minats_zone

Well, there has been nothing much to happen recently. However, I'd like to mention a couple of rather remarcable things.Firstly, good news. It crossed my mind that Stanislaw and I have been married as the Christians for 8 years already. Today (November 24th) is our 8th year anniversary. Before that we had been in a civil marriage which is not supposed to be recognised by the God. So on the big day of November 24th, 2000 we decided to be blessed by the God in the Holy Trinity Church in Udelnaya (it's where our dacha is situated). This church is a good old one that has not been closed down in any hard times in Russia. It's very important as many churches were either pulled down or converted into sth awful (sometimes even toilets).There were only two of us and the prist, Father Vadim, who ran the ceremony. I'm happy this event took place in our lives as we both belong to the Russian Orthodox Church. Well, another news is not so good: four out of six of our pond fish died a...

Dear all. By the way, quite a number of interesting things happened to me over the time I didn't post to the blog. Perhaps, I'll share with you some of them later on, however, the most exciting was our first encoutner with Marina's new dogs this weekend. She brought them to our dacha and I could'n help admiring them. Imagine, they are one month old (born on October 12th) and the breed is Cony Corso (if I'm not mistaken with spelling). Their Mom Amanda (you can see her with Konstantin, Marina's boyfriend in the photo) is only one year old and this pregnancy was not a planned one. She gave birth to 10 puppies (8 black and 2 steel-like) just out of the blue. It occured because she was not looked after properly (Marina was busy, as usual) and Badjio, the male Cony Corso dog living there, too, was walking freely at their dacha in Chekchov. The result of this adventure is obvious - these amazing puppies. Now, we've uploaded an Internet announcement to welcome so...

Hi, there. The week after Ekaterinburg was pretty busy as I had to catch up with some things I postponed and I had no time and opportunity to do anything for pleasure. But still, I managed to take some good photos of Moscow and around my dacha (outside Moscow) on those early days of November. The weather is really very bright this autumn and everything looks great. The occasion for taking photos of Moscow I had on my way to BKC IH (to return materials for training session in Ekaterinburg), just in the city center, and also in Krilatskoye, a new area of Moscow where the famous Rublevskoy highway runs (rich new Russians live there). I got there by chance, to have my car mended as I was promised a good car-service there. Have a look at the photos and you'll notice some signs of changes in Moscow. On the whole, Moscow looks very neat and tidy these days as a great number of cheap workforces from ex-soviet countries are doing the job of cleaning, sweeping etc. Anyway, they do it well an...

Dear everyona, I've just got back from a rather challenging trip to Ekaterinburg.I really got tired there and it was 2.30am when I finally stepped in. The main problem was that I had to carry a pretty large bag with all the training materials (booklets, videos, instructions etc.). This was not easy and my shoulders are still aching. Nevertheless, the whole experience was worth it. I met so many nice young teachers from all over Ural and Siberia and we had so interesting exam sessions with guinea pigs (volunteer candidates - school kids) that this made up for all the problems. My tranees were really highly motivated and it was not difficult to run the sessions with them. The hotel I stayed at was also rather good (its name is 'Fort'; a small, family-run hotel not far from the centre). The weather was really good and sunny. I even managed to walk along the local flee-market (they sell semi-precious stones there and 'Russian Souvenirs' like matreshkas, ushankas etc. th...

Yes, it was my flying visit to Ekaterinburg on these week days. I gave talks on Garnet Education (books for Academic English and ESP) at the Ekaterinburg State University. There were about 30 local teachers from all over Ekaterinburg and I tried to persuade them that Garnet books are the best choice for them in their teaching situations. They agreed but said that having so many restrictions from their local educational authorities may prevent them from using the books with their classes. Bureaucracy and concervatism are still really dominating over common sense in many towns across Russia, especially in smaller ones. Even so, teachers got interested and they can buy the books for themselves and it's really a good thing for their self development. Well, Ekaterinburg was pretty bright and warm for this time of the year and I hope that my next flying visit to this city (on 24-26 October) doing Training and Coordination YLE for Cambridge ESOL will be almost as good. Anyway, look at som...

Hi, there. Though I've posted recently, I see the good reasons to write again and yes, it's our Moscow Indian Autumn which is here to stay. The gloomy forecasters promised the grey skies and rains by the weekend but they were lying, it didn't happen. The Indian Autumn has given us two really great weeks of fabulous colours and blue skies. Not typical of our lands, isn't it? Well, I had a really busy week before this weekend and spent 2 days excorting Andy Cowle (Marshall Cavendish ELT) around Moscow. By the way, you can see him with a friend of mine - Olga Kut'ina at school 1359. He's a really nice, open-minded man from Glasgow. In the background of the photo, there is an interactive whiteboard - not the only one at school 1359. I wish we could have them at other educational institutions, too. Another news is that Marina turned up on Sunday at our dacha with her new boyfriend - K.... The pictures came out not very good (blurred) as it was evening. But you could ...

Hello there. Some time's passed and I realized that I haven't posted to my blog and said about any news in my life during this autumn 2008. Eventually, good, bright and relatively warm days settled in Moscow and I really enjoy the fabulous colours in the streets and from my kitchen-window. You can have a look and make sure I'm not lying. Well, as for the business matters, I've been teaching 4 groups of 1st year students and 2 groups of 2d year students who are studying to become IT engeeneers and businessmen. Generally, they are good kids from all over Russia. I guess they are the children of some important, high profile people as entering HSE is not easy. To be honest, I don't really understand many terms in the IT coursebooks, but trying to give the impression of being knowleagable and confident is the only thing I can do now. That's the point and a trick at the same time from my side. I hope I can understand IT English better when I'm in the middle of the...

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...