Episode Transcript
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 0:00
your 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 Burch. Olga is born and raised in Kyiv. Then she moved to Dusseldorf Germany because of the war. She currently studies in frizziness University of Applied Sciences in Cologne. All guys just completed her Bachelor's degree in Computer Sciences, and is now starting her master's degree in digital management. Olga is an extrovert and she loves people, her biggest joy is spending time with them. Also, she likes dancing, and sports like yoga and pilates. Moreover, she fancies writing poetry, and expressing herself with the art of words. What is more, she adores photography and video making and editing. There are three great things Olga has done that stand out when she took a significant part and done first. Together with her fellow student in the key of mohila Academy. They created a telegram channel called Remote movie Janka in August of 2020. This project with more than 2500 subscribers aims to help students and lecturers of her university in these times of remote studies. It continues growing and she is delighted that she can help a lot of people. The second achievement is that she was a marketing and design specialist in the creators team of big carrier fest 2020. Together, they created the biggest online career Fest in Ukraine from scratch and got amazing results. More than 4000 registrations 250,000 views from all publications. Some companies that took part in this big carrier fest include EY Coca Cola, PwC, Baker, Tilly KPMG, and many more. When the war started her Faculty of Informatics organize the cyber army which gathered more than 130 students, teachers and alumni of the Kyiv mohila Academy with this great aim to help Ukraine on the cyber front. Olga is very proud that she was a project manager and lead the whole cyber front project aiming to create tools to help civilians and hamper Russian attacks. Olga, how are you today?
Olha Perch 3:28
I'm super fine. Thank you so much for your introduction and in invitation. And how are you?
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 3:35
I'm feeling positive and feeling lucky to be alive excited and curious to know more about you and I'll begin with this if your friends whether in Ukraine or I don't know new friends in Germany could describe your personality. What would they say about you?
Olha Perch 3:57
Okay, it's interesting question because they they often say that I'm that positive and like sunny person, which can give them energy and positive vibes and that I always see everything like good in everyone and every situation and I can find a solution and I won't be disappointed or something. So I think positive vibes
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 4:29
I love that funny energy vibes. You're mentioning so many cool words and things that so I'll begin with this. Are you someone who can feel the energy of people since you mentioned sunny Do you sometimes see like dark vampire energy has some negative people and sunny positivity in some others and like beach and sunshine positivity. In some people like How do you perceive and connect with others? Since you're an extrovert? Is it an energetic thing? Are people for you vibes and moods that can be represented in nature? Or how are they?
Olha Perch 5:12
Also, I like this question and the way you ask it, because, to be honest, I think that I can read people, and I can understand what a person is about. Like, if if I speak to him for about five minutes, I understand if it's my person, or if our roads are totally different, and we want to be so, you know, close in the future. And it's, it helps me a lot. Because, you know, I don't like toxic people, and I don't have them in my close circle, I all my friends with me are for about, you know, five, to 10 years or more, I have a lot of like that close friends, I don't have friends that, you know, for one year or two years, and then we go away or something. So if it's my person, then we will be together, like for a whole period of time.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 6:26
Thank you. I love that mantra, no toxic people should be more common. And then I would like to know, how do you know you said, if you speak to someone for five minutes, you know, whether they're your person or not? How do you know if someone is your person? Is it that instant chemistry where you feel like you met in some previous life, and you're now reincarnated and destined to meet? And you feel like, oh, wow, I feel so comfortable. Is it after speaking for five minutes? If you don't think they're ambitious? They have goals? They're trying to change the world, then they're not your person? Or do you actually go for more calm introvert people to balance your energy and extraversion so that you don't go crazy together? Way too much?
Olha Perch 7:21
Yeah, I need to think. Because, yeah, I think that my friends are mostly more introverted than me. But that's not because I'm an extrovert, I think, because I have some friends, which are extroverts. I mean, when I speak to someone, for five, you know, 510 minutes, I understand that that's my person, not only because they are energetic is me or something. Just because their mindset, their interests, and their characters are pleasant for me, like, I feel comfortable with them. And I see no, you know, like, bad trades or something. Or they treat me well, or they smile lean, was smiling from their soul, not because I had to say something funny, and they smiled like to please me, just because they really enjoy my jokes, or my words, or they see that my mindset also connects with their mindset, then I understand that we are at the same level of wives, you know.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 8:51
Thank you. I do understand for Lee, so it's people who are authentically positive, who are not pretending to be someone else who are not just smiling to be like, and so since you mentioned smiling people, and there is somehow a stereotype about Eastern European girls and Ukrainian girls that they can be happy inside, but they have a bitch face. Did you face that when you enter Germany? Did you notice maybe abroad some people say, Oh my God, this girl looks so angry, but when they speak to you, they're like, you're so friendly. Is this your situation? Did you notice it? Tell me about this.
Olha Perch 9:33
To be honest, I don't have any German native like girlfriend. I don't know how to say because there are in Dusseldorf, particularly there are not so many German girls. There are a lot of people from Asia and from Africa. So I have mostly them in my circle, and of course, some Ukrainian girls, which are from Kyiv. And it was interesting how we understood that we are nearby, and we can meet like in decider for this book. I. Yeah, but I don't have any German friends a girl. But you know, they are so different from us. And I'm not sure if I can be friends with them. But I can try. I think I should try. Maybe today I will meet some German girls, because I will be with my fellow students in Cologne. But they are particularly boys. So I don't think and I will see.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 10:54
Thank you. And I know you love photography. And you can sense the essence of people. I don't know if your photography is more about nature. But let's say you take pictures of people. What do you try to capture? Do you see their aura and their Halo and you try to capture that emotion and energy? Or is it more aesthetic, you look for people who have like beautiful features, or usually don't really care about photos of people, you want to capture sunsets and architecture. And you know, flowers?
Olha Perch 11:34
Yeah. To my mind, I have mostly the nature in my camera roll. And but I also noticed some interest in people. You know, when I see something like interest in style or something strange. I will probably take a photo. But sometimes I'm a bit afraid, or like scary that it's forbidden in Germany like to take photos of people. Yeah, but no one cut me yet. So I'm a lot, I think. But yes, speaking about nature, I love sunsets, of course, and in Dusseldorf, they are so so breathtaking and beautiful. And I also into green nature, like green leaves. And when I see some colors, which are hot, how to cite which are close to each other, which are aesthetically beautiful together, then I probably will take a photo. And I think that like for now I'm not a big on how to say, I don't post a lot to Instagram, like a post. But I think that when I see when I take a beautiful picture, I'll post it to Insta story. I'm not sure why, just maybe because Insta Stories are more popular nowadays. That's it.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 13:22
I love that it seems to me that you're a kind of girl who takes energy and receives energy from the environment from beautiful things. And you mentioned before, no toxic people. But I'm curious. Because you seem to enjoy emotions and love emotions. Does it mean you only look for things that keep you happy and positive all the time? Or is it every week you have a period where you want to watch a sad movie and cry? What's your murder, documentary and be scared and watch like people getting killed? And you're like, oh my god, I love this. This is so much fun that you don't want on the stability of the positive emotions but to feel everything from the big negative to the big positive. Is this correct? And tell me more?
Olha Perch 14:13
To be honest. It's more that I look for positivity and I assume that world is more about kindness and positivity itself. But of course due to the war and this shitty situation you know, I want more positive vibes and I don't I don't want to be in bad moods and I don't want to see like like yeah, I can see the melodrama or drama like movie but I think that I would prefer to watch it like with my boyfriend, and it should be something romantic. And not not with killing people. But to be honest, I liked the Game of Thrones. So it's very cruel series, you know, but the last time I watched it, it was 2019 when the last season came out, so now
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 15:27
I understand, and I'm happy about this. So I'll ask, and we will speak about the war later. But for now, were you always this kind of positive girl who likes good, Sunny vibes? Or is that situation of the war, realizing, Oh, my God, I can lose everything. So fast life is so short and precious, that made you enjoy every moment, stop and be present to appreciate everything that life gives you.
Olha Perch 16:01
I have always been this positive sunshine. And since my childhood, I think I have been to many, you know, chat child camps. And in every team, I was that that positive person which gave the energy in sunshine. So it's my nature. Yeah. And of course, was, was the last was was the war. I started to be more grateful for the life like that I can leave that I can have my friends. And, of course, I wish them to be more positive as well. And to love their life.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 17:01
Thank you. You're so kind. And I know you don't like any negative topics. But I'm really curious about your story of that invasion of February 24. How did you hear about the war? Did you believe it in the beginning, what happened? Can you tell me the story of that day for you as well as what happened? Until you decided to move to Germany?
Olha Perch 17:30
Yeah, it's a it's a long story, I think because it started in the middle of February, I think, when when the first news? No, I mean, even in December, one of my friends, Dasha, she is currently in computer sciences the last year in Kyiv Mohyla Academy as well. She was working for Cisco company is a big IT company in the USA. And they said to her in December, that she had the opportunity to move to leave or to Washoe with her family. And like she has two days to think about this. And they like didn't explain so much. And she said this to me. And I was like, No way. Like, why? Why did they do this? And I said it to my father. And like, we were calm enough, and we didn't do anything, you know, sodden. And then in January, it was okay. And then in the middle of February, there was a new about from Biden's sports that the war can start 16th of February or something that nothing happened and we were like, Okay, it's all rumors. Let's let's leave like is normal. And me with my friends from school and from university, we planned to go to Barcelona for five days, and our tickets go for 24th of February, in the evening. And of course, I think in on the 20 twos 20s, three of February, we were all nervous. We didn't know why. But I think everyone everyone was nervous, unconsciously. Yeah. And when I went to the bed of like on the night from 23 to 24th February. I was like thrilled because of the trip. I really dreamed to come to Barcelona with my friends, you know, to go under pounds and enjoy the sunshine. Yeah. And I was a bit excited and thrilled and nervous because of the trip. And because of this news, and because some airlines canceled their, their trips, and our Wizzair didn't do anything. And we were like, okay, so we go to Barcelona, and I went to bed because this thoughts, and I don't know why. But the whole night, I couldn't sleep. And my heart was like, I felt not so good. It was like, aching. The heart was aching, and I know the correct words. So I didn't sleep. And a one, one the, it was like 5am. And I heard this huge. Like, it was so noisy that I like I opened my eyes. And of course, I went to telegram to see if maybe I have some hallucinations or something because I wasn't like, I didn't sleep the whole night. So I saw that. It's like, I'm going crazy or something. And I went to telegram and they see that everyone is online. And everyone is telling that, like, did you hear it? Did you hear it? And I went to see from my window if I can see something and I saw the rockets, you know, like, near my windows. And I was like, Okay, so. So it's not how this nation than it's real, you know? And I went to our chat was girls, and I'm like, girls, it's everything will be alright, we go to Barcelona. It's just fake. It's okay. But, of course, we all understood that we don't go to Barcelona. And the war started. And we were so nervous. And we were so you know, it was crazy night, and crazy morning. So that's how it started.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 22:31
Thank you. That sounds like you said heartbreaking and truly traumatizing. And all I can say is love our cry honey, heroin, Slava. Thank you, and what are your plans? Now? I know you're studying in Germany? Why did you choose digital management? Right now, if this situation in Ukraine and the instability continues? Will you keep living in Germany? Or would you decide to move and live in Barcelona or live in London or New York? Because the world is open to you? What would be your dream future if you could not live in Ukraine for a while or choose to live somewhere else? Tell me about that. As well as why digital management.
Olha Perch 23:23
Okay, so when we came to Germany in March, it was okay. But I was I like, I missed a lot. My key of my friends. Everyone's due from key and no one. No one wasn't keen at all. And I just said to myself, Okay, you need to stay for some time here in Germany, and then you you'll come back and everything will be alright. It's not sought for so long. And, of course, it wasn't two weeks, as promised, you know, and it was one month, two months, three months. And I understood, understood it, you know, it's for a long time and nothing stops and like, and now nothing is topped, you know? And I had a bit of like, very bad mood in May and in the end of April and the whole May, and I think the beginning of June, but then then my existence for Bachelors started and it was really hard. But I understood that I should pass them because I will have this deep Former with honors, and I just can't. Like I just can't not pass them. It's my responsibility. It's my aim, which I had for like from the 2018 to this July, so I should pass them with the flying mark, you know, was the eighth eighth grade. So I started to study really hard, like, every day, I just went to the Dusseldorf City Library, and sit here from the morning till the evening, and learn databases of some programming languages. And all like maths, which I learned in, in the like, first year of my studies, it was quite long, so it was difficult to recap all of this. Yeah. So it helped me a lot to overcome my bad mood and unstable mental problems. And of course, I, I wanted to come to key you for my graduation date. And I planned to do it. So it was like a surprise for all my friends. And only my father knew that I will come I would come. Yeah. So I came to worse. So first, to my friend Allah from worse, so we came to keep together and spend like our graduation day together because she, she's also from keema. Hill Academy, but she's from management course. Yes. So when, when we came to chemo Hill Academy and radiation date, it was a real big surprise for everyone. And I saw this amazing, delighted, surprised faces, and it's the most, you know, how to say it's like, it's more beautiful than sunsets in nature. You should, you should if you haven't ever made this price for any anyone, you should probably do it because it was it, you know? Yeah. So then, we came to key for 10 days, I think, got our diplomas and went back, I went back to Germany and all went back to Poland. And then I started to thinking about masters because because of bad moods at the time, I I realized that all the deadlines for Ukrainian universities are gone. And I won't be able to go to Ukrainian University. And I thought, okay, so maybe let's try to do masters like here in Germany, if I'm here currently, why not? And I started to look for universities. And I found this Freezy news University. It's quite the peak. It has a lot of campuses, all over the Germany like Berlin, Munich, Cologne, Dusseldorf, I think even more. Yeah, and I saw this digital management program. And it was really interesting because it combines my technical background with the management and marketing, which I'm really into to, uh, so
I think it's like a great combination, and I can be a great person in the future. Like in the perspective of my career, of course, yeah, and I'm so deliriously happy to be in frizziness university, you know, because all my fellow students are amazing. And all the lectures are amazing and the studies are great. So what I planned like I wanted to learn something here and returned back to Ukraine and share my knowledge with like em on Ukrainian students like to make me to be a lecturer in my loved Kuma he like candy or something like to be a mentor mentor for someone something like this. Yeah, but You asked if I had a choice not to leave like in Ukraine. But I would like to. I think I would choose something like Spain or Italy. Because I adore Spain and I used to learn Spanish language. I adore Spanish songs, dancing this why? Sunshine and everything. So it's like, it's my country. Probably. So yeah, if not Ukraine and Spain for sure.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 30:33
Thank you, Ben. You're a Latina Ukrainian girl, or Ukrainian girl with Latina vibes. And so yeah, thank you so much, Olga. This was my privilege, my honor, such an enriching conversation. I wish you a lot of new great friendships at your university. I wish you amazing results in your studies and to become one of the coolest professors Kyiv mohila. In the future. Thank you so much.
Olha Perch 31:08
Thank you so much as well, it was really a pleasant time to talk to you and to participate in this, like podcast. I know that it's like a big, you know, work from your side and of course from a girl side and it was really nice to participate. Thank you so much.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 31:31
You're welcome. I'm thank you again.
