Kazan — summer 2014

Exhaustion. The next days will be non-stop. Part of my responsibilities is conducting interviews to estimate oral proficiency skills (non-official), and it looks like I'll have to do that via Skype for our 15 students in Batumi as well. That will be tuckering.

And, dammit, I've been asked to do a TV interview, so tomorrow I'll write up my thoughts and try to practice them in advance so I don't come off like a total idiot.

Saturday I head home. They'll pick me up from my apartment at 12:30 a.m. Saturday. The plane will depart at 3:40 a.m. I'll arrive in Phoenix at 8:30 p.m., and probably spending the night at my mother's place, say around 9:30 p.m. So, from leaving my apartment in Kazan to arriving at a place with a bed in Phoenix will be twenty-one hours by the clock and then eleven hours of time difference, so thirty-two hours of traveling. Whew.

Well that was grueling: I conducted 15 Skype interviews today to guesstimate the oral proficiency levels of the students in the Batumi.

Grueling, but a rewarding process. It really makes you much more aware of the standards that are used nowadays to evaluate these things. I'm really glad I did it.

The last few days in Kazan are always exhausting. The tasks themselves aren't difficult, but they have to be done now, not later, and one's friends in Kazan also need some attention. Tonight I'll get four hours of sleep if I'm lucky. Add to that the cleaning of the apartment, packing, clear communication with one's colleagues and students... It's tiresome.

I met this afternoon with two of the Institute's vice-presidents. I generally have a bad impression of businessmen, but the president and vice-president of our Kazan partner-institution are people I quite respect. They work hard, and not once have they behaved in a way less than ethical. I could wish American businesses were run by folks like these. We discussed next year's program, which I'm pretty sure will take place unless a) Russian troops openly invade the Ukraine, or b) the US forbids American banks to work with Russian banks, which would make it vastly more difficult to transfer funds, and of course if you can't pay your business partner, then you can't do business. But I currently think that all will go well.

Our trip home has been made a bit more complicated by a change of TSA policy, which now does not allow uncharged electronic devices on aircraft, which policy certain airports in Europe will have to enforce. That announcement was made around 7 July, but I still can't find a list of those airports on the web, so heaven only knows if we will be affected. One of kids has had the screen die on his tablet, and he is worried that it might be confiscated. Wish I could reassure him otherwise, but on the theoretical level I can't. On the practical level I'm also sure that no one is going to look twice at our electronic devices this weekend.

I spent the evening again with the Osipovs. Sometimes one encounters people who are so very kind to you that you know you can never repay them. That's my relationship with the Osipovs. I'm closest to their son, Danila, but the mother, Flyura, has been the heart of family hospitality to me, and between the two of them I find myself asking what can I do for them that could possibly equal their kindness to me. In some ways it's a silly question. Righteous people are kind because they are righteous, and even posing the question of how to repay them misses the point entirely. Still, if I can do something for them, it would make me very happy. The rest of the family I'm not as close to, but this year I brought father Oleg a guitar tuner, and that seemed to please him, which is good, because heaven knows it's hard to choose a gift for someone you don't know well. This year I brought Sasha a t-shirt, but my hope is that next year I can find a book with lots of flashy cars and busty women, which I think would really please the car-fanatic in him. Dasha... she has so much human insight... I have no idea what to bring her next year; worst case scenario... I bring her M&Ms or beef jerky from Costco, both of which she likes. Still, I prefer to bring a gift that better fits her personality, not just her culinary pleasures.

On Wednesday I conducted 15 interviews with our Batumi students via Skype to check their spoken language skills. Although, really, that's a bit dishonest. They had to go through a computer-moderated check of those skills, and really the university is double-checking whether my evaluations match the evaluations of the current American standards. I rather like the process. Today I did the same for our Kazan students. On the whole I'm very proud of their progress. Funny, though, our strongest student did worse on his exit interview than on his intake interview. He must have been having a bad day. Still, he's a super-talented kid... I find myself somewhat envious of him.

Let's see... what did Flyura prepare for dinner? The main dishes were home-made ground-meat patties (she doesn't trust store-bought ground meat) which were tasty beyond words, plus a multi-layered chicken casserole that was simply succulent. Side dishes were spiced spaghetti and beautiful yellow home-grown tomatoes in sour cream. Drinks were home-made fruit punch (компот), tea (because Russia), and she plied me with cognac, and dessert was a home-made double-layered berry pie.

And dammit they are sending me home with a bottle of vodka for Marina and Billy. I so wish they wouldn't send liquids via me. They are very hard to pack, and if — God forbid — the bottles should break in transit, heaven only knows what the TSA would think. And do I want to arrive home with a suitcase full of clothes that smell like vodka flavored with birch sap? I don't think so.

Last but not least, I gave a TV interview today. Hopefully they will send me a link to the video. If I haven't entirely shamed myself in the Russian language, I'll give it to ASU, and if I'm too embarrassed, well, they'll never see it.

Today was the last day of classes. We had the official closing ceremony where VP Liliya Vladimirovna Vorontsova handed the students their souvenir certificates of completion. They are lovely documents in golden frames (first time with frames). When we got to the official name-reading and handing off of certificates, the computer tech blasted the room with congratulatory music. It wasn't quite Pomp and Circumstance, but the feel was the same.

After that we had a farewell luncheon at Cafe Skazka ("Fairytale Cafe"), which was quite nice as always. The students all went their ways. The first batch fly out at 3:40 a.m. (me, too), so that group is going home, packing, then bringing their luggage to the Institute, and then they will enjoy their last Kazan hours on Bauman Street.

Me, I headed home (after receiving a gift of cognac from a completely unexpected acquaintance). Damn. What am I going to do with this? I'm not fond of the stuff. Hm. Actually, I can think of a friend in the US who likes the stuff. I'll probably send it his way.

Once home I did paperwork, packed, cleaned the apartment up, and in two hours I will be picked up, then we head to the institute for the students, and then to the airport. I count my travel time from the time I leave my home. So I leave here at 12:30 a.m. I arrive in AZ at 8:30 p.m., which would seem like 20 hours, but there is an eleven hour time difference, so it is actually 31 hours of travel time. And I'm already exhausted.

Whew, what a day. The last two days I've had virtually no sleep. The institute's bus picked me up at 12:30 a.m to take me to the institute. There we picked up the first group of departing students and headed to the airport. At the airport everything went smoothly, and we all headed to Istanbul on Turkish Airlines. Decent food.

The flight to Istanbul was fine. Sitting in the seat, I contemplated the screen in front of me (on the back of the seat in front of me) which showed our upcoming flight. Hm. It indicated that we would fly right over the eastern portion of the Ukraine on a Great Circle flight that would take us neatly between Luhansk and Donetsk, i.e. right over the area of conflict that resulted in the destruction of a Malaysian aircraft. Charming. Still, decent food.

But when push came to shove, we headed south before we reached the border of the Ukraine, then diagonally SW across the Black Sea, eventually to Istanbul, avoiding the contested regions.

In Istanbul I transferred to a flight to Frankfurt. In F I had two Pferdeapfel and potato salad. Very tasty. Then I transferred to United/Lufthansa to Dulles. Good flight. When Lufthansa is responsible for a flight, it's a hell of a lot nicer than United.

At Dulles I transferred to a Phoenix flight. That went well, too.

In Phoenix I met four of our returning Batumi students. Damn, they were all incredibly positive toward the program there, even though the program itself was a result of last minute changes. I attribute this to several things:

• The professionalism of our teachers, brought in from Kiev from Nova Mova, a company I would recommend to anyone for language study.
• The professionalism of our resident directors, Ryan and Lila, who did a great job overseeing things.
• The professionalism of our ASU CLI director, Kathleen, who back in April made all athe necessary changes in the program to meet last minute changes required by our sponsors.

Y'know, in life sometimes one encounters complete incompetents who can't do a damn thing to make things work right. I have to say, I'm privileged to know dozens of people who do not apply to that class. Kathleen has always been one of those, Ryan and Lila have proven themselves to be of the same ilk, and we already knew that the Nova Mova folk were of that class.

I finally arrived in Phoenix. I had left my apartment in Kazan at 12:30 am. on the 16th, and I arrived at my mother's place at 9:30 p.m. on the same date. By the clock that is 21 hours, but you have to consider that there is an 11 hour time difference, so the real time is 32 hours of travel. I was freakin' exhausted,

At my mother's home aunt Steph was visiting. She is one of my favority people on the planet. We both overnighted with my mother. We chatted up a storm both evening and morning. Awesome. Steph has mad people skills, so I always learn something from her.

Bed time. Znxxxx.