Topic choices for Blog #15.

1) Did you watch The Eurovision Song Contest 2013? If you did, what songs did you consider to be the best? Do you think that voting is usually fair in this competiton?
2) What   impression did Mark Haddon’s book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time leave on you? Do you think that the plot of this novel is unusual? Was the ending of the book unexpected for you?
3) Do you believe that the eighteenth birthday is more special than the other ones?  Does the life of a person really change on this day? How did you celebrate or how will you celebrate this date?

 

14. The long-awaited holidays.

(Telman's first topic)

My first year of studying at HSE-NES is rapidly coming to its end. However, it still seems unbelievable for me that this post is the last one which I’ll write before the beginning of the long-awaited holidays. Now, sitting on the balcony of my country house and enjoying amazingly warm and sunny weather, I am lost in thoughts on how I will spend this summer, and I would like to share some of my plans with the readers of my blog.

At the beginning of this summer I will, of course, take exams, and after that my real holidays will start. Firstly, this summer will be, undoubtedly, unforgettable for me because I am going to spend a week abroad with my closest friend, whose name is Sveta. To say the truth, both of us have been thinking about this trip for a long time and, finally, our parents considered us old enough to go abroad on our own. Secondly, in July my mother and I are planning to visit Italy, the country that I really fell in love with. By the way, this summer I’ll turn 18, the birthday which I can hardly wait for because, according to the Russian laws, I’ll become a real adult. As you can see, now I don’t have many plans for these holidays but the things that I’m absolutely sure about are that this summer I will sleep enough (the dream that almost every student of my faculty has), meet with my lovely friends and relatives, visit some museums and theaters, spend a lot of time having fun, making jokes, enjoying my life, the beauty of the world, nature, and weather, and not thinking about homework, essays, projects, and so on. 

Even though my plans for this summer are still quite inexact, I feel that I’m absolutely ready for the coming of my favorite season! By the way, I wish everyone amazing holidays!

Sincerely yours,

Ann.

13. Victory Day.

Victory Day, which is celebrated on the 9^th of May, is the holiday which many Russians attach great importance to. This day marks Germany’s surrender to the Soviet Union in 1945. As this holiday means a lot to me, in today’s blog I would like to tell the readers about how I usually celebrate this significant event. 

First of all, I should mention that at my school the 9^th of May was the sacred day for both teachers and pupils. Every year we prepared a special concert which was held some days before Victory Day. During this concert we sang various songs, which were dedicated to the Second World War, read wartime poems and saw patriotic films. However, the most exciting part of our concert, in my opinion, was the time when our guests of honor, veterans, told us stories about their wartime life, difficulties, fears and hopes. At the end of the concert we always gave flowers, traditionally red carnations, to the veterans and thanked them for their bravery and our freedom.

On the 9^th of May my friends and I usually attend a local military parade in our town and take part in ceremonial laying flowers at the war memorial sites. At night we always go to the central square of our town to watch the fireworks display.

To say the truth, though I have no doubt about the significance of Victory Day, I have mixed feelings about this holiday. On the one hand, on this day I take great pride in my country’s soldiers, their bravery, strength and fearlessness. My heart swells with a feeling of deep gratitude towards the people who risked their lives saving our country and gave the future generations freedom. On the other hand, when I think about how many people died during the Second World War, how many women lost their husbands and how many children became orphans, I can’t stop crying and understand that I hate wars. Anyway, for me, the 9^th of May is an important day, though both happy and mournful.

Answering the question about the people who consider this holiday (and not only this) an excuse to gather and drink, I can say that I, of course, have nothing against celebrating this holiday together  with friends or relatives, but if the main aim of people is to get drunk, it’s disgusting. How ungrateful, indifferent to the values of his or her country and to the history of his or her nation should a person be to show such a disregard for Victory Day? If people’s main aim is to get drunk during New Year’s Eve or their birthdays, I don’t say anything; it’s their business. However, the 9^th of May is a special day for our nation; it’s our history, our pride and our grief. Don’t forget about it.
( Michael's topic # 1)

12. The last book.

Books, especially prose fiction, have become an integral part of my life since the time when my mother taught me how to read. I’m a real bookworm, and, therefore, I can hardly wait to start reading the third but, unfortunately, the last book on this semester’s English syllabus. Without any hesitation I have decided to choose Aleksandr’s second topic for my today’s post, and, so, I would like to dedicate it to Mark Haddon’s book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. As I haven’t read even the first page of this novel, my post will fully consist of the guesses that I made looking at the cover of this book.

On the cover of the book we can see some short responses to this novel, and these positive comments make me hope that The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is an extremely interesting book with an unusual, breathtaking plot. I think the colors of the cover and the pictures on it are more typical of the books which are intended for children. Nevertheless, I hope this novel amazes both children and adults. According to the preview on the back cover, this novel is a first-person narrative book. However, the narrator, Christopher Boone, isn’t an ordinary person. He is a fifteen-year-old boy who has Asperger’s Syndrome. As I know, this disorder affects social skills. I suppose Christopher, as all people with AS, has problems with understanding and using nonverbal communication such as gestures, facial expressions and eye contact.  He may also find it difficult to understand jokes, irony and metaphors. As the narrator is a child with AS, I think the main aim of this book is to show the feelings, thoughts and perceptions of the world that a person not similar to most of the readers of this book has. By the way, as the narrator is only 15 years old, I believe that the vocabulary used by him will be easy to understand, and, therefore, using the dictionary won’t deflect me from enjoying the book.

For me, the preview on the back cover seems to be extraordinary. This short description really attracts my attention. So, my expectation is that I will be really amazed at the plot of this novel!