Mommy-to-be or -not-to-be?!

Going back home I was a witness of a sin...

Young lady who's obviously 7 or 8 months pregnant was standing smoking next to her friend (also a woman) who was smoking too.

Recently, I have seen another picture next to my local supermarket: I saw the back of the woman with a small girl walking with her, but the most interesting picture was further - a couple, pregnant woman and her husband were looking at the same direction at the same woman with a kid, who was smoking at the same time. I looked at this woman, then on pregnant woman who caught my look we both and her husband had the same expressions of shock on our faces and we all looked back at that woman once again...

Do those women understand that their temporary satisfaction can influence on baby's health? What are they thinking about (if they have ability to think at all)?..

During the winter (when in Ukraine temperature reach a point around -17, -22 degrees Celsium) girls, young ladies and women are wearing miniskirts, shortcut coats, nylon tights and even shorts. Some of my foreign friends were wondering if it's some kind of competition here called "Who will survive in the shortest miniskirt".

Sometimes I wonder if those girls/women consider which kind of consequences it may cause to their health, do they want or plan to have kids ever? Do they want to have normal sexual life or they want to suffer from some terrible disease for the rest of their lives?

Story of one Korean soul living in Ukraine

It was my second "lazy Korean Friday"*, when I met this outstanding person. She opened the door at the school just right before I reached a handle from outside. Average height with dark short hair and friendly smile. She was our teacher for that day's lesson.

As professional habit, automatically, my brain started to study everything, every small detail and feature of her manners, appearance, style of speech. As a teacher myself and minoring in psychology  I could tell that she spent pretty long time in Ukraine and, maybe, in the Soviet Union, because by the way she talked I could say that some words were in use here around 20-30 years ago and it could be caught only at Soviet time system of education.
...She was explaining Korean grammar rules and new vocabulary to us and she was always referring to Koreans as "they" and to Ukrainians as "we" and identifying herself with "us"(Ukrainians), which I found interesting, because it's rare to see a person who obviously identify herself with another culture rather than her own. So, by that time, I was already so curious about her personal background that I did commitment to myself: "I'll ask her after the lesson".


And what did she tell us was one of the most interesting stories I've ever heard from foreigners here in Ukraine...

First steps or how did I get in migration processes

When I was at school, all that I knew about migration was one small page from Geography book, which contained few terms and small description of global processes.
But I grew up and knowledge about migration extended to a broad field of study. My interest in languages, people and cultures, especially Japanese, took me to exhibition "Study in Japan" where I met PH.D and Professor Assistant Asakawa Akihiro. Thanks to Mr. Asakawa, who opened my eyes on international migration and globalization.
I've been working in this field as freelance giving consultations and doing spoken translation for my costumers, then I worked at Zest Outsourcing as Project Coordinator providing full application process for work permit in Ukraine, temporary residence permit and conducting budgeting and outstaffing procedures.
By now, I'm working as freelance once again, deepen my knowledge about labor migration, practical problems and want to share my experience with common people who are interested in travelling, working in Ukraine, immigration, migration and globalization issues.

Yaponomania 2013 (13.09.-15.09.)

Photoreport of one amazing event