World on fire

As I looked at the BBC News frontpage on Wednesday, my heart sank. There were a few terrorist attacks in Mumbai, 2 of them in the major city hotels. It is not until today that things seemed to get under control, but there are many people dead, many more injured, and most of those who follow the news are still in shock. 

Alright, nowadays we see the words "bomb exploded" in the news so often, that many of us just skip over most of those articles. Nevertheless, I doubt that many skipped updates on the situation in Mumbai. In relation to the attack on the Indian city, media started to recall all the tragic events in Europe from the past years: explosions in Madrid, London, and some other cities. I haven't heard anyone mention the terrorist attacks in Russia though, but memories of those were the ones that suddenly became fresh in my mind after I heard about Mumbai.

September 1-3, 2004

1128 children & teachers are taken as hostages in school in Beslan on the 1st day of classes in the new academic year

350 dead, 500 injured

At the time I was still in Moscow, but already graduated from high school. Because of this, luckily, I didn't get to learn how it felt to go to classes to your school after the tragedy in Beslan. Everybody in Russia and around the world was shaken: those were innocent children taken as hostages. They did not start wars, some of them were just starting to learn to count - how could they be blamed for anything? 

Dead bodies were small. And countless.

February 6, 2004

A bomb explodes in one of the trains in Moscow metro during the rush hour

40 dead, 122 injured

It was a perfectly fine day at school. We were writing a composition in my Literature class at high school, when our teacher went outside the classroom and returned a few minutes later with a concerned look on her face. She told us that there was an explosion in Moscow metro and many were injured. Many of us, students, took that same metro to school every day and our family and friends too. Everyone in the city did. 

No one in my class had relatives or friends in that train, but we were all shaken nevertheless. A few days later my casual ride in metro did not feel so casual at all: if I could walk instead, I'd have rather done that. Every time the train closed doors and went into the tunnel, I couldn't stop thinking about those people who went into the tunnel just like that too, but never came out of it alive.

October 23-26, 2002

850 hostages are taken in Moscow theater during the evening performance and most of them were not released for 3 days

129 dead, >700 injured

In the morning of Oct. 24 I was just on my usual way to school, taking a ride in marshrutka (a mini-bus). I was very sleepy and barely paid attention to the surroundings. The driver had the radio news on, and suddenly everybody in marshrutka started discussing something. Once the news reporter told the story in brief again, I couldn't believe it: a huge theater was taken under the control of terrorists in the center of the capital, and no one could do anything about it for the whole night! It all sounded so unreal and ridiculous that I've decided it was just a joke. It wasn't though.

For the next 2 days I kept going to school, and the people in the theatre stayed in the theatre. We listened to the radio updates between classes and watched the news after school at home. Media was covering all the tiny details from right outside the theater, and terrorists were watching those very news inside and learning all those tiny details as well. 

In the morning of Oct. 26 I came to school and there my classmate said that a rescue operation took place in the theatre and hostages were getting to hospitals now. Some of the terrorists changed into civilians' clothes though and fled the scene together with hostages. When I was going home later in the afternoon that day, it seemed like the city was in one big traffic jam: some of the roads were blocked or had police check points on them. It tooks hours to get home, but at least I was home and safe.

The theatre was near the metro station "Dubrovka" and the performance was "Nord-Ost". These are the 2 words that are so widely associated with the tragedy now. After the terrible event, theatres put out checkpoints at the entrance just like in the airports. We went for the "42nd Street" performance just about a few weeks after the Dubrovka tragedy, and I couldn't stop myself  from throwing glances at the sides of the hall the whole time. My imagination was drawing pictures of people in masks breaking in. But luckily there was no one this time.

August 8, 2000

A bomb explodes at one of the busiest pedestrian underpasses in the center of Moscow

12 dead, 140 injured

I was far away from the city for 2 months, but my mother and sister weren't. When we learned about the explosion, we called up both of them immediately. My mum was fine, but none of us could get through to my sister's mobile. The underpass on "Pushkinskaya" is huge: there are entrances & exits to metro, numerous little shops, the exits of the underpass lead to major city streets and fancy shopping & dining areas. It's all in the center of the city, and my sister often went through the underpass. It was also a very popular meeting point for friends or couples.

My sister's number was unavailable just because the battery on the mobile ran low. She wasn't at the scene at the time of explosion. She was there a day ago though, picking up her photos that were developed in the little shop in the underpass. It's good that the pictures were not late by a day.

The underpass was fixed up later on and I went through it many times later on. It was as alive and as crowded as always. If not for the small memorial tablet, you wouldn't even know that people died here. The City life must go on.

September 4,9,13,16 of 1999

A series of massive explosions happened in apartment buildings in Russian cities Buynaksk, Moscow and Volgodonsk

300 dead, >1000 injured

I was in the last year of my middle school and I remember how frightened we were with my classmates to hear that not one, but 4 major explosions took place in the apartment complexes. 2 of those were in Moscow. I remember that even my father became concerned with the situation, and he couldn't be shaken easily. Residents of the apartment complexes started to organize meetings and put doors with code locks on the entrances. There were active rumors about bombs that were found in many other complexes, so everyone became very attentive of people hanging out near the buildings. 

I was an impressionable child at the time, and when it was time to sleep, I was afraid to close my eyes. It seemed like as soon as I do, an explosion would take place and that would be the end of my short life or the beginning of some torture. I never got to hear an explosion though, so my life is still going normally.

These are only the ones that shook me the most, but unfortunately the list (machine translation of a Russian wiki page) is much-much longer. The list of the people who was directly affected by these events is even longer. I don't have an illusion that one day there will be peace in the whole world, but I can still hope for it. Until then though, we should not panic, but we also should not pretend that the world is doing fine as far as we're concerned. 

There are many awful things taking place around us, and some of them seem distant and completely irrelevant to us. But hey, have you heard of 6 degrees of separation? Think about it. Hopefully, separation by 6 is the closest you'll ever be to the victim of a tragedy. 

I just wanted to pay a moment of silence to all of those who died, wherever it was: Moscow, Madrid, London, NY, Mumbai, or any other city.

Thanksgiving

The last 2 weeks have been quite interesting and now I don't even know why I felt sad in the past days.

So, first of all, I won an iPod shuffle (1Gb) in the competition in one of my classes. It is not even the prize that I am happy about, but more the victory part. Unfortunately (or rather fortunately?), I already have an mp3 player, so now I need to find some good foster parent for the poor iPod. Will try to think of something interesting here.

Secondly, I have gone to the university "Midsummer Night's Dream" opera performance, and even though it was not the most brilliant opera I've seen so far, it made the Friday night great nevertheless.

Thirdly, not being able to find anyone free on Sat. night, I went to the movies by myself to see "Slum-dog Millionaire" in DC. Such a great movie! A bit depressing, but touching. After that, I drew for a couple of hours at Starbucks and then got myself a book and read it later at home till the arrival of the night.

Fourthly, the ballet performance in DC that we went to yesterday had an interesting turn-out. When I was buying the tickets, I was sure they were for the San Francisco's Ballet dancing "Giselle", because this is what the online event description was stating. When we came to the theater and got the program brochure, it listed some strange musical and dance pieces for the current date and then Giselle for the weekend dates. I was devastated and quite upset, since I was really looking forward to seeing a full ballet.
Have to admit, the dance pieces were quite interesting and the dancers themselves were extraordinary good too. I was still upset about missing the "Giselle" though, so later at home I wrote an email to the theater saying that their online event description never stated that SF Ballet will dance Giselle only during the weekend and that on the other days they will just dance "misc". My hopes were not high, when I wrote the complaint, but at least I wanted my voice heard. So what do you think? Today I got a response with an apology and an offer of 2 free tickets to the Giselle performance on Sunday! I guess, there is good customer service somewhere in the world after all :P

The fifth thing would be that I tried doing pilates today and found it exceptionally good. The exercises are challenging, but it is a great work out and somehow is soothing for the mind. Maybe that's something I'll continue in the evenings after the graduation.

Oh, and of course before I had all this great time going out, I barely slept during the week, working on all of my school projects and studying for the exams. Just mentioning this, so that no one feels bad about not having free time, because quite often I don't have much of that either ;)

P.S. I am thankful for all I have. I really-really am now! And I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

Google & Russian students: know your users

Just learned today that Google Ru has compiled into the video set results of the surveys held in various Russian universities. I think it's a great way to find out who exactly your users are. So here I've just tried to put together the stats.

As the average results from MAI (Moscow Aviation Institute), for example, state, girls there want to have a family at the age of 24 and guys - at the age of 28. I've heard a whole bunch of "20", "22", "23" answers from both genders in the video though.

It would have been interesting if Google (or someone else for that matter) did a similar survey in the US universities. I'm not particularly interested in the marriage question, but all the questions in general.

Videos mention the following questions and the average statistics for the students of Russian universities:
- how many of the university lectures do you usually visit (~68%)
- how much time do you spend daily at the university (~5-6hrs) and afterwards on homeworks (~2-3hrs), in the internet (~3.5hrs)
- in how many social networks are you registered (~1-2)
- how many emails do you send daily (~5-12)
- how much tv do you watch daily (~20min-1.5hrs)
- how much do you read daily (~2.5hrs)
- how many books did you read in the past months (~2.5)
- how much do you work daily (~2.5hrs)
- how much do you usually spend daily (~$8-10)
- what historical figure impresses you the most (Peter the Great, Stalin)
- what book should be a must for everyone (War & Peace, Crime & Punishment, Master & Margarita)
- what film everyone should watch at least once (Forest Gump, Fight Club, Requiem for a dream)
- who from the currently living people inspires you the most (no one, Putin, Madonna, Medvedev)
- who do you want to be when you graduate (owner of their own company, work in the industry, work for the government)
- where do you want to work after graduation (Google, Microsoft, their own company, IBM)
- what monthly salary would you like to have after graduation ($1000-1800)
- in what Russian city would you like to live after graduation (Moscow, St Petersburg)
- in what country would you like to live after graduation (Russia, England, Germany, France)
- at what age would you like to get married (23-25)
- how many children would you like to have (1-3)

With the questions that required word answers, there were some more top answers and they varied between the universities. Just though I'd mention that to keep the stats fair.

Errors on servers

I finally brought myself to writing a good book review on LibraryThing.com and felt quite proud once done. 2 good paragraphs on "Into the wild" and there - I click "Submit" and get an error page, a point of no return. One should always copy good and long writing into the buffer before submitting! Or sites should just better handle errors and not loose essential materials :( Very upset.

Interview with Diana Vishneva.

I've been looking through the various ballet videos on YouTube and found an amazing interview with Diana Vishneva - the star of Mariinskiy Ballet in St Petersburg. The interview is all in Russian, so somebody asked for an English translation. I did a quick and rough one of video Part 3, so please forgive me for any mistakes :) Enjoy the read!

"Giselle" is probably one of my favorite plays. It's a masterpiece in the romantic ballet kind. There's nothing better in the classic ballet than a first act of "Giselle". Of course, it's my personal opinion, but many people would probably share it. When I was celebrating my 10 years in theatre, I specifically chose to perform this ballet. It is a disclosure of an inner actress of the ballerina.

Of course, there is one name that is always associated with "Giselle" and it is Olga Spesivzeva. The photos of her in this ballet are widely discussed: her poses, her individuality. She brought a lot into this ballet; she basically dedicated her whole life to it. After her there was another famous ballerina - Galina Ulanova. She had completely changed "Giselle", but nevertheless got on the history pages as another famous Giselle. Dancing "Giselle" after such stars is a great responsibility: you always have to add something to it; you cannot just dance it plainly. This ballet is all about the individuality of the prima: you cannot hide behind the technicalities of dancing or implementations of the particular movements, because it is not them that make this ballet so special.

I was preparing for this ballet for a very long time, setting the date for an opening performance 3 times and every time cancelling and pushing it further away, because I didn't feel ready: it seemed like some nuances were overlooked. It is only when I danced it for the first time that I realized: you cannot just train yourself for dancing Giselle. It is a type of performance that can be improved only by giving a show after show. Of course, this is somewhat true with all the performances, but with “Giselle” it is crucial: you need to understand all the nuances, find your own way of dancing, and bring out your inner gift of acting.

There are 2 completely different acts: the first one is mundane and the second one is completely surreal and weightless. It's usually easier to do well in the second act, because the first one is much harder. It is harder because of its apparent simplicity, naïvety. Of course, a lot depends on your partner and a contact with him as well: he can be of great help or completely useless. Every performance is different and unique, and you never know how it will go with your partner: what he would do, how you would be able to respond to it, and what kind of things would develop between the two of us. But, of course, something always will occur between us: the magic feeling that you so wait for and that audience so impatiently expects to see. In this duet sometimes even I start to believe that everything on the stage is for real. I know it's just a performance and I only create an image, but it feels like all the events are real.

Preparing for this ballet always makes me feel special. I think one can dance it through the whole career and always learn something new about it and add some unique things to it. With experience you will start to perceive the role differently and through the performances you will sense a whole new set of emotions within you.

From a pure technical point of view, the first act has this one capricious combination of turns that need to be done perfectly. You are deep in the mundane image and you act and dance accordingly, so, of course, when the time for this combination comes - you feel disturbed and bothered, because suddenly you need to concentrate on some technicalities that you don't even feel like doing.

In the second act the arms and poses are very important: they are flying and weightless. The position of your head is very important too. You need to make it all look unreal, create an image of a spirit - so you would suddenly stop on the tip of your toes or do these movements when you look like you are getting deep into water. And, of course, you should not make any noise with your shoes. If you create some sound when you pretend to be a spirit, then you can say that the whole second act was completely ruined."

Spirits of the past

I think it is really sad how we get close to people only to separate from them later on. We get into arguments, find it hard to understand each other, our life roads diverge - and there, we never see or talk to the person ever again.

Ok, there are betrayals and there are cases when you don't see the real face of the person right away. And yes, of course there are those situations, when you just get bored with each other. But what about the rest? What if you stop talking to someone, but you really miss them? You get hurt, you get angry, but if even months after that you still miss their friendship, why do you have to keep forcing the isolation on yourself?

I do not see why relationships with other people have to be in black and white: either we get along most of the time or we should just stop communicating as a whole. What if there is this gray middle: we don't get along quite often, but we feel sad and lost when separated?

You cannot bend all your relationships to follow one law, just like you cannot grow all plants with the same amount of water and sun: there are sunflowers and then there are mosses, there are cacti and then there are water lilies. Maybe with some people we are just like cacti and water: we dry out without them and we deteriorate in the excess of their presence.

Commercial

I think, this has been one of my favorite ads for some time :) Searched for it 2 years ago and had no results, but now with the YouTube one can find anything.