Going to Russia

6/24/07

I've just finished packing after a week of Russian studies. We have been saturated with everything Russian. Russian politics, history, business, geography, music, resources for teaching, literature....you name it, we learned about it!

Lynda Park, the director of the REEEC, organized this week of Russian bombardment. It was an awesome display of who's who in teaching about Russia. I appreciated listening about each set of information even though I already was up on most of the info.

We are now set to board a bus this morning at 3:30 to travel to Bloomington, catch a plane to Atlanta and then sit for eight hours waiting for the plane to Moscow! We definitely won't miss our flights! I hope the luggage gets treated better this flight. My medium sized bag suffered a rip on the corner with just one flight on the way here. Black Gorilla Tape (Duct tape) in multi-layers is holding my valuables in check until we get to Moscow.

I have a large list of gifts ready for each family I will be staying with. I just bought a "Good Charlotte" CD for a 13 year old in Murom. It will be interesting to see if Southern Maryland rock translates across the time zones! I have 'evened out' my bags so that each is not over 50 pounds. I had to relocate many items in Baltimore as my one bag was 63 lbs.! Barbara would just shake her head as she knows how much I packed the last time! :)

This is my first blog ever. I will try to update on a daily basis for the next month as the trip unfolds. Computer usage in Russia will be spotty, but at the American Home, computers are available. My next blog will be on 6/26 due to the long hours of the trip and the eight hour difference.

The University of Illinois has been a wonderful center of information and resources. I highly recommend their REEEC (Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Center) and their seminars and programs.