I’ve gone from reporting to being reported on during the last four months here in Novgorod. Luckily, it’s the good kind reporting–for newspapers and TV, not for deportation.
The local Argumenti i Facti paper interviewed me when I first arrived, and the TV news came after me, too. The cameras returned to find out my reaction to Obama’s election, which was an impromptu review of all the political vocabulary I learned during my summer course in political Russian at Beloit College in 2007.
I’ve also had a few opportunities, though, to pen my own thoughts — the bonus of being a fairly fluent foreigner. First, I wrote about Thanksgiving in an article that was published as a letter to the editor.
My second article was about how my friends and family in America are surviving the financial crisis. It was published on Novgorod’s Argumenti i Facti website (http://sz.aif.ru/society/article/1682).
I’m off to my next interview, comparing American celebrations of student achievement (ice cream parties with the dean for making the honor roll is a popular celebration at St. Olaf) with Russia’s “Students’ Day,” January 25. I’ll post a link then, if it goes online!
