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Psychic Files 1: Somewhere Sunny
In 2007, my psychic, a French expert in I Ching, told me: ‘You will move. Somewhere sunny.’ Why on earth would I move? I was thirty and thought I had kind of made it. With two psychoses behind me (or maybe three?), I sat in the PhD students’ room at the faculty of sociology in… Continue reading
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Move less, and believe in yourself even when the world tries to crush you
What’s one thing you know now that would have saved your younger self a lot of pain? You know what? A renowned French psychic, who was also a specialist in the I Ching oracle, once told me: “Most people move only once, when they grow up and buy their own house. And usually it stays… Continue reading
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I have many homes
What’s a place you visited that felt like home? A simple question if you travel. For me it is painful. I almost cried when I saw it. I have lived in four countries. Each one became a home. Brussels first: six years. I arrived at nineteen to study in French. The start was hard. A… Continue reading
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I was Buddha
It was on a rainy day in November that I looked outside the window of my workplace in Amsterdam and asked: “Is there more to it? Is there something else?” I was three months into the promotion – portfolio manager – still a financial analyst of banks, still no diploma, at a consultancy in Amsterdam.… Continue reading
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A place called home
It was at the age of nineteen that I left my beloved Russia to go and study in Brussels. I had a big family trauma and my move was out of desperation, more than anything else. The opportunity to escape was there, and being so naïve, I took it. In retrospect, I am not sure… Continue reading
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Saying goodbye to perfectionism
What skills or lessons have you learned recently? With my bipolar disorder I have learned in the past couple of years to take it easy. I used to be a perfectionist in the past. I was always achieving something. If it wasn’t for work, then it would be for sport. At some point in life… Continue reading
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You can be whatever you want
What alternative career paths have you considered or are interested in? I found this question very interesting as I have not only considered an alternative career path, I tried several of them, and in different countries. I worked as a translator and interpreter at Brussels’ committee for refugees and stateless people, as a library assistant… Continue reading
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Magical Amsterdam
And so, at the age of 23/24 I ended up living in Amsterdam, where I stayed for seven years in total. But before I tell you more about my adventures there (such as ending up in a psychosis at the age of twenty-seven), let’s look at Amsterdam at first. From all the places where I… Continue reading
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Welcome to Amsterdam
It was at the end of the summer 2000 that I moved from Brussels to Amsterdam to do a master’s degree at the University of Amsterdam. I had won a bursary and since my mum and my stepdad lived in the Netherlands then, it seemed like a logical move. Apart from the difficulty of the… Continue reading
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Passage to Amsterdam
But let’s go back to Belgium during my student years there. In 1999 I had a bachelor degree in interpreting and translation, with distinction, and I was in total love with Belgium and Brussels. Life was good there. Belgian people are very friendly and fun, food is fantastic, and Brussels is a very cosmopolitan city,… Continue reading
About Me
I am a doctor of philosophy, a university lecturer, and a lover of cats, fine wine, dancing, theatre, and human eccentricity. I was born in the Soviet Union (Moscow). I am fluent in four languages, and have spent all my adult life studying (except from 18 to 19) working and living throughout Western Europe. Despite a surname-Netchitailova- that translates from Russian into English as “unreadable”, my greatest passions in life are reading and writing. My personal struggles have made me appreciate the manifestations of weirdness that exist everywhere.