Professor Roman, from the Vladimir Presidential Institute, returned and spoke about US-Russian relations in the 21st century, which was so interesting! He talked for an hour and a half, and, though I probably yawned fifteen times--Week 3 is killer--it was a great presentation. Maybe when I get home to Nashville I'll type up my notes from the various lectures we've had and edit my posts to include some of the bullet points I jotted down.
For this lecture, as with other lectures, some Russian students joined us. Unfortunately, they didn't talk much, and it would've been great to hear their thoughts, but then again we weren't so talkative today either. The professor spoke about the transition period in Russia from Yeltsin to Putin, the transition periods in the US from Clinton to W. Bush and Bush to Obama, and the characteristics of Putin and Bush's relationship compared to the characteristics of Putin's relationship with Obama.
Largely as a result of the "personality cult" that's formed around the person of Putin, I find anything and everything Putin-related to be really intriguing. The man is an enigma, and it's really been eye-opening to see how culturally-relative media depictions are when it comes to a country's leader. That's something I didn't really notice during my time in Germany. But being in Russia at a time like this, with the Crimea and Ukraine conflicts, the differences are immediately apparent, and opinion on Putin is one of the first things that Russians ask and that I, as an American, ask Russians about.
...
After the lecture, I gave the professor a sort of souvenir: a TIME magazine that I brought with me from home, which I got in the mail but--like every other issue--haven't had the time to read. Because of my own interest in the topic, because of his scholarly focus as a political scientist, and because of the discussions we've had during lectures on this theme, I thought he would find this issue particularly interesting, to see the latest in American print media's image of Russia and its president.
He liked this present, and we got a photo together. Our group then had a quick break before turning around and heading out on an excursion through town, which he led. It was really hot today, as it's been every day (85+ Fahrenheit), and honestly we walked the same path we'd walked before and saw mostly the same stuff we've seen several times now. But, it was generous of him to guide us and to take the time and energy to teach us (in English!) about the history of the city on foot.
Following the excursion, we went to McDonald's en route to a football (soccer) match to see the local team, FC Torpedo Vladimir, face off against FC Dolgoprudny from Moscow Oblast/province. There weren't too many people there, but it was in their big stadium, and I swear the police and various military guards--security dogs included--nearly equaled, if not outnumbered, the actual crowd. Never before have I seen a sporting event (or, really, any other event I can think of) with so much security.... The game itself was a draw, 0-0 at the final whistle, which was kind of a shame, because it would've been nice to see what a Russian goal celebration is like, both on the field and in the stands. But it was a really good time, and Emily (a grad student from Alaska who's in Vladimir for six weeks studying Russian) and I hit it off, talking about our shared history with the sport and other life stuff. All the other Vandy people and the Russian students who'd joined us left at halftime, but the two of us stayed chatting and cheering on our home team.
One of the most exciting moments of the match was off the pitch, when some really drunk guy started attacking a metal fence/gate in the stands--there was nobody within 15 feet of him, so he was just kind of there on his own rattling the fence, acting like he was strangling it, until a quarter of the nearby police pack went over, grabbed him, wrestled him down a little, and walked him out of the stadium. Very odd, made no sense, but was--admittedly--entertaining to watch.
After the game, I went back home, ate a quick dinner, and then Gleb came over and we went for an hours'-long walk, just strolling through a park and throughout the city, having really good conversation with the help of Google Translate. He bought me lemonade, and the whole thing was very sweet and quaint. Russian date? Check!
This afternoon (since it's now Friday...) through Sunday afternoon, the group will go to a rural village to experience a bit of real, "old-world" Russia. We really have no idea what to expect--we don't even know the name or location of this village--but I don't expect to do any blogging this weekend. ;)
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