When will they finally come? — You should try to enjoy days of your life or, at least, be aware that such a choice exists and is available to you. Joy is right here — just reach out and catch the moment. Depression is what renders you blind to those illusive threads of joy sewn into…

Would you want the rest of the world to stop them from doing that? — Ukraine’s Prime Minister, Denys Shmyhal, said today that Russia has been attacking and bombing our energy infrastructure for the last two weeks. Last year, the world did very little to deter Russia from bombing our power plants, leaving us without light for most of the winter. I personally don’t remember…

Every path, every route in this city is paved by hot steams of freshly brewed coffee. — Folk (hipster) wisdom says, “Coffee shops can never be too many.” Kyiv tries to challenge that belief, but — despite its consistent dedication to opening too many coffee shops — there are still just enough of them and not too many. Every path, every route in this city is paved…

We haven’t seen our parents for two years — My boyfriend Serhii had a call with his family. It was his grandmother’s birthday. She was born right after Holodomor, survived the Second World War and now — at the age of 76 — she has to live through…

We just want to feel a little bit less unfree than usual — We went swimming in the Dnipro River today. It was exciting and weird. For the last two years, a bathtub was our river, lake, sea and ocean. It’s odd to take a dive in a real, actual, proper city river with slippery algae and green, cloudy water. It also makes…

In a cafe at the foot of Andriyivsʹka Tserkva — Andriyivsʹka Tserkva is the third most attractive sight in Kyiv. The triumphant crown rests on the head of a Ukrainian fast-food chain Puzata Hata. There, you can try the famous chicken Kyiv for just 3 euros and polish it in your gut with another local nobility — Kyiv cake. Yummy…

It’s time to go to a park, sit on the grass and think — In a fast and sucking-in whirlpool of life, it’s easy to forget one thing you should never forget during summer — to go to a park, sit on green, slightly scratching grass and write about that indispensable, rare life experience. So easy to do yet so hard to remember. I…

We take a sip. We look at each other. We talk about the taste. We speak coffee. We speak love. — Our kitchen has a special wall. Before, it was just an ordinary kitchen wall covered in grey wallpaper. Now, the wall is special. It’s a small gallery. It’s an art installation. It’s a painted canvas dedicated to our love language.

As I listen to more of Maryla Radowicz’s music, I realize that I find the process to be surprisingly meditative — On Monday, I stumbled on a song called Jestem Kobietą by Edyta Górniak. I was watching/listening to the covers of Tomorrow Never Dies. Górniak’s cover came up in the recommendation feed. I clicked. The cover was alright — not the most exciting heard. After finishing that, the feed fed me…