Hi!
I am a young creative from Ukraine. I work in IT area, as a User Experience Designer (UX), - basically my job is to make people's lives easier when they're using web sites or mobile apps :) Apart from that, I paint / draw and do some writing, whenever something inspiring comes across my mind. Cooking is also one of my greatest passions, and eating great delicious food is non the less.

I've lived in Kiev for almost 8 years, but grew up in the south of Ukraine, in a town by the sea. I LOVE the sea, love to go there and inhale it, love the tranquility and majesty of it, and the joy of simple life in a small town by the sea.

When travelling, what I enjoy the most is getting to feel the ambience, the essence of the place with all its components to the very bone marrow: the people, the surroundings, the food and experiences. It usually inspires me the most, and reveals some new, fascinating sides of the world and myself, I haven't seen before. Such experiences are always the most valuable ones.

I love the 'guests', or 'relatives-coming-over', atmosphere in the house, - grew up like that, and still like that. I always loved the lovely mess and space shortage in our house, when it was full of cousins, uncles and aunts. It always brought the good vibes, great laughs and some bright memories for a long time.

I grew up in a multicultural background: my mother being a Moldavian and my father a Bulgarian, both born in Ukraine, speaking Russian. While in school, I lived in the USA as an exchange student, and later on I learned Spanish at the university. So, ever since then, I pretty much felt like a citizen of the Earth, belonging to practically any place in the world :D

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

To discover people and places, enrich my life with diversity, understand myself and my place in life better.

Interests

Painting / drawing
Lettering
Design
Singing / playing the piano
Writing
Cooking

• arts
• writing
• singing
• design
• perfumes
• dancing
• dining
• cooking
• clothing
• traveling
• painting
• drawing
• piano
• sports

Music, Movies, and Books

In my playilist you may find, in no specific order: City and Color, Ben Howard, Alicia Keys, Lifehouse, Coldplay, Fink, Tom Waits, Ed Sheeran, George Ezra, Rascal Flatts, The Black Keys, Gavin DeGraw, CeeLo Green, Explosions In The Sky, Nickelback, Oasis, Lenny Kravitz, Norah Jones...
I like listening to some drum&bass, while working hard, to some indie in spring, to some jazz in winter and to some alternative in autumn. It's always different, always changing, coming and going.

As to boooks, my all time favorites are: Ayn Rand 'The Fountainhead', Ray Bradbury 'Dandelion Wine' and 'Summer morning, Summer Night' short stories collection. Thumbs up for books on self-development too! Like, Meg Jay's 'The Defining Decade' - was a real eye opener for me at a time, lol.
And right now I am finishing up Irving Stone's 'Lust For Life'; so far so good.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Played on an open-air piano in the city centre and sang, in front of a whole bunch of strangers. It felt great, don't know if that's amazing enough :)

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach some English/ Russian/ Ukrainian words and expressions, and even some words from the Gothic language, and some nice irreplaceable words from Moldavian and from Bulgarian ;D
I can show how to cook a brownie, a delicious 3-ingredient sponge cake, Ukrainian borsch, Moldavian dish 'mamaliga'.
I could share with the art I do, and stories I write, sing to you or play the piano - yay, lot's of fun :D
I can also make a User Experience analysis of a site or mobile app for you - say what should be improved, from the perspective of usability - something I do at work.

I would love to learn how you live: stories of everyday life, relationships with people who surround you, your life experience and whatever stories you would like to share. If there's some dancing, or sport, or art you do - would be interesting to see it.
Also, I am very interested in objects of everyday life, that exist in other countries but in mine, like special cooking utensils, or special clothes, whatnot. Anything that's usual to you, but is rare or extinct in other countries.

Countries I’ve Visited

Italy, Moldova, Spain, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Ukraine, United States