I had my official orientation with IRIM yesterday and learned exactly what kind of madness I've put myself into. The dean of the International Relations department didn't speak any English but he still gave his speech, completely in Romanian, and paused every few seconds to have one of my professors translate for me. It was an interesting situation. My professors seem cool, I'm going to have a modulated course in International Affairs, which means that I'll have three professors each specialising in their own field over the course of the semester. I didn't get a chance to meet my final IAF professor, as he couldn't make it yesterday, but it would have been nice to meet the guy who's going to be teaching me the intricacies of post Soviet CIS policy and relations entirely in Russian. But oh well, I'll meet him later on I'm sure.
As for my Russian class, ouch, that's about all I can say. The syllabi for my two IAF classes ranged from one to four pages. My Russian Syllibus is around 12 pages long. I'll be meeting with my professor for three hours on Fridays. I really wish I had my syllabus in front of me so you could see the amount of material we're going to be covering next week. Needless to say, I'm gonna be pretty busy while I'm here.
Sylvia and I met up with Victor yesterday for lunch. He had done an internship with the Parliament and was kind enough to point out which of my professors were with the Communist Party (the ruling party in Moldova). IRIM's a state run school, so I know at least two of my professors work with one of the various ministries up the street. It'll be interesting to see if their affiliation with the party will affect how they teach or how they deal with certain issues.
That's about all the news that's fit to print and all the muck that's fit to rake. Take it easy dear friends of mine, and enjoy the warm weather.
By the by: watch Squidbillies and listen to Tool
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2 comments:
So apparently a day or two after you left 99x got shut down. I partly blame this horrible event on you. I know you may not be fully responsible for the lack of alternative music in my life, but I find comfort in an easy scapegoat.
Best of luck with your trio-professor class, it sounds like the most efficient way to maximize your Maldovan educational exposure in one semester.
whatever happened to the days when study abroad classes were a joke? sounds like real school!
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