Evan Sparling '08
Study Abroad 2006-2007
Moscow was also our jumping-off
point for trips elsewhere: to the tribute to slain war heroes in
Volgograd, to the regal monuments to Russian arts and culture in St.
Petersburg, to political unrest, pop concerts, and crowns of dandelions
in Kiev, and to medieval churches, a bathhouse, a very cold sledding
adventure, and an unforgettable hangover in Pskov and Vladimir. It was
also where I began my own odyssey across Central Asia, where I improved
my Russian through daily conversations on trains with old women who had
fled to Kazakhstan after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Kyrgyz
border guards who sneak their Mp3 players along to listen to 50 Cent
while on duty, and a former Soviet soldier who guarded the Kremlin
during the turbulent 1990s and revealed to me the location of Genghis
Khan’s lost treasure. My Russian improved more during that month than
it did in a whole semester in America, and I learned more than I could
have read in a stack of books.
Amy Wilson '06
Study Abroad 2004-2005During my first semester, I joined students from the Colgate University and Mount Holyoke College program to both take courses on Russian culture, grammar, phonetics and politics at the Russian State University for the Humanities and go on educational field trips. Our most memorable trips were to the small cities and villages making up the “Golden Ring” around Moscow, the museums and sites of Saint Petersburg, and to even one of the best chocolate factories in Russia.
