My teaching schedule has been heavy this week. Since I am given assigned times and subjects for year 1,2,3 4 & 5 medical students it requires a great deal of preparation for lecturing. I also need to finish the powerpoints well in advance so that I can get them to my new translator to review prior to each lecture.
The classrooms are large and the student numbers run from about 50 to 200 per lecture. As usual, there are many questions and the students are attentive and intelligent.
Walking to the university the day before yesterday, I started seeing policemen just outside of our apartment and stationed on each corner of every street. John and I have often remarked that we have not seen policemen in Ufa (Moscow yes, due to recent riots, Ufa no), except to direct traffic after a vehicle accident. This seemed really strange.
I walked by the city center and went past a man leaving the hotel which was dressed in traditional attire with a tall leopard fur hat. Once I got onto campus there were numerous policemen on campus too. They were all dressed with their gray fur hats like what we saw on Red Square and you see in many pictures of Russia. I asked my translator what was up with all the security and she said she hadn't noticed, "maybe a special dignitary is in town". We went on to our classes.
Later that evening when John and I were watching the national news (that we cannot understand, by the way...I don't know why we bother) and Ufa comes on. President Putin was in Ufa! On the TV it shows him meeting with various governors of the Republics in southern Russia including the man in the leopard hat!
Sadly, earlier this week a suicide bomber was on public transport in Volgograd and set off a bomb that killed and injured many people. I am sure that this was a concern for President Putin and a scary situation for all of us in Russia.
The weather gets colder by the day. Standing water is now frozen along the sides of the streets, and everyone is bundled up and wearing big coats, hats and gloves. I keep looking the lovely fur hats in the stores, only to hear a male voice saying "you live in Florida, what are you going to do with a fur hat?". Oh well...
The classrooms are large and the student numbers run from about 50 to 200 per lecture. As usual, there are many questions and the students are attentive and intelligent.
Walking to the university the day before yesterday, I started seeing policemen just outside of our apartment and stationed on each corner of every street. John and I have often remarked that we have not seen policemen in Ufa (Moscow yes, due to recent riots, Ufa no), except to direct traffic after a vehicle accident. This seemed really strange.
I walked by the city center and went past a man leaving the hotel which was dressed in traditional attire with a tall leopard fur hat. Once I got onto campus there were numerous policemen on campus too. They were all dressed with their gray fur hats like what we saw on Red Square and you see in many pictures of Russia. I asked my translator what was up with all the security and she said she hadn't noticed, "maybe a special dignitary is in town". We went on to our classes.
Later that evening when John and I were watching the national news (that we cannot understand, by the way...I don't know why we bother) and Ufa comes on. President Putin was in Ufa! On the TV it shows him meeting with various governors of the Republics in southern Russia including the man in the leopard hat!
Sadly, earlier this week a suicide bomber was on public transport in Volgograd and set off a bomb that killed and injured many people. I am sure that this was a concern for President Putin and a scary situation for all of us in Russia.
The weather gets colder by the day. Standing water is now frozen along the sides of the streets, and everyone is bundled up and wearing big coats, hats and gloves. I keep looking the lovely fur hats in the stores, only to hear a male voice saying "you live in Florida, what are you going to do with a fur hat?". Oh well...
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