Just an Update...
Life thus far seems to be in a flux. I'm still adjusting to everything over here, and I think that I'm forgetting how to speak the English language. I'm serious too; everyone keeps asking me how to say this or how to say that, and my responses most of the time are wrong. I swear that I've lost my brain. However, soon I'll be teaching; Thursday, to be exact and I cannot wait. I've felt rather useless so far and hopefully once I start teaching I'll be able to feel that I'm doing something here.What have I been up to lately? You may ask. Well, not much. I've been running around with many different people, seeing different things, and in general not knowing where the hell I am or what the hell is going on. Each day, I've spent with different people and they have either taken me places of interest or we've just sat around and talked. The most major event in my life in the last few days was having dinner with one of the rectors, who is like a dean. He was very nice and hospitable. He kept speaking, through Galina because he only speaks Russian, about how he was happy to have me and how about how much he wanted me to help the university here. This was an honor but also a little intimidating, because I don't know if I'll be able to do what they want me to. You see they are very interested in how the American education system works, and I'm not sure if I'm the best person to ask on this subject. Yes, I was involved with the education process my whole life, but do I really know much about it. Well anyway, I'll try my best to represent the country's education program. During the dinner, with the rector, I met a man from Germany, who spoke perfect English and he and I spent the night drinking vodka and talking about our countries and Russia. This was a wonderful way for me to speak clearly and without worrying about the words I used, because as I said he spoke perfect English and we didn't have any problems understanding anything. Again, this was also a learning lesson for me; to be able to find a common ground with a German, which Americans tend to think that there sometime isn't one with the Germans, was great. The two of us shared our frustrations with our countries but also praised what is good about them. We see that even amongst all the negative aspects there is much to be proud of. I hope that I am able to meet many others from different countries and have the same type of experiences.
That is about all I can think of right now; I haven't taken any more pictures because its not always on my mind to take my camera with me -I've come to view Rostov as home, not as a foreign city that I want to film. However, do not worry there are more pictures to come, I promise...
posted by James @ 2:06 PM
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