Author Archives: Serge Sorokin

Soaring High

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My father, Serge Sorokin Sr., was born in Tajikistan in 1958. The climate in Tajikistan is very similar to the climate in New York. It gets pretty hot in the summers and pretty cold in the winters.  In his childhood, televisions were already becoming popular and something that many families possessed. Although he had a TV, the shows during the 60’s were either not always running or dull and for adults so like most of the children his age, he found different forms of amusement.

My dad once told me a bedtime story many years ago and I still remember it to this day. He and his mom were walking home from the store and they were walking past a toy store. In the window my dad spotted a model military plane and instantly fell in love! The next week his mom came home from work and she was hiding something. After a minute of anticipation, she took out the plane and gifted it to him.

At that moment, a natural pilot was born. After having played with that model plane and many others in his childhood, he began to pursue his passion in airplanes. Long story short, he went to school for many years, trained countless hours, and finally became acommercial pilot for Baltic Air.

After moving to the United States in 1996, he gave up his passion to support our family in the new place we called home. Only 3 years ago, Serge Sr. began to fly again by getting his private pilot license. Now, every few weeks, my dad and I take our friend’s plane up and either circle around Manhattan or fly to any random place in the near by vicinity.

Amazing Exhibitions!!

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The American Museum of Natural History is known to some as the museum where statues, dinosaurs, and all other animals come to life at night. Although this only seen in the movie Night at the Museum, to most who visit the museum feel like the artifacts in the museum actually come to life in their life like exhibits. The museum is located on 79th street and Central Park West which is less than a half an hour of travel from Baruch.

Currently the museum features new exhibits such as The World’s Largest Dinosaurs, Frogs: a Chorus of Colors, Picturing Science, and many more. To those who have never been to the American Museum of Natural History, it is a must-see and for those who’ve been there several times, I promise you will enjoy these new exhibits!

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Swing and a hit, Swing and a miss!

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A Play That Will Not Come to Dust While It’s a Troupe’s Lucky Charm  is a review by Ben Brantley of the play “Cymbelin.” Ben begins his review by giving a brief overview of the play by using phrases like, “bringing elaborate battle scenes to life,” and “organically blending music into the action and fluidly evoking shifts of time and scene.” The diction that Brantley uses makes the reader get a good feel of the play. His explanation makes me want to get off my computer, take the train to Manhattan, and go watch “Cymbelin!” He continues his review by talking about aspects of the play like the various aspects in a Shakespeare play, the set of the play, and the cast. In the end of his review, he lists things about that play by using phrases like, “there isn’t,” “there weren’t,” or “there’s none of.” Although the things he lists are positive about the play, the phrases that he uses gives the review a negative feel about the play.

 A Couple’s Big Break That’s Not So Lucky is a review by Neil Genzlinger of the play “Temporal Powers” and while this play sounds more appealing than “Cybeline,” the review kills it. Unlike Brantley, Genzlinger just gives a plot overview of the entire play without any opinion of the play and the acting. The summary of the play makes his review a very dull one and inferior to the review of Brantley.

 

 

Two Important Motifs

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Two Important Motifs

 

The novels Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and The Namesake by Johnathan Safran Foer and Jhumpa Lahiri both involve characters that try to get on with their lives by accepting their past. Throughout the novels motifs like the key and Gogol’s name invoke remembrance in the main character that carries them through the novels.

In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Oscar goes on a journey to bring him closer to his father and to get over his recent death. He finds a key in his father’s closet and spends an entre eight months searching for a lock that fits it. The key that Oscar finds drives him to remember his father and how he always gave him scavenger hunts so he goes on this journey to find the lock to help him understand his father and hopefully get over his death.

In The Namesake, Gogol struggles in his labyrinth through life to become the first generation of American in his family and tries to split himself from his Bengali parents because of the embarrassment his origins. The motif that causes him to constantly be reminded of his embarrassing origin is his name and no matter how far he distances himself from his family, he always has his name. This causes him to legally change it and he finally moves away to college.

On his way back home, a man jumped into the train tracks and caused the electricity to go out. Later that day, Ashoke finally explains the origin of Gogol’s name and that makes him regret his name change. Eventually after his fathers death, Gogol begins to slowly go back to his family and finally accept his name. The driving force through Gogol’s life and the subject that always brings him back to his origin, is his name.

First Time on MTA

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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Johnathon Safran Foer is a novel about a young boy named Oscar who travels the city looking for a lock, which he thinks would bring him closer to his father and hopefully help him get over his recent death as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attack. When Oscar travels around the city looking for the “Blacks” he never uses the train because of a fear of another terrorist attack, seeing as how the NYC subway is a possible target.

I remember when I was around four or five years old, my mom picked me up from preschool and we had to go somewhere and the only way to get there was the train. This was the first MTA experience of my life; I had never been on a subway train before. I do not remember much detail but what I do remember was the tremendous fear that I had when the train was approaching Brighton Beach station. The Q and B trains traveling towards Coney Island make a giant turn before they enter the Brighton Beach station. I remember looking out the window and having this fear that the train was going to tip over and fall off the train tracks and into the street below. I was fully relieved when the train finally finished the turn and pulled into the station, where we came out.

My first time in the MTA.

A little bit o’ me

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Hi my name is Serge Sorokin. I was born in a little country in eastern Europe called Latvia and moved to the United States with my parents when I was 3. I went back to Latvia this summer for a month with a friend and we had the most amazing time exploring, meeting people, and partying! (Taking advantage of the 18 year old drinking age.) =]

I dislike cold weather but winter is my favorite time of year because I get to snowboard. Snowboarding is a giant part of my life and my dream is to travel to Europe to ride the Alps and to New Zealand to heli-ski.