article – Lingva English Café

Slow and Fast City Life in Valjevo by Jovan Milovanovic

To be honest, up until recently I have never really liked living in Valjevo. I have always compared it to bigger cities such as Belgrade and Novi Sad and how they have better standard of living and more things to do.

However, as the time passed and I got older and “wiser”, I realized that I am pretty lucky to live here. I was so focused on bad things we have to cope with that I completely forgot the good things, which, by the way, there is plenty of. The city isn’t overcrowded and you don’t have to put up with too much noise. There are a lot of parks where you can relax and do whatever you please. Also, there are tennis courts and a swimming center called “Petnica”. We have one of the least polluted rivers in the whole Serbia, the river Gradac, which is one the most favourite places among younger population to spend time during hot summer days. Lately, a lot of main streets in Valjevo have been renewed so the center of the city looks really nice now.

All in all, I think I am pretty lucky to live in a town like this and I should enjoy every moment I spend here because soon, when I another city for university studies, I won’t be visiting Valjevo that often.

The Big Clean-up Campaign! – by Katarina Savic

Last weekend our college’s principal organised a clean-up campaign in which, you might have noticed, the majority of students took part voluntarily. You may have also observed that since the campaign has been organised the college looks much cleaner. Does that mean that the clean-up day was a success?

It all started when the principal saw her college was turning into a real mess, so she decided to change something about it! She gathered a group of people, advertised the campaign and everyone felt really enthusiastic about it.

On the day itself, quite a big group of people gathered and bags for trash and rubber gloves were distributed. Everyone had fun while cleaning and talking to friends and to sum it up there was a free buffet supper for everyone in the evening.

The principal also introduced a few policies for everyone to follow – some of which were a bit absurd. The thing that caught my eye the most are the fines for littering. They are really too high for the student standard and should be reduced. On the other hand, extra bins have been put and they had art students paint them so that everybody now enjoys throwing rubbish away. One of the most popular policies is the ban on smoking, and surprisingly even the ones who smoke like it because the college looks really neat now.

Finally, the only bad thing about the campaign were the advertising leaflets! They were all over the place. But I believe now that students’ environment consciousness has been raised there will be a significant decline in littering, and that is why I declare the clean-up day a success!

Assignment from Advanced Expert CAE