I miss this smile - a lot!

My cousin

My cousin, Gleb, flew to Ufa last Thursday for the 2 international singers competition. He's been studying opera singing for the last 6 years. And I think he is a promising star and has a bright future on stage. Watch the video of him performing in the first round of the competition.

photography master class

2 weeks ago I attended a master class on studio photography. The speaker was a young but promising and and experienced photographer from Moscow Alaksei Dovgulya, who works with fashin magazines, shoots photo advertisements etc... The master class that lasted 2 days - shooting techniques, tricks and tops on the first days, and secrets of editing photos on the second. Both days cost $180 - a reasonable price for the knowledge. I learned quite a lot and started to use some of the techniques in my shoots. I found a good photo studio in Ufa that I can rent by the hour. S soon there will be more studio photography. Here is a picture from the master class! Try to find me :)

Only in Russia... driving

Only in Russia you can be rear ended on a highway while trying to pass someone.

My Awesome green monster :)

I was looking through old pictures that I never edited and found this one!

Terra Language School

I never thought I would be a teacher, and especially a teacher of English as a foreign language. The thought of leading some university level classes in multimedia or photography appealed to me in the past. But not English. To tell you the truth it is a hard work. To keep class interested in what you're saying and make them understand all the grammar. The worst part is that I have to explain the same thing to all my classes. That is a big disadvantage. Instead of moving forward and talking about more creative and interesting things with each new group I have to go back to all the same rules and sentences and explain them :)
However my students give me a lot of good and positive feedback. They give me energy sometimes. And this is a big advantage.
I know I won't be a teacher all my life. I really want to go back to video conferencing when I move to Alaska. I started to read some literature about networking and stuff not to loose all the knowledge I gained working for Video Conferencing Services at UAF.
However Terra Language School is an awesome place. First time I heard about it was in 2009, wen it was called First Linguistics Center in Ufa. My folks decided to attend courses there to learn some English before coming to our wedding. When Cass and I moved to live in Russia they eagerly hired Cass to work as one of their International Teachers. The way they structure classes is that they have 2 teachers in most of the classes at the same time. A Russian speaking teacher, who explains the grammar, and an international teacher who speaks no Russian and participates in role games and speaking exercises. We had no car at that time and lived with my folks in a town called Chishmy (I still live there by the way). Chishmy is 30 miles away from Ufa. So we had to take a bus and got to the city and then take 2 more buses or a tram to get to work. Cass was unfamiliar with the city, and frankly speaking I also forgot how to navigate there after 6 years away. So I was coming with her and hanging out in the office with the managers of the school, while Cass was in class. However 2 weeks later - I was offered to teach classes there as well. They saw that I have a really good English, better then some of their teachers and hired me as well.
Now I still work there, teaching both kid and adult classes. And they all miss Cassandra!!!
The picture to attract attention - this is our office at work and our "ex" boss Natalia. She got married to a Turkish man this year and sold the business. They are moving out of Russia. But I thought Alaskans will appreciate the flag that I hung on the wall!!!

thoughts... on saying "I love you"

Cass and I come from completely different backgrounds. Haha what a surprise, one might say. Yes I was born in Soviet Union and was growing up in Kyrgyzstan and Russia, while Cass spent her years in America. However we both we growing up watching pretty much the same movies and reading similar books.
Back in 2008, when we just started dating I remember Cass telling me once that I do not say "I love you" quite so much. As I was thinking about it more I realized that I do not remember hearing my parents say those words to each other. They just don't. I do not know why :) but it was never a thing with my parents. Mom can tell me that she loves me or the same thing to my brother, but that is about it. Also when I was 16 or 17 I remember having a conversation with my aunt Natalia, my mom's sister. Well I need to mention that my aunt is a philosopher of a kind. She reads A LOT of stuff and has a degree in literary studies. She's been teaching at a university most of her life so she has to interact with young people on daily basis. So she was telling me that my generation is a dead generation. Young people are not interested in anything but clubs, discos and hanging out. Not like it was when she was young. To tell you the truth she was right. At that time in Bishkek where she lives the moajority of youth were not a very interesing and creative crowd of people. They still lived in post soviet Kyrgyzstan with some taste of the West and western life. Everybody wanted a good life with its pleasures but nobody wanted to work for it. If you had money you were cool and if you didn't - well you were an outsider. Nothing to say about community service, volunteering, no creative projects etc. So I cannot fully blame her for telling me that young generation was a dead generation. However this is not the main point of this post. The thing she told me to remember was: "Do not say I Love you to anybody, those words do not mean anything. When you say 'I love you', in reality you're saying 'I love myself because you are with me' 'I love myself because I am worth being with' and there is nothing in those words about caring for other person. In Old Russian language there was a phrase that can be translated as 'I have a pity towards you' and that meant that I care for you and it described the feeling much better then simple 'I love you'" Also she said "do not simply say - mean it and do it instead of just saying"
So I guess for me these words had a bit negative meaning. However later watching my American mom and dad (Stan and Michelle), I saw a completely different thing. I saw a loving couple, people who truly love each other, who deal with each others strengths and weaknesses, who support each other and sometimes put their own wishes and desires on the second place to make the other happy. And they are not afraid to say those words. In fact they say it quite often to each other. Like a song, or like a magical spell. Words are magic. When you say something - you send a message and the words turn into things and events. Words come true!
This was a completely different look at these words. And I am grateful I had a chance to see it.
Cass, I love you!