Л. Сморгунов

My first days in the United States

    I was in the US from August 22 through November 22, 1998 on the Regional Scholar Exchange Program, administered by IREX. My host university was Stanford University in California. The fields of my interest were public administration, political science and political management. At that time, I kept a diary. Some of my impressions about the United States and the people of that country are in it, and I thought some pages from my diary would be interesting for you.

August 22-26

    I started writing my diary on August 26, during my flight from Washington to San Francisco (Delta, # 1531). Today the orientation is over. There was a schedule for this orientation, and the Americans followed this program very strictly. Some lectures were very interesting, but some were not very informative. In the meantime, all lectures were very useful for improving language skills. My English is so-so. I was understanding the general sense, but some information galloped by...
    When I was flying from Moscow to New York I sat near a woman - African American - and I tried to speak with her, but maybe I bothered her. I was watching the TV. "Titanic" was showing when we were flying over the Atlantic Ocean. Good luck! It's a pity I saw New York only through the window of the airplane. Maybe later?
    On August 25 I visited the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University. The dean was absent, but I had a meeting with Dr. Arterton. He is a political philosopher and is interested in communitarianism. It was a nice meeting. I would like to include his article in our book about liberalism and communitarianism. We were shown the musical "Footloose": a very good play, very impressive and typically American with basketball, cafes, family problems, loud songs and so on... Soon I will be in Palo Alto. I need to call St. Petersburg.

September 1

    At long last I have rented a room in Palo Alto. It was the one big problem. Thank you, Barbara (the administrative manager at Stanford) and her friend. They helped me to find a room in a good home not very far from the university and for a good price. I can get to it by university bus...
    A few days before I had been in despair. At the beginning I lived in "Mayflower Garden Motel" (it is interesting, the grandparents of the motel owner were from Ukraine). But when I compared the prices for a rented room per month and for a motel room per night I understood: it is necessary to find a rented room as soon as possible. I received information about the housing situation from local newspapers and from the special student office. I made more than forty calls and all of them were without results (two cases were positive, but one was very far from the university, and the second was without furniture and in a dangerous district). One old lady questioned me on the telephone for a very long time (What is my profession? What is my professional subject of interest? How old am I? Which professors at Stanford do I know? What is the purpose of my stay in the USA? And so on.) and then refused me. The main reason of the failures was the short time period. Oh, nightmare! I sent e-mail to my friends in Birmingham: Help me! I was speaking to people at the university, in the buses. It was interesting how some people which I met came from Russia, now or in family history. I received a lot of advice and sympathy for my sorrow.
    But one of the main problems is solved now. My landlady - Carol Vesecky -speaks Russian just a little; she is interested in the biointensive technology of potato-growing. She has been in Russia and Uzbekistan and has taught our people how to grow a potato. She has a son who is 20 years old and a daughter who is 17. I have a room on the first floor. I am satisfied.
    Today I worked at the Green Library, and I started to study the bibliographical and computer resources. Green Library is very good: many computers, and free access to the books and journals. The conditions for work are beautiful. The time is running very quickly, but if the work is planned then something can be accomplished. Well, today I became the member of International Public Management Network...

September 2

    Today I had a meeting with my host advisor, Prof. James March. He is a very nice man. We were talking for more than one hour. Barbara was forced to remind him about the next waiting visitor. I know him from his publications, but today I learned that he is also a poet and has some books of his poems as well. I said that in his and Olsen's book "Rediscovering Institutions", there are many metaphors. As a whole, we talked about my work here, and my participation in an upcoming conference and in special seminars of the Scandinavian Consortium of Organizational Research. He presented me with his new book "Democratic Governance" and two books of his poems.
    In the evening I was invited by Carol to small party at a family house in Palo Alto. There were about ten people there. We talked about Carol's visit to Uzbekistan (she showed pictures), my impressions of the US, and other topics. I guess the party is one of the forms of civic life for Americans. It is interesting! There was coffee, cake and lots of conversation.

September 4

    I worked at the Green Library and looked through some journals. The weather is hot. I was in the university swimming pool, swimming a little. Nice!
    In the bookstore I bought "H. Arendt: Lectures on Kant Political Philosophy." I have wanted to have this book for a long time. There are so many new professional books! I need to find out if these books are also at the university libraries!
    Well, today in the morning I saw a hummingbird in the garden. Carol told me that one day while she watered the garden, the hummingbird drank water from the jet. By the way, there are many squirrels in Palo Alto and at Stanford; white, gray and red. They steal the apples in Carol's garden.

September 6

    Today we (Carol and I) attended a divine service at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Palo Alto. The preacher (a man in his forties in white and green clothes) talked about the evil of lies (this was connected with President Clinton). In the church the people came with children of different ages. There were about forty people there. At the end the donations were collected. Then, one blind person named Jim invited everyone to celebrate his birthday in an ice cream cafe. His voice was very familiar to me. Where could I have met him? I could not remember. At last I remembered: yesterday when I walked down El Camino Street a blind man asked me to take him across the street. I helped him there... In Palo Alto there is a huge number of churches but just in St. Mark's Episcopal Church I met him again. And today he invites me to celebrate his birthday... When I came up to him in the church he recognized me by my voice. Now that's a story!