Requiem for Fall'20

- buying our first car
- participating in the elections for the first time
- celebrating first female Vice President Kamala Harris
- hoping and rooting for the freedom in my home country Belarus
- enjoying morning dog walks
- learning how to bake perfect chocolate chip cookies
- saying goodbye to Hanna and Alex before their one-way flight to LA
- finding my old hard drive with memories
- visiting Alexandria, VA for the first time
- having friends over
- getting stickers from a wonderful doctor who was doing my bloodwork
- teaching Biscuit new tricks
- celebrating Bella and Gleb’s first baby
- mourning the loss of Roman Bondarenko;
- mourning the loss of my parent’s friend who we lost due COVID
- mourning RBG
- learning to take criticism
- cleaning dog puke (sorry, this is gross)
- running into familiar people in COVID line
- taking Amtrak for the first time
- celebrating 5 years at Vimeo

short version: жыве

Requiem for Summer'20

🏴 Most of my summer was occupied by thoughts about Belarus. The requiem can’t represent the true summer without statement on the situation in my home country.

- dealing with a lot of change in many aspects of life: personal and professional
- adopting a rescue puppy from Korea: learning a lot about how to take care of dogs, how to train them and also how to not go insane with constant supervision and attention
- worrying about friend being unlawfully detained
- experiencing pure joy after facetiming with him after he’s been freed
- celebrating C. birthday
- reading and learning about BLM movement
- driving upstate for a little hike with friends
- watching Lexington ave with no cars
- learning to ride a bike
- standing up for myself at work and moving things forward
- driving to Philly on a rental car that turned out to be a ridiculous Jeep pickup
- baking bread for the first time
- getting to know our neighbors
- seeing family after a long quarantine
- celebrating Hanna’s time in New York and having a farewell party in Prospect park
- having a lot of flashback to 2010
- having a crazy amount of support from friends and co-workers
- reading

short version: Тваё мора не мае назвы

On Belarus

On situation in Belarus:
This summer was mostly spent in the constant state of anxiety and worry about my friends and family.
In short: a dictator president who has been in power for 26 years rigged elections again and then used police force against peaceful protesters. People were tortured, people died, people will need a long time to recover after this horrific experience.
I’ve been in 2 states most of the time: complete hopelessness and then… inspiration.
I am forever grateful to people who are showing up and protesting every day, to people who are helping other people, to people who are brave enough to say “Enough is enough”. Thank you for everything you are doing, I will never forget your bravery.
I believe that Belarus will be free and I believe that kindness and love will win.

Here’re some good resources about what is happening:
- Episode of The Daily podcast (NYT)
- BBC: Belarus elections: Shocked by violence, people loose their fear
- New Yorker:After a Rigged Election, Belarus Crushed Protests Amid an Information Blackout by Masha Gessen
- NYT: What’s Happening in Belarus?
- The Guardian: Belarus protests: 25-year old man dies in custody
- CNN: Video shows students violently detained in Belarus

Жыве Беларусь! 🤍❤️🤍