graduation
at
My 5th
year English/Chinese student, Dima called me the on
the 6th of June to invite me to the graduation ceremony for 5th
year students. I had already confirmed with other 5th year students
that graduation would be on the 7th, but it was nice to get a formal
invitation and to be told a definite time to be there (my other students had
said about the time that it was supposed to start at 8:30 but usually starts
around 9 or 10:00. It had been cold and
rainy on the 6th, and some students were worried about what the
weather would be like. One of my best students
from the English-Persian group told me that students usually make or buy nice,
new summery dresses. They wouldn’t be able to wear them. Rather than sympathizing immediately with
that, I tried to reassure her by telling her about my graduation ceremony at
On the morning
of graduation we got half lucky--it was cold but there was no rain. I had to wear a wool suit with a raincoat
instead of the summery dress I had planned to wear. Many students were wearing coats over their
summery dresses. I showed up a little
after
I went to the
second floor, and ironically, there were three rows of people on the balcony
already, so I couldn’t see anything except for a brief glimpse of my students
as they walked in and views of dancing from someone’s video camera monitor. Even that disappeared after a while. It seemed to be the standard routine,
though—speeches by the rector, modern dancing, Ukrainian dancing, skits, songs,
and presentations of special student awards and prizes. During the ceremony, though, I was reflecting
on Ukrainian culture. As the Ukrainian folk troupe was dancing, I was thinking
(and have been thinking) how nice it must be to have a national costume and a
national dance, something traditional to point to as unique to your country. I don’t think we have anything like that in
After the school
ceremony ended, we split into facultat ceremonies.
Our ceremony was in a lecture hall (218-A). There was a nice sign written on the
blackboard and some balloons hanging. At first I sat with Olga from the
English-Chinese group and talked while a 1st year student listened
intently. When the program began, the dean gave a speech. Then a 5th
year English-Turkish student did a traditional belly dance. I had seen this
performance at the Turkish Festival so I wasn’t shocked, but other people
thought it was inappropriate for a graduation ceremony. The 1st
year student and Yulia (a 5th year
English-Chinese student) sang songs.
Three teachers
gave out diplomas at once. There was no processional; if you heard your name
called you were to walk up and get your diploma, then get a ribbon and a book
on “art and power” written by a literature professor at the university. The diplomas were the size of a 5X8 card and
laminated. The red cards were honors
graduates, and the blue were regular graduates.
I was a little surprised at the half-hazard and informal nature of it,
but it did go more quickly than an American graduation ceremony.
Then I got to
the floor with the other teachers and deans to make speeches to the students. We
got lots of applause from the students—both “American” applause and “Ukrainian”
applause (Ukrainian applause is clapping like keeping a beat to a music or
asking a rock star to come out for a concert or an encore). Then we got a standing ovation which was
overwhelming. When my turn came to
speak, I began in Russian with the words, “Good afternoon dear students,
teachers, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers” (I didn’t know the
words for parents and grandparents). I got a big cheer when I spoke in
Russian. I talked about their hard work
to get to this point, and about the word commencement and their future
challenges. But I think the best thing I
did (besides speak in Russian) was thank them for teaching me about Ukraine and
teaching me English, and wishing that they learn from their students and get as
much satisfaction from teaching their students as I have gotten from teaching
them. (That last part could be taken
ironically, as some of the students were a real pain in the tuchus
for me and gave me no satisfaction at all).
After the
graduation, I took pictures with students.
My 5th year English-Chinese students invited me to go to
lunch with them. We got on the metro to Universitet, and went to a café. We had salads (in my case
a so-so salmon salad) and wine (cabernet), and then more people came and we had
a second course (in my case so-so zharkoye, a kind of
stew in a clay pot with potatoes, meat, cheese, and mushrooms). Included at the table was
one student and her fiancé, a Canadian whom she had met in
After our long
meal (and a stop at a decent toilet in the restaurant), we walked to the house
of a man from a Christian organization who organizes leadership workshops for
students in the area. He wasn’t there
though; we were allowed in because one of the students works there. We had tea and coffee and a very rich
cake. We didn’t have champagne but some
of us had “cherry”, a kind of cherry cola with liquor in it. We talked about school and about the teachers. We agreed to get together again on Tuesday at