Russian culture has a long history and tradition and Russians are very proud of it.

Russians consider themselves as a well educated nation. They read a lot, books are cheap, and one can afford to buy 5-10 books a month without serious damage to a family budget.

Russians are also big fond of live performances at theatres and since tickets are affordable (prices in cinemas and theatres are comparable), they enjoy attending theatres: opera, musical, ballet, drama etc.

Usually every city has a few theatres. The theatre culture was developed during the Soviet times when tickets were sold through schools and enterprises: cities were divided into areas and there was a theatre agent responsible for each particular area. The agent would bring tickets for distribution to every enterprise and school in his area and the person responsible for "culture sector" would organize collective visit to the theatre. I think it was an excellent system since people had the opportunity to attend theatres from the early age, starting from attending performances in a Muppet theatre, then moving to the Youth Drama Theatre, then to Drama, Musical and Opera, according to their age. Also attending performances in a company is always much more fun, which contributed to the popularity of theatres. This is how most Russian people have developed their taste for live performances.

Movie theatres are also becoming popular in Russia and they are equipped with the latest sound systems. When Russian people talk about movie theatres, they will usually say "cinema"; if they talk about "theatres", they mean live performances.

Friendship and love. Both are so much related to each other. And both are so dissimilar! What are the differences between friendship and love? Is platonic friendship possible between persons of opposite sex? Let us try and understand.

What is friendship? Why do we call a person our friend? When do we call someone a very good friend? If we care for a person, if we are always ready to help that person and if we share most of our thoughts with a person, they are our good friends. We can always count upon our good friends in an emergency. We are always sure that our friend will understand why we acted in a certain way. We need not explain anything to our very good friends. The friendship is so deep and the relationship is so intimate, that most of the things are automatically understood by our friends.

Almost half of all marriages end in divorce. That is why there is an increase in couples seeking marriage counseling. Nobody wants to think that the marriage they are in will end. Marriage counseling offers a way for couples to work thorough problems with an outside influence. Marriage counseling can help couples to rebuild a marriage that was on the way to divorce.

By now most of you have heard of the new internet superhighway craze called blogging. If you are not the most computer savvy person in the world, don’t worry, you don’t have to be. Everyone is blogging these days from the techno-chic to the cyber-geek, from the carpooling soccer mom to your own children in grade school. For you first timers out there, a blog is a weblog. A weblog is an online diary or journal in which you may write your daily thoughts and ideas in. You can decide to keep a blog private, announce your name, let whoever you want read it or allow only particular people to view it. There are oodles of websites out there dedicated to servicing blogs and the majority of them are free. You just sign up and voila: you have your very own blog with your own web address where you can feel free to write whenever you want and as much as you want.

I am a big modern jazz and fusion fan..

And one of the groups that I literally worship is the Pat Metheny Group. I’ve seen this guy and his band play 6 times and every experience was just beyond incredible.

I remember the 3rd time I saw them.. UC Berkeley Greek Theater about 15 years ago. The energy was intense and the vibration of the music was completely pure and transcendental..

This was certainly one of those moments when one can say that they were having a Religious Experience..

The PMG’s signature song is a piece called the First Circle.

I must tell you the words Travels fast enough in this town ..

So if a person comes here and does something completely stupid everyone will know about it very quickly ... especially me ..

Basically it starts with another friend of a friend who is a local taxi driver with an incredible history.

A few weeks ago he was hired to be the personal driver for some relatively well off man from America who were, in accordance with local girl here for some time.

So nice of Spring, at last, begun.

The part where there are no dirt or mud on the ground to worry about.

This is one of those few times a year, where the weather is right .. not a lot of mosquitoes and flies swirling around and only occasional clouds of dust that blows in the wind with you.

But in general, the conditions are good enough for you to go with any short-sleeved shirt and light jacket.

And it is because of this that I would like to officially call it the beginning ..

"May you live in interesting times .."

- Chinese Curse

My friends,

We are currently witnessing growing tears in the fabric of the United States of America, which does not bode well for the long term it's sovereignty, on the ability of its citizens to freely obtain Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Hello beautiful Miss Kate.

Kate bright and "charming" young lady from Central Kazakshtan.

She enjoys learning English and has a great desire to use their knowledge and prepare for a future trip to Europe and the United States, that she often dreams about.

I met her last week in a friendly game of Texas Hold'em, which I was invited. She was there as a friend girl friend .. or something like that ..

Since I'm always advocating that you, gentlemen, do everything possible to actually experience in the Russian culture and extraordinary beauty ..

I thought it would be reasonable to give a possible way to do it.

Volunteer worthy cause.

As it turns out there is called a cross-cultural solutions outfit that specializes in combining volunteers with various programs, not only in Russia but also at international level as well.