8/13/2013

Public event of reviving culture.

At this time I am going to tell you about one public event.  We didn’t have special plans for weekend so we decided to visit Starochercaskaya, this village situated  not so far from our home and it is lovely place on the bank of the river Don with great history, rich cultural and architectural heritage.

Ferry across the river 



 When we arrived we found out a lot of cars and people there. The thing is,  that Starocherkaskaya was in 1644 – 1744 years  - the main city of Don Cossacks, and now it is quiet little village with small population.  Therefore we didn’t expect to meet there a lot of people. With big trouble we found parking lot and began our  trip. Soon we knew that there was Cossack folklore festival.  There were scene that performed different groups of folk music,  fair of crafts, display of Cossacks national costumes, in cafes were served national dishes – especially famous Don’s uha ( it is soup from river fish). It was celebration of national Cossacks culture.

But first things first. Who were Don Cossacks ?

Don Cossacks,  who in the 16th cent. founded the virtually independent republic of the Don Cossacks on the fertile steppes along the lower course of the Don River.  (Staro) Cherkassk was their chief town. The host of the Don Cossacks was governed by a popular council, the Rada, and by an elected chief, called ataman. Their daring raids and exploits attained legendary proportions under Stenka Razin. Although the Don Cossacks gave allegiance to the czar of Russia in 1614, their self-government was recognized by the czar in 1623 and they continued to govern themselves throughout the 17th cent. Frequent rebellions, however, culminating in that of Pugachev, resulted in the loss of many of their privileges. After the suppression of a revolt (1707–8), the Don Cossacks lost the right to elect their ataman. The decree of 1835 made them into a military caste with special privileges in return for military service. After 1886 the czarist government often used the Don Cossacks to suppress revolutionary movements throughout Russia. Following the October Revolution of 1917, the Don Cossacks sought to regain their political autonomy and even strove for independence. They established the Don Military Government and fought the Bolsheviks. Later the Don Cossacks aided the White armies. The Soviet regime abolished Don Cossack army units until World War II, when they were reactivated to fight the Germans. Among prominent Don Cossacks in modern times is Mikhail A. Sholokhov, author of several novels about the Don Cossacks. The Don Cossacks are famous for their songs and choirs. (Material from The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved)

 I can add that this  is a separate culture unfortunately almost vanishes today with a certain way of life and culture. Government tries to keep and revive Don Cossacks therefore a lot of festivals and other event hold regularly.   Cossacks were the soldiers fearlessly defended the southern borders of Russia from the Turkish raids. Their culture is associated with orthodox religion and their main principles are the duty of honor and courage. Also well known Cossacks choirs songs.
Let’s return to Cossack folklore festival.
Performance of Cossack’s choirs took place in the courtyard of the Holy Donskoy Starocherkassky Monastery.

Entrance to Monastery


Church of Monastery


Performance of choirs






Fair of crafts


Traditional house. It was build from wood with very high level from ground because every spring all village suffer from flood.


Pointers: “Café Old town”;  “Café Starocherkask”;  Voyskovoy Resurrection Cathedral 1719 year of build;  Ataman farmstead museum exhibition.


Down the street to Voyskovoy Resurrection Cathedral


Voyskovoy Resurrection Cathedral and its Bell tower
I think that it is breath taking monumental Cathedral. When I watched it I think about how it was build. In that time  people didn’t have modern equipment, they had just their arms and primitive tools. It is amazing!

Inside the Voyskovoy Resurrection Cathedral.  All carvings are made of wood.



Figure of Cossack.


However many people don’t know anything about Cossacks and their culture; furthermore they considered them to be bandits. Of course this is a stereotype. Sometimes it is easier to accept a  stereotype or someone else's point of view than to take the  trouble to learn more about the culture and traditions of the ethnic group and then form our  own attitude towards these people.

Why  did I decide to write about this event?  I have watched videos about Aboriginal people in Manitoba, about modern society about how people accept another culture, how government tries to keep its culture but some people don’t understand why?  I would like to show that in my country people didn’t want to accept Cossacks culture, didn’t want to keep it ethnic group, and believed that they were not so important. When, it our time this culture almost vanish, at least people saw their mistakes.  Every human being, every ethnic group and  every nation is very valuable and  should respected and esteemed.  As you saw in my photos that such small number of ethnic group has its own national treasure and amazing buildings, wounderful music and songs, and it would be unforgivable mistake if it all vanished. 

8/01/2013

My first week of the summer.

As this blog regard English online Summer course 2013 I am going to tell you about my first week of summer.  I think that everyone will agree with me that summer wonderful time of the year. Also I have birthday in the beginning of summer. In this year I have got unexpected surprise – week in Greece, on Corfu.   I believe that everything was perfect. We were lucky with whether because in Greece is too hot in June and August. When we were there it was about 25 degree and it was very comfortable. We could visit a lot interesting places, took long hikes, explore all northern part of island. In is great place for rest but not for living. Now this country has deep economical crisis and I saw signs of this crisis everywhere. But let’s talk about nature, sea, mountains and flowers. It is favorite place for rest people from England. Therefore I have opportunity to practice my English a little bit. All native people who work in tourist area know English very well and  it is not amazing because they have practice daily)))

Corfu from bird's-eye view

It is really hot and humidity climate there – oranges grow on trees.

Day first – sunset


On the next day we visited main city of island Kerkira. Actually, it is main and single city on this island. We had wonderful trip in ancient part of town. We enjoyed architecture, trees, flowers and sea.

Amazing tree

Flowers

Real live cactus. I never seen such before.


This island has very rich history and in different centuries different nations live there and own this place. Venetians owned this island about 400 years, Turkey tried to conquer island, after 1797 year France was there and in 1816 it became a colony of England at last in 1864 it became a part of Greece. Therefore in architecture in of ancient city we found French’s square. In little café everybody drink coffe ET with glass of cold water.


Sometimes I fill like I was  in Italy because of  narrow streets paved with stone


But no it is Greece. All culture, customs, traditions  mixed in one place and turned one unique absorbed all the best.




Corfu situated near Italy. From sea port of Kerkira   to Bari (Italy) every week travel big ship like this one. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to do this trip but took a photo of ship. Sometimes maybe we will do it.



On the third day we have opportunity to hiking. The length of the route was approximately 5 kilometers and we went around bay from coast to coast.  Few photos. 



We spent about 4 hours on a road and at least reached very beautiful bay  - Agios (saint) Spiridon bay, with white stones and unbelievable color of water in the sea.  The coast that you can see in the distance it is Albania. From that bay it is about 3 kilometers by  the sea to it’s coast.





We have rest and dinner in café and meet there young couple with cute children from England. They live somewhere on west of country and they have sophisticated accent it was hard to understand their speech, especially for me because I am not expert in English.))))


The next day    - and the next adventure. We rented a car and explored locality. At this time our route was much longer above 200 km. But we saw everything! The whole island is covered with olive woods, olive trees grow everywhere.


Saint Georgios bay

We climbed on the mountain and watched Saint Georgios bay from the high


Famous Palokastrica





The highest peak of island Pantokrator mountain 906 m


View on Kerkira


Quiet bay


The rest days we spent time on beach and enjoy doing nothing.


Taking everything into consideration I would like to add that East or West home is best! 
I hope that soon I could make the same photo report about my new home  - Morden! I am looking forward for this opportunity.  
I hope that you like my report. See you next time!

7/29/2013

My way of English learning

I would like to share my way of English learning. Let's begin from the very beginning. English was my favorite subject at school. Frankly speaking, I studied at school with advanced study of English, then was University and I was in advanced class of English and then I have a  work practice in the Department of International Relations in City Hall. I applied my English skills daily and at that time English was as my second language. I made mistakes but I could talk!  Next years I worked in other area didn't connected with English. I lost my English skills!
Two years ago I should pass IELTS examination. It was really hard to remember everything! English online at that time was not available to me. I tried to listen  Canadian news - I couldn't understood  anything! Of course I have practice material for IELTS but I needed more English. And I found light in the end of the tunnel – it was movies, especially sitcoms. Firstly, it was sitcom “Friends” with English subtitles – very simple words, good pronunciations, funny  story. I remembered not just words but phrases and more valuable I have association. Everybody will agree with me that it is impossible to remember just word or expression – you should connect it with something. Then it will be work! Then it was a lot of films, most I had seen in Russian but when I watched it in original language I understood that I never seen this films before, because before it was false! I watched few times simple story of “Forest Gump”. I like expression from there – “We were like peas and carrots”. “Groundhog day” with Bill Murray and many, many others. Now I have access to English online it is really helps me develop my language skills! I have in my scheduler evening Mondays for wiki (summer course)  and Tuesdays for  virtual class. It is like a habit!  Plus I have a habit   to read and listen  regularly  local news (some useful links)
But unfortunately language of news is still too complicated for me.  Actually, favorite leisure for me it  is good movie or series, my favorite now is “The middle”, “Once upon a time”.  I don’t watch at all Russian television  and I try read just Internet site on English regard different areas.  For instance, I search new recipe in English. Oh and one more my favorite internet resource it is reddit.com. I like it read before go to sleep. 
I believe that I mentioned all my useful methods
I hope next week I will write about movies I have seen already and my thoughts about.

Taking everything into consideration, I think that the best way to improve English is
READ MORE!
WRITE MORE!
LISTEN MORE!

And if you have opportunities SPEAK MORE! It does not matter what exactly you will read or listen the main thing in should be on English

7/23/2013

Hello everyone!

I make a decision to start my own blog. My name is Daria. I live in Russia still, but I hope soon I and my family will live in Manitoba. My main aim is improving my language skills and I will try to avoid mistakes in my posts but if I will have some don't judge me. I am just learning English. If you want to share with me something, or point on my mistakes, or give me advice - don't hesitate leave a comment. I would like to dedicate my blog to my summer and my leisure time. I won't describe my routine, or work because it is boring. I would like to share with everybody beautiful fotos of place for vacation, show my native town  and other intresting things. I am welcoming everybody!

This is my native town. The central promenade.