Chloe’s blog

  I really like Fried Chicken. When I go to Hanyang Plaza, I feel the urge to have some chicken at Popeyes all the time.  I knew it could make me put some weight, but I could't stop to eat it. However, I saw a video clip about KFC by chance and that made me be reluctant to eat chicken at KFC. How cruel acts it is!! I was quite angry at the company and started to consider participating voycott seriously. If you want to know why I was so sensitive about it, just see the video clip below.  

 

There was a demonstration against KFC's cruelty dealing with chicken in Moscow, Russia. It was runned by PETA(People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). They have tried to be against vicious enterprisers which handle animal very brutally. This time, It was paid attention by many people because Russian girls had a demonstration, wearing bikini. They were in wire netting and displayed their opinion. Their slogan was "KFC tortures chicks."  If you want to know more about it, you can find an answer from this video clip below.

 

 I just think that there should be some punishment and restraint about the company. If they deal with chicks again and agian, we will be affected, I mean, we will be provided with poor-conditioned elements. Moreover, I can't stand that kind of cruelty about animals. We should stop KFC's heartless action.

Do you know that Seoul is the third expensive city of the world? According to Financial Times, the cost of living in Seoul is the most expensive in Asia and the third expensive in the world. Wow~ I was so surprised about it. Is the living cost of Seoul that expensive? Even more than New York? I have never realized about the high cost of Seoul just because I was born in Seoul. I have just accustomed to it. However, there is a more expensive city in the world. It is "Moscow". Isn't it surprising, either? I didn't think that living in Moscow, Russia is not that expensive. I've heard about the cost of accommodation in Russia. If I rent a small room in Russia, the cost will be 1,500,000 Won (1,500$) a month. It doesn't include any money about food, transportation, or education Wow again..  What makes it so expensive?

  

 

“The appreciation of the Rouble against the US Dollar, combined with ever-increasing accommodation charges, has driven up costs for expatriates in Moscow,” said Yvonne Traber, research manager and senior associate at Mercer.

Moscow is the most expensive city in Europe and in the rest of the world, for the second year running, with a score of 134.4 (compared with 123.9 in 2006). 

 

Top ten expensive cities for expatriates

1 Moscow, Russia
2 London, UK
3 Seoul, South Korea
4 Tokyo, Japan
5 Hong Kong, Hong Kong
6 Copenhagen, Denmark
7 Geneva, Switzerland
8 Osaka, Tokyo
9 Zurich, Switzerland
10 Oslo, Norway

 

  What will I do for a living 10 years later? After graduating from university, am I just supposed to be a teacher? Actually, I have a little different idea. By that time, I want to be a Russian specialist. I’m interested in the relationship between South Korea and Russia because I think it would help the union of South and North Korea in the future. However, I lack knowledge about Russia. As a result, I want to set specific goals to be a specialist. The goals I have set for myself are to see documentary programs related to Russia regularly, to make my own blog which has a lot of information about Russia, and to attend a Russian graduate school. Now, I will explain why and how I will accomplish my dream.

 

 

  First of all, I would like to see and collect documentary programs related to Russia. Documentary programs generally show objective point of views about topics and deal with social issues deeply. To make documentary programs, manufacturers gather information as much as possible and sort them according to their purpose and intention. As a result, I can learn other people’s ideas and point of view easily by watching documentary programs. It’s quite simple. Furthermore, I’m likely to get information easier through video clips rather than books because I’m a visual-centered learner. When I watch video clips, I concentrate on their contents and memorize them well. That’s the reason why I think I can learn fast through documentary programs. These days I can easily find Russian documentary sources through the internet. Some of them are made in Korean and others are made in English. They are easy to get. I plan to collect documentary programs regularly. After that, I’ll watch them on my way to school and when I go back home. It takes 2 hours a day. I want to watch 100 documentary programs next year.
  Second, I want to make my own blog which has a lot of information about Russia. A blog is a useful tool to gather information. By writing blog entries, I can collect information with pictures and video clips which are related to the content. As I mentioned, I am a visual-centered learner. If I learn something with visual aids, I can recall it easily. That’s the reason why I can know better about Russia while I make a blog about Russia and collect information. Furthermore, I can organize the contents according to subjects such as culture, economics, politics etc. In addition, I can share ideas about Russia with other people through a free board in my blog and make friends who have a same interest. I plan to write at least 4 entries a week. After a year, I can have about 200 entries.  

 

 
  Finally, I want to attend Russian graduate school. If I study in Russia, I can experience Russian culture as well as a Russian language. I think that to be a Russian specialist, I should know better about Russian cultural background. If I study only Russian as a mere language, not a tool of communication, I can’t get a profound knowledge about Russian culture. However, it’s so hard to experience Russian culture in Korea. As a result, I set my goal to study in Russia. I plan to enter Moscow National Graduate School and study international relations 1 year later. If I study in Russia, I can practice a language, study my major-international relations, and experience Russian culture. I already began to learn Russian 2 weeks ago and I want to keep studying hard until I am ready to learn Russia through Russian, not Korean.
  To sum up, I have set specific goals to be a Russian specialist. I’ll collect documentary programs related to Russia and watch them regularly and make my own Russian blog on the Internet. In addition, I plan to enter a Russian graduate school. The last one is the most difficult because learning Russian like a native speaker is quite hard. Furthermore, I lack knowledge about international relations. As a result, I’ll focus on learning Russian and try to get knowledge about international relations to be ready to enter the university. I think the other two goals will help the last goal. Although I have a hard time at first, I’ll never give up and focus on accomplishing my final goals.

 

Baikal is a beautiful lake located in the South-Eastern part of Siberia. It is the deepest freshwater lake on the earth. Olkhon Island is the biggest island in Baikal. Olkhon is the home of many tribes and peoples of Central Asia. It is a bit larger than the half of Jeju Island in Korea, but they're almost same. The surface of the island is green and smooth like meadows, and crumbles down in Baikal in rock cliff on the edges. The island is covered by grass and aroma plants on the side facing the coast, and by small pine trees (taiga) on the side facing the middle of the lake. It’s about 70 km long, and 15 km wide. 

 

 

 

I heard about interesting news in Olkhon Island. There is a Central-Asia tribe who has DNA which is the most similar to Korean's. The name of the tribe is Buryat. What does it mean to have similar DNAs? Does it mean that their appearance is also similar to ours? OR are their characteristics similar to ours? It's marvelous.

The island is quite remote, and is separated from the main land — there are no telephone lines, no power lines, cell phones don't work there, and the electricity on Okhon is produced by generators. If you go there, you can feel the beautiful of the natural scenery as much as you want without any disturbing.

 

   

 

As you can see on the map above, there is a special railroad which is a network of railways connecting Moscow and European Russia with the Russian Far East provinces, Mongolia, China and the Sea of Japan. That is Trans-Siberian Railroad is a special railroad which is a network of railways connecting Moscow and European Russia with the Russian Far East provinces, Mongolia, China and the Sea of Japan. That is Trans-Siberian Railroad (Транссибирская магистраль, Транссиб in Russian. It is the greatest rail journey on the planet, stretching almost 6,000 miles from Moscow to Vladivostok. Isn't it amazing? Actually, I planned to go to Russia next January and take the train with my team in KOPION. Started in April 1999, KOPION (KOrean Pioneers in Overseas NGOs) is a private non-profit organization registered under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Seoul Korea.  It is committed to serve the disadvantaged in the global community by recruiting and training international volunteers who are to be placed in overseas NGOs. I passed a document pretest already, and I can participate a global leadership program, conducting some projects while traveling. I'm so looking forward it. The Trans-Siberian trains stop several times a day, for periods ranging from just a few moments to almost half an hour. Even the longest stops, however, allow for little more than a quick expedition from the station to make some necessary purchases. It is possible, however, to arrange a stopover in many of the major destinations along the route, and what follows is a brief listing of some of the most popular sites.

 

 

 

  Travel along the Trans-Siberian Railway is usually undertaken from west to east, though it is quite possible to go in the opposite direction. Moreover, a number of choices of route are available, as are extensions of the journey on either end. The train has second class four-berth compartments and first class two-berth compartments and a restaurant car. One-way fares start at about $250 in a four-berth sleeper or $320 in a two-berth sleeper. Prices increase dramatically if additional stops are needed. Russian train tickets can only be purchased within the Russian Federation or in Finland. Tickets can be purchased only 45 days in advance. If you plan to go to Russia, remember it. 45 days in advance!

 

I looked through the blogs entries alone at first, and that made me feel a little burden of it because I expected more exciting class on Monday morning class.  

  Saint Petersburg is the second main city in Russia. There is a famous theater in Saint Petersburg. It is called "Mariinskii Teatr." Have you ever heard about it? If not, how about "Nutcraker"? When I was a child, I've ever seen ballet performance of Nutcraker.  Before I saw the performance, I listened to the Nutcraker story read by my mom. It's was a quite interesting and facsinating story. I was soaked in the story.

 

 

 

Back to the story, the Mariinskii Teatr has been with Russian ballet history. It was named after Maria Alexandrovna, who is a wife(queen) of King Alexander II. Until now, many famous opera ballet was performed in this theater. Maybe you know well about "Swan Lake", "Giselle", "Sleeping Beauty" etc. They are worldly famous and the ballet company is always in demand in the world. Look  at the interior of the theater.

 

 

 

   Awesome! The general fare of each performance depends on which seat you want. If you don't care about where it is and it's not that good to see the performance, the fare is just 15$. The highest is about 150$. However, the cheap seat was generally occupied by Russian, not rich foreign tourists. As you guess from this point, most Russian are crazy about art, music, performance, literature etc. They seem to have passion for it. They enjoy the whole art and are proud of their culture. I'd like to experience of it when I go to Russia next year.

 

" Я вас любил "       

                                                                                                                            

                                                                                           -   А.С.Пушкин -

 

                        Я вас любил : любовь ещё,быть молжет,

                            В душе моей угасла не совсем;

                            Но пусть она вас не тревожит

                           Я не хочу печалить вас ничемю.

                                                       

                        Я вас любил безмолвно,безнадежно,

                         То робосью, то ревностью томим ;

                        Я вас любил так искрено, так нежно,

                          Как дай вам бог любимой другим

 

 

 

I Love You

                                                                                                        -Alexander Pushkin  

 

I loved you; and perhaps I love you still,

The flame, perhaps, is not extinguished; yet

It burns so quietly within my soul,

No longer should you feel distressed by it.

Silently and hopelessly I loved you,

At times too jealous and at times too shy.

God grant you find another who will love you

As tenderly and truthfully as I.

 

 

 

As you can see, this poem is about love. How beautiful poem it is! When I first read this poem, I  was quite moved and I would like to learn Russian to read this poem in Rusian, not in English. I didn't know well about Russian yet; it still looks like a hieroglyphic character. I can get a desire to study Russian as a second language. Each word and sound seems to be beautiful and deserve to be learned. After this semester, I'm going to study Russian and looking forward to it.    

  There are several nations which gain attentions of other countries these days. It's BRICs. When I was first heard about it, I just thought that it is BRIX ;; Sorry;; Russia is one of the BRICs countries.  BRICs stands for the combination of Brazil, Russia, India, and China in economics. They are growing faster than other countries now and have potential to be powerful in the world. These nations had not been developed well because of situations which surround the country. However, they are in the center of the attention now due to full amount of natural resources and enough manpower of each country. Especially, Russia seems to have a lot of probablities by its high technology. Before World War, Russia was the most powerful and big country. At that time, America couldn't be compared to it at all. However, it had been on the decline by defeat of the war. 

  Not anymore!! Russia seem to regain his power after joining BRICs. I think that we need to pay attention to Russia in that Russia would have a crucial role in relationship between North and South Korea. The railroads from South Korea through North Korea to Russia are under the construction. If trade among them increases, we can take advantage of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  These days Russia is in Millionnair Fair. Can you guess what it is? It's the largest exhibition of luxury goods and services in the world. Unique and extravagant goods and services have been presented. Each year, the increasing attention from top class business representations, the government, the mass media and Russian celebrities are indicators of Millionaire Fair's growing popularity. Millionaire Fair is a chance to get all the best luxury goods at one time and in one place. Millionaire Fair is a significant event of 2007 and will be full of pleasant surprises and unforgettable sights. If you visit Russia now, you will see the best cars, yachts, planes, interiors, real estate and antiques, the most exclusive ornaments, the most refined cuisine and, of course, the biggest stars at once.

 

 

 

 

 

 The fair was held for the first time in Amsterdam in 2002 and in Moscow in 2005. It has won the reputation of one of the most respectable exhibitions of luxury. Thousands of new Russian generations inundated numerous stands selling all kinds of luxurious goods like gold-plated coffee pots, Lamborghinis, luxurious private airplane and helicopters. There were even a small island.  Over 200 prestigious companies and brands took place at the Millionaire Fair in Moscow, including Bvlgari, Bentley, BMW, Cartier, Jaguar, Remy Martin, Mercedes, Mont Blanc, Porsche, Riva, Rolex, Sony, Starline, and many others. The most expensive exhibit at the fair was an exclusive helicopter for $1.5 million. Can you believe that? There are only three of such helicopters in Russia now. I was so surprised about their spending habits.