Kapow, Kazan! : Presentation time

So what were we doing in Kazan? Jeremy had important people to meet and I got to tag along. Actually the first place, Tatar State University, had arranged a three day conference featuring basically lectures by Jeremy but yours truly did one on Participatory Activities for Large Conversation Classrooms- woo! Jeremy's was mostly theoretical while mine was all movin. At times the very long room we used reached a capacity of over 100 participants! We could actually see the great need for native English teachers in Kazan and it was so cool how warm everyone was. They all just were into the presentations. At times you can get people in Russia that just have that look on their faces, the one that says "Yeah, just try to impress me!" This group was way more accepting, so we were already loving Kazan. One woman even gave me a hug on our last day there. It was my first hug from a Russian!

We felt like VIP too! They even had a press conference for us! I think like 5 or 6 journalists came. Of course, Jeremy was their focus, but I got to pipe in my two cents too! We also met the rector, which I think is the equivalent to Vic Farrell for all you Beloiters. He had a nice lunch for us and pressies too! We ate our lunch and din din the first 3 days in a secret room next to the main cafeteria. Wasn't there something like that at Commons? Anyway, at this point I am just bragging so I will stop now!

There are a few impressions though I had about this part of our trip. One was that I felt wooed, in fact, almost seduced by this university. They were so incredibly appreciative we had come and they were so professional. It seems like they would like to get some major plans accomplished and Jeremy is trying to guide them with the information he knows, so I really wish them the best! Another point was besides superficially kicking Samara's butt, the reaction we received all around the city was less stoic. I felt like I was in some sort of dream city! To demonstrate, let us move our attention to this dynamite theater where we saw a ballet performance

That's me in the center. We sat in a kind of balcony section rich people in the movies sit in! And all that red is velvet!

Please for give me for all these exclamation points. One of the professors at the university said you should take 9 days after going somewhere to reflect on the experience to have a more objective view because as you can see, I fell in love with Kazan!

Tomorrow, the gripping conclusion!