classes

We have 2 to 4 hours of history per day. Some days we have had two history classes because Prof. Magocsi had to go to Germany for a conference for part of a week. I have had lectures from Magocsi so I know what to expect, but some don't like his teaching style. His style is very much college professor lecturer. He is following his Historical Atlas of Central Europe which starts ca. 400, but making it more specific to Carpatho-Rus and the Austrian Hungarian territories throughout history. His plan is to write a history of Carpatho-Rus and he is trying it out on us. We were told to bring our books, but don't need to refer to them because he has large size maps to refer to. Although, I have read most of Magocsi's books including the atlas, I am still learning new things.

We have language class 2 hours a day. Our teacher Professor Pugh is a linguist - which is great. He is a good teacher. Our goal is not to become fluent in the Rusyn language, but to know enough to learn more on our own. There are a number of new language books which is wonderful because we have never had them. Professor Pugh has given us a draft of his book "Rusyn, A Practical Grammar and Textbook" for teaching Rusyn to English speakers. We have a new language book book that is being used in Slovakia, by Slovak students. If I had a Cyrillic keyboard I could write you something - but it will have to wait until I am home.

New this year is Pat Krafcik teaching several folklore classes. Yesterdays was on the Robin Hood type folk heroes, today it was on magic and superstitions, and tomorrow on wedding traditions.

Yesterday and today we also had a Pysanky Workshop. We made three different kinds of Pysanky. I am not very artistic so mine are pretty simple, but some of the students are very good. One of the young fellows from US showed us a website of his Pysanky and he is really a Pysanky artist. He made one of the iconostas at his grandparent’s church and gave it to them for the 50th wedding anniversary! It was amazing. Something interesting is what she uses to dye the eggs. She puts colored crepe paper in hot water with vinegar and lets it cool. The color is great. She also takes a watercolor piece (from a child's painting tin) smashes it up and puts it in hot water with vinegar and lets it cool.