First Day of Workshops in St. Petersburg

Today we worked all day with the discovery program. I have my group of
college students and I am leading them in activities. It is a
challanging group to work with, in that the goals established for this
group are difficult for me to achieve.

I can't help but thinking the reason for this has more to do with my
inability to speak Russian and less with the group I'm working with.
Every year I leave here enthused about learning the language and swear
I will continue studying throughout the year. Perhaps this year will
be the year I actually follow through.

This is my first time comming here where I have arranged my own travel
plans and visa. As well, this is the first time I will be staying
after the discovery group leaves. I can only hope this will set a
personal precidance for future visits with friends in the area.

For now I will enjoy my time here and hope it is not the last time I
visit. Since the discovery program and Jean are the main reasons I
continue to have a reason to return, I fear the worst. Jean is
retiring and the discovery program may no longer make these trips
without her. Unless Jean returns I will have to find my own purpose to
visit my friends in this corner of the world.

-Dana

Minus 20 outside

We arrived in St Petersburg at 5AM and had to wait for the metro to
open. While standing in the train station I made a new friend. It was
an old drunk man. Despite how many times I told him (in Russian) that
I don't speak Russian, and he seemed to understand me, he continued to
prattle on (in Russian). Finally Mekhty saved me and we headed off to
the building we will be working in for the next few days.

When we arrived most of us were exhausted and fell fast asleep on the
mats on the floor. We had 4 hours of planned down time. I wanted to
head off on my own for a bit to explore the area. I changed into cold
weather running clothes and hit the ice.

I have never before run in freezing weather and I was a bit concerned
at first. After the first mile or so, I was able to settle into a
comfortable rythm. My constant movement (and awesome clothes) kept me
warm and happy. I think I was smiling during the entire 7mile run.

I'm the kind of runner who likes to greet people and say "hi" or "good
morning" (annoying, I know). I get mixed responses that I like to
catagorize into three things:

-- They pretend I don't exist and walk faster to avoid me
-- They acknowlege me and continue on
-- They respond with a friendly and enthusiatic reply

I have gone for long distance runs in at least 5 countries. Every
country provides the same basic matrix of responses. I was extremely
pleased that the Russian people were not an exception.

I guess people all around the world have some very basic comonalities,
independant of culture. Perhaps it is coded into our DNA:

Strange man running + friendly greeting = run/acknowlege/or reply

What an odd thing to evolve in humans

-Dana

New years with Russian Hippies

Obviously from the title I will talk about how I spent my new years
eve in Russia. First it is important to mention the importance of this
holiday here. In Russia the new year holiday is the most celebrated
and most popular holiday. The celebrations in many ways equal and at
times exceed that of Christmas in America.

This year I was lucky enough to be invited to join some local people
in Moscow. One of my friends I met on a previous trip to Russia was
going to be in Moscow with her friends to celebrate. I had not planned
on doing anything special for the day and had assumed all my friends
had plans to be with their local friends. Imagine my surprise and
pleasure when I was invited to partake in this celebration normally
reserved for only the closest group of friends.

When I met my friend at the metro she confided in me that she was
nervous about me being there. In truth I was very nervous as well.
While Valya is a good friend of mine I had no idea who she associated
with outside of the program I teach in. She had told me previously
that these people were "Russian Hippies". In addition to this, I was
to meet one of the people who lives at the flat I will stay at on my
extended portion of this trip. This means for me, if I do not make a
good impression then I would have to make other arrangements. Valya
told me she was not sure if we would all get along well.

To not leave you in suspense let me assure you now that my evening,
night, and morning were wonderful beyond belief!! This evening was so
much more than I could have hoped for.

We bought food on the way there and alcohol of course. We spent the
evening all helping to cook and sipping wine. It was a one room flat
with 7 people cooking and having fun. I was really made to feel like
one of the group.

As is often the case being the tourist, people will try to accomodate
me and make sure I am fully included in everything. This makes the
conversation less natural and more stressful. For this evening, I was
just another friend there to share the festivities. If I did not
include myself then I was left to myself.

This evening was one of those theoretical situations where the tourist
is instantly invited into the core culture and fully accepted one of
the group. It felt as though I was with a group of friends I had know
all my life and they treated me reciprocal warmth.

The conversation was challanging to follow but not impossible as it
was all in Russian. I helped cook and learned some new dishes I will
share. The food was out of this world delicious.

We (they) sang songs while Kola played the guitar. We all danced and
listened to music on the Internet.

We all finally left at 3 PM the next day.
This post is getting knd of long so I will follow it up with some
funny exerpts from the evening for your enjoyment. In a later post.

Russian warmth and other types of PDA

I arrived in Moscow this morning at 5 am. This time I was totally
alone. One of my friends offered to get up early ad meet me at the
airport, but I declined the offer. I think it is good practice to
totally immerse yourself in a foreign environment and try to
accomplish goals.

This does not mean it is any easier to do just because I chose to do
it. I was toatally neverous and felt very isolated. I was afraid I
would insult someone or make some mistake that got me sent home or
something like that. Thankfully the day went smoothly.

I was suppose to meet up with a friend here in the AM and chill with
her all day. Sadly my Russian phone would not work. I spent the day
going to various metro stops to see if anything looked familiar and I
could walk to her house, No such luck. After two hours of this , I
decided to set up shop in a starbucks on arbat street.

When I arrived there was no snow on the ground. As I say in starbucks
I got to watch as it started to snow and blanketed the ground in clean
white fresh snowy goodness. I had not slept in three days so I was in
and out of it for a while there. I was struck by what I saw both at
starbucks and on the train into Moscow. Both couple were young so that
may have had something to do with it. Both showed open, warm, and
passionate affection, publicly. It was a kind of care free joy of just
being together and being oblivious to the outside world; that I have
not seen here before. It was a nice thing to see.

The rest of the gang flew in and I was thankful for my time alone. No
matter how many times I come here, I am still a foreigner. Each time I
get that gut wrenching feeling of "here I got into a world of people I
can understand marginally at best, into a culture I have only begun to
scratch the surface of, and I'm alone". It is a moment I have when I
begin each journey into a different country. A moment where I have to
pause, take a deep calming breadth, and walk one foot in front of the
other into the unknown.

Silver linings

Earlier I mentioned how I did not take a tour of Frankfurt. Instead I
sort of took a self guided tour of the airport.

Today was a busy day for me. Issues with the new house and getting
Internet set up at home. Thankfully I had wifi and a plug to spend my
day being productive.

Important tip here:

When using a plug adapter make sure you do not leave the adapter
behind while packing up your equipment in a hurry. I did this once
before in Ireland at the airport. I guess it is a lesson I did not
learn the first time.

Here comes the silver lining:

Earlier on my self guided airport tour I remembered seeing a travel
electronic store. As soon as I noticed my missing adapter I hustled to
the store arriving just before they closed. I bought two adapter to
have a spare. Glad I took the tour earlier or I may not have been able
to find the store in time. I guess the universe had it's own reasons
for the confusion earlier. Nice that the karmic payoff happened so
quickly.

Thanks Universe

-Dana

Frankfurt Tourism = FAIL

I am on a 12 hour layover in Frankfurt Germany. I like the long layovers because it normally gives me the chance to go out and explore for a bit then head back to the airport and catch my outgoing flight. Mind you I have been here a few times so I am not hyper motivated to walk around this city in the middle of winter. Since I am here already I figured, why not!

I did the usual of going to the information desks and asked about storage for my luggage and things to do in town. This is where things started to go south. I got my bag in storage just fine. Then, I asked about transportation into the city. The first guy at the tourist information both said he had no idea what I could do while here for 12 hours. That was not very helpful. I had to press him and he gave me directions the "metro". I roamed around and never found a metro. I went to a place that had signs all written in English about special sightseeing tours for people in the airport. I don't normally go for this kind of thing but I was bored so I went in and asked. I guess the signs are in English but the tours are only in German. Understandable since I am in Germany. I asked him about other stuff to do. He had no idea either and gave me directions to the "metro" (totally different directions than the first bloke). Again no metro.

I repeated this hunting process on 4 more people at the information and tourist booths, all with similar results. I even asked a complete stranger, same result. Finally I decided it was really not worth it. If it is this much trouble to go sightseeing in the city I am not going to waste my time and money on it.

I found a nice little cafe with Wi-Fi in the airport and got some coffee and will surf the net until I have to leave. I should mention, every single person I spoke with was friendly and outgoing. The shuttle driver and I even joked around about long solid cylindrical objects being broken and flat. Totally not a PG conversation but fun to have with a total stranger. The girl with him was in tears from laughing so hard.

Sorry Frankfurt, I had a wallet full of money I would have gladly spent in your city if only you had given me the option to do so.

On My Way Back to Russia

Traveling invokes mixed feelings for me sometimes. I think it is
traveling alone for extended trips that gets me. Of course I'm excited
to travel and to be away from my normal environment. At the same time
I am sad to be leaving the familiar suroundings of home.

I have been traveling since I was 5 years old alone. With divorced
parents living in seperate cities, I spent a lot of time traversing
the distance between the two. I can still remember the sinking feeling
as I would leave each place. It is a similar feeling now.

On this trip, I'm starting in Oklahoma, where I spent my holidays with
family, and traveling to Russia via a 37 hour series of flights. It
may be this long flight has influenced my state of mind but I think it
is more than that. It is difficult leaving when you really enjoy what
you have where you are.

For this trip I am not as well prepared. I do not anticipate any
problems but several of my safety precautions have not been taken. For
example I am carrying much less cash than normal, I have not printed
out all my paperwork to keep a hard copy, and I have not made
arrangents for what I will do after my arrival.

Well for ths trip I will approach it more with a Taoist philosophy and
let the experience flow around me and with me while I enjoy the
journey. This trip is slightly out of my comfort zone, I look forward
to the growing experience.

Wish me luck....

-Dana