2000

At last the new millennium seems real. With the completion of the Human Genome Project we are finally entering the new age we all thought began on January 1 2000. For good or ill, we all will soon feel the innovations this leap in biological understanding is bringing.

Some advice for those planning a trip Down Under: Beware the raw prawn! Before you go, let us guide you through the intricacies of Australian slang.

Rugby: a game for thugs played by gentlemen; football: a game for gentlemen played by thugs - or so the old saying goes. But whom would you least like to bump into on a dark night, a rugby player or a footballer?

"It was a fantastic experience!" was the general consensus of the eight students who participated in a cultural exchange to California and Nevada in the USA.

For two weeks, from February 24 to March 9, 2000, a group of Polish high-school students lived with American host families, provided by Faith Lutheran High School in Las Vegas, Nevada. They had the opportunity to experience the daily lives and culture of their families, as well as share their own Polish culture.

With his latest album, Brand New Day, released last year, Sting returned with another set of distinctively melancholic yet danceable songs. An icon of popular music for the last two decades, he has managed to convey his music to people of all generations and nationalities, an achievement most artists can only dream of.

We would all recognize London' s famous Tower Bridge, some may have heard about Iron Bridge, but in general bridges are not obvious tourist attractions. They were built to serve a simple purpose - to join the opposite banks of a river. But despite their apparent simplicity, they can be highly complex, stunningly beautiful, wonderfully inspiring and definitely worth seeing.

I'd like to comment on the article "Congratulations 'Maturzyści'. I am a graduate of NKJO from Tczew (branch office of University of Gdańsk). I fully agree that studying there helped me a lot in improving my English, but what next? Many graduates want to go further and get an M.A. but there are very few universities that offer a two-year course after which one can obtain such a diploma. The Ministry of Education urged universities to set up such three-year studies and you can find them in almost every city in Poland which has a university.

Ancient Rome's Colosseum has witnessed much in the last two millennia, from the slaying of early Christians to the more civilized European Convention on Human Rights. Half a century since it was declared, Rome celebrates the anniversary of this history-making document which in the last 50 years has sought to secure the rights and freedoms of every European, East and West.

You really have to see a baseball game live to understand it. Television doesn't give you a real idea of what's going on if you haven't seen a game in the flesh before. The ball is hit by the batter and the outfielders run to try to catch it. When the batter is facing the pitcher, the action takes place in a split second. Either the batter misses or doesn't attempt to hit the ball, or there is a sudden burst of activity as he hits the ball and sends it into the field, or even out of the field entirely for a home run!

Thinking of a trip Down Under? Find out what you really need to know.

If you arrive in Sydney any time in September this year, you'll be in good company. The world's attention will be focused squarely on the Olympic City, which is expecting around 120,000 visitors for the Olympic Games on 15 September - 1 October. The pace will not slow down much in October, with the Paralympics also running in Sydney on 18 - 29 October. All in all, this is shaping up as a very big year for Australia.

Mad about sport