I wanted to say something in Russian at the beginning of my little speech and Masha helped me draft a little paragraph. She wrote out the text for me and I practiced it repeatedly---to no avail. When it came time to speak, I butchered the pronunciation horribly. The attendees were kind and respectful but it must have been difficult to listen to the American trample their language. The remainder of the talk I gave in English with Masha(to my left in the pictures) doing a remakable job of trying to salvage any points I was attempting to make. I was the only speaker to keep things to 7 minutes---Dr. Bobarykina thought I might get some questions. The fact that there were none at my conclusion may have something to do with my clarity. I'm not sure about the general direction of the overall discussion---more on that when can begin to decipher this from my colleagues in the office.
On the way to the conference we witnessed another car accident. Someone ran a red light---I am getting used to the sound of accidents----the sliding, the crunch. One feels so much empathy during these events. It is so cold, the damage, the defeated expressions on the faces of the drivers. These two fellows did some yellling at each other. Natalia and Masha assured me that it would likely take 2-4 hour for the police to arrive in their little Lada, and that these drivers would wait. This was at a major intersection and would cause delays for hours.
Quite relieved when this was over, I began to walk home whereupon i witnessed another accident between two cars and an electric trolley bus. The driver was removing the electric prongs on the bus from the live wires overhead, there was some sparking. More empathy as I observed the passengers peering out into the cold where they soon would have to disembark. we rode these busses to and from the conference at Saratov's Congress Hall---it is 12 Roubles per trip...about 35 cents.
It was a little warmer today, Friday, not so much bitter breeze and a little cloud cover. Gray. I take my vitamin D religiously. Seems like long ago I was in Western Puerto Rico where my dear Janet surprised me with a little sun-dappled trip for my 50th Birthday.
I shall spend most of the weekend preparing lesson plans for the toment I intend to inflict upon my students next week. For my students who are reading----there will be a lot less writing and more structured classroom interaction. I have no idea what to expect so we'll see how it all turns out.
I apologize for the typos....correcting on Blogger can be fatal to a post---so I avoid. Still is painful to let errors go as is....
On the way to the conference we witnessed another car accident. Someone ran a red light---I am getting used to the sound of accidents----the sliding, the crunch. One feels so much empathy during these events. It is so cold, the damage, the defeated expressions on the faces of the drivers. These two fellows did some yellling at each other. Natalia and Masha assured me that it would likely take 2-4 hour for the police to arrive in their little Lada, and that these drivers would wait. This was at a major intersection and would cause delays for hours.
Quite relieved when this was over, I began to walk home whereupon i witnessed another accident between two cars and an electric trolley bus. The driver was removing the electric prongs on the bus from the live wires overhead, there was some sparking. More empathy as I observed the passengers peering out into the cold where they soon would have to disembark. we rode these busses to and from the conference at Saratov's Congress Hall---it is 12 Roubles per trip...about 35 cents.
It was a little warmer today, Friday, not so much bitter breeze and a little cloud cover. Gray. I take my vitamin D religiously. Seems like long ago I was in Western Puerto Rico where my dear Janet surprised me with a little sun-dappled trip for my 50th Birthday.
I shall spend most of the weekend preparing lesson plans for the toment I intend to inflict upon my students next week. For my students who are reading----there will be a lot less writing and more structured classroom interaction. I have no idea what to expect so we'll see how it all turns out.
I apologize for the typos....correcting on Blogger can be fatal to a post---so I avoid. Still is painful to let errors go as is....
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