Russia is Ridiculous

18 May 2009

So today was not one I would nominate for "Best day ever." All the things that frustrate me about Russia were all compounded into one extremely aggravating twenty four hours.

The day started off alright, but I was already tired. I turned in my paper for my newspaper class ( a whopping 20 pages, I was pleased) The class itself was challenging, and I found out afterwards that I am actually going to have an exam in there, which came as a bit of a shock since I was under the false impression that we had a paper in place of an exam. Still, I felt like I could deal with the day.

UNfortunately, such was not to last. Immediately after my class ended, I scurried over to another building to take my exam, and turn in my paper (25 pages! Oh yeah!) for my tourism class. (Remember how much I whined last semester about the papers I had to write? I wrote even more this semester, but it was a lot easier! I am actually making progress!) Before I go on, I would like to give you some background about the mainstream class I took this semester. I honestly have NO interest in the management aspect of tourism, but was sucked into taking the class because a) Middlebury requires that I take a russian class with russian students, and b) the teacher seemed really nice when I first met her. This turned out to be a mistake on my part. The teacher, while nice, was not a very capable one. She had a very "devil may care" attitude toward punctuality, discipline in the classroom, and general professionalism.

She showed up 15 minutes late to the exam, hrriedly gave us our test, and left the room. Before she left, she called over her shoulder to us that we could work in pairs, and that she would be back in a few minutes. To my utter horror "work in pairs" meant that no one did their own work. It was literally impossible. The guy sitting next to me said to the class at large(in Russian of course) "Alright gang, what are we going to put as an answer for number one?" The ENTIRE class did the test as a collective. My work ethics and honor were seriously offended, but there was nothing I could do, since I was having difficulty reading the test as it was. After about twenty minutes, WE had all finished, and our teacher still had not returned. So, the kids turned to a new form of entertainment; grilling the American. Questions were flying at me from left and right, about a most uncomfortable range of topics, mostly to do with money. This would have been bad enough, if it hadn't been for the tone of the questions. They all clearly thought that I was a rich kid, from a less than pleasant country.
This went on for ONE AND A HALF HOURS!!! Then the teacher finally decided to grace us with her presence. I had to hurry to my next class, so I asked permission to present my paper first, so I could move on. She instead asked me some useless questions, that were not found on either the test or in my paper, and sent me on my way. I am convinced that she won't even read that paper, which is exceedingly annoying since I worked hard on it. OH well, at least I got a good grade.

After that, I had to take yet another exam (for my Russian film class) I was still pretty mad, so it took me a while to calm down. In the end I think it went well.

I felt like I needed some sort of treat to lift my spirits, so I was very excited to see that a semi famous Russian organist was giving a concert at 6:30. I invited my buddies, hoping to share with them something I love. The program said that the woman had been playing since childhood, but when she began to play it became evident that she was not very talented. It was the straw that broke the camel's back. All my tiredness, frustration and anger compiled into a major breakdown.

God takes most excellent care of me though. Right as I broke into tears my mom called, and calmed me down. That night I watched Stardust, and went to bed early.

So today was much better. I have only 5 more days in this country, and then I board the freedom bird home! Yayayayay!