Good or bad

The flow of information now became tremendous, stunning, better then ever before and still rapidly growing. But the more i think about it the more i doubt if it is actually good or bad.

To begin with, now that i am in Russia for a month or so searching for my internship and dealing with some bureaucracy, i've decided to work for a bit in the Coffeeshop. For now it is even better then i expected(we'll see how it is when i start working for real),and i got a unique chance to be around our new growing generaton - it's not that I consider myself old, but i have to admit that i have at least 4 years difference with almost all the others in the new recruitment ;)  I was actually amazed by that group of people i've met on the training - almost all of them are girls and have started working at ! 15 0_o . But, not about this now.

In our schools and universities on certain subjects in the end of the semester or in the middle you need to make a written work on a certain topic and then present it to the teacher. Internet is a great thing -yes, and when i was in the university we also were downloading everything from there, but at least changing some aspects, reading it, adding smth new, and then it totally worked. But now this 18 year old girl is telling me how two of them dowloaded the same work, didn't even read it at home and started to read it for the teacher one after another. The teacher got a bit confused kind of noticing that they are similar, but put both of them excellent marks. And the girl is saying "he is a good teacher".

I don't want to complain, i did similar things, but it is quite sad to watch how the technology instead of enchancing learning and making us smarter actually makes things so accessible that you don't have to try so hard. To write a work like that Our parents would go to the library and spend there at least couple of days, digest all the information and put it together with their own words, and sure enough it would stay in their heads and make it easier to remember things further. And now? We can get to know anything we want in one second through the Iphone (and that's amazing!) but unfortunately one hour later most of us don't even remember what we've just learned, because we know that this information is always available.
It kind of makes you think less, cuz all the answers can be found online easily.

But of course that is only one of the side effects, there are good things to that too: education became more available, sometimes you just need to have a computer with internet and you can learn anything; you can virtually travel the world and see any place without having millions; you can get inspired so easily going through different things people created and then make smth on your own. I jut really wish people look at this gift that we have, as a tool to grow and develop, not just an easy source of entertainment and a way to handle your semester university work in 5 minutes.

Back to basics

Now i realised what i've been missing so much recently - my personal space. I needed to be alone for some time, to have some self reflexion moments, to have time and space for my own thoughts to be able to appreciate even more being with someone. It is not that i am completely alone right now, my online life is even more active then usual and my parents are around. But right now for a moment i don't have any responsibility and i feel a bit of relief, i know that soon i will want everything back, so it is good to enjoy this state at least for a couple of weeks.

I even like in a way these moments of uncertainty, not knowing what i will do tomorrow and what country i will be heading to in a month. I like those white nights and going to bed at 4 a.m. , even though it through me off my normal schedule completely and waking up at 12 in the afternoon seems like a huge waste of time. I like that i started to listen to new music, to read and write again, and finally talked to people that i havent talked to for ages.

It is amazing to meet old friends, and to feel like only 2 days have passed since the last time you saw each other. It is great to be in Russia for a bit again, but quite sad that just for a bit. It just doesnt feel that i belong to here anymore. Surpsisingly i feel more safe even in Dominican Republic then here, new generation of people in small towns like Pskov scares me - how it is possible to become developed coutry if most of the girls just care about their high hills and lipsticks and most of the guys wear sports costume all day long and beer boottle seems to be already part of their body. Of course not all the people are like that, and there are those who travel and study and think big, but... they mostly  leave the coutry too... And what will happen to all the culture, literature, arts, architecture? Russia is so reach in it, but it seems like now people are forgetting to appreciate it. Probably in St Petersburg it will feel different, we will see.

Also i have a feeling that in DR i closed my eyes on bad stuff, because in the beginning it is not good or bad, it is just different, and as the saying is "when in Rome do like Romans do". You wouldn't come to another country and start imposing your own rules and beliefs, you take it or leave it. And now coming back to Russia i understand that i can't just close my eyes on some of the things going on here and say "i will stay here because it is my country, and if i don't like something i do my best to change it". Now as i can evaluate the mentality from the side, i don't think it fits me anymore and there is not much i can do about that. Patriotism is not a bad thing, but i don't think that the place where you were born defines you completely as a personality, and doing smth good needs to be necessarily for the good of a particular country.

I still admire Russia and some things that only Russian people can understand, our numerous achievements and the way some people are that only russians can be. I miss some things when i am not here, but i feel that i can take it only in small portions now, a months or so every once in a while.

I want to consider myself cosmopolitan and eventually find a way how to do smth that i really like and improve the world doing it. That would be a perfect scenario and i guess it will take quite a while to organize. Anyway, the process has been fun so far, i'll keep it up :)