#003 How did I end up living in Ukraine? 2/2

Hello, everybody! 

How is it going? I've gone missing for almost a month, time flies when you have fun. 

So, Christmas arrived and gone, 2021 is over and 2022 has begun.

I've had such wonderful holidays that I'm fully relaxed and ready to start fresh.

I hope you had a fantastic start to the new year and a further joyful Christmas with those you care about the most!

But today we're not here to talk about the holidays, how I spent them and with whom, or which gifts I got. 

This will be the topic of another Blog post or Podcast episode since I have lots to talk about, especially before I turn 30 on the 26th of January, which is close.

Today we continue our journey on why and how I ended up living in Ukraine, this is, in fact, the second part, therefore if you haven't heard or read the first one, I invite you to do so! 

Let's pick up where we left last time: I decided to install Tinder and set up, apparently for no logical reason (see the 1st part to understand why I say this) the geo-localization to Lviv.

Surprisingly, not so much in retrospect though, I received plenty of messages and matches.

I'm saying it's not that surprising in retrospect only because I was looking, well, not bad for sure, I was an Italian living the dream in London.

Furthermore, a videographer with big clients, 24 years old with money and willing to have fun.

All qualities and peculiarities that girls in an objectively poorer country compared to European standards were for sure appealing.

I started choosing a bit what, I thought, were the more interesting candidates and ended up chatting with a few girls.

One, in particular, Maria, was very intriguing. Beautiful, nice smile, bright big eyes, and a fantastic physique.

I started chatting with her and straight away realized she was intelligent, funny, and had a similar sense of humor to mine.

We spoke about anything understood each other, and agree on most of the things we were talking about. Most importantly, finding a common ground on the really few things on which we had a different opinion.

I decided to invite her to go on vacation with us, and she accepted.

Now, I'm going to fast-forward a bit because, otherwise, this would be too long and probably give you diabetes.

We spent the whole holiday together, and I understood I loved her. In person, she was  10 times as beautiful, smart, and funny.

I left her at the airport knowing that I was going to come back, I even bought the tickets in front of ever because she wouldn't believe me.

I then left my favorite hoodie (that she still has), saying I will come back to take it.

For 2-3 months, I was traveling for the weekend (or 3 days) once every two weeks there, spending a fortune between planes and hotels. It was definitely worth it, though.

At some point, I saw the conditions she was living in that dormitory. Nothing terrible but like every student dormitory, the conditions weren't good at all.

I then decided around November 2016 to rent an apartment so that I didn't have to pay for the hotel, and she could leave in a better place.

Two birds with one stone.

After we found the apartment, I had this constant idea of moving there to spend more time with her.

It made sense, especially if you think about the fact that the company I was working with hired me more and more often for editing, and the shootings were rarer. 

So, I thought that worst-case scenario I could just take a flight back to London just in case there was an important job.

I would have kept working from home, but in a country that would cost me a fraction compared to the UK.

Towards the end of November, I started sending my stuff over to our apartment.

After spending Christmas and New Year's Eve in Italy with my family (there is another hilarious story there for another time), I finally flew back with Maria and moved to Kyiv on the 7th of January 2017, on Orthodox Christmas Day.

We've landed at Boryspil airport, collected our luggage, and headed out seeking a taxi.

The moment I step outside, a freezing breeze and the snow welcomed me into a new land.

The thermometer showed -19 degrees Celsius, with a corresponding -25 degrees Celsius of perceived temperature. 

It's funny, though, Ukraine's “warm” welcome was the coldest weather I've ever experienced.

And there I felt it straight away, I looked at Maria and calmly said: “Babe, I'm home”.

As always, thanks for reading or listening to me.

I'm Fabio Pansera, A happy Italian Immigrant, see you next time!