Democracy, culture, environment

Serbs are luckier than Russians - they have neither oil nor nuclear arms. That is why Serbia has a chance to get rid of imperial paranoia and become a civilised state, which respects life and dignity of its citizens.

"Сербам, слава богу, повезло. У них нет ни мазута под ногами, ни ракет дальнего действия. У них есть шанс избавиться от имперской паранойи и стать достойным современным государством, где жизнь и достоинство отдельно взятого человека во много раз ценнее, чем вонючее "величие".

Нам повезло меньше, а потому наши униженные-оскорбленные предались сладостному коллективному галлюцинированию. В их волшебных грезах творятся чудеса, там леший бродит, там близится вожделенный "кирдык" Америке, там на неведомых дорожках хорошо виден закат Европы, там на Красной площади растут пальмы, на ветвях которых сидит русалка, а под ветвями все встают и встают с колен тридцать три богатыря под управлением национального лидера. Прерывать эти галлюцинации тем или иным бестактным призывом оглянуться вокруг себя нехорошо, негуманно. В этих случаях галлюцинирующий впадет в немотивированную ярость и назовет тебя врагом России. А кем же еще!"

Из статьи Льва Рубинштейна "Клеветникам России"
http://www.grani.ru/Politics/Russia/m.144752.html

На последнем занятии по ораторской речи мы выступили с 10-минутными речами на выбранные нами темы. Я рассказал о Квебеке. Моя речь содержала интересную информацию, но не была отрепетирована, поэтому не произвела должного впечатления на публику. На занятии по Tourism Activities мы играли в разные игры и делали бумажных лягушек (см. фото). Что касается финского, я отложил "Finnish for Foreigners 2" и взялся за более практичный учебник "Askelia suomeen".

This week we stayed at school. Here is what we studied.

Finnish: We read and translated texts about medicine and sicknesses.

The texts were taken from the textbook Askelia suomeen (part 2). On my own I had read the first and the beginning of the second part this textbook. It is an old book, but I like it very much: it has good situational dialogues, pictures and very useful vocabulary. So I've decided to read the remaining parts (there are four in total).

As for Finnish for Foreigners 2, I have studied it until lesson 16. The texts have become too difficult and the grammar explanations too lengthy and detailed. I feel lost in all those Finnish participles and written constructions. So for some time I will be studying Askelia suomeen and read Selkouutiset in order to build up a better vocabulary.

From next week there will be only 1.5 hour of Finnish at school (the course for non-beginners which I attend). I do not regret it, because there has not been much use of this course taking 3 hours per week. There is no alternative to studying Finnish at home.

Marketing and Pricing: On Tuesday we discussed the definitions and content of some marketing terms: wants, demand, product life-cycle, products, exchange and transactions, relationships. On Friday we read and an article Tourism Marketing and started to discuss it.

Speaking Skills: We made 10-minute speeches on the topics of our choice. I had decided to make an introduction to Québec. I spent a lot of time on reading and writing on this subject, but I did not rehearse my speech, so it sounded like an improvisation - with gaps of silence during which I thought what to say next. Others spoke about space tourism, sauna, and African traditional religion.

On Wednesday our schedule changed. In the new schedule, Speaking Skills is superseded by another course of the same teacher - Storytelling.

Computer skills: We started to study Excel. I was also present in the class, but did other things on computer because I know this program well.

During the lesson the teacher, Satu, also taught us a few Finnish sayings:

- Mikä ei tapa, se vahvistaa. (What doesn't kill me makes me stronger.)
- Hae lakkaa satamasta, kun lakkaa satamasta. (Fetch varnish from the harbour, when the rain stops.)

Then on the Internet I have found lists of Finnish tongue twisters and proverbs

Tourism Activities: Gelana, the new student of our group, had prepared some activities and festive food for us. Here you can see us making paper frogs.

В выходные перезжал в новую, более просторную комнату. В субботу меня посетил мой знакомый из Турку, Антти. А в воскресенье я впервые побывал в магазине ИКЕА.

The weekend was eventful.

On Saturday I got a visit from my acquaintance from Turku, whose name is Antti. He works as a software tester and, in the spare time, as Christian missionary. Antti wanted to meet me and practice his Russian (which is very good, he has studied it at Moscow State University). I could also have some practice of Finnish with him and Pirkko, an elderly student at our school.

For this weekend I and two other students of our group were asked to move to other rooms of the hostel. My new room is bigger, and now I even have my own bathroom. However, there is no bookshelf, so I put my books in the wardrobe.

When I started to move, I happened to lock the key from the old room inside that room, where I still had all my belongings. That night I had to sleep on the bare mattress in the new room using my jacket instead of blanket. Luckily, the school’s office manager came next morning with the key.


The room where I lived from Auguest to November ( Read more... )