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Oct

FIRST STEPS IN RUSSIA

WHITE NIGHT

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POWER-UP YOUR GOOGLE

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A JOURNEY TO HANGZHOU

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Many thanks to our contributors

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Ms. Christine Mr. CHARISMA MS. ELEVENER MR. Fanronaldo MR. NGOC HAI Ms. NGUYEN THANH HA

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Ms. Bambie Ms. Minh Chau Ms. Thanh Thao Ms. Thanh Truc Ms. T. Ngoc

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C. Photography

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COVER BY C . PHOTOGRAPHY

Page 1

CREDITS

Page 2

CONTENT

Page 3

FIRST STEPS IN RUSSIA

Page 4-7

WHITE NIGHT

Page 7

POWER-UP YOUR GOOGLE

Page 8-9

FUNNY STORIES

Page 8-9

BOARD OF HONORS

Page 9

NEWS

Page 10-11

A JOURNEY TO HANGZHOU

Page 12-14

BIRTHDAY CARD

Page 15 ENJOY THE MAGAZINE!!!

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Ngoc Hai A student’s life always has its difficulties, and it’s even harder for us to live and study in another country which is thousands of miles far away from home . However, they are not just sadness and tears, but they are also happy moments and unforgettable memories in our life. And I can tell you all that it is really a great time when we ourselves had some experience in Russia some years ago which, I think, was so invaluable for all of us. We’ve got a lot of difficulties in our life here since we put the first steps in Russia. The first difficulty we had to face from the

very first beginning in Russia was the language. We hadn’t even learnt a word before coming here. Most of the Russian couldn’t understand English, so every time we wanted to buy something or had some problems with the administrators in our hostel, we had to ask for help from some elder Vietnamese students to translate for us. If there was no one around, we solved the problems ourselves by nodding or shaking heads, sometimes it worked but sometimes it didn’t. It depended on our

ability of guessing the given ideas. In the next few months, we tried hard to learn Russian but the knowledge we had got in a short time was not enough for our study in Russian environment at the university. We could understand the lectures only about less than thirty percent. Sadly, some subjects such as history, philosophy, psychology we almost understood nothing.

Archway The second trouble was the weather. I was born in a province in the Middle of a tropical country and I would never know how cold the weather could be until I first came here in Russia. It was the winter time, I still remember, the average temperature was about -12 o C, and the lowest temperature might be down to -25 o C. The weather is not comfortable like in other seasons. The sky is grey and cloudy , while there is no rain at all but snow quite often. We used to like playing with snow very much because we had never had a chance to see snow with our real eyes in our country. The first time experiencing the new life, along with tasting the sadness and feeling homesick, we also had to get used to the cold and all the activities of this season. In the morning, though it was cold, we had to get up very early and went for a long walk before catching

a bus to school . It was quite dangerous to be outside in such a severe weather condition. In the afternoon it got dark so fast, which made me think that the daytime seemed to get shorter. It also made us more homesick. However, we do definitely have some advantages. For example, we don’t have to do any part-time job, and the living conditions are good enough to focus on our study. Also, we have learnt lots of interesting things from Russian people and from students of different countries here. Moreover, there are many Vietnamese students who stay in different rooms at

the hostel, though, we are quite close to each other. So it is like we are living in a small Vietnamese society. We often hold small parties in some occasions such as holidays, friends’ birthdays or simply weekends. That is the time for us to get together drinking, singing, and even dancing Sometimes, we also have some serious discussions about culture, economics and politics, etc. If winter is the hardest time, then the

Archway opposite season, summer, is our favorite time. During summer time there is no school or lesson, completely. We can travel to many beautiful places in Russia, visit our friends in other cities, or hold a picnic to the suburb. We have got great time together throughout the trips. One time I went camping deep inside the pine -forest with some Russian friends. This camp was located near a small river where we also swam in. In the evening, we went deeper inside the forest to find a good place for the campsite , we collected wood to set a camp-fire , then sat together in a circle around the fire. We also brought here food to eat , beer to drink, and all the nighttime we talked to each other , sometimes some Russian guys danced .They asked me so many questions, about myself , about Vietnam and many things else (because, as they said, I was the first foreigner coming to that camp, so they were very curious ) and I had a chance to tell them about Vietnam, to let them know more about our culture, traditions and especially about Ho Chi Minh City. It was so interesting. We Vietnamese students also had an unforgettable memory of the time when we came to the river nearby the city to collect oysters and shellfish. Sometimes, some Russian passed by staring at us with curious eyes. Maybe they were wondering, “Where are these guys from and what the hell are they doing down there?” We just kept smiling to each other. We were doing what might never be done by anyone of us before in Vietnam. Another time we went to the suburb to visit

Never shall I forget the time I spent with you. Please continue to be my friend, as you will always find me yours. -Ludwig Van Beethoven

Archway the corn-fields. The fields there were so large and they didn’t belong to any person or any family but the provincial authority. For an oversea student’s life, like mine, a very important demand here is the Internet. Everyday we use the Internet to study , to entertain and to contact our family and friends. We need it every time, both when we are happy and sad. Can you imagine how our life would be without the Internet? One of my friends asked

me this question and I did answer him immediately: “Without it, you can imagine it is just like you are living in a city without electricity “ All what I have told you above is what I have faced , seen , learnt and done when I am far away from my homeland . And what about you?

White Night Nguyen Thanh Ha Time flies and we've both gone None of us wait for the promise If our own ways ever meet Fading memories may be worth a smile. . My old dear, give me no more Or the long forgotten story may wake up.

Dreams are by nature chronic Who can be sure they've all died? . Go on, dear, and don't look back! When old kiss is worth a lie I promise I won't be looking back! When night whitens in sleepless eyes...

POWER-UP YOUR Being a frequent Internet user, you certainly have at least once visited the most powerful website on earth: www.google.com. Have you ever had a single thought in mind why people abuse it day by day? Well let me show you the way to maximize its strength at best for daily activities. I. Overview about Google: Back to the time I was in high school when most Internet connection went through telephone, browsing web pages was hopelessly slow and searching was one of the most terrible nightmares! At that time, Yahoo and Microsoft seemed to be the most two dominant sources in that business. Then one shiny beautiful day, Google was popped up in local news as “the fastest search tool in the world”. It right away caught my attention, finally I tried and got amazed by the fact that IT COULD GET US A BILLION RESULTS IN LESS THEN 1/10 SECONDS!!!!

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(Results 1-10 in 2.540.000.000 given by Google in 0,06 second) Nowadays, Google accounts for over 50% searches over Internet, some webmasters even say “If your website is not indexed by Google, then it has never been existed”. II. Optimize your search with Google. As you can notice, typically there are thousands of results for a search. Of course it would take you days to visit that large number of websites, so here are some tricks that work out well for me:

There is a beggar sitting on the pavement with 2 hats in front of him. A passer-by comes near and asks: - Why do you have 2 hats? The beggar replies: - A business runs so well that I open a new branch."

Once there was a boy named Odd. Odd was the butt of jokes his whole life, because of his name, even though he grew up to be a successful lawyer. When Odd was old and about to die, he said, "People have been teasing me my whole life, and I

don't want them doing it after I am dead, so I don't want my name printed on my tombstone." After Odd died, people saw his blank tombstone and said, "That's odd!"

[Continue]

(Translate this page/ Saved in Cache) 1. Visit at most 5 pages for each search. Those results beyond that scope are most likely irrelevant. Instead you should try other keywords (I myself usually try 3 pages before starting on a new search). 2. Read the brief paragraphs containing your keywords before following the link. This would save you much time. 3. In case the web site is not available, you can try click on the link [Saved in Cache] and still be able to view

s r o n s o r o n H o f o H d f r o a ooard B B

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the desired content. 4. In case your required information is in different

languages, try link [Translate this page]. Note that if you are not in www.google.com at the moment, but still want to translate a website or a paragraph, you can visit http://translate.google.com/ which gives precise translation tool for over 30 different languages. [to be continued]

Police Chief: As a recruit, you'll be faced with some difficult issues. What would you do if you had to arrest your wife? New Recruit: Call for backup!

A man placed some flowers on the grave of his dearly departed mother and started back toward his car when his attention was diverted to another man kneeling at a grave. The man seemed to be praying with profound intensity and kept repeating, "Why did you have to die? Why did you have to die?" The first man approached him and said, "Sir, I don't wish to interfere with your private grief, but this demonstration of pain is more than I've ever seen before. For whom do you mourn so deeply? A child? A parent?" The mourner took a moment to collect himself, then replied, "My wife's first husband."

Walkie Talkie Team -----------------Website: www.watavn.com Email: [email protected]

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NEWS

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July 20, 2008 was a significant date for me since I had a chance to roam around a beautiful and remote city named HANGZHOU which was also the place I sat for my first TOEFL exam. Unfortunately, it was a big “negatively” significant day to me. In fact, it turned out to be fairly unbelievable as a lot of problems occurred while I had always expected a nice and easy rest from my everlasting exhaustion resulted from a long journey. The city of HANGZHOU is located in the northeast of the ZHEJIANG province in China and is also closed to the Chinese East Sea. The whole city is gracefully polished by the glance of culture and the atmosphere of history and is mostly famous for its scenic spots. Once, the city was the capital of the SONG dynasty and during that time, numerous renowned poets emerged and later passed on generations to generations the precious treasure of their poetry. Since a little boy, my parents taught me of these poems and I can still recite some of them. These poems are just classics in China and they will also be kept in my memory forever. (I am not kidding; most of the Chinese children can recite such poems which have become part of their home curriculums before they even go to school). And that is exactly why Hangzhou is called the city of culture and history.

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There were some interesting events happened to me when I was in Hang Zhou. Very first of all, I have a cousin who has been living in Hang Zhou for the last 5 years and she is married to a local- a great guy actually, that is to say she found my brother-inlaw. All this time, I have been thinking to call her in but unfortunately I am all up to my ears with studies. However, this time round I finally hold myself on to my own promise and met them. Secondly, it was meeting my nephew whom I had never met. I really could not wait to hear the boy called me “Uncle”. I arrived in Hang Zhou right at the time my nephew turned one. Hence, the family was engaged to a celebration for his very first birthday party. All in all, the chance to bond with relatives made up a very good reason for me to choose this particular city for the TOEFL exam. Don't you think it was a meaningful journey for me? There are several ways to reach the city from my place. The most economical way is to walk but the last time someone did that must have been hundreds of years ago and it would take about a month. Undoubtedly, the fastest way is by flight as it only takes two hours but again, it is just pricey. Therefore, it left me no choice but the last two options: trains or long-distance buses. The good thing about trains and buses is that they are fairly cheap and all you have got to do is stay still on them for approximately 6 to 7 hours until you finally reach to the destination. Consequently, I caught the train. Sadly, just right at the minute I got to the station, the last train had already departed and so I had to stay up all night.

Archway After finishing the TOEFL exam, I took a taxi to my first tourist destination called Lei Feng tower. As mentioned previously, HANG ZHOU is an ancient city and Lei Feng tower can, without a doubt, prove this statement. This tower is famous for an antiquated love legend which has inspired a TV series in China. There was a snake, considered demon, who disguised as a beautiful lady. In this infamous story of the Chinese, she came to the world to repay her savior, a handsome scholar of China. They fell in love with each other. Unfortunately, after they got married and had a bright child, a monk found out that the wife was a demon and tore the happy family apart by imprisoning the snake within the Lei Feng tower. The husband was devastated and in order to save his wife he decided to become a monk. Eighteen years later, their son had grown up and was on the way to becoming an imperial high-rank official. In the end, the family finally reunited for a typical happy-ending fairy tale. Comparing to other towers, the Lei Feng tower is not such illuminant. In fact, I can be sure that the tower is fairly ordinary superficially. Nevertheless, not until you have discovered the hidden charm would you become amazed by the tower. A few years ago, a group of Chinese archaeologists found out that there were graves of an imperial family buried underneath the tower. Moreover, the exploration project is still in process so there will definitely be more interesting revelation of secrets. The second attraction is The West Lake which is considered the symbol of this city. This somehow implies that you have not been to HANG ZHOU if you have not been on a spin around this lake. On the side of the lake is another small lake and you can actually tour around the lake leisurely in no time. However, if you wish to enjoy all the beauty of the West Lake, you will need a few days. You might consider going

there at night to catch the daily spectacular West Lake musical fountains. Walking along the lake, you will find many recreation facilities such as, lieu lying fallows, museums, west dinner hall and Chinese dinner hall. But the most wonderful thing must be the fact that every beautiful spot around the lake is free of charge for visitors. Due to promotion, countless tourists come here annually. The easiest and best way to go sight-seeing is probably to find a guide and ride his small travel bus. He is familiar with the sceneries that he is able to multitask: drive as well as introduce the sceneries along with their stories just like a student recites smoothly a text to his teacher. For some reason, there is always something exciting about this place even when you don't have great insights. For example, in the middle of the lake there are still some small isles which can be easily reached by boat. Around the West Lake you can come across

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various adorable statues which are there for people to appreciate. The third place I visited was Su dike. During the north Song Yuan You 5 years (1090), Su Shi, a poet cum prefecture, dredged the West Lake and made use of the sludge to build it. In order to commemorate his contribution, the local people decided to use name it after him. And yes, that is the origin of Su dike. Now this place is gorgeously surrounded by lotus and in the summer you can even find the turtles basking on the surface. All trips must come to and end which most of the times makes you feel it was not long enough. Those three destinations mentioned above are all I got to see in a day before my final exam came. However that was definitely a enriching and fruitful day. I hope I can visit this city again soon.

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A PP Y BI RT H DA Y Make a wish ... Make it last, your whole life through It’s a gift form the heart Making all your dream come true As the light from the candles shine on your face Take a chance ... Today you can believe ...

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