Situation: The Malina

I've probably said this before, but I think this is truly my best video creation to date. I am joining the two most exciting things about my life in Taiwan: our Malina residence and my Situation 101 vblog! 

The past year has been insane -- lots of ups and downs -- and I was able to capture the essence of it (for the most part) with these few short clips. Also, a big shout to YouTube-ers out there for providing their awesome videos of Taipei. 

The next one is going to be even more crazy and outrageous, so stay tuned! I just hope this summer typhoon weather here in Taiwan will pass soon, because it's surely is putting a big damper on our shooting schedule. 

A story of a horse

Our good friend Dasha visualized a silly Russian poem with her smartphone and I thought it was brilliant. I decided to add my own personal touch to and translated it into English, respecting the original rhythmical flow of it. Here's my English version, and below are pictures created by Daria Zatsepina:

There once was a time, a horse in the snow
Got his pee-pee stuck
On the fence right below

After kicking and screaming
But his efforts in vain 
He hopped away, but the pee-pee remained

The Malina soundtrack in the making...

We are compiling quite a collection of songs that hold all of our memories in the house thus far. This one is a Russian chanson song that was remixed and rendered more modern by yours truly!

Another Malina song

Yet another song that has been engraved in the minds and hearts of the Malinans.

The Malina Anthem

This song has blasted the Malina windows and shook its floors and walls many, many times, even causing the neighbors to call the police on us. Many, many times. 

I think it has a crazy cool beat and I wanted to make a video to go along with it. The actual song is over six minutes long, so I just decided to make the video with an extrait from it. 

The English translations of the song is "I want to shout" and we are actually planning to rerecord it in English. The lyrics are almost done. The Russian version is very melodic and talks about loneliness and the perils in relationships.

Welcome to the Malina Mansion!

New year! New start! New friends!

I've... we've relocated to a new place here in Taipei, and it's one worth talking about, and dedicating a blog entry to. The new roommates: Albina, Charles, Gleb, Irene, Val and myself all met coincidentally this year and quickly grew close. So, here we are, at our rocking new residence - The Malina Mansion!

By the way, happy holidays!

Episode 4 - Taipei Holiday

The holidays are here! Well, they were here. When this episode was taped. In this installment of my video blog, I take and show you what Taiwan is like during the holiday season. What’s cool is, here we get to enjoy longer holidays (sort of) than back home. We get two consecutive New Years – Western and Chinese – and a Christmas somewhere in there. This, I guess, sort of makes up for the lack of Christmas spirit around these parts. Although the shops are open, the decorations are up, and the Jingle Bells is being played on every corner, ironically, the Christmas spirit is absent. First and foremost, because the Taiwanese WORK on Christmas. Yes, that means the white folks work, too.

For New Years Eve and Day, we usually get these days off. Even if they fall in the middle of the week, which is nice. The Chinese New Year is the best time though. A lot of people get a whole month off, and most get around two weeks. They are pretty generous with vacation time here. This is no America for you. And not to mention the LOADS of national holidays and other random times that gives you days off. For my Chinese New Year trip (as most take one), I traveled back to Moscow with Val. I haven’t been back in over a decade and it was insanely great to see all my family and friends again. However, I left this part for the next episode.

On a technical note, the past two episodes have been rather lengthy, so I decided to cut back and return to my initial set timing of ten minutes per episode. I also shortened the transitions and lengthened the content itself. This way, it should be more enjoyable to watch. I just personally enjoy mixing the music and videos for these transitions and sometimes get carried away. 

The idea for the title came from childhood memories. I used to watch many of Audrey Hepburn movies with the family and one of them (the more famous one) is Roman Holiday, so I thought it’d be appropriate to do a little play on. Some of the highlights include our Chinese class presentations, teaching jobs and Christmas shopping with my Chinese Christian friend, Paul Gao. Oh yeah, and of course more partying – Russian style!