You can travel almost anywhere in the world, and you will probably see graffiti. Although graffiti is more common in big cities, today you may find it in almost any region or district, big or small. It's everywhere: on trains, walls, bridges and buildings. Love it or hate it but graffiti is part of the everyday urban world. Some people consider it art while others think it's vandalism. However, few of them really know how old graffiti is.

The word graffiti itself probably comes from the old Greek verb which means “to write”. Writings on walls already existed in ancient Rome. The Romans cut graffiti on walls and monuments. What was it like, you may ask? Ancient graffiti was absolutely different from today's. It showed phrases of love, political ideas, simple thoughts, magic spells, alphabets, and famous quotations from literature.

Modern graffiti dates back to the US of the 1960s. At that time for young people it was a form of self-expression and a political protest. Teenage groups in New York, for example, painted graffiti to mark their territory. Later, there started competitions between different groups. That meant that the quality of graffiti became more important than just the amount of it.

Today graffiti has travelled all over the world. However, it is still an illegal art. It has been always painted on private or public property, like cars, trains, fences and house walls. As a result most people see it as vandalism. Besides, it's rather hard to clean graffiti paints, and cities spend millions every year on it. So, in most countries graffiti is forbidden.

On the other hand, modern graffiti is, by its nature, a form of painting. After all, the artists uses the same methods and materials. However, instead of paints a graffiti artist prefers sprays, markers, and crayons. Some of their works are really impressive and fascinating, they are powerful and have a deep meaning. Graffiti often makes grey walls look cheerful.

The purpose of some graffiti is to spread and declare social ideas. That's why a lot of graffiti paintings have political topics. Some cities have special places where the walls of different buildings can be used to create pieces of graffiti art.

Probably, the most famous graffiti artist is Banksy, who comes from Bristol, England. He strongly believes that writing graffiti on buildings is an effective way to communicate with people. His works are very often aggressive, provocative and even rude. In his graffiti he expresses personal political and social views, which are against war and capitalism.

Banksy is known not only for his graffiti works. He also likes playing “jokes”. He sometimes unofficially hangs his works in the main art galleries. He doesn't want to be paid for them because he's sure art should be free. He says he wants to see how long it will take people to notice it. Once Banksy went into the Tate Gallery dressed as an old man, and glued a picture to the museum wall in protest of the Iraq War.

My names Marta and I'm from Poland. I'm an accountant by profession and I worked for a large chemical plant for more than fifteen years. The job seemed to be stable and I was quite happy with my salary there. It wasn't a lot but it was enough- for a comfortable life. However, when the economic crisis broke, the plant went bankrupt and hundreds of employees, myself included, found themselves unemployed.

It was shocking news for me as we had two children to support. My husbands business was affected by the crisis too, so we needed to come up with something very urgently. I had lots of free time but it didn't make me happy at all. I sent CVs to different companies but no answers came — who needs an accountant when the economy is in ruins and the financial sector is a complete disaster?

To escape the stressful situation I turned to my old hobby — photography. I was pretty good at it when I was at university, but I'd completely given up after graduation. At the difficult time of the crisis, taking photos became my relaxation therapy — my camera helped me notice things most people don't see and don't pay attention to. I took close-ups of the grass growing through the sand, the old cracked wooden bench covered with vine leaves or a stray dog sleeping on the pavement. Life around me was amazing — there was no reason for depression!

I wanted to share my new vision of life with other people and arranged a little photo exhibition for our community and friends. People came, looked at the pictures and left in a peaceful and relaxed mood. Sometimes they wanted to buy some of the photos to brighten up their home or office. I gave the photos away for free as I didn't want to charge my friends and neighbours. Their interest, however, gave me the idea of how my hobby could help me earn money.

I enrolled on a Photo Art Course, completed it and prepared a business plan for my own photo studio. Last week my plan was approved by the local business committee and I received an interest-free loan to buy all the necessary equipment for my business — I've already bought a new camera and rented a studio. Its all very exciting as its going to be a new page in my life. I really hope it's a happy one.

The followers of my blog may be interested to know that starting from now I'll be sharing my experience of living and working in a new country. Right at this moment, I, Andrew Carter, am writing my blog from a very remote place in Russia.

When I accepted the offer of the international ecological group to take part in the project in the Russian North, I never expected the experience would be so amazing. As a professional ecologist I have worked in different parts of the world, but never in Russia. A trip to the north region of the country looked really challenging. Now I see that it is a very special place. My journey is to last for two months and now I wish I could stay here longer. Two months are definitely not enough to enjoy the beauty of this place, which is called the Kenozersky National Park.

Anyway, my adventures started two weeks ago. Patrick and I landed in Moscow at 10am in the morning and our plane to Arkhangelsk was at 11pm so we had the whole day to see Moscow. We did not need to stay in a hotel at that.

My first impression was that, well, Moscow is a huge city! My colleague, Patrick, who’s visited Moscow several times already, told me that the best way to get some idea of the Russian capital was to take a bus excursion round the city. And he was right!

We managed to see the historical centre, and walked across Red Square. I have to confess that I’ve never seen a square so huge and grand. Then the bus took us along the wide streets and avenues. We made a brief stop near the famous Russian university - the Moscow State University. I had certainly seen the building in the photos, but in real life it looks even more impressive.

When the excursion was over, we found ourselves in the centre again. We still had plenty of time and decided to visit the State Historical Museum that is on Red Square. We only managed to see a small part of the vast collection of the museum. Its exhibitions range from relics of prehistoric tribes that lived on the territory of present-day Russia centuries ago to priceless pieces of art that belonged to the Romanov dynasty.

After the intense cultural programme, we were just walking along the streets. Then we dropped into a small restaurant and ordered some national dishes. They tasted unfamiliar, but I liked them.

The next day we got to our destination.

Kenozersky National Park is exactly at the border of the Arkhangelsk Oblast and Karelia. The park is centred round the Lake Kenozero, one or the largest lakes in the region. The Russian colleagues met us at Arkhangelsk airport and drove us to the place where we were to live and work for two months. It was a long drive but it was worth it!

As I’ve already mentioned, the national park is a very remote place. Three quarters of its territory is covered with taiga. The environment is untouched, and we were charmed by its beauty. The park is inhabited by a great variety of animals and birds. Some of them are extremely rare species. It’s actually a paradise for a person who studies nature!

However, the place is not only interesting for nature lovers like me. In spite of the remoteness of the place, there are tourists from all over the world here. They are charmed by the wooden architecture of the region. There are many authentic wooden houses and churches with wonderful painted ceilings. Some tourists, including the people from America and Asia, come specially to attend carpentry courses and workshops, where skilled craftsmen teach them to make traditional wooden toys, furniture, and home decorations. Some of their works are real pieces of art.

I have to stop now as we are setting off to the lake. The story is to be continued…

Have you ever heard of the Great Barrier Reef? It is the world's largest coral reef system along the eastern coast of Australia. In February 2009 an extraordinary position was advertised by the Australian Tourism Office. The advertisement ran that the Great Barrier Reef needed a caretaker for half a year. It was for a special person who would look after the Reef.

The job offered a large salary, free accommodation in a luxury villa, and transportation there and around the islands. All expenses would be paid: the winner wouldn't need to spend any extra money on anything.

The job's duties were pretty simple. You could only dream of such requirements. First, the person had to speak English and swim well. Second, on the island his responsibility included writing a weekly Internet blog. That's right, weekly, not even daily! The job description also required the successful applicant to explore the islands of the Great Barrier Reef, swim, make friends with the locals and generally enjoy the tropical climate and lifestyle. A real dream!

Within the first 2 days of the contest, the tourism office received more than seven thousand online applications. All told, 34,000 people of all different nationalities applied. Each made and presented a 60-second video resume. They had to be creative and they were. In the end 16 people were chosen, who flew to Australia for the final selection. The candidates were interviewed and the winner was Ben Southall from the UK.

Ben greatly enjoyed the dream job he had got. He realised that people knew very little about planet earth and its treasures. Living in big cities, they forgot how important the flora and fauna of this world were. Every time Ben went outdoors, he could discover something new. “Every time I dived or went underwater, I forgot about all the troubles above water and concentrated on living in the moment. It was a good way to clean the mind and build respect for the natural world,” Ben said.

Ben's life on the island was not just fun. It was very busy, busier than most people imagined, and certainly busier than Ben himself had imagined. He worked seven days a week and up to 19 hours a day. The Best Job included travelling to over 60 islands of the Reef almost every day. It was not just looking after the Reef, Ben had a lot of meetings, press conferences and interviews. He was getting a lot of attention all the time and he couldn't get away from it. That was probably the hardest part of the job.

Moreover, any adventure has a certain degree of risk. Swimming and diving on the Great Barrier Reef was not different. Ben had to deal with whales, sharksand other huge sea creatures. Surprisingly, the most dangerous thing was a small jellyfish about the size of a little finger. It's considered to be extremely poisonous and Ben was stung by it. He had to spend a couple of days in hospital but luckily recovered after a course of antibiotics.

Ben often says that the project has taught him a few valuable lessons. Working with the Internet is one of those jobs you can do 24 hours a day. Ben realised it was hard to separate life and work, but this he had to do. He also said: “I've learned that we get one life on earth so we have to use it. There'll always be other countries to visit, other people to meet and other adventures to meet. This is what I wish to do. I'm planning to go to Asia in a few years time”.

Louis Armstrong played jazz, sang jazz and wrote jazz. He recorded hit songs for fifty years and his music is still heard today on television, radio and in movies.

Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, in the state of Louisiana on August 4^th, 1901. His father was a factory worker and left the family soon after Louis's birth. Young Louis was desperately poor. He lived with his sister, mother and grandmother in the poorest area of New Orleans known as the Battlefield because of the fighting and shooting that often happened there.

When Louis was eleven years old, he was arrested for firing a gun into the air on New Year's Eve. He was sent to a reform school, where he learned to play the trumpet in the school's band. Eighteen months later Louis was back home and already dreaming of the life of a musician. He sold newspapers, unloaded boats and sold coal. However, in the evenings Louis played the trumpet with local groups or went to clubs to listen to jazz bands. He soon became friends with one of the greatest musicians of the time, Joe Oliver, who became young Louis's teacher. As Louis's skills developed, he began to perform professionally.

He was soon able to stop working on manual labour jobs and began concentrating full-time on music, playing at parties, dances, and at local cafes. He joined Joe Oliver's band and moved to Chicago. Later, Louis organised his own band and began to record one of the greatest series of songs in the history of jazz. Louis developed a unique style of singing: he could make his voice sound like a musical instrument and he could make an instrument sound like a singer's voice. Louis enjoyed singing improvised melodies and rhythms. Armstrong was an easygoing and communicative person. His fellow musicians called him “Satchelmouth” because of his wide smile. Later, it was shortened to “Satchmo”.

Armstrong's biggest hits came later in his life. In 1964, his version of the song «Hello Dolly» was a top hit around the world. It even replaced a top-selling hit by the hugely popular British group, the Beatles. Three years later, he appeared in the film version of “Hello Dolly” with singer Barbra Streisand. The song “What a Wonderful World”, recorded in 1968, was his final big hit.

Louis Armstrong never finished the fifth grade in school, yet he wrote two books about his life and many stories for magazines. He appeared in more than thirty movies. He composed many jazz pieces. He won several gold records and many other awards. Armstrong performed about three hundred concerts each year, travelling all over the world. He became known as the legend and symbol of jazz.

One hot summer day in the 1950s, Donna and her cousin Toby, who lived next door, decided to have a little adventure. At the age of six, it seemed a good idea to them. Donna’s mother was working in the garden and Toby’s mother was baking bread in the kitchen to share with their neighbours while it was still warm.

That day, the children were bored and restless and wanted to do something exciting. Toby suggested finding hidden treasure. He thought they would bury Donna’s mother’s rings and later take them out of the ground. It would be like finding treasure. At first, Donna was not sure as she felt it could get them in trouble. But Toby seemed older and wiser, so she agreed.

They knew Donna’s mother kept her rings on the dressing table in her bedroom. She had a beautiful pearl ring and a diamond wedding ring that she wore only for special occasions. So the children thought she wouldn’t miss the rings if they took them for a while. They got upstairs, entered the tidy room, which smelled of the mother’s perfume, and removed the rings from their special box.

Toby put the rings into his pocket and they both ran to the big field where they often played. Toby thought it was an excellent place where nobody would find the rings. They made a hole in the ground with the help of a kitchen spoon and put the secret treasure inside. Soon they heard their mothers calling them for lunch and ran back home. For some unknown reason, they forgot to go back to dig up the rings and to return them to their place.

About a week later, Donna’s mother found out that her rings were missing and was furious. From the look on Donna’s face she guessed the girl knew the truth. So Donna had to tell the whole story of her adventure with cousin Toby. At that moment she realized the seriousness of her crime.

The mother demanded that Donna should show her the place. They went to the field to dig up the rings. Unfortunately Donna couldn't remember exactly where they were buried. They tried several places without success till it was absolutely dark. They kept trying to find the rings for many days but eventually they gave up. Amazingly, the mother forgave Donna. She never scolded her nor even reminded her about the lost rings. She knew that her daughter didn’t mean any harm - she was just a small child and did it for a game. Everyone, however, silently hoped the 'hidden treasure' would be found someday.

Six years later, the field was planted with rows of little pine trees for a Christmas sale. One day, the farmer found a pearl ring in the ground and told a neighbour, who remembered the story of the lost rings. He handed the ring over to Donna’s mother. The discovery made her extremely happy. They started a new search but the other ring was never found.

Many years later Donna noticed her younger sister was wearing the pearl ring. When she asked her mother why she had given it to her sister, she answered, 'Well, I always planned to give my best rings to my daughters some day and you were supposed to get the diamond wedding ring!'

Today, people travel much more than they used to. Due to contemporary transportation means, globalization and integration, the most distant places have become easily accessible. Lots of people enjoy spending holidays abroad and often go to exotic countries like Bali, the Philippines, Kenya or New Zealand. Tourist agencies offer a wide range of tourist options ranging from lazy beach holidays to safari or diving tours. There are offers to meet the requirements of the most sophisticated clients, and skilful tourist managers can design individual tours according to tourists' personal desires.

It seems that any destination is possible if only the tourist can afford the cost. Surprisingly enough, but in spite of growing possibilities more and more tourists reject the idea of an exotic holiday and choose to explore their own country. It's a good tendency I think, as if people don't know their own country, they will never be able to appreciate other countries' natural wonders and cultural treasures.

My dad has been working in the tourist business for many years and he detected the homeland-focused tendency years ago. Having it in mind, he started a little family business — . a small animal farm in the countryside. That was a risky thing to do — he had inherited an old farmhouse and a large plot of land from a distant relative but he had never been in farming and didn't know how to run the business. However, he knew the tourism business from the inside out, and he decided to combine them both.

He sold most of the animals and kept only a few cows, sheep, goats and nanny goats. Then he bought several horses, ponies and donkeys to add them to the herd. To make the farms population diverse, dad brought a couple of camels, several fallow deer and some roe deer. We certainly didn't get any income selling milk or meat, but surprisingly many city people came to spend weekends in our farmhouse. They brought children with them — the children were happy to see a real cow or a goat, they were delighted to feed the animals and to have a horse ride or a trip in a cart pulled by donkeys or deer!

Dad and the rest of the family got deeply involved in the business that started as a hobby. Our animal farm has turned into a real tourist attraction and we have had to hire several people to mind the animals, to run the inn and to entertain the guests. Actually, as we are getting more and more skilled in farming we are considering the possibility of buying some more land and are planning to expand our business so that we can produce dairy products, too. Frankly speaking, I never saw myself as a farmer, but unexpected things happen.

When I was a small child, I thought that I was the luckiest person in the world — we lived near the zoo and I could go there whenever I wanted. And I wanted to go there every day! My grandmother, who looked after me while my mum was at work, would buy two month tickets, which was very cheap for the two of us — she was retired and I was under seven, so we bought the tickets at a special discount.

The zoo was another world to me. It was a great way to escape the reality of a big city with its skyscrapers and highways. The asphalt jungles were the right place for cars but a poor environment for small children. The zoo territory seemed very large and there were animals from all around the world there. My usual route started with the bear enclosure. The large, brown bear, called Paddy, was separated from the visitors with a high bar fence which I thought was absolutely unnecessary — the bear looked very friendly to me.

Then I grew older and could read the information table near the bear enclosure. It said that the animal was the East Siberian Brown Bear, born in the zoo. The bears of that species are large and skillful. They can hunt reindeer and elks and they also fish in the great Siberian rivers. “So sad,” I thought, “The bear has never seen the great environment he belongs to.” That actually made me look at the zoo from another angle: it seemed large but the giraffes didn't have enough space for running, the seals were kept in a pool that was far too small for them, and the leopards were pacing up and down the length of their cage. They felt nervous with the visitors' eyes on them all the time but there was no shelter on their territory. Should zoos be abolished?

I'm still in two minds over that. On the one hand, life in the zoo is like serving a life sentence — there's no hope of the animals returning home. That's definitely unfair. On the other hand, zoos are a place where children can be taught about different animals and where they can see animals from other parts of the world. It's also true that zoos can save some species from extinction. For example, three Sumatran tigers were born in our zoo several years ago. It's very unlikely that all three cubs would survive in the wild but in the zoo all of them turned into mature, healthy animals and now the staff are happy to take care of the eight new cubs of the rare tigers. The media said that when the tigers are old enough they will be returned to the wild.

The koala is a small bear-like animal that looks like a soft toy. The animal is cute and non-aggressive, but it’s difficult to see a koala in the Zoo and no one ever keeps them as pets. Why is it so?

The main reason why people shouldn’t try to take koalas out from their natural home is their diet. It’s a strict diet of eucalyptus leaves as koalas practically never eat anything else. In Australia there are over 600 types of eucalyptus, but koalas eat only 40–50 varieties with only about 10 being preferred. And even if you find the koala’s most favourite tree and plant it in your backyard, you won’t be able to supply your koala-pet with food anyway. The thing is that koalas eat only fresh young leaves, and the tree has few of them. So, to keep a koala happy and healthy, you would have to plant about 100 eucalyptus trees!

It’s difficult to explain why koalas love eucalyptus leaves so much. The leaves are tough and feel like rubber. They have very few calories and they are poisonous to most animals. Koalas, however, cope with such a diet easily. Nature has equipped them with specialised adaptations. Each koala eats approximately 200 to 500 grams of leaves per day. They are very slow eaters and they manage to get the maximum amount of energy from such a small amount of food. They also sleep for up to 18 hours per day in order to conserve energy.

Koalas spend all their lives on eucalyptus trees and they don’t have any need to leave them. Normally the animals don’t drink water as they receive it from the leaves. For this reason the koala got its name from an ancient Aboriginal word meaning “no drink”.

Koalas live in societies, just like humans, so they need to be able to come into contact with other koalas. They live in suitable eucalyptus forests which are large enough to support a healthy koala population and to allow for expansion by maturing young koalas. In spite of their peaceful and sleepy look, koalas are highly territorial animals and don’t allow strangers to approach their “home trees” and “food trees”.

A female koala gives birth to only one baby in one or two years. It's hairless, blind and very little – about 2 cms long! It gets into the mother's pouch – a special pocket of skin on the stomach – and stays there for six or seven months. Then it gets out of the pouch but stays with the mother until it's about one year old. Koalas are slow-breeding animals and their population can't grow fast. The animals were in danger of extinction at the beginning of the 20th century when the koala was hunted for its fur. Fortunately, the population has been restored and today the Australian government doesn't consider the koala as endangered.

Kevin enjoyed waking up in the morning. His window looked out on the green fields around. Their house was an American farmhouse though it looked more like an English cottage. It was Kevin’s mother who had restyled the place. She came from England and wanted to have some of it in her new home.

The bean fields around belonged to their family. As the only child in the family, Kevin’s father took up the family business and had never regretted it. He managed to take care of his fields all by himself, only with occasional help from his wife and his son. The farm was highly mechanized. There were all sorts of tractors, combines and other farming machines in their backyard. The father was skillful with them and mum too — she operated all the machines almost professionally. Kevin’s help was needed too, especially now - his small brother had been born recently and mum was busy with the baby.

Right, Kevin was always ready to help but not today. Some of his school friends were going to visit him and that didn’t happen very often. Living on a farm means some sort of isolation. You can’t just see some of your classmates on the street. You can’t walk around with them when you have an hour or two to spare. His mother drove Kevin to school and back every day and that was it — he spent every evening with his family. But today Max and Bob were coming and Kevin was going to enjoy his day off.

When the boys arrived, both Kevin and his father showed them around the farm. The boys were impressed when they learned how many beans the small family produced. Then the adults got busy with the barbecue and the boys went on exploring the farm land and the constructions there. Bob, who was crazy about archaeology, was absolutely fascinated with the old barn (амбар). It had never been used as a barn. Nobody had even entered it for years — the father kept some ancient farming equipment there.

With sincere interest Bob studied the old spades (лопаты), ploughs (плуги) and other ancient tools, the names of which Kevin did not know. Suddenly, Bob’s eyes sparkled: ‘Where did you get it from?’ In his hand he held something that looked like a spade but it was much smaller and the design was different.

‘I have no idea what it is,’ Kevin looked puzzled. ‘It was probably my grandfather or great-grandfather who left it here.’

‘But I suspect that it was made much earlier than your great-grandparents lifetime,’ Bob looked really excited. ‘Can I take it with me? To show it to the people in the Archaeology society?’

Kevin shrugged his shoulders. ‘I don’t think anyone minds if we take everything from here. Father would be glad to get rid of the stuff. He has always wanted to remove this barn completely but still cannot find time to do it.’

‘Do not be in too much of a hurry to do it,’ Bob gave him a wink. ‘Who knows... this ancient stuff will probably make your name famous.’