15. The last one

What   impression did Mark Haddon’s book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time leave on you? Do you think that the plot of this novel is unusual? Was the ending of the book unexpected for you?

     I remember how David said that he had chosen The Curious Incident…because it is an easy book to read, especially at the end of semester. I agree that it is rather easy reading, however the book has a serious theme which impossible to call easy to grasp.  I mean, if you think deeper about autism you will understand that such people have a really hard life, despite the fact that some of them may not understand it. After watching the video about autism, I began to read much more carefully Christopher’s thoughts. I think, it was both interesting and scary to study how Christ thinks, behaves and manage with various unusual situations (I mean his trip to London). When I was reading this episode, I emphasized him and believed that he would achieve his goal despite his fairs and barriers (like a policeman). 

 

       This book shows us that autistic people are here with us and we don’t have to forget about them or get annoyed. I think that Christ’s family is like a little piece of society, so relations between parents and Christopher as like relations of the whole society and autistics. Do you remember moments when father or mother got annoyed about Christ’s behavior? It is normal reaction because we cannot absolutely understand how autistics’ brain work and why they do what they do. Consequently, people have to be more polite with “Cristophers”. 

       The Curious Incident…has left a good and positive impression because this book confirms that autistic people have a future despite their problems. 

        Also, I think the plot is quite unusual. It seemed that author had the same problems like Christ. However, in the author’s blog it is written that he didn’t write about autistic boy (Ksenia and Ivan found his blog).  

       What I can say about the ending? To tell the truth, when the question “who is a killer?” ceased to be a question, I stopped to think about the ending, so it wasn’t unexpected nor expected.  

        In conclusion…I believe that our society will be more attentive to autistic people. 

14.

Many professional sportsmen usually joke about people that start to practice something during a short period in spring, before the "beach time". Do you notice something like that in your attitude towards sports? Do you have any time periods in which you usually practice sports more or less?

      I am not a professional sportsman, but I usually joke about people who start going to a gym only before the "beach time". They think that in two months it is possible to train a body. Of course you can achieve some results, but it is just silly to do sports only before summer and after it to say “goodbye” to the gym for a hole hear. 

      

       To tell the truth due to lack of time this year I started visiting my gym only 1.5 months ago. I can say that I missed  trainings.   However, I can’t say that I relate to “sport before the beach time” people. Moreover, every week I do to a dance class and spend there for 3 or 4 hours. During the year I was doing some sports at home like rocking my press, stretching and twisting a wrap. 

       What is bad when you start your preparation for the summer in a short period before it? You may think that if you load yourself very strongly you will faster achieve your goal. In this case I want to remember a proverb: slow and steady wins the race. Therefore, it is better to do a little bit but for a whole year.

13. May 9

How do you celebrate (if you the celebrate) the 9th of May? What is your attitude to the fact that many people now consider this holiday (and not only this) as a reason to gather and drink?

     Today is a very important day for Russia. Calendar shows us May 9 that is why I decided to chose Michael’s first topic. 

    My family never celebrates it with a table full of dishes and drinks, but we used to follow some traditions. I remember when I was a little girl, and my grand grandfather was alive we watched together the parade on TV. I felt myself that it was necessary for me sitting near him and watching. We sat on his sofa and he was telling me some stories about the war during the parade. Moreover, when he died I didn’t break our tradition, and today I turned on our TV and watched the parade. 

     Also, we like to watch a salute that devoted to such a great day! I remember one year when we decided to watch it from the Sparrow Hills and there was a big traffic jam. Of course, it didn’t mar our pleasure watching the beautiful show!

     I think that people who concern to this holiday as a reason to get drunk does not understand that they destroy the memory about the war and about non-human feats. If you want to drink for this holiday to honor the memory of solders it is OK, but it is awful if you think that it is OK to get drunk as a last drunkard. 

     In conclusion, I want to congratulate everyone with such a great holiday!

Topics for Blog#12

1) What are going to do on our spring holidays? Did you spend a lot of time planning your trip (if you are going somewhere)? For example, I’m going to visit Saint-Petersburg J

2) What do you think about your dreams? Do they have significance or they are just pictures in your mind at the time of sleeping? Do you believe in prophetic dreams?

3) What do you think about computer games? In my opinion, it is very sad to be addicted to the virtual reality.

11.

On Tuesday we watched a short film adaptation of "The Lottery."  Did you like it?  Why or why not?  If you were directing a film based on this story, what choices would you make?  Would your version be similar to or different than the version we watched?  Explain. (David’s topic)

    "The Lottery" was not a scary film like others films of this type. Nevertheless, it was quite hard to watch it. I’m embarrassed to give a definite answer whether I liked it or not and I am going to explain why.

     

    On the one hand, “The Lottery” touches you very strong, as it is the main goal of the film. In addition, the main theme is very serious, and it is impossible to stay calm after watching it. To tell the truth, when I was reading the story, watching the film, I could not believe that it was a normal and ordinary situation or tradition those days. How it was possible to organize such a lottery? I can’t answer on this question even after our class discussion.  So, I may say that I liked the film because it really affected me.

    On the other hand, I hate “The Lottery”. I left our English class very upset because I did not like what we have been watching for the last 15 minutes. It is the cruel film about the cruel people who cannot do anything against the system and continue to kill themselves. They are strong to follow this tradition, but they are weak to break it. That is why I didn’t like the film.

    If I were a director, I wouldn’t change anything.  It would be similar to the version we watched because I have nothing to add to make it more influential on people’s mind and thoughts. 

10.

I have the idea of adopting a child from an orphanage when I become an adult.  Have you ever had this idea? What difficulties can a person who adopts a child face?

   I chose Anna’s topic for several reasons: the first one is that such ideas came sometimes into my mind; the second one is that I think it is necessary to give a chance to a child from an orphanage to have a family. 

   Thinking about orphanages in general I feel very sorry for children. My family is a united family, and as long as I can remember myself, I feel so much love and care that it is impossible to say in words. When I think about those children who have to live without a family and there is no their guilt in it, I ask one question: why? Why they are deprived of love? Why they are deprived of family happiness? It is not fair! That’s why I think that maybe I will adopt the child from the orphanage.

   However, it is not easy: you need to collect a lot of documents, of course, this is not the main problem, and you must be ready psychologically for such a step.  You need to understand that the child is not absolutely yours for the first time, and he or she needs some time to get used to you. That is the reason why most of people adopt children about 3 years old. In my opinion, at an early age it is easier for both children and their new parents to establish a contact.

    I cannot say that I am sure that one day I will adopt the child, but who knows.