Monday, February 24, 2014
International Student party Saturday night
The Institute threw a party for our International Student contingent on Saturday night.
It was almost too much fun. Singing, dancing, games. Really good Russian students singing(even that difficult Whitney Houston song). Each group of students sang a song in their language. Some guy, a teacher from somewhere else, tried to play guitar. Weird.
Photos to follow.
It was almost too much fun. Singing, dancing, games. Really good Russian students singing(even that difficult Whitney Houston song). Each group of students sang a song in their language. Some guy, a teacher from somewhere else, tried to play guitar. Weird.
Photos to follow.
2/23 English Language Department meeting
I have many things to catch up on here, so I will try to make some headway today.
At the end of last week, as I was sitting at my desk, a woman came in the International Office, introduced herself as Victoria Ufaeva, a Professor in the English department at the Institute. She asked me if I'd like to have some tea in their office and I gladly accepted. This was a very pleasant surprise. Victoria speaks perfect English and like almost everyone here who does, sometimes apologizes for missing a word or two in English. I always try to explain how it is I who should apologize---I am constantly confused and lost with regard to language here. I try to study and practice, but I feel terrible about not being able to communicate in their native language.I wish I could show them all more respect by speaking in passable Russian.
Anyway, I sit down at the table in their office. She makes tea for me, offers me some delicious pastries, and presents me with a wonderfully tasty Russian chocolate bar with almonds. This department has great interest in allowing me to attend some classes with their students. Victoria teaches many classes with business subjects as the basis for learning English and invited me to attend classes where they talk about the American Political System as well as the structure of higher education. They think that talking to me will be a good experience for their students----I happily accepted.. So next Friday I think I will get to attend a couple of English Language classes and converse.
We end up having close to a 2 hour conversation. She knows a lot about business classes---marketing, HR Mgmt, SWOT analysis. This is pretty cool. She has many questions for me and we talk about my methods for teaching business planning and entrepreneurship. We talk about the future of our two countries. I am always optimistic in these types of discussions. I think that Russia has the potential to be an economic powerhouse in terms of trade with the rest of the world. It is a different and strange place at times, but it has huge potential advantages. People here are tough, well educated, they have great conceptual skills, and are by nature, problem solvers. Infrastructure here is adequate---especially for a place with this kind of weather! I think very soon our two countries are going to be doing some things that surprise the world. If American capital begins to come in here in a significant way(and vice versa), there are going to a be a lot of beneficiaries. I already have these interesting brainstorming discussions with Russians about business opportunities---I love this kind of thing.Anyway, it is always nice to feel as if you are useful and Victoria has done this. I am excited by the various ideas she has for me in her department.
I do eventually go back to the International Office where my ladies are, where my "home" is......I cannot describe for you how kind and thoughtful Natalia, Masha, Valia, and Yulia are.These women could run an entire college on their own.
Friday, as I am logging in to my computer, I look up and they are all standing in front of my desk. Sunday is "Man's Day" in Russia. From what I can tell it is originally a day to celebrate the sacrifices that military men and others in service have done for the country. They've bought me a plant for my apartment----something they call a "Dollar Tree". I can't tell you how badly I have wanted and needed a plant for my apartment. And they got me one for "Man's Day"! Then today, I come in and there is a little picture frame on my desk, from all of them----they've noticed that Janet's picture is paper clipped to a book on my desk so I can see her---and have gotten me something better to put her picture in. Pictures to follow. I can't describe how kind they are to me.
At the end of last week, as I was sitting at my desk, a woman came in the International Office, introduced herself as Victoria Ufaeva, a Professor in the English department at the Institute. She asked me if I'd like to have some tea in their office and I gladly accepted. This was a very pleasant surprise. Victoria speaks perfect English and like almost everyone here who does, sometimes apologizes for missing a word or two in English. I always try to explain how it is I who should apologize---I am constantly confused and lost with regard to language here. I try to study and practice, but I feel terrible about not being able to communicate in their native language.I wish I could show them all more respect by speaking in passable Russian.
Anyway, I sit down at the table in their office. She makes tea for me, offers me some delicious pastries, and presents me with a wonderfully tasty Russian chocolate bar with almonds. This department has great interest in allowing me to attend some classes with their students. Victoria teaches many classes with business subjects as the basis for learning English and invited me to attend classes where they talk about the American Political System as well as the structure of higher education. They think that talking to me will be a good experience for their students----I happily accepted.. So next Friday I think I will get to attend a couple of English Language classes and converse.
We end up having close to a 2 hour conversation. She knows a lot about business classes---marketing, HR Mgmt, SWOT analysis. This is pretty cool. She has many questions for me and we talk about my methods for teaching business planning and entrepreneurship. We talk about the future of our two countries. I am always optimistic in these types of discussions. I think that Russia has the potential to be an economic powerhouse in terms of trade with the rest of the world. It is a different and strange place at times, but it has huge potential advantages. People here are tough, well educated, they have great conceptual skills, and are by nature, problem solvers. Infrastructure here is adequate---especially for a place with this kind of weather! I think very soon our two countries are going to be doing some things that surprise the world. If American capital begins to come in here in a significant way(and vice versa), there are going to a be a lot of beneficiaries. I already have these interesting brainstorming discussions with Russians about business opportunities---I love this kind of thing.Anyway, it is always nice to feel as if you are useful and Victoria has done this. I am excited by the various ideas she has for me in her department.
I do eventually go back to the International Office where my ladies are, where my "home" is......I cannot describe for you how kind and thoughtful Natalia, Masha, Valia, and Yulia are.These women could run an entire college on their own.
Friday, as I am logging in to my computer, I look up and they are all standing in front of my desk. Sunday is "Man's Day" in Russia. From what I can tell it is originally a day to celebrate the sacrifices that military men and others in service have done for the country. They've bought me a plant for my apartment----something they call a "Dollar Tree". I can't tell you how badly I have wanted and needed a plant for my apartment. And they got me one for "Man's Day"! Then today, I come in and there is a little picture frame on my desk, from all of them----they've noticed that Janet's picture is paper clipped to a book on my desk so I can see her---and have gotten me something better to put her picture in. Pictures to follow. I can't describe how kind they are to me.
2/23 continued
I also watched quite bit of the American hockey team and thought the game with Canada was a good one. The Americans and Canadiens seemed to play with more speed and skill than the previous game between Sweden and Finland. Not much extracurricular activity in the CAN-USA game. Clean hockey---maybe they know each other too well. Finns and Swedes however were pretty punchy---smack talking etc. It wasn't what I expected. You know the outcomes---I was pretty bummed about the way things turned out. Finns beat the US badly. I developed a little hatred for Canada.
There is also this guy, Vic Wild, married to a very attractive Russian snowboarder(who also medalled); he competed for Russia, made some very public statements about cronyism in the American team selection process. He won gold for Russia. Fascinating.
Russian TV coverage of these Olympics was interesting to me. It may be this way at home too, but Russian sport commentators are insufferably smug, coiffed, self centered people. It is usually some older guy who thinks he's hilarious and more handsome than God along with a woman, usually younger, blouse unbuttoned more than it would be in America. They spend hours on screen, bantering back and forth, smugly and arrogantly, and often talk at the same time----interrupting each other constantly. Both have Apple products that they read off of constantly. These people work in long shifts so as you begin to think you can't take any more of it, another pair will talk, in a studio for untold hours. It seemed like too much face time to me, though it is likely my friends back home are sick of "pink-eye" Costas, Matt Lauer etc.I hope people didn't have to watch Erin Andrews, who in my view would induce anyone to take hemlock after a few moments.
There was on very cool guy----who did a lot of interviewing----probably late thirties---like a kind of mellow Carson Daly. He did a really nice interview with Johnny Weir the American skater(Who by the way loves Russia and speaks Russian nicely). Johnny was quite the image on Russian TV and the discussion was warm, honest and lengthy. More depth I think that the sound bite we'd get in America. it struck me that Johnny Weir was certainly not hiding his "non-traditional lifestyle choice". I found this to be really good TV--they talked for about 35 minutes----from time to time getting interrupted by the primping anchors back in the studio---making sure we didn't forget that they and their Trump-like hairstyles existed. I shall post some phots of this soon.
There is also this guy, Vic Wild, married to a very attractive Russian snowboarder(who also medalled); he competed for Russia, made some very public statements about cronyism in the American team selection process. He won gold for Russia. Fascinating.
Russian TV coverage of these Olympics was interesting to me. It may be this way at home too, but Russian sport commentators are insufferably smug, coiffed, self centered people. It is usually some older guy who thinks he's hilarious and more handsome than God along with a woman, usually younger, blouse unbuttoned more than it would be in America. They spend hours on screen, bantering back and forth, smugly and arrogantly, and often talk at the same time----interrupting each other constantly. Both have Apple products that they read off of constantly. These people work in long shifts so as you begin to think you can't take any more of it, another pair will talk, in a studio for untold hours. It seemed like too much face time to me, though it is likely my friends back home are sick of "pink-eye" Costas, Matt Lauer etc.I hope people didn't have to watch Erin Andrews, who in my view would induce anyone to take hemlock after a few moments.
There was on very cool guy----who did a lot of interviewing----probably late thirties---like a kind of mellow Carson Daly. He did a really nice interview with Johnny Weir the American skater(Who by the way loves Russia and speaks Russian nicely). Johnny was quite the image on Russian TV and the discussion was warm, honest and lengthy. More depth I think that the sound bite we'd get in America. it struck me that Johnny Weir was certainly not hiding his "non-traditional lifestyle choice". I found this to be really good TV--they talked for about 35 minutes----from time to time getting interrupted by the primping anchors back in the studio---making sure we didn't forget that they and their Trump-like hairstyles existed. I shall post some phots of this soon.
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