Cold-resistant blossoms

You may or may not blame climate change, but over the past several years weather has become unpredictable. Instead of four distinct seasons, we are moving towards sharp contrasts. It may be hot one week and freezing the next. Despite the late-spring gloom, these blossoms inspire people to hope that temperatures will leap . Sakura trees are blossoming close to …

Drawing and crafts

I’m reading this book. I started it probably around a year ago, reading parts of it at different times and then putting it away. Thoughts inspired by this book helped me formulate the reasons for leaving my old job. There is much in it to think about for every ‘knowledge worker’. On the other hand, I was always aware of …

Evaluation on equal opportunities in structural funds completed

Good news: colleagues from my old job at PPMI have finalized the project Evaluation of the impact of EU structural support on the implementation of the horizontal priority “Gender equality and non-discrimination” for the Lithuanian Ministry of Finance, where I was the key researcher and did most of the data collection and analysis. As I have written for PPMI website …

A week in Baku – the city center and interesting stories

As I have written in the , I spent a week in Baku upon invitation from the NATO International School of Azerbaijan. We stayed in the suburb of Shikhov, close to the Caspian sea. Since it’s low season, there were almost no other guests. The hotel is far away from the city center. Although it provides free shuttle services to …

A week in Baku – some general facts and a walk in the Old City

I finally found a way to visit Baku (Azerbaijan) – just one day before the application deadline, I noticed that there is an interesting conference on the European Neighbourhood Policy and Eastern Partnership. I had several friends from Azerbaijan when I studied at CEU, so I had heard lots of stories about the country. But visiting there is not so …