Singers From Russia - t.A.T.u

Lena Katina (Elena Sergeevna Katina) Date of birth: October 4, 1984 Place of birth: Moscow Parents: Inessa Katina and Sergey Katin (a musician) Brothers and sisters: Lena has two younger siblings, her sister Katya, and a half brother From an early age, Lena was involved in sports and musical activities. When she was around 8 years old, she was enrolled in music school (in addition to "normal" school life) and studied playing the piano from 1992-1999. Lena likes ice-skating, gymnastics, tennis, swimming and horseback riding. She is also an avid reader of books. Career in music: Children's group "Avenue"; children's group "Neposedy" where she met Yulia and became friends with her. "Tatu" (casting in 1999, Yulia passed the casting as well). Lena is a student of psychology at Moscow University (2001-).

Yulia Volkova (Yulia Olegovna Volkova) Date of birth: February 20, 1985 Place of birth: Moscow Parents: Larissa Volkova and Oleg Volkov (a businessman) Brothers and sisters: Yulia is an only child. Additionally to "normal" school life, Yulia started to learn how to play the piano at a music school, when she was around 8 years old (1993-2000). When she was 11 years old, she changed schools - instead of the "normal" school life, the focus of her education was now on artistic expression (1996-2000). When she was around 15, she started vocal studies (jazz) at "Gnessin State Musical College" (ca. 2000). Yulia's sports activities included tennis, ice-skating, ballroom dancing and swimming. She played a few small TV roles ("Eralash") while in "Neposedy". Yulia is a natural blonde and dyes her hair black. Career in music: Children's group "Neposedy" where she met Lena who joined the group later. "Tatu" (casting in 1999, Lena had passed the casting shortly before her). On September 23, 2004, Yulia gave birth to a daughter: Viktoria (or Vika for short) Volkova. She is no longer with Vika's father, Pavel Sidorov. Her second child, a son, was born on December 27, 2007. The father is young Russian businessman Parviz Yasinov.

Imformations From:http://www.tatu.us/website/info.php

Photo Blog:http://blog.tatu.ru/Photo/

Media:http://www.tatugirls.com/

-Mika

Saint Basil's Cathedral

The Cathedral of Intercession of the Virgin on the Moat (Russian: Собор Покрова что на Рву - The Cathedral of the Protection of the Mother of God, or simply Pokrovskiy Cathedral - Russian: Покровский Собор; better known as the Cathedral of Saint Basil the Blessed , Saint Basil's Cathedral - Russian: Храм Василия Блаженного) is a multi-tented church on the Red Square in Moscow that also features distinctive onion domes. It is very often mistaken by Westerners for the Kremlin, whose buildings are in fact situated across the square from the cathedral. Arguably the most recognized building in Russia, it is an international symbol for the nation and for the city of Moscow.
The cathedral was commissioned by Ivan IV (also known as Ivan the Terrible) in Moscow to commemorate the capture of the Khanate of Kazan, and built from 1555 to 1561. In 1588 Tsar Fedor Ivanovich had a chapel added on the eastern side above the grave of Basil Fool for Christ (yurodivy Vassily Blazhenny), a Russian Orthodox saint after whom the cathedral was popularly named.
Saint Basil's is located at the southeast end of Red Square, just across from the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin. Not particularly large, it consists of nine chapels built on a single foundation. The cathedral's design follows that of contemporary tented churches, notably those of Ascension in Kolomenskoye (1530) and of St John the Baptist's Decapitation in Dyakovo (1547).
The interior of the cathedral is a collection of separate chapels, each filled with beautiful icons, medieval painted walls, and varying artwork on the top inside of the domes. The feeling is intimate and varied, in contrast to Western cathedrals which usually consist of a massive nave with one artistic style.

In a garden at the front of the cathedral stands a bronze statue commemorating Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin, who rallied Russia's volunteer army against the Polish invaders during the Time of Troubles in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
The initial concept was to build a cluster of chapels, one dedicated to each of the saints on whose feast day the tsar had won a battle, but the construction of a single central tower unifies these spaces into a single cathedral. A popular historical legend says that Ivan had the architect, Postnik Yakovlev, blinded to prevent him from building a more magnificent building for anyone else. In fact, Postnik Yakovlev built a number of churches after Saint Basil's, including one in Kazan'.

another information from useful wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Basil%27s_Cathedral

Penny

Russian Geography

Here is a website with some good, clear statitics on Russia.

http://geography.about.com/library/cia/blcrussia.htm

You can find out things like this:

Area:
total: 17,075,200 sq km

land: 16,995,800 sq km

water: 79,400 sq km

Area - comparative:
approximately 1.8 times the size of the US

Climate:
ranges from steppes in the south through humid continental in much of European Russia; subarctic in Siberia to tundra climate in the polar north; winters vary from cool along Black Sea coast to frigid in Siberia; summers vary from warm in the steppes to cool along Arctic coast.

Teacher Karl

Russia Architecture

Moscow’s architecture is world-renowned. Moscow is also well known as the site of Saint Basil’s Cathedral, with its elegant onion domes, as well as the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the Seven Sisters. The Patriarch of Moscow, whose residence is the Danilov Monastery, serves as the head of the Orthodox Church. Moscow also hosted the 1980 Summer Olympics.

JJJIIIMMM

Parliament Hill

Parliament Hill (colloquially The Hill, in French: Colline du Parlement) is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario. Its Gothic revival suite of buildings – the parliament buildings – serves as the home of the Parliament of Canada, and contains a number of architectural elements of national symbolic importance. Parliament Hill attracts approximately 3 million visitors each year.[1]
Originally the site of a military base in the 18th and early 19th centuries, development of the site into a governmental precinct began in 1859, after Bytown was chosen by Queen Victoria as the capital of the Province of Canada. Following a number of extensions to the parliament and departmental buildings, and a fire in 1916 that destroyed the Centre Block, Parliament Hill took on its present form with the completion of the Peace Tower in 1927. Since 2002, an extensive $1 billion renovation and rehabilitation project has been underway throughout all of the precinct's buildings; work is not expected to be complete until after 2020.Parliament Hill (colloquially The Hill, in French: Colline du Parlement) is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario. Its Gothic revival suite of buildings – the parliament buildings – serves as the home of the Parliament of Canada, and contains a number of architectural elements of national symbolic importance. Parliament Hill attracts approximately 3 million visitors each year.[1]
Originally the site of a military base in the 18th and early 19th centuries, development of the site into a governmental precinct began in 1859, after Bytown was chosen by Queen Victoria as the capital of the Province of Canada. Following a number of extensions to the parliament and departmental buildings, and a fire in 1916 that destroyed the Centre Block, Parliament Hill took on its present form with the completion of the Peace Tower in 1927. Since 2002, an extensive $1 billion renovation and rehabilitation project has been underway throughout all of the precinct's buildings; work is not expected to be complete until after 2020.

Cathy

SHERLOCK HOLMES

There can be no doubt that the most famous detective know on earth is Sherlock Holmes! Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson lived at 221b Baker Street between 1881-1904, according to the many stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and you can now visit his famous study overlooking Baker Street at the Sharlock Holmes Museum. In "The Headed League," Holmes remarks to Watson, "It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of London." So, let's take a look at London through the eyes and times of Sharlock Holmes... Over the years, many businesses along Baker Street have tried to create a connection with the detective and Holmes's fictional address 221b Baker Street. Some businesses such as the dry cleaner's and a bank have even posted "historical plaques" on their properties not fa from the Baker Street Underground station. You may find it strange that visitors stand there, looking at the imaginary address of an imaginary person! However, Sherlock Holmes has taken on a reality that very few other fictional characters have.

The Sherlock Holmes Museum has a full-time employee answering 40 to 100 letters and requests a week addressed to Sherlock! The Museum's souvenir shop is the largest shop in the world specialising in Holmesian items such as walking sticks, deerstalker hats, pipes, chess sets and hundreds of other items. Holmes's 221b Baker Street is perhapsmore famous than another London address, No.10 Downing Street. When you first arrive in Sherlock's "area" at Baker Street station, you notice many pictures of him smoking his famous pipe on the walls, but wait until you get outside, where a nine-foot bronze statue will welcome you!(The picture above!! I took it when I went to London!!!XD) This statue of Holmes was put up in September 1999, decades after it was first suggested. If you walk around central London, you will find many of the places mentioned in the stories and will almost believe Sherlock and Watson were real! For example, opposite the Eros statue in Piccadilly Circus is the Criterion Bar, where Watson first heard Sherlock's name mentioned. Watson heard he was an eccentric man, studying at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, who needed a roommate. Then walk on to the Charing Cross Hotel and you can stand near the spot where Holmes caught a spy, where Watson banked and where, just across the street, they sent off urgent telegrams. Therefore , although we think of Baker Street when we think of Holmes, you might actually find him hiding around any corner in London!

...all typed by Vineeta!!!

LONDON EYE

Interesting things you never knew about the London Eye
A TEAM EFFORT
It took seven years and the skills of hundreds of people from five countries to make the London Eye a reality
A VIEW FIT FOR A QUEEN
You can see around 40KM (25 miles) from the top as far as Windsor Castle on a clear day
FLYING HIGH
The London Eye welcomes an average of 3.5 million customers every year. You would need 6,680 fully booked British Airways Boeing 747-400 jumbo jets to move that number of fliers!
DING! DING!
The London Eye can carry 800 passengers per revolution - equivalent to 11 London red doubled-decker buses
HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION
Each of the 32 capsules weighs 10 tonnes. To put that figure into perspective, it's the same weight as 1,052,631 pound coins!
SLOWLY BUT SURELY
Each rotation takes about 30 minutes, meaning a capsule travels at a stately 26cm per second, or 0.9km (0.6 miles) per hour - twice as fast as a tortoise sprinting; allowing passengers to step on and off without the wheel having to stop
THE ONLY WAY IS UP
The circumference of the wheel is 424m (1.392ft) - meaning that if it were unravelled, it would be 1.75 times longer than the UK's tallest building - One Canada Square in Canary Wharf
TONNES OF FUN
The total weight of the wheel and capsules is 2,100 tonnes - or as much as 1,272 London black cabs!
UP, UP AND AWAY
The height of the London Eye is 135m (equivalent to 64 red telephone boxes piled on top of each other) making it the fourth tallest structure in London after the BT Tower, Tower 42 and One Canada Square in Canary Wharf
BLAST OFF
The spindle holds the wheel structure and the hub rotates it around the spindle. At 23 meters tall, the spindle is around the size of a church spire and, together with the hub, weighs in at 330 tonnes: over 20 times heavier than Big Ben

View From the London Eye

Houses of Parliament

&

River Thames

It's really big inside!!!

Know More In: http://www.londoneye.com/

BY Vineeta :D