minats_zone

It's a bit sad to write about the ongoing autumn and all the responsibilities it brings about. Well, the top news is that after having been looking for a position with a good university or company in a number of places, I decided to settle at HSE (Higher School of Economics). There are some good reasons for that - firstly, it's fairly close to my place in Moscow (only 10 min drive), secondly, students seem to be brighter than in other universities and,last but not least, I'll be teaching IT students - perhaps, it's going to be a kind of challange for me as I don't know much about this brand new area of ELT. As usual, I'll have to struggle to cope with this difficulty. But still, I hope to benefit from this new experience,too. The bad news is that my elder daughter Marina has split up with her husband Alexandr and left home. I don't want to be judgemental, but I can see many good reasons for that. The worst thing about it is that my grandson Stanislav (who i...

Today, I'd definitely say some words about the annual Moscow Book Fair which is held at Pavillion 57 of the People's Achievements Exhibition. This year it took place in September 3-8. I was on duty there on Thusday, Sarurday and Monday. My overall impression was not much different from that I got the previous years - a lot of people, noise, mess and 'junk' books as well as other publications. When I see so much of that in one confined space - it makes me feel a bit sick. Despite this, there were huge crowds of people whose buying capacity seemed to be endless. I don't know whether this is all about extra money some people have these days or the Russians are really a nation of 'book worms'? But still, I'm sorry for all those trees been ruined for the sake of all that junk. We really take too much from nature not returning anything. I tried to search for some new books and managed to find a few good e-books. It was a set of CDs with some good e-poetry rec...