1 The Penguin Press Issue VI [email protected]13 February, 2012 IB Current Events Arts `Features Advertisments Funny, brave, charm- ing, enthusiastic, tal- ented. Each contestant of the annual Mr. AAS contest undoubtedly had at least one of these qualities, but who was worthy of the title of Mr. AAS? In this grueling com- petition, 6 contestants battled to prove to the population of the king- dom of AAS, that they would be the most fit- ting prince. From sumo suits to scuba gear the competition was never dull. The show was a great success, but what went in to the prepara- tion of it? One Wednesday in Jan- uary, the NHS president, Sam decided it was time to begin preparation for the pageant of the year. Weeks before re- hearsals for the actual show began, a number of NHS members faith- fully gathered votes for the possible Mr. AAS candidates. The chosen six were revealed to the school later next week, their beautiful portraits, which hung throughout the High School walls, allowed a peak into what was to come. Rehearsals for the big day soon began of the Malyy. Sashes needed to be made, scripts needed to be written, lights needed to be figured out. The theater was a whirl of NHS members running around in order to bring to the people of the school the wonder- ful and funny Mr. AAS. Four events, six con- testants, three judges and quite a few memo- rable moments – this is not a day anyone will soon forget. The sing- ing and dancing knight in shining armor, Sasha Romashev, who saved Princess AAS (or shall we say, Prince), the hi- larious answers of Alex Botashev to questions thrown at him from the top of a hat, the fantas- tic gymnastics of Wyatt Hughes, the beautiful singing of Diego Ga- viria and Sam PC and the fascinating fashion choices of Rubin De- Bruin – the judges and audience were clearly impressed. But who, in the end, was chosen to be Mr. AAS? Although all of our con- testants had something to offer, and the choice was obviously a diffi- cult one, Sam PC pre- vailed and was crowned the prince of the king- dom of AAS So there you have it, the full glory of Mr. AAS in a nutshell. Mr. AAS Pageant - Sasha Parodi
Funny, brave, charm-ing, enthusiastic, tal-ented. Each contestant of the annual Mr. AAS contest undoubtedly had at least one of these qualities, but who was worthy of the title of Mr. AAS?
In this grueling com-petition, 6 contestants battled to prove to the population of the king-dom of AAS, that they would be the most fit-ting prince. From sumo suits to scuba gear the competition was never dull. The show was a great success, but what went in to the prepara-tion of it?
One Wednesday in Jan-uary, the NHS president, Sam decided it was time to begin preparation for the pageant of the year. Weeks before re-hearsals for the actual show began, a number of NHS members faith-fully gathered votes for the possible Mr. AAS candidates. The chosen six were revealed to the school later next week, their beautiful portraits, which hung throughout the High School walls, allowed a peak into what was to come.
Rehearsals for the big day soon began of the Malyy. Sashes needed to be made, scripts needed to be written, lights needed to be figured out. The theater was a whirl of NHS members running around in order
to bring to the people of the school the wonder-ful and funny Mr. AAS.
Four events, six con-testants, three judges and quite a few memo-rable moments – this is not a day anyone will soon forget. The sing-ing and dancing knight in shining armor, Sasha Romashev, who saved Princess AAS (or shall we say, Prince), the hi-larious answers of Alex Botashev to questions thrown at him from the
top of a hat, the fantas-tic gymnastics of Wyatt Hughes, the beautiful singing of Diego Ga-viria and Sam PC and the fascinating fashion choices of Rubin De-Bruin – the judges and audience were clearly impressed.
But who, in the end, was chosen to be Mr. AAS?
Although all of our con-testants had something to offer, and the choice was obviously a diffi-
cult one, Sam PC pre-vailed and was crowned the prince of the king-dom of AAS
So there you have it, the full glory of Mr. AAS in a nutshell.
Mr. AAS Pageant - Sasha Parodi
2
When Even the Cold Can’t Stem the Tide - Xenia Rakovshik
Moscow – On Feb-ruary 4th, 2012, anti-government protesters congregate in the heart of the city, bundled in furs, ushanki and woolen gloves as they face the bitter winter air, making their way to Bolotnoya Ploschad. Lanky university stu-dents, unrecognizable in a sea of scarves and buttoned up jackets, carry humorous signs, accompanied by a pair of marching drummers joyously beating out a syncopated rhythm as they march through the grey sludge.
The Saturday protest is the third of its kind following the outrage over government-inter-ference in election re-sults back in December of 2011. Although the crowd estimations vary depending on the source – Moscow authorities reporting an estimate of 36,000, whilst organiz-ers counted an average of 120,000 – it is more likely the figure rested around 100,000 or so.
The pro-government demonstration held on the same day culmi-nated in an average of “138,000” reported lo-cal sources, although this number has been generally accepted to be greatly over exagger-ated.
All three of the dem-onstrations call for a chance for fair voting and as a result, a Russia without Putin. Despite the near certainty that Vladimir Putin will win a six-year presidential term in the upcoming March elections, Mus-covites have embraced their right to make evident their distrust of federal regulations, a promising development that provides a glimmer of hope for a more ‘lib-eral’ institution.
“It’s clear nothing will change, but at least we can demonstrate — six months ago nobody could have imagined it in Moscow,” said Mari-na V. Segupova, 28 in an interview with The New York Times, “We want
the military and the po-lice to come over to our side. We will show our good will; we will show that we’re kind.”
“We are a snowball,” she said, “and we are rolling.”
But rolling where? Al-though protestors are clearly calling for hon-est election results and rally against prominent abuse of political pow-er, does that necessarily mean that Putin will not emerge victorious come March? With a month before presidential elec-tions, polls indicate the Putin is far ahead of rivals, Gennady Zyu-ganov (Communist), Sergey Mironov (A Just Russia), Vladimir Zhiri-novsky (Liberal Demo-cratic), and Mikhail Prokhorov (Indepen-dent), by a fair margin.
In truth, participants in the anti-government protests admitted to having little hope in a Russia without Putin, as the other candidates have yet to prove them-
selves as active compet-itors. Yet despite an im-pending Putin regime, thousands of Russians congregate in peaceful displays of camarade-rie amongst a variety of individuals, from ten-year-old activists to el-derly couples.
Maksim Trudolyubov, the editorial editor of Vedomosti commented on the protests as hav-ing a greater impact in successfully signaling to Russian officials that Mr. Putin could not con-tinue to rule in the same highly centralized style.
“We are standing at a re-ally important threshold for this country,” Mr. Trudolyubov said in an interview. “Right now, if nothing extraordi-nary happens — a black swan, or something — he is of course the president in March. But in March, he will be a very different president, a president with a differ-ent level of legitimacy.”
It’s that time of year again, where eleventh grade students are fran-tically trying to decide their futures as they start to feel the pressures of IB and university searches. Having been through the process myself, I know that it can be really frustrating when nobody knows ex-actly where to start. Do you look for a school near home, or as far away as possible? What do you want to major in? How many interna-tional students do you want in the university? How much will it cost? Whereas all these ques-tions are valid (and very important to some peo-ple), there are so many questions that need answering that it can become overwhelming. So, I have a website which will help to find a university which is just right for you, if you wish to go to the US.
Name: The College Prowler. Slogan: “Col-lege Search. By Stu-dents. For Students.” And that is exactly what it is. The College Prowler contains a da-tabase of hundreds of universities all across America with ratings in various categories. And the best part? They are rated by students at the university, not pro-fessors, not admissions councils, but the stu-dents themselves. You can search universities by majors, by match to your personality, or by the different catego-ries – best Greek life, most attractive guys/girls, weather, academ-ics, etc. There are infi-nite possibilities, and the website also can calculate your chances of getting in once you input some simple in-formation (GPA, SAT/ACT scores, extracur-ricular activities, etc).
Unfortunately, the website is only for uni-versities in the United States. If you want to check it out, go to www.collegeprowler.com. Happy university
searching!
IB Column - Univeristy Searching- Kayla Fayh
February 16 from 5:30 in the Bolshoi, Malyy and Hall of Flags. Come and support the Arts and your com-munity!
Friday, April 20th
The organizers of the fair are inviting all students to join and share their ideas on the planning committee. This is a great CAS opportunity for all IB students. For more de-tails, please see Mr.Assimakopoulos
Ping Pong Club is still active. Sign up, get involved and complete your CAS require-ments.
What did you want to become upon leaving high school?I had absolutely no idea. I just knew I wanted to learn Russian. I also thought that I might study animal behavior and become some sort of environmental scien-tist (I really liked Jane Goodall).
As a high-school coun-selor what is the most common mistake stu-dents make in regards to college preparation?Focusing on the “name” of the university, rather than looking at the at-mosphere and really thinking about whether or not they would be happy in that environ-ment for 3/4 years. Also PROCRASTINATION. This process doesn’t happen TO you, it re-quires a lot of work and preparation over time.
How would you de-scribe your experi-ence as you applied to schools?I had an older sister, so I felt like I knew what the whole process en-tailed. My parents also pulled the car over into any campus we passed if we were travelling somewhere, so I saw A LOT of schools. I would say I could have done a little more “soul searching” before doing my applications, be-cause even when I had submitted everything I still wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted out of the college experience. The school I ended up going to (Haverford) was one
that my mother forced me to apply to (because it was on common app and I onlyl needed to make a photocopy of what I had already writ-ten) and it took me until spring of senior year to realized that she proba-bly knew what I needed and wanted better than I did. I cried twice when I opened acceptance letters--my first one (be-cause I was so relieved I would be going to col-lege) and Haverford. That’s when I knew I should probalby go there.
How does being in the counseling office help you understand stu-dents?My favorite part of the movie “Bowl-ing for Columbine” is when Michael Moore asks Marilyn Manson what advice he would have given Eric Har-ris and Dylan Kelbold if he had had a chance to talk to them before they started their kill-ing spree at Columbine High School. He said, “I wouldn’t say a single word to them I would listen to what they have to say.” (that’s word for word from IMDb). I think that is one of my favorite things about being in the counsel-ing office is having a chance to listen. Some-times there are things the counselors have to tell students too, but I like the luxury of hear-ing people’s stories and learning about their hopes and aspirations for the future.
What are some of your favorite things to do to blow off some steam?I like being outside and being active. In the summer I sail, swim, play lacrosse. In the winter I like X-country skiing, going for walks in the snow. I also re-ally like beer and have started to make my own (it’s usually better than Sibirskaya Korona or Baltika).
If you could do any oth-er job for a day at AAS what would you choose to do?I would be a lifeguard. I was watching them do a unit with ES kids in rub-ber rafts and it looked like a lot of fun. Basi-cally most things related to water are fun for me,
Where did you at-tend high school?Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, CT (as a day student). Check it out: www.loomis.org (it’s pretty).
How would your teachers describe you as a student?I think they saw me as a good student. A few times my parents got the comment, “Bryn would be a great stu-dent if only she weren’t friends with....”, but for the most part I re-ally liked school and did well in class. At the end of 11th grade, my Pre-Cal teacher told me to “kick Chris’s butt” on the final (he was always getting some of the top grades in the class) and as a result I was the only person to ever get 100% on her exam. So I guess I rose to the occasion when I needed to.
What would you have done differently hav-ing the experience as a teacher you have now, as a student then?Not much. Maybe I would have worked harder? But I was pret-ty stubborn (and often lazy) in high school. I definitely would have taken Russian class when I wanted to rather than listen-ing to my advisor who said I shouldn’t take a new language late in high school because I wouldn’t get into a good university. I should have studied what I wanted to, not what I was told to.
so how great would it be to get to work at a pool all day??
If you could change one thing about the AAS high school what would it be?I wish we could have a sailing team... Can’t we do something about the short fall and spring?
Do you have any ad-vice for current high school students?You get out of this ex-perience what you put into it.
High School Stockholm Syndrome Bryn Will - Counseling Office - Xenia Rakovshik
5
Concert Corner
Whether you’ve bought your tickets or not, we want to make sure you’re up to date with upcoming Moscow concerts!
16th February: UB40. First formed in the late 1970’s in Birming-ham, England, UB40 is a reggae band that has achieved immense success since they first started. Composed of band members who have remained friends since long before the band started, their hits include “Red Red Wine” as well as “Can’t Help
Falling in Love” and “Food for Thought”. They are sure to draw a large crowd, and will be playing at Stadium Live Club.
13th April: Simple Plan. Originally from Montreal, Canada, Simple Plan formed in the early 1990’s and is a pop-punk band. Its band members include Pierre Bouvier, Charles-Andre Commeau, Adri-an White and Philippe Jolicoeur. Some of their most successful songs include “Addicted,” “Shut Up!” and “Wel-come to My Life”. Cur-
rently on tour, they will be playing at Moscow Arena.
18th May: Black Sab-bath. Also formed in Birmingham, Black Sabbath is a heavy met-al Band originally from England. With lead vo-calist Ozzy Osbourne, the band is further com-prised of Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward. Included in Roll-ing Stone Magazine’s list of 100 Greatest Art-ists of All Time, Black Sabbath is considered a pioneer in Heavy Metal. Be sure to catch them in a few months at Olimp-
- Josephine Rees
iski Stadium for what is sure to be a fantastic concert!
22nd July: Red Hot Chili Peppers. Red Hot Chili Peppers – who hasn’t heard of them? Originally from Los Angeles, this band consisting of Anthony Kiedis, Michael Bal-zary, Chad Smith and Josh Klinghoffer has been together since the early 1980’s. Famous for songs such as “Scar Tissue,” “Under the Bridge” and “Californi-cation”, they have had an immensely success-ful tour thus far. Be sure
to catch this alternative rock band in the upcom-ing summer holidays!
The Pushkin Memo-rial Museum:
Located on Old Arbat Street: It features Al-exander Pushkin and his wife, Natalia Gon-charove’s house in its slightly modified state.
The State Historical Museum:
Located in between Red Square and Manege Square. Some notable
items are gold artifacts of the Scythians, man-uscripts from before the sixth century, and a longboat excavated from the banks of the Volga River
The Moscow Memorial Museum of Cosmo-nauts:
It is open from 10 am to 6 pm.The displays trace the history of space ex-ploration, specifically Russian.There are many
Museum Exhibitions - Katie Baker
of things to see there including: fun gadgetry and a display explaining how astronauts survive in space.
Moscow State Univer-sity Zoological Mu-seum:
It is open on Tuesdays through Sundays, ex-cept for the last Tues-day of the month and is open from 10 am to 5 pm.There is a large col-lection of art by some of
the best Russian paint-ers.Taxidermy is the main focus in this mu-seum.
The Kremlin Armory Chamber:
It is located within the Kremlin.Tickets cost 700 rubles. Tours with audio-guides are avail-able along with touch screens with additional information in exhibit halls. Some things to be seen at the Armory
Chamber are, Faberge eggs, royal carriages and thrones.
February Break is almost here, and it’s Student Council spirit week! Show your school spirit and gain some spirit points for your grade!
Monday, February 13th: Monochromatic Monday
Tuesday, February 14th: Teacher Twin Day
Wednesday, February 15th: Pajama day
Thursday, February 16th: Denim Day
Friday, February: 17th: Fan Fair Friday
Spirit Week - Sophi Loge
6
February Horoscope - Sophi LogeAQUARIUS: An older friend or colleague will give you some excel-lent advice, and if you are smart you will listen and learn. Their basic message is that there are more important things in life than material suc-cess.
PISCES: One-to-one relationships are under both helpful and chal-lenging stars at the mo-ment, and which version you get to experience depends largely on your own attitude.
ARIES: You can get more done in the next 24 hours than you man-aged to get done in the
whole of the past week. But that does not mean you have to burn your-self out, focus.
TAURUS: Don’t be put off if someone you meet seems a bit too detached emotionally. Make the effort to break through their outer reserve. It will be worth it.
GEMINI: There are times when you say things simply to shock those around you. It might be no more than a bit of fun to you, but make sure you are ready for the backlash.
CANCER: Be honest-with family and friends.
Let them know what they are doing wrong how to put it right. Don’t worry that you might dent their egos – it’s not your fault they are so sensitive.
LEO: You may be try-ing hard to deny your feelings but is it worth the effort? If you sup-press your emotions in one place now they will burst out in another place later on.
VIRGO: Although this is a very good time for you, certain events may have taken some of the gloss off your achieve-ments over the past few days. But what of
it? You’ll get another chance to shine soon!
LIBRA: Don’t worry if the party spirit seems to have passed you by of late because it’s your inner spirit that mat-ters. Think deeply about your life and where it is headed. Then act.
SCORPIO: You may not agree with what certain people are up to but it is not your place to question their actions. Ignore them and get on with your own life.
SAGITTARIUS: Every time you try to get started on something an
unexplained force holds you back. Take the hint and recognize this is not the right time to be moving in that particu-lar direction.
CAPRICORN: Avoid people and places that depress you. You need happiness and laughter, not glum faces and surroundings that make you feel down.
