Abuse, Emigration, English 1 comment

Body language

By on June 20th, 2010

By Galina Toktalieva
Dear Vlad,
Thanks for your concerns and for being always there for me. Now after 10 years of relapse we can correspond again, as before, when we were Moscow students. In your last letter you write that your girlfriend feels so upset by illness of her dog that she stopped painting, and unfinished canvases clutter in the room.  I wish Dalmatian improve to bring Lena’s artistic inspiration back.
You ask how I feel myself in Vienna, and what made fully-fledged woman of 40 to immigrate to German speaking country eight years ago – without friends and relatives to give her support, with zero knowledge of German and zero finances, having no occupational prospects as media professional. Continue reading Body language →

Russian, Society, Transformation Comments turned off

Премия естественной улыбки

By on June 16th, 2010

Галина Токталиева
Наверно нет на свете человека, который не мечтал бы получить вдруг от судьбы щедрый подарок. Один рад был бы просто поесть досыта, другой мечтает о новом авто, а третьему хотелось бы не меньше, чем виллу на берегу моря. Многие не прочь бы мгновенно обогатиться за счёт других, а именно – выиграть в лотерею миллион. Спросите их, как они собираются потратить эти деньги. Continue reading Премия естественной улыбки →

English, Health, Transformation 3 comments

Odors

By on June 12th, 2010

By Galina Toktalieva
For thousands of years living without electricity and toothpaste, our forefathers, free of matrimonial restraints forced later by patriarchate, used to choose intimate partner by smell, as many mammals do. Probably the ability of humans to perceive odors partly degenerated with time. But even now in epoch of commercial odorants and perfumes, when a powerful flavor and fragrance industry work on supreme goal to liberate humankind of its natural smells, what innate odor we emit through deodorant cover plays certain role in our life. Even more significant role plays such instrument of intuition as natural skill to perceive subtle distinctions of smells. Continue reading Odors →

English, Transformation, Women 2 comments

Chic of a piano

By on June 10th, 2010

By Galina Toktalieva
- Why are always dressed up in black? It does not suit you at all, – dropped one of my female companions exhaling smoke of her cigarette, while we were on porch of one feeding on unemployment institutions, where we had our German classes, – three women making small talk in Russian. – Besides, I have read in glossy magazine, that those who prefer wear black, are often depressed.
She talked with the aplomb of a sophisticated woman in spite of reliance on glossy sources of information. Seeing her so close, I kept patronizing silence, as her face at that moment exposed nothing except shining beauty of youth. Besides I knew that eyes of any woman designed in such a way that she inevitably sees herself esthetically superior to others. Continue reading Chic of a piano →

English, Photographer, Transformation Comments turned off

Stranger in the mirror

By on June 9th, 2010

by Galina Toktalieva
As quick portraiture photographer and sporadic photo model I have never met someone really joyful about her own portraits, including myself. Moreover, certain persons, who at first enthusiastically pose, give signs of bitter disappointment with their pictures afterwards. Similarly to me – when I posture for my colleagues, – my improvised models may well see in results of shooting only evil caricature on themselves. We feel confused and hurt in the core. Continue reading Stranger in the mirror →

English, Transformation 2 comments

Equilibrium

By on June 8th, 2010

by Galina Toktalieva
I could appreciate advantages of living in 15 “ghetto” district of Vienna only when spring came. There was Schmelz nearby, – spacious patch of ground, where local pensioners cultivated vegetables and flowers in small private gardens.
Most of the time outer environment could look grim for us – city folks trapped in concrete boxes of our flats. We were also trapped in offices, in trams, in sticky wagons of underground, forced to go same way and make same choices every day, as miniature train ever repeats its route in the window of toys shop. Continue reading Equilibrium →