Alexey: "Actually, I like wild forests and lakes. Unfortunately, they do not exist in the Netherlands. Man is very active in destroying nature, not only here but everywhere. This park and lake remind me of mother nature."

Alexey cycles almost every day from Son, where he lives, to the TU/e and passes this park on the route. "I like it especially when there is no wind and rain, and the weather is sunny, even when it is a bit frosty in the morning", says Alexey Lyulin, "Life is not bad at all.. or similar thoughts come up as you cycle."

Fresh
"I do computer simulation for a living", says Alexey, whose research interests encompass computer simulation studies of polymers. "That means that when I am not teaching or meeting with colleagues, I work in front of my PC." He advises other colleagues at the TU/e "to just take their bikes and make a loop around the lake during lunchtime. You return fresh and relaxed."

Alexey Lyulin started at the TU/e eight years ago. "I visited some places in the Netherlands before as a tourist, but I had never been to Eindhoven. I like the country in general, the culture, its great painters and great scientists." Eindhoven he thinks is nothing special. "But it gains a lot from its geo-graphical position, being very close to Germany, Belgium and even France is not that far away", he adds.

Saint Petersburg
He does like Brabant: "I like the country life, probably because I myself was born in a remote Russian village somewhere in between Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Leningrad at that time. But he has also lived in the city. "For almost 20 years I lived in Saint Petersburg, one of the most beautiful big cities in the world. And you cannot compare Eindhoven to it, to be honest," says Alexey.

He misses the cultural life of Saint Petersburg a lot. "Somehow it is more lively over there", he explains, "But still, life in general, and scientific life in particular, are difficult in Russia. Only doing science in Russia you cannot even survive, for the salary is negligible. This is the most idiotic situation - due to the very ‘clever’ government, and very ‘clever’ scientific policy." Alexey misses his friends in Saint Petersburg, but "almost all of them are now abroad, scattered around the globe. Life is going on, and I am lucky enough to go to Russia at least once a year."

The most important difference between the Netherlands and Russia, Alexey thinks, is that

everything is planned in the Netherlands. "Even the planning itself is planned," he says, "sometimes this is annoying. Life cannot be planned. Great discoveries and great failures normally occur without any planning. Russians are chaotic. This is also annoying. There should be a compromise somewhere between complete Dutch order and total Russian chaos."/.