Well, well, well... I am sure that the percentage of my message beginnings with "well" is about 90%, but it's okay, we can live with that, so I'll go on.
Fall break! Yay! I am so happy, partly, it's actually might be very boring here sometimes, especially after life in a big city, but I can deal with it - it's only one weak and I have some time to prepare for exams at school and some time to hang out with my friends. Speaking of exams, if I won't pass - I will be out of school, which will lead to:
-No fun life anymore
-I'll have to somehow write about my fail to my blog
I hope that it will never happen, though I kinda skipped the last day of school before the break - it's all about FLEX and here is a real start of my message to y'all (I went a funky (heavy*) way to it).
This weekend, starting with the 29th of October, the first and second round of program FLEX took place in my native town - Nizhniy Tagil. For those who don't remember or don't have any idea what FLEX is, I am telling you now - so don't ask me again. FLEX stands for Future Leaders Exchange, it's the program that sent me to America a year ago absolutely for free. It was established in 1992 or in 1991...somewhere there, by Bill Bradley (I know him! I know him, I know him!! he came to my house, I took his interview, I have his award "philosopher stone" and he is a sweet guy), so they could fix some conflicts after the Cold War.
<----- his autograph... )
FLEX has 3 rounds, 1st and 2nd rounds are usually held together, the third one a month later and then if you are a finalist you will know it like in April.
Usually, they held competition in few big cities in area, this year the did it in Tagil also, I guess because it's more closer for some suburbs and there are always a lot of people that try out from my town.What's more it was in my former school, so I got to meet some of my teachers.
As an alumni, I came to help. There were also three another alumnus - two girls from my year and another one that was in States 5 years ago. There were two people from the stuff from American Councils(Moscow) - a Russian girl Alina and an American - Chris (short info - he is from New Jersey, learnt Russian in college, speaks it nice...).
So yesterday and today we volunteered - helped to pass the worksheets, other files, looked for discipline and so on. Plus we had some really great and fun time with Alina and Chris, for us it was a great pleasure to talk with Chris - I haven't talked\heard American-speaker almost since I got back here!
The most memorable and funniest thing that I heard from him was the phrase "Sibir kurit"(Сибирь курит) - "Siberia smokes". Explanation. There is a belief/stereotype/ thing/ whatever that people smoke to relax, so they are usually nervous. So you smoke when you are nervous. Not long ago, Chris got pictures from his parents in New Jersey - they have snow all over! So today, he showed us this picture and joked, meaning that "it's a lot of snow, so Siberia is nervous and jealous". Siberia, as you know the coldest part of Russia. With lots of snow.
Speaking of snow..
Today, later on (it's already 30th of October remember) me and my friend Anastasiya hanged out together and I made some pix for y'all. Look - it's snow! Btw, not much of it anyways.
*heavy - not only beginning, but the whole message went the same way. no inspiration =\
Fall break! Yay! I am so happy, partly, it's actually might be very boring here sometimes, especially after life in a big city, but I can deal with it - it's only one weak and I have some time to prepare for exams at school and some time to hang out with my friends. Speaking of exams, if I won't pass - I will be out of school, which will lead to:
-No fun life anymore
-I'll have to somehow write about my fail to my blog
I hope that it will never happen, though I kinda skipped the last day of school before the break - it's all about FLEX and here is a real start of my message to y'all (I went a funky (heavy*) way to it).
This weekend, starting with the 29th of October, the first and second round of program FLEX took place in my native town - Nizhniy Tagil. For those who don't remember or don't have any idea what FLEX is, I am telling you now - so don't ask me again. FLEX stands for Future Leaders Exchange, it's the program that sent me to America a year ago absolutely for free. It was established in 1992 or in 1991...somewhere there, by Bill Bradley (I know him! I know him, I know him!! he came to my house, I took his interview, I have his award "philosopher stone" and he is a sweet guy), so they could fix some conflicts after the Cold War.<----- his autograph... )
FLEX has 3 rounds, 1st and 2nd rounds are usually held together, the third one a month later and then if you are a finalist you will know it like in April.
Usually, they held competition in few big cities in area, this year the did it in Tagil also, I guess because it's more closer for some suburbs and there are always a lot of people that try out from my town.What's more it was in my former school, so I got to meet some of my teachers.
As an alumni, I came to help. There were also three another alumnus - two girls from my year and another one that was in States 5 years ago. There were two people from the stuff from American Councils(Moscow) - a Russian girl Alina and an American - Chris (short info - he is from New Jersey, learnt Russian in college, speaks it nice...).
So yesterday and today we volunteered - helped to pass the worksheets, other files, looked for discipline and so on. Plus we had some really great and fun time with Alina and Chris, for us it was a great pleasure to talk with Chris - I haven't talked\heard American-speaker almost since I got back here!
The most memorable and funniest thing that I heard from him was the phrase "Sibir kurit"(Сибирь курит) - "Siberia smokes". Explanation. There is a belief/stereotype/ thing/ whatever that people smoke to relax, so they are usually nervous. So you smoke when you are nervous. Not long ago, Chris got pictures from his parents in New Jersey - they have snow all over! So today, he showed us this picture and joked, meaning that "it's a lot of snow, so Siberia is nervous and jealous". Siberia, as you know the coldest part of Russia. With lots of snow.
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| Chris shows u a soup in school cafeteria. he loves Russian food. |
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| Alina, flex alumni (2007)Alesya, school teacher Olga Babyshkina |
Today, later on (it's already 30th of October remember) me and my friend Anastasiya hanged out together and I made some pix for y'all. Look - it's snow! Btw, not much of it anyways.
 |
| well, i was almost falling while pressing the button |
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| somewhere, not even close to the center of course |
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