William Blake/Waiting for the Family

I continued with English poetry and taught Blake’s London and Holy Thursday in class today. He was a great choice, because he uses fairly simple words but in very inventive, beautiful, and often horrific ways. I only had two students show up for my advanced class, and one of them was struggling with some of the vocabulary. Even so, I think both of them understood some of the ways Blake plays with words (…and mark in every face I meet/ Marks of weakness, marks of woe” to give just one simple example from London). One of the English teachers from the International Department stopped by towards the end of class just to sit and observe, and she came in handy for some quick translations and seemed to enjoy herself immensely.

My parents and little brother get to Ufa tomorrow at 5 am, and when I mentioned this to her as we were talking after class, she went ahead and booked a taxi for me at a discounted price. James just messaged me on Gchat, and it sounds like they are surviving in Moscow. They got to the hotel, which means they navigated the subway and train from the airport okay. Moscow is enough to intimidate anyone, even Ufans who know Russian fluently, so we’ll see how they feel tomorrow. I am slightly worried…

Either way, it’s bound to be an adventure. I am proud of them already for making it this far, and I am excited to see them and show them around this crazy country.