maria profile picture

maria

About Me

i totally lucked out with a good story. Born in Uzbekistan, a little country in Central Asia, grew up in Ukraine, the best country on Earth, spent quite a few years in Cincinnati, and now living it up in Washington, DC.i like red M&Ms, thai food, fireplaces, the sound of foreign languages and the smell of rain. i enjoy cooking almost as much as eating. i love to read. i really enjoy "wine drunk". i like to take naps, anytime, anywhere. i hate when people use numbers in abbreviating words, i.e. 2gother 4ever. i just now, after 5 years of design school, began appreciating art museums. if i had enough money i would stay in school forever. i find peanut butter and celery – especially together – revolting. i want to travel everywhere. i want to know everything. i don't believe in owning guns. i think cuff links and scarves are the sexiest things a man can wear. my friends are the most important people to me. i like football, the european kind. i do not believe in organized religion. i love latin dances and music. i think women should look like women. i like mangoes and scallops. i absolutely cannot handle whiskey. i am a Ukrainian down to my bones and i am proud of it.

My Interests

dancing salsa, mambo, cha cha, rumba, hustle, tango, merengue, bachata, samba, waltz, reggaeton...the list goes on.
design but that's an obvious one...
reading always always reading something new
linguistics I think the development of languages is a fascinating topic, and I would love to learn more about different groups, grammar structures,etc. yes, i am a nerd. i know.
classic civilizations Greeks and Romans
cooking. eating. drinking wine. traveling.

Music:

Franz Ferdinand
Modest Mouse
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
The Strokes
The 3 Bs:Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms
The White Stripes
Interpol
Muse
Madonna
Nina Simone
Carla Bruni
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Gipsy Kings
Emma Shapplin
Zemfira
Mandry
Chicherina
Okean El'zi
VV
Ruslana
Meri
...and of course salsa music.

Movies:

Before Sunset
Lost in Translation
Dangerous Beauty
Beautiful Mind
L'Auberge Espagnol
The Lives of Others
Sex and Lucia
Pan's Labyrinth

Television:

Food Network
Travel Channel
Discovery

Books:

The Alchemist, The Prophet, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Kite Runner, Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Anna Karenina, Guns, Germs and Steel, The Little Prince, Cancer Ward.

Heroes:

Leonardo da Vinci
Cleopatra
Einstein

My Blog

oy...

in this exact order: 1 corona3 glasses of white wine 1 very dirty martini 2 glasses of red wineBEFORE dinner make for one hell of a metro ride next morning. fyi.
Posted by maria on Fri, 20 Apr 2007 10:36:00 PST

EXCITED

I very rarely get excited about anything, but...going to see Manu Chao, Thievery Corporation, Bebel Gilberto on june 23rd!
Posted by maria on Thu, 19 Apr 2007 01:14:00 PST

sexy

ok, so this damn HTML code refuses to work...go here to take the test http://www.espinthebottle.com/jump/?go=3205&qid=8Which Sexy Are You?RESULT: Intellectual SexyYouâve got that smooth, mature kind ...
Posted by maria on Mon, 14 Aug 2006 04:36:00 PST

just another test...

Advanced Global Personality Test Results Extraversion |||||||||||||| 56% Stability |||||||||||||| 56% Orderliness |||||||||||||||| 66% Accommodation |||||| 30% Interdependence |||| 16%...
Posted by maria on Wed, 19 Jul 2006 04:55:00 PST

Ukraine in the World Cup!

Unless you have very strong attachments to Spain, Tunisia, or Saudi Arabia, I expect all of you to be rooting for Ukraine's team in their first ever appearance in the World Cup! First game is this wed...
Posted by maria on Mon, 12 Jun 2006 02:31:00 PST

saturday night in DC

Thanks to Gabriel, who STOOD ME UP this Saturday night (whatever dude, you did NOT call me back), I ended all by myself in a packed dance club. But, as fate would have it, the night turned out not too...
Posted by maria on Mon, 05 Jun 2006 11:57:00 PST

Submission by Theo Van Gogh

A short fim by Theo Van Gogh.He was brutally murdered for making it.By a Muslim.Van Gogh was shot several times and his throat was slashed.As well as being stabbed twice, a knife was used to pin Death...
Posted by maria on Thu, 01 Jun 2006 05:28:00 PST

The PROPHET, by Kahlil Gibran

On Reason & PassionAnd the priestess spoke again and said:"Speak to us of Reason and Passion."And he answered saying:Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wag...
Posted by maria on Tue, 30 May 2006 01:28:00 PST

new york --> awesome weekend

chinatown bus, lychee nuts, dim sum, train, union square, trader joes, sfogliatellas, chinese fish tacos, dancing and dancing, seeing the sun rise, plantains, what do you mean you dont have a liquor l...
Posted by maria on Tue, 30 May 2006 11:09:00 PST

Top 10 places to see

alright, since one of my favorite pastimes is to plan my future vacations, i've decided to come up with a list of top 10 places i'd like to visit first. you know, just in case i stumble upon a bag ful...
Posted by maria on Wed, 24 May 2006 04:29:00 PST