More about classes

Contemporary Russian Politics is another class around which I am trying to wrap my head. It is taught by a visiting professor who flies in every other week from the University of Glasgow to teach us. Because of this, I only have the course every other week, but two days in a row- Friday evening and Saturday morning. Yes, that sounds dreadful, but since weekends are often consumed by studying anyway, it's really not so different from how one would spend a typical Saturday morning.

Professor White is properly British. He always pronounces the "h" in words like "what" or "why." He makes witty observations- pointing out with a chuckle that "per capita" is like saying "per heads" rather than "per head"and should therefore be "per capot," but doesn't think this will catch on... ahahaha (yes, exactly 3 ha's from him).

He is brilliant and has studied subject extensively- having met with pretty much every influential Russian you could name and has a story about all of them. We are learning about what a democracy really is and whether Russia is moving towards this or away from it. The reading for this coming Friday is all about elections since the fall of the Soviet Union. I find it very interesting but am intimidated by the thought of taking a final on it all!

Hope everyone is recovering from election excitement- people here at SAIS went crazy and there is an air of excitement all about (if you ever wondered about the political sway of higher education... well lets just say this was bigger than the superbowl, world series (go phillies!) and olympics combined!). Cheers!