A package from Belarus

Today I received nice package from Belarussian friend :) .

Another exemplaire of "Nasha niva"

I felt like sharing beautiful Belarussian song with you :)

Darahija minčanie i hości stalicy
Ja chaču z vami dumkaj svajoj padzialicca
Karaciej, heta dziuna, ale c'est la vie: 
My u stalicy žyviem niby na dźvie siamji!

My žyviem adnačasova
U dvuch haradach
Padvajeńnie asoby
Zryvaje nam dach
Dyk niaužo ž nam nikoli
nia skleić, nia sšyć
Miensk i Minsk - dźvie pałovy
Staličnaj dušy

Horad Miensk - pieršy horad z tych dvuch haradou
Nie pabačyš na mapach sučasnych hadou.
Jon u sercy žyvie, jon žyvie u hałavie
Šmat kaho, chto u horadzie Minsku žyvie.
A u tym Minsku prapiska i harvykankam
I ladovy pałac i betonny parkan,
Zrujnavanych damou cieni pryvidnyja
I dziaciństva majho pralaciełyja dni...

My žyviem adnačasova
U dvuch haradach
Padvajeńnie asoby
Zryvaje nam dach
Dyk niaužo ž nam nikoli
nia skleić, nia sšyć
Miensk i Minsk - dźvie pałovy
Staličnaj dušy

Jość u Minsku nazovy biezradasnyja - 
Jość Kalektarnaja i jość Bazisnaja.
Tut narod zabiaśpiečvaje pravilny naš
Vykanańnie zadačy pastaulenaje...
A pa Miensku pryjemna špacyravać,
Drobnych kramak vitryny utulna harać,
Tam hatyčnyja viežy kaściołau starych
Tam dachouka i bruk, tam dvary i mury...

My žyviem adnačasova
U dvuch haradach
Padvajeńnie asoby
Zryvaje nam dach
Dyk niaužo ž nam nikoli
nia skleić, nia sšyć
Miensk i Minsk - dźvie pałovy
Staličnaj dušy

Usio błytajecca
u Minsku - chleb i maca,
I Vialiki kastryčnik i Radaunica
I pjanaja ślaza, i takaja papsa,
Što ratunku nia daść ni mizim, ni upsa.
Nu, a ź Mienskam ničoha nia možna zrabić -
Niemahčyma jaho zrujnavać, zachapić,
Jon nikoli, tvoj Miensk, nie zhnije, nie zharyć,
Budzie movaj tvajoju z taboj havaryć

My žyviem adnačasova
U dvuch haradach
Padvajeńnie asoby
Zryvaje nam dach
Dyk niaužo ž nam nikoli
nia skleić, nia sšyć
Miensk i Minsk - dźvie pałovy
Staličnaj dušy

And translation:

Dear townsmen of Minsk and guests
I want to share my thoughts with you
in short, it’s strange, but it’s life
We live here in the capital like with two families at the same time

We live at the same time in two cities
And this alternating personality makes us crazy
Is it impossible to put together Miensk i Minsk – 
two parts of the soul of our capital.

Miensk city is the one of this two cities
You cannot find it on the modern maps
He lives in our souls and our heads
A lot of people live in Minsk.
And in this Minsk are registration and city executive committee,
And Ice Palace and concrete fence, 
Spectral phantoms of the ruined houses 
And memories from my childhood

We live at the same time in two cities
And this alternating personality makes us crazy
Is it impossible to put together Miensk i Minsk – 
two parts of the soul of our capital.

In Minsk there are dismal names
Like Kalektarnaja or Bazisnaja
Here upright people make plans true…
And in Miensk it’s a pleasure to go for a walk,
Along the little shops with light in the windows
Where is Gothic towers of old  kostels

We live at the same time in two cities
And this alternating personality makes us crazy
Is it impossible to put together Miensk i Minsk – 
two parts of the soul of our capital.


Here is a mix in Minsk of bred and matzoh,
Of  the Great October and the Radonitsa,
Of drunken tears and pop-music. 
Neither mizim no upsa can help (there are medicines for stomach )
And it’s impossible to ruin or occupy Miensk,
Your Miensk won’t rot or die in fire 
He will speak with you in your language

Feel free to check out our blog in different languages :)

Polish
Farsi
Belarussian

New mail from Belarus :3

Yay ! :D So happy about this mail. It contained a letter, recipe, two postcards and Nasha Niva :3

Draniki

Let me give you a recipe which I received from my Belarussian friend, Alexandra ! :)
It's for draniki, kind of pancakes:

Ingredients (for two servings):

• 5 large potatoes
• 1 egg
• 1 medium onion
• black pepper- 0,5 tea spoon
• salt to taste
• sunflower oil 7-8 table spoons

We need a grater to grate the potatoes and onions. Be sure that you use appropriate side of grater, so you don't grate potatoes into strips, but rather into liquid mass. That's what makes Draniki unique.

Crate the potatoes and onions into a bowl.

Add salt, pepper, eggs and mix together. The substance should be liquid, and shouldn't be too thick,

 drain excess potato juice or add some flour  to achieve required "level of liquidity" (sic!).

Heat the frying pan pour 1 table spoon of sunflower oil into it.

Dump a full table spoon of mixture from the bowl onto the frying pan and form a small about quarter inch thick pancake. Cook on high for 2-3 minutes and then flip over,

Cook another 2-3 minutes until golden brown.

Serve hot with sour cream .

Enjoy! :D

Наша Ніва

My level of excitement is very high now ! Haha,  I've finally got "Nasha Niva" newspapper.
Why am I so excited? It's in BELARUSIAN, yay! :D

Let me show you how it looks like. I will try to read it soon and tell you more about it :3

Legend of the founding of Kyiv

Once upon a time there was a royal family of three brothers: Kie, Shchek, Khoriv. And they had a beautiful sister called Lebid. However, one day they had lost their parents to invaders from the East and they had to seek a place for their new home.

Kie chose as their new new home hills at the Dnipro River. Kie and his brothers built a boat and then sailed across the broad and mighty Dnipro River towards the high green bank on the western side. Shchek, Khoriv and Lebid decided to name the city Kyiv to pay homage to their strong and brave elder brother. Thus it was that the City of Kyiv was founded in May, in the Spring of the year 482 A.D.

Kie ruled on the hill which is now called Borichev, Shchek settled on the hill which is now called Shchekovitsa, and Khoriv lived on Khorevitsa. And it was how Kyiv was founded.

Freedom day.

25th March- unofficial holiday of Belarus (celebrated by Belarussian opossition), anniversary of proclamation , in 1918, Belarussian People's Republic- the first country of Belarus in modern history.

Officials of Young Front (Малады Фронт, oposition group in Belarus) organise yearly a March, without any gouvernemental accord. 

Океан Ельзи!

I really liked this band so I decided to put there more their songs:

Ukrainian verbs

 

In ukrainian every verb ends with -ти and in present time we can use two conjugations (ukr. дієвідміна).

перша дієвідміна (with verbs писати - to write and співати - to sing)

я (I) пиш-у / співа-ю 

ти (you) пиш-еш / співа-єш 

він (he) пиш-e / співа-є 

вона (she) пиш-e / співа-є 

воно (it) пиш-e / співа-є

ми (we) пиш-емо / співа-ємо

ви (you) пиш-ете / співа-єте
вони (they) піш-ить / співа-ють

друга дієвідміна (with verbs бачити - to see and робити - to do):

я бач-и / робл-ю

ти бач-иш / роб-їш

він бач-ить / роб-їть

вона бач-ить / роб-їть

воно бач-ить / роб-їть

ми бач-имо/ роб-їмо

ви бач-ите / роб-їте
вони бач-ать / робл-ять

Unfortunately, I haven't found any condition to recognize which verbs belong to which conjugation.

100 views :)

I just wanted to communicate, that we reached 100 views today! Yay!

Simply Belarussian lesson:

To love= кахаць (if speak about man and woman feelings to each other) or любіць (if you want to say that you like smth or someone),
to talk = размаўляць, 
to ask = пытаць,
to feel = адчуваць, 
to make/to do = рабіць, выконваць,  
to use =выкарыстоўваць. 

the letter "ў" is used instead of "у" in possition after a vowel into a word or if one word ends in vowel and the next word usually starts with "у" we will use "ў". it's pronounced as english "w" in word "snow". For example there are 2 words: "сонца" (the sun) and "узыходзіць" (rise), let's say that the sun is rising: "сонца ўзыходзіць".

now back to our verbs. how to use them in present time with pronouns:
Я (I) - кахаю/люблю, размаўляю, пытаю, адчуваю, раблю/выконваю, выкарыстоўваю.
Мы (we) - кахаем/любім, размаўляем, пытаем, адчуваем, робім/выконваем, выкарыстоўваем.
Ты (you) - кахаеш/любіш, размаўляеш, пытаеш, адчуваеш, робіш/выконваеш, выкарыстоўваеш.
Вы (you) - кахаем/любім, размаўляем, пытаем, адчуваем, робім/выконваем, выкарыстоўваем.
Ён (he), яна (she), яно (it) - кахае/любіць, размаўляе, пытае, адчувае, робіць/выконвае, выкарыстоўвае.
Яны (they) - кахаюць/любяць, размаўляюць, пытаюць, адчуваюць, робяць/выконваюць, выкарыстоўваюць.

the stress in belarusian words usually fall into sillable with "o". For example: выкОнваюць, рОбяць, захОўваюць, выкарыстОўваюць etc.

For these who don't like reading

Trailer of great movie :

I really advice you to watch it :

Besides, for these who LIKES reading ;D
I just found cool page : http://www.belarus.by
It's aviable in English, Russian and Belarussian :)

Pinsk

Just got some postcards from my Belarussian friend. She lives in Pinsk, which lays on the South of Belarus.

I think it's very beautiful city, just see this St. Theodore Cathedral!  

What also catched my attention is that Ryszard Kapuściński lived there- it's one of my favourite writers. 

In Pinsk we can meet large Jews society. 

Some from Ukraine

 

 So, there's small curios about Ukraine:

• Cossack Mamay - he presents an idealized image of Ukrainian - a tramp from steppe, dressed in blue harem pants. His picture was hanged in lots of ukrainian houses.

•  The most famous ukrainian dishes are - borscht, "pirozhki" and lots of genres of kasha. Especially I recommend котлета по-київськи- made of fillet of chicken stuffed with butter and parsley.
  

• "Г" letter in ukrainian is read as "h" (like in however), so not spelled as a russian "g".

• The third most visited McDonald's is situated in Kiev. This restaurant has always been in the top five most crowded McDonald’s in the world and the last year it serve almost 2.3 millions visitors.

• The flag of Ukraine is divided on two parts - the blue one which symbolize an ukrainian sky and a yellow one, a symbol of wheat's lands.

VK.

Before all, let me recommend you one good book about my belowed country.It's a bit expensive, but you can get used ones for 7 $ or so .

Now about VK. It's something like Facebook in Russian-speaking countries. It's a good way to learn Slavian languages and meet some friends from the East. I was surprised- just few days after I've created my account, a lot of people wrote me, offering their help with learning Belarussian.

Above you can see the top of the page in Belarussian (tarashkievica! Yeah, I was so happy to find this one among numerous languages accesibles). Anyway, you can also choose another language, like English, Russian, French...

Enjoy!

News from Belarus online.

Today I discovered cool site!
http://www.svaboda.org/

Жывы эфір / Расклад
So here you can listen to the radio online- it's in Belarussian :D! It was so nice to listen to it, though I couldn't understand a lot.

On the orange bar on the main site we can see in sequence:
Home page/  News/ Researches / Blogs/ Interviews/ Video/ Radio / Social sites/ Contact/ Archives/ RSS


Enjoy! :D

Minsk City.

I just found that video- I find it nice :) .

It's concrete and without any unnecesary mince words. Enjoy! :)

Belarussian word of a day and easy way to travel without leaving your house:)

урок means "lesson" in Belarussian .

Lets learn with some examples, to memorise it better (okay... I am not so sure if someone learns Belarussian..) :
* урок та'нца  (dance lesson)
* браць уро'кі (to take lessons)
* рабіць урокі (to do the homework)
* дава'ть уро'кі (to give lessons)
* весці ўрок (to "conduct" a lesson)


Now you know some simple words in this beautiful languages, yay!

So... yes, this is that "magic" way to travel. Writing letters! As simple as that, but (in my opinion) you can feel you REALLY are there. Above you can see Belarusian stamps :)

I got this book from my friend- Vlada :).

Some music- that's not a folklore :)

(Ukrainian)

\

(Belarussian)

Belarus? Ukraine? Where is it?!

     East of Europe for dummies.

The first thing you gotta know is that Belarus and Ukraine are not a part of Russia. Also the languages are not the same (though some Ukrainian and Belarusian people can't really speak their own languages! But we will change it :)).
Secondly, a trip to east of Europe is not a suicide, as majority of people thinks.

Have a look- we will take to a virtual trip through these fascinating places .