Republic of Tatarstan

While driving back from my relatives at around 5 pm, I noticed my neighbors by the roadside. They were heading toward the city and still had about 4–5 kilometers left to reach their destination. I couldn’t just leave them there, so I pulled over and offered them a ride. The distance wasn’t short, and they were walking along a dusty highway with heavy traffic, which made the situation seem quite dangerous.

Honestly, it feels like a huge relief to have some free time again. Up until today, I was pretty stressed about it because I got stuck on a few tasks, and it ended up taking over all my free time after work. I just couldn’t figure out why my code wasn’t working, so I spent an extra four or five days trying to fix it. My client started getting concerned too, asking what was going on and when I’d finally be done. And yeah, that was on me — we had planned to finish everything in early March, but now it’s already the end of the month.

We decided to replace our furniture, so we gave away our old pieces for free through a charity organization. Since everything was still in good condition, it felt like a waste to throw it away. The organization sent two movers to pick it up. However, when they came inside, the whole room immediately filled with a strong smell of alcohol. It was really unpleasant—I can’t remember the last time I smelled something that strong. Fortunately, despite that, the movers behaved professionally and finished the job quickly without any issues.

Today I woke up earlier than usual, around 8 a.m. The sky was cloudy, but the temperature was warm enough. As always, I looked out the window and saw that huge chunk of snow still sitting under it. Honestly, it’s melting so slowly because the sun never reaches that side of the house. I’m not even sure when it will finally disappear. If it somehow lasts until the first days of summer, I wouldn’t be surprised—but I really hope all those icy hills melt soon.

Today was just another regular workday, and honestly, nothing special happened. I woke up, went through my usual morning routine, and the day passed pretty quickly. Even though it was a workday, I felt quite satisfied because everything went smoothly, especially my tasks. Over the past few days, I’ve also noticed that my merge requests have been getting accepted without any fixes. To be honest, that feeling is really pleasant—it gives me more confidence in my work and makes the whole process much more enjoyable.

Later in the evening, I got a notification saying my order had been delivered to the pick-up point. After work, I finished my usual routine and walked there. Luckily, it wasn’t far from my place, so I could enjoy a short walk and get some fresh air. I also want to point out one nice thing about the time here — even at 6 PM, it was still bright outside, and the streetlights weren’t even on yet. Honestly, that feeling made me happier than getting the books, at least for a moment. But once I checked them, the books completely took over. Now the only problem is finding enough free time to actually read them all.

I wanted to share my next problem with my Telegram integration on my blog. But first, I want to say a few words about today, because it was sunny and surprisingly warm, around +9 degrees. The past few days were also sunny and comfortable, but I didn’t describe them. So I couldn’t stay at home, and I didn’t try to resolve my Telegram API issues, because it felt too boring to spend time on that during such a nice day. Instead, I went for a walk and spent about an hour outside in the sun. Also, it was different from previous days because our neighborhood was crowded with adults and their kids.

Yesterday, I didn’t share everything, especially how I felt. I thought the text would be too long and probably not very interesting for anyone. But I want to continue now and talk about my experience of staying awake for more than 24 hours. First, I should explain why I didn’t want to go to the village. The next day was a normal workday for me, and spending time there just didn’t fit with my schedule. It felt uncomfortable and stressful because I knew it would affect my work. Even so, I had a lot of small conflicts with my relatives, especially about not going to the mosque.

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.

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.

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.