Actually, since I go to class every day it's not hard to remember but on this day, the eve of my first assignment due date, I am nervous. Never mind that this assignment was the easiest, the shortest, and probably least important (since our professor doesn't seem to care about it one iota) of our 3 assignments but still... I'm not going to say I'm a GPA freak (I am) but I don't want a silly 4 week class in Moscow to screw with my GPA. Which it's not going to and I'm totally overreacting...probably.
Anyway, the paper (all two pages of it) is written and I'm mulling over the last couple of days. Monday in traditional Russian fashion there was a miscommunication...or something...and I didn't have a Russian teacher in the morning. My other teacher having flown to Italy with his wife, I was supposed to get a new teacher. I got to class at 10:25, a little early to get settled in. 10:30 came and went. 10:40 came and went. I started to wonder if maybe there was traffic or the teacher got lost in the building. 10:50 came and went and at that point I decided my teacher probably wasn't coming. Now, I was at a loss...should I go visit the other class like I did when we were short a teacher before? What I really should have done was called Ben, the coordinator, but as luck would have it my phone was out of money and I was going to reload it later in the day. I felt awkward walking in to the other class 20 minutes late so instead I pulled out my book and did review. That got boring after about 40 minutes so I played games on my ipod for ten minutes and then let myself out for lunch early.
In the afternoon we had Foreign Policy - the class where dreams and interest go to die - but we had a new professor! Who was WAY more interesting. We learned about the US and Russia and I was riveted. And, he's staying for the last class (tomorrow) too! Best news ever.
After class some of us headed over to the New Eurasia Foundation, Russia's (only?) main NGO for a talk from the president. Over an hour later we were still sitting there and told it would be 10-15 minutes more until he got there. Adding up the hours in my head, I decided I really couldn't afford the time, with a paper due on Wednesday and a presentation and paper the following week (and going out of town this weekend) so I regretfully left. I'm bummed I didn't get to hear him speak, but I had to get my work done so what was I going to do? I know I would have just been stressed. Later, Ben said they didn't get out of there until 6:30 which makes me happy that I left so I had time to write my paper, set up the printer, and make dinner.
Today I met my new Russian teacher (who showed up!) and she is much sterner. We speak only in Russian unless absolutely positively necessary or she wants to check that I really do understand a word she just described. That means when I don't understand a question or a sentence, or I don't know what a word is - explanation and definition in Russian. Also, instead of just letting me read passages and answer questions that are verbatim from the passage she made me talk about it and asked me questions that I had to answer in my own words. YIKES! It's really good for me but stressful and exhausting. Plus I speak horribly when I get nervous (in English as well) so I don't think I made a great impression. I put hard work into my homework assignment though so hopefully I redeem myself. And maybe she picked up on the nerves. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. Today we read about Machiavelli, which means I have now learned about him in 2 languages, neither of which were his own...kind of silly to think about that.
Contemporary Russia in the afternoon - domestic politics hooray! I've really hit the jackpot this week in lecture. Very interesting and also interesting to see the different perspectives. Our economics teacher is much more critical and skeptical of the political system than our contemporary teacher so it's cool to see both sides.
Dad and I went skiing today and I skiied pretty well. I'm working on my form with the help of a man we call Mr. Green Shorts because he always wears a green bathing suit and we don't know his name. Anyway he speaks great English and he's really helpful so yay for Mr. Green Shorts. I'm getting a lot better with his assistance. We're going back tomorrow and I might trick too :)
For now I'm tired so I think I'll go to bed. Tomorrow we have to dress up for a tour of KPMG - one of the leading financial companies in the world - so I'll see how the working people do it in Moscow. Somehow, between the sweaty metro and the long walks, I don't think I'm going to enjoy it so much. In London I managed to avoid heels on the cobblestones (except for inside Parliamentary courtyards) and dress clothes in the Tube by commuting in flats on the bus. Flats are available, buses not so desirable here so we'll see how I do!
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