Episode Transcript
Hello, my name is Aziz and I'm the son of a divorced mother.
She is really my superhero.
That's why it's important for me to support women to share their uniqueness, their personalities,
perspectives, and emotions about life.
Too many women in this world feel alone.
They worry about the judgment of others and they struggle with their mental health.
But when they listen to the Rare Girls podcast where empowered women share their voices
and tell their stories, many women will feel inspired to live a life of freedom and
overcome all insecurities.
they will feel. It is a safe space to find their confidence to remember their
unique beauty and to feel their self-worth, and they will connect with
the sisterhood of rare girls who encourage their success and support
their dreams. That's what this podcast is all about. My guest today is Aljona
Stremetskaya. Aljona is from Ukraine. She studied journalism and used to
in hospitality and customer service in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Her passion
is restaurants and trying food from different countries. Her hobbies include
reading, studying different languages, and playing sports. Aljona, how are you
today? Hello Aziz, I'm very good today. Thank you so much for inviting me to
join and participate this podcast. It's a big honor for me to be among those women who
are inspiring and who change their lives for better.
I'm honored, lucky and happy to have you here and very curious about you as a person and
as a woman, Aljona. So I'll begin with this nice first question, which is, if your
I think they would say that I'm kind, responsible, hardworking, empathic, emotional, with a good sense of humor, maybe goal-oriented.
I like that. But even before discussing any of that, I'm curious to know more about your love for restaurants and trying different foods from different places.
Can you tell me a bit more about it?
How did that start, that love for it?
What emotions does it give you?
How is that experience for you?
Actually, I love food in general.
I love how it looks, how it tastes.
I have like so much passion for the good food.
And of course, my first job was in the restaurant.
It was small restaurant.
And, you know, I enjoy to work with the food, with people, I enjoy customers coming to the
restaurants every time.
And from that, I start actually my journey.
And almost all my life, I think I work in restaurants and customer service.
Because it's not only about food, it's about loving people and sharing experience, sharing culture, and of course, you can share all your emotions through the food.
Thank you. That's really, really interesting. And it makes me think, you as a Ukrainian woman, a Ukrainian girl, you went to Dubai.
Did you have some kind of culture shock, maybe the weather?
How was the adaptation period and how was it to be far away from your family and working
abroad?
Of course, it was hard because for the beginning, I didn't know English.
Just only basic, it was really a struggle a little bit, but it's okay, it's okay.
It makes a person grow and makes you to feel more confident about yourself.
And about Dubai, yes, first thing about the weather, but to be honest, I like this hot
weather.
You know, too many people saying that they don't like this, but for me, it's fine.
It's totally fine.
better, it's worse even to live in a very cold country. But for Dubai, it's good.
I agree. I understand that very, very much. And to know even more about you, when you
lived in Dubai, did you mostly have Slavic friends because the culture was similar,
or because you were working in restaurants, you were able to make girlfriends from many,
countries or how was that experience outside of work? What I mean is did you
work so hard you couldn't really spend too much time with friends? Did you
develop a circle of friends from all over the world or how was your
experience? Actually most of my friends they were like from different
countries so I used to I used to work with too many nationalities for
example, I make friends with Moroccan, Arabic, Egyptian, Moroccan people, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
even Nepal, very nice, very good people, Indians, of course, almost all around the world, not
only Ukrainian. Ukrainian, it was very less. Because for me, it's very interesting to
to get to know about other people and to understand their mentality.
I agree 100%. And can you describe now, for example, in Ukraine, how do you enjoy your
hobbies, take care of your free time? And when you were in Dubai, what kind of hobbies
did you have? Maybe you couldn't do in nature as much as in Ukraine, but how was the
and how now in Ukraine, what do you do to take care of the hobbies you love?
For example, in Dubai you don't have too many time to make your hobbies, but at least, for
example, when you have your work and you have some free time in the morning, so always
I have a plan what to do.
For example, I wake up, I do an exercise, then I study a little bit, around one hour,
and then maybe I go for coffee and then I'm starting work. And here I have so much free time,
so here I can do outdoor activities, I can do sports, I can study more because right now I'm
not starting, just continue to study French and it takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of
power to understand all of this. And what else I do? I like reading. I like watching
YouTube for different interviews with different people and different, I mean, different specialties.
So most of the time I like to see on YouTube interview with some doctors, psychologists,
Also, people who are working in the F&B Hospitality also, it's very interesting to see what they think of the work, what they can share, you know, very interesting ideas about the restaurant, the food presentation, you know, I'm taking a lot of this information.
And of course, I go out with my friends as well.
I love that. And you had the experience of making new friends in a new country where you didn't even
speak English well. What is your advice maybe to other girls and women who are going to study or
live in a new country? Maybe they had friends from childhood so they didn't make many new
friends so that they know which kinds of people to trust and become good friends with
and which people maybe could be not so trustworthy, but what are the red flags or the signs?
For example, my advice to the people who want to live in another country,
so please don't be afraid about anything, just go, just keep moving, even if you are afraid or
stress or anything. So, what you need to do is to continue. Even if you have a fear inside,
you just continue to do whatever you do. With a fear, with self-doubt, with all emotions,
but you continue. And then, even if you don't believe, I understand, sometimes it's very
hard to believe in yourself, but even if you don't believe in yourself, just continue
and keep going and keep going to your dream and about how to recognize the people for example
it's not about nationality it's about your feeling regarding person so if you feel yes this
person is nice okay I will be friendly a friend with him so continue if you have a little bit
or you have a feeling that makes you feel, how to say, not sure about this, so it means
you're right. So always trust yourself and your feelings. And of course, you will find
a lot of friends. But it's very, very important to be, first of all, you have to be a good
friend for the person, and then you will find a lot of good people who will become your
best friends.
You understand what I mean, I guess?
Yes.
It's like the golden rule, treat people the way you want to be treated.
And so for you, Aljona, also another thing.
You worked in the restaurant business and there is often some focus on how the women
who work there look, maybe women compare each other
to each other, how they look and they feel insecure.
And that can be relevant to many of the women
and girls who compare themselves to women
in social media and Instagram.
How do you think women should go about
finding their confidence in their own unique beauty
and not compare themselves to other women
who are maybe like I said, in the restaurant business
if they work there or in Instagram,
the photoshopped girls yeah of course I understand what what is your question
about first of all you don't need to to compare yourself with other woman
because it's a road of nowhere when you start comparing yourself with others
you fail because it's it's stocks everything is stocks and you you
not continue your life and please take yourself and your own experience as a journey.
It's your journey, not other people's journey.
So when you take it like this, you will continue and you will create and how to say develop
your personality better.
And when you start comparing yourself with others, you will not show yourself the
way you are.
you will always like look around and trying to compare and say she's better and I'm worse and
that's it. This is things that will make you sick and you make you feel dubbed about yourself.
And about social media, most of the people, they don't look in real life same like in social
media, because all we know, they use Photoshop, they use too many programs, even they can
make the waste smaller. Can you imagine how is this? This is a big trap. And when you
start to see all this life, and I can say, for example, if you look even on my Instagram
one, and you see the oldest pictures from Dubai, it doesn't mean my life is like that.
And also, if you see too many pictures for another people, it doesn't mean their life
is not like this. It's completely different. Because we are human beings. We always want
to show the best. We always want to look in a good side. We always want to look
very nice, but very, very little of us can show what the things are real for us. That's why,
please don't compare. That is absolutely true and very wise. And I also remember you mentioned that
you're learning French. What are your plans now since you returned home? Are you planning to do
something with the French language? Are you planning to do a different career or the same?
you're improving yourself. What is your vision for the next step?
Actually, it's difficult to say because, you know, French, it's just for me, for hobby. Maybe,
who knows, maybe like in the future, I will go to France or just visit this country.
But right now, I will be focusing about myself, about self-development. And
And I think I will just do some job online or to try something different to work, I mean
to work only with myself because for me it's, you know, it's nowadays becoming difficult
to work as a big team.
With team I have a nice relation, but sometimes I have a kind of misunderstanding with the
team management.
So, that's why I choose to work independently.
Yes, it's great to be more independent, more of your own boss,
and therefore you can offer your services and be free in many, many ways.
Thank you so much, Aljona.
It was my privilege and my honor to have you here to share your voice.
Is there anything final to end with that you can share with other women
so that they can find more of their confidence,
live life more fully,
and so that they live up to their potential.
Of course, I want to share one thing and say to the woman,
whenever you can compare yourself with others,
please first think that your uniqueness,
uniqueness, it's a first,
and even your, how to say in English,
uh these imperfections it's always more interesting than to be perfect and you know and
to have a perfect appearance to have a perfect how to say brain but whatever and your imperfections
it's uh your uniqueness and please don't lose it and before you think uh to change something
on you, please see, maybe your nose or your lips, you know, looks very unique even if
it's big, for example, even if it's about your weight, you always look unique and it's
your strength. I mean, what I wanted to say that imperfections, it's always about your
strength, not about your weaknesses. So think twice before doing something and don't
even think bad about yourself. Think about yourself in a good and positive way.
I agree. Thank you so much, really, Aljona. I wish you all the success, all the independent
work you desire, all the thriving in the next steps. And thank you so much for sharing your
voice and your perspective. Thank you so much. Thank you for inviting me.
