Crown of Woods

О нас в журнале Wedding

2011-07-12T12:05:00.003+02:00

Сегодня я узнала, что о нашей свадьбе написали в журнале "Wedding". Приятная неожиданность! Еще раз, неограниченное спасибо Маше за идею свадьбы, ее организацию и эту публикацию!!

Brazilians always know how to be positive and smiling

2010-12-12T11:29:00.001+01:00

Vinyassa Flows with Yogatic

2010-11-29T09:30:00.001+01:00

Warming Up with Yogatic

2010-11-29T09:22:00.001+01:00

Funny Waking Up Exercises

2010-11-27T18:08:00.002+01:00

Yoga for Runners with Yogatic

2010-11-27T18:00:00.001+01:00

Perhaps great to do before and after jogging. I will try it out!

Warming-up and Sitting poses with Yogatic

2010-11-27T17:52:00.001+01:00

Sun Salutations with Yogatic

2010-11-27T12:41:00.005+01:00

The very first one, with many important details. It incorporates warrior II (virabhadrasana II) and triangle (utthita trikonasana) poses.

Sun Salutation A (Ashtanga Yoga):

Sun Salutation B (Ashtanga Yoga). It incorporates the warrior I (virabhadrasana I) pose and chair (utkatasana) poses.

One more:

All above are taken from here.

Here is one more - for keeping fit:

Upward Facing Dog Pose / Urdhva Mukha Svanasana with Yogatic

2010-11-27T12:33:00.000+01:00

Cobra Pose / Bhujangasana with Yogatic

2010-11-27T12:31:00.002+01:00

Sequence of Standing Poses with Yogatic

2010-11-27T12:21:00.002+01:00

I am starting from 2:40 =) The sequence is very nice!

Yoga for opening the shoulders with Yogatic

2010-11-27T12:11:00.006+01:00

Yogatic

2010-11-27T12:05:00.004+01:00

I started doing yoga regularly, and I find the website yogatic very helpful. I specially like short videos with thorough instructions. I tried already a bunch (but far not all) of them, and I have some favorites. In order to be able to access them faster, I decided that I will put them here. Maybe someone else will also like my selection.

Машина времени

2010-09-25T04:41:00.000+02:00

Я пролетела над Калинином по пути в Токио.

Lexical Illusions

2010-07-20T00:08:00.008+02:00

Many readers are not aware that the
the brain will automatically ignore
a second instance of the word "the"
when it starts a new line.

Thanks avva for the reference.

Is the King of France bald?

2010-07-15T17:48:00.003+02:00

Is the king of France bald? is problematic, because, to those of you who don't watch the news, the king of France has few hairs, which are usually hidden under a hat, making it difficult to see whether he is in fact bald. Just kidding!

I really liked the joke!

Наше чемоданное настроение

2010-05-28T12:49:00.011+02:00

Уже прошло почти две недели с момента нашей свадьбы в Твери, а мы все еще находимся под впечатлением. Свадьба была непредсказуемой, солнечной, веселой, стильной, необычной - и это не только мои слова, но и слова гостей, прохожих и тех, кто просто видел фотографии.

Уже многое написано об идее и о самой свадьбе, поэтому приведу ниже ценные для нас ссылки:

Идея свадьбы by Maria Lvova
Идея выкупа by Maria Lvova

Описание свадьбы by Bruno
Описание свадьбы by Маша. Часть 1.
Описание свадьбы by Маша. Часть 2.

И в подтверждение - фотографии:

(Photos by Vitaly Shustrov)

Long time no see

2010-04-24T23:20:00.005+02:00

It's being long time I wrote anything here. And my most recent (although very old) posts are just complaints about the internet provider here, very boring =P To improve it, let me post a cool photo taken by Bruno in Senegal today. I am absolutely impressed by the photos that he sent to me, but I will keep all of them in secret (except the one below) until Bruno will post them himself. It seems to be very cool and dangerous in Senegal. I am jealous and concerned about Bruno a lot at the same time.

Free rejects providing ANY service

2009-12-04T15:42:00.003+01:00

(sorry for my French)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[15h22] Assistance: Que puis-je faire pour vous ?

[15h23] Moi: Bonjour

[15h23] Moi: Je voudrais inviter un technicien...

[15h23] Assistance: Quel est le souci que vous rencontrez plus précisément ?

[15h23] Moi: Mon internet ne fonctionne pas pendant 2 mois

[15h26] Moi: J'ai tout vérifié déjà 1000 fois. Je pense que le problème est dans le câble téléphonique.

[15h28] Assistance: Qu'affiche votre freebox ?

[15h30] Moi: La ligne de courir en rond

[15h31] Moi: Il n'y a aucun signal de la connexion avec la ligne téléphonique

[15h32] Moi: (J'ai déjà répondu à cette question plus tôt, dans les tchats précédentes)

[15h36] Assistance: nous rencontrons actuellement un souci technique.dans ce cas nous ne pouvons consulter votre dossier ou vérifier votre ligne .veuillez nous recontacter ultérieurement (30 minutes )

[15h37] Assistance: Est ce que les informations que je vous ai communiquées sont assez claires ?

[15h40] Moi: oui, d'accord...

[15h41] Assistance: Je me joins à toute l'équipe de Free pour vous souhaiter une excellente fin de journée. Vous pouvez à tout moment consulter votre site d'assistance dédié via l'adresse web suivante : www.free.fr/assistance

[04-12-2009 15h41] [Déconnexion Session Tchat par Assistance]

Fillers

2009-11-24T21:12:00.009+01:00

Languagehut had a nice post today about space fillers around the world. The author quotes:

One of the things I tell students (learning English as a second language) is: 'Don't try to do things in a foreign language that you can't do in your own.' This includes space fillers, don't try to learn to speak without space fillers, learn the right ones and use them appropriately.

I observed some time ago already that it is considered quite normal in many cultures to use the fillers. The most shocking for me was to realize that even when people give talks, they freely use the fillers, and in fact nobody (neither a speaker himself nor the audience) really pays much attention to it.

A few days ago, a friend of mine who studies Russian showed me a list of Russian words and phrases that her teacher at school had given her to learn. These were mainly connectors of sentences. However, among those words there were also many fillers that ``can'' be used in Russian. While I was looking through the list, my friend asked me why I have such a sceptical expression on my face.

Let me explain.

As can be also seen in the wikipedia page about fillers, fillers in Russian are considered to be (and called) vermin words. As soon as a parent of an educated family hears a child uttering a filter for the first time, he/she immediately rebukes the child, and forbits the child to use the word again. The fillers are syntactically considered to be as inappropriate in speach of an educated person as swear words. Indeed, any filler can be syntactically substituted by a swear word (at least in Russian).

So, Russians are actually taught not to use the fillers. Can you imagine how it is surprising for me to observe, that people outside Russia are taught the opposite?

Of course, it is linguistically interesting (and important) for a person to know and recognize the fillers of the language she studies. But I think, one should be very careful advising a student to use the fillers. At least when it is concerned the Russian language.

Вопрос о пирожном

2009-11-01T20:50:00.006+01:00

Представьте ситуацию:

В семье двое детей. Дома в холодильнике лежит вкусное пирожное, и оба, конечно, хотят отведать лакомый кусочек. Во время одной увлекательной игры во дворе с другими ребятами, один из них вспоминает об этом пирожном, и, сказав другому: " пойду пирожного поем", удаляется домой. Как поведет себя второй ребенок и почему?

Варианты ответов:

1) продолжит играть
2) тоже побежит за пирожным

Замечание: для обоих детей пирожное важнее, чем игра во дворе.

Заранее спасибо за ответы!

pas d'assistance en anglais

2009-10-27T22:51:00.004+01:00

If you are a foreigner in France looking for a provider of internet, don't use "Free". Not only for what is described in the previous post.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[07-10-2009 16h22] [Début Session Tchat] [Service choisi: Technique]

[16h24] Assistance: Mme/M. LEBEDEVA, bienvenue sur le Tchat de Free,
vous êtes actuellement connecté(e) sur le salon Technique.

[16h25] Moi: Bonjour, puis-je parler anglais?

[16h27] Assistance: nous ne proposons pas une assistance en anglais via le chat

[16h27] Moi: d'accord...

Is "Free" really free? (or "free" means that you are free from the service of "Free"?)

2009-10-27T21:31:00.009+01:00

"Free" provides very bad internet connection and even worse service!!!

I've been using "Freebox" connection provided by Free for about two years. In the place where I used to live before October the connection was very bad (sometimes it was disappearing for a few hours or even days), but I was tolerating this (although, I think this quality of service was unacceptable, considering that I had to pay 30 euro per month for their (so called) "service").

However, in October I moved to a new flat, and I made the necessary procedure on their web-page to keep their "service" (such a devoted customer I am... phuh...). It took them nine days to provide the internet connection in my new place. It worked for a bit more than a week: a week ago the connection disappeared and never appeared again.

A few days ago I contacted them by chat (via their web-page) informing them about the problem. They were not able to give an adequate answer, but they promised to make some tests. Today I got an email from them saying that they tested my line, and everything should work. BUT IT DOES NOT WORK!
I asked a friend of mine to come with his set of "Freebox" equipment and try it at my place. It didn't work. So, obviously, the problem is in the phone line or in the connection itself (which they claimed that they tested). We decided to contact them again, but this time we decided to do it by phone since it is faster than by chat. But for the phone-consultation you have to pay, of course! So, we dialed the phone (provided on their web-page) of their Hotline Technique. The dialog was like this (it was in French, of course! therefore my friend called, since his French is better than mine):

Hotline Technique: Could you tell me your fixed phone number?
My friend: 0387777777
Hotline Technique: Could you tell me the name of the Freebox subscriber?
My friend: Ekaterina Lebedeva
Hotline Technique: Please, phone 0892135161.

What? Didn't we phone the technical service already? Why don't you give the required number on your web-page? Why did you need to know my fixed phone number and my full name in order to give us this new number??? To steal more money? Congratulations then!

But this is the beginning of the story =) We phoned the given number. We got connected to a lady saying something like this: "There are too many phone calls requiring technical assistance. Please, phone later."

What? Doesn't it mean that if there are too many people requiring the technical assistance, the service you provide is simply bad? Why don't you hire more technical support employees to reply people's inquires? Why the very first employee refused to talk to us? She was free, was not she? Aaaah! Of cousrse, you need to steal more money. Good job!

So, after being unsuccessful in trying to get the answers by phone, we decided to chat with them. The whole chat is at the end of the post (Sorry for my French there). But let me summarize it in English: So, to make the long story short, they said that they can send a technician to my place on Monday the 2nd or on Friday on the 6th of November. However, I will not be in Nancy from the 1st to the 9th of November, so I asked if I can have an appointment before or after this period. The answer was simple "no". I just can't believe that!

What? They want me to contact them again (aha! to pay them for the communication via phone again). What about my time? I am here now, ready to make an appointment. What's the problem?

There are many other moments that make me extremely unsatisfied with their service. I just don't have neither time nor energy to write about them. It already took me too much time (I estimate all together something like nine hours at least, not considering the time of some friends of mine who were helping me). I also know many other people who got very disappointed with their service. Just one more story how money is stolen by big monsters from exposed people in this capitalist world.

-------------------------------------------------------------
[27-10-2009 20h14] [Début Session Tchat] [Service choisi: Technique]

[20h24] Assistance: Mme/M. LEBEDEVA, bienvenue sur le Tchat de Free, vous êtes actuellement connecté(e) sur le salon Technique.

[20h24] Assistance: Merci de me confirmer votre adresse mail de contact ainsi que le numéro de téléphone portable de contact

[20h25] Moi: Bonsoir

[20h25] Assistance: Bonsoir

[20h25] Moi: je confirme

[20h26] Assistance: En quoi puis-je vous aider?

[20h27] Moi: Je n'ai pas de connexion internet pendant une semaine. Je parle à l'assistance, et ils ont dit que cela devrait fonctionner, mais il ne fonctionne pas. J'ai pris des cables d'un ami, et j'ai essayé de les utiliser. Mais la boîte ne fonctionne toujours pas.

[20h28] Assistance: je vous informe que la remonté pour votre souci est traitée

[20h28] Assistance: et un test de position ok

[20h28] Assistance: Un test de position est une vérification de nos équipements ADSL au bout de votre ligne : un de nos techniciens est envoyé dans le NRA auquel vous êtes raccordé et va vérifier sur nos équipements à la position où votre ligne arrive : la synchronisation, la stabilité, le débit et l'atténuation du signal. * OK : tout est dans les normes, aucun problème n'a été détecté

[20h28] Assistance: Donc une intervention a domicile s'avère nécessaire pour qu'on puisse avancer dans la résolution de votre souci

[20h28] Assistance: pour cela

[20h28] Assistance: je vous propose un RDv avec un technicien de free qui va se déplacer jusqu'à chez vous

[20h28] Assistance: le rendez vous facilitera la tache ainsi qu'a nous, d'une part parce que le dossier sera pris en charge par le technicien lui même

[20h28] Assistance: A titre informatif, nous vous rappelons que le coût de cette intervention à domicile varie en fonction de certains critères :
- Intervention à domicile simple / Freenaute non présent durant le créneau
horaire 49 Euros.
- Intervention à domicile non facturée (responsabilité Freenaute non
engagée
ou erreur d'inscription) : déplacement offert.

[20h28] Assistance: S'il s'avère que vous ne pourrez être présent pendant la plage horaire qui vous est réservée ou que le rendez-vous ne s'avère plus utile, vous devez
impérativement demander l'annulation du rendez-vous au minimum 1 heure
avant le début de la plage horaire indiquée sur simple appel au numéro 3244
touche 2 ou bien par t-chat vous pouvez également annuler le RDv depuis votre interface de gestion rubrique " mon assistance"

[20h31] Assistance: RDV pour le 02/11/2009 Plage 11H00 - 13H00

[20h31] Assistance: ce créneau vous convient ?

[20h32] Assistance: je vous écoute ??

[20h33] Moi: non...

[20h34] Assistance: Lundi 02/11

[20h34] Assistance: 11H00 - 13H00
14H00 - 16H00
16H00 - 18H00

[20h35] Moi: Je suis disponible avant dimanche (1 Novembre) ou après le lundi (9 Novembre)...

[20h39] Moi: Dois-je payer le technicien si c'est un problème physique avec la ligne de téléphone?

[20h39] Assistance: j'ai pas ces disponibilités

[20h42] Moi: Quel est le coût d'annuler le contrat?

[20h43] Assistance: 90 euro

[20h45] Moi: même si je l'ai utilisé pendant près de deux ans?

[20h46] Assistance: oui

[20h46] Moi: d'accord

[20h46] Assistance: Vendredi 06/11

[20h46] Assistance: 10H00 - 12H00
11H00 - 13H00
14H00 - 16H00
16H00 - 18H00

[20h46] Assistance: vous avez choisi quel créneau

[20h48] Moi: Je ne suis pas à Nancy du 1 Novembre au Novembre 9

[20h48] Assistance: alors

[20h49] Assistance: je vous invite à nous recontacter pour fixer le RDv

[20h49] Assistance: Est ce que les informations que je vous ai communiquées sont suffisamment claires Mr LEBEDEVA,?

[20h49] Moi: après le Nov. 9 tout est ok pour moi

[20h50] Assistance: je vous invite à nous recontacter pour fixer le RDv
après le 9 Nov

[20h51] Assistance: j'espère que j'étais claire avec vous Mr LEBEDEVA, ?

[20h51] Moi: pouvez vous me donner un rendez-vous après le 9 novembre?

[20h52] Assistance: non

[20h52] Moi: oui, c`est claire

[20h52] Assistance: je suis désolée pas de RDv programmé après le 9 novembre

[20h53] Moi: d'accord..

[20h53] Moi: Bon soirée

[20h54] Assistance: Je me joins à toute l'équipe de Free pour vous souhaiter une excellente fin de soirée. Vous pouvez à tout moment consulter votre site d'assistance dédié via l'adresse web suivante : www.free.fr/assistance

[27-10-2009 20h54] [Déconnexion Session Tchat par Assistance]

2009-08-26T16:01:00.005+02:00

Indifference to others... is it, in general, peculiar to French? Or just to citizens of Nancy? Or I am getting the wrong impression?

-----
Of course, I saw a few exceptions... but just a few, far not enough to overbalance my general opinion...

Ordered Books Related to Richard Montague

2009-08-19T14:12:00.004+02:00

I ordered two books in amazon today. The first one is about the life, research and death of a great American mathematician and philosopher Richard Montague: "The Semantics of Murder" by Aifric Campbell. The second book is "Informal Lectures on Formal Semantics" by Emmon Bach where the author gives a non-technical introduction for Montague's theory on semantics. I hope the books will arrive soon!

Solved Visualisation Problem in Ubuntu

2009-08-14T15:35:00.007+02:00

I had a weird problem with visualisation in Ubuntu for quite a long time. Sometimes, instead of texts (while viewing pages in mozilla browser, while reading emails in thunderbird, while reviewing in KDVI just compiled .tex files, ...), I saw a broken parts of sentences, words, letters... Here is a photo, so that you can imagine how annoying it was (well, it was not just annoying, it was impossible to work).

Since I am a beginner in Linux, I could not figure out how to solve it, so I had to ask many people in my lab to help me with the problem. However, nobody could succeed! So, I was left with it, and I simply didn't write anything, and didn't want to start writing, because I knew that as soon as I begin, I will see the mess in my screen, and get a headache because of this.

Thanks Robert, who realised how much suffering I am and who was looking for the solutions to help me! He already tried many approaches before, and today he suggested to change Font Resolution (dots per inch) in the Appearance Preferences in Ubuntu. It worked for 5 minutes! Those 5 minutes were perhaps the happiest in my life =) But then it all got broken again. However, I decided to try to change other things in Appearance Preferences, and the solution was to cancel all Visual Effects. It is the first thing I do in Windows after installation. But for some reason I didn't do it with Ubuntu. Anyway, Linux is for masochists!

Ya, I still have two more annoying problems... Let's see how long I will need to solve them...

Как подвывать волков

2009-06-21T21:01:00.007+02:00

У меня оба дедушки - охотники. Да и родители, было дело, на охоту ходили (да, даже мама, судя по фотографиям, которые я помню с детства). Дедушка по папиной линии - специалист по волкам. Я от него слышала не только много баек об охоте на волков, но и демонстрации волчьего подвывания. Не знаю, следовал ли он курсу подвывания, как на пластинке "КАК ПОДВЫВАТЬ ВОЛКОВ" 1957 года, или же научился выть на собственном опыте.

Тем не менее, для поднятия настроения, рекомендую всем послушать этот краткий курс подвывания (о пластинке здесь, аудио-файл здесь). Спасибо большое bujhm за оцифровку.

DIY T-shirts

2009-05-30T23:02:00.010+02:00

It's being a long time since I wanted to have a look on Do It Yourself things in the internet just because of the curiosity... Today I read an article by "Russian reporter" (in russian) that has links to some DIY web-sites (together with short reviews of the sites). I stoped at Spreadshirt and tried to find something interesting there. However, after reviewing several dozens of T-shirts, I didn't find anything for myself there. Fortunately, they let you to design your own T-shirt! Here is what I finally got:

French Paradoxes

2009-04-29T17:42:00.010+02:00

All PhD students (who started their PHD in 2007 and after) in France have to go through "artificial" meeting called Doctoriales. I will see how it is in a few weeks, but at the moment I think it is just a way for administration to simulate some kind of important work and to make a performance for media. I think it is not only useless, but it actually disturbs the students from their research... I had to fill a form online (giving lots of information such as my address, the address of the lab, all the telephone numbers), then when my candidature was accepted (ya! you have to be accepted for such an important event) I had to feel "formulaire d'inscription definitive" by hand giving the same information, not to say that I will have to go to some province place and stay there for one week "integrating" (as they claim this is the idea of the whole thing) with other PhD students from different disciplines... they say that it is to promote the research - but I'd prefer to actually DO research instead of these useless bureaucratic procedures... if I need to get integrated with people who work in my research sphere, I prefer to go to a corresponding conference/workshop/summer school (and spend time and team's money for this). If I'd like to learn about other research topics, I think I am grown up enough to talk to people around, and learn about other things from them...

But what surprised me most of all is the following:
As I said, this thing is mandatory (everybody must go there, i.e., if you don't go there, you will not be allowed to defend your thesis). However, an application of a PhD student in loria (a friend of mine) was rejected!

Does administration (who organise important research meetings like this) see that there is a contradiction in "You must do X. You are not allowed to do X." ???

Fighting with Pigeons

2009-04-27T08:51:00.006+02:00

Once, when I came back home, I found two pigeons walking in my room as if they are living there... Moreover, after that they started coming to my balcony, sitting on the fence there and staring through the window what I am doing... or sometimes, if I am not moving much, they were making attempts to enter the room despite the fact I was there... These all annoyed me a lot, not to say about what they may leave on the balcony after sitting some time there... I decided to make research in the internet, and I read that if I put metal paper (foil) on the balcony, it will shine on the sun, and it will move by the wind making noises and scaring the pigeons away in this way... All my neighbours who were outside the building while I was hanging up the paper on the balcony might have decided that I am absolutely crazy... But I did it!

What do you think? Now the pigeons visit me even more often! I think they decided, that If I put some kind of protection, there must have been something interesting (tasty, valuable) in my room...

А хлеб и правда вкусный!

2009-02-17T21:02:00.012+01:00

Помню, как раньше, когда я отправлялась за хлебом, мне мама давала наставления: "Смотри, чтобы хлеб был от ЗАО "Хлеб" - он лучше всего!". Я всегда соглашалась, и приносила домой правильный хлеб.

Сегодня зашла на их сайт. Немного удивила их мания величия и чрезмерное преувеличение, немедленно бросившиеся в глаза на первой странице. В их заявлении, хотя и косвенном, что они производят все, что вообще возможно произвести, да еще и качественно, кроется какой-то наивный оптимизм. Видно вообразили, что их предприятие не просто хлебопекарня, а завод-супер-герой!

(Кроме того, "качественная продукция" и "продукция ЗАО "Хлеб"" не слова, а словосочетания... ну ладно, не буду уж слишком придирчивой... )

А хлебобулочные изделия у них, действительно, довольно хороши.

Eau de Cologne

2009-01-31T23:28:00.000+01:00

There are many words in russian borrowed from french. Here are just a few examples:

alley - аллея
anecdote - анекдот
affaire - афёра
atelier - ателье
bagage - багаж
buffet - буфет
bureau - бюро
garantie - гарантия
détail - деталь
collage - коллаж
collier - колье
compote - компот
nuance - нюанс
pièce - пьеса
surprise - сюрприз
vitrine - витрина
étage - этаж

Today I turned my eyes to a bottle of light blue liquid containing 70% of alcohol and having a nice lavender smell called "Eau de Cologne" in french (Kölnisch Wasser; Water of Cologne). It made me surprised to realize that in Russian these three words got glued together to form a funny russian version of the name of the cosmetic substance: ОДЕКОЛОН. Not to say that the name was considerably modified by russian phonetical norms.

Take care of your belongings!!!

2008-11-14T23:25:00.002+01:00

I spent a wonderful extended weekend in Vienna: two friends of Bruno came to visit us there, and we enjoyed showing them the tourist attractions and having good Austrian dinners...

However, on the way back from Vienna to Strasbourg I had an adventure: one of my bags was stolen =( I was travelling in a night train and I fell in a very deep dream. When I woke up upon arrival to Strasbourg I got disappointed by the absence of my bag on the upper shelf. "Luckily", after the robbery that happened to us in Lisboa, I keep all my documents is a purse attached to the body, and my keys were by chance in my pocket, not in the bag. I went to the police office located in the Strasbourg' railway station and they recommended me to make an appeal at the police office at the region where I leave. I went there yesterday, and I found them very nice and supportive. Although I don't have any hope to recall (among other less important things being stolen) my Pocket PC, my only two glasses, a ticket to go to Vienna for Christmas, books for learning Portuguese, French and Russian and tea that Bruno just bought for me... I just hope that my appeal will help to prevent possible further thefts. And, please, take care of your things wherever you are!!!

Hypertree Decompositions for Combinatorial Auctions

2008-09-05T23:16:00.008+02:00

My M.Sc. thesis work resulted in a book published by "Verlag Dr. Mueller". Today I noticed that it appeared in Amazon stocks (Amazon, Amazon Germany).

Here is a copy of the cover:

and a BiBTeX entry:

 
@book{Lebedeva-HTDForCA-book2008,
  author =       "Ekaterina Lebedeva",
  title =        "Hypertree Decompositions For Combinatorial Auctions",
  publisher =    "VDM-Verlag",
  year =         "2008",
  address =      "Saarbruecken, Germany",
  month =        "4",
  isbn =         "978-3-639-02231-5",
}

My Big Thank to the supervisors of my thesis, as well as to my friends, who were encouraging me during the work.

Une belle ville

2008-07-24T22:07:00.003+02:00

We are learning adjectives and their conjugations in my course of French for beginners. My homework for tomorrow is to write a few sentences about my city using adjectives. Since I had to write it anyway, I decided to write it here.

Tver est une belle ville de Russie. Sa population est 400000 habitants. Habitants de la Tver sont heureux. Elle est située sur la Volga. La Volga est le plus grand fleuve d'Europe. Tver est située sur la route de Moscow à Saint-Pétersbourg. Moscow et Saint-Pétersbourg sont grandes villes.

=)

My 25th Birthday

2008-05-23T15:15:00.001+02:00

Unfortunately I was not able to go to Vienna to celebrate my Birthday with Bruno and Isis (we planned a trip to Hochalpenstrasse). I was extremely sad and disappointed, and this influenced my birthday mood a lot. In fact I even had thoughts not to go to the institute, and to stay at home alone the whole day. Nevertheless, I went to the institute (the weather was amazing for Nancy's standarts - a very warm sunny day - specially for me), and on the way I bought some cakes to taste them together with my colleagues. In the evening I was expecting to stay alone though. I am very thankful to everybody who came to eat the cakes and support me, because inside I felt very lonely and that was basically the celebration of my birthday. I am also very glad that I met new people - three indian guys and an argentinian guy making their internships in Loria.

In the evening people proposed to go out, and of course I joined them! We had very nice time downtown discussing numerous cultural differences and particularities while having drinks in one of the bars.

P.S.: My very special thank to everybody who sent me greetings in social-networks, chats, by sms's and by emails. Especially this day, when I so much wanted and was not able to see close and important for me people, these messages made me feel that all you are close to me in your thoughts. In fact, your messages motivated me to leave the apartment in the morning and not just stay the whole day crying =)

Coincidence

2008-05-11T23:56:00.000+02:00

An interesting coincidence happened to me when I was in Russia the last time. I bought a manicure tool, and it appeared to be produced in Nancy! What is a probability was for me to buy in Tver something produced in Nancy? I think (extremely close to) zero. Here are some (almost) random factors:

1) the fact that that thing was produced in Nancy

2) the fact that that thing appeared in Russia

3) the fact that that thing appeared in Tver

4) my visit of that particular shop (it is a small shop located in some hidden yard)

5) my will to buy that specific thing (as far as I remember it was the first time in my life when I was buying it)

I would not wonder as much if the cities were Paris-Moscow instead of small cities Nancy-Tver. But even in that case the probability of the coincidence would be tiny...

How many are countries, cities, shops, goods, and wishes to buy in the world (among other things)? The chance that they coincided for me that time is amazing!

My Home City Tver

2008-05-09T20:32:00.001+02:00

Some photos made during a nice walk with a friend of mine Olja.

Here is Trehsvyatskaya Ulitza (Трехсвятская улица) - the main trade\walking street of the city.

This is our fixed circus. I used to go there a few times in a year. Once Olja and I spent the whole university holidays there - it happened that our holidays were just a few hours and we went to the circus =)

The view on the Old Bridge (Старый мост) from a bank of the river Volga. A little farther is a monument to the greatest Russian Poet Alexander Pushkin (А.С. Пушкин).

The monument to Pushkin from the closer distance.

And the monument to Afanasy Nikitin (Афанасий Никитин) - a merchant from Tver and one of the first Europeans who travelled to India. He described his trip under notes called "The Journey Beyond Three Seas" (Хождение за три моря).

It is a ship starting its journey and making a turn and a Church to Saint Catherine behind the ship.

A beautiful city!!!!!!!!

Moscow

2008-05-07T13:11:00.000+02:00

A few pictures from Moscow:

A typical counter selling vegetables and fruits, called "Laryok":

Windows of an old house:

A tram:

Many dogs sleeping:

An architecture-interesting house:

Beaver's Dams

2008-05-03T12:53:00.000+02:00

There are a few impressive beaver's dams on the way to the village of my grandparents.

Майские праздники

2008-05-03T12:36:00.000+02:00

I arrived to Russia at night on the 1st of May. Next day my parents and I went to the village of my grandparents to visit them and to help them with digging their vegetable garden. In spite of lot's of physical work (I alone dug 4 vegetable beds) we had lots of fun. I was very happy to spend those days with my family!

Metz

2008-04-30T01:13:00.001+02:00

After having waited for a medical examination for almost 5 months, I managed to get a medical appointment in Metz. I was not expecting this city to be particularly interesting, and I was mistaken!!! The city is great! In my impression it is a beautiful city for nice and relaxing walks, enjoying the river and beautiful architecture.

I started my walk from the Gare (the railway station) built in new-romanic age:

This is Palais du Gouverneur built (1902-1904) in new-Renaissance style located to the north-west from Gare:

Chapel of the Temple Knights (1180):

Playing with the reflection of the door of the Chapel:

There is this strange monument close to the Temple Knights Chapel. There is a huge gap in the ground covered with a strong net (so that people can walk on the net). And on the bottom of the gap these three individuals are laying and collecting coins.

An alley:

A frog:

A horseman in front of the Palace of Justice:

Temple Neuf located on the island.

Playing with reflection once again:

I view on the island (on the right) and the river:

Saint Stephen's Cathedral is enormous!!! It impressively towers above any building so that it can be seen almost from any point of the city:

It stores an important collection of stained glasses from 13th to 20th century:

A view on the city from Jardin des Tanneurs:

My walk was concluded with visiting the German Gate on the river Seille (1230-1480), which is a powerful Middle Ages gate.

I had a pleasant day! Very tired though =)

Strasbourg

2008-04-27T23:02:00.000+02:00

On Sunday Bruno and I went to walk in Strasbourg. It's a beautiful city with nice channels and numerous bridges!

Its Middle Ages Cathedral is very high (it was the highest in Western Europe until the 19th century). We hardly managed to make it “fit” in our wide-angle camera:

There is a sophisticated astronomical clock in the Cathedral:

We went up 329 steps (I counted below 300 for some reason) on the cathedral platform.

Unfortunately the view is a bit disturbed by aluminium barriers.

We also went to see the European Parlament - a huge modern building.

There is the beautiful Orangerie Park very close to European Institutions and we spent a few very pleasant hours there. When we were already about to leave, we found a small zoo in the middle of the park. I really enjoyed observing two very little monkeys which were taking care of each other by combing each other’s fur.

In the evening Bruno and I had to take trains to the different directions: me to Nancy, and Bruno to Vienna. Our extended weekend was wonderful! And there will be many more!

Park des Sports

2008-04-26T23:09:00.000+02:00

There is a great park very close to my house in Nancy. I went there for jogging several times, but while jogging I was making just 'circles' on the perimeter of the park, without having a look what is 'inside'. That was because I was waiting for a nice moment to go in the park for a walk. Last week Bruni came to visit me in Nancy and he brought GREAT SUNNY weather from Vienna. We went twice to walk in the park. We found many different birds there: ducks, swans, goose, peafowls, and even chickens. I was also impressed by the size of fishes swimming in the channels of the park: they seem to be about half a meter long and extremely fat - like miniatures of whales. Sometimes they were jumping out of the water!

Wittgenstein

2008-04-19T17:34:00.010+02:00

Today I watched a very interesting and unusual movie about the life and work of an Austrian philosopher, logician and philosopher of language of the twentieth century Ludwig Wittgenstein. His philosophical pursuit lead to two very influential and important works: "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus" and "Philosophical Investigations".

The movie is available in google-videos:

Улыбнуло про баню

2008-04-13T20:35:00.001+02:00

LeLenka (20:29:09 13/04/2008)
мы мылись в бане - топили топили - нет тепла

KaLinka (20:29:15 13/04/2008)
как нет?

LeLenka (20:29:16 13/04/2008)
надо утеплять что ли

KaLinka (20:29:20 13/04/2008)
хм странно ... но вымылись хоть

LeLenka (20:29:28 13/04/2008)
грязь отошла

LeLenka (20:29:35 13/04/2008)
вспотеешь пока топишь

Paris

2008-04-06T13:02:00.001+02:00

I have been several times in Paris before. But that was the first time when I came with the purpose of visiting it. We had just 6-7 hours to spent in Paris, therefore we decided just to walk around. Have a look at some of our very tourist's photos =D

I like this photo:

A very sophisticated restaurant:

"Tulip" is my favorite sort of flowers!

Versailles

2008-04-06T09:10:00.001+02:00

Even though we came in Versailles early in the morning and not in the season, the queue for the tickets to enter the park was extremely long. We preferred not to spend out time standing in the cold, and continued our way to Paris.

Chartres

2008-04-06T08:21:00.000+02:00

We stayed for the night at very friendly and cheap hostel in Chartres with a nice view to Chartres Cathedral. In the morning next day we walked shortly in the city. Gothic Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres is great and impressive. It is located on a hill which make it appear even bigger. It is included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

Saint-Malo

2008-04-05T19:02:00.000+02:00

We also visited the east part of Brittany, particularly the fortified port city Saint-Malo. It is known as a city of corsairs.

We had our lunch-dinner on one of its beaches. I have never seen so much action happening on a beach. It was really entertaining!

The city is really lovely! It is a pity that we did not have much time to stay there longer. A long way to the direction of Paris was waiting for us...

Mont Saint Michel

2008-04-05T12:00:00.000+02:00

On the way to Mont Saint Michel our GPS lead us to a field from which it was not possible to approach the abbey. Later we just realized that the GPS was smart to show us the beauty of the stronghold from a non-tourist perspective.

As soon as we arrived at the entrance the view was spoiled by buses, cars, tourists. Look on the warning sign on the right bottom part of the photo. It says: "CAUTION. Today the sea covers this parking place. Please leave before the time mentioned above." We escaped on time! =D

Inside the castle the most impressive for us was the size of chimneys!

And I liked doors =)

D-Day Beaches

2008-04-04T17:59:00.000+02:00

We visited two of five D-Day beaches: Gold and Omaha. Gold impresses with its coastal fortifications remained from the time of Operation Overload.

In Arromanches we visited 360 degrees film showing pictures and shots of war correspondents.

In Omaha we found underground passages with rooms built by german occupants.

Trees and bushes in Omaha are inclined from the sea perhaps because of strong wings.

The beaches themselves are very beautiful and peaceful. It is hard and extremely sad to imagine the sorrow action that was happening there on summer 1944.

Bayeux

2008-04-04T11:31:00.000+02:00

Bayeux is a nice small town in Normandy. We started our visit of Bayeux from the museum storing one of the oldest tapestries in the world. It is approximately 50 cm high and 70 meters long and it shows the events of the 1066 Norman invasion of England by William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy). I was pleasantly surprised to get an audio-guide in russian explaining scenes shown in the tapestry.

The huge Notre-Dame Cathedral of Bayeux was the original home of the tapestry.

At the Battle of Normandy Bayeux was the first town liberated on the morning on June 7th 1944. Now it hosts a big Memorial Museum depicting war in details.

There is the British War Cemetery next to the Memorial Museum. I could not believe my eyes when I saw the age of the solders killed on the war: many of them were 18-21 ...

Sweets in Rouen

2008-04-03T20:16:00.001+02:00

It seems that citizens of Rouen have a particular attitude to sweets. Windows of sweets-shops are impressively colorful interesting and different from each other.

My big thank to Bruno for taking all these photos! While Bruno was shooting, Isis and I spent all the time examining the sweets =)

And of course we tried something made with chocolate. It was delicious!

Rouen

2008-04-03T17:57:00.003+02:00

We started out trip from Rouen - the capital of Normandy located on the Seine river.

I liked this narrow house! I wish I could see from inside its [probably] tiny rooms with windows appearing on 3 walls.

Rouen is the city where Jeanne d'Arc was burned. There is a modern church Jeanne d'Arc built on that place. Its roof reminds of the dreadful fire. There is a strange market right under the vault of the church. We also visited the tower where Jeanne was imprisoned.

Rouen's gothic Notre Dame Cathedral is huge and magnificent. The sun penetrates through the mosaic colorful windows playing with different colors on the floor and walls inside. Very beautiful!!!

There are many nice medieval houses in the city.

The museum that is worth to visit is "Musée Le Secq des Tournelles". We spent some time walking around it until we realized that a nice gothic building is what we were looking for. There is an interesting and unusual exposition of keys, lockers, chests and other ironmongery there.

North-West of France

2008-04-03T11:54:00.000+02:00

Isis, Bruno and I made a wonderful trip on the north-west of France. We visited Rouen, Bayeux, Saint Marcan, Le Mont Saint Michel, Chartres, D-Day Beaches and Villages in Normandie, Saint-Malo in Brittany, and Sunday we spent in Versailles and Paris. In the next posts I will publish some photos and talk a little bit more about our trip. Here is the only photo of three of us appearing together.

Friday: Guests From Tver

2008-03-30T14:56:00.007+02:00

Friday was great! Early in the morning I was contacted by a good friend of mine who studies in Sweden that he will be passing Nancy together with his mother (on of the best friends of my mom), his brother and one friend of theirs. It was a great surprise! In the afternoon I went to look for a birthday gift for my mother to send it with them to Russia. At night we had a very pleasant dinner. It was very nice of them to stop in Nancy in order to see me!

Moreover, after I bought the gift for my mother, I went to a sport-shop and bought a cool sport-bag, swim paddles and a pull buoy!!! Very happy!

Mustard in a Glass

2008-03-30T14:39:00.002+02:00

Plans about Swimming

2008-03-27T16:04:00.002+01:00

A week ago I decided to go swimming three times in a week and to be strict about it! As before, today I was very motivated to go, and I was already about to leave home when I found out that it was unpleasantly raining... To fulfil my plan, I will have to go on Friday and Sunday... now I will eat a yoghurt instead!

Orange Juice With Concentrated Orange Juice

2008-03-23T14:13:00.004+01:00

Apple Juice With Concentrated Apple Juice

2008-03-22T22:59:00.003+01:00

Me Against My Luck

2008-03-18T16:05:00.015+01:00

or ALWAYS CHECK TWICE
or a long (and perhaps confusing) story about (un)sucessfull attempts to travel from Vienna to Nancy

To organize my graduation from Vienna I went there on the 5th of March (Wednesday) and my flight back was scheduled on the 10th of March (Monday). However, already on the 6th of March (Thursday) I realized that for many reasons I would not manage to finish all bureaucracy before the flight back... Even though the original ticket to Vienna was non-refundable, I booked another (non-refundable) flight supposedly on next Thursday (13th of March).

On Monday I was contacted by the flight company by email in which they informed me that my flight on Monday was canceled, and that I could have my money back. Nice surprise!!!

I finished all the bureaucracies on time (with respect to the second flight) even though it was quite tough. Everything was great, apart from one extremely stupid thing that I did caused by my tiredness.

I used to have two bank accounts in Austria, let's call them "A" and "B", and I decided to close one of them - "B". I transfered the money from "B" to "A" by netbanking, and I closed "B". Later, 10 minutes before the closing time of all banks, I decided for some reasons to close "A" as well, and to transfer all the money from "A" to my french bank account. After I closed "A" I realized that the transaction from "B" to "A" was not completed! And since my both accounts were closed the money was "suspended" in nowhere. I could not talk to my bank managers because all banks were already closed, so I could just hope that I would be able to solve this problem from Nancy... =(

On Thursday I woke up at 5.00 a.m. in order to be on time to get my flight back to France. During check-in I was informed that my flight was in fact on Friday!!! (I still cannot figure out how I could get confused =)
Still not bad! Even great: One more day in Vienna! Happy, free, a bit sleepy though...

Moreover, I took this chance and went to the bank "B" and informed them about the incomplete transaction. They asked me to sign a few papers (so lucky that I could come because I didn't fly away =) and they promised to return me all the money.

At night before the flight I had a nightmare that I am falling from very high... I decided not to fly... It was a risky decision because my residence permit for Austria was expiring next day, which means that the next day I would be already illegally in Austria... The only option that was left is to go by train in the same day. I heard about a promotion of Austrian railways (oebb) for a direct night train Vienna-Strasbourg for 29 euro, and I hoped naively to get one of those tickets. However, a lady in the ticket office said that all tickets were sold out and the first available was after the 1st of July.

The cheapest option was to buy a discount card (for those who are under 26) (Vorteils card) and to buy the ticket with this card (paying about 60% of the original price). That was lots of money though =( but there was no other option... I bought a ticket, and only long after I left the railway station (Westbahnhof) I realized that the tickets seller did not ask me to pay for the vorteils card! Nice surprise!!!

In the train I met a person who told me that he often travels in this train and he always gets the 29-euro ticket. He said that it is very probable to buy it even one week in advance, and possibly that lady in the ticket office got confused saying that the closest available 29-euro ticket is on the 1st of July. Moreover, he said that it is possible to buy a ticket in the other direction (Strasbourg-Vienna) for the same price! That was surprising, because once we ASKED whether it is possible to buy a ticket in the other direction, and they answered "NO". An advise of the guy in the train was: "Always ask twice!". That's true.

Yesterday, knowing that there are plenty of tickets in the both directions, Bruno and I bought several in order to see each other as often as possible.
If I had not taken that train we would believe that it is possible to get cheap tickets in only one direction (as we were told once). If I had not talked to that guy in the train, we would believe that there are (one-direction) tickets available only after the 1st of July (as the lady said). Hence, we would meet very rare, traveling in very complicated more expensive ways...

Having observed all these confusions and their positive results, Bruno concluded: "Katya against her luck!".

Master!

2008-03-17T23:28:00.005+01:00

I would like to apologize for not appearing in skype and icq, for not always answering emails and other messages, for not being as talkative as usually, for not asking how you are (even though, of course, I was wondering about it), for not reading and commenting your blogs regularly...

This was because of a big goal and I had very limited time to achieve it... Now I am a master in Computational Logic!

Portugal

2008-03-17T22:13:00.014+01:00

The original reason to go to Portugal was an annual EMCL-workshop this time hold in Lissabon. It was fun to meet other EMCL-students and also already graduate students among which I have very good friends. Bruno made a presentation about his master thesis and about his current research in Vienna.

The workshop lasted two days only. However, we have spent nine days in Portugal. What had we done? As always, Bruno organized a wonderful trip full of new discoveries and adventures!!!

We saw dunes, beautiful beaches, cliffs, various birds, amazing vegetation, romantic sunset and moon-rise... We walked in 16 cities (among them are Lisboa, Sagres, Silves, Tavira, Mafra, Obidos, Nazare, Cascais, Alcobaca, Coimbra, Porto, Polvo, Tomar, Lagos, Faro), we visited different fortresses, castles, churches and monasteries... We ate various sea-food and lots of juicy fruits... We got robbed... We got completely wet in a cloud-burst... We collected dozens of huge spectacular shells...

Above I just enumerated (some of) things that we experienced. What we felt in reality is really hard to convey in a simple post (at least for me ;)

Bruno described our stay in Portugal in more details in his blog. Have a look!

Happy Easter!

2008-03-16T15:07:00.007+01:00

Very simple:
I decided to move the christmas tree and to wish you Happy Easter!!!

P.S.: Sorry for not posting for so long! I promise to write very soon about main events that happened to me after New Year holidays =)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

2007-12-20T20:39:00.000+01:00

Dear Friends,

Here are my sparkling winter wishes to all of you on Christmas and New Year!

I hope your Christmas wishes come true; and I hope the next year will be great, successful, full of new things and nice events!!!

Have wonderfull holidays!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

My First Day in Nancy

2007-12-10T14:02:00.000+01:00

Today was my fist complete day in Nancy. In the morning it seemed that my plans to satisfy my curiosity and walk in the Old Town were ruined by rain. However, around 11.00 a.m. the rain stopped and I was very happy to go out. The first good news was that there is a bus station just next to my house, and one of the buses took me directly to the city center. The whole way by bus takes approximately 20 minutes. However, as I discovered later there is only one bus passing in a hour on Sunday! The fist thing I did was visiting the tourist information office, which is located right on the magnificient main square of the Old Town - Place Stanislas.

There I asked some torist brochures, as well as maps of the city and bus' routes. Then I visited an interesting art exhibition "Marche d'Artisans d'Art" located right next to the square. In fact, it was also a kind of market: any item of the exhibition was on sale with quite a high price.

After I had a short walk in the big and very nice park "Parc De La Periniere", where I met a strange creature:

The rain made me to leave the park and hide in a phone-cabine for a while. When the rain finished, I continued my walk in the Old Town, where I was surprised to find a few shops open. I was very happy to buy some food for the rest of the day and for the breakfast tomorrow, as well as some things for the house. Since my backpack was completely filled after the shopping, I decided to return home. Besides, I was becoming hungry.

At home I had a modest lunch made of scrambled eggs with ham and tomato. Then I decided to explore the neighbourhood of my house. I really liked how people decorated their windows with lights, toys, tinsel and other sparkling christmas things.

A Few Hours In Amsterdam

2007-12-07T00:02:00.000+01:00

It was a great day! Very spontaneously I went to Amsterdam for a few hours, to meet my very good friend Fionualla. We had a very nice girls conversation =) during our walk around the city. I was so happy to see her again, one year after we saw each other last time.

Was It a Joke?

2007-12-05T20:44:00.000+01:00

A Real Story.

A humid rainy windy quite unpleasant (for a person from a warmer country) day in the Netherlands, precisely Utrecht. A dialog of two locals (L1,L2) and a tourist (T) as soon as they left one of the buildings:

L1 (with a deep content sigh): Ah! Such a nice day!
L2: Jaaa!
T (puzzled whether it is a joke or not): hmmmm.....

(after some time)

L1 to T: What are your plans for today?
T: To walk a bit in the downtown...
L1: Yes, it is a pleasant day for a walk!

Note: Both locals had been wearing sweaters as the outer clothing. The tourist had a warm winter coat.

Was it a joke?

5 countries in 4 days

2007-12-05T01:12:00.000+01:00

I made a personal record of my NON-transit speed of traveling. Here it is:

Friday \ November 30 \ Slovenia
Saturday \ December 1 \ Slovenia + Austria
Sunday \ December 2 \ Austria + Germany
Monday \ December 3 \ France
Tuesday \ December 4 \ France + Holland
Wednesday \ December 5 \ Holland

Interesting that I have been doing completely different things in those countries:
In Slovenia I had a very pleasant 2.5 days touristic trip. In Austria (Vienna) I finished packing my things for moving and I had a very sad morning. In Germany (Saarbruecken) I visited my good italian friend. In France I spent a day solving the bureaucracy with my accommodation in Nancy. In Holland (Utrecht) I am attending a workshop until Saturday, December 8.

2007-12-03T07:07:00.000+01:00

I am almost at the end of my journey from Vienna to Nancy. In fact, I am in the train from Saarbruecken to Nancy. All people in the train speak yet unknown language for me, and unconciously I am trying to speak german to them. Of course, I am very excited about discovering new country and culture. Hovewer, my excitement is much lower in comparison with my sadness because I left Vienna. People like to say that it is a normal feeling in this case... I think they say this just for cheering up... and this does not inspire me at all...

In a Prison for Two Nights

2007-12-02T23:36:00.003+01:00

The trip to Slovenia was great! As usually =) we managed to visit many places and see many things. Below I enumerate some of them:

We stayed in a student hostel in Lubljana, called Celica, that used to be a prison.

The neighbourhood of the hostel (ulica Metelkova) is quite informal.

In Lubljana we had very nice walks at night and in the morning, and we also visited Ljubljanski Grad.

We visited the enormous Postojna cave.

We visited a castle in Predjama, that was built in a cave at a cliff.

We visited Kamnik, a town with a nice view from its castle.

We visited Bled, a town located on a beautiful lake. Again we had a great view from the local castle.

Good Bye Day

2007-11-28T23:59:00.000+01:00

Today was the last complete day that I spent in Vienna before leaving to France. I felt like going for a walk to tell the city my 'Good Bye'. The weather was wonderful: the sky was completely blue after several cloudy days, hence the sun was shining and cheering me up. Indeed my walk was very pleasant! I did a short touristic tour around beautiful historic buildings, visited MUMOK, which surprised me with its a new architectural creation, and where I visited the architecture museum. I bought a delicious marzipan brezel on the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) between Naturhistorisches museum and Kunsthistorisches museum. In the evening I had a very nice dinner with my closest friends in Vienna. Thank you Vienna for all wonderful days that I've spent here!

One of my friends from Zell am See

2007-11-26T21:10:00.000+01:00

Trip to Salzkammergut

2007-11-26T17:04:00.001+01:00

On the weekend we made a three-days trip to in the center of Austria. Most of the time we spent in Salzkammergut. It is a complex of many lakes surrounded by mountains. Our trip was great!

Among many other things we:

1) visited 7 cities (Gmunden, Bad Ischl, Halstatt, Gosau, Russbach, Zell am See, Krimml)

2) visited several lakes

3) made many friends (ducks, swans and other birds)

4) skied in Russbach

5) visited the highest waterfall in Europe (Krimmler Wasserfaelle)

6) had driven 1000 kilometers
7) spent lots of time on the nature

More photos are in my picasa album

Skiing in Semmering

2007-11-18T22:03:00.000+01:00

I was so happy skiing today! The beginning of the season! Fresh soft light pure snow!!! Indeed it was snowing with nice downy flakes! Exciting, especially after two-years break (last winter there was almost no snow even in the Alps)!!!

Snow-flakes on the trees!

Bruno was also having fun!

The food, as usually in skiing-places, was specially tasty. Perhaps the secret is that after skiing people are getting tired and very hungry =)

I can't wait going skiing again!

Доченьке Катеньке

2007-11-16T09:16:00.000+01:00

Свой стишок сложу о ней,
Улыбнувшейся в шесть дней.
А еще дней через семь
Хохотавшей вся и всем.

Ровно в месяц удивила,
“Га ” сказала что есть силы.
Отказался от пеленок
Расчудеснейший ребенок.

А в два месяца так ловко
Поднимали мы головку
И держали на весу,
Как жираф – во всю красу.

И с буренкиным легко
Расплавлялись молоком.
И сердились понарошку,
Если задержалась ложка.

На семидесятый день
Мы не знали слова “лень”.
Мы со спинки на бочок
Кувыркались, что сверчок.

Узнавали бабу Галю,
Маму Лену признавали.
Деду отвечали: “Го”
Когда смотрит он футбол

А читать умели б если,
От меня бы ждали вести.
И не сколько не скучали –
Только в росте прибавляли.

Катя. Катя.
Плакать хватит.
Вдруг тебя волчонок
Схватит?

LSV, 6 августа 1983

LSV Poetry

2007-11-14T16:40:00.001+01:00

Два цвета (ноябрь, 2007)
Доченьке Катеньке (6 август 1983)

Два цвета

2007-11-14T14:33:00.000+01:00

LSV, 14 ноября 2007

Два цвета:
Черный плюс белый.
Рваный объем.
Солне встает
Запоздало, несмело
Над ноябрем.

Ты далеко,
В пушистой постели -
Сладкие сны
Спрятали
Хлопы холодной метели
К красках весны.

Снова дорога,
С устанку колеса
Жизни среди
Вдоль полустанка
Блюдцами бьются:
"Не подведи".

Relativity

2007-11-10T21:06:00.000+01:00

If a man says that he has lots of different kinds of threads, he may simply mean something similar to this (a pen on the photo appears to make a better size comparison):

A thread of each color from the picture is as long as one meter!!!

Well, sincerely, to have even one spanner (for example) also means a lot for me. I don't have any though.

Walk in a Forest

2007-11-03T18:30:00.000+01:00

A beautiful day.

2007-11-01T18:34:00.000+01:00

The Day of all Saints. A warm autumn day. A nice walk up to one of the hills in Vienna. Beautiful sceneries. Nature plays with colors. Falling autumn leaves symbolize the change again. A special day.

Кукушка

2007-10-26T23:23:00.001+02:00

"The Cuckoo" is one of the best movies I have seen! The action is taking place at the end of World War II. Finish and Russian soldiers stay at at a Sami woman's house to be restored. All three of them speak different languages, each talk about his\her sore subject. In this way the war is shown from the viewpoints of each of them.

Moreover, due to their misunderstandings there are many very funny moments in the movie!

Offenes Parlament

2007-10-26T16:34:00.000+02:00

It is a National Holiday in Austria today. In spite of cold and strong wind people walk in parks and visit museums. Besides the Parlament has been open today, and we used this chance to visit it. Here are some photos.

Lange Nacht der Museen

2007-10-12T10:13:00.000+02:00

Museums in Wien are very good and interesing (sometimes even weird when it comes to the modern art =) A week ago we visited many of them due to the "long night of museums" - when all museums are open and you may visit any of them having a universal "Lange Nacht der Museen" ticket.

Com carne de vaca não se passa fome.

2007-09-28T11:08:00.001+02:00

Yesterday we had a dinner with many Romanians who were attending a conference here in Vienna. We were talking about differences\similarities of Romanian with other Romance languages, particularly with Portuguese. There is for example a phrase which sounds the same in both Romanian and Portuguese:

Com carne de vaca não se passa fome

which is literally translated to english like: with meet of cow you don't have hunger.

Besides Romanian has been also influenced by slavic languages. Here are a few Romanian words of slavic origin:

lubi - любить - to love
glas - глас (голос ) - voice
vĕčinŭ - вечный - eternal
raj - рай - paradise
jadŭ - ад - hell

Rotation

2007-09-27T18:01:00.000+02:00

Many years ago (if I remember correctly when we were 17) my friend Viktor Kharlamov and I made a short cartoon. We drew more then 300 pictures on the paper, scanned all of them, and then concatenated the images into the movie using some special software.
For a long time I was sure that this movie was lost forever: At that time I used to keep digital information on floppy disks. Several diskettes were needed to keep the cartoon, and some of them were corrupted with the time...
Only today I got to know that the set of Viktor's diskettes remained safe!!!

From KaLinka

Диалог с Олей

2007-09-18T14:05:00.000+02:00

KaLinka (13:54:17 18/09/2007)
все! работает программа!!!!!!!!!
Oli (13:54:27 18/09/2007)
отлично!!!! ПА - ЗДРА - ВЛЯ - УЮ!!!!!
KaLinka (13:54:53 18/09/2007)
спасибо! теперь мне надо волшебным образом за месяц написать 100 страниц. вообще не знаю как =))
Oli (14:03:42 18/09/2007)
как же не знаешь!!! - волшебным образом

Sunrise

2007-09-17T09:19:00.000+02:00

I woke up at 5.40 probably to see a beautiful sunrise from my window =)

Digital Butteflies

2007-09-09T00:04:00.000+02:00

The movements of these butterflies depend on the red ball. And I move the ball.

Computer Interactive Game

2007-09-08T23:58:00.000+02:00

Linz - Ars Electronica

2007-09-08T22:40:00.000+02:00

Today we went to Linz to see "Ars Electronica Festival". We spent eight hours in the city, and five of them were devoted for visiting the museum of digital and media art "Ars Electronica Center - Museum of the future". It is opened since 1996 and it exhibits different kinds of computer art interfaces. Visitors of the museum may interact with computers in many unusual ways: play games using the whole body for manipulating the game-characters (or be directly a character), "fly" over the city, visit 3D-cave...

Below are photos of multiple Katya walking independently in the virtual world =)

RUSSIA

2007-09-07T16:06:00.000+02:00

We invented an abbreviation
for the word "RUSSIA"!

Reversed
Universal
Sophisticated
System for
Incredible
Adventures

Logical-Mathematical Intelligence

2007-09-07T09:53:00.000+02:00

This morning I made a very short test, which showed that I possess logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart") according to the theory of multiple intelligences developed in 1983 by Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University. Before me this quiz has been taken 235598 times and 4% of people had the same result.

btw, I don't believe in tests like this =)

Первое Сентября!

2007-09-01T17:48:00.000+02:00

Today is the 1st of September - the beginning of the academic year and the National Holiday of Knowledge in Russia! The atmosphere is filled with happiness and excitement. Students and teachers happy to see each other after a long summer holiday; parents happy to take their 7-years children for their first lesson. There are flowers and balloons everywhere! Kind and motivating school-songs can be heard from almost every yard! I miss "первое сентября" a lot and I wonder if any other country has a similar holiday of knowledge...

Survive!

2007-08-26T10:24:00.000+02:00

A very nice and motivating comment from Rita: "wise people (like you and I) can survive everywhere." I can't help agreeing!

My Firsts...

2007-08-25T18:31:00.000+02:00

There were some "the first times" that I did in Ireland! Here is a list of some of them:
1) flying not only over the earth =)

2) seeing the ocean (North Atlantic Ocean), almost swimming there

3) driving on the left side of the road

4) sleeping in the car =)
5) washing the hands in a weird way using separate taps for hot and warm water

6) assembling a tent for camping, sleeping in the tent

7) eating a huge plate of breakfast (Irish breakfast)

8) hearing Gaeilge
9) visiting huts dating to 2000 B.C. (Beehive Huts)

10) visiting acient forts (1000 B.C.)

11) visiting a cave (Ailwee cave), seeing the waterfall, stalagnites, stalactites there)

12) lying on the wind
13) walking so much in the rain
14) feeding a seagull from the hand

15) finding a beautiful shell, with the tracery like in a lace (I broke it, because it was unexpectedly fragile; and then I was lucky to find another one!)
16) seeing wonderful formation of clouds with the moon

Back from Ireland: "Is Mise Katya"

2007-08-25T16:07:00.000+02:00

... or "I am Katya", when translated from Irish Gaeilge.

Even now, almost one week after we came back from Ireland, I am full of emotions and brilliant memories!
The main Mission to go to Ireland was to attend European School in Logic, Languages and Information (ESSLLI 2007). It was two weeks of intensive lectures from early in the morning until late evening in Trinity College, Dublin ...

Nevertheless, we had three weekends free of studies... and, of course, we used these weekends very efficiently for traveling!!!
On the first weekend we visited the center and the south of Ireland. We went to Kilkenny, Blarney, Cork, Kinsane, Cobh and Cashel.

On the second weekend we visited the West of the country. We visited Galway, Doolin, Westport. Of course, while driving between these towns we were stopping at different places, such as for example beaches of the North Atlantic Ocean, to admire the beautiful nature.

The trip on the third weekend was the longest, because we had also Monday to travel. We travelled to the south-west, where we drove in the Ring of Kerry, starting from Killarney. We also went to Dingle Peninsula, where the nature impressed us much more than in the touristic Ring of Kerry.

Afterwards we drove directly to the airport of Dublin, to pick up our plane to Vienna ;)

Both the summer school in Dublin and traveling in Ireland were a great experience for me! I had a wonderful time, and I will always be impressed how the warm atmosphere and friendliness of Irish people prevail cold raining weather!

Go Raibh Maith Agat! Thank you, Ireland!

P.S.: If you would like to read more about our stay in Ireland (or see more photos and videos) have a look at Bruno's blog.

Grill-Party

2007-07-14T10:35:00.000+02:00

Yesterday night we had a grill party with Sasha, Vadim and Rocio at Bruno's place. After eating a lot, we played two games, that we used to play in our childhood. Firstly, we made different Pantomimes one after another and others were trying to understand what was demonstrated to them. We also made Pantomime-scenes in couples, and the last one was shown by group of three. It was lots of fun! All pantomimes were very creative and funny. Sometimes we were laughing almost until crying. I wish we made videos or photos of some of these scenes.

At the end of the party we played a short-stories game. And Bruno already described results of the game .

It was a very nice and relaxing evening! Hope we may meet more often for parties like this. By the way guys, there are still grill-sausages left ;)

Не переживайте!

2007-06-19T21:11:00.001+02:00

Задумалась над выражением "переживать зря". Мы переживаем, когда не хотим, чтобы произошло что-нибудь плохое. То есть, если это не произойдет, должны по идее быть довольные и счастливые. И тут мы "радостно" заявляем: "ну вот, зря переживали!". То есть что? Было бы "не зря", если бы это плохое произошло? Отсюда вывод: лучше вообще не переживать! =)