Speaking topic: The weather and your mood

[HuongItaly]

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Hello friends,

What's the weather like at your place today ? Do you think your mood is affected a little bit by the weather ?

I'd like to talk about this topic, and curious to know what weather are you.
Here in Milan finally it becomes a little clearer today, from the window I can see some weak sun rays outside. It has been so grey and humid for 2 weeks long ! I couldn't wait to see just a piece of blue sky. It's strange since normally the weather in Mediterranean countries is often quite nice. Some weeks ago it was sunny and so clear, the autumn was full of colours : the sky was limpidly blue, the bushes and trees were a mix of red, yellow, purple and green. Everything seemed to be so beautiful...

In a sunny day when I see a blue sky, I feel so cheerful and optimistic, I love to stay outdoors and contemplate the nature. When the weather is bad, it's all dark or grey, I feel as if there were an ugly & heavy cover above my head, I become more silent and less active as usual.

Even though, sometimes I love the rain. In winter nights I enjoy listening to the raindrops on the roof of my house, feel so lucky to stay under a warm blanket and realize how sweet my home is.

How about the correlation between your mood, your thoughts and the weather ? I'm interested in listening to you.
Hope to hear from all of you soon.

Huong.

P.S. This is one of my first voice messages. Please correct me if I'm wrong somewhere, so that I'll improve my pronunciation. Thank you !

[Marcelavel]

Hello there
I am in atlanta, united states.
the weather here is kind of strange. Last week it was warm. I used t shirts and jeans. I was really happy because it was similar to the weather of my country.
This week is too cold. Sometimes I can't sleep at night. I feel sick but my husband hugs me and I forget the cold. Eventhoug, I will travel to the south of this country where is always hot on december just to scape of the weather.
My mood is terrible these days. I don't want to go anywhere, I don't exercise but I eat too much.

[Yuri Yurinov]

Hi Huong,

In Russia there is a popular song about weather. The words of this song go approximately like this: 'Nature doesn't have bad weather - every kind of weather is wonderful. You should accept either rain or snow with gratitude.'
Well, the weather in my place is rather beautiful today. It is a little bit cloudy, a little bit warm and very sunny. The temperature is about 10 degrees below zero, and it is comparatevely warm for this part of the country (I live in 100 kilometres from Lake Baikal). Sometimes it may be 30 degrees below zero this time of a year but we all got used to it. Despite rather cold winters, nature in our place is very beautiful. As for me, it is the most beautiful place in the world.

Best wishes,

Yuri
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[Kitosdad]

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A very "Good morning" to you early risers.

I do agree with Yuri. The changing seasons are what I always look forward to, but I don't often welcome them.

We in Europe are lucky in being allowed to gradually acclimatize ourselves in preparing for whatever Winter has to throw at us.

People in England say that if you can live in the North-East of England, then you can live anywhere in the World, but I don't think I could tolerate the low temperatures that Yuri has to endure.
Conversely, I also wouldn't be comfortable living in high temperatures the whole year round.

I love the changing seasons!

Kitos.
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[Yuri Yurinov]

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Hi Kitos an everybody,

Luckily, in here the seasons change too, and after cold winter with very fresh, pure and healthy air spring comes.
Can you imagine hills coloured lilac with seas of Siberian rhododendrons (bagulnik) or meadows covered with oceans of bright orange flowers named "жарки"?
And summers? Summers in my place are rather warm and sometimes even hot. There is nothing better than bathing in Irkut river this time!
Autumns! Nature opens its cellars: craneberries, blueberries, oblepikha, cedar-pine nuts...
He who visits our valley wants to return here again and again.

Yuri
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[HuongItaly]

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Hi Marcela, Bill & Yuri,

Thank you all for your messages. I know the weather is one of those things that we can not change, and it's better to accept it. Whatever the weather and temperature is, it's necessary for nature balance. However, I'm verifying that recently the weather has sudden changes quite everywhere, either in summer, autumn or winter. A lot of people suffer from temperature leap. Me too, especially from last year when I broke my legs twice one after the other. Don't you belive that now it's my legs to tell me if the weather is going to change ?
Lucky you Yuri that you live in such a beautiful area near Baikal lake with coloured hills ! When I was still a shoolgirl I loved reading Russian poem and literature, and I heard a lot about Baikal also from my Dad who studied and lived 6 years in the Soviet Unions (40 years ago!)
Dear Bill, I love changing seasons too especially when winter leaves and spring is to come, but not really when autumn sunny coloured days are replaced by so foggy weather...isn't it a little sad ?
Don't you think that the global warming is causing many drastic climate changes ?

Huong.

P.S Marcela I hope you will find a good weather in the South. What's your country of origin ?

[Kitosdad]

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Hi Huong, I'm British, born and bred. I was born, and lived in the North-East until I was fifty years old before moving to the South-West of England. (Torquay)

After living there for ten years I moved here to Germany, and I will most probably end my days here.

Kitos.
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[HuongItaly]

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Hi Bill,

So you are a North East English man, I also guessed so from your accent. Is your native hometown near Newcastle, or York ? I've been in England once in July & early August, but only in London. I'd like to visit other cities and the countryside of England one day.
In Italy if you have an unpredictable mood people say you are as moody as English weather But I liked the summer weather in London anyway...skies of blue and clouds of white...as Robin Williams sang.
As for me I was born and bred in the Red River Delta of northen Vietnam. There are 4 seasons there: it's hot and humid in summer, cold in winter, nice & colourful in spring & autumn. There are only 2 seasons in the South...My sister lives in VungTau by the sea. There she wears T-shirt all the year long.
Germany is very cold, isn't it ? Surely much less than Baikal and Siberia in any case... I guess you find yourself great there !

Huong

[Kitosdad]

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Hello again Huong. I was born and raised in HARTLEPOOL. It is about fifty miles from both York and Newcastle, midway between both cities.

In Germany we have well defined seasons, rather like Camelot of old.

Summer is Summer, and Winter is Winter.

The greatest difference between both countries is the amazing amount of trees here.
There once was a rule whereby if you wanted to build a house here, you first had to plant two trees in what was to be the garden. What a wonderful rule, eh

Have to break now, tea is on the table. See you soon. :) :)

Kitos.
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[HuongItaly]

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Hi Bill,

It's tea time for English people now, so I guess you are sipping your tea at the moment :)
I have read something on the web about the Dark Age of Camelot...People say Colchester's ancient name is Camelod, it should be "Camelot of old" that you mentioned. But I didn't find any link with "defined seasons", sorry... So could you please explain and tell me some more about Camelot of old ?

Thank you high-cultured man :)

Huong.

[HuongItaly]

I didn't know about that appreciable rule in Germany ! Why it isn't valid any longer now ?
Only if this rule were applied in every country, how wonderful the planet would be !

[Yuri Yurinov]

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Hi Huong,

Excuse me my intruding again but you are such a good company and, as I see, a talented girl. If your Italian is better than English-how excellent must your Italian be!

Kitosdad mentioned a tradition of planting trees in Germany. I agree that it was a wonderful rule and now German people enjoy the shadows of the trees which their fathers and grands and great grands planted.

Our nature is fragile and we should be much tender with it when we are now.

In one of your messages you mentioned bureacrats. I dislike them too. Though people say that bureucrats are immortal and unconcuerable, I think good will and common sense of real personalities stronger than seals or stamps on bureucrats' papers.

Good luck, brave Vietnamese girl,

Yuri
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[HuongItaly]

Cпасибо Ю́рий :)

You are so kind to say such nice words ! I don't see myself good at languages (at shool I always preferred Mathematics, Physics...). But if I try hard then I can learn them, even not quickly as I wish I could. At secondary school I've ever learnt Russian too, but after so many years without using it this language abbandoned me and went back to your country...I would like to refresh it one day, but at the moment my priority is improve my English. I think it's better to learn well a language than knowing just basically many languages...even if when you learn a new language, it's an interesting opportunity to discover also a new culture, and it's exciting, isn't it ?

I'll come back and record my voice message another moment and talk more with you.
Of course you are welcome here, I'm glad that you participate to talk and discuss, never consider yourself an intruder ! :)

Have a nice weekend !

Huong.

[Yuri Yurinov]

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Hi Huong,

It is nice to receive your message again. What is the weather like in Italy today? And whatis the weather forcast for tomorrow?

I know that Italy is a very warm and sunny country and I believe one day I'll have an opportunity to visit it. And it will be great if I have an opportunity to visit the UK, France or Germany. It is just a dream but I know that even the most optimistic dreams come true.

I've got two children, a son and a daughter and they are learning foreign languages too.

My son is much better in English than me and he is learning French and German along with English at the linguistic university. He is a future interpreter. My daughter studies at the same university. But she is learning only English yet. Her future profession is connected with social affairs.

See and here you soon,

Yuri
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[HuongItaly]

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Goodmorning Yuri,

The weather in Italy hasn't been very nice recently, and I've been waiting to see a blue sky for more than 2 weeks now ! It rained cats and dogs yesterday, until this early morning. Now it stopped raining but it's very cloudy and windy too. It seems as if winter were already in here.
I feel a little sad and miss my family very much.
I read somewhere a wise phrase saying "You don't need to wait for the sun outside to cheer you up, just witch on the sun inside yourself..." It's absolutely true. But in many moments in my life, I'm not really strong enough to turn it on :(
I know the weather isn't a cause of my mood, it can only influence.

Your English is very good Yuri, your pronunciation is much better than mine. If your son is so excellent at languages then you can improve your English together with him. It's lovely to study together in a family !

You are right, we should never give up dreaming. I verified by my experience that if you strongly desire something with your heart and try your best to reach it, then your dream will come true.

Have a nice day and take care,

Huong.