What is the country of you dream? In which country you'd like to born (if you could chose it)? Which country you think is the most interesting and unusual for visiting?

Firstly, the country for me is not a political system here, but a plce with its climat and its people. If we take this concept, my country of dream would be Spain, especially the South cost of it.
As Spanish is my second (I mean after Russian) language, I've visited this country many times. I like that it is always warm there, and you can go to the beach even in winter. They do not have snow, and it rains less than in Russia. However, the biggest reason why I like this country is the "national character" of people living there.
let me explain. In Russia, when u ask somebody to help u - for example, to find a place (although i personally rarely do it), you never know what will be the reaction. You can be helped, but in some situations you can be insulted or ignored. Another case: when I go in metro every day, I see the people's faces there. And it seems clear for me that in this moment all the people around me are thinking about their problems, it's easy to guess what are they: this guy feels depressed because of his exams failure, that woman seems to worry about not having enough money, etc. In Spain, people just do not focus on their problems, and it is a better attitude. They do not spend their free time feeling depressed; you can rarely see not a smiling face in the street. Even despite the crysis they have, they look like the happiest nation ever.
About the alst question - I wanted to visit some African country because as I know they are very different from the usual places; it can be rather exotic, although may be not very pleasant or interesting. And I mean not Egypt or Emirates here, I mean a non-turistic part of the continent.

Topics for blog #14

1). What are your plans for your summer holiday? Are you going to a seaside, or you prefer another kind of rest?

2). Many professional sportsmen usually joke about people that start to practice something during a short period in spring, before the "beach time". Do you notice something like that in your attitude towards sports? Do you have any time peridos in which you usually practice sports more or less?

3). As our first university year is finishing, it's time to develop a general opinion about student's life and our department. What is your impression about this year (studies, people, changes in your life, etc.)? What do you think about the results you are going to have?

Do you remember the last time, when you visited a theater? How was that? What you liked more?

I've chosen Ivan's second topic because I'm still thinking about the last performance I've seen.
During these holidays, I've gone to theatre twice - both times to MHT (it looks a bit stupidly in translit). First time I've watched "The Last Sacrifice" based on Ostrovsky's play. It was quite a normal performance, I mean it represented what is usually called "classical theatre", and many good actors were involved in it (for example, some very known ones: A. Leontyev and O. Tabakov, and also Tabakov's wife - M. Zudina.
However, the second performance I've seen during this holidays impressed me much more. It was K. Bogomolov's original work "Ideal Husband" (he not only directed the play, he has also written it, although including some parts of Oscar Wilde's, A. Chekhov's and J. Goethe), and it included a lot of satire related to actual Russia. Some metaphors which were a part of the play were quite strict (rude? don't know an adecuate word in English. mb provocative?), in the first place I mean how Russian politics and Russian Orthodox Church were represented. I'm surprised that the performance was not outlowed - particularly taking in consider how agressive seems to be ROC now towards everything that can offend the faith (can't express ironic voice by typing, but you can imagine it here).
In this performance also very good actors played - M.Matveed, S.Chonishvili, M.Zudina and others.
All in all, this performance impressed me a lot, although I can't say that it can be called genius from the point of view of classical theatre.

What are your plans for the spring break? Are you going to stay in Moscow or go somewhere else?

Probably all of us are now looking forwards to our spring vacation. For me, it was a great surprise that we have 12 days of holiday in this season - I thought that all the universities have big breaks only in summer and in winter.
Unfortunatly, I couldn't coordinate my friends in such order that we would have an opportunity to go on a vacation, so I'll spend it in Moscow. But I'm not so sad - 2 of us have their homes available in this period, and I have nothing to do (in contrast to our usual situation with homework). Therefore, we will relax by playing basketball, poker, going to the cinema or restaurants/cafes, etc. etc.
After studying for so long you really start to appreciate your holidays. Probably after i'll find a job after graduating from the univeristy, I'll consider these shot periods of relax even more important than now.

#3 A Philosophical Question This is for any philosophers out there. Do you think it's possible to prove that your mind is not the only conscious mind in the universe? This is a very challenging problem, and if you think the answer is simple then you probably didn't think enough about the question! (Look up "solipsism" on wikipedia if you're curious.)

Easy question, to say the truth. The answer is NO. Undoubtedly. Any prove that you'll find may be just a game of your mind - something like Heisenberg's principle of complementarity: the fact of investigation may change the result. Possibly, in the future quantum mechanics will give an answer, but, as I've told before, it won't be relyable.
But, in my opinion, the answer to the question is not important as your life won't change if you get the answer "yes" or "no". The problem is similar to the one "Does a fallen tree produce any sound if nobody hears it?" - it's kind of sofistry. The only thing that really will change is your thought about it, and in this case the thought won't have much influence on the reality (probably). In order to really change something, you also have to get to know many other answers about the universe and our life, but, as it is impossible, relax and follow the advice of the first edition of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Don't Panic.

Does the consultation week disorient you? I mean whether such kind of break spoils your determination to work hard or not?

In my opinion, consulatation week is a very useful period. Thanks to it, I can sleep for the whole week for 10-12 hours a day, and I also can organize my time (although I rarely do it in a noraml way) in order to make some days totaly free, and do all the work in some others.
To me, a little vacation would be better anyway (and our consulattion week is not a vacation at all: we have our normal homework + a lot of extra homework + preparation for the midterm exams), but this variant I also do like. But, unfortunatly, I'm such a lazy person that I relax for the first 2 days and after it start panic as if I haven't read Adams Douglas and sit down to work for 14 hours a day.
Furthermore, for people who live in other cities the consulattion week a great opportunity to go home for a while and to meet their parents. Moreover, if you are a well time manager, you cane even go for a vacation to some other country and use this time just as if it would be holiday.

Topics for blog

1) What sports are your favourite ones? Describe which one you practise (or mb practised before, or want to practise).

2). How did your life become different when you started to study at HSE-NES? Compare it to your life while beeing at school.

3). What do you think about all the mid-terms we have? How are you going to prepare for them (if you really are)? What are you expecting to do on your "vacation"? (I've joined it to the same topic, as for me, unfortunatly, these time perido and preparing for exams are inseparably linked)