Episode Transcript
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.
But rare girls are inspiring and this is what this podcast is all about.
Hello, my name is Aziz and my guest today is Marina Kalaur.
Marina is a Ukrainian model, mini blogger, traveler, and sports girl.
Marina was born in Poltava, Ukraine.
She is studying in Poltava National Pedagogical University as well as recently entered Porto
University in Portugal to study a Bachelor of Computer Science and Informatics.
Marina's hobbies are running, practicing yoga, coding, and reading books.
In the last three months, she read 15 books as a challenge to herself which she enjoyed
very much.
Marina spends time studying and practicing coding.
She supports herself and the success of other girls in the coding field and she has already
finished two certification courses for Ukrainian women from She Codes.
When it comes to running, she started running five months ago and now she can run 10 kilometers
in the morning which is great progress for a person who hated running one year ago.
Marina's credo is live in the moment and enjoy every day.
Marina, how are you today?
I'm good, thank you.
Today is a great day and I'm happy because I can share my life, my stories so it's good.
I'm proud of you, I'm honored and lucky and very curious about you so I'll begin with
this question.
If your friends back in Ukraine could describe your personality, what would they say about
you?
Thank you for your questions about my friends.
I always charge people with positivity and my friends say that I'm a very sunny person
who supports everyone and can do like a smile for everybody and charge in every situation
I always help.
So my friends love me and also supports me.
I love that.
So a sunny positive person who is always helpful to your friends and full of smiles, is this
correct?
Yes, yes, it's correct.
And there is a thing where a lot of Eastern European girls have a poker face, a very serious
bitch face when they're not smiling, when they're relaxing and foreigners usually think,
oh my God, she looks so mean or so angry, even if she's happy and positive inside.
Is this your situation too?
Have you had that experience or are you constantly smiling all the time so you're not a girl
with a poker bitch face?
Okay, I always try to be with smile, but when I studied in the university or in Liceum two
years ago, a lot of people say that I have a poker face and they're scared to make me
a friend and then they understand that I'm a really good person and with smile, not a
poker face, not so strong.
I'm always sunny, so people need just more time to know me.
Thank you.
And how do you explain your sunny attitude and positivity?
Are you born that way with good vibes and good energy or did you have times in your
life where you thought, no, I don't want to live a sad life, I should be happy?
Or is it because you love people, you love life and therefore everything is an adventure
and that makes you smile and be sunny?
How do you explain you having a sunny attitude?
While many average people are not so positive, not so sunny in that way?
Okay, about me, I think that smile always helps in everything, in studying, in talking
with people, in working.
So I always motivate it and for me it's like live this moment, live this day and to charge
another people because if they have some problems or not good mood today, I always try to say
some humor or funny pictures or funny videos from TikTok or YouTube to grow, to support
these people because for me it's also matter.
I want to share my smile and I want to show smiles to other people.
So it's like if I smile to others, people also smile to me.
I love that, that's such a wonderful way to live.
And to ask you now, since you're in a new country, new studies, new people, is it easy
for you to make friends outside of Ukraine?
Is it more difficult and in general, when you meet new people, are you open from the
beginning or do you need time and many meetings before you become open to them?
It's so good questions because it's about me and honestly speaking, for me it's so difficult
to make friends first.
I need a lot of time to open to other person.
And if, for example, another person starts first, get familiar with me, it's okay.
I can speak, but my friends know that they need like one month, two months, three months,
sometimes it can be one year and only then I can open a full.
And they can know me like, really like, I feel me.
Thank you.
That's so interesting and it makes me curious.
When it comes to love and romantic things, et cetera, is it the same for you that you
need months and years before you feel any of those emotions?
Or have you had that instant passion like a Latina where from the first second you really
like the guy, you felt you know him all your life.
It was really interesting from the first moment.
I'm just curious about this because I understand that you need months and conversations with
friends.
Is it the same when it comes to like a loving relationship or a boyfriend or something like
that?
Or can it be instant chemistry?
Okay.
Like, for example, I can fall in love so fast and it can be spontaneously, but like to continue
my connect with boys, I need more time because I want to know this person.
And like sometimes it can be spontaneously.
It's okay.
But if I want to continue, I need like months, two months, three months, and sometimes one
year.
So it's the same like with friends, but a little bit different.
Thank you.
And when you meet new people, what makes you choose and think, yes, this is my kind of
person?
Are you looking for other sunny people who are similar to you or looking for people who
are not so sunny so that you can charge them with your energy and you notice you change
them and that makes you happy?
Or you're looking for people who are always honest, even if they're rude, sometimes they
say the truth or what characteristics makes new friends or new people your kind of person?
Okay.
For me, it's also important to have a similar, like the same interests with friends because
I want to talk for same topics and for example, like about coding or about sport.
And if a person doesn't do it, I just don't have a similar topic for speaking.
And for me, it's like, I don't know how I can speak and about what I need to talk with
the person.
So I need the same interests.
And of course, it's smile and good humor.
I like that very much.
And it makes me think about yoga and your practice of yoga.
Is it more spiritual for you to feel calm and to recharge yourself?
Or is yoga for you more about stretching, more about sport and your body?
Speaking about yoga, it's like spirit for me because the weather is not good.
I can't do yoga because I can't run when it's raining.
So after wake up, I always do yoga.
It's like short video from YouTube can be 10 or 15 minutes.
But it helps me feel like a person.
I can feel, I got motivation to start new day.
So it helps me be charged for all day.
I love that.
And since you said when it's raining, you cannot run and therefore yoga is a better
option.
Tell me about running.
You wrote before that you didn't love running so much and now it's an important part of
your experience and in your days.
Why did you hate it before?
How did you change to love in it or decide to start?
And why is it such a good experience for you now to run?
Okay, it started from school when we needed to run a minimum one kilometer and I hated
it because I was short of breath, I can't breath and for example I had enough only
for like 20 meters or maximum 100 meters.
For me it was some incredible something and now one day in May I just want to start run
and I started and now I can run like 10 kilometers in the morning.
And for me now it's okay and I want to run more and more.
I will plan maybe the next year I can run like half marathon and just for me because
I love it.
It's also motivate me but I hate because it was in school like necessary and now I can
do what I want and I feel it so I run it.
I like that.
So are you a girl who is about freedom who prefers to make your own decisions and that's
why like you said at school when they told you you have to run you didn't love it but
now because it was your choice to begin when you felt the feeling in May you did it.
Is this correct?
Is it about freedom?
Is it about independence?
What is it about?
Yes, exactly.
You are right because it also is a big support from my parents.
They always support me in all when I start to do something when I start to run and my
mom also start run with me like online and when I start coding and my mom also like search
different sites for me for my studying and my father also always supports me and my elder
sister she always says me that you can do it so you need to do it.
About independence and freedom I can do what I want because all my people always support
me.
Those are wonderful people and I love what you're speaking about and so I will ask are
you then a girl who makes decisions fast are you decisive or do you need to think and hesitate
first before you make any of those decisions.
Is it like in May your mood happened that you were spontaneous and you decided and began
in the same day or do you spend some weeks or months first thinking yes no yes no before
you make a decision.
Spontaneous it's about me I always do all things spontaneous so like for example yesterday
I wanted something and today I do it because if I was thinking a lot about this I can like
I can lose my motivation lose my chance so I always do it spontaneously it's about all
about studying about job for example about some decision also about running about coding
I always do all spontaneously.
I love that that's very important in life to go for what you want and to follow your
motivation when that fire is there and then to ask you why Portugal for a girl who enjoys
modeling why not a place like Italy where a lot of like modeling opportunities exist
or any other place that will both give you the possibility to model as well as study
what was the big reason to choose Porto University and to go from Poltava I know they sound a
little bit the same like Poltava, Porto you know it's not so different but what was the
reason.
Okay the main reason is because of the war and I didn't choose this country it also
was spontaneously but when I know about this opportunity to enter in the Portugal University
I of course did it I entered my documents and I chose the same specialty like in Ukraine
it's a bachelor of computer science and informatics it's also about coding sometimes it's very
difficult because I need to study a lot I need to always have my laptop with me and
think about the different language of programming about math a lot of math and but I like it
and I do it I study because it's interesting for me.
Thank you that's absolutely wonderful and can you tell me about reading because someone
who loves sports who loves things like that and you know recharge and other people and
communicating usually loves outside world and nature and life like that what do books
give you are you do you have a big imagination and you enjoy books for that reason and why
did you challenge yourself to read 15 books in such a short time what's the story of that
how was the experience and tell me more about your love for reading.
Okay it was a summer and I had a lot of free time so I chose sport and reading but in general
I read about business like some for example is rich father and poor father or the richest
man in Babylon so it's like so popular books and I never read it before so this summer
I did it and I read all books what I wanted to read like before this year it's also about
was about sport about running and about happy about happiness like books happiness and Zen
so it's like a Japanese culture and it's also motivated me to do yoga so I always search
in books some interesting things which I can like which I can embody in my life and I prefer
read books more than watching films because when I read books I can imagine I can write
my notes I can mark to make some citation or like some quotes yes some quotes and when
I watch film I did I don't focus on it and I can do two things together and so I prefer
in books and always focus for what I read so it's about shortly about books that's
really really interesting I encourage your development and all the hobbies that you go
through as well as coding etc and you mentioned the war so let's speak about that because
it's a very important topic on February 24th during the invasion how did you discover it
happened did you believe it or not believe it how was that day for you and how did your
life change in these seven months tell me the story
February 24th it was a terrible day a terrible morning because I woke up I heard the sounds
of a plane sounds by plane and in my city we don't have like airport so like we didn't
have a bomb in that day and I also like say all my say my parents and my sister that we
need to go we need maybe to leave our house and but nobody knows that need to do in this
day because it was spontaneously and never nobody believe it and then I was in Ukraine
two weeks and these two weeks was for me like like one year so for me it was so difficult
to live every day with this news and they feel the situations that in my country were
and I'm so emotionally emotional people emotional person so I need to be in the safety in the
peace and when I left Ukraine it was I feel not good but I feel me in like in safety and
my parents say say me that it's better and now of course I want to I want to return in
Ukraine to so to see my parents my friends and to feel life in my home city in my house
and I hope that I will return maybe the next month the nearest time like soon I hope I
will do it but it's really it's really terrible to read the news every day I watch video every
day it's about I read all news I have a lot of groups in Telegram in Instagram and I always
knows that what like what happens in Ukraine so for me it's terrible situation but we
will we will win and I believe in it I believe in it too and all I can say is Slava Ukrainy
and before we finish I'm curious when it comes to Portugal what did you notice is different
than the culture that surprised you or made you think wow I'm sure I'm not in Ukraine
anymore when it was adapting to that new life are there some traditions or attitudes or
how people behave that you notice was very different to you as a Ukrainian girl that
needed some adaptation yes thank you for your question it's like a little bit until now
I didn't know about about Portugal like as a country for example I know Cristiano Ronaldo
from Portugal but that it's like a country near the ocean not so big country but with
their own tradition with their own culture and with their own language so for me it was
unexpected and about adapting yes I needed like two months it study language it's also
was about like meals because Portuguese people they have have dinner so late it can be eight
or eight thirty p.m. and they only start to eat in this time it's also different food
not the same they have a lot of dishes with fish like bacalhau it's so the most famous
fish in the Portugal and it's also about the weather because in the summer here was so
so warm but near the ocean it's okay it's good and now for one week it's always raining
like not doesn't stop it always raining so I need to I can study at home and they also
do sport at home like yoga yes it's about Portugal thank you so much Marina this was
my privilege my honor such a wonderful way to share about your life and soul with the
world to represent your own uniqueness and the uniqueness of Ukraine and I wish you
a lot of running a lot of reading a lot of successful coding a lot of fun yoga YouTube
videos and all the success thank you so much thank you so much I was very happy to share
my stories and my life
