Introducing myself (my family)

To begin with I’d like tointroduce myself. My full name is Alexander Andreevich Smirnov, but friends normally call me by my short name Sasha. I was born on September 27, 1993. I am 17. Originally, I’m from Murmansk, but now I live in Arkhangelsk. I am a first-year-student of the Northern Arctic Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov.

I was born under the astrological sign of Libra. I think I’m quite easy-going and balanced. I find it easy to make friends. It seems to me I can mix quite well with people I’ve never met before. I like to be friendly to the people around me. I can play the piano quite well. I love playing computer games and reading. I am sure I am ambitious. I like to win competitions, to win prizes, to score the most points, to be the best, etc. I have a career plan.

I come from quite a big family. We are 6 in the family: my father, mother, two brothers, a sister and me. My parents live in Murmansk. When I lived there I had very close contact with my family, but now of course it’s much more difficult. I feel the miss of my parents and my granny. Every week we could go at the weekend to stay with my grandmother on my mother’s side. My grandfather is not sociable but he is a very good musician. I don’t remember my grandparents on my father’s side; they died when I was 5 years old. I write occasionally to my parents, also we phone each other and send e-mails.

My father is quite old, he’s 55. He is tall. He has short, dark, curly hair and a small beard. I think he is a cheerful and good-humored person. He usually wears jeans and sweaters. My father doesn’t like formal clothes. He prefers to dress casually. He is generous, punctual and helpful. He is always clean-shaven. He is very interested in other people and he plays the guitar very well. He is a marine engineer of a shipping company. He has a sister Lidia, so I have only one aunt. I love my auntie, her husband (my uncle) and their children (my cousins).

My mother is 50. She has short, straight hair. She has dimples and rosy cheeks. She has long eyelashes which she darkens with mascara. Her favorite colours are green and light blue. My mother likes to be well dressed. She wears shoes with extremely high heels. She is open-minded and nice. Her main interest is music. My parents have a great many friends. My mother’s brother Alex and his wife have three children, who are all married now.

My brothers Sergey, who is six years older than me, is a computer programmer. He’s married to Irena, who doesn’t work – she is a housewife and she brings up the children. They have two children: Igor and Maria aged four and three. They are my nephew and niece. My other brother, Ivan, who is five years older than me, is an architect. Unfortunately, he and his wife Marina got divorced two years ago. My sister Anastasia is one year younger than me. She is a blond girl with short straight hair, dark eyes and slander arms and legs. She is rather tall and slim. So you can see we have quite a lot of presents to buy at Christmas!

To my mind the stereotypical family of husband and wife is changing now. Unfortunately there are a lot of one-parent families. A lot of people get divorced now and live on their own, and bring up their children on their own.

Psychologists say some families cope well with problems, while others fall apart. I am absolutely sure that the key to a family’s strength and happiness is the degree of emotional closeness between members.

My flat

I live in Arkhangelsk. The district I live in is right in the centre of the town. So it’s very quick to get to from my University. It takes me 20 minutes to go on foot. I think it’s very convenient for studies. I live in a block of flats, in a flat on the seventh floor of a building. I like living high up because a lot of light comes in. And I never take a lift to the seventh floor because I develop my muscles. That is why I sometimes have muscles ache.

Actually, our flat isn’t very big. It’s about 45 square meters. It is centrally-heated. There is a living room which I share with my younger brother Boris. There is a sofa-bed, where I sleep and a bed where my brother sleeps. We also have two desks in the room. I have a computer on my desk. I usually download something from the Internet: films, music etc. We’ve got a TV, which is nice, with about 20 different channels. My brother sometimes spends half of a day in front of a television or spends a lot of time playing computer games. Then we have six blocks of shelves which are full of books on oil, geology and chemistry. I’m a student of Oil and Gas Institute and I have to read much to be a high qualified specialist.

The other room is my parents’ bedroom. There is a brown wall-to-wall carpet, so the room looks quite nice. They also have yellow curtains that match the carper. There is a bed next to the window and a wardrobe. They really like their room.

We like our kitchen. There is a table in there where we usually eat breakfast and dinner. It’s got a lot of shelves with plants, a cupboard, and a stove, a washbasin with taps for hot and cold water. The kitchen is quite high-tech. It has a microwave oven, a sandwich maker, and many domestic electric appliances to help with the cooking. Our family arranges a relaxed evening meal once a month when we share our problems. I am sure it is important to talk about our everyday life and plans with the parents.

Then we’ve got a bathroom. There is a nice setup in the room. It has black and white tiles on the floor, so it looks like a chessboard. It is really funny. It has a bath, a toilet and also a washing machine. There is a big boiler to heat up the water.

There is always a very nice family atmosphere in our flat. My mother knows how to give the place a homely atmosphere.

My grandparents live in the country, so I’ve lived there. I know the difference. I think it is really nice to go to the country for a break. But on the other hand, I do get bored if I am there for a long time.

I often think about my ideal flat or house. I would like to have a house, ideally with a garden. I’d also like to have a nice view of the river or of the sea. I like rooms with different shapes which have may be one wall which is a little bit rounded. I’d like to have the attic in my house.

Daily routine

It seems to me my life is always very full of activities and so I never have much time for myself. My daily routine is a bit different now that I am a first-year student. I usually start the day by getting up at half past six or earlier even though I would really prefer to sleep much later. I always do some gentle stretching in bed. After I get up I perform my morning routine of taking a quick shower or washing my face, brushing my teeth, and then deciding what to wear. After I get dressed I brush my hair and put in my contact lenses. I sometimes don’t have time for breakfast in the morning because I have to catch a bus at seven thirty for my commute to University. That is why I sometimes get a cake or something on the way. I am absolutely sure it is not useful for my health.

Classes at University start at eight twenty except on Tuesdays and Fridays when they start at ten minutes past ten. Classes are un hour and a half long with five minute breaks, except for one "long" break between the third and the fourth classes, which is un hour long. After classes I do some shopping on my way back.

When I get home I take the dog out and relax for some time. I listen to music and maybe get a little snack. I very rarely cook but I actually enjoy cooking. I find it really relaxing because after thinking all day, it’s nice to just chop up vegetables and think of something really mindless, and not have to concentrate too hard.

Then I start my homework or help with some housework. I want my home to be in order, but I don’t want to be a slave to my housekeeping routines. So, how do I balance it all? I keep it simple.

After dinner, I usually watch television. As a rule I watch the news on the TV. I am very busy but I like to find time in the evening for things which are really important to me. The first of these is surfing the Internet or downloading films and music from the Internet. But some things have to be done at a certain time and so I always give these priorities in my timetable. I mean finding time to study for my examinations.

I like to go to a fitness center or to the gym with my friends, and we try to do this every week, and we like to swim in the swimming pool. But for some reason, we can’t often make enough time for it.

I have a date with my boyfriend twice a week.

So this is my daily routine during the week. I usually manage to go to bed around eleven thirty pm.

At the weekend it is a different story, I like to sleep late and do whatever I wish with my free time. I am still expected to help my parents out around the house but I still have most of the time for myself and my interests. I can go for a trip with my friends, I can visit my relatives or I can devote more time to my hobbies. I think everyone will agree that weekends are much better than weekdays.

My Hobby

According to the dictionary, hobby is an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure or an activity that you enjoy doing in your spare time. I have different types of hobby. To begin with I’d like to say a few words about my childhood. When I was a child I enjoyed playing superheroes. So, I have a very big collection of them.

When I was at school I was interested in cooking. My key-friend was a student from India. That is how I learnt how to cook a lot of Indian dishes, from her. I enjoyed cooking myself and tried to cook a lot of food at home. My collection of recipes is small but mouthwatering. For example, I know how to cook Spanish paella. I am sure if you follow precisely the instructions step by step it will be delicious.

One of my hobbies is sport. My sport hobby is tennis and I like skiing and swimming. I can say that some of my friends are simply hooked on jogging and brisk walking. Isometimes play different sport games for health and pleasure. I’m very active. I like to play badminton and to ride a bicycle. My new hobby is roller-skating. Unfortunately, I have never tried wind-surfing, water skiing, and scuba diving.

My other hobby is photography. My mum says I take very good pictures. But I don’t think so. It’s not easy to be artistic.

When I first went to Tunisia (a country in North Africa) it was in 2005, I started to learn French. After French I tried to learn Spanish and Italian. I found it quite complicated and I often confused words and verbs. When I’ve been on holiday in Italy it was quite easy to understand what was going on, but I couldn’t actually form a sentence.

I'm fond of reading. Unfortunately, it’s getting less and less popular nowadays because of the Internet. My friends seldom borrow books from libraries. Some of them are sure this is a complete waste of time. I like reading fantasy books and historical novels. There is a very good library in Arkhangelsk which I use regularly.

I like music. I have a huge collection of albums. I adore the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Elvis Priestly. I very much like folk music and jazz-rock music. I hardly ever go to discos. I have been to a few places like M33. I would probably go to more if there was better music.

We organize extra class activities such as parties and other social activities at our University. I try to participate in most of them. My greatest problem at school was making speech in front of the class. And now I can manage it.

It is a well-known fact that healthy people live longer and their career is more successful. I don’t smoke and take drugs, I don’t drink alcohol, I don’t eat too much chips and sweets, I try to eat more vegetables and fruits, I sleep well without taking sleeping pills and tranquillizers.

Russia

(Its geographical position, climate, natural and mineral resources & industry)

I live in Russia. It is my native country. The Russian Federation is a transcontinental country. It occupies one seventh of the Earth's surface. It is situated both in Europe and Asia. With an area of 17,075,400 km², Russia is the largest country in the world, covering almost twice the total (land and sea) the territory of either United States or China.

The country is washed by twelve seas (the Baltic Sea in the west, the Caspian and Black seas in the south). Russia’s north is washed by several seas of the Arctic Ocean – White, Barents, Kara, Laptev, East Siberian and Chukchi seas. The eastern coasts of Russia are washed by the Bering, Okhotsk seas and the Sea of Japan. The Strait of Bering separates the Chukchi Peninsula from Alaska. Russia is also bordered by the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. I know from the history of my country the White-Baltic-Sea Channel, which connects the White Sea with Onega Lake, was constructed mostly by political prisoners.

Russia shares land borders with the following countries (counter-clockwise from northwest to southeast): Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It is also close to the United States (Alaska State), Sweden, and Japan across relatively small stretches of water (the Bering Strait, the Baltic Sea, and the Strait of La Perouse, respectively). The Strait of La Perouse separates Sakhalin from Hokkaido.

There is no other country in the world like Russia, with steppes in the south, plains and forests, tundra and taiga in the north, highlands, deserts and semi-deserts in the east. Its chief regions are the Russian (East-European) Plane, the Ural Mountains, the West Siberian Plain, the Central Siberian Plateau and the Far East. Russia’s Far East is a comparatively narrow strip of land extending from northeast to southwest for practically 4500 km.

The Ural Mountains, the traditional boundary between Europe and Asia, run for over 2.000 kilometers from north to south. The Caucasus, extending between the Black and Caspian seas, is a system of ranges of which the highest is Mt Elbrus (5642 m) which has always attracted Russia’s mountaineers. The northern slopes of the Caucasus border the south of the European part; the Khibiny Mountains are to the northwest.

There is a great number of rivers in Russia. The largest European rivers are the Volga, Northern Dvina, Don and Pechora, while Asia is crossed by the Ob’, Irtysh, Yenisey, Amur and Angara. The Volga River is one of the largest inland water transportation in Europe extending 3700 kilometers from Valdai Hills to the Caspian Sea. The main Siberian rivers - the Ob', the Yenisey, and the Lena flow from the south to the north. The Amur in the Far East flows into the Pacific Ocean. The Central Siberian Plateau is situated between the Yenisey and Lena rivers.

Among Russia’s lakes one finds The Caspian Sea, the world’s largest, and Baikal Lake, the world’s deepest one, as well as such large lakes as the Ladoga and Onega Lake. The water in Baikal Lake is so clear, that you can see the stones on the bottom.

Because of the vast territory there are various types of climate in the country. Russia’s climate is markedly continental, with cold winter and mild or warm summer, depending on latitude, but the climate varies greatly in different regions. Russia is spread over all climatic zones except tropical. Most of Russia’s territory is located in the temperate belt. The Arctic Ocean’s islands are located in the Arctic and sub-Arctic belts. At the same time, a small part of the Caucasus’ Black Sea coast is located in the sub-tropical belt. The huge territory of Russia stretches across 10 time zones.

Russia is among the world’s richest countries in mineral and energy resources. Russia is very rich in oil, natural gas, coal, as well as iron ore, copper, zink, lead, nickel, aluminum and tin. The most important deposits of coal and iron are in Siberia, as well as most of heavy industry. But there are also a lot of mines on the European territory of the country. Russia is also one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states.

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