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Last Week of Class
On Monday, we had our group presentation, which is the culmination and collaboration of our 6-8 page research papers. My group members are Lena and Julia Z. Our topic was the innappropriate use of prime agricultural land in Russia. All of the groups presented in the morning, and Curt lectured for a bit in the afternoon. Afterwards, I had to get to work and actually write my research paper (yeah I know…the one we just did our presentation on) which I should have already finished, but just did not have the time. However, I had at least three other papers to write first, because they were due before the research paper. I wrote my mewsletter article for the sixth edition, which is now online along with all of the other issues at: http://intag.cas.psu.edu/Russia/Newsletters.htm
Then I toiled over my final exam paper, from which, Curt would derive questions for our final oral exam. Then, I had to write my three-page paper for seminar. Finally, there is our final exam in Russian. Vera gave us six topics for which we must prepare an oral dictation…in Russia of course. The topics are My Family, My Hobbies, My Day, Studying at the University, The Weather, and Moscow. I had already begun to prepare my remarks, but had to have Lena look them over for grammatical effors. I worked on committing the basic topics to memory for the remaining hours in the day. So that's about it for Monday…work, work, work!
On Tuesday, we had our oral exam in Russian. I was nervous, because this was our first genuine "Russian" exam. And I mean that because not only were we speaking in Russian, but because it was completely oral. Vera had six slips of paper with the topics on them, and we drew lots to see which one we would speak on. I received the topic of My Hobbies. We also had to read an assigned passage of text, and then Vera would ask us questions (in Russian) about the text to see if we understood the passage. I did better than I though, and received an A in the class! I lifted right after class, which if you have not noticed by now, has become a priority for me. So much so, that I still don't have my reasearch paper written, but went to the gym anyway. Afterward, I came back to the hostel intending to relax until our special presentation to the English speaking speaking students at MSAU that afternoon. It was scheduled for 4:00. But I was startled to discover that yet again, the Russian communication was off, and Simeon called us at 2:30 and wanted to know where we were, because everyone was waiting for us in the lecture hall! I didn't even have my portion of the presentation done yet, so I quickly put together a PowerPoint show about me, and we all ran to the administration building. The purpose of the presentation is to advertise the Russian-American Exchange program by having the American students give a presentation about themselves, and the program. Our presentation was over quickly, and about 75 students attended.
On Wednesday, we had our farewell dinner for the Russian students in the evening, after our final lecture for Critical Thinking. Just as they had cooked a banquet of Russian cuisine for our first night in the country, we whipped up a meal of chili con carne, rice, cornbread, and tropical fruit salad with all of the trimmings. From maple syrup for the cornbread, to cheese and smetana (sour cream) for the chili, our meal had it all. Even the punch, orange Kool-Aid was a hit, as they don't have powdered drink mixes here in Russia. The entire group had a wonderful evening as we chatted and reminisced about our experiences. Our Russian groupmates loved the meal, and Oksana even made me promise to teach her how to make chili before she leaves for Europe in three weeks. After the meal, Simeon, Julia, and I had our oral exams with Curt. Then, we all headed over to Oksana, Julia, and Anna's dorm. Since we were leaving for St. Petersburg the next day, and the students were going on break, Javier, Katia, Andrew and Halsey would not see Anna or Julia again. We hung out in their dorm until Simeon, Weston, Andrew and I decided to head over to the market to hang out with some friends of his. The rest of the group joined us later.
On Thursday, I lifted in the morning right around my usual time. Only today, I met many people such as Sergei, two other girls, and many of the students who lift at the gym on a regular basis, including one bright young man named Andre. I don't usually speak to anyone, since I assime they only speak Russian, but today, it was ironic to have this many people speak to me in English, but I did have to break out my Russian skills to help them a bit. At 4:00, we had our end-of-program awards ceremony, where Dr. Chumakov handed out program completion certificates, and Curt gave us our grades for his class. We presented gifts to Dr. Chumakov and all of the Russian students.
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| Category: Travel story | Added by: EnergyVortex (04.10.2009)
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Views: 1547 | Comments: 2
| Rating: 0.0/0
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