Fishes' nesting

I noticed my fishes exhibiting some strange behavior a few days ago.

Usually they don't touch or move stones, but I can see a big stone pyramid .

For what?
I don't know.

It looks like they tried to clear a big space, a space without any stones.

I recorded a short video how they move stones:

The most surprising fact is that after they cleared the space and constructed the pyramid, they spawned in a totally different place!

So, it's looks like they just try to make good view.

Rafting on a river

As a computer nerd, I have a sedentary lifestyle, and there are not so many reasons to go outside and do some activities since we have
the Internet.

That’s why I would call myself a couch potato with only one exception — I am addicted to white water rafting.

I call it rafting but it is not the hectic physical activity which sportsmen usually do. It’s just an active travel when you are going
down the river by catamarans.

Sometime we use this type of boat as on photo bellow, we call it baydarka, i am not sure if it exactly the same as canoe or kayak.

Rafting is like a camping holiday with additional benefits:

•  Almost each day you reach a new picturesque place to stay; 
•  You have a lot of time to sunbathe, swim and so on;
•  And finally, you can carry so many things with you as you want, because you need not carry them in your backpack, the river does this work for
  you. 

These things are not napkins and tablecloth, but it's a pleasure to have wild nature untouched by having gas primus with you.

Usually we camp for a week, it’s enough time to feel tired but not enough to be absolutely exhausted.

Each time it is an adventure holiday because we have a lot of options
to make our traveling exciting.It may be mountain climbing or a short fishing adventure, it depends on the river.

As part of our school curiculm our class took this trip and since then I have been on this adventure every year.
I am sure this course in school was a great idea.

This year we are going to make our voyage during May holidays.

I like bringing children on the trip; because this is a good opportunity for them to get closer to nature and learn some basic survival skills.

I think it's good to know how to work with fire and be safe on the water.

My dog also accompanies me, but this one not needs my advices.

It's fun how easy dogs adapts to the wild nature.

Once we stayed  at coast without any soft surface, only small acute stones.

The dog  waited when bonfire was over and lay down in to the ash .

I am afraid I would not so smart in same situation.

Why you shouldn't swear in foreign language

To practice my English, I am talking with many people around the world.

Many of them are learning Russian, and that's why they are interested in talking to me.

One of the most popular request is " teach me how to swear in Russian".


I don't know why it's fun, may be just to look like a  cool guy, just to be able to make informal conversation, or something like that.


And I want to write few points about why I always refuse that.

First of all, to swear in a harmless way, it's not a easy task. 
You need to understand context, person to whom you swear at, and you need to have some common cultural understanding.
It's not easy even for natives.

And, for instance, if you will just literally translate some rude words from Hollywood movie for wrong person, you could get killed.
 
In case if  you want to do it in offensive way, better to do it by Skype or other method which allow you to keep distance. Just take a look on some video from car recorders on youtube to understand why.

I have an example, when someone had problem from just a knowledge of swear words.

My friend is a sales manager and works with Russian customers.

Once during the conversation he heard swear word from his customer.
He decided that it was offensive for him, and answered with all bad words what he knew, and hang the phone.

After a while he asked me, why that man offended him, and he repeated the conversation.

Truth was - there weren't anything offensive, that man used the word like a interjection, it is a bad habit, but not a big deal.

If my friend did not know this word it would have been okey for him, he would just ignore it, but since he knew, he take it in bad way.

In general my point is: even if you already have a good level in foreign language you can still make a lot of mistakes.
Are you sure that you want to add one more possibility by using swear words?

Riddle about food

Just imagine this hypothetical situation:
 
You were kidnapped, intoxicated by some drugs,  disorientated and lost any idea about where you are and what time it is.

You have  just found yourself near a house, you looked through window into a kitchen.

There no any written words which  you can see, but there is a table and dish with food on it.

Would you know what country you are in, based on the food or items on the table?


Which country are you in and what kind of food is there


Let's collect the possibilities in comments.

For instance:

Iskender -> Turkey
Qabuli -> Afghanistan
Haggis -> Scotland