Topic choices for Blog #10.

    1.  How can parents encourage lazy children to study well? Do you think that giving extra pocket money for good marks is a good idea? Is it possible to make a lazy child study by just having a conversation with him or her?

    2. What, in your opinion, is the most important invention in the history of humanity? Explain your point of view.

    3.  I have the idea of adopting a child from an orphanage when I become an adult.  Have you ever had this idea? What difficulties can a person who adopts a child face?

9. Changes in my life.

This time very quickly, without any hesitation I made a decision about which topic to choose. Ruslan’s second theme accurately reflects the thoughts that last month I was often tormented by. In today’s post I would like to write about similarities and differences between my carefree school days and a difficult life that have started since I entered HSE-NES.

Firstly, I want to talk about the changes that have come into my life since I became a student. For example, when I was a pupil, I usually spend maximally 20 minutes to get to my school by bus. On the contrary, now I have to waste almost three hours a day using different kinds of public transport, such as electric trains, buses and the Moscow subway. This long way to the university really exhausts me and, moreover, deprives me of the valuable time. What is more, the amount and complexity of the assigned homework increased greatly when I entered HSE-NES. Therefore, it’s logical to expect that the amount of time which I spend on sleeping, communicating with my friends, going for a walk and just relaxing decreased to 3-5 hours a day. Because of the increased tenseness of my living, a bad mood and feeling of being close to a nervous breakdown became my constant companions, although at school I was an amazingly cheerful, joyful girl. By the way, when I was a pupil, I usually spent not more than 3-4 hours a day using a computer. However, now I am almost never seen without my laptop, and regular using of this device has a bad effect on my eyesight. Finally, I have new teachers and subjects, a new social life and classmates.

To say the truth, I can’t find any similarities between my university life and school days. I can only say that entering HSE-NES turned my whole world upside down.

8. Wikipedia.

For my eighth blog I would like to choose Vladimir’s topic and to write about Wikipedia, the website which I have been using since the first time I got the access to the Internet. I should notice that I have been using mostly the Russian version of this encyclopedia and only few times looked up the necessary information in the American analog. 

Wikipedia is an Internet resource where you can easily find an article on almost whatever theme you want.  Many Russian pupils consider this website to be the storage of accurate, credible information, which they trust completely and implicitly. I remember doing my homework and giving oral presentations relying only on this encyclopedia when I was in school. However, when I became a student, I began finding serious mistakes on this website, and, firstly, these mistakes really shocked me. For example, last semester our biology teacher asked us to write a little dictionary which had to contain the definitions of some biological words. As usual, while I was doing this exercise, I used Wikipedia many times. And it was a real shock to hear my teacher saying that he had found some important mistakes in my work. 

Though I still look up some not very serious information in Wikipedia, now I have a clear understanding of this encyclopedia’s disadvantages and never use it thoughtlessly. I found out that articles on this website can be written and edited by ANYONE. Even a pupil can create his own theme in Wikipedia! For me, this fact damaged the credibility of this encyclopedia as a good source of accurate information.

All in all, I want to warn my readers about some doubtful information that Wikipedia includes.

7. The best trip.

Firstly, I would like to thank all my group-mates for the creative, interesting, cool topics that they posted last week. To say the truth, it was really difficult for me to choose only one of them, and I was hesitating for about 10 minutes. In the end I decided to write a blog on one of Kseniya’s themes. This post will be dedicated to the best trip that I’ve ever had in my life.

Two years ago, in April 2011, my mom and I went to the capital of France, one of the most romantic and famous places in the world. We spent here only 4 days, but this short period seemed to be more fantastic than all my previous life. I remember the moment when we just got off the plane and were amazed by the warm, sunny weather, the one that I usually call the “real spring” weather. The trees all over the city were in blossom, and it’s was wonderful to breathe in that sweet smell. During 4 days my mom and I managed to see the Eiffel tower, the most prominent symbol of France which has about the same height as an 80-storey building does; Disneyland, where we felt like children again; the Louvre Museum, which impressed me with its valuable, rich, breathtaking collections; Notre-Dame de Paris, which I loved with all my heart and soul and described in my previous blog (last semester) as the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen.

All in all, those 4 days gave me the feeling of being the main character of a wonderful, magical, exciting fairytale. Unfortunately, that period of time went by too quickly, and I didn’t manage to enjoy all the beauty of that romantic city. Therefore, my dream is to come to Paris again, of course, in April and may be with my future boyfriend.

6. Waiting for real spring.

Looking at my calendar, I can’t stop myself from smiling. It’s the forth of March which means that the first spring month, which I had been really waiting for, has come in the end. However, not all first signs of spring that I usually look for are gladdening my eye now. Even though the most significant sign, the sun which is shining brightly and dazzling by its playful rays, has become noticed, I still can’t hear the songs of various birds and can’t see the ground almost all without snow. For me, spring really comes when brooks can be seen all around, and all people forget about their hats and say goodbye to their warm clothes. I also know an interesting phrase, saying that spring begins only when rooks come back. May be I am too inattentive but I haven’t seen any of this birds yet. So, in my opinion, the spring hasn’t begun, even though its first calendar month has come. For me, now it’s still winter. In order to deal with this last part of “winter”, every evening I cross off the passing day on my calendar, waiting for the middle of March to come and trying to hope that the real spring will begin at that time. By the way, I like dreaming of what I will do when the real spring is finally here. I will, undoubtedly, try to spend more time walking with my friends and enjoying the good weather. I will also take away all my warm clothes and won’t think about it for a long time.

By the way, in his blog David asked us how we wait patiently for spring. I can’t answer this question because I’m waiting very impatiently for this wonderful season really to come!

(David's topic)