First thought, when you think about Europe is tradition. Conservative Great Britain, refined France, accurate Switzerland, sun Greece, cheerful Holland and it’s not the full list of countries. Each of them had formed their position not only in Europe, but even in the world.

    But Russia and other participants of Union Soviet Nation are separately selected on a background of these countries. There are 3 wellknown Russian words: vodka, matryoshka and sputnik. Unfortunately, often these are all that foreigners know about us. As too little time had passed after USSR collapsed, Europe didn’t have time to get to know our way of life, which is not exactly correspond to European presentations. But also we invest a lot to confirm this.  

 
    So, the whole world heard about Russian tourists. On many European resorts, people, who work in hotels know that they could not find towels and slippers in rooms, could lay the table again after Russian’s “light” breakfast and will listen to Russian music till 5 a.m. But it is just one (unfortunately not positive, but bright) aspect of our life.

    Today, on a background of world crises everyone talks about problems, disasters and diseases. But as our life full of this, we need something that would make us smile. And if people from all over the world have AH1N1, we have “KV1N1” for almost 50 years. The virus, that damages heart, mind and soul. If you ever seen it, it will be part of you for the rest of life.

    “KVN”( "Club of the Funny and Inventive") is a humor TV show where teams (usually students) compete by giving funny answers to questions, improvisations, prepared sketches. People from all parts of Russia, Ukraine, Armenia and other post soviet countries are taking part in “KVN” annually. By the way, there is no matter if you are tall handsome blond guy or short thick guy with snub nose. If you have good sense of humor and can make people laugh you will be the star in “KVN”. Sometimes people compare KVN with “stand-up comedy”, but it’s not the same, because KVN is a team game.

    There is a team almost in every university in Russia and Ukraine. As a result, young people have opportunities to develop sense of humor, theatrical, musical and dancing talents and to broad their outlook. Trips and festivals are also a plus in this game. Groups of KVN teams are organized into several Leagues, where they compete annually for the League Champion title. KVN is so popular that there are literally hundreds of Leagues around the globe.

    It will be foolish to say that life in Ukraine and Russia are the same as in other European countries. But we are trying to assimilate European’s experience, to establish international connections, to be the part of Bologna process. Sometimes we fail, but never give up. We are not afraid of all these diseases and problems and as Irish proverb says “A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book”.