It's a Long Way from "Hello, are these your suitcases?"

I think that when I look back on college and reflect on everything I've done here, the thing I'll be happiest about is Russian. Just remembering how that stupid Russia Since 1917 class (you know, the one that eventually prompted me to decide to minor in Russian Studies) made me bawl like a frustrated baby, I can't believe that I'm actually typing those words, I don't care. Even on days that Irina thinks I'm stupid, even though this post happens to coincide with my first A- on a quiz in that class in almost 2 years (whatever, there were only 6 words on the whole quiz and they count for crap), and even though Chris (my cute Polish partner for the last two dialogues) and I totally got robbed for the prize this week (every time we perform dialogues, the class votes on the best one and they get Russian posters or childrens' books - Chris and I won last time) and I got totally robbed on our dialogue (Masha and David sucked - people are just too jealous to give it to us twice in a row) I am just filled with the spirit of Russophilia.

This past week, we had to submit a revision for a query letter (i.e. a formal letter of submission of either an article or idea to a publication) based on an article we found in a recent journal, and I chose to write mine based on an article I found in the College of Journal Development (though it is craaaazy how many journals there are in Bobst) which said that students who took a college class on diversity actually showed reduced prejudice on some universal racism testing scale. I proposed an article on how students often choose to major/minor in concentrations that are centered around races/nationalities/ethnicities with which they are not affiliated, and how they immerse themselves to the point that they seem to adopt it as a second culture.

My teacher wanted to know where I got the research from. I just said "are you kidding? There's not a single Russian in my Russian class! And there were only 4 black kids in my whole beloved W.E.B. DuBois class! This has been my whole life in college." And it has, or at least, the most beloved of my classroom memories have...so weird, when you think about it, but fun. What the hell do I know about being Czech anyway?