Welcome...and initial guidelines...

This blog will be used in the spring of 2008 by 80+ students at Drexel University to investigate the effects of Iraq on culture and the reverse. Our goal will be to better understand why the US is in Iraq, and to question whether literature can help us on this journey.

Weekly plans and other materials will always be posted in Vista, not this blog. So go to Bb Vista to get the discussion prompts and other instructions.

I intend this blog to manage our discussions and track our collective investigation.

You should have received an email from me inviting you to become a contributor to this blog. The email was sent Monday afternoon to your official Drexel email address.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

"ehh...vodka"

Being born in the former Soviet Union, I have seen many myths that propagate about Russians (I'm not even Russian, I'm Ukrainian, but people seem to think that those are the same thing). Among others, I have seen people joke that all Russians drink a lot and don't get drunk, are Commie spies, and enjoy/are unaffected by the cold (because it is cold in Russia). One of my friends has this bit that he does where he talks in a fake and very thick Russian accent and says whatever Russian/Russian-sounding words he knows mixed with broken English. This is a typical portion, "ehh...vodka...ehh...Hunt for Red October." Basically people only know about Russians what they see in the movies (where Russians are often the bad guys) and the few actual Russians that they may know don't do much to dispel the myths, so they carry on.

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