A Memorial to all the fallen soldiers of World War Two in Vladivostok.

A Russian World War Two submarine in Vladivostok.

A monument about the Trans-Siberian railroad in Vladivostok.

A typical Russian Army uniform from world war two or as the Russians call it “The Great Patriotic War”

A small chapel in the middle of Novosibirsk

Final Week In Siberia

When it was time to move on to Novosibirsk, we took another train trip on through the Siberian countryside.  The landscape was littered with colorful wooden houses tucked away in the birch trees.  We arrived mid morning and were greeted by Sasha, the GSE Team Leader from Russia.  We spent the first day getting to know our host families and completed the evening with a welcome party with traditional Russian cuisine.  Our week was eventful and the weather was absolutely perfect, even hot at times.

Saturday went on a tour of the Baltika Brewery factory and of course had a beer tasting.  Drew was in heaven and feeling his German roots! That evening we were treated to tickets to an amazing ballet “Bayaderka”, a tale of love and tragedy with stunning sets and exquisite costumes.  This was the highlight of Nikki’s week and certainly something to check off the bucket list...Russian Ballet in Russia...check!

Sunday morning Drew and Joe went to a Russian Orthodox service at at very beautiful cathedral and then met up with the rest of the team for an architectural tour of the city.  Novosibirsk is certainly one of the greenest cities we’ve been to and, like all the other cities, is spotted with war memorials honoring Russian soldiers.  Following our tour, we were off to the Zoo.  Mark, our resident team hunter, was in heaven and loved being 3 feet away from a real Siberian Bear.  Although he would have preferred being 3 feed away from a notorious “boronduke”, the Siberian Chipmunk.  This little critter has eluded him the entire trip and only Joe has actually seen one.  The zoo was beautiful and shaded with tall trees and an abundance of rare animals.

Monday morning we toured the TrainMuseum followed by a tour of the Chistaya Voda (Water) Factory.  We were all impressed with the cleanliness and efficiency of the facility.  After lunch we were allowed to visit the Siberian Geology Institute Museum and the Russian Nuclear Physics Institute.  They scanned our passports and provided us a guide to take us through the Particle Collider and to see the facility.  That evening we were joined by our host families at a club owned by one of the Russian GSE team members.  There we enjoyed a variety of piano tunes played by a local musician...what a treat!

The remainder of the week was filled with city excursions, Rotaract presentations, museums and professional days.  We gave our final Novosibirsk presentation at our going away party which was a nice change of pace being out of our suits in a more casual environment.  Like all the other cities, we were sad to say goodbye and will miss the warmth the Siberian people have given us.

Our final presentation was at the District Conference.  It was different from all our other presentations, as we highlighted our journey through Siberia and all the funny and inspiring stories along the way.  It was so great being with such a large group of Rotarians representing such a massive amount of territory.  Yesterday we took a tour of Vladovostock and it’s beautiful oceanside memorials and cathedrals.  Now we are all packed up and headed to the airport for our final leg of the trip and headed home.  Words can not express how grateful we are for this opportunity.  It has thought all of us the meaning of friendship and the importance of embracing all cultures.  Thank you Rotary and all the friends and families that have helped us along the way.  We will never forget this trip and can’t wait to share our experience with everyone when we return.

Spaciba balshoy...thank you so much!

The 2010 District 6960 GSE Team,

Joe, Drew, Mark and Nikki

Soldiers tribute and Lenin

school of nuclear science

Front of a old russian train

Russian Ballet

Beer Factory

cooking show

Krasnoyarsk - Part 2

Our last few days in Krasnoyarsk, produced a fair amount of activities as we try to include all of what this city has to offer in a very short period of time.  We could spend weeks in the city and surrounding areas and probably not touch on a third of activities and sights.  But with our time constraints and the program the Rotarians have put together for us we certainly have done an outstanding job seeing all that we could.

Our first day was filled with professional meetings in the morning and trips to the local art museums in the afternoon/evening.  Mark and Joe also got a nice treat by taking a trip to a local businessman’s warehouse to view some vintage motorcycles that he had rebuilt!  Most were old German war bikes complete with side car and machine guns.  His aim is to keep them as authentic as possible so they all were equipped with Nazi paraphernalia. He further noted that the machine guns were fully operational.  He would not allow us to test for true authenticity.  However, he also has taken an interest in American Motorcycles and has reconstructed a few vintage Harley Davidsons.  The most notable was a 1936 which was brought over by an American Cargo pilot during WWII and had been rotting in a Russian garage until only a few years ago. He had received the bike in pieces and has it almost completely restored. It was quite impressive.

Following our trip to the warehouse, the evening brought us to a church built in 1910 (or at least reconstructed at that date, we were unable to read the plaque) for a recital style performance from three beautiful Russian women whose talents consisted of  a Soprano, Alto and a flutist. We were thoroughly impressed with these young ladies talents and enjoyed such Russian opera songs accompanied by the pipe organ. We certainly took in the significance of the event, sitting in a old Russian church listening to opera ballads on an old pipe organ.

The following day we accompanied the Krasnoyarsk Rotarians to an opening of a park they had constructed for the local hospital children. This is the second park they have completed in the past few years and was quite a step up from the previous park these children were playing.  Words could not describe.

But perhaps the highlight of the entire week was Chef “Povar” Andrew performing on a popular Russian TV show in Krasnoyarsk. He prepared a Gazpacho and some seared Salmon as an entree which was picked apart by some local celebrities to see if they could determine the ingredients.  They did a good job but I think everyone was in agreement that Andrew had stepped up to the plate,  performed flawlessly during filming and certainly will provoke these Russians to try and duplicate his meal.  We all thoroughly enjoyed sitting through the taping of this episode, which took a total time of about 4 hours for 20 minutes worth of material! It was well worth it though, if not just to watch Drew then to watch the director, cameramen and our faithful Rotaract translator hard at work.

Before we knew it, it was our send off dinner once again.  The Rotary club gathered for another meeting and we were presented with gifts and warm heartfelt toasts as we went home to pack our bags for our journey the following day.  It is becoming increasingly difficult to build relationships and as soon as you really seem to get to know one another and the laughs start flowing, it is time to move on to the next city. It is well worth it though for if we did not have this program these would be individuals we would never meet and most likely places we would never see.  Off we go to the next city, Novosibirsk, to build new relationships and make the world just that much smaller.

Krasnoyarsk - Part 1

Krasnoyarsk certainly provides a different feel than Omsk, but of course, in an equally great way. There are a lot taller buildings in Krasnoyarsk, and similar to Omsk, it is situated on a large river (Pronounced - Yenisee), but the city seems to have equal sides situated on both banks where Omsk seemed to be mostly located on one. Because of this it seems to have a bit of that larger city feel and not quite the close compact feel of Omsk. A lot of buildings are under construction in Krasnoyarsk so it gives a feel that it is a growing city. One of the notable items is a sky scrapper that was begun years ago, of which, the developer ran out of money and it has been sitting half vacant for 10 plus years. The locals seem to be slightly amused and annoyed by this building and hopeful that another developer might finish up the project. Another interesting note is that the roads are very rough in this area due to the high swings in temperature (freezing and thawing of water between the asphalt cracks). The city has difficulty keeping up with the numerous potholes on city roads. Krasnoyarsk is generally colder than Omsk, but we would never know that unless told, for it has been in the low 70’s since we have arrived and even in the 80’s on a couple of occasions! Everyone was quite happy about the weather since it appears that we may have packed a little on the light side.


Our first day here was spent seeing some of the historical sights of the city which included various statues, churches and historical buildings some dating back to the early 1800’s. However, we feel the highlight of the day was spent viewing the largest dam in Siberia. A sight to behold, maybe not as large as our Hoover Dam but certainly enormous. It harnesses the Yenisee river, and from our understanding, produces almost all of the electrical power for the city of Krasnoyarsk and surrounding region. Joe inquired to the price per kilowatt hour and although we cannot remember the specific cost it appears we still have it cheaper in the states.

The following day was spent with professional meetings and then a trip to a the local school system. We visited with the learning disabilities classes and participated in craft time. Finding that although these youngsters may have a learning disability they seemed to all exceed our abilities in making clay flowers. Upon our departure we exchanged each of our handmade flowers and then grabbed a bite of lunch in the cafeteria (“canteen”). Something all of us have not experienced for over 10+ years! The food has not changed much.

Our weekend excursions consisted mainly of trips to our Host Family’s Dacha complete with “Baunya” (yes!), a Russian tradition we have began to adopt as our own! This has become quite a convenience as well, since the city of Krasnoyarsk has it’s hot water shut off once a summer to make repairs on the system (currently until June 9th). It was a lovely reprieve to have a nice warm shower! Our host families do heat up water for us in the morning though, so it is not as if we are truly suffering. We will say it is amazing how cold the faucet water is over here. We estimated it to be about 40 degrees F when exiting that faucet, at a maximum. It is interesting to note that the hot water comes from the city and that each individual does not have their own hot water heater like we do in the states. We attribute that to left over communist and socialized programs.

In the evenings we have been fortunate enough to spend time together with our host families for both some larger group dinners or our more common, individual dinners. We are finding a theme with Russian hospitality and that our new families are quickly growing on us yet again. We all equally dread our departure to the next city but also share excitement for new adventures. Yet another Catch-22.

In addition, one evening we were fortunate enough to attend a Russian Symphony and although it was about 3 hours long you would swear it felt like 20 minutes. We joked since it was at the end of a long day and it was almost certain that one of us would drift off during the harmonious compositions, but we all sat bright eyed and bushy tailed for even the conductor was entertaining in his jubilant movements.

We are eager to enter this week’s activities which consist of again professional meetings and many cultural activities such as a trip to the theater, another musical venture and even a trip to the Krasnoyarsk Zoo! Please stay tuned as we follow up with more excitement in the wonderful Russian city of Krasnoyarsk!

Trains!

Our train ride was a great success. As we approached, we were a bit nervous, for we were told that we had the most inexpensive seats on the train. So immediately our minds wandered to sharing compartments with chickens and other domesticated animals. As is turns out, the Rotary spared no expense and we were quite comfortable in our cabin (“berth”) which contained four beds and a table. But perhaps our biggest surprise was our send off. A lot of our Omsk friends joined us on the platform directly before our departure and bestowed upon us many gifts, food and trinkets to send us on our way. They brought balloons which we released before our send off and toasted us with champagne! The symbolism behind the balloons is that if you release a balloon upon your departure that you leave an item in your departure city expressing your intent to return. It was a wonderful send off and we were all very sad to move on from our new friends.

Once on the train we spent a few moments getting situated in the compartments, speaking with our neighbors from the Netherlands and getting ready for a 20+ hour journey through Siberian Wilderness. A good portion of our trip was spent at night but since the sun does not completely set until around 11pm here and rises at about 5am we had a good portion of time to sit and enjoy the scenery. There were many small villages with wooden houses complete with large piles of birch firewood. Some of these wooden houses are painted similar colors to the homes in Florida. There are a lot of green and even pink homes and factories. Colors we did not expect to see in Siberian Russian villages. It is tough to imagine how they can survive the winters in such houses knowing that it can get as low -50 degrees!

The wilderness was amazing with birch trees and cattle strewn throughout. Joe won the competition for first identified four legged creature spotted that was not domesticated. It was a rabbit with white feet, of course no one else was around to see it.

We all slept decently well but being in a new surrounding combined with the rocking motions and surrounding train noises provided for sporadic nights sleep. Needless to say we were able to catch up on some much needed rest after our week worth of excursions.

Finally, we arrived on time in Krasnoyarsk with a warm greeting from many of the local Krasnoyarsk Rotarians. We each met our new host families eager to begin the bonding processes all over again. We all visited our new homes, most of them complete with children, cats and in Apartments located high above the Krasnoyarsk Skyline! It is a more mountainous region so the views can be quite spectacular. We are very excited to see what adventures behold us in this seemingly wonderful city!

The Great City of Omsk

Well, what can we say, the Omscovites have done nothing but exceed our expectations in every way since our arrival. We have had a very busy schedule with many activities which has given us some wonderful perspective! We feel like we have managed to see a lot of what Omsk has to offer in a very short period of time. The past few days have been filled with trips to various museums, theaters, as well as professional meetings with individuals amongst our respective professions. To top it off, we have experienced a traditional Russian birthday party in the woods of Siberia, the words smallest printed book (with some chat time with the author) along with another trip to the “Baunya” complete with massages and a full course meal… in a bathing room! The Russians sure know how to do business. Apparently, it is quite common to hold a dinner business meeting in bathing attire, while enjoying a meal and traveling back and forth to the sauna! It may sound a little informal but they do it well and I could see how it could be as common as our business meetings the golf links.


The museums are quite amazing. They are usually smaller and generally not overly showy with their exhibits, but they display their history well and tours usually are accompanied by a guide. Where, without one, we would certainly have not taken away from them what we did. At the Siberian Culture Museum we played numerous games and were taught traditional Russian dances and songs (see accordion picture below). At the numerous art museums we have toured we met with many famous Russian artists, including a man who has virtually cornered the market on artistic miniatures. It was quite intriguing to speak with him and view the instruments he uses to create such masterpieces. He literally creates pieces of art smaller than a thumb tack ( if our readers have time; I suggest you check our his website www.konenko.net ).

In addition, we saw a delightful Russian play titled “Suicide” or “Self-Murder” (translation differences) which despite its ominous title was actually rather comedic. As Nikki noted, you can tell a good play when you laugh with everyone else despite the language barrier. We spoke with the director afterwards and were able to provide him some perspective as to how it translated to Americans. He is considering bringing the play to the U.S. so you may want to keep an eye out for it!

We have also spent some time visiting the local historic centers of the city and the two old fortress gates that remain. It is incredibly interesting to see that in certain areas of the city buildings remain from the Tsar era, then the next building over is from the Communist era and the building behind that is from current Capitalistic Russia. This is further evidence that the Russian people have experienced a lot of change in a very short period of time.

We also took took a trip to the local orphanage to visit the with underprivileged deaf children of Omsk. This is an orphanage which is supported by the Rotary and Rotaract clubs of Omsk, who have just recently provided them with a soccer field for activities and sporting. During our visit they performed a play for us titled “The Wolf and 7 Kids” (kids being baby goats). We would say it was probably hands down one of our favorite experiences to date on the trip. Before we left we spent some short time with the kids taking pictures and providing them candy and stickers. They seemed to be genuinely content and happy despite what some of us might consider a significant disadvantage.

But the majority of time to date has been mostly spent with our relative professions. I would say on some days almost half of our day every day is spent with our respective professions, which has provided each of us with a much broader perspective of our fields.

Now we are gearing up to move on to our next city, Krasnoyarsk. A city that is located in a more mountainous region and is of similar size to Omsk. The journey will take us on a 20+ hour train ride through forests of birch trees and we are very excited to get the experience to ride on the one of the words most infamous trains routes the TransSiberian. Despite this excitement we are finding it very difficult to leave our host families and Russian friends. We have spent 8 days in close contact with these wonderful people and feel as if they are part of our family now. Every day we have dined and shared celebrations with these individuals and there is truly no words in the English language that could express the level of their hospitality. Someone asked us what was the biggest surprise that we had received to date? I think we could all answer that honestly, the level of hospitality and warmth we have experienced. If the other cities are even half as gracious as the Omscovites… we are truly having an experience of a lifetime.

Day two... where to start! We were greeted at our hotel by our host families and then driven to their individual homes. We were quite surprised at the unusually warm whether of 78 degrees. Mark and Andrew stayed together while Nikki and Joe each stayed in their respective seperate homes. We visited with each host family, got to know each other and then headed out to the country side "Dachas" on the river bank, for a very special "Mayofka Picnic". This is an annual event at the begining of May to celebrate the revolution and to welcome spring. We were greeted by the local Rotary Club and Rotar-Act members and received traditional necklaces made of bread. The day preceeded with traditional Russian games and dance with an enormous feast, complete with homemade "Summagon" (aka moonshine) and Siberian entrees (bishbarmark). The outdoor table was over 50 feet long with a toast made by several people to celebrate this special day and all our new friends. There was a small home on the riverside with a giant indoor sauna called a "baunya." It is similar to our saunas, only much hotter and they dip small leafy branches from poplar trees and tap each other's back to detoxify the body. Then...a mad dash out of the house 50 yards into the 35 degree river! They had already built a bonfire for everyone on the bank for a speedy recovery. This was truly one of those moments that we will remember for a lifetime! The evening ended in downtown Omsk at an "Insight" seminar, similar to a Landmark Education seminar in the US.

Today, day 3, we began our morning on a cultural tour of Omsk city with a local historian and enjoyed a wonderful lunch together. Afterwards, we each had our own meetings with our respective local professionals. Andrew went to an upscale Russian/European fine dining resturant to talk the owner, Mark went to meet with local Omsk auditors and Nikki met with the Marketing Director of 5 Lakes Vodka, Russia's largest Vodka brand. After our individual meetings we met for a press conference with members of the Omsk Business Association as well as the media for a Q&A about American small business, commerce and our own professions. The day ended with another amazing feast at Joe's host family's house, complete with yet again, plenty of vodka, laughter and new friends. If this is what the first 2 days bring...we can only imagine the next 3 weeks!

Stay tuned!

Group Study Exchange lands in Siberia!

Thursday, the Rotary District 6960 Group Study Exchange Team left for Siberia. We began our trip out of Fort Myers, FL traveling to North Carolina, followed by Washington DC, then on to Moscow where we spent the day. Today during our 12 hour layover, we meet with the local Rotar-Act members to tour the city. We left the airport by train on a 40 minute ride through a beautiful birch forest as we made our way into downtown Moscow. There we caught a few metros (subway) that lead us to a hilltop platform overlooking the Red Square. For the next several hours we walked to Lenin’s Tomb, St. Basil’s Cathedral, Christ’s Church, Alexander Park, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and enjoyed the amazing flower gardens surrounding each of them. We finished our day with apple and cherry stuffed crepes...a la mode! Last night, we caught an 11pm flight to Omsk, arriving at 5am to a very warm welcome. Several Rotarians, Rotar-Act members and host families greeted us with flowers, banners and enthusiastic smiles. We spent our first day in a lovely hotel to get adjusted to the time difference. We’ve already seen so many rich cultural sites and we haven’t even began our district tour yet!

We are looking forward to updating our blog frequently so we can share this special experience with you. On behalf of our team, Mark Casper, Andrew Somerville, Nikki Heil and team leader Joe Boggs, we want to express our sincerest thanks to our Rotary District 6960 and our host families for this wonderful opportunity. Stay tuned for another update on our amazing adventure!