MIT experience
Today, February 10, on a sunny but slightly windy day, we left for Boston, the capital of Massachusetts, where I had to propose to the administration of various faculties of MIT collage, the presentation of Esperanto Models From Georgia (The World Among The Caucasus Mountains) organized by the Fermata Arts Foundation. The radius of MIT campuses is the size of a small city, the old buildings adorned with antique columns and the bewildered students chaotically mingling like ants in the streets, and perhaps this is the main attraction of this place.
My first destination was Room 231 of Building 7, where the Department of Architecture was supposed to be. After orientation for a while, I went to the door of the office, but unfortunately, I found the office empty and locked, I decided to look around the auditoriums, and finally, I went to office 264, where I met one of the professors, we had a long conversation, I explained everything to her in detail, unfortunately, the professor told me that it is similar to this department They are not interested in events, although they advised me to use e-mail,
Before I left, I asked the professor which building he recommended me to go to, the professor after thinking for a while told me to go to building 14 because that’s where the architecture department was, I left disappointed and ran into building 14, after 10 minutes of walking around the campus, I reached my next destination, However, building 14 turned out to be a library, I did not hesitate and entered the library, I quickly went to the young receptionist and greeted him, explained in detail who I was and what I wanted, the young librarian was a little confused and after a short pause said that he could not help me, I asked him if it was possible to meet with the library administration, however, he told me that it was impossible because they are not in the building, and when I asked for their e-mail details, he told me that he did not know exactly and advised me to find the address by myself through the Internet. Unfortunately, I left the library disappointed and left for the third destination.
The third place, a little further away, was in building E51, where the Department of History is located, after about another 10-15 minutes of walking, I reached the building easily, and soon found the main office of the department, but unfortunately it was locked, I had to leave for the third time, disappointed when, from the back, I heard a voice, “Can’t I help you?” I turned around and saw a lady, I went to greet her and introduce myself, I explained everything in detail, what I do and what interests I have, it turned out to be this lady, history professor Elizabeth A. Wood. Within MIT, Professor Wood serves as co-director of the MISTI Russia Program, Coordinator of Russian Studies, and adviser to the Russian Language Program. She holds a secondary appointment in MIT’s Global Studies and Languages Section, so we had a long pleasant conversation, I told her about my goals, who my grandfather was, and of course about the Fermata Art Foundation, we exchanged business cards, and Ms. Elizabeth asked me to be sure to contact her about my presentation.
I left the 3rd building with positive emotions, it’s a very good feeling when you find a person of common interests. At the end of the trip, I decided to try to interview people in the territory of the rest of the departments, but unfortunately, the building was almost empty of members of the administration, and wherever I asked, I was told that it would not be possible to interview them today.
In the end, today turned out to be very informative and productive, despite the frustrations, this activity played a very positive role for me.