Friday, October 24, 2008
I lied
No update til Wednesday after next...leaving for Mongolia tonight...any requests for souvenirs?
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Severobaikalsk
Well, I'm goign talk about a few of the things that are becoming rather unpleasant to me right now.
1. My teachers: they are quite possibly the most naive, pseudo-intellectuals on the face of the planet. (I deleted some expletives from this) They don't seem to understand anything about the US, they have policies designed for fourth graders, and can't even come up with justification when asked. What's more is that either because they are too idiotic or because we pay their paychecks, when you argue with them they don't know how to respond...at all, because for every example they produce we with our inferior american education can produce 10-15 more and provide the reasoning.
Exhibit A: When questioned about why we needed to bring 2+ books to class everyday that we never use her reply was "because..." and quickly left the room.
Exhibit B: The case of the green pen. A professor expected us to have a green pen to record Russian expressions, I responded that I did not intend to purchase one as I had already made changes in my note taking style to account for expressions and switching between pens was a wasteful activity. Hey I know who she reminds me of! Miss MCKay Cox, one of thpse teachers who tries to implement new teaching techniques qithout actually understanding them. Coincidentally a lifelong conservative...blarg.
2. In the US kids don't even have cap guns anymore. Here they have fireworks, airsoft guns, and blank guns...well, something in between a hollywood prop and a cap gun...Jesus.
3. The sound of breaking bottles outside my window
4. The parking lot disco outside my window
5. Parents don't take responsibility for their children...and don't realize what an inconvenience they can be on the rest of society
6. "I kissed a girl" song is played everywhere
7. Rampant proud inefficiency
Severobaikalsk...well, it is a young, but dying city. Unless tourism gets up there pretty quick it'll be almost a ghost town in 20 years. Maybe I'll write about it tonight and post tomorrow...theres just too much and I wanna go home for now
1. My teachers: they are quite possibly the most naive, pseudo-intellectuals on the face of the planet. (I deleted some expletives from this) They don't seem to understand anything about the US, they have policies designed for fourth graders, and can't even come up with justification when asked. What's more is that either because they are too idiotic or because we pay their paychecks, when you argue with them they don't know how to respond...at all, because for every example they produce we with our inferior american education can produce 10-15 more and provide the reasoning.
Exhibit A: When questioned about why we needed to bring 2+ books to class everyday that we never use her reply was "because..." and quickly left the room.
Exhibit B: The case of the green pen. A professor expected us to have a green pen to record Russian expressions, I responded that I did not intend to purchase one as I had already made changes in my note taking style to account for expressions and switching between pens was a wasteful activity. Hey I know who she reminds me of! Miss MCKay Cox, one of thpse teachers who tries to implement new teaching techniques qithout actually understanding them. Coincidentally a lifelong conservative...blarg.
2. In the US kids don't even have cap guns anymore. Here they have fireworks, airsoft guns, and blank guns...well, something in between a hollywood prop and a cap gun...Jesus.
3. The sound of breaking bottles outside my window
4. The parking lot disco outside my window
5. Parents don't take responsibility for their children...and don't realize what an inconvenience they can be on the rest of society
6. "I kissed a girl" song is played everywhere
7. Rampant proud inefficiency
Severobaikalsk...well, it is a young, but dying city. Unless tourism gets up there pretty quick it'll be almost a ghost town in 20 years. Maybe I'll write about it tonight and post tomorrow...theres just too much and I wanna go home for now
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Long time no see
My mom reminded me I hadn't updated in a while, my battery is a little low right now and I'm trying to final get and RSS reader working on my computer, so this will be one of my shorter more poorly written entries...as opposed to the the very long and obnoxious ones.
Life is alright, we're launching an interestingly planned expedition to Mongolia next Saturday where we don't exactly have transportation across the border yet...hopefully that will soon change.
Additionally, bandwidth at the cafe is now being limited. The fascists! No facebook for now.
My birthday on the other hand was enjoyable, but rather quiet - 1.5 liters of beer and a half bottle of wine. Got some chocolates and a nice plate. We mostly sat in a bar and talked for a few hours. David got ripped off by the cabbie, on the other hand we paid 10 bucks for three stops and about 40 min of driving. No vodka interestingly enough, but mayhaps that will change. We're thinking about hitting a club tonight with some German students, but that remains to be planned.
Still waiting to hear about the internships, apparently Irkutskenergo (a utility) is still play...maybe I;ll find out next week. What else...I'll prep a real post about our trip to severobaikalsk soon...in other news photos are on facebook (~300)
Life is alright, we're launching an interestingly planned expedition to Mongolia next Saturday where we don't exactly have transportation across the border yet...hopefully that will soon change.
Additionally, bandwidth at the cafe is now being limited. The fascists! No facebook for now.
My birthday on the other hand was enjoyable, but rather quiet - 1.5 liters of beer and a half bottle of wine. Got some chocolates and a nice plate. We mostly sat in a bar and talked for a few hours. David got ripped off by the cabbie, on the other hand we paid 10 bucks for three stops and about 40 min of driving. No vodka interestingly enough, but mayhaps that will change. We're thinking about hitting a club tonight with some German students, but that remains to be planned.
Still waiting to hear about the internships, apparently Irkutskenergo (a utility) is still play...maybe I;ll find out next week. What else...I'll prep a real post about our trip to severobaikalsk soon...in other news photos are on facebook (~300)
Thursday, October 2, 2008
So a quick update...
I've been pretty bad about updating this recently, just trying to get life together between physical activity, internships, making friends, and trying to actually improve my Russian. THe next week looks to be quiet too because we're headed off on our group trip with what is likely to be limited internet and even more limited computer battery...so that's likely a no go. The good news is that I'll have new pictures and hopefully one appropriate for a christmas card photo.
So, let's recap. I've been trying to get internship/something to do in Russian and it looks like I may get one with DeWalt...the powertool company. If nothing else it's an opportunity to better the Russian and I need that. Classes are rather boring, but I did finally get my mainstream - History of Siberia...what a theme! Beyond that I've been working on financial/econ education, summer/Moscow internship apps and following that wonderful disaster back home...what fun you all must be having.
I'm really missing books in english...there's so much I want to know, but the quality of Russian books excluding literature is very difficult to determine and they take about three times a s long to read.
End mind dump...have fun!
So, let's recap. I've been trying to get internship/something to do in Russian and it looks like I may get one with DeWalt...the powertool company. If nothing else it's an opportunity to better the Russian and I need that. Classes are rather boring, but I did finally get my mainstream - History of Siberia...what a theme! Beyond that I've been working on financial/econ education, summer/Moscow internship apps and following that wonderful disaster back home...what fun you all must be having.
I'm really missing books in english...there's so much I want to know, but the quality of Russian books excluding literature is very difficult to determine and they take about three times a s long to read.
End mind dump...have fun!
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