Introduction

Hello there! My name is Alexandra Osintseva, but you can call me Sasha, and I’m the ‘Migrating Matryoshka’. I decided to start this blog, because I moved to Germany in September 2020, specifically to Düsseldorf, and I wanted to share my experiences with people that needed it or wanted to hear about them. I started to post more traveling content on Instagram, but then I thought that it just wasn’t enough for me, because I have a LOT to talk about. So, I spontaneously decided to go for an idea that was in my head for a few years already and thus, I created this blog! This blog will have all types of content, including the cultural aspect: language, food, cultural differences, traditions, different things that make a country special, etc., the financial aspect: how to plan a trip on a budget, the cost of living in different countries, etc., and finally, the informational aspect: Visa applications, application to university in Germany and the requirements for it, how to find yourself in your new life when you move abroad, how to find a routine or a structure abroad, how to blend in with the locals, and so on. The goal of my blog is to equally inform and entertain you, using my experiences and research that I have done, which will be linked in the posts.

Why ‘Migrating Matryoshka’?

As you may already know, I come from Russia and I have been an immigrant every since I was two years old when my family and I moved to Canada. Now that I moved to Germany, I once again, am an immigrant! My story gets very confusing when people ask where I’m from, it usually goes like this: ‘Well I’m technically Russian and I was born there, but I lived in Canada most of my life and I also speak French because I lived in the province of Quebec, but now I live in Germany and I’m open to moving to another country after my studies here’. This usually leaves people kind of confused, but I love it, since everywhere I’ve been is now a part of me and it makes me even more unique! I love the term migrant, because I feel like it shows that you not only have 1 country that you associate with, that you’re more “international”, which I think I am. I have always been and always will be an immigrant, and I’m very okay with that!

Now, the ‘Matryoshka’ part! If some of you don’t know, Matryoshkas are “a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside another.” This little doll is part of Russian culture, which I’m personally very attached to. I was born there, Russian is my mother tongue, I went to Russian school on Saturdays in Montreal for 12 years and have been in touch with my roots ever since. My culture and language are very important to me and those factors still influence my life. That is why I decided to choose a Russian symbol, because I wanted to show how important it is to me and I wanted it to reflect in my blog.

Also, ‘Migrating Matryoshka’ just sounds fun and there’s a nice little alliteration that makes it easy to remember and nice to say.