The G. Zaldastanishvili American Academy in Tbilisi

Issue No. 1

December 2014

NEW YEAR AT GZAAT

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MEET MR. CRUZ BEHIND THE SCENES WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE SANTA TO BRING YOU ON NEW YEAR? Two weeks left until New Year. The whole country is getting ready for this special affair of the year, and GZAAT isn’t exception. The Christmas mood is spread through whole school community. We already arranged X-mas trees, and everyone is getting ready for Christmas Party. During these preparations, our club members decided to go on the survey and ask students, what would they like Santa to bring them on New Year. Some asked for ski equipment… desperate seniors longed for acceptance letters from colleges, others wished for snow or minus 10 kilograms of extra weight but most of the students asked for abstract things, like happiness, love, health and of course beloved but unattainable SLEEP. But the secret has revealed that not only students ask Santa for New Year gifts but adults too, in GZAAT, send letters to Lapland…

So here is the fun challenge you have to take and find out what teachers asked for New Year.

Match each wish with a person…

MARIKA

–

LOVE, HAPPINESS, KINDNESS AND SUCCESS

TAMUNA MIKABERIDZE

–

PARFUME

GIVI (COMPUTER LAB)

–

TRIP TO EXOTIC PLACE

TAMAR MAMULASHVILI

–

AN ENORMOUS APPLE

KEN GOFF

–

SAFE SHELTER FOR ALL DOGS

IRA CHKHEIDZE

–

COWBOY HAT

MAIA KHADOURI

–

MILLION DOLLAR

EKA GORDEZIANI

–

DIAMOND

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HOT DEBATES IN GZAAT

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December 2014

DOG SHELTER On the third of November the students from our academy went to “Dog Organization of Georgia Shelter” Located at the Lisi Lake. After a brief presentation from the owners of the shelter school volunteers approximately 1520 students happily helped to walk the dogs and feed them. This organization opened In

late spring 2011 and accommodates around 35 dogs. Since opening they have helped approximately 70 dogs to find peaceful homes.

People working in the shelter are not only Georgian but foreigners coming from all over the world. During our meeting which was held in the academy the presenters of the shelter talked about how important it is to take good care of the dogs which include vaccinating, spaying, neutering and training them properly. Without doing this many problems might arise there even are some diseases spread among dogs and cats that can be transferred to humans. This organization aims to reduce the number of homeless dogs killed. And improve their lives just be feeding them and giving them a peaceful environment before anyone adopts. The dogs are already vaccinated and taken care of so there’s no danger in visiting them like our students did. If not adopt with just going there and walking the dogs helps a lot because they get very excited and happy just to see new faces around. Anyone who is interested in lending a hand or adopting a puppy can visit anytime. The shelter is self-financed and relies wholly on donations and its own fundraising activities. If you have any interests in making a donation you go to www.gofundme.com/3hr7pk or contact them on their email address DogOrganizationGeorgia@yahoo.com.

MARIAM ALEKSISHVILI

WORKING WITH ANIMALS The Tbilisi Zoo has volunteers whose age starts from twelve and goes up to adults. Volunteers help employees with looking after animals: cleaning the cages, feeding them, and also taking part in enrichment, which means making the animals’ lives more interesting by adding or putting something in their cages. For example, the elephants have tires which they roll and play with. And bears are given baskets in which meat or maybe fruit is placed. In order to get the food, the bears must somehow open the baskets. Enrichment makes animals’ lives more various and it’s also very interesting for the volunteers.

All the volunteers love their job and they happily go to the zoo as often as they can. They also go to certain courses, where they’re taught different interesting things about nature. Of course, all of the volunteers are being watched by the employees in case they do something wrongly. Volunteers aren’t allowed to all the animals, for example they can’t go into the cages of big carnivores such as lions or look after poisonous reptiles. A person also can’t just become a volunteer as soon as he wants to. Firstly, he goes to certain lessons, where different things about animals and nature are taught and if the person is considered responsible

enough, after about half a year he becomes a volunteer.

Volunteers work in different sections of the zoo: carnivores, birds, and hoofed animals. In some cases volunteers may choose themselves where to work, but mostly they’re distributed by the employees.

Even though the volunteers’ job sometimes might be quite difficult, they still enjoy it really much, because animals that are looked after by them mean a lot to them.

I have interviewed one of the employees of the zoo, Tamta Afronidze, in order to find out what’s it like not to just volunteer but also to be an employee there: – For how long have you been working in the zoo?

– I’ve been here for more than eight years.

– Why have you chosen this profession?

– I love animals really much, but actually, I could never imagine that I’d work in the zoo. My lecturer became the director in here and offered me to work here. This was so fascinating for me, that I agreed. In the beginning I thought that this would be temporal, although it turned out that I was really interested in this job, so I still work here with great enthusiasm.

– Which animal, or maybe a group of animals would you consider to be your favourite?

– I prefer carnivorous animals the most, however, in all I love all of them: horses, birds, reptiles…

– How difficult is it to work in the zoo?

– It’s quite hard, especially if you’re working with carnivorous animals.

– For how long do you have to work and in which days?

– Usually, I should be resting two days a week, but sometimes it happens that I can’t rest at all, because you need much time when you’re working with the animals.

– Is so much work worthy being with animals for you?

– Yes, of course it is. When you love animals, interrelation with them is always worthy to you, no matter what, especially when you’re working with exotic animals. As times passes you get more and more used to them and start to love them really much.

– Do you have much spare time after work?

– Almost not, I have little time left for myself and my family and friends always argue with me about that. They say that I spend more time with the animals, than with them.

– If you had this opportunity, would you change your profession? If yes which one and why?

– No, I wouldn’t, because I love my job and I wouldn’t be able to leave it. Once I was given this kind of offer, but I just couldn’t start working somewhere else.

– Do you have any domestic animals?

If yes, which one?

– No I don’t because I don’t have enough free time to look after them. In my opinion, if you have a domestic animal, your responsibility is to look after it well. If I had enough time, I’d probably buy a dog.

– When have you decided that this kind of profession fits you the most?

– I decided this while I still was at school, in the eleventh grade. I’ve loved animals ever since I was a little child and I’ve never been afraid of them.

– And lastly, what kind of relation have you got with the volunteers?

– I always try to give them the opportunity to be close with the animals, as much as it’s possible. And I’m in a friendly relation with all of them.

– Thank you really much, good bye.

As we have seen, working with animals is hard and it requires a lot of time and responsibility. However if a person loves this job, he’ll never get tired or bored of it, no matter how much time passes.

ANNA SANDLER

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December 2014

MEET MR. CRUZ BEHIND THE SCENES WE HAVE ASKED MR CRUZ THE SAME SERIES OF QUESTIONS AS MR. GOFF. – What was your dream job as a child?

– My dream job as a child was always to be a teacher. Every time my mother or my father would ask me, I didn’t know exactly what kind of teacher I wanted to be. But I wanted to teach, always.

– What led you to this dream?

– I think it was a few things. Partly it was books and literature. Because when I was a kid I was crazy about reading. I was not that crazy about mathematics and other things, because I do have a problem with numbers. I have a sort of a disability, I cannot remember numbers. I have even in my wallet my phone number, because I cannot remember it. So I had to work very hard, but the world of reading, and literature, and art fascinated me. I had very good teachers, and I always thought I would like to do that too. Because I found that it was just very interesting. There is really something special about teaching another human being something, whatever it is.

– Tell us about most memorable event as a teacher.

– The most memorable would be a long story, and maybe inappropriate for high school newspaper, because it involves swearing and things like that. But I would say that I can tell you that this happened in my first class in the United States. I am not kidding it was my first class and the security of the school building had to remove a student from my class. She was completely insane, she was just yelling at me, swearing at me and she actually grabbed the frame of the door. Two security guards was necessary to remove her from there. That was my first class in U.S. This student went on through high school to basically hate me forever, I don’t know why. And many years ago, when she graduated from college, she would make sure that every Christmas break, because it’s longer in university, she would come to visit me to thank me for all I did for her during high school. But the most interesting thing is, she came to see me six years in a row until I left city on a hill, that by the end of the conversation I always on purpose, sort of to tease her, I would say: «Latia (Latia was her name) do you remember the first class, and what you did in my class?». And she always said: «Mr. Cruz I don’t know what you are talking about, you always keep asking me this, and I don’t know what I did. What is exactly that I did?». So I never knew if she wanted to erase this from her memory or she was just playing that she didn’t want to remember that, because she was ashamed of that. So I feel that it was really interesting event in my teaching career.

– What have your students taught you, that you could not have learned anywhere outside the classroom.

– What is the change in nature of youth.

We always remember how we were when we were young. And in certain ways, like this presenter the other Friday said, teenagers every time in the history have similar characteristics.

However it is not the same to be young today, than to be young 20 years ago etc. I think that, when you are not a teacher and you are dedicated to another kind of business that is all the time with adults, you miss seeing how different times affect directly people. In everything, not only clothes, but in different ways to see the world and all that. I think that without being a teacher I would not be able to see that even today. And also, another important thing is that if you don’t have students it’s very difficult to learn that you are not always right.

If you are all the time with adults, like me in this office and telling people what to do and all that, there is a point where you think that you are always right, that you are never wrong.

When you are with students, the students always push back. Sometimes they push back in wrong ways. But sometimes they push back and you think: «she was right, I should have done that». This is very important.

– What is the greatest reward for teaching a student?

– When Latia comes back to thank you. But the greatest reward, really, maybe this might be interpreted wrong, but it’s not really about you. It is partly about you, because you get something out of my teaching. But the important thing when you are teaching somebody is like in our kendo club. You are beginning kendo, and you are learning all that. But in one year, if you continue in kendo, somebody is going to come new. And then I am going to say: «Can you teach hear how to do the foot-

work». And then you are going to know that by teaching somebody the footwork you are learning again different footwork, and better.

And that is often the reward for teaching a student. You are learning again, these things that you love. You know literature and art, or things like that.

– How were you greeted in the school, was it easy to adapt?

– Yes, I think that this is excellent school in terms of everybody: teachers, students. I mean, of course, they are different than I am.

And in many ways we discuss and we are not in agreement, and sometime we have to negotiate things. But in terms of personal welcoming , that’s something people see as a stereotype, but it is true that Georgia is quiet welcoming society. It has other kind of problems, but in terms of receiving foreigners I think that Georgia is a very good place for that.

– What do you think is the biggest problem in today’s education system in Georgia?

– I think I would be a bit arrogant if I told you about Georgia in terms of education because I don’t know much. But I think that the biggest problem is the lack of resources.

Teacher in Georgia are really really terribly paid. Not in this school, but in Georgian public schools. So they need to find new ways to support their families. So if you have somebody try to do 2 or 3 jobs, of course they cannot dedicate themselves to teaching, like your teachers here. I mean your teachers here, I

mean your teachers here make a decent salary. So when they go home, sometimes they are resting, but sometimes they are thinking: «what am I going to do next day with my students?». So that’s a way to increase the quality.

And also I think a huge problem in Georgia, I imagine because I don’t know first person, is the difference between rural Georgia and city Georgia is huge. In Tbilisi thinks are not perfect, but there is infrastructure, there are some possibilities, some choices. But when you go to rural Georgia, which is beautiful in terms of landscape and all that, but in terms of opportunities for both teachers and students it is dramatically different.

– Do you keep up with what is new in the world, and in teaching?

– Yes, I do. It is something that people think that I don’t, because I don’t usually talk much about it. And it is partly, because I don’t like it, I don’t like to spend time that I could use reading or writing for going through the news and all that. But I feel, because I am the director of a school and I am in many ways responsible for you and for the members of the staff, that I need to be informed. And I devote about 90 minutes, if not more, every day to go through all news in the world, in the region, in Eurasia, in Caucasus region, what is going on in Russia, what is going on in Turkey. Because I basically think that it is my obligation to do so. But it is kind of depressing sometimes, but I feel that I have to do it.

BEKURIDZE GEORGI

NEW ENGLISH TEACHER AT GZAAT This year, besides freshmen we are welcoming two new persons who joined gzaat staff. This is an interview with our new English teacher Mr. Ken Goff. We have asked him a series of questions:

What was your dream job as a child?

Well, I wanted to be an astronaut when i was a child. Many children my age did have that dream. Because it was the time when the astronauts were landing on the moon, and at school they would gather all of the students together on every day that either a rocket was blasting off towards the moon, or was going to be landing on the moon and all 200 or so of us students would sit in a big room and watch it land. I thought it would be an exciting job.

What led you into teaching?

What led me into teaching were basically teachers. I had two very, very good teachers,

English teachers, when I was going to middle school and high school. They kind of changed how i felt about everything. I wanted to be a writer as well, but I was wise enough to understand how difficult it is to make a living as a writer. So i wanted a job where i could still deal with English and language, so teaching was the obvious way to do that.

Tell us about your most memorable event as a teacher.

That’s really hard to say. I’ve been teaching for 25 years and there were so many memorable moments, so it is really hard for me to think about one of them. Perhaps when I left Africa it was a nice moment. Because all of the students in the school got together and they had a big festival for me. Where they brought out traditional costumes and dances. It was a nice thank you for the time I had spent with them.

What have your students taught you that you couldn’t have learned outside the classroom?

A teacher learns as much as they teach.

I always learn something about language, about stories, about the world, about dealing with students. What have they taught me?

They taught me patience, they’ve taught me to be more understanding, they taught me to relax a little more, to not take some things so seriously. And they taught me that it is better to have fun doing something you love, than to be difficult and too strict.

Tell us about your previous schools and the program you were in.

In Africa there were students preparing to equivalent of national examinations. It was very serious for them, because it did make the difference for them between going to university or not in such a poor country a Lesotho was. Here in Georgia I’ve first taught in a university in Akhaltskhe, where I taught people who were going to be teachers. So I was able to teach them about methodology, as well as teaching them to improve their basic English.

And hopefully to teach them how to do things

in a more interesting and creative way than they are used to.

What is the greatest reward for teaching a student?

It’s difficult, because as a teacher you never can see when you are finished. You never can really see that you’ve been successful. If I were working on an assembly line making pencils, you know when you are done making a pencil, because you know you have a pencil in your hand. But in teaching you’re never really finished, and you really never can see the result.

You can see when the student becomes more fluent or when they become more active, but deep inside the changes are quiet hard to see.

How were you greeted when you arrived in school, was it easy to adapt?

It was very easy to adapt, it was like stepping into an American high school. I’ve felt more peaceful here, more at home here than I have at a school in a very, very long time.

What do you think is the biggest problem in today’s education system in Georgia?

They’re still trying to make a transformation from the soviet system to more modern system. And it’s difficult for a few of the older teachers in public schools and a few of the private schools here in Georgia to adapt to the changes. In Georgia it’s still raising the standards, raising the quality of the teachers.

Do you keep up with today’s trends in life and teaching?

I try to as much as I can, through the internet, to keep up with what is happening in the pop culture, in the media and back in the states. As far as keeping current in my teaching skills, yes of course. Also through the internet and also contact with teachers all over Georgia. Some of them I’ve worked with for many years. I still have contact with them and I always do workshops or summer schools or things like that all over the country and it keeps me fresh and current.

BEKURIDZE GEORGI

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December 2014

PUBLIC DISCUSSIONS IN AMERICAN ACADEMY On October 17th we had our first public discussion in AAT. Some of you participated in it, and it was rather interesting to hear different opinions about the same problem, not only from people of our class, but from people of other classes as well and even teachers. The topic itself was very interesting too, since it

the final outcome depends completely upon them.

As for the origins of the ‘public discussions’, like Harkness table method, and method of teaching through discussions, it was also first introduced in Phillips Exeter Academy. In Exeter Academy such public discussions take

was not limited to just one problem, and as we saw many people had different opinions about what was the real problem, and how we should look at it. Now, many of you may be wondering where this idea of ‘public discussions’ comes from? And what is the point of these discussions? Or how are the topics for the discussion chosen? In this article we’ll try to answer most of the questions you might have regarding this idea of choosing the topic, and then discussing it with the whole school.

place every week. Mr. Cruz who has also had experience in this academy, told us about how this whole process works in Exeter. Apparently, on their weekly public discussions, not only do they discuss the topic, but they also vote and choose the solution for the given problem, and finally they write a letter to government that summarizes their resolution.

So, maybe someday we will also be able to do something like that, not necessarily write the letter to government, but just be able to

Last time the topic was the attitude of Georgian people towards their country, and the solutions that were given were the individual approach that everyone should improve individually, or social approach that either large group of people or government should act in order to solve the problem. This topic was actually thought of not by the director or the teachers, but by the group of students.

Every month a group of students is assigned to think of a topic for the next ‘public discussion’. Initially, they have a few ideas for topics which they later bring down to one topic with certain problem and solutions. This whole process is mostly supposed to be performed by students, and even though they do talk to the director and some teachers about their topics,

come upon one solution, and be able to prove our point not individually, but as students and representatives of Academy.

In any case, for now the best we could do is to listen to others’ opinions, participate ourselves and share our ideas, as much as possible. These discussions will give us the opportunity to get used to public speeches, and be able to talk freely in front of large audience.

More importantly, I’m pretty sure that most of us don’t really think about such things every day, so the discussions will make us think more about important issues, and maybe even develop a little bit of sense of responsibility towards the planet, and the community we live in.

HELEN UGULAVA

FIRST IMPRESSIONS IN GZAAT Going to a new school is hard: new environment, students, and way of teaching…

It’s especially hard when a student first goes to GZAAT, because everything in this school is much more different than in any other schools. Iinterviewed the freshmen in order to find out what they felt in the very first day of the school year: “I can still remember how nervous I was when I first came to this school, but after some time I understood that in case I don’t understand something, all the teachers and students will help me. I like this school very much and I consider it to be the best one in Georgia.”- Said Cotne Obolashvili.

“I liked the situation in this school very much, because everything was regulated.

However during the first week I was a bit confused.” – Says Mariam Mshvidobadze.

“I often heard from other people that the students of GZAAT are snobbish and not open to new kids; however, when I first came here I was surprised to see that people here were really sociable and everyone had wonderful skills of communication.” – Said Eto alikanashvili.

nitely say that you can trust all of them.”- Answered Elene Chochia.

Liza Qistauri said: “Even during the first day I could understand that this school is different from any other school in Georgia. It gives students profound knowledge and develops young generation mentally.”

“At first it was difficult for me to find classes, however others helped me and I soon got used to the environment. I was told that the students in this school are selfish, however I soon found out that they are quite friendly.”Says Nuca Qurdevanidze.

Another freshman answered: “When I first entered this school I was amazed by the warm relationship among students and also between students and teachers. I also liked the different way of studying here.”

“My first impression was: “Wow this is a lot nicer than my school on 105th.”- Said David Xaratishvili laughing.

Another pupil said: “GZAAT is a different place for me. It wasn’t hard for me to get accustomed to this school, because when I first came here everyone including teachers,

According to another freshman of GZAAT, when she first entered this school, she was confused and didn’t know where to go, but soon the prefects gave her the directions. After listening to Mr. Cruz’s speech she thought it’d be really hard to study here. However with the help of teachers and her classmates she had been able to solve her problems so far.

“I liked the environment in school and the unique way discussing lessons around the Harkness table.”- Said Nina Baxtadze.

“I really liked how everyone was friendly and sociable. The teachers also had a strong first impression on me. Everything went smoothly during the first days of school which, in my opinion boosted not only mine, but others’ confidence.” –Said Romin Salikov.

administration and guards were friendly and nice to me as a new member of this huge FAMILY. GZAAT is more than just a school for me, it’s a place where my friends are and I feel comfortable.”

“My first impression on the American Academy was a strange feeling of confusion.

My first week consisted of wandering around the hallways looking for my class. Even inside some classes I was confused since the teaching system is so different from ones I was used to. After a while though, everything straightened out and I adjusted to the school. Even though I still can’t remember my schedule correctly”- daid Tekla Xantadze, laughing.

So, for the most of the students, it was quite hard to adapt to the situation in GZAAT

“The students of GZAAT are really friendly and I could understand that from the very first day of the school year. Everyone helped me if I couldn’t figure out something and I can defi-

for the first time. However, with the help of other students and the friendly attitude of the teachers they soon started feeling themselves quite comfortable in here.

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December 2014

CHARITY EVENT IN GZAAT – “WE BRING HAPPINESS”...

It’s almost Christmas and there is Christmas spirit in GZAAT as well! And what is Christmas without helping others and making others happy? So, on this occasion on December 19th a charity event took place at GZAAT. The

Junior and Senior classes also organized the plays and collected some money for charity by selling the tickets as well. The guests were mostly parents and anyone that wished to attend this event.

Senior classes. Christmas decorations for selling were made by the members of Handicraft club. There were various photographs and paintings from the talented students of all classes, that attracted attention of many of

instruments. Even the teachers and parents helped students, not only with organization of the event, but especially by purchasing students’ works and supporting them.

The main events of the evening are prob-

main goal was to help those in need by selling different kind of goods made by students themselves. Mostly there were christmas toys, paintings, sweets, and decorations. Other than selling different merchandise students of

Different clubs and students of different classes all worked together to make this event as enjoyable and productive as possible. Cookies, cupcakes, and sweets, in general were baked by students from Junior and

the visitors. Ushers helped with selling these works and coordinating guests around the school. Rock(music) club of GZAAT also participated in entertaining and attracting guests by performing different songs and playing

ably the plays from Juniors and Seniors. The plays that were presented were not new to the students because they have already been performed a few weeks ago for students of GZAAT. This time however it took a form of charity event, and everyone had a chance to attend the performances.

Overall the event turned out to be very productive and enjoyable for everyone. And as much as it was tiring for most of the students to work with guests, it was also a very nice experience of working together, and of course a good chance to help someone. I believe, this kind of spirit and unity is what makes these events special, because so many people from so many different classes and clubs gather together, and all work together to make someone else happy. That’s why I hope there are going to be many other events where we will be able to show that we can actually work together, and support each other, and with this work help those who are in need.

So, this event was a pleasant experience both for guests and for the students and hopefully this tradition, and willingness to help others will forever be preserved in our school.

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December 2014

WHY DID VIOLENCE ON WOMEN GROW? On 19th October of 2014, on one of the main channels of Georgia “Rustavi 2” was a poll about a very serious subject. The main question was “Why did violence on woman grow lately?”. There were 3 questions to vote for 1) Lack of Education 2) Bad working of police and 3) Fake Culture. Firstly you have to think about what each of them means. Lack of education and bad working of police is clear,

but what about Fake Culture? What do we mean when we say it is fake culture’s fault. Do we mean traditions? No we mean stereotypes.

Stereotypes that people had made years ago.

Stereotypes we live in today. Stereotypes, which hadn’t changed for a long time. The

ones that make no sense. We can easily connect it to the Lack of Education, because if you don’t know what is right and what is true. it is really hard to rethink about your view of life.

In the pole that was made on Rustavi 2, the biggest amount got 2)Bad working of police.

The second was Lack of Education and the third one Fake Culture. This shows us that people just don’t want to let go of the stereotypes they have been living all their life, and this is understandable. I am not saying that all of the stereotypes in Georgia are wrong, but some which is counted as a Fake Culture are. People are so sure in the “rules” they had made, they are scared to let go of it.

When we make a pole on the same subject in GZAAT, 35 people participated. The most amount of votes got Lack Of Education (16 votes), after that comes Fake Culture with the amount of 14 votes and only after that with the amount of the 5 votes goes Bad working of police. From this we can see that no matter how many people live in the country even that small amount like Georgia, all people have different views on different subjects.

We can’t call one view right or one view wrong. People should discover the answer to this question themselves, but this is not enough. If we won’t work or even try to prevent violence on women, words won’t help. If even one individual will try to change something in the society it will bring an effect.

LIZA KHURTSILAVA

REVIEW OF THE MOVIE THE GIVER A good movie for freshmen students is newly shot movie The Giver. This year some of you going to read the book with the same title by Lois Lowry. The movie is shot according to the bestseller. Many famous Hollywood stars participate in this film .The budget is $50,000,000 and gross is $45,040,394 only in USA. Meryl Streep, Jeff Bridges, Brenton Thwaites, Katie Holmes, and others. The story tells us about a perfect community, without war, pain, suffering, differences or choice, where a young boy, Jonas, will learn about real world, its sufferings and its beauty.

NATIA KURDEVANIDZE

REVIEW OF THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKING JAY, PART 1 The movie has a lot of action in it. At every moment it keeps you serious and waiting for something, although, the movie was a bit like a long placeholder. They split the book into two parts, which is understandable, because they wanted to make a greater budget on it.

HEALTHY NUTRITION Many confuse healthy nutrition and the tormenting process of starving and refusing to eat delicious food. In fact, we can cheer you up and say that YES it is possible to stay slim and at the same time eat healthy and delicious food. Here are several tips for achieving that: 1. Try something new and healthy. For example: add salad to your everyday meals and try to use olive oil instead of butter while cooking.

2. Drink much water. It helps our organism to get rid of toxins and extra salts that disturb the water balance in the body.

3. Exercise. Play sports you like or workout in gym. Students have problem of immobility because of their heavy regime, so try to be as much active as you can. Nothing burns fat better than physical activity.

4. Do not eliminate certain foods from your diet completely. Teenagers need sugars and many vitamins that are in bread or dairy products, for the body development. Just try to reduce amount of junk food you consume.

5. Try to eat with other people – it will help to develop your social life and healthy eating habits. Eating alone in front of a TV or computer, leads to unconscious overeating.

6. Eat slowly – nerve impulse, that stomach is full arrives late to the brain, therefore while eating fast you may eat more than you wanted to.

7. Ask yourself if you are really hungry? – sometimes eating becomes part of the habit. For example during lunchtime whether you are hungry or not you still eat, because it is Time to Eat. 8. Try to eat different colors of fruit and vegetables, because different color has different benefits, in this case, contains different vegetables.

9. If you want to have healthy meals, try to eat different healthy protein sources like fish, beans, nuts, peas, tofu, chicken and soy products. Proteins give us energy for the rest of our day.

All in all, all you have to do for healthy nutrition and a healthy lifestyle is to eat more fruits and vegetables, drink more water, exercise and reduce the amount of junk food in your diet. But most importantly: don’t starve or completely eliminate your favorite food from your diet. Healthy nutrition means a healthy happy way of life and not its opposite.

ANNA SANDLER

The same way Twilight and Harry Potter did.

The movie was too long and the same things happened all over again. The producers ended

it with a cliffhanger, which will make people want to go to the next part.

As we can see in the movie, Katniss is a having an inner conflict. She tries to save the society and her friend Peeta, which is really hard to combine. We can see Jennifer Lawrence improving and becoming even better than she was as an actress. The role of Katniss in The Mocking Jay, Part 1 is really hard to play.

With lots of emotional instability and drama.

Lawrence did a great job!

The book is not really about Katniss having an inner conflict, but about her being a brave and selfless girl, which doesn’t rely on anyone.

They changed the main idea her, or maybe it was just a seeing of a producer.

As it is mentioned above, the movie ends with a cliffhanger, so the only thing that is left for us to do is to wait for the next movie.

LIZA KHURTSILAVA

THE EVIL WITHIN The Evil Within, a game made by Tango Gameworks, was released this year on the 14th of October. The game was made by Shinji Mikami, the creator of Capcom’s best-selling Resident Evil series. He promised to bring gamers back to the true feeling of horror survival genre, which has been unfortunately long forgotten.

But still here is the question: Did Shinji Mikami, succeed in his attempt? Now that this game is released we can answer this. Nowadays most horrors include a character walking with camera who is frightened by continuous scripts or jump scares until the end credits.

The classical survival horror was way different from this contemporary style. In the classic survival horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill you had to collect ammunition, fight of enemies, and try to stay alive. The survival part of it however was that you always run low on ammunitions and health and sometimes it was more rational to escape the battle than to take damage. This genre was forgotten as the time went by but now with the release of The Evil Within I can without a doubt say that it has returned. It feels like a real survival game in which you always have to calculate your next step in advance, since one wrong step can end the game.

The game also manages to bring something new and innovative into a game world.

For example it has a great variety of enemies that are who have sophisticated designs. The settings are always unique and memorable.

The game was not only released on PC it also was ported on to PS4 and if you have PS4 then I highly suggest you play on it.

Now about part of the game that I think was its weakness. The theme of this game is not most creative in the world of computer games. With all zombie games out there it really got boring especially looking back at Resident Evil franchise which’s story was always its weakest side. However Shinji Mikami,

managed to surprise me by bringing up very interesting storyline that will keep you interested from beginning to end.

In conclusion, if you missed out the true survival horror games and can’t play for some reason, then this game is for you. I give this game 10/10 and recommend it to everyone who loves horror games. It currently costs $29.99 on steam marketplace. There is also season pass available that costs $12.59, but I highly suggest you to get it on PS4.

TAZO ALAVIDZE

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December 2014

REVIEW OF LUCY Lucy another new movie by Luc Besson.

On the 18th of September it have started to be shown in Georgian movie theaters. As it was

expected, in Luc’s movie one of the most popular actresses and actors of Hollywood participate. Scarlet Johansson and Morgan Freeman play the role of main characters. The budget is $40,000,000 and gross is $126,086,295 only in USA. It is interesting that at first, the main role was planned to be played by |Angelina Jolie, but she had refused along before the shooting started. Now a little bit about the plot. The main character Lucy accidentally interferes with the mafia who uses drugs for their business to prosper. They capture her and use Lucy as a transport of drugs putting it in her stomach. Due to unexpected circumstances the drug gets activated in her organism, and step by step she opens the deepest abilities of her mind. Finally using its 100%. With her newly found powers, Lucy turns into a merciless warrior. In this period she meets with a professor (Morgan Freeman) who helps her to use her abilities in a proper way. That’s all I can say in order not to spoil the intriguing ending. If you love action and fiction, this movie is for you.

NATIA KURDEVANIDZE

WHAT IS HALLOWEEN AND SHOULD WE BE SCARED OF IT? Originally Halloween comes from the ancient Celtic holiday that was called Samhain.

It was celebrateв (as it is today) on October 31.

Gaelic people believed that on that day the boundaries between living people and dead dissolved. If we look at this holiday in the origin it seems pretty scary, because people wore

masks to mimic evil spirits and threw bones in bonfires. Creepy… But today Halloween is not about ghost and ghouls, but more about having fun and eating candy. Children wear customs and go trick or treating from door-todoor, nobody even thinks about worshiping demons and witches. In orthodox countries like Georgia, not everyone understands that.

Most people think that celebrating Halloween is not right religiously and they have a lot of arguments. In Bible it’s written that worshiping demons is not right if you are a Christian.

Also some professed witch told The newspaper USA and I quote “ Christians don’t realize it, but they’re celebrating our holiday with us…

We like it”. Kind of scary ,isn’t it? Other people just don’t take it seriously. They say that it is just another holiday on which you should relax and have fun. Which side you will take is already your choice.

LIZA KHURTSILAVA

WHAT IS HANDICRAFTING AT GZAAT ALL ABOUT The Handicraft club has been active since September of 2013. The main goal of this club is to collect money for charity by selling the crafted materials to people. Anyone can bring the materials for crafting to the club, such as beads, chains, colored papers, etc. Most of the time the crafts are made according to the season, or upcoming events and holidays, such as Christmas, AAT days, and such. At the moment, the crafts are mainly Christmas-themed, and whole club is working really hard to make crafts for the upcoming charity event on December 19th. All of the members of the club are doing their best at crafting throughout the whole year. The meetings take place every week, but if it’s necessary there might be more a few meetings in a week. Everyone can take part in this charity project, by simply donating some material for crafts. Overall, the club itself is very fun and friendly, and everyone is welcome to join, as long as they are ready to work and enjoy the process of crafting. Thanks for support!

HELEN UGULAVA

KENDO kendo), meaning “Way of Kendo ( The Sword”, is a modern Japanese martial art, which descended from swordsmanship (kenjutsu) and uses bamboo swords (shinai) and protective armour (bogu). Today, it is widely practiced within Japan and many other nations across the world.

Kendo is a physically and mentally challenging activity that combines martial arts practices and values with sport-like strenuous physical activity.

The main point of kendo is not to give you more physical strength, or win a competition.

Most important goal of kendo is to increase your self-understanding. Every time before practice you have to think deeply about yourself. Kendo is all about traditions. Every time before practice there is a certain process through which you have to go through every time. It is a lengthy process, but it calms you down and allows you to think. Only then your training can begin.

There are two types of kendo. One is kendo as most know it. It uses a bamboo sword (shinai) and armour (bogu). Kendo competitions are based on this type of Kendo. Competitions in kendo are very interesting. First of all, because they are mostly not competi-

tions with your opponent, but with yourself.

You get points for striking your opponent, but you have to follow certain rules. These rules are very strict, and if you violate even one you won’t get a point. It is harder to follow those rules, than to actually strike your opponent.

Second type of kendo is kendo kata. No armor is used in this type. And the sword is different. Unlike shinai this sword is made from one piece of wood, it is called bokudo.

This sword is shorter and heavier than shinai.

Because you don’t have to strike your opponent with your sword. It is a sequence of prearranged movements. It is a very beautiful type of kendo. And it is more calm than normal kendo. Although there still is tension in the air, and people threaten each other with eyes.

There still is more calmness, less impulse and more precision.

In our school there is a kendo club that you can join next year, because it is too late to join it this year. We go through different types of training for normal kendo, and kendo kata as well. The leader of the club is Mr. Cruz, our beloved director. He is ready to show you the way of the sword, and he will do it with pleasure.

GIORGI BEKURIDZE

10 INTERESTING FACTS YOU’VE NEVER HEARD ABOUT! 1. All teachers in North Korea in the 1990s were required to play the accordion- and they needed to pass a test on accordion playing before getting their teacher certifications.

2. In 1973, a drunk driver struck and killed the world’s most isolated tree in the middle of the Sahara desert.

Finland because he did not wear pants.

6. Urea, a chemical found in urine, is added to cigarettes to enhance flavor.

7. If you turn a shark on its back, it will fall asleep.

8. The only mammal that is able to fly is the bat.

9. Monkeys and men are the only mammals able to distinguish colors.

10. There are 150 million sheep in Australia

3. In Egypt, actors were not allowed to testify in court because they were seen as professional liars.

4. In Kansas it’s against the law to catch fish with bare hands.

5. Donald Duck comics were banned in

and only 15 million people.

NATIA KURDEVANIDZE

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December 2014