#15. What are your plans on the summer holidays? Do you want to work during it or rest and travel? (Maria's topic)

In my opinion, the best way to relax during these hard weeks because of preparation to final exams is to tell about my summer holidays' plans. Actually, by telling about that plans I can forget about any problems for at least one minute.

First of all, I'd like to say that I began thinking about my summer holidays' pastime a long time ago. At the beginning, my plans for June were: go home after passing exams for about 3 weeks. Then, in July, I planned to return in Moscow so that to have a trip to Austin's summer school in the U.S. I had never gone abroad before. Therefore, in that time it was my daydream to visit foreign country. Moreover, it was the U.S. which I had been dreaming to visit for many years! However, because of my residence in Odintsovo, a passport which gave me opportunity to visit foreign countries, was said to registered for 4 months. That was a great pity because I gathered my documents and sent it ti the passport Office only in March that meant I would give my passport in July. It was late for me, because school would start at the beginning of July.

However, I decided to not waste my time for melancholy and began making my new summer holidays' plan. Therefore, I’d like to share it with you. 

After passing all final exams, I'm going to stay at Moscow till the beginning of July. You can ask me, "Why don't you go to home right away?". Really, I can do it. However, it is not very interesting for me because Moscow gives me great opportunities to spend my time more efficiently. At the beginning, I'm going to visit many museums there so that to know about Russian culture, literature, and history as much as I can. Moreover, during June a theater season is not closed. Therefore, I'm going to visit many fascinating performances. I'm sure that there will be much ones that are worth to watch! In addition, now I have a kind of daydream, which could be seemed very odd to you - In June, I am also going to visit libraries so that to read books that I've decided to read this summer. There are many ones, so I shouldn't waste my time. 

What about July? At the first half of July I'm going to spend my time at home for 2 weeks. I think it is enough.
In the second half of July I'm going to work as a tutor, a teacher of Economics and as an assistant of other subjects in Krasnoyarsk summer school. That's a great challenge for me because, as you possibly know, last year I worked in KSS as a tutor. However, now I have become older and have got some experience. Therefore, I feel myself empowered to get more responsibilities in KSS. I think it will be great experience not only in teaching, but also in communication with students and other teachers. 

To tell the truth, I haven't certainly decided what to do in August yet. However, I want to go abroad. I wish to relax by swimming in the Black Sea. Notwithstanding, now it is only one of my many ideas. It means that my desires can change at any moments. Nevertheless, I wish many of my plans will be accomplished.

P.S. That was a last blog post in this semester, so I'd want to wish you luck in final exams and spend your summertime as efficiently as you can. I'm sure, it will all be OK!

See you soon!

#14. Topics for blog #14

1)Are you fond of theater? What is your favourite performance genre? Do you have a favourite theater in Moscow?
2) How is your spring break? Do you travel somewhere? What places do you visit that spring break or what places are you going to visit?
3) Tell us about the last film that you watched. Did you like it? Do you advice to watch it?

#13. Do you remember the last time, when you visited a theater? How was that? What you liked more? (Ivan's topic)

I am really fond of theater. When I was living in my hometown, I always tried to attend all theatre performances that were organized. Therefore, when I moved to Moscow, I had great expectations about attending theatres here and now I can say my expectations came true. 

First of all, there are great opportunities to visit theatres in Moscow for free - you should just ask administrator for tickets in advance of performances and very often he or she give you a free ticket.

Secondly, my dormitory's roommate is studying at Cultural Studies faculty and he has great ties in theatrical sphere. Therefore, if there is no opportunity to attend performance with help of theatre's administrator, I visit great performances because of his agreements with actors who give us free tickets.

During that spring break I visited two theater performances that were A Handsome man in Gorky Moscow Art Theatre and Triptych Petr Fomenko Studio.
The first performance I liked very much because it was a classical direction which scenario was based on the piece of the same name by Alexandr Ostrovskiy. Despite the fact that I didn't read this piece, it wasn't hard to understand the plot and I got pleasure of visiting it. Moreover, it is worth to say I attended that performance with my classmates and it was a great way to relax after the hard study.

The second performance is Triptych that is based on three separate stories such as Earl Nulin, O Donna Anna, and Faust. I have to say that it was the most amazing and fascinating performance I have ever seen! Too much metamorphosis, special effects, great actors' play, and unrepeatable plot did that performance really remarkable! The interesting fact is that was shown on New Scene which has many complex details and was built to show that performance namely! I highly recommend you to attend that performance on 30 May because you will be certainly impressed with it! 

If you have any additional questions about how to get to any Moscow theater for free or which performances I could recommend to you, don't hesitate to ask me about it :)

#12. Spring break (Liza's topic)

Sometimes it seems to me that I'm looking forward to spring break as no one else. Actually, I think it is because of my grandiose plans. 

My friends often ask me, "Why don't you go to your hometown that time? You haven't been there for 4 months and won't have been for 6 months till the second semester end". I agree with them it is really long term I haven't been at home, but I'm not going to there because of two reasons: firstly, that trip is expensive enough because if I want to go home I should by plane tickets so that to fly to Krasnoyarsk and train tickets to go to Kansk from Krasnoyarsk.  It seems to me that I can spend that money at Moscow more efficiently. However, it isn't the main reason. The main reason is my grandiose plans that I wish will be performed completely. 

First of all, during the first week of the spring break I'm going to visit an event that is called "The Night in the Culture Centre" at HSE. There will be many entertainment I'm going to take participate in: dancing, playing "Mafia", and others. However, the most important entertainment for me is a poetry evening. I'm fond of reading poetry by heart in public, so it will be great opportunity to do it! 

Secondly, the first and second May I'm going to attend two theatre performances in the Satirikon and Bolshoi Theatre. Since I had gone to Moscow, I became fond of theatre much more.
         Moreover, if I have some free time, I'm going to visit the Ostankino Tower once more. I visited it in January. It was 10 a.m. and weather was foggy, so I was upset because it was hard to see Moscow's scenery when I was staying on high 337 meters. In addition, during the winter a viewpoint is only close, but at May it is open, so it will be great to stay here in the open viewpoint and enjoy evening Moscow's scenery.

         Fourthly, I’m going to visit Saint-Petersburg with my classmates. I've never been there and I think the spring break is convenient time to attend many cultural places in Saint-Petersburg. Moreover, I'm going to visit my best friend from Saint-Petersburg State University. May be I will stay at his dormitory.  I wish I will get unforgettable memories. 

Fifthly, I and my friends from HSE and MSIIR are going to participate in case-championship that will be based on cases of the real American company Nielsen. The best thing about that case for me is it has fully English format. All our solutions should be formatted and then presented in English in the second half of May. I think it will be great challenge for me to present our solutions in public from many Russian and foreign large companies. Now I'm anxious about it because except oral presentations I didn't have opportunities to say in English in public. However, I'm full of tenacity I can handle this task. Therefore, one of my goals on this holiday is to take participation in that case and train my public English speaking skills. I promise I will try to do my best. 

Of course, I'm going to have some time that I will dedicate finishing my history course project. It will be complex work because my goal is to do real research so that to answer whether GULAG really had important impact in the Soviet Union economic. 

I should also mention that I'm going to read some prose which is Demons by   Dostoevsky and One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. I will fell catharsis if I can accomplish all my goals for that spring break.
         I think, that's all. If you have some suggestion for me to pay much time in Moscow efficiently, feel free ;)

#11. What would be in my room 101?

 In 1984, Winston has to face rats when he goes to Room 101 because he fears them more than anything.  What would be in your Room 101? (David's topic)

In the first semester I wrote a blogpost  "A short, but scary story of my life" where I told about one case in my life when I was only 6 years old. It was a story about me and huge dog which began running towards me at the moment I got had got away from my parents. It was really one of the scariest case in my life. I even haven't got a clue how I didn't become a stutterer after that. Since then, I have been afraid of big dogs. I become anxious when hear a barking dog close to me.
Therefore, it isn't a secret that in my Room 101 I would meet big, barking dogs with crazy eyes, who would try to bite me.
When I see the pictures below I begin understanding fears of all prisoners in "1984" to go to the Room 101.

#10.Reserve-officer Training Department

For boys: are you going to go to reserve-officer training department (a class which gives you the knowledge of soldiery and which is similar to army) next year? Why? Why not?  (Tim's topic)

In short, I'm going to go to reserve-officer training department. It was a tricky question for me during March. I thought whether it would be useful for me except I got an opportunity not to go to the Army after graduation. Really, the reserve-officer training department has some big disadvantages:
First of all, it is one more day I have to pay for activity I'm not going to do in the future.
Secondly, as I understand, I won't be able to do my homework during lectures in the training department. But even if I have that opportunity, it wouldn't be convenient to learn efficiently because of many distraction factors. Therefore, I expect my grades won't be much better than I have now. 
Thirdly, I will have to be in the training department (T.D.) at 8.45 a.m. one day every week. It means my day will begin at 6 a.m. because of too much time to go to the T.D.  from my dormitory - approximately 1.5 to 2 hours. 
However, the reserve-officer training department has some important advantages.
Firstly, having finished it, I won't be go to the Army and will have the rank of Lieutenant. Some people can say  that they will find a method for not to go to the Army because of bribe to an official or medical conclusion that will confirm they are unfit for the army. However, I'm not sure I will have that opportunity. Therefore, know I see only way to avoid military service. 
Secondly, I will get some knowledge about soldiery and army at all. I think it is very important for every man to be aware of this. 
For one more point, I will get a second profession "Military economist" that isn't bad because we never know what will be tomorrow and sometimes extra skills are very useful in our life.
As you can see, despite the fact that there are some disadvantages to go to the training department, there are the same quantity of advantages at the same time. Moreover, the advantages are more important for me. Therefore, now I prepare myself  to enter reserve-officer training department by doing exercises on the horizontal bar and running.

Topics for blog #9

1. The question for both men and women: what is more important for you in a love affair with a girl/man: his or her pretty appearance or inner world? Can you date with a girl or man who has beautiful appearance, but poor inner world or on the contrary?
2. Is it important for you to have the same or approximately the same financial position as your girlfriend/boyfriend has? Do you think that boyfriend should always pay off the girl, for example, in a restauraunt ot other places? Or should they share their payments?
3. How often do you leave a seat in the metro or other transport for old people? How do you think should men always leave a seat for women who are the same ages as men, or even for all women?

#8.My preparing to do homework (Ivan Mozharov's topic)

How much time do you usually spend on preparing to do your homework?(I mean drinking tea, sitting in social networks, watching tv etc.) And what you usually do?

I can swear that question is very actual for all HSE-NES. Really, we have a lot of homework and, therefore, deadlines. Because of this, it is very important to organize your time well to do all your assignments up in time. Nevertheless, despite the fact that almost all people understand their need to do their homework, it is hard for them to begin doing it. I'm not an exception. Sometimes I upset the fact that I waste my time by not only sitting in the social networks or drinking too much tea and watching tv, but also speaking with my roommates about something, joke and laugh with them. Really, it is very interesting to me to talk with them because we study in different faculties: my first roommate from the Law faculty, the second from the Cultural and our conversations are not only about daily routine such as deadlines or marks, but also about theater, sport, music, history, languages, philosophy, and others. However, in some situations that conversations are not essential, but I can't do anything with that. In this way, my preparation to do homework sometimes is really too long: for example, if I come dormitory at 3 p.m., it is good for me to begin doing my homework assignments at 5 or 6 p.m. It isn't so good because I sacrifice my sleeping time.
Anyway, I think much about this problem and try to solve it. Therefore, I defined some principles I should lead if I don't want waste my time. Firstly, I try not to enter to the VK.COM by checking my post in Mail.ru: If I don't have any important letters, I don't enter to the vk. Secondly, if I have a deadline or simply too much homework that is concentrated on reading, I attend a library or a special room in my dormitory that is called "botanka". Thirdly, if I notice that I waste my time, I invent some physical exercise strict for me such as standing on the fist or push-ups or exercises on a horizontal bar. The third way of organizing my time I began to use recently and I think it is the most effective one because it helps me to organize my time and get physical development at the same time. 

#7. Flowers as a way to express your feelings (Irina's topic)

At the beginning I'd like to thank Irina for the great blog topic suggestion. Actually, I have recently thought about flowers as a way to express my feelings and, in general, the role of flowers in women's life. 

Firstly, I think that flowers are a great way to express our feelings. As I mentioned, recently I have thought about this "function" of flowers. Moreover, I asked my friends from the opposite gender whether flowers are pleasant for them. To be exact, they said to me, “There are not any doubts that flowers are very convenient and good present if you want to express your feelings. Moreover, don't worry girls will be tired flowers. They like it all the time”. In addition, I want to say that because of flowers fast fade, they don't stay too long, so the girls don't have time to get tired with them.

Secondly, I want to tell about cases in my life when I presented flowers without any cause.
When I live at home, I often presented flowers to my mother. It was unbelievable pleasantly for me to see her very happy because she never expected to get flowers from me. As for me, I was happy to glad her, too. The second case I remember very well because it was in the dormitory. I and my roommates often meet with our friends from the opposite gender - Maria, Liza, and Veronica. We often attend theatre performances together; invite each other for the dinner and others. I can say we are in very good friend relationships. One sunny day I was in beautiful mood and suddenly decided to make a surprise for them. There wasn't any time to make something complex (even a dinner), and I realized that the best idea would be to present them bouquets of flowers. When I bought them and knocked to girls' flat, you had to see their faces. It seemed to me that they didn't believe their eyes. Then I said to them, “There isn't any cause to this present, I just want to say that I very appreciate our relationships and I'm very glad to have you in my life”. They were very happy because they didn't expect such a surprise. Moreover, it was very pleasantly to me to see their face with smile and amazed eyes. 

Do surprises without any cause is one of the most beautiful in our life, especially for people who play a big role in your life. No matter what the surprises are: dinner, tickets to the great theatre performances, or only flowers bouquets. 

#6 I appreciate in people... (free choice)

I have chosen David's topic #3 which is a "free choice". It is worth saying that I was glad to see the opportunity to write a blog for a free choice theme because while reading topics for the previous blog I liked Maria's theme #3 "What's the most important for you in people's character? Which trades of character a person should have that you'll like him or her?", so now I'd like to talk about this theme.

First of all, I like sincerity. Sincere people, in my opinion, are seldom "find" in our life because by saying "sincerity" I mean not only people who always say to interlocutor what they really think, but also people who can share joy and sorrow of him or her interlocutor, and who communicate with interlocutor to get pleasure, not to get potential benefit from that person. 

To say more, I like smiled people. I think that smile sometimes shows us optimistic trait of people's character. Moreover, smile on people's face, always attract me because I realize that smiled people are more opened for communication. Girls, especially. As Dale Carnegie said, "The expression a woman wears on her face is far more important than the clothes she wears on her back." I am  absolutely agree with him.
Thirdly, I appreciate people's willpower. It can be expressed by willing to self-development or lack of laziness to do things not only for him-or her, but also for others people. For example, friend, relatives, or others.  Moreover, the willpower can be expressed by leading to goals and accomplish them. I do really like to talk with people with strong willpower because I begin trying to be similar to them in this skill. By communicating  with people with strong willpower, I can train this skill, too. 

Fourthly, I like people's calm. I don't like people who often fall in panic whet they face with some difficulties. Especially, when these difficulties are temporary and not important.

In conclusion, I'd like to say that I told only about the most important traits of people's character for me. There are many traits that I appreciate, too, but they aren't as important as those I told above. However, if people have these traits I told, it would be easier to me to communicate with them.

#5. My theater experience

Have you ever performed in a play? Are you a good actor? Write about your theater experience. (Tim Volozh's topic)

When I read Tim's blog topics, there were no doubts for me to write about my theater experience, especially about event when I performed a play.

At the beginning, I'd like to say that until the 10th grade I wasn't fond of play as an actor. However, during the 11th grade I "fell in love" with poetry (I wrote about this in the topic #2), and then it became interesting to me to play as an actor one day. There wasn't hard to do it, though.
Firstly, I became read poetry on stage at school and did it for many holidays. I was very happy to do it! I was always attracted moments when all auditorium look at you, hear to you, and then applause to you. 

Unfortunately, having finished school, I don't have any opportunities to read poetry on stage, but sometimes me and my friends organize "poetry reading" on weekends in the dormitory (Recently, there was a "poetry reading" devoted to Eduard Asadov's poetry). In these moments, I feel myself happy. 

What about my real theater experience, I had it in the Krasnoyarsk Summer School. There was a final concert which was devoted to closing of the season-2012. As you possibly know, I worked at the KSS as a tutor. That day, all tutors had to prepare some mini-scenes for the concert.  Me and my colleagues were full of ideas for mini-scenes, but finally we decided to show the auditorium two comedy scenes. The first was a funny story about love triangle in which participants showed the love to each other by dancing (Unfortunately, I still haven't had a video or any photos from our performance, but if I get it, I will certainly update this post). The second one was about a real life of tutors at the KSS. On the photo below you can see the final moment of this mini-scene. Ah look at people around me and my colleagues - they are all happy! And we are happy,too!

Topics for Blog #4

1)If you have an opportunity to meet with a famous historical person, who would it be? What would you like to talk or ask him about?   (Note: it can be a person which has already died or your contemporary)

2)What is your favourite holiday (New Year/ Christmas/ Birthday/ other)? Why do you like it more than other holidays? Tell interesting stories which associate you with this holiday if you have it.

3)Tell about your best friend. How long do you know him/her? Why do you consider him/her a best friend? Do you have any memorable events or incidents with him/her? 

#3.The hazards of smoking

To begin with I would like to say that approximately one year ago I disliked smoking girls. I was always annoyed when met smoking girl, especially when her friend didn't smoke, but she did. It is hard to explain, but it seemed to me that women who were smoking every day couldn't be good wives and couldn't bear healthy children. At the same time, I was indifferent to smoking boys and thought for them it is normal to smoke.
However, during the last year and, especially, during the first semester at NES my views have changed. Now I more tolerant to smoking girls and don't be annoyed while they smoking. I think it is their choice and I should respect it. Nevertheless, despite of my tolerance to smoking people I'm absolutely convinced that smoking has more disadvantages than advantages.Firstly, I think that smoking is deterioration of people's health. Moreover, while smoking they also indirectly harm the health of people who surround them. Apart from these facts, children can inherit many diseases and depending on smoking from their mothers or fathers.Secondly, smoking is a waste of money. If I'm not making a mistake, an average cost of pack of cigarettes in Russia is 50-60 Rubles. Imagine that smoking people buy one pack every day. It costs them 30*50=1500 Ruble at a mouth (at average, of course). Decide by yourself how many useful things you can buy for this sum, especially things that are opposed to smoking (for example, tickets to a gym and others). Thirdly, smoking people often become dependent on it and, as a result, they lost their will to resist smoking. When you can't reject from smoking, you become helpless in others bad habits. Because of this, trying to make every day duties becomes hard for smoking people. They often pay attention for unnecessary activity and become lazy (I remember that it is only my opinion, which is based on my own observations). Some people sometimes said to me that smoking helps them relax, don't be nervous, and helps to think about their problems clearly. Of course, it can be seemed like respectful reason, but in my humble opinion this way people only try to justify themselves, not more. For me, when I want to " relax, don't be nervous, and think my problems  clearly", I try to do sport such as running, exercising on the horizontal bar, push-ups, or simply lying on the bad and relax. These methods really help me those moments. Moreover, there is no doubt that doing some easy sport exercises is more useful for a health than smoking even one cigarette.In summary, I'd like to say that even though I'm tolerant to smoking people, I'm sure that smoking has more hazards than useful effects. The hazards are numerous diseases and risk for children's health, wasting much money, and the loss of will.  

#2. What do I like more: poetry or prose? Why?

To begin this topic, I'd like to say that all kinds of literature have always played a big role in my life. Since I was young, it was hard to imagine me without book in my hand. I liked to read them in all places I was. However, during my childhood I have never thought about what I like more: poetry or prose. I would say that I liked to read all what was interesting to me.
During the school years until 11th grade I preferred reading only prose, not poetry because our teacher required us to learn poems by heart, which was very difficult for me and I tried to avoid it. However, I tried to be a diligent student at the same time, so I couldn't say "I'd prefer not to learn it by heart", as Bartleby, the Scrivener often said to his chief :). Nevertheless, I didn't like read poetry because it associated me that I "had to" do it, not "wanted" to do.
However, at the 11th grade my preferences have changed rapidly. Because of too long preparations to economic competition, I became exhausted. It was a kind of apathy. I didn't like learn other school subjects except Economic, but later I was tired from Economics, too. At the same time I hadn't much time to read complicated books because of the same reasons. I realized that I ought to pay attention to other activities so that to relax, but I didn't know what to do. It was a big problem for me.
However, one day my friend Maria adviced me to read a poem "There aren't uninteresting people in the world" by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. I was impressed. Besides the fact that it was the poem with deep sense, I realized that I was distracted from my daily routine through reading this poem. Moreover, I decided to learn it by heart...For some people it could be nonsense, but my productivity of learning Economics and other subjects increased harshly. I continued read poems more and learn by heart those which I very liked. It was like an interesting experiment on my own and I couldn't stop. I even has a specific goal: learn 1 poem every day. It was amazing. Despite the fact that this way I distracted from my daily routine, my memory skills became better every day. As a result, during about 90 days I learned by heart approximately 60 poems by different poets. Basically, it were poems by Eduard Asadov, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Michael Lermontov, Vladimir Vysotsky, and, of course, Vladimir Mayakovsky. After that, I began to read it by heart to my Literature teacher. She was really glad about it. So I did, because after long time I began doing it with real pleasure. Then I read poetry on different events such as school-leaving party and "The Evening" club in the Krasnoyarsk Summer School. It is worth saying that I was happy those moments. I realized that each person can find different kinds of activity, which would distract him or her from daily routine.
As you can see, it was a specific answer to question "What I like more: poetry or prose?", but when I read this theme of blog, I right away thought about this passage of my life.
Unfortunately, now I don't have much time to learn poems by heart, but I continue reading them so that to distract from many homework assignments. As for prose, it is worth saying that I try to read it, too. Moreover, now I have an English class that is called "Introduction to Literature", so I'll have a great opportunity to read prose in English, too. It is very interesting and I like our reading assignments. In this way, if you ask me now a question about what I prefer more: poetry or prose, I'd say that I like them equally. However, it is worth saying that my preferences tend to be change in some specific moments of my life.

P.S. Irina, thank you for the great blog topic suggestion! 

#1. The first week of the second semester

Hi everybody,         

It is my pleasure to welcome you at the continuation of my blog posts. As you know, now this blog is devoted to the English 202 class, where we will read novels, short stories, and other types of literature. I think it will be very interesting and useful for me because I've always wanted to read books written by famous novelist and enhance my writing and vocabulary skills at the same time. Despite the fact that I just had two English lessons this semester, I convinced that my desires would be accomplished. Moreover, in addition to skills, which I've mentioned, I realize that I will always learn how to read critically and discuss some debatable moments of the novels in literature circles, being in different roles such as "Discussion leader", "Word Wiz", and "Illustrator". I think it is a great experience. Therefore, it is not a secret that I like my new English class. I also believe that after this class my English skills will become better a lot.

         At the first week of the semester I also had two lessons of the classes named "Social and Economic history of Russia" and "Introduction to Evolutional Anthropology". Firstly, I'd like to say about class of the "Social and Economic history of Russia". I decided to choose this class because recently I realized that my knowledge of the history of Russia is poor. Therefore, it became one of the main goals to me to enhance my history's knowledge this semester. What's more, the literature used on this course is almost all in English, so it is a great opportunity to improve English vocabulary there, too. What about the class of the "Introduction to Evolutional Anthropology", I think it will be very useful for me to improve my erudition and an advantage in communication with biologists. I have many friends from the Krasnoyarsk Summer School who learn Biology, so it is very important to know this subject to speak with my friends freely.   
        However, this week I didn't only study, I also visited two interesting events. The first was the lecture about innovation by Steven Geiger, who is a former Chief Executive Director of the "Skolkovo". The second was the English club meeting that was devoted to discussion about differences in weddings in the USA and Russia. David and his fiancée Jennifer told us about their own preparation to wedding, and then auditory began asking additional questions and compare Russian and American questions. I was very impressed about new facts of American culture. If you want to know about it more concretely, ask me. I liked events I've attended and I'm certainly planning to continue attending them as much as I can.In summary, it is worth saying that I like my new classes and the first week of the semester and I'm looking forward to this semester because it is going to be very interesting, hard-working, and essential for my future.