Well...

I keep promising a blog about deeper things than just school or work or Russia, and I really will keep that promise, but one of the deeper things that was imparted to me lately has shaken my worldview quite a bit and it bears some internal pondering before I blog about it.

So...
School:

Yesterday I did my presentation on my paper about homosexuals in the 1920s and 1930s. It seemed to go well. Several students asked me questions after my presentation and it did go a lot faster than I thought it would. Professor Stricker said that I did well, especially considering that I had the hardest topic to find sources on.

I got my midterm back from my Russia class. I am starting to worry a bit about my grade. I am fairly sure that if I am just a point or two shy of the A, I will still be seeing an A on my transcript, just because I know that has happened to others in the past. I have to get 24 out of 25 on my final for me to actually earn the A myself. It isn't impossible, but this semester I have been averaging in the 22-23 point range for all of my assingments. So I shall have to make sure to kick some post-Soviet butt on my final...

Today I have California History class and Theory and Methods of History. I find it interesting that the one class I was not looking forward to this semester (Theory and Methods) is one of my favorite classes. I actually really lucked out. Now that I dropped the Holocaust class, I love all of my classes. In Theory and Methods we are going to be watching The Sorrow and the Pity after class, today is the History Club Meeting, and hopefully elections because I need to get the paperwork turned in sometime in the next 2 weeks.

Tomorrow is Russia class as usual and then I am going to a lunch thingy with the professor I am going to be working for next semester. It sounds fun.

Thursday, I might be meeting with the Professor of the Russian class, but other than that it's just an average day....

Work: An ordinary week for once...hooray!

Russia: I am waiting for my passsport so I can send away for my visa. I started freaking out yesterday because I realized that the scariest part of this trip is going to be getting from the airport to the hotel in Moscow. I went on the contiki message boards and found out some interesting thing things about contiki. I am very much hoping to be on a tour with older (25-35) people and couples would be preferable. There is apparently a subsector of the contiki world who go on these tours just for the sexual escapades. There is a larger part of the group who go on these tours as international drinking binges. I am going to be friendly, but probably one of the more boring peope on the tour. There is also, if you are interested in the bathroom dynamics of touring with contiki an entire thread dedicated to "turds" I laughed quite a bit at all of the international terms for poo. Aussies come up with some of the best too.
I did read some trip reviews but they just changed my tour from a concept tour which is more of a camping type tour to a hotel tour, which means that most of the time, I will be staying in decent accomodations. The worst one described was in some city that I am not even sure I go to, and I have stayed in similar type places before (Anaheim anyone?) I am still excited even though there were some unhappy people. I read the travelogues of some people who went on the concept tour and they had fun and it seemed interesting. I especially found the log written by a history major to be helpful, although his area of interest is not Russia, so I am sure that the parts of Russia that bored him won't bore me... I am extra excited that we can break off from the group if we choose to. I won't in Moscow because I want to do all of the tour stuff, although I have been told that I should make an adventurous friend or two the first couple of days so that we can go looking for meals together. I have also been told that some of the cleanest bathrooms in Russia are in McDonalds. The Red Square McDs supposedly has 27 registers and 1500 employees.... There is apparently (according to wikipedia a Mac Wrap which is like a gyro made from hamburger patties) available in Russia (if I have to eat at McDonalds in Russia, and I think at least one meal is there) I'd like to eat soemthing I can't get in AMerica at least!

Oh wel.. I am off to school