minats_zone

Let us talk a bit about my busy schedule. Because of this, I must apologize to all my CAE and FCE students for cancelling our session on 15th of November. BC Potaupchuk asked me to go to Astrakchan in order to make two talks there for some teachers from the city and the region. I couldn't refuse and thus had to skip our last session. I'll be with you on November 22d, usual time. Let me tell you more about Astrakchan. It's a small city near the Volga River and the Caspic Sea, rich in fish, caviar, oil but above all, good people. Their chef - Olga Aleksandrovna, is a really friendly and pretty woman who helped us around and managed to gather 200 people in the lecture room. People were nice and friendly. Greeted us with beaming smiles, which is very rare in itself. I did my job well in the morning, so could relax after noon. The most striking thing, though was that the school was so amazingly well groomed and equipped that I even asked people there the question:"Why's

My native town Tbilisi is in big, big trouble. The crowds of demonstrators are being attacked by police with weapons and gases. Many people are in hospitals. I'm socked by this terrible news on TV and everywhere. My sister and two nieces (aged 21 and 23) live there, not to mention many other relatives and friends. How awful is the situation there! I can't say who is right and who is wrong, but the only thing a know is that many people live in really very poor conditions: no jobs, no money, no food, miserable existence, drugs and all this is true to a great many people apart from those few with real power.They say Russians are to blame for what's going on in Georgia but I don't believe them. Russia has many problems to solve here, in Russia. Let us pray for Georgia and Tbilisi. I love this country and this city as part of me is always there.

Dear everybody, Today, I've been shocked by the terrible news from Toliatti. It is said that about 60 people have died in the bus explosion, which definitely had been arranged and implemented by terrorists. Almost all victims were either young people or young adults as it was the morning and they commuted to work or universities. This heartbreaking news can't leave me indifferent as the terrorists want to keep us constantly under fear of something terrible and be scared to death by such actions. They want us to be afraid of lving normal everyday life. But let's be more alert wherever and whenever we go and please, take good care of yourself.

Dear all, I've just got home from my flight from Ekaterinburg. It was supposed to arrive in Domodedovo, but just at the moment it started to descend, the pilot said that the weather in Domodedovo is quite foggy so we're going to hover over the area for a while until it wears off. But in reality, it turned out to be 1,5 hours of monotonous circling in the air, after which he said that the fog doesn't want to go away and we'll land in Vnukovo. It took us another 40 mins. But above all, was the waiting for a bus to pick us up from the aircraft. So, all in all, my flight to Moscow took me some 5 hours instead of 2,5. This definitely spoiled a very good positive impression about the presentations on BULATS and the teachers there. Now, I'm totally worn out and'll go to bed as soon as possible as tomorrow is my class with you to cover for Thursday. See you.

Dear all. I've got to go on a business trip to Ekaterinburg tomorrow at 12:25pm. Will be staying there for 2 days taking part in the conference held by the CenterCom annually all around Russia. Gonna speaking there about BULATS - business examination, which I tried myself in spring 2007 and got 92 out of 100. Actually, it's not very difficult but the CenterCom has become an Agent in Russia, so they need to carry out promotion in some places beyond Moscow and S-Pets. I'm really happy to fly there as I love the city and hope to enter my favourite Church, which will be a welcome change for me now, in the middle of my school year. Yesterday, I learned about a raging fire in California and San Diego. This has upset me a lot as I don't understand why so much sorrow and damage is inflicted on America, my dear country, too.Just look at the photos.

Dear all. I want to share with you my latest news. Firstly, I've been selected as an OETC (Oral Examiners Trainer and Coordinator). It's been decided after a long procedure of interviews with nearly all potential candidates in September. Before recruting several Russian OETCs,the decision had been made by the Cambridge ESOL to have more Russian involvement in the exams around Russia. Probably, you know that British involvement has dropped sharply after they had closed tha Study Center at the BC Moscow. So tomorrow I'm going to run my first Training with YLE trainees. I'm a bit anxious about it. Well, let us keep our fingers crossed for me. I've been busy lately doing my usual stuff - classes, CenterCom, preparing for seminars etc. The most exciting thing is that I've collected five CAE ESOL Certificates for my RSSU students who did the exam in June 2007. Results are very good - two Bs and three Cs. Well done. These girls are really good and I hope some of them w

Dear all, On Monday, I paid the money for four of you,namely Marina, Kiril, Ann and Sergei. His Dad brought the money just before me filling in the forms at the British Council. I don't know about other students. If they wish to sit the exam in December, they'll have to do all the formalities themselves before Friday, September 28th. But there will be crowds of people and lines to the cash desk. Well, I still welcome you to use my site for Writing. Your login and passwords I've already given to you. If you experience problems reaching your page, call or e-mail me. Now, I'm publishing some more photos from Vietnam. Here you can see our friends from Texas - John and Honey. John used to be a young US solder in the Vietnamise war. At that time he was 19 years old. He goes to Vietnam every five or six years so as to watch this contry's development. He's glad that Vietnam is becoming a really good place to visit and live. Just as my husband and I, John and his wife H

That's me after a long break from my posting. I've been silent for such a long time since I've experienced some problems with my server and internet connection. Our LAN server is changing or upgrading something but we, users, have to suffer. Now I would like to remind all of you that you have to bring 5 600 rubls on September 20th as I'll be paying the money for the FCE on Friday. I'll start publishing the hometasks since next week as I hope my internet access will become better soon. I do advise you to use my site for Writing. The link is on the blog. I'll give you your login and password on the next session, September 20th. Now, I'd like to show you some more photos from Vietnam which, I hope so, can show how beautiful this country is. See you soon.

Dear all. First of all, I'd like to apologize to you for not being able to run classes on September 6th as I was scheduled to work on the "Book Fair" for the CenterCom. This event is held annually on the Moscow Exhibition of Achievements. So I was busy consulting the visitors on choosing ELT books. I'm going to see you on September 13th at usual time - 3pm and 5pm. Now I'd like to share with you my experiences I got on my vocation in Vietnam. I've spent 13 days there( from August 21 to September 2d) with my husband. He has been to this country on business many times and convinced me that we should go together this time. Frankly speaking, I was pretty suspecious about this country and conditions there as I've been to a number of European countries and thought that this South-Eastern holiday would be nothing better. However, I was very much mistaken as life in Vietnam is really very different from that of Europe; yet it is really both amazing and well organ

Today, my husband and I are leaving for Vietnam on our joint vocation till September 3d. Nevertheless, I hope to be with you at school at 3p.m. on September 6th. Don't forget about that! But now I'm really looking forward to staying in this unusual country as my husband Stanislav, who has been there many times on business, fell in love with this country and convinced me that it's the best destination for both of us to go. Well, I'll write about Vietnam lated on, but now I want to go on writing about my favourite city in the US - Chcago. I've been there several times and each time I get a slightly different but really long lasting impression. It's Amedican Mid-West, some 400 miles from Indianapolis. First thing I did before going was that I hired a car for 3 days. It was A Dodge "Stratus", a pretty big American car which was equipped with GPS (General Positioning System) system. It's so great that I could have written a long account of using it in t

Dear all. I collected your certificates from the BC Moscow. I mean the group which sat FCE in March. They look splendid. I'll keep them at home before I can see you or O.G. at school in September. Only Vlad Vadukov had collected his certificate himself from the BC. The rest of them (7) are waiting for their owners.Well done!!! Well, today I'll tell you about how peaceful and comfortable life in a good mid-west American neigbourhood is. You can clearly see this in the photos. It is, for example, in the way streets and grass are sprinkled every evening, in splendid views of a golf-course, some wildlife and the way people decorate their yards in front of the houses. Mind,fences don't exist in the mid-west of the US, whatsoever. If there is a fence, it would be white and made of wood so that it prevents pets from running away and looks very beautiful. Sometimes a fence is an invisible electric wire hidden in the land. The whole impression you get there is of space, order, fa

Dear all. I must apologize for not posting to the blog for so long. I got back from the US July 17th and experienced a very strong discomfort caused by jet lag. It was worse than when I arrived to the US from Moscow. So it took me some 10 days to get used to the time and the way things happen here, in Moscow. Now, I can start telling you about my amazing summer stay at my cousin's Dmitry house in Indianapolis, state Indiana. Firstly, I was very busy every moment of my stay there. I was kept busy by my brother and his wife Elena. Secondly, the internet access there was limited as either my brother Dmitry or his wife were doing something on the Web. Anyway, I did my best to take as many photos as possible to share them with you later. Some of them are really funny and show American life from the perspective of middle class or even wealthy Americans. At the same time,some of these photos may seem very unusual for us, Russian people. If you ask me why - my answer will probably be the