Back to the USSR...again

Seriously.

I get that Russia is a great big country that affects basically every country in the world.

I get that Russia has had a tremendous impact on the countries we are going to.

I get that we need to know about Russia to understand the relationship.

But really, I would like to hear about the relationship, not just about Russia. And more than that, I want to learn about the country I am going to. And how it related to NATO, for example, or th EU, which it is now a member of. I would like to hear about the elections it just had and what direction it is going politically. I would like know about their economy, and how they have achieved such great stability despite their austerity measures.

I would like to learn these things, but I haven't.

Today's talk in area studies on energy was interesting, and the speaker was very good. But it was mostly about Russia, and how it controls energy resources. And it was not different enough from a previous lecture on energy issues in our region that we had earlier, with the exception that the previous lecture actually discussed our countries in depth.

Next week, we are having a repeat of a lecture we had earlier. The week after that, we are hearing about Belarus, yet another place none of us are going.

And we only have nine weeks left.