Sunday, May 25, 2008

Valeriy Demidov: Travel


Since my childhood, I have been involved in different kinds of trips, tours, excursions and travels. I have got a lot of knowledge and experience, and, of course, it changed my attitude to the life and my life itself. Therefore I may say: Travelling in Russia and abroad has significantly changed my life and mentality.

The story of my travels begins with trips to the country in my childhood. My parents and grandparents really liked to spend their holidays and vacations in the country going camping. They started to take my brother and me for these adventures when we were 4-5 years old. We walked through the forest and meadows, swam in lakes and rivers, took sunbaths and caught fish, and we also got to like this type of entertainment and rest. Later, when we became adults, we went to our lovely wild places with our friends to feel ourselves free and independent of civilization. We learned how to take care for ourselves, take a decision in an emergency situation and be own masters of environmental support. At my work for Mordovian State University I often made business trips to Moscow and other cities because I am quick off the mark. During a working day, I was able to deliver lectures to my students and carry out learning sessions with them, arrange schedule for the next day with my colleagues, buy a ticket on the night train and do my packing. After the night-day-night trip to Moscow and squaring the matter with reports on scientific grants, I was a little tired and didn’t sleep enough, but I continued my classes in an ordinary timetable. Sometimes, I needed this experience to break my daily routine and get new mates, communication and impressions; then I felt myself renewed. Thus I become experienced in effective managing my time and arranging official matters, communication with managers and strangers.

It is very interesting to get knowledge about history and culture, life and traditions of various peoples and nations not from books or magazines, but directly. I also took part in scientific conferences in various famous cities of Russia as Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Samara, and in famous cities of other countries as Berlin in Germany, and Venice and Trieste in Italy. As a rule, after the conference meetings we went on excursions to the remarkable places of the towns and got to know a lot of new historical and cultural facts and details. Besides new knowledge and extended scope, my trips to other countries taught me the following lessons. Trips abroad give you the possibility to change the environment and the tide of life for a short period. Many people dream about travels to other countries and famous cities, but they don’t have time, capabilities or money to realize their reveries. For this reason it may be great if your work include some travel. Ten months ago my wife and I immigrated to Canada. It was our well-considered decision to change our country and our life, but in a different way we may interpret it as a long-time travel and adventure, sometimes difficult and interesting undoubtedly. During these ten months we have gained knowledge and experience of several years. We understand very well it is necessary to go on in our own way without fear that something will come amiss, then we can achieve success.

In conclusion I may say all my travels have changed me significantly, and I can’t live now without travel, trips, tours etc. Maybe these changes and my attitude to life are not advantageous in point of view of middlebrow, but I prefer to be little beaten but experienced and knowledgeable person.

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