Ireland. Just Ireland...

Thinking of the topic for my interview, I've suddenly remembered of my group mate who went to Ireland last year. And I decided that it'd be interesting to know more about that journey and share her experience with other students. So, I met Lera at the University and asked her to answer some of my questions.

Lera...Was it your dream to go to Dublin?

Well, actually, no, it wasn't. This journey was just a good opportunity to go to an English-speaking country and entertain myself. 

Oh, I'm sure you had a great time there.

Yeah, I never regretted that I decided to go.

So...What was it& Where did you stay?

Well, I stayed with a great family. It was a married couple with 2 children - boys of 8 and 10 years. I wasn't the only student there. There was also a student from Morocco.

Morocco? Was there anybody from Russia except you?

In my group there was only one girl from Russia. The others were from different countries.

How did you study there?

We studied from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. At the lessons we mostly talked. We had a wonderful teacher who didn't give us a lot of homework. And, moreover, it was very interesting to communicate with people from other countries.

I can imagine. So you didn't have to spend a lot of time on your homework. What did you do after classes then?

After classes we could do whatever we wanted. We visited different museums, castles and, of course, we went shopping.

Talking about museums...Which one was the most impressive?

Of course, it was The National Leprechaun Museum. You probably know that a leprechaun - a fabulous character with a pot of gold - is one of the main symbols of Ireland. There is a very interesting hall where all the furniture is three times bigger than its real size. And everybody can feel how difficult it is to be such a small creature.

Oh, that's very cute. Was there something else that you'd like to tell me about?

Well, we've also visited a concert. It was like... an opera. There was a choir and some opera singers, and they performed some old songs. It was quite interesting.

So...What is your general impression of your journey?

I liked it very much. People are so pleasant and friendly there. I gained a great experience, improved my English and learned a lot of interesting things.

House of dream
We all dream about something and wait for the moment when these dreams come true. Way to realize a dream is difficult. But always worth a try.
Today I'm interviewing a man who building a house with his own hands.
did you decide to build a house?
In my youth, I have always dreamed of living my own house. I do not like living in an apartment.
Why now?
Accumulated enough money and have more time for this.
Now there are a greater number of houses for sale, why not buy a ready one?
I thought about it, but the plus of building your own house is that you build it for yourself just the way you like
How long do you plan on building?
I would like to finish in 5 years, about (smiles)
Is it difficult to work alone?
Of course, but labor costs money, and the quality is not at the highest level.
And twhat your family thinks about this?
Tthey fully support me, it's all for them.
Can you say that you are now on the way to make your dream come true?
Absolutely true, I lived half of my life, I brought up the child, planted trees , so all I have left is to build a house
I wish you an easy job and positive mood. Thanks for the interview.



Follow your dreams, do not stop when you fail, and you will be the master of your life

Eating out in Tula.
You don’t know where to eat out, taste delicious food and have a good time? Yulia tells us everything about cafes in Tula and gives useful advice.

Question: Where is the most delicious food?
Yulia: There are 100s cafes in Tula now. For example, cafés or restaurants of Chinese and European kitchen, fast food like McDonald’s and Burger King, lots of pizzerias and stuff like that. About delicious food? I think the food that our moms cook is the tastiest. But if you want to eat out the most delicious food in “Tarelka” café, because I know how their kitchen works: there are fresh food and no semi-cooked dishes.

Question: What do you think where the healthiest food? Not fast food.
Yulia: The healthiest? I don’t know. I think, when all food is fresh and cooked by professionals it’s the main element of healthy food. Of course, it’s not McDonald’s, you know.

Question: What can you say about the service?
Yulia: Service always depends on administration and director of café. The worst service, I suppose, is in “Beverly Hills” café, because they’re all beginners at this job.

Question: What do you advise for students? What place is not very expensive and is situated near our university?
Yulia: My advice is “Tarelka”, of course. There are delicious food, big assortment and low prices! Or “Podkrepizza”. The prices are not very high there and you find very tasty pasta. Also “Tomato” is a good café and it’s near our university.

Question: What about the worst café in Tula? Where shouldn’t we go?
Yulia: It’s hard question. I don’t know. I heard something about bad service in “Oblaka” café, that waiters are very rude there. But who knows, maybe you feel very scary among clouds.

Question: Oh, you may be right. And what is your impression about the last place you visit?
Yulia: The last place was “Beverly Hills” café. So… they always make mistakes. I think it’s their hobby. Waiters were confused and brought a wrong dish to my friend. She was very upset.

Question: What about romantic? Which café is convenient for dates?
Yulia: I think it’s “Pryanik” café-restaurant. It has summer-opened places with beautiful view of fountain and kremlin. It’s very romantic, especially in evenings.

Question: I know that you work at a Tula’s café. What is the best thing you love about it?
Yulia: I adore my café so much! I think we have the coolest and the friendliest stuff at all city. Our prices are like in Moscow, but have you ever taste our desserts? They are from heaven!

Question: Almost everybody loves coffee. Tell us where is the tastiest coffee?
Yulia: At “Schocoladnitsa”, of course. And it’s not because I work there. We have many different sorts of coffee: espresso, americano, cappuccino, latte, ice-coffee, coffee with our brand chocolate and etc. They have very high quality. We have many fans of our cappuccino with cinnamon.

well moved

Today, I'm going to show you the results of my interview with a cool girl Alina who lives in the US 

Tell me about your first month in NY. The difficulties you faced, the feelings you had, everything
So!.. everything was really difficult. I didn’t speak English at all. It that was just “my name is Alina. I love you”, something like that! And you know of course I studied the language but usually we study British English and in America they have a different accent and especially African-americans. Subway appeared to be really complicated, too

Yeah, it’s not as in Moscow where everything is clear! As I know you should know the train numbers, right?
Yes. I think that Moscow is absolutely opposite to NY - the people are friendly and the subway’s dirty! The food is heavy.. Everybody’s going to talk to you. In transport, elevators or supermarkets. I had to pretend to be rude looking at my telephone even if there was no any service and everybody knew.. everything’s to avoid these small talks which I couldn’t understand!
During the first year I changed about 10 jobs! I was working as a waitress as a babysitter as I hostess as a lifeguard and even a cleaner. We just needed money
But NY is the city where you won’t have any difficulties if you speak Russian Spanish or Chinese so many people living there don’t speak any English.

That's about the areas!So nice!What moment was the most memorable ?
The first two weeks when we were just chilling out with a lonely guy who took us to parties, exhibitions or parks! Dasha usually was like a guide she just said “let's wake up at 6 and go there and there”!
When you arrived did you have a feeling that the city suits you a lot?
When you are 21 I think everything suits (haha ) more over I was looking for a journey in my life that time. And there were some other reasons..i understood that I was the 3d year student and I won’t have an opportunity to get there soon
How did the decision to stay come? were there many examples in front of you or it came spontaneously?
I don’t really have an answer to this question.. All three years I thought about it.. I was asking Dasha and she was asking me.. we were following each other. That wasn’t easy because our parents cried a lot and of course I missed my family and friends
Yeah I understand I saw how has it affected my family. But it was hard and for you too. You needed to have someone to talk to and to rely on.

Did you communicate with the Americans the American-speaking people?
Sure! On my first job I’ve met Ilyas who was working as a hookah guy.. he tried to talk to me so I asked if he speaks Russian! His answer was a little bit but in reality a little little bit! If I hadn't met him, I wouldn’t have improved my English ever

How did the decision to marry come?
There was nothing romantic in it and now in 3 years we feel like an ordinary couple and don’t wear rings. We just went to a lawyer and realized that there’re no any ways to live legally for me without the marriage.

Has New York changed you?
Not really the city but the life on my own! When I arrived I felt like an independent woman but a year later I realized I definitely wasn’t! 

Have you decided what to do next with your life I’ve read several of your articles in a New York magazine, is it your job?
Kind of.. I really like journalism and these articles are mine but it’s not me who takes the interviews.. They use my questions, take the interviews and then I translate it into Russian sum up and put my name under.. Really like it! So I’m going to study  Russian journalism and I really dream to work in Moscow after setting up a family in the US. I also work as a waitress now of course to earn some money.

Have you ever regretted?
Never! There are always so many things to do, places to go and people to talk to!

Thank you! it was a pleasure to talk  to you!Another thank you for answering my questions and the time you spent

The best place for summer holiday

In the Soviet Union people had a tendency to travel within the borders of Russia. What has changed nowadays? Turkey, Egypt or any other place outside Russia? What place do the Russian people prefer for summer holidays now?

- Hello. I'm conducting a survey "The best place for a summer holiday." Could you answer my questions?
- Hello. Yes, I can.
- Where did you spend your summer holiday last time?
- I' was in Anapa.
- Why Anapa?
- I think that Anapa is really the best place for me and my family because it isn't so far from our town.
- Do you want to travel abroad?
- Yes, but we must get a visa (It's extra trouble for us).
- What do you think about other advantages of rest in Russia?
- So, I think It's transport. My family don't like planes. And it's good that we can travel by train.
- Why do you like trains?
- In spite of the fact that trains are long and expensive, safety is the most important thing for me .
- Okay. Thanks for your answers.

In conclusion, I've got an answer to the main question. People who wereborn in the Soviet Union still prefer Russian places for summer holidays.

Interview with Alyona Radina( a young journalist).

‘my way to the dream'

I'm having  a conversation with an amazing girl from Russia. Alyona, is a young student who's going to be a journalist and she'll share with us her way.

So, Alyona, tell us please, who's a journalist for you?

To my mind, journalist is a well-rounded person, who has to be aware of everything, from science to sport, from art to cuisine, from politics to bringing up children. I'm sorry for such a rude interpretation . I think, the main feature of journalists is that they really can find everything.

How did you decide to choose such a profession?
You know, my decision to be a journalist was always with me at that time my aunt was a student of journalism in MSU. I always was good at languages, literature, writing, I got pleasure from those subjects and I wanted to connect my life with it. But I didn't feel like becoming either a linguist or a translator therefore I chose a sphere of journalism.

What's about your personal qualities can make you a good journalist?

I'm shy to highlight my character features. But I suppose, I love people, I can communicate with them easily and feel their psychological state if I need it.
Moreover, I'm purposeful, industrious, I always use information about people that I know as an example in my wor. A real journalist should be able to find out everything he or she needs.

Hhave you got a person who inspires you?

Maybe the example of person who inspires me will not be appropriate because it's not from journalism sphere. But my mum is the best person for me. She teaches me to face all the problems with a smile, never tell anybody my problems and always do what I want in spite of other people's opinion and my fears.

What was the first step, first interview?

The first step was at the 10th form when my first article was printed in the local newspaper. The next, more serious step was in the first year of my education in HSE. It was the task to take an interview with the famous media person independently. I had 3 people, with whom i wanted to have a talk: Olga Shelest, Sergey Brilyov and Alexander Zheleznyak. I found lots of contacts of people, who can сonnect me with them, made thousands of calls but all the efforts were futile because they were away on business trip. But we had only 2 weeks to prepare this assignment, that's why I had to hurry up. Finally, I gave a hard time to Alexander Zheleznyak and he returned from his journey from Africa earlier. You see, Zheleznyak is the main editor of the magazine "National Geographic Traveller", he is a famous journalist, photographer and traveller. It was my dream to have an interview with such a person. Plus, I had to find extra information about him, make up questions, which he hadn't been asked in previous interviews, write an article about him after this, make a photo for a story and a video.

I know that you started working professionally after your first year graduation. Tell me please, how could you reach your aim? What have you learnt while working on radio?

After the first year I had an internship on the radio station "Mayak" as an editor of the program "Park of Culture and Rest" with Kitill Radtsig and Maria Bachenina. It was a great time. I had to make up topics for programs, find experts for the air ,I answered listeners' calls and gave them the opportinity to be in the air and, of course - no matter it was day or night - I always had to keep in touch with broadcasters. After the internship I became aware of the “cuisine” of the radio station, I got a big data base of my own experts' telephones and became good friends with the broadcasters.
During the second year I worked in the magazine "Happy parents" and I wrote articles for both the online and printed versions of the magazine. I had interviews with psychologists about children, peculiarities of bringing up and I translated articles from foreign magazines and web-sites.

There's information that you're travelling a lot. How does travel experience influence the  character of a journalist?

My passion is travelling. But for it, I couldn't meet lots of people (it's the main part of journalistic work because you have to have a great number of contacts), I couldn't practise my English with native speakers and foreigners, I couldn't see real situation in different countries. In fact, I have been to 15 countries: Egypt, Turkey, Thailand, Germany, Austria, The Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria, Spain, Israel, Morocco, Cyprus, Ukraine, Mexico and China and Italy.

What's about HSE? Does it help you to broaden your horizons or it's more up more to you to grow professionally?

Of course, my faculty helps me a lot. I'm proud to be a student of HSE. Firstly, we have lots of classes with famous journalists (Sorokina, Romanova, Gubin, Dmitriev, Kemarskaya, Tarasenko, Archangelskiy, Ganapolsiy, Guseinov... the list is endless) and no doubt, nobody can explain real journalism better than real journalists. Besides, we practise a lot. In the first year we imposed our own newspapers, in the second year we made our own radio stations, worked in the studio and edited, now we prepare our own tv shows. Plus, I have opportunities to go on internship to other countries. Last year we went to Rome for the course of ancient literature, this November I’m going to Cologne to the Journalism School.

Tell me, please, about your recent experience in China, what it was like to work there?

China is the best experience in my life. I found out about student organization AIESEC and left my job in the magazine "Happy parents". I had lots of interviews to become an AIESECer and to be a part of the project in China. To tell the truth, I was choosing for a long time among Indonesia, Brasil and China. But I was always interested in China, so I went there for the project "Dare to dream" for 6 weeks. My project was based on teaching pupils English language and Russian culture. Firstly, I was staying for 2 weeks in host family in Beijing and Tianjin to get used to China, after that we went to Xian for travelling, where we stayed for a week. Then we went to Zhangye, where we had our project in summer school and led a 3-day conference for students. I can talk about China for years because I'm crazy about this country, about my best friends there, about food, language, culture - about everything. All my feelings and my thoughts are in my net travelogue, where I wrote about everything every day, plus, I made lots of videos which resulted in a real 3-hour film.
I also began to study Chinese to realize my dream.
In fact, after China everything is head over heels because I don't know what to do in the future, how to connect my life with journalism and China, which program to choose for master degree. My thoughts are always about that happy time in China, about that people. We always chat with each other and have lots of video calls. It's really hard but I adore this condition because it gives me strenghts to overcome all the obstacles to reach my dreams.

Love& Life

Love & Life

Every teenager thinks about his or her life, personality, ambitions. So, today I’m going to interview one of teenagers about her world outlook. I prepared a small list of questions and I’m really looking forward to hearing the answers.

•

We never seem to have enough time to really think about the ones we love. Who do you love? Is that your partner? Or somebody else? Do you love many persons at once?

-This is a very difficult question for me because I don’t always have time to spend it with thepeople I love. So it’s everybody who surrounds me - my family, friends, collagues, but the person who I love the most is my mother.

•

Who’s your best friend? Where did you meet? What makes that person your best friend, after all?

- Yes, I have not so many best friends. They are young men and women, some of them I haveknown since my childhood and some of them I met at school. I think time passes and after some situations in my life they proved to be my best friends.

•

What’s your childhood dream? Do you still remember it? You wanted to travel the world? Has your dream become true? Or are you drifting away from it with every single day of your life?

- Really I can’t remember it. I guess I had one but what it was I have no idea. I’ve alwayswanted to travel and I still want it  because it’s really  fun to make friends from variouscountries, to learn other cultures.

•

Where do you live? Is this really your place? Do you feel at home there?

-I live in a city which is good for me. Yes, this is really my place. When I’m at home, I feelpeace and quiet and there, of course, after a hard and difficult day I can rest. So my house is my castle.

•

Do you think you’re strong? Strong people have this power to change their life and to create incredible things. What “strong” means to you?

- I guess I am. For me strength is overcoming the difficulties, when you believe in yourself and your abilities.

•

What was the most important thing you’ve done so far? Have you really done something important? Something that changed your life fundamentally? Or something that changed somebody else’s life fundamentally? Why was that important?

- During my short life I’ve done very few important things. For everyone important things can be different. What about me, it’s to graduate from the university or to get married andhave children. Currently there aren’t such things that could radically change my life.

•

Do you love yourself? Like really, truly accepting everything about you. Does it happen that you hate yourself? Most people do that without even being aware.

- It’s rather very difficult to say whether I love myself or not. I like some of my traits, but there are things that I’d like to change, and I try to do it. My attitude towards me is bothpositive and negative.

•

What is your favorite word? It might be the one you’re saying all day long without realizing or it might be something that really makes you feel good when you’re telling it. Most of the time, there’s an unconscious link between your true self and this word.

- My favorite word is the mother, I can say it many times a day. And is there any other word? I think everyone's favorite word is mum. Even a small child when he grows up says “mum”for the first word.

•

When was the last time you cried? What was so powerful that really cracked you up inside?

- The last time I cried? It’s hard. I often cry, and sometimes even over nothing, just  nonsence. For example, I cried last week in the afternoon when saw a stray dog on the road and I felt sad and sorry for it.

•

Can you see yourself in 5 years from now? How would you look? How would you behave?

-What will be with me in 5 years? I think I would have a family, my husband, 3 children and want to engage in something that I really like.

•

If there’s one thing in your life you want to change right now, what is it?

-I guess I have everything in my life – a house, family, job that I like, I’m healthy, that is very important. I don’t want to change anything. So if I would have a magic wand I wouldgive it to someone who really needs it.

•

Do you have secrets? What is your number one reason for having and keeping secrets?

- It seems to me that everyone has secrets, but what are they for then? In order not to harm anyone and , especially, dear people. I'm not afraid if someone will know my secret, but certainly it’s unpleasant and shameful, but if they know the secret of my dear person from whom I have something to hide I would be annoyed reaction of people.

•

Are you happy?

-At the moment, I'm happy. Because now I have people who support me, I have a favorite job, and favorite pastime. Therefore, I can say exactly I am happy.