Ramadan
In my previous post, I mentioned that I had arrived in my grandparents’ village and shared a bit about my visa journey. But today, I had a different plan: to spend time with my relatives throughout the night and visit the mosque in the morning. Since this Friday, Muslims around the world were celebrating Eid al-Adha — a deeply meaningful holiday that comes after the sacred period of Ramadan — I didn’t want to stay on the sidelines and decided to fully take part as well.
This is my visa — I blurred some parts because they contain sensitive information. I also want to clarify one thing: I initially applied for a seven-day stay, but they granted me fifteen days instead. Of course, I’m very happy about this, as it gives me a great opportunity to visit Japan, especially Tokyo.
To be honest, I’m not even sure where to begin with this post. So many things happened today, and I also want to share parts of my trip to Moscow. Some of these details I intentionally kept to myself, planning to reveal them later — and now feels like the right moment. As you may have already guessed from the title, this post is mainly about my Japan visa, although I might also include a few highlights from my trip. In short, I’ve already purchased all my flight tickets and booked my hotels.
That chunk of snow is still hanging on the roof. I already thought it would fall off during these warm days, but I was wrong
The weather these days is actually amazing. It’s around +8 degrees, everything is melting, and the sun was shining during the day. Honestly, it’s already not bad, even though everything is dirty and wet. Sunny days just feel much more comfortable and productive. I’m already tired of winter — all that snow and constant blizzards almost every day. But now everything feels much better.
Even looking out the window gave me some new thoughts, and I started noticing small things. For example, today I saw an old man shoveling snow around his house. I think he was trying to move the snow away to prevent water from getting into his cellar. Or maybe he just wanted it to melt faster. Anyway, I already know about this problem, because some people I know have the same issues every spring.
Ooh, it’s kind of crazy sometimes—I catch myself thinking, how did I manage to write so many posts? Keeping up every day, sharing something consistently… it surprises me. Time really flew; it feels like yesterday was the first day of Ramadan, and now tomorrow will be the second-to-last day, the twenty-eighth. I’m really grateful for this experience, and I can’t wait to share more posts about my trips and life soon.
This is only my third book in English. A few years ago I would never have imagined that I would read books in English at all. To be honest, I have never really read books even in my native languages. I never read books in Tatar or Russian in my life. That’s why reading my third English book feels a bit surprising to me.
After waiting for almost a month, my first order finally arrived. I ordered the book from the online store Ozon. Even though it was a local shop, the book was delivered from abroad. I placed the order on February 9, and on March 11 I received a message saying that the book had arrived. Unfortunately, that was the same day I flew to Moscow. It was a bit disappointing because I couldn’t pick it up immediately, so the book had to wait for me. But when I finally received it, I felt really happy. I had been waiting for it for a long time.
I’ve already started reading it, and today during lunch I managed to read about thirty pages. Honestly, the book is very interesting and really pulled me into the process. The author shares his personal story about learning languages and explains how he started. At the same time, he gives practical advice and useful methods.
Honestly, it was a rough day. I felt like I wasted my time, and waking up late was unusual for me. I slept until 12 p.m.—I can’t even remember the last time I slept that long! I went to bed at 4 a.m., spending the night fixing bugs on my blog and waiting for suhoor. Now I realize it was a bad experience, and I definitely won’t do it again. Next time, I need to stick to a normal bedtime if I want to have a proper morning. My body and mind feel much better when I follow a regular sleep schedule. Staying up so late just makes me feel off and unproductive.
My day was quite busy. It was my last day in Moscow, but I decided not to attend the conference even though it was the final day. Instead, I slept until 9 AM and then started packing my things. The whole routine took around two hours and turned out to be a bit challenging. I had several presents with me, and it was difficult to pack them properly with the rest of my belongings. Because of that, my backpack ended up being overweight. Fortunately, nobody checked the weight at the airport, so everything went smoothly and I had no problems with it.
My day started at 8 a.m. When I woke up, my first thought was that I had overslept and missed my transfer to the congress center. For a few seconds I felt really stressed. Fortunately, it was just a wrong feeling, and when I realized that everything was fine, I felt huge relief. It felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I really didn’t want to take a taxi because it was expensive, and I didn’t want to spend extra money. Public transport was also not a great option because I would have needed three transfers. It was cheaper than a taxi, but still inconvenient.
I received this bag of memorable gifts today at the conference. It was a pleasant surprise because I didn’t expect to get anything special. Inside the bag there was my badge. The orange rope was for the organizers, and the blue one was for participants. There was also a special notebook, a pen, a circular plate celebrating Infostart’s 20 years, a paper birthday hat, and a special set of tools for cleaning devices. All of these items were packed inside a blue decorated bag
Even though I am currently in Moscow, I began my day with fasting. The fasting schedule here is slightly different from what I am used to. Suhoor was at 04:47 AM, and iftar was at 06:27 PM. Honestly, the different timing did not cause me any inconvenience. I managed to begin and complete my fast quite comfortably. However, I had to skip breakfast at the hotel in the morning and lunch during the conference. Naturally, my colleagues noticed this and asked why I was not eating with them. I took the opportunity to explain the significance of the month of Ramadan for Muslims.
Today I started my business trip to Moscow, and everything is going well. Yesterday I mentioned that I didn’t really want to go. That feeling was related to my unsuccessful day yesterday, but today everything turned out differently. I woke up feeling calm and surprisingly positive about the trip. The weather was also awesome. The temperature was warm, the sky was clear, and overall it felt like a real spring day. When I arrived in Moscow and left the airport, I noticed that the temperature there was also around +11 degrees.
As usual, I woke up for suhoor, but this time things didn’t go as planned. I overslept and almost missed it. I only had about ten minutes left before the fasting time started, so everything felt rushed and I couldn’t finish my meal properly. I think this was the main reason why I had a headache and didn’t have enough energy during the day. Because of that, I felt sleepy, annoyed, and even a bit stressed at work. As a result, today’s fasting felt harder than usual, and overall the day felt quite unsuccessful.
My old 320 GB HDD is now inside the new box. I originally took this hard drive from my old Asus EeePC from 2009
First of all, the weather has been extremely cold during the last few days. I even received a warning message from emergency services saying that the temperature could drop to −35°C. Honestly, that sounds crazy to me. I have never seen −35°C in March before. It feels very unusual.
I clearly remember that one year ago, when I was leaving Russia around this time, the weather was already warm. I was wearing light clothes and walking comfortably outside. The snow was melting quickly and spring was already in the air. But this year it feels completely different. Winter still feels strong and doesn’t seem ready to leave. That surprised me and honestly made me a bit sad, because spring should already be close.