I was born on June 23, 1981, in Izhevsk, a city in the middle of Russia, home of Kalashnikov, who invented the famous machinegun. In 1990, I moved to Moldova, then Moldavia. One year later the Soviet Union collapsed and real fun began. Well, not quite then. It started in 1993, when I transferred to the School #53, here in Chisinau. You can see that from the picture on the right--> Next thing I remember I was involved in the Soros
Foundation Debate Program (in English), and even got a Top 10 Speaker Award in one of the national competitions (the prize was an audio cassette). Being involved in a Soros Foundation project I couldn't help taking part in a scholarship contest, which I won in 1996. The result was two years as a Sixth Former in UK (that's high school), plus loads of new friends, who are (or will be) shown here.

 Well, England proved to be a cool place, but I had to leave for good in 1999. And that was in spite of the fact that I had been offered a place at the London School Of Economics, and had passed five A-levels with four A's and one B (Economics, Information Technology, Mathematics, Russian (OK, Russian was easy :) ) and Business Studies (the B)).

Having come home, I couldn't enroll in a Moldovan university with my A-levels. Why? Because Moldovan education is the best in the world? No. But it was because our parliament didn't adopt the convention about international educational systems. So I only could get into some dodgy 1-year old college, which proved to be a sham, to say the least. With that, they keep advertising in all sorts of media, from fliers to popular radio stations. But that's half the problem. You see, in February 2000, I took part in a national English Language Olympics and got myself a first place (a bit unethical with my two-year experience in England). No, this isn't THE problem. But now they (the college) advertise that with their English language teaching people may achieve same results. Well, they certainly may, but only if they have been studying the language consistently. I personally didn't attend the English lessons in that college, and I think this was a factor in my achievement in the competition, because the teacher spoke English worse than a 8-former in my previous School #53 (now it's called the Alecu Russo Lyceum). Anyway, I took the Bacalaureat exams this summer, necessary for universities here, in Moldova and enrolled into the Academy of Economics (sounds good, eh? :) ), so the college nightmare is over. If anyone is wondering where to go after school in Moldova, I can tell you where not to go: the Agrobusiness College (yep, that's what it's called. Tacky, isn't it?).

Now I attend the Academy of Economics here in Chisinau, which is the only decent institution specialising in Economics. It was established as an independent college in 1990, after splitting from the State University of Moldova. It's OK, although there is a lack of resources such as literature and space. Unlike the Western system, the Moldovan doesn't offer any degree of freedom in choosing what courses to study after you chose your speciality. That is, you don't choose whether to take History of Economic Thought or Economics of Mediaeval Society, for example, in your first year. You take what is specified in your timetable, which is the same for everyone who has taken the same speciality for degree. Another thing is that during the first year we have to take Physical Education which consists out of doing a certain number of exercises for a mark. If you don't do, for example, 30 push-ups, you don't pass the 'test'. 60 push-ups is for the highest mark. I can do 12. I don't qualify. If I don't pass the final 'test' I may be expelled. Stupid. :(

Recently I've been doing some research on the web looking for possible sponsors and came across the 'Sponsor me' site, which allows people to submit their info in their database, and possible sponsors, who search for ways of spending their money, may find me there. The cost is giving away 5% of the sponsorship money to the 'Sponsor me' guys if I get sponsored plus placing a link to their site from mine. Here's their banner: