As a shy child, I often found it very awkward to see teachers outside of school! In the grocery store, downtown, etc. Even in the hallway! I remember a teacher in elementary school bringing me my Valentines and a stack of library books when I got sick. So thoughtful! But my TEACHER at my HOUSE? Worlds collide!
Did you ever find it hard to imagine that your teachers had real lives? Families and pets, dishes to wash and laundry to fold? Wasn't it hard to picture them in normal clothes? There is a cute picture book by Leatie Weiss that covers this topic very well; I definitely recommend it. :)
In college, the lines were more blurred and we could be friendlier with professors, even visiting their houses and meeting their families. The issue was temporarily forgotten...
But whenever I think about Russian bureaucracy I find myself wondering about the lives of the inspectors. I have friends who have worked at McDonald's, in the local grocery store, etc....but who are these government people sitting behind their desks? While sitting in that Room, I want to dig out photos of my family and explain about my parents in the U.S. and my adorable husband and baby here. Isn't there something that can be done? I have a little baby at home. My name has changed because I fell in Love and got Married. And even before that...I fell in Love with Russia. Is there anything at all that we have in common?
As I walk down my street, I wonder what it would be like to run into one of them. Do they take public transportation? Do they have enough money to buy their own apartment? Do they spend all day deciding other people's fates and then go home to cook dinner? Do they laugh and cry like other humans? And what I'd really like to know is what we would say to each other if we had met in other circumstances. If we could even be friends. But I don't expect it and it isn't even a goal. Just one of those mysteries of life.
Did you ever find it hard to imagine that your teachers had real lives? Families and pets, dishes to wash and laundry to fold? Wasn't it hard to picture them in normal clothes? There is a cute picture book by Leatie Weiss that covers this topic very well; I definitely recommend it. :)
In college, the lines were more blurred and we could be friendlier with professors, even visiting their houses and meeting their families. The issue was temporarily forgotten...
But whenever I think about Russian bureaucracy I find myself wondering about the lives of the inspectors. I have friends who have worked at McDonald's, in the local grocery store, etc....but who are these government people sitting behind their desks? While sitting in that Room, I want to dig out photos of my family and explain about my parents in the U.S. and my adorable husband and baby here. Isn't there something that can be done? I have a little baby at home. My name has changed because I fell in Love and got Married. And even before that...I fell in Love with Russia. Is there anything at all that we have in common?
As I walk down my street, I wonder what it would be like to run into one of them. Do they take public transportation? Do they have enough money to buy their own apartment? Do they spend all day deciding other people's fates and then go home to cook dinner? Do they laugh and cry like other humans? And what I'd really like to know is what we would say to each other if we had met in other circumstances. If we could even be friends. But I don't expect it and it isn't even a goal. Just one of those mysteries of life.
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