My progress in this class.

I have been attending English class at HSE-NES for almost 2 months, so I think it is a good time to evaluate my progress in English.

The first thing is my speaking skills. As you possibly know, before I began attending this English class, I had never talked with native English speakers. Never! So when I knew that my English teacher David would be from USA, I was so happy about it. The first lesson was hard to me, because I  was afraid of saying something to my classmates and my teacher because I though I would not been understood because of my lack of practise.  Therefore, I began to attend consultation at Writing and Communication Centre. Since then, my speaking skills improved. It began easier for me to talk with other students and my teacher David. However, it is continue difficult for me to formulate long phrases when I talk.  For this reason, I' m going to attend consultations at WCC and practice English as much as I can.

Another thing is my listening skills. They became better. I began to understand movies and song much better than earlier, and of course, now I understand properly what my English teacher says. It is incredible to notice how your English skills tend to improve!
 To improve my skills I'm going to watch movies and listen to music in  English, and also communicate with partner on Skype (David gave us a link to the site (https://languagecenter.cla.umn.edu/tandem/)  where people from foreign counries register and  can communicate with each other, helping each other to learn their languages.) I registered and was chosen by partner Alyssa Hertig. She is from USA. And today I have a meeting with her on Skype. I think it will be great experience!

It is also important to say what  I've learned in this class. I  learned properly how essay should be organized, and how it is important to connect all the essay's details with thesis statement.
Unfortunately, my grades of writing assignments leaves much to be desired.  It's continue hard to me to write essays which connect with all standarts. If I was more concentrated on these, my grades would be better. I think, it is often happened because of my lack of experience in writing and speaking in English. Earlier I thought that academic writing was easy to do, but now I realized I made a mistake.

I enjoy lessons with David. Every lesson I and my classmates talk only in English, watch video, work with handouts,  work in groups, take different exercises which help me to understand new material better .  I'm never bored in this class and I like it!     
   
In concusion, I'd like to say that  I'm going to continue work hard in this class and also attend consultations at Writing and Communication Centre at NES so that to develop my writing,listening, and speaking skills. I'm also going to watch movies, read books and newspapers in English so that to learn more vocabulary. I hope to speak in English freely, and I think the NES is the best place to realize my dreams. I'm looking forward to next lessons to make my English better! 

I'm fond of cooking

The longer I live, the more I notice that there aren't people without hobbies. Having hobbies helps us to relax, to divert our attention away from routine work. Moreover, it can also help you to communicate with others people, maintain friendly relations with people who is keen on her hobbies too. Because of this, I realized that I should tell about my favourite hobby  - cooking.

Since I have been young,  I really liked cooking. When my Mum baked cakes, I always saw to her movements and tried to help her. Divine smells of food always made my head spin, and I really wanted to cook by myself. However, she didn't allow me to do it without her helping because I was too young and could hurt myself. As a result, I had to forgot about cooking until I became older, so I concentrated on other hobbies.

Later, when I was 16 my interest to this hobby came to me again. It was a summer, so I had free time for doing my hobbies. Moreover, my Mum had got a flu, so I had to cook for my family. I began cooking as much as I can, preparing breakfasts and dinners. It was incredible feelings to see dishes that I cooked were better than I thought. However, it's worth saying that I more like baking. Baking is more interesting for me because I always liked cakes,pies and pizzas and wanted to know how they prepared. So did I. Therefore, I like to show you some images of cakes and pies that I baked.

Unfortunately, living in a dormitory I haven't any opportunities to bake because a stove that I use doesn't have an oven.  Meanwhile,I continue love my hobby and try to cook original dishes by myself as often as I can. 

A short, but scary story of my life

When I was young, I liked to walk with my parents from Dad's garage to home. After a car had been parked by my Dad we often went home together through a pinewood. It wasn't long distance but because of my young age it seemed to me long enough. I really liked this place! There were many high pines with squirrells lived inside. I often fed them nuts and it was happiness for me to watch a squirrel eating nuts on my hand and looking at my eyes so close. However, the main thing I liked to do in this place is running. Being only six years old, I always got away from my parents imagining they were gaining on me. It was a funny game for me. It was the game for them too until I went down in a scary story.
It was a sunny summer day with breeze and not many clouds in the sky. After I and my parents had returned from a summer cottage, we went to the garage to park the car and took a walk through the pinewood as usual. Having a good mood, I ran carefree on a footpath. Suddenly I noticed the most formidable, the hugest dog I had ever seen. It had crazy eyes and alongated snout. One look at it made a frightfulness  effect. Suddenly the dog started  running towards me, barking! I didn't know what to do. This dog was as tall as I was and he could catch me in one second! However, I turned into another direction and ran as fast as I could. I was so scared that I couldn't say a word, couldn't begin to cry! I had already thought it was the end of my life when I heard Dad's voice. He understood I was in danger and ran to rescue me! When dog saw a man running towards him, he stopped and returned to his owners. I was in safety.
Despite the fact I was recsued, I couldn't talk and stay upright. It was also a mystery for me how I didn't become a slatterer. Since then, I've been afraid of dogs.
However, it was a good lesson for me to realize that I ought to be more careful in child and then in adult life.
Summary, it's worth saying that this story was too scary but all is well that ends well!