Friday 28 June 2013

Sitting on a Rainbow

We recently had some new furniture installed in our student social area.  What a difference!  So much colour, the day just seems to brighten up when you walk in and see the palette of colour.


Angel Ma, Terry Thorne and Adam Travers deep in discussion.

Friday 21 June 2013

Summer Snow in Russia

Having returned from yet another successful business trip to Moscow with my colleagues I couldn’t miss the opportunity to share my experiences with the readers of the LSI Blog.

Sunny Moscow in June welcomed us with what’s known locally as ‘summer snow’ – pollen being spread by the wind all across the streets of Moscow. This beautiful natural phenomenon takes place during 2 weeks of summer and we were lucky enough to visit Moscow at the right time! If you’re a hay fever sufferer, I suggest you postpone your visit to Moscow to July or August J

This time around we had the opportunity to set up meetings and hold talks with some of Moscow’s most renowned Universities – Lomonosov Moscow State University and Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics, and Informatics. The beautiful architecture of these Universities, the history and most importantly the hospitality of the people who work there is indescribable.

Having successfully completed the business part of the trip, we were very much looking forward to enjoying Moscow’s cultural landscape. Strolling through some of the historic streets of Moscow we ended up at Mari Vanna – the restaurant next to Patriarch's Pond with no sign (that’s right!) that serves the best Russian homemade food in Moscow. The 60’s interior makes you feel like you’re visiting someone’s flat as you sit underneath an old fashioned chandelier surrounded by mismatched plates and vintage furniture. It was wonderful to feel this cosy and ‘at home’ and a wonderful time was had by all, but alas it was time for us to return to our own homes.

A big thank you to Dmitry Mikheev for organising our visit and we look forward to returning soon. You can never have enough of the famous and enigmatic Russian 'dusha' or 'soul' J

Yet again, from Russia with love,
Margarita




MESI University


Lea, Dmitry, Andrew.
 
Margarita



Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Kalina Bar

Lomonosov Moscow State University

Red Square and Moscow River

Summer Snow

Napoleon Cake at the Kalina Bar

Sturgeon at Mari Vanna

Thursday 13 June 2013

Interactive Whiteboards

Keeping up with technology is a never ending task. No sooner do you have the latest than you find it has become old hat!  I still remember a student telling me all about ... Power Point back in the late 90's.  I sat there open mouthed as he explained the concept to me. At that time there were no laptops or computers in the classrooms.  Very quickly that changed and we had laptops available and the era of PowerPoint started.  Then came mobile phones for everyone, WIFI, ipads etc.  It's never easy knowing which will stand the test of time and which will pass into the anals of history with a wry smile (remember Beta videos?).

In our ongoing quest to keep up with all the latest technology, we have just had some superb new equipment set up in the classrooms.
We have recently had some interactive whiteboards set up in some of our clasrooms.


With the lovely Jeremy and Lewis modelling
the latest technology installed at LSI