My job consists of two parts: teaching Russian and being a Head Resident

of the Russian House. Besides, I had an opportunity to take Spanish class.

Teaching Russian turned out to be not so difficult. The course of Russian

as second language that I took in NILC was very helpful, besides, Colorado

College has very good facilities such as TVs, DVD players, laptops in

every classroom, that helps a lot. I had two groups: Elementary and

Intermediate. I teach an adjunct course, it's an optional course, but

still, after two months of studies some of my students had chosen Russian

as a regular course.

Being the Head Resident is no less interesting. There are 11 residents in

the House, all of them to some extend are interested in the Russian

culture. Three times a month we organize Russia Teas, where everyone is

welcome. Topics for presentations are various: Mongolia, Azerbaijan,

Ukrainian elections, Russian-Chech relationships, modern history of

Russia, Russian folk art.

Twice a month students cook Russian dinner.

Along with other language houses (there are 6 of them here: Russian,

German, Spanish, French, Italian and Chinese-Japanese) we took a trip to

the mountains and participated in Intramural tournaments.

Some words about educational system here in CC. The college is almost the

only educational institution in the US with the block plan. Unlike other

universities, students take a class and study it for 3 weeks, then pass

exams and that's it! They can, of course, continue studying the subject at

advanced level if it's necessary for their major. So, students "merge" in

the subject they take. Block plan is especially good for those who study

languages. I started studying Spanish two months ago and during the final

exam I could speak Spanish more or less fluently. To keep the skills

students can take adjunct courses - and I teach one of them.

In general, the semester has been very productive.