The Sky and the Mountains in Calgary

Have you ever mentioned that the sky in Calgary each day is different. Though the coulors does not vary so much, but there are enormous amount of shades. And the mountains changes every day, they are not similar. The sky and the mountains live their own live and the city of Calgary does not prevent you from of observing them. On the contrary, in Moscow city dominates: sometimes you could even pay no attention to the sky, you dont see it ( in Calgary it is impossible). I've noticed that in Calgary people usually live in very comfortable but modest houses, in Moscow, especially in the Moscow region they usually built "palaces"which hide the sky.( Unfortunately there are no mountains in Moscow.) Maybe calgarians better than we, moscovites, understand that it is imposible to compete with the beauty of nature; and they dont compete and let us all enjoy the veiw?

Grades

Today we received the last result of the mid-term exam in writing. When a week ago Scott said that some people had not passed this exam, it made me really nervous. I dont like writing exams because writing is not my strong point. During my previous pedagogicla experience at the Moscow Medical Academy I always wondered how my colleagues managed to put marks to their students. For me it was like a torture because I was young and treated my students as friends. They always asked me to let them go earlier ( especially girls) or to miss the session, and I really could not refuse. (Now I understand that I had problems with boundaries.) It is a very hard job to evaluate the knowledge of a student. Usually they themselves know which mark each of them deserves. In Russia we did not use percentage in grades, but only "excellent", "good", "satisfactory" and "unsatisfactory". When you speak about a future doctor you cannot avoid considering his or her personality, because for common Russian people the personality of a doctor means more that his or her professionalism (though it is wrong). But life is a chalenge, and education is a part of life and you have to compete with the other students. Marks could not be always absolutely fair, but the system of marks must be reasonable, clear and not formal, if only it could be achieved in the real life.

"The Golden Ring" of Russia

One of the famous tourist route around Moscow is known as "The Golden Ring". This route includes the ancient Russian towns of Sergiev Posad, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Rostov Velikiy, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Suzdal and Vladimir. They are realy gold because of their role in the development of Russia as a whole state. They survived during the most difficult historical periods of the country. They were conquered by Mongol hords, treacherous neighbors and Polish invaders. They were burnt to ashes but rose up illustrating the strong will of the Russian people

and their faith. These are the pictures of the main Russian Monastery - The Lavra - which is in Sergiev Posad. Among the treasures of the Lavra is the famous icon, "The Trinity", by Andrei Rublev. A lot of pilgrims visit Lavra during a whole year. This is a fine example of a working Orthodox monastery where the services didn't stop even in the Soviet period of militant atheism.

Those who have visited the Monastery could confirm that in reality it is more beautiful and magestic than on the photo.