Episode Transcript
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 0:08
femininity is powerful in all its forms exceptional women, rare girls must be appreciated in every way for their perspectives, actions, thoughts and their unique ways of being. Such rare girls are inspiring. And this is what this podcast is all about. Hello, my name is Aziz and my guest today is Olga Kristan. Olga is a professional ballroom dancer with seven years of experience. And she has big goals for her life. She dreamed of entering a university in the USA. And now she is actively engaged in leadership, volunteering, and social activism, all guys from Kyiv, Ukraine, and loves to read books, she took part in the Ukrainian model un 2022, she became an ambassador of Cambridge UAE, among teenagers. And she is the vice president at her school and involved with many projects, including workshops, trainings for younger classes, helping you the environment, and others. Olga, how are you today?
Olga Khrystan 1:31
Hello, I'm good. And firms are beginning are really want to thank you for this opportunity.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 1:38
Thank you for participating. It's my honor. It's my privilege. And I'm really curious about you. So if you could describe your personality or maybe what your friends will say to describe you. What would they say?
Olga Khrystan 1:55
I seems that they can say that I'm very adventurous. Also, I'm independent. And maybe Weiss.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 2:06
Thank you. What does it mean to you when a person is wise?
Olga Khrystan 2:11
In my opinion, just a person is interested in many things, and can talk on various topics.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 2:21
I like that. So can you describe what you're doing these days? How is your schedule every day? What do you do weekly? What activities? How do you arrive? Tell me everything.
Olga Khrystan 2:35
So every day I do sports is like a habit. I do English three times a week and my ballroom and latin dance three times. I used to do it every day.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 2:51
Thank you. And I have a question. I'm really curious about your dancing. You used to do it every day now three days a week and you do your sports and workout etc? How do you let your legs rest? You know, sometimes from dancing so much your feet can hurt. And then you do it the next day? And the next day? Do you have like some secret or way for you to rest your legs? Or you just like I remember I interviewed the ballet dancer before and she said her teacher used to say, the day when your legs will not hurt is the day you'll be dead.
Olga Khrystan 3:32
Yes, it's true. Sometimes Sometimes your feet hurt a lot. Because you spent several hours in heels. I have a special cream for legs. And I can also take care of hot spots to relax my legs or just lie down.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 3:52
Thank you and you are an ambassador for youth. You're involved with a lot of teenager activities. What do you think right now with the mentality of Ukrainian teenagers? Do you feel they're positive? Maybe they're depressed? And what is going on? And how what would you like to change in the thinking? Are you trying to motivate them? To get them to learn English and to open their horizons to study abroad or what is the situation?
Olga Khrystan 4:27
Now it feels that many teenagers have become more active money help in the information troops of our aremy the nature's began to help goals and ambitions. My task is to motivate you when more people for now in my school and my friends. Zan might be even more people. But actually now most of them want to see us in life and say just need to be You quiet it was the right pass.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 5:02
Thank you. I like that. And you said you had a dream to go study university in the United States? How did this dream begin? And do you already have a specific university or a specific subject you wish to study? And why the United States?
Olga Khrystan 5:24
Or is this just a good challenging question? Well, firstly, it's the quality of education and global significance of the diploma. Secondly, opportunities and prospects. And thirdly is the opportunity to choose a comfortable climate. Because the USA is a countries that has almost all types of climates. But I still have a story. When there was the first quarantine due to COVID, I was into five grades and I came across a video about a girl from Ukraine who lives in the US, I started digging more into the US, and I fell in love with this country. Of course, there are many decent these advantages, as in every country, bar, but there are also many pluses, I had a dream to visit the US. And then I thought, why not go on an exchange. And it really lit a fire in rattle, relatively, not so long ago. So I'm somewhere at Santos sixth grade, I sought more globally and realized that I wanted to study in the US, I started looking for information, watching videos on the topic of admissions to fulfillment and, and all that now knows the whole admission system. And I'm confident that I can do it.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 7:00
Thank you. Yes, that's really well done. That's really important. So if I understand it's important for you to travel? Do you have a lot of experience traveling? Or if not, what is the most interesting thing for you about visiting different climates and different environments?
Olga Khrystan 7:21
I want to try to live in different countries in different climates, to understand what I like best, what culture I admire, and river, I will be comfortable.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 7:34
Thank you and returning to dance. What's your favorite part about it? And do you feel it has changed and your personality made you wiser? are able to handle more difficulties? Or how did dance and your seven years of professional dance, educate you as a person
Olga Khrystan 7:59
and dancing made me confident, and probably also gave me a little boost in activities? Because I want to finish errors in I do. The most favorite part is the competitions. It's a great feeling when you have already worked out everything, and you're just getting high from the music on the dance floor, where everyone is fighting for victory.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 8:29
I understand. Thank you, and about language learning specifically English. In addition to your classes, what do you recommend to other people who want to improve their vocabulary, their grammar, their accent? What do you do? Do you watch a lot of Netflix series in English in order to pick up the language or what is your method,
Olga Khrystan 8:56
I as a person who know for languages, and learning to more can say that is three times better to start getting high from learning a language. Don't force yourself to sit for textbooks, listen to podcasts, translate your favorite song watcher for your service and so regional or write a book. Do what makes you happy as long as it fits with the languages you're learning. Grammar is important. You really need to learn it. But it also you important to have a large vocabulary.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 9:37
Thank you. That's excellent advice. And I want to speak about February 24. How was that day for you? How did you hear about the invasion? How did you feel? Tell me the story of that day and also what happened in your life. After that.
Olga Khrystan 9:57
I'm sorry evening, all February. 123 I came home after dancing. And my mother told me to pack my bags. And I didn't understand to what it was. But my uncle called my mother, because he has a friend in the military. Who said said, Tomorrow we'll start. My dad. And I honestly didn't believe it. But I still packed my bags. By the way, it's interesting that half of my suitcase was filled with books. By the way, it's very good that I took them because I read a lot. We decided to go to the liquor person, because we have relatives, and we have a Hauser we were supposed to leave at night. But still, my mother told me to go to sleep. If something happens, we wake you up. I went to sleep. As then I heard some that we're going to get sicker. I get up at 3am. And I already thought that we would go. But still, she told me again to go to sleep. And at five feet in the morning. So first explosive, explosion run cold. It was quite strong because we live near the airport. And it was shot, right sir. And my mother came into my room and said get dressed quickly. If you're leaving, we'll have to see to one or the first. If we had the light a little, we would have got into a huge traffic jam. I spent the next several months already in a village insecure person. But now I'm in Norway.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 11:51
Thank you. Yes, you are in Norway now and I'm happy. You are safe. So what are your other current goals? What are your dreams? What are your plans? Are you planning to stay in Norway and continue and maybe dance there, etc? Or what are your dreams as well as Can you speak a little bit about the leadership trainings and projects you're involved with?
Olga Khrystan 12:21
I will be in Norway for now. But later, I want to return to Ukraine. Of course, I here I joined the school government console. But I also continued to go to various workshops and help my team very mostly, I have several projects in the pipeline right now that I want to do. Also active proper preparation for the exchange program to which I want to play. And of course continue to dance.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 12:58
Thank you so much. Oh, God, this was my privilege. My honor. Thank you for participating. Thank you for sharing about your life and all I can say is Slava Ukraini.
Olga Khrystan 13:13
Heroyam Slava. Thank you too. That's very interesting.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 13:19
Thank you as well.
