There is not much to report here. We’ve been continuing our course with a routine of waking, sleeping, and eating. This class continues to be interesting, and I hope once we lay the groundwork we will get more interaction with our two cultures. One of the differences is the vacuum left from the Soviet era. In their own words, in this vacuum they are adopting modernity wholesale. This has been nowhere more evident than with technology. Cell phone usage is at least as heavy in the States and probably more so. Our car has navigation system. The Seminary has high-speed internet. What was an isolated, distant land has become as modern, connected land. Interesting though that our Russian classmates lament this swallowing of modernity. What they recognize is that the modernity isn’t just technology but it is an ideology. Critical use of modernity is a fallacy in their opinion. Adopting in part ultimately results in gulping the whole pill.
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