]]> http://xeniathefirst.wordpress.com/2007/05/22/london/feed/ 0 xeniathefirst http://xeniathefirst.wordpress.com/2007/05/17/berlin/ http://xeniathefirst.wordpress.com/2007/05/17/berlin/#comments Thu, 17 May 2007 22:04:29 +0000 xeniathefirst http://xeniathefirst.wordpress.com/2007/05/17/berlin/ ]]> I guess for a tourist the most important in Berlin should be the historic city center. You should be thankful to the people, who build up Berlin ages ago…because it is very compact and the tourists attractions are very close together
If you walk along the main street, which is called Unter den Linden you can see the National Opera, The Brandenburger Gate, the Humbold University, the Parliament House and many more historical buildings and monuments…
A small tip If you feel lazy and do not want to walk, just take the bus line 100 and you can go this street sitting in a bus. So you will also save money, because this is an ordinary bus line and not an over-expensive tourist bus.
The rest of the Berliner Wall is also very close to the main street. So if you have only two hours time you can manage the most part of Berlin.
Of course if you have more time I do recommend you to visit the new city parts, take a boat trip on the river and also to visit the museums.

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Once I heard somebody saying that you can not visit Paris in one day, because you will need a whole week to visit the Louvre. I thought it was a joke, but as I was middle in the “Parisian Pyramids” I figured out that this person was telling me the truth. I spend 8 hours in the Louvre, but saw only a very small part of it…it is just amazing this museum!!!
Every first Sunday in a month the museums are free in Paris. Actually you always get discount if you show your student cart to the cashier. On Mondays museums are closed…but do not worry, because Paris is a beautiful city and has so much more to be proud of, then only the museums

In the next bogs I am going to write about my favorite five cities in
Europe, which you have to visit for sure!

No.1, Brussels!

I like to start with
Brussels….the city of people with humor I was visiting
Brussels three years ago and at first I was not very enthusiastic about this trip. But as I found out later, I was completely mistaken with this feeling. As I entered the border of the city…I could see that
Brussels really attracted me It is an amazing city!It is more than 1000 years old, so you can find lovely architecture there. Also it is the home to the European Commission and to the Council of ministers of the European Union (EU). For me as an EU member this information is quite important and interesting in the same time.Furthermore it is a bilingual capital of
Belgium…for me it sounds great, to live in a capital and to be educated in two languages! French and Dutch are both official languages. I guess Belgians are a very friendly people with a huge sense of humor, why should they otherwise make a small boy, who pee as they “National Symbol”

Like always I am late with the blog and I apologize once again…

At the beginning I like to comment our event at the university: History Matters. In general I like the idea of presenting Ukrainian history to the rest of the world…but the ambassador left “directly” after his speech…and other foreigners didn’t stay till the end…Well, probably it was the lack of organization or the length of our presentations (even though we tried to keep it short!), however, only a few people stood till the end of the event…

I liked the mixture between the photo contest and the presentations, although we could divided the topics even better. The presentations were a bit dry, because everybody (I was not an exceptionL ) was reading. I guess it would have make a big difference, when we would speak free, without any written sentences in front our noses…The last girl, who was presenting the topic of Finland, was in my opinion the best, because she spoke free and translated her topic into Russian, plus!!! > she had a nice Power Point presentation.

All in all we can learn by our mistakes for the future! As our teacher Ms. Gray always says, “We learn during the process, the result is not that important. It is the process that counts.”

Quotes, which will be defiantly in my research paper

“We finished school as we were 14 years old, than we started work.”

“Not everybody could get a ticket to the theater, but anyway the majority was more interested in circus anyway.” Both quotes are from Ljudmila Andreevna Prishepkina, a very lovely lady and my new friend as you can read at the previous blog. These quotes I will use, when I write about the mass culture in the Soviet times. The common people didn’t have a proper education. People finished school early and were pushed to go to work, so the standard of knowledge went down and also the style of language changed. So the complexity in texts (novels, poems and play writes) took a step back and the texts became shorter and easier to read.

“A hero may or may not fall in love, but he will almost certainly give a speech.” Andrei Arzhilovsky

“I do not know how to think in political slogans.” Mikhail Zoshchenko

These quotes show that the actors weren’t happy to perform a role with ideological consistency…but of course they had to, to stay alive.

Thesis statement

My topic is dealing with the Soviet Culture of 1930s, especially the field of theater. I thought that my thesis statement would be: The change in Soviet Culture of 1930s and how Stalin used the theatre to spread out propaganda.

Outline:

Soviet Culture 1930s, a country between Totalitarianism and Mass Culture

a.      Low education level of people

b.      Texts change in complexity, de-westernizing

Stalin rules the Culture

a.      Repertoire Directory, legal and banned works

b.      Propaganda on stage

So first of all I like to summarize two articles, which I won’t include in my final paper.

Yuri Olesha’s diary of the 1930s in the Soviet Union by Boris Wolfson

This article deals with a writer (Yuri Olesha), who got tiered to write poems and novels and started instead to write a diary. I does sound interesting for the beginning, at least the time 1930 and the Soviet Union is exactly the topic I am going to write about…But can you imagine, in the 10 page long article I couldn’t find nothing for my final paper. All these 10 pages are about Olesha’s dilemma to become or not to become a writer of a diary. Wolfson calls it a “remarkable experiment” and a “new kind of literature”, but from my point of view, I couldn’t figure out, what is so special about publishing his own diary. Especially in the 1930s when Stalin was controlling all the print media.

Wolfson does not write a single word about the situation in the Soviet Union. He mentions Stalin a few times, but very briefly and without specific information, which I could use in my research paper.

The whole text is more dealing with the self-education of Olesha and his miserable restarts of his oh so complicated diary. It is also mentioned the esthetic value of the customers to that time, but again nothing specific, just a very short overview, which did not satisfy my research about this topic.

Saw and Stalin

It is a short article from 2003 about an art-auction in London. Among other things you could buy there some documents, letters and postcards from George Bernard Shaw, an Irish playwright.

In this documents Shaw is writing about the Situation in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, where Stalin ruled and controlled the country. Shaw by himself was a socialist and a well-known supporter of Stalin. In the year 1931 he traveled to the Soviet Union as a representative of the Western writers and met Stalin for the fist time. After Shaw’s return, he was publishing information, that Russia is a country rich of food, money and resources. The people would have a great life and there is no sign of a famine. This peace of paper you could buy for 1500 Euro.

By the way, because of Shaw’s nice words towards the situation in the Soviet Union to that time, he is still despised in Ukraine nowadays.

The text was quite interesting, but for my research useless…but if somebody else is interested in this topic, I would be pleased to forward it to this person. Maybe somebody, who is writing about the famine in 1930s.

This article makes it clear, that Stalin was hiding the bad situation in the Soviet Union from the eyes of foreigners. Everybody though that the Soviet people are a wealthy nation, with no need for help.

The interview

As I already told Mrs. Gray my interview should be with Rajissa Ivanovna Zenihova. She is the sister of my grandmother and I far as I knew used to be very interested in theatre. And so I went last Saturday to her place…We start talking about this and that and finally reached the point, where I could ask her specific questions about the theatre in 1930s….but at this point a very unpleasant surprise came out….How could I did not recognize it earlier??? Rajissa was born in the year 1937, so of course she was telling me about the theatre on generation later…even after the war….

Oh no, what should I do???

Well, as an open and honest person I told her about my problem. She was really quick in understanding the situation and directly called her neighbor, who was living two levels above her.

The neighbor’s name was Ljudmila Andreevna Prishepkina, she was born in 1924, had time to chat and was pleased to tell us (Rajissa and me) about her youth….but before that she showed us her new microwave from Germany, which she got from her son. Unfortunately she could not use it, because she the description was in German. So the next half an hour I spend with translating everything to her…After we finished she put a bottle of Champaigne on the table and told me to drink for the new freindship….thank God that it was not Vodka that was standing on the kitchen table!!!

At least after spending the half day with interviewing the ‘wrong person’, translating a handbook for a German microvawe and drinking Champaigne for new friendship…I could get down to business and ask Ljudmila about the time in the 1930s.

Suprisingly she was very open and told me a lot about her childhood, about her school in Kiev and about how she spent free time. YES!!!! She was visiting theatres!!!!

But she told me, that the programs were simple in theatres, no classic was shown. And people were more interested in circus and ‘easy plot’-spectacles. GREAT!!! I am so thankful to Rajissa that she introduced me to Ljudmilla…

Probably also Ljudmilla was to young to be a critical observer of the theatres under Stalin’s regime, but NOW I have the interview AND three very useful articles from Ebscohost

I am a big fan of the Beatles and so it was interesting to gather more information about the Fab Four.

Robert Sullivan, the author of this article in the TIME, describes George as “the most reluctant Beatle” and “the most honest Beatle”. I do not quite agree with him. If George would be so honest, he would just leave the band. Furthermore Sullivan writes that George was “a celebrity who hated and feared celebrity”. In my opinion it is obvious that George liked to be on stage and to be heard on radio and to be seen on television…How long can a man hide his real feelings? A day, a months, a year…George did it for 9 years!

If he would have been honest to himself, he would leave the Beatles earlier. But I also do understand that he had the contract and also he had his friends that were at the same time his family. When George started to play with the Beatles he was only 17 years old, still a child. So he grew up with the Beatles and the Beatles grew up with him as a terrific guitarist and songwriter.

We will probably never find out the true story of his life, because George will always be a hero with his own secrets for us.

Sullivan, Robert. “His magical, mystical tour”, TIMES, p. 87-93, December 10, 2001

What I learned from visiting British Council

As I wrote in my previous blogs, I did enjoy the visit in the British Council. The atmosphere is nice, the people are friendly and you have a really good environment for study and research. The materials (books, newspapers, journals, DVDs) seem to be newer as in the American Library…but to import from England is faster than from
America So the American Library is excused for this time

Of course having the chance of using Ebscohost is a big help, if not the biggest!!!, in finding out more about our history. The British Council provides six computers with High Speed Internet. There you can find information fast and without any problems.

I am going to write about theatre in the 1930s and I really found good articles on Ebscohost in the British Council. So spending a bit less then an hour in this place was very fruitful and not a waste of time at all.

Sorry once again for being so way behind with my blogs…but I promise to improve myself in the future…honestly

Now, a huge peace of reading stuff is following…these are all the assignments, which had to be done in the last weeks….I thought it is easier to catch up, when I am going to publish many assignments in one single blog

Library research week 5

Last Saturday I visited the British Council and was very positive surprised how ‘European’ this place was. In contrast to the American Library the staff members are extremely friendly. Come on, to be honest, the only thing in the American Library, what is ‘American’ are the books. The atmosphere is like in the old
Soviet Union style…the staff is unbelievable unfriendly and unprofessional….who went there, knows exactly what I am writing about….

However, the place at the British Council is nice. Even though it is directly opposite of the ‘lovely’ American Library, nothing is the same or equals in any particular way. Here (at the British Council) you are treated like an individual human being. Yes, I had the feeling to be a human there. Nobody was shouting or snappy and treated me like a dog, as usual in such public places in
Kiev.

On this place I like to thank Kristina Gray, our teacher, to help us with our work. She gave us a hand with the search for our topics. Last Saturday she spent nearly one whole day to meet many students from the first curse and to assist them on the computer. While others were celebrating the ‘spring-weekend’, she was helping us. Thanks a lot!

Logical Fallacies

In fact this is a common topic in our everyday life. We are surrounded by thousands of millions of logical fallacies. Before this class on the fifths week, I did not pay attention to them. But then it just took me over and now I am listening to speeches on TV and try to figure out, if some logical fallacies are behind the arguments of the ‘clever’ people on TV are using.

For me it was extremely interesting to figure out with which tricks in their speech, people are trying to influence or convince us. The word could be a very dangerous ‘instrument’…in the right order, the right time and the right place. This is already known, right?

Many people do not even know that they are using logical fallacies until somebody has told them. I am the best example…I did not know or did not pay attention that sometimes I used a logical fallacy as a strong argument…Now I know better…but on the other hand I also know that it will happen not only once in the future that I going to use logical fallacies…simply because of the old habit

By the way, I absolved the game at the internet, where one question was coming up again and again…It is a good idea to practice new knowledge…but can be also a bit annoying, when the same questions are coming up too often.

Week 6

Visiting OWL

The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University is a very nice place at the Internet, where you can find useful information about how to write correctly. From ‘creating a thesis statement’ over ‘developing an outline’ up to ‘audience analysis’; you can find really every topic on this Webpage.

Of course a paragraph about the MLA Format can not be missed and surprise, surprise We can find it on OWL. All the teachers in our university require the MLA format in essays and research papers, so to have this information on OWL is more then helpful.

I guess the most important thing is the right order of the single parts in a research paper. The structure should be correct and systematic. The margins should be set up right and do not forget to double space your text!

“Memoirs of a British Agent”

First of all I like to mention that I defiantly enjoyed this text. The ironical style of Lockhart made me smile quite often . I loved the expressions: “poor devils “and “a visitor studies a new animal in the zoo” and most of all how Lockhart describes the catacombs, they are “cold and unimpressive subterranean passages containing the bones of forgotten saints”. I was very impressed as I was visiting the catacombs about five years ago. I liked the atmosphere at the Lavra and found it a kind of an adventure to walk with a candle though the canal under the ground.

But let’s focus on the text by Lockhart. He is writing about his visit in
Kiev, or Kieff as he spells it. After his stay in Moscow he really is impressed of the beauty of the town
Kiev. On his trip of sightseeing, he fist notice that in Kiev “there are almost as many [churches] as in
Moscow”.  Secondly he is mentioned that the people in
Kiev seemed to smile all the time. Well, probably it used to be this way…but today he would see it in a different way Who lives in
Kiev know what I mean

At the third point Lockhart mentions the river Dniepr, which divide
Kiev in two parts. He thinks that it is a “noble river” and I can only agree with him

At one point in his text I was confused. He compares Kiev with
Quebec…can you really compare these totally different cities? I will simply leave this question unanswered, because they might be too many points to add…

In conclusion this small chapter from the book “Memoirs of a British Agent” by Robert Bruce Lockhart caught my attention and it was a pleasure to read it.

Lockhart, Robert. Memoirs of a British agent. Middlesox, England: Pengiun Books, 1950 p. 105-10.

Interview with the widows

My group was interviewing Claudia; you can see her picture at kristinagray.wordpress.com.

 Claudia is a very nice old lady from Ukraine, who was born in the year 1937 in a village about 80 km away from
Kiev.

When the World War 2 began she was only 5 years old. She remembers how the Germans lived as they occupied
Ukraine. She told us that the most remarkable thing about the Germans was their fear of planes. She often noticed that the Germans were sitting in the house, they occupied and smoked and ate and drunk…but as soon as they saw an airplane they were jumping on the ground immediately. They couldn’t figure out if the plane was theirs or from the enemy, so they always reacted in the same manner by jumping on the ground and putting their faces in the soil. Claudia found this very funny and laughed when she told us this story.

Actually she was a very positive person. Everything, what she was saying, she did with shiny bright eyes and a smile on her face I liked to talk to her. She was open and answered every single question, we were asking.