English Conversation Course

Week 4 [27 October - 2 November]: Ray Zahab - Trek to the South Pole Ray Zahab comes from Chelsea in Canada. He’s a founder of impossible2possible.com – a group that inspire and educate youth to protect this fragile planet and its people. He spoke at Ted conference in 2009 about his trek across Antarctica which was recorded as the fastest trek in human history.  The whole journey started in the Hercules Inlet and ended at the South Pole. Ray started it with his two friends Richard Webber and Kevin Valley. Together they broke the speed record for trek to South Pole which took them 33 days 23 hours and 55 minutes; the previous journey took 5 days more. His whole journey was solo on foot without skies. He was the first person in human history doing so. His equipment weighs 170 pounds and he need to drag it all over the journey. Because of that they ate only beacon and butter to maintain their body weight. They needed 8,500 calories per day to achieve that!  R...

Accessories The first thing you will need even before you try running for the first time is a pair of good running shoes. Yes, this is absolutely essential and yes, running shoes are pretty expensive, but it may as well be treated as a different type of motivation. Good running shoes are a key to comfort and injury prevention. I have tried running in sneakers a few times and it was hurting my knees so badly that I decided to quit this sport at all. Sometime later I got myself a pair of Asics and it was just like running on a cloud. Try it – you won’t regret it. And ladies – don’t forget to buy a comfortable and well fitted sport bra. Keeping your breasts in place will prevent them from painful bouncing, grazing and losing shape due to excessive stretching. Some other accessories such as fancy water bottles or special running clothes are not as important as shoes and a bra and you can reward yourself with them later.   Runners’ accessories are often very colorful S...

The first successful heart transplant was performed in 1967. Since then the procedure has been explored and spread worldwide and became more common and safe. Meanwhile in Poland it was still something unbelievable even in the 80s. But then a visionary cardiac surgeon emerged: prof. Zbigniew Religa decided he would perform the first successful heart transplant in Poland. Z. Religa posing with a photo of him and his assistant after a successful operation  It wasn’t easy at all – first he had to change the law (it stated that death occurs when heart stops beating), then he had to get funds, find a location, equipment, employees, convince various ethical commissions and overcome many different obstacles that stood in his way. All his efforts were followed by a success – in 1985 he performed a cardiac transplant. The patient however died after two months, but other procedures endured many patients’ lives by more than 20 years, some of them live to this day. In 1987 James L. S...