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February 10, 2005
snowmen, graffiti, laboratory, and more
Sorry I haven't blogged for a while. I know I should blog more often rather than rolling a whole series of events into one very long post. But it takes some effort to tell stories in writing in an interesting and comprehensible way to a broad audience.
So here's some of the things I've been up to since last posting.
Last weekend I went with a colleague at the foreign literature library to a lecture called "Now You're in the Army?", organized by some young political activists (on the right in the European continuum of economic philosophy, which in the US corresponds to Democrats. Republicans are way too far right for anyone to handle.) The topic was the proposed Duma bill by which there would be fewer exemptions to mandatory state service. That means that male students, who are currently exempt from having to serve in the army for a few years, would have to do so. Good to see Russian democracy in action somewhere.
I've hung out some with other American Fulbrighters, and I've been surprised to experience sustained conversations in Russian. Apparently speaking with me is good practice. Darn, because I was craving the opportunity to play with words in English.
Next a photo I've been holding onto for a while because I felt it's not up to par as far as photography goes, but maybe you'll still find it interesting.
Старый Арбат at dusk. The snowmen are not a usual fixture. For a better picture of them and explanation, see the front page of the February 2 edition of the Moscow Times.
I realize I haven't talked much about my library work here. That's basically because I'm still meeting with people and figuring out what exactly I can do while I'm here. It's turning out more difficult than I expected to be allowed to actually do some work in Russian libraries, so instead I'm focusing more on arranging to present a few talks, attend a few seminars, present at conferences, and meet with librarians. But there will be some work too: my most promising lead is the historical library. There are a couple of projects I can work on with them starting next week. With the digital library we're expanding their online link catalog and later will do more exciting things like figure out how to export bibliographic records to an interchange format.
I'll be filling some of my extra time by offering some free English language classes for local high school teachers at the American Center. We figure this is the best way to have a wide impact (since it will help their students), and it will help those who are least likely to have to otherwise have the opportunity to improve their language skills.
I'm also filling a little extra time by sitting in on a first-year Introduction to Linguistics class at the university. It's actually the second semester of a year-long course. You know, I'd been told that students (and conference attendees) often talk while a lecture is going on, but I didn't realize the extent—and volume—of the talking. I sat behind some guys who talked and played a car-racing game on a cellphone (competing with a girl a few rows back) pretty much the whole time. GPA is not an issue around here, so as long as you pass all your courses and get your diploma, nobody cares.
Anyway, here's some chalk graffiti seen on wood paneling near the chalkboard in lecture hall 9 of the First Humanities Building (which is about is nondescript as the Second Humanities Building). All transcriptions sic:
I Love Masha
МАША, I Love only for you
My Life is conserned on you
Host dad Евгений showed me around his laboratory and the main building of the university some more today. (I got the first half of the tour a week or two ago.) He wanted to show me the largest auditorium (where two US presidents have spoken, he says), a stone they're dating, and the library of the Faculty of Geology. He likes to introduce you to everyone and tell you everything and encourages you to take pictures, so I took some pictures. Basically, everyone in these encounters feels embarrassed, including me, because we all know there's not much of a reason to become acquainted or take pictures. But he's a nice guy, so we humor him.
Their equipment. He explained it all to me in Russian, but my vocabulary in geophysics, radio isotypes, and such is pretty weak. So I'm not going to try to explain, except to say that they test for various isotopes in order to date rock or figure out its source.
Yours truly, an embarrassed coworker, and Евгений
Posted by kshawkin at February 10, 2005 07:54 PM