Olesia with the BAQME Boost e-cargo bike

My native language is Russian. I don´t practise English so much. It´s just since I am in The Netherlands for one year and one month now. The first year was hard. Now it´s a little bit easier. Everything is new. At home we have grandparents’ support with the kids and here we are alone. We have three children: 13, 8 and 6.  

I hope that in the future we can return to our normal life. At this moment it feels like the future in unpredictable. I never thought I would leave my country, but I have decided to support my husband in this choice. First, we moved to Turkey for 3 months, but the climate was too hot for us, also the infrastructure was not suitable for us. We had the chance to live in Dubai a few times, but we didn’t take that opportunity. Now in The Netherlands we have decided to take this chance. Life in The Netherlands provides us with lots of potential.

We are open for different cultures, different technology. I like to educate myself because, just being home is not interesting to me. I want to continue and I’m happy when I go to work and, in the end, I come back to my family and spend my free time with family. I like to have a work and life balance. The education of my kids is also very important to me. My kids have many activities in The Netherlands. It’s easier than in Moscow because everything is more concentrated at one place. Rotterdam has good infrastructure. Especially with the electric cargo bike I can be anywhere fast. That’s why we took a BAQME Boost subscription. It’s easy for us, to for example take the kids from school and go to swimming lessons or when they need to go to karate lessons, music lessons or tennis lessons. We decided not to use a car because it’s expensive. You need to pay not only the car, but taxes and parking costs. In The Netherlands the infrastructure is so good for bicycles, so we don’t feel the need for a car.  

I am a positive person and try to find the positive in every situation. It helps me in challenging situations in daily life. Although I have lost my comfort zone in the current situation, I still try to see the positive for myself and also for my husband and kids. On the inside I am not changing.  

In Russian we say “when you keep moving, you’ll get somewhere’