Crazy update about nothing

Tonight going to Cyprus till May 3rd. Through Budapest (Hungary), so thanks for re-opening the airports. Don`t miss me, and as I promissed, all new details will be in May. As now, even myself is not the most updated person about some further changes concerning me... Yes, such situations are possible. Wish me luck anyway, he-he :)

PS: Some Cyprus from before, enjoy :)

Quite okay for April in Moscow too, by the way. Though coldish today (and I cannot care anymore, because Cyprus, I love you!). Ciao, need to run, to check car rentals and the flights. Still being at work, that is ambitious. Bye, see you later.

Sort of news :)

Having two days long training these days. Writing now at the end of the session from the conference hall, using wi-fi available. That is not the news of course :)

I am thinking whether to start another blog, sort of "LanaKurtova Special", because some changes are going to happen soon (not to just happen, but to be totally made by me), and things will be pretty different, that is why the concept might be different. I still will use the logo "Hey teach me some English", because it is a never ending story I guess... Anyway my very close ones (even if they are far away) know what I am talking about. For others - suspense still :) I am that generous at the moment :)

Handmade Red Square in Spring

Hello, look what I have seen while running through the Red Square this week. Was on the way to and from the Cyprus Embassy where I was getting my usuaul visa.

Photos were taken during two days, that is why some of them are more (or less) sunny (or grey dull). In fact it is such a lovely spring weather now in Moscow. Totally pleasant!

Pictures are clickable (for better view and more details if interested). Not a big piece of art, but I found it interesting - the HANDMADE Red Square.

General view

The Red Square is covered with stones, not bricks or asphalt

They use sort of crutches to organize the stones.

Plus, some sand is needed

The tools

Some of the workers looked very picturesque

Not often to be seen here 

Always the tourists

Road police car (they stop other traffic when government cars arrive)

The Kremlin door is open

Anyway. I was running by, in quite a typical hurry :)

Ciao, see you later :)

March 29th

Hello, I am safe at home. Stayed here after heard the news on the radio. Cell phones do not work, so still challenging to locate everybody. Hardly found Artyom, the brother, and he is okay at work. Youlya, the friend who uses exactly the Red (Sokolnycheskaya) line at this time - was using it (in fact, the other line) a bit later. Now metro is quite empty as many stayed at home. Red line is still not working, bodies are still there, the injured are in the hospitals.

The phone lines are overloaded, and also there is information that cell lines are blocked to control the situation (supposedely the cell signals were used for attacks). So only regular lines and Internet.

Listen to Russian radio and reading BBC, France2 etcetera - the information looks the same and adequate, though things were very emotional on Russian radio (the channel I listen - when people call to the studio and suggest different ideas, which were difficult to imagine to be heard on the radio yesterday (quite a free-minded radio, and now there are ideas about giving more control for example, more authority permissions towards citizens etc). Yes, it is the wrong day to build theories, but somebody has done all that - somebody and for some reason, and for some reason others change their mind now. Right now on the radio - it is more like news, with news jingles and adverts. Such is life.

As people say, police and metro employees were reacting quickly and professionally, the medical help also arrived quickly. But right now I do not understand the forty minutes gap in the timing between two explosions. There are only three station in between.

It is officially advised now not to go to the center if possible. My office is in the center exactly, and our director recently sent emails encouraging everybody to work from home. I was on the Loubyanka station yesterday evening - were meeting with girls.

Speaking a lot about North Caucasian people (there are a lot of them in Moscow), about taxi drivers who overcharged hugely today because the metro stopped (and taxi drivers are often the same "southern" people). But again, those unhappy quite suffer from police and circumstances, so they are trying to earn more when possible. There already was a fight on another station - the man suspected two "southern" looking women (just said on the radio). Of course there are examples of solidarity and healthy sense, but the reaction started (or was started) again. There are also official announcements to stay calm and tolerant towards each other (meaning possible ethnical conflicts).

It is terrible.

I am safe, so are my close ones, thank you.

Festival du film francophone

By the way... And I guess that the today title is understandable in English as well :)

Tomorrow the annual Film Festival of Francophone movies starts in Moscow.

Cinema-France is one of the official information sources! Which means that tomorrow, after work, I am going to see at least two movies.

To France through Lithuania

Bonjour my friends :)

Missing real France for already almost half a year (and that is a lot), decided to go there agaian.

Through Vilnus, which is the capital of Lituania, because it looked better. This time I was not believing in three hours long plane from Moscow to Paris and wanted a longer journey. So I took the train to Vilnus and then a plane to Paris, then, to be honest, also the train to Lille because I wanted it there too.

Never before I slept in a hotel with such a view: the planes, the control tower. Near Vilnus airport.

Lithuanian money. They are part of European Union, but still have there own money, the Lits. I liked the airplane design.

This amount (on the photo) was enough to feed me there with several local cheeses and sweets. Another thing I wanted to do in Vilnus was to visit the Genocide Museum (since 1940 Lithuanians see there history as one year of Soviet occupation, then several years of German occupation, and then four decades of Soviet occupation again). And that was very serious, and I am really impressed, shocked by the facts I have learnt there.

The train to the airport. Tiny little carriage.

Still winter here...

But spring in France!

The flowers! (Lille, north of France)

Green grass and real flowers already! (Lille)

The birds in love! (the Lille Zoo)

The flowers again!

And yes - it is the famous les Champs Elysees with both Russian and French flags. 2010 is the year of France in Russia and the year of Russia in France. What a coincidence! :)

To be continued...

The winter way, a lot of grey

Hello :) Just want to show some pictures from where I live now. Done today at noon. I was walking towards metro.

There are just pictures from my way, across the housing and a school yard, because it is a shorter way. Pictures are clickable, if you manage to find something fancy to want a more detailed view.

It is a snowy winter. There were almost minus 30C frosts this season, but right now here are quite comfortable minus 11.

The school. With bás-reliefs of Russian literature classics. Building is from the middle of the twentieth century, so here is some architecture (modern schools are generally like boxes).

The school stadium, occupied for Saturdays for football (soccer). Yes, it is played on the snow.

Announcement board. Used as adverts boards mostly.

Somebody`s Saturday morning. Winter reflection.

Empty.

According to some horoscopes 2010 is the year of Tiger. So some people decorate cars (or anything else) with toy-tigers. For good luck or just without any particular purpose. Perhaps just because you`ve got several tigers as a gift. I think I got three or four. You know, all that stuff about commercialized holiday season. As for the photo, it is awful, but I was not going to attract attention picturing somebody`s car.

Not the Abbey Road, but sort of close visually. In fact, the road ahead is the Volgogradsky prospect (the Volgograd avenue, and by the way it is huge). "Volgograd" is the current name of the town "Stalingrad", for those who are in the history. For those who are more in linguistics, "Volgograd" means "town on the Volga", and the Volga is the river (for those who are in geography :))

So is the Kuzminky underground station in Moscow (named after the village which was here before). South-East, overcrowded. It is not very light without sun, I decided not to Photoshop to show the real light. It may start snowing soon, if it is that dark.

M n` M. One “M” is for underground (or metropolitain, or metro). Another one is also quite well-recognized.

That was grey, I agree. But hopefully you enjoed it :) See you later!

My Father`s Day

Don`t remember if I posted this picture. It is one of my favorite ones. In fact, it is the only photo of our family together. Made like twenty years ago, I guess, in Kovrov (Vladimir region) where we lived before.

My father was from the family of a military officer (Ivan), though his parents divorced when he was little. His elder brother (Valery) was sent to a boarding school somewhere far away, because he had hearing and speaking problems, in fact he was mute and deaf. His middle brother (Victor) was living less than a year. My father (Vladimir) was the third son.

When he was seven, he was already living in Kovrov where they moved after the Far East. As far as I know, his mother (Anna) had a stroke and was paralyzed, so my little father at the age of seven was the only one to take care of her. And he was taking care. By the way they were living in a communal apartment – it was sort of wooden barack, to put it clear. There were couple of dozens rooms for couple of dozens families, one kitchen and one wc. The bath was somewhere in the district. My father was a successful pupil, though the one with a character, the one who is ready to question things and make discussions with teaches – not the best quality for Soviet schools. Anyway he was good with his studies. Anna died when my father was finishing them.

At the age of eighteen he went to the army, compulsory military service. He was definitely a natural born leader, always caring about people around, doing things and making changes. He was a strong personality, a successful professional, with great sense of humor. He graduated the university as a lawyer. Having started his career in the public prosecution office, he very soon switched over to administrative work and became what may be called a high official. I think he did it because he just wanted to make a bigger impact. Power and authority are needed if you want to do things, and he had this high social responsibility. When he achieved everything in Kovrov, which is a provincial town with well developed industry and population of 200.000, we moved to Vladimir.

I do remember his phrase when the country, the USSR, started to collapse. He definitely understood that something was wrong with the system, though when you live within the system, you may function and you see positive results – you just live according to the existing rules, I guess. He definitely had a lot of insider information, but when all the new information appeared, the archives were opened and so on… Once two of us were watching the evening news and he just dropped, mostly to himself, I guess: “I can`t believe that the whole idea was criminal from the beginning”. I was still too young to participate in such conversations as an equal party and I really regret about it now. As for the country and my father`s role, I think, that when you feel responsibility for you country, for your people – you just do things. You just care. Even when living in the system which is wrong.

My father was born on the Russian Far East (town of Korsakov, the Sakhalin island). When he was 39 he went on a business trip to Ukraine (town of Zdolbunov, Rovno region – it is almost Poland). It is nine time zones in between. He never came back. He had a heart attack, as far as I know he just felt asleep. It was early afternoon and he was going on a car as passenger. It was February 2nd, 1992.

I remember a huge crowd we had around us eighteen years ago, shock and tears of so many people, talks and small remarks. Little pieces of information, and that was all we were left with. Crowd that disappeared, another crowd that remained, still many people who remember him. He was a huge person, my father. Think about him today.

Photo: My Dad in the army. 1976

Kristen Wiig and fun stuff

Give a book of lyrics supposed to be dramatic to a real comedian, and you`ll get this ->



Kristen Wiig, currently in Saturday Night Live and already in several movies. She is so talently funny :)

Women in Technology

A short inspiring video supporting women in technology.



The source: www.fastcompany.com/blog/caroline-simard/advancing-women-technology/anita-borg-institute.