New Years Resolutions

To tell the truth, I don’t make anything like that. I am as good as I want to be. No reason to change. I think that if I were a better girl, I would have less fun.
Though there are some things that I want to keep in my mind in 2006.
# Jana, don’t forget that Yerevan is only 4 hours (and 500 USD) away!
# It is better to fail than never try!
# and the last one: Show a little pride before you fall!

Better late than never

I met a lot of new people since September. They know me as a university student, working with a well-known cosmetic company. That creates a certain image of me, especially if they see me in a pink coat and with white fancy bag. When they get to know me better, I might tell them about my traveller's past. I have a lot of funny / scary / crazy stories from Armenia and Tajikistan (+ some really good ones from Macedonia where I spent a week in 2001). These destinations somehow don’t fit into the idea they had about me.
What distracts me is that me myself have sometimes difficulties to believe it. These stories just can't be something that happened to ME. They are more like dream, slowly fading. Anyway, here are some brief notes on my experience in central Asia. Better late than never.

7 things I loved about Tajikistan
§ mountains – you can see them from nearly anywhere and they are really impressive
§ people – AIESECers, university employees, host families. very friendly, open and helpful
§ travelling by marshrutkas, looking out of the window, everyday finding something new
§ meeting cows or donkeys in the centre of the city
§ music – Tajik, Persian, Russian. anything except Arash, please
§ sitting on the floor, sleeping on the floor
§ being “lost” in central Asia. I felt like a real adventurer

7 things I didn’t get used to in Tajikistan
§ food – I am afraid I will never ever eat lamb again
§ being guarded too much, lack of personal freedom
§ bad beer
§ no chance to take shower in combination with heat (45°C)
§ being a guest, not having anything like home there (no key from the flat where I lived)
§ paying for incoming phone calls
§ umm, I don’t know now. maybe I will add the last one later

Life is fun

Several people already asked me to update my blog. Wow, I didn’t really believe that anyone is interested. Whatever, here it is – Solnitchka’s life summary - December edition.

I did some more driving and visited Mariánské Lázně, Karlovy Vary, Cheb, Brno (twice), Zlín, Prostějov, Olomouc, and especially Ostrava, Havířov, Český Těšín, Karviná, Opava. I like this part of the country. So many memories – Take over conference in Ostrava in 2000 and 2001, my CEED in Karviná in summer 2002, some private visits to AIESEC Ostrava and its members...
This time I stayed in Ostrava for two nights without previous planning. The first snow came suddenly and I didn’t want to drive back at night across the mountains. I rather bought a tooth brush and winter shoes and stayed at the hotel. Anyway, when I returned the car to my employer without any harm, I was the happiest person in the building :)

BUT it was not my major success of the month. On 15th December I passed the final exam (yes, THAT exam I was blogging about in June, July, September and November). Now you can call me Bc. Solnitchka. As always it requires some more paper work at the university, but I can already claim that I gained the Bachelor degree.

24th December – another special date. Not only I had birthday (25 years, uff), but Marianna (MCP Armenia 2002/03) got married with Tigran (a.k.a. Tiko). I am so sorry that I didn’t manage to come. My dear, I wish you happy life, success to your company, a lot of love and as many children as you wish to have.