I haven't been writing for a long time since I have concentrated on my new genealogical blog radavod.info. I am writing about my path to the familily history and writting mainly in Belarusian. I do plan to keep writing some posts in English which might be interesting for an international audience. Anyway, feel free to visit my new blog and I will keep you posted. By the way Google translate works fine with Belarusian language :)

It's been a while since I have written something on my blog. I actually missed it a bit. Keep tuned I am gonna return to blogging :)

Tracking back Baryceuski (Borichevsky, Boryczewski) family story

Since I am working on the genealogic research, I have decided to put on the map some of the places/churches were my ansestors used to live. It's an ongoig and time consuming process, which hopefully will result in some interesting story worth to be told.
View Barycheuski in a larger map

Video about Minsk

This is a very interesting video about Minsk with some shotes from Navahrudak and countryside.

Minsk/Belarus Motion TimeLapse from zweizwei on Vimeo.

Suddenly I see

I see that I still have lost of things to discover. In fact every day there is something new I have never heard about. Like now, I've discovered a new singer ;) "She is a beautiful girl", yes indeed she is and her song is also really positive and ispiring :)

You can listen and watch it here, a song "Suddenly I See" by KT Tunstall.

When you get what you want

I wish I would always want only what I really need. At least, if the statement that people get whatever they want is true. There were many interesting things happening in the past few months. Bad and good, mostly challenging... But that's life. Today, I inspected a pair of old shoes which I loved a lot, but now they are old and I can't ware them anymore. What should I do? Should I simply get out of my flat with a pair of shoes in my hand and leave them on the street. I try not to get attached towards things, but some of them bring nice memories, especially shoes :D News... I found out that my good friend got married, I am so happy for her.

New website to download my photos

My most popular images for sale at Shutterstock:

One can download and submit photos at ShutterStock! Check out My Gallery Here!

I am happy to live in this country

No, not because this is the centre of Europe (still dusputed between several countries :D), no. I like people who live here, despite the political situation we have. Some people think and I would agree with it, that nature dermines the character of the nation...

I went to a photo exhibition today. It is named The Planet Belarus by Siarhei Plytkevich. One can read more about him here (in Russian). All this photos were taken from helicopter.

Which country is named after tractor

There is this joke about Belarus. Before Belarus got independent after collaps of the USSR, the brand Belarus was already known. But it was not the name of the country (in Belarusian it was, but in English it used to be BSSR or Byelorussia - transliteration from Russian). This was the name of tractor :D Yeah, sometimes it's really not easy to explain, that Belarus existed before with the name of Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Litva) in XIII-XVI and then as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (XVI-XVIII)... The later was partitioned by Russia, Prussia and Austria. The modern Belarusian lands were under Russian Empire for over a century. For the first time the name Belarus officialy was used in 25 March 1918, when the Belarusian Democratic Republic was created. It did not exist for a long time, but it forced Bolsheviks to establish BSSR later... Well, back to tractor :) Getty Images have ve recently teamed up with Time Inc. to re-launch the venerable LIFE brand. And I found some interesting photos of Belarus there :) One of them is this one, The Minsk Tractor Factory, 1960.

An update

Some of my friends are not aware what is going on in my life job wise. Well, I did not survived the restaurant busines experiment. I worked for 40 days and was fired for not having experience in this field :) Thus, I can decide myself again when to work and when to rest :)

Lithuanian cheese

While writing this title I kept smiling. Why? Because the photographers usually say: "Say cheese", so one would pretend smiling :D But this time there is no need to pretend. I actually smile since I love different kinds of cheese. Therefore, this time I am especially happy to find out the one (actually two) I really love. In fact, I love Parmigiano aka Parmesan, but it's really expensive, especially when it's imported to your country. Yesterday I was in Vilnius and I went to a store to buy some cheese. Guess what I found? Right, the "Lithuanian Parmesan" or rather its substitutes: Rokiškio Kietasis and Džiugas. They are really tasty and I would recommend it for sure.

Turning myself into waitress

I wanted to name this post using phrases like 'exploring restaurant business' but the current title fits better. Many times I was saying that I would not work as a waitress since the period of such a job of me is over (without ever happening). But now it is actually happening. Well, most of my friends will be surprised (I am surprised too!) and would wonder why? Wait a sec, I will explain it.

Ok, the world crises is not the reason. However, it a way it might be. For the past 6 months I was looking for a job of my dream in international organisations (I still do to tell you the truth), meanwhile workind on different small things. And then a week ago I got a message on Skype from my friend asking if I am looking for a job. My answer was YES. My CV was right for the job description, I like the promised salary, but I was not very excited about the job title. In short, the candidate was expected to be an adminstrator/manager in a restaurant. But, since I like aventures and new things, I said YES and had an interview which I passed. Though with one condition: ...I had to work for two weeks as a waitress. Here I am, I did work for three days already! It's difficult to explain in detail how it was (as can write a long article, I guess). And I don't want to name the restaurant for the moment. I will simply write some funny things from my three days.

My friends know that I hate when I am called 'babe' or 'baby'. And imagine, one girl who is much younger, smaller and thiner than me told be yesterday: baby, would you help me with...? I was laughing for the next ten minutes. It's sooo funny.

My boss did not tell anyone except for my direct superviser that I am not actually a waitress, but will have some other functions. Thus I was asked for the time being to keep it in a secret. But people ask questions and I dont like to lie. The last questions was: So where do you study? I did not say that I have a master degree, but I had to say something. So I named my home university. Then I was confronted with the next question: Did you do a correspondance course? Whad did I have to say? I said, no, I was a day student. Other questions were: So how old are you (read aren't you 20)? Why do you work here (read couldn't you find something better)? Have you ever worked as a waiter (this one is the most popular)?

By the way, working day for a waiter is 12 hours with no breaks. One works 2 days and then 2 days off.

To be continued... P.S. Since it's my first experience as a waitress, any tips (in both meanings) are welcome!

Finding the best price for books

It's been a while since I use one website to find books I want to be. It seems to be very efficient. Basically what happens is: you type the name and/or author and/or ISBN and press the button. There you go, you have prices for the brand new books as well as used ones. It's soooo easy and convinient! The website is: www.bookfinder.com. Thank you, guys for you excellent job!

Good bye PPP

I am writing this post to let you know, that this blog is no longer participating the PayPerPost system. Therefore there will be no paid posts here. The message on the left will remain here for a month and then I will delete it. I will still keep some of the paid posts, because all of them I wrote not just because they were paid, but also I wanted to promote the websites I wrote about. I've written about myself in those post as well. Thus, that's all about PPP.

Vote for me :)

Eyeglasses with Stylish Frames

One who wears glasses knows how expensive their can be. Sometimes it costs fortune to get quite simple ones. Nowadays, Internet and on-line stores make it much easier. Your glasses are just few click away from you!

If you search on-line, I bet you will find many options. To save your time, I would advice to visit Optical4less, an on-line store with eyeglasses. They have many different models, what I like, there are many classic models - simple and elegant. The big plus of the store is the possibility to buy glasses starting from 15$ and the free delivery worldwide when you order 2 pairs and more. Cool, isn't it?

Of course, the on-line store can not make prescriptions for you. Thus, before ordering glasses on-line one should visit a doctor to be sure what are the necessary parameters of the glasses. So, keep it in mind! This is actually what stops me from ordering right now.

The demanding customer will also have different options of glasses. The store sells very different glasses: complete prescription eyeglasses (include Anti-reflective coating for free), tinted sunglasses, bifocal reading glasses, progressive reading eyeglasses, photochromic sunglasses. In my opinion, it's not an easy choice, but again it's an advantage for you as a customer.

Well, there are so many other things to write about, but I think that one should visit the store and see what their have. Pictures say much more than words!

P.S. This post is brought to you thanks to Optical4less.

JPGmag

In this month I uploaded a new picture for the JPGmag. You can vote for my photos on the website. And you votes are very much appreciated! :)

Comme Toi / Like You

I do discover "new" artists and songs thanks to Radio and Internet (Youtube of course) - both from capital letters;). Today I was going home through a park listening to radio and I heard the song Comme Toi by Jean-Jacques Goldman (also on Youtube). Apparently it was written in 1982 (it's very important year:D), so it's the same age as I am. But it's really catching and one wants to sing it along. The funny thing is that after reading the lyrics carefully, they are simply ok, nothing really great. But lyrics are not to read but to listen:) So, just enjoy it!

Belarus is missing a tourist trick with Chagall

This the title of the Independent in which this article appeared. I love Chagall's works and I like Viciebsk (the spelling is wrong according the transliteration rules of the Belarusian Geo names), so I am happy that there are people who promote tourism to Belarus to the place where Chagall was born. It's pity though that the author (Mark Rowe) does not pay attention that "Belarusian" should be spelt with one "s". It seems to be a small thing, but it's important for a serious journalist ;)

The OSCE ODIHR report

The OSCE ODIHR issued its final report on the last parliamentary elections. For now it's only in English. I've scanned the media section and there was no surprise, in short: the media are controlled by the state and serve "the state interest" in their understanding. I.e. those who pay are in focus, the opponents of those are not and even when they are the image is negative. the independent media are sometimes also biased, but it's not so obvious when their circulation is really small in comparison with the state run media.

Nevertheless, I bought my copy of the Narodnaya Volya issue last Thursday in a usual kiok. Thus I can say that Narodnaya Volya is back. Personally, I hope that this particular newspaper will be less biased (UCP party was mentioned in the ODIHR report in relation to this paper) and more objective. Then it will have all chances that people will read it!