Russian Scavenger Hunt
I was glad that it was sunny on Monday. Why? Because I had to participate in a scavenger hunt.
How do you you say "Scavenger Hunt" in Russian? (The best part of this photo is Garrett's face of contemplation in the background.)
Meghan Duff, my Russian professor, decided that it would be a fun idea to paste Russian words and phrases around campus. She gave us a clue sheet to work off and allowed us a half an hour to wander campus, collecting and translating everything we could find.
Armed with pencils, dictionaries, and smartphones (if we had them), the entire class dispersed into small groups across campus. The first place my group went to was the Science Building. After reading the sign outside, we went inside to see what was pasted on the window. We had a Russian proverb to decipher.
The problem with Russian proverbs – or any foreign proverbs, really – is that the literal translations can be really confusing. There generally could be a more appropriate translation that is not linguistically identical, per se, but culturally similar. The above phrase roughly translates to something along the lines of “when the goat eats the wolf.” This is the Russian equivalent of “when pigs fly.” (Fun fact: I Google-searched the phrase in Russian on my iPod to figure this out. Otherwise, I’m sure my group would have stood outside of Science 102 for a while, wondering if the goats in Russia were just carnivorous or something.) After figuring out that phrase, some of my group members began to decipher the Russian on the opposite wall.
I guess Meghan thought it was funny to point out that the display case was full of many dead birds. It was a little humorous to slowly read a sentence in Russian, thinking that it might have deep meaning, and then come to realize that it was only descriptive. After writing the Russian and the English down on our worksheets, we ran to Powers Hall to find more scavenger hunt items.
Now, for the next big item on the list, it may not have been me figuring it out one-hundred percent. When I was meeting with Erik Smith (who does Marketing and Public Relations for UMM) on Monday morning, Meghan came by with a label for his door. She explained to Erik that students would be coming by his office to say, “priviet!” and that that meant “hello!” in Russian.
Whose office is it? If he is home, say hello!
My group only made it through most of Powers Hall, recording each bit of Russian we saw.
Top left: These are stairs... Interesting, yes? Top right: Woman's Restroom
Bottom left: Theater Bottom right: President's Office
We didn’t make it over to Kimball Hall before our time was up, which means we had several things left unfound.
At the end of class, Meghan had us pose with our “Word Stories,” which will be displayed at Celebrate UMM on Thursday, May 4th, at 4:30. As an incentive to attend, here’s a preview of our word stories. To find out what they are, come by Celebrate UMM on the first floor of Torrey Hall; our word stories will be up for all to see.
- Jordan Gilletti '12
