come back, I will check the opening hours of La Lanterna all the same.

Here is to Genoa: the bright, difficult, struggling city on the Mediterranean cost, which almost let go what it breaths with. 

Train thoughts | Italy | May'14

Saturday has passed by in the following fashion: I woke up at 7, ate my oatmeal, crossed two borders and one time belt, and at 10 pm was seating in the Italian regional train with my feet on the opposite seat. The train was supposed to get me from Milan to the small town nearby, but was already late for 20 minutes at the very least. The window was showing the pitch-dark night so overwhelming and tenacious that it seemed to brake the train, pull it back – we were stopping every couple of minutes. The train was staying, passengers were keeping quiet, and I was looking into the window although there was nothing but the darkness outside.

At some point of that hopeless wait I came over the thought that the system of regional train connections in the region of Lombardy might be the perfect metaphor for life. Of course we would like to know for sure, but in fact we all are rushing through the life being blinded by the darkness outside the train – it’s not only that you can’t see anything through the windows, but the windows themselves can be sealed with awkward graffiti so densely that it wouldn’t let inside even roentgen rays, let alone the lights of rare and lonely lamps along the railway. There are lights in the carriages, some bright and reassuring, some pale or the ones which don’t work at all; on your seat thousands were sitting, lying and putting their shoes before. Trains may stop, passengers may change, but all of this – in the total darkness of warm, velvety Italian nights, without timetables and even station names assigned. But after all, the train that stopped is nothing – as long as it will move again into the night. What is scary is to stand on the platform so completely alone and wait for the next train to come while having no guarantees it’s ever coming at all. Isn’t it frightening – to spend a life staying on the platform in the dark, watching the trains which never stop rushing past?

And everybody is ever afraid – that their train is way too fast or too slow, that they missed the stop, or chose the wrong carriage, or that they are those who stand outside on the platform and look on the trains flashing past. Everybody is afraid, and there are few things in the world which would be as promising and full of hope as being in the train which moves to some distant and uncertain aim, but there might be something wrong with humans, with the trains or with both as we keep being afraid, trying to get out and changing trains over and over again.

It was almost a relief when the train finally moved. There were lights of a distant city in front of us, so I kind of hoped it was mine and started packing. It might be personal, but somehow I get all itchy from all these promises and hopes of a moving train. So, when it has stopped, I got out standing for a while on a train station, waiting for people to leave until it was empty, warm and calming.

Just waiting for yet another train, you know.

Pavia | April'14

Nothing special today - just pictures from the park next to my house in Italy. Went out for half an hour and got lost in the park (ups) for the whole evening. The spring here is such a beauty though, and people are so - like all the people everywhere, different and amusing and unique each in a different way.
They were playing baseball there! Exclamation - because I've seen basefull only in american cartoons before, and some people playing it in Northern Italy right next to my house - that was a revelation.
Life is  - generally speaking - such a revelation.

European Youth Parliament (EYP) / March'14

I always had these big problems with coming back from EYP sessions and having troubles with explaining to people what is EYP and why it’s such a great things for me and for so many other people. I re-read all the things I wrote about EYP in my old blog over the last year and found out that it was mainly about the mess of emotions, people, happiness, post-EYP-depression and applying for new events all over again. So today, just being back to Italy after two amazing EYP event in a row, I want to for once to do it properly. The structure I will follow is that of a debriefing scheme we are using there to clear up the mind; FFFF – facts; feelings; findings; future.

Facts: EYP, Riga IS, Klaipeda ESRS.

• ·         The European Youth Parliament is a politically and religiously unbound non-profit organisation, which encourages European youth to actively engage in citizenship and cultural understanding. It involves around 40,000 youngsters from all around Europe in its events and has around 5,000 active members in the different countries. © Wikipedia
• ·         Two officially used languages are English and French as the organization first appeared as a school project in France in 1988.
• ·         Typical EYP event is an extended parliamentary simulation which consists of three main parts:

  

  Would strongly advise see this one in big size

  Teambuilding, Committee Work (each committee is assigned name and topic following the actual committees of European Parliament) and General Assembly. The length of the session may vary significantly depending on the type of the event – may it be a one-day school session, EYP Weekend, Regional Session, National Selection Conference or a flagship event of EYP – International Session (IS) which happens thrice a year and bringing together delegations all over Europe for 9 or more days.
• ·         Main participants of the session are delegates organised into committees. Each committee is accompanied by a chairperson (or two), each chairperson is a part of a bigger officials team which also includes vice-presidents and a president of the session. Each session has its’ own team of organisers – most self-dedicated people in the world who are responsible for pretty much everything before and during the event. Session may also have (or not) a media team.
• ·         I got into EYP absolutely accidently the last February by finding the application form for the regional session of EYP Belarus in Vilnius. Since then I’ve been on 7 events in 4 countries and 6 different cities, both as delegate, chairperson and journalist.
• ·         Although not being selected the last year for the international session, I was chosen to participate in this year's IS in Riga in the middle of March. Was so happy that actually didn’t even think about how it will result into skipping a week of studies.
• ·         Some of my best friends at the moment are those I’ve met in EYP on my first session. After I found out they are applying as chairpersons for another event – European Student Regional Session in Klaipeda in the end of March – I also wrote an application (was preparing for an exam at that moment, but who cares). After being selected there I at last have been hesitant for a while (as that was resulting already into two weeks in a row of skipped university), but as two of my friends got selected as well, gave it a try (dreading in advance the process of catching up the anatomy program).
• ·         I spent 8 days in Riga as a part of a Committee on Culture and Education 1 (CULT 1). We had 2 days on teambuilding, 2 more – on Committee Work focused on the topic of discrimination in sports and had 2 days of General Assembly. We had 3 parties, 2 outside dinners, eurovillage and euroconcert (one of each), average temperature of minus 6, 1 chairperson from UK and enormous quantity of shared fun and inspiration.
  
• ·         Klaipeda ESRS being consisted only of 3 days was nonetheless just as a huge event for me as Riga IS – but differently. It was a CULT committee again with an enormously controversial topic of cultural impact of immigration, me chairing together with 1 of the 2 vice-presidents, having 5 committees on the session, around 4 hours for teambuilding and sleeping on average around 4.5 hours per day.

Feelings.                                                                                     

• ·         Riga IS

I had these absolutely controversial stages of appreciating my international session and being a delegate after more than 6 months break. I was absolutely overexcited at first – while packing and during the flight, after arrival, meeting my roomies, appreciating first of the many really tasty breakfasts (oh, food in Riga was just MUCH LOVE). I felt a bit lost and reflexive during the couple of the next days, having periods of depressive thoughts of going into nowhere. What helped me a lot were all these people around – all over the world, all over the opinions;  my night talks with my committee mates and our whats’up chatting; meeting random people on the way, sometimes letting them go and sometimes don’t. That was the moment when I realized – people around might be the best way to solve yourself. I just went to sleep that day and woke up being relieved, ready to work, feeling our committee as a team and full of the motivation to move. That stage was worth coming through the second, and that’s what EYP was for me at that moment and always is – it’s teaching the things about myself and the world around so out of a sudden and so right, that it’s breath catching.

EYP and its people, Riga and its nightlights.

It was hard and demanding; it was a committee work of a high academic quality; we were all getting ill one after the other after walking under the snow every single morning; General Assembly was somewhat frustrating and I even had a cup of coffee (first time in half of the year) to keep me awake on Friday. And it was marvelous – people around, Riga with its’ old town, having lunches together, dancing on coffee breaks, feeling along with so many others about that bright future somewhere ahead. I felt a great emptiness while leaving Riga – it was early in the morning after somewhat of 3 hours of sleep on Sunday, the city was empty, I was walking alone and having this feeling in my body – about how important it was. How bright, how cool, how complicated and how enormously great.

• ·         Klaipeda ESRS

So I had a three days break before coming back to EYP as a chairperson. I packed my stuff, I took my brother, my friends, got into the train and five hours later took off in Klaipeda – Lithuanian city standing on the Baltic Sea.

I always had these tender feelings to seas as something eternally free and heart-breaking and inspiring. Was the session so great due to the sea? Was it about people? Was it the feeling of being a first chairperson for a lot of newcomers into EYP? I was terribly ill for two out of three days of the session, and being able to stand it all through the event was a great achievement and somehow an experience for me. I was ready to give up so many times when it was a song I was singing with delegates, a cup of tea from someone passing by, videos from our media team, my co- and soul-chairs, delegates asking questions about the future sessions, talks and laughs, - all the things and people which were bringing me back to life all over again. I was putting my health as a higher priority so often that it was an enormous relief for caring about something else even more.

We have seen the sea as well – after the event had ended the officials team took the bus and went to the beach and had a giant group hug as the sun went down, with the waves behind us sound like breathing. That’s the feeling from that feeling section – been a part of the whole, free, happy, inspired, daring and never giving up.

Findings.

It's here cause I miss CULT 1 and its people a lot. 

Panda as a symbol of discrimintaion on the streets of Riga. 

I cannot divide these two weeks into periods in this section. My findings are about the people – how controversial and different and beautiful they are. About myself – how I can learn a lot from the others and how the only limits there are I’m creating myself. About EYP and its academic sides I never thought that profoundly before. About how beautiful the sea is after the sunset. About pandas being a symbol of fight against discrimination. About how 8 people can fit into one car (somebody should have been filming.

About how expressing yourself is great and how sleep deprivation really doesn’t matter anymore.

Future.

More important, I found out a new way to feel about such events ending. I stormed back home like a hurricane today, hugged my flatmate, cleaned the room, got ready for tomorrow and wrote more than 1500 words for that post about how EYP is changing my life all over again.

I was seriously thinking about having a big gap in EYP, or, probably, even quieting it at all. I don’t think so anymore. What I think is that as long as this project will teach me such valuable things, bring me to such beautiful places and help me to meet all these people – I will be doing it.

On the closing ceremony of the Riga IS we were told a beautiful legend about the city – how every five years a voice from the river Daugava asks if Riga is ready. The answer should always be no – otherwise the Daugava will rise and drawn the city. Believe me, I’ve seen this river – it’s quite possible.

That was the best way to describe this project and our involvement in it I could imagine. EYP is never ready – and, probably, it’s where our strength is.

Daugava might be ready from the look of it, but we are not.

It's already around 1700 words and I still don’t feel like it’s ready, however, at least, it follows some structure now. And emotions – well, they are so much and such, that don’t need to be explained over and over again.

Such EYP, much love.

With lots of love,

Natali