Livadia Royal Palace

Recuperation on Ukrainian Riviera.

I spent 9 beautiful days in Livadia, the Yalta suburb. 
I visited the Livadia Royal Palace and famous 1945 Yalta Conference Museum. 
I saw President Roosevelt residence in 1945.

Welcome to The Chess Day!

I know e2-e4!!!

Thing 11: Videoconferencing (2 part)

It was interesting and useful for me to repeat my experience in WebChat!

Svitlana Usenko, the Head of Dnepropetrovsk Information Resource Center "Window on America", Marina Sichova, Anatoliy Ribalko, Vadim Saveskul had the unique opportunity to participate in WebChat: "Strategic Dialogue with Civil Society: Europe" (CO.NX webchat, Washington, D.C.).

It was a civil society webchat focusing on media freedom in Europe with Irena Chalupa, Senior Correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Inc. and Dr. Tomicah Tillemann, Senior Advisor to the Secretary for Civil Society and Emerging Democracies.

As part of the State Department’s ongoing commitment to defend civil society worldwide, Secretary Clinton launched a Strategic Dialogue with Civil Society groups on February 16, 2011. The Strategic Dialogue with Civil Society elevated our relationship with nongovernmental organizations to the level of our government-to-government relationships. The Dialogue is an 18-month, ongoing initiative with working groups on empowering women, promoting democracy and human rights, and enhancing transparency and good governance.

Format: It was a video webchat in English.

A lot of interesting questions were in focus of discussion from various parts of the Europe.

We've taken an active part in this activity and asked some questions: 

1) How European journalists manage to combine high ethical standards of journalism and responsibility for reliability of information with the freedom of expression?

2) We know that there’s much pressure on journalists from different minority group, like the society not to heavy ago in Penmar (about some religiously sensitive caricatures). Doesn’t the necessity to factor in the interests of  those groups limit the freedom of express  in for European journalists?

A picnic dedicated to the Independence Day

The English Speaking Club's committee had a picnic dedicated to the Independence Day in the USA.

I think the picnic was a great success!

I chose a beautiful park landscape near the Dnieper river waterfront. 

The picnic participants were sharing experiences and views on numerous topics.

Dnipropetrovsk skyscrapers are also impressive! And  the "Swan" fountain on the water was amazing!

 Vasil with the club ladies and "The Tourist" ;-) from Italy walked along the Dnieper river waterfront. We enjoyed watching the beautiful  summer sunset.

 Look at more pictures here, plese

The Independence Day celebration with children

The «Window to America» Center was visited by the group of schoolchildren of rehabilitation center  «Turtle-dove»  together with their teacher Irina Cherepen’ko.

The Meeting was devoted to the Independence Day celebration and an acquaintance with the United States of America.

The group listened to my presentation. The informative slide show «MEET the United States of America» introduced the students to the geography of the USA, its capital Washington, founder of America Christopher Columbus, native population - Indians, people which created history of country – first presidents and political figures, about the American icons of pop-culture, the biggest cities are centers of economics and culture, about architectural views of these cities.

It was useful for pupils to learn about the national symbols of the USA –  flag, bald eagle, rose, White house, Congress, Statue of Liberty, memorials in honour to the presidents Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln.

I paid a regard to a rich collection of coloured and interesting child's books which would help to improve pupils’ knowledge of English.

Schoolchildren were eager to hear new information. They thanked sincerely in the end of the meeting.

The number of participants – 19 persons (17 students and 2 teachers).

More pictures here