Students in my International Business class at Stolypin Volga Region Institute of Administration, Saratov, Russia.
Thursday, February 6, 2014
My Students!
Thursday 2/6
Yulia from the office brought pie(pirog) in today for the International Office. One was a peach and the other the most excellent meat filling. Absolutely delicious. Made my whole day as I had a 3 hour class 3:20---6:30pm. Compliments of her mother I think. Best food I've had in Russia yet!
The trip to DHL Saratov
So the book saga continues.....
I am in an office where everybody speaks very good English, but they do most of the talking to each other in Russian. This is good for me as I try to pick up little pieces of the language. I hear Natalia on the phone and I'm pretty sure I'm part of the discussion. She gets off the phone and says....there is car waiting to take you to DHL, it is on the other side of town, and Masha will go to help you. I'm a bit flustered, had no idea this was going to happen this quickly; I need to withdraw some money(all the ATMs were out of order on the way to work), and I was pretty sure I need to bring ALL pertinent information with me(pretty good chance the DHL office here did not have a record of my correspondence etc.,) So I 'm riffling through my stack of papers---I must put all things in one easy place, right? We are out the door and into the parking lot. We see the car, no driver---I sort of assume Masha is driving maybe? No No No she says. I don't drive. I can totally see her point. I wouldn't drive here under ANY circumstances. The driver come around the corner. Boom we are in the car and off. Masha wears her seat belt!. We hit an ATM. I pull out some cash....off we go again. It is snowing. Kind of beautiful, warmer than usual, gray, but sort of muffled day. Dangerous to drive in, but our guy is a pro.
I realize we are headed toward Volga river. Then the road North under the big bridge where I'd walked the Sunday before. We drive through some really cool parts of town....there is a little beach on the river(wrong time of year). We drive through what I think must be a version of early 20th Century Russia; little wooden houses, some very old, like a little country town but in the middle of a pretty big(900,000) city. Hillsides, very rural in places. Then past the airport and into an industrial area--photos to follow soon--lots of businesses. we see the DHL office.(we've been driving for 20-25 minutes) Masha and I jump out. We get up to a metal door. There is a little white typed note taped to the door. Something to the effect that the office has moved. Masha says something about how it would have been nice to have put this on the website!
Masha, incidentally has been to America, and in fact lived in Rehoboth, Delaware for a few months. My wife and I have good friends in Rehoboth, (the honorable William Moss, one of the town's more enjoyable characters) and go there all the time. I sit here I wonder if we'd ever passed Masha on the street or something. Like Viktor said to me on the train, this is a small world....
The driver knows where the next address is. This guy is all business. 10-15 more minutes, another part of town. Nice mix of old and new Russia, like Chimayo, New Mexico meets Tyson's, Virginia.
We are at the new DHL office. Masha(Maria) rolls up to the desk, there are two very efficient and nice girls doing their thing. I have the appropriate addresses, dimensions of the boxes, and weights...42 Kilos total. Masha needs to call the office to provide the Moscow Fulbright phone number. I pay a rather steep amount of cash for this, but I consider this to be very important. Books people, are one of the most wonderful things about us humans. They transform us. They give us immeasurable happiness. I want to share some of my books with Russia. I am getting close.
We are back out the door into the snow and soon we are coming back down Moscovskaya Ulitza and back to the Institute. Perhaps we will see our books soon? I forgot to say that the DHL Saratov office says they will be delivered to the Institute, contrary to what I was told by email.
This morning Masha told me that DHL was unable to reach the Moscow Fulbright office with the phone number we had given them. We provided the official number again, and business hours.
Today was my first class. Three hours long. These young people have stamina. Nice young people.
As most of my students know---the first day with me can be a bit overwhelming. Lots of things for them to think about. I shall describe that in some detail soon. Pictures to follow.
I am in an office where everybody speaks very good English, but they do most of the talking to each other in Russian. This is good for me as I try to pick up little pieces of the language. I hear Natalia on the phone and I'm pretty sure I'm part of the discussion. She gets off the phone and says....there is car waiting to take you to DHL, it is on the other side of town, and Masha will go to help you. I'm a bit flustered, had no idea this was going to happen this quickly; I need to withdraw some money(all the ATMs were out of order on the way to work), and I was pretty sure I need to bring ALL pertinent information with me(pretty good chance the DHL office here did not have a record of my correspondence etc.,) So I 'm riffling through my stack of papers---I must put all things in one easy place, right? We are out the door and into the parking lot. We see the car, no driver---I sort of assume Masha is driving maybe? No No No she says. I don't drive. I can totally see her point. I wouldn't drive here under ANY circumstances. The driver come around the corner. Boom we are in the car and off. Masha wears her seat belt!. We hit an ATM. I pull out some cash....off we go again. It is snowing. Kind of beautiful, warmer than usual, gray, but sort of muffled day. Dangerous to drive in, but our guy is a pro.
I realize we are headed toward Volga river. Then the road North under the big bridge where I'd walked the Sunday before. We drive through some really cool parts of town....there is a little beach on the river(wrong time of year). We drive through what I think must be a version of early 20th Century Russia; little wooden houses, some very old, like a little country town but in the middle of a pretty big(900,000) city. Hillsides, very rural in places. Then past the airport and into an industrial area--photos to follow soon--lots of businesses. we see the DHL office.(we've been driving for 20-25 minutes) Masha and I jump out. We get up to a metal door. There is a little white typed note taped to the door. Something to the effect that the office has moved. Masha says something about how it would have been nice to have put this on the website!
Masha, incidentally has been to America, and in fact lived in Rehoboth, Delaware for a few months. My wife and I have good friends in Rehoboth, (the honorable William Moss, one of the town's more enjoyable characters) and go there all the time. I sit here I wonder if we'd ever passed Masha on the street or something. Like Viktor said to me on the train, this is a small world....
The driver knows where the next address is. This guy is all business. 10-15 more minutes, another part of town. Nice mix of old and new Russia, like Chimayo, New Mexico meets Tyson's, Virginia.
We are at the new DHL office. Masha(Maria) rolls up to the desk, there are two very efficient and nice girls doing their thing. I have the appropriate addresses, dimensions of the boxes, and weights...42 Kilos total. Masha needs to call the office to provide the Moscow Fulbright phone number. I pay a rather steep amount of cash for this, but I consider this to be very important. Books people, are one of the most wonderful things about us humans. They transform us. They give us immeasurable happiness. I want to share some of my books with Russia. I am getting close.
We are back out the door into the snow and soon we are coming back down Moscovskaya Ulitza and back to the Institute. Perhaps we will see our books soon? I forgot to say that the DHL Saratov office says they will be delivered to the Institute, contrary to what I was told by email.
This morning Masha told me that DHL was unable to reach the Moscow Fulbright office with the phone number we had given them. We provided the official number again, and business hours.
Today was my first class. Three hours long. These young people have stamina. Nice young people.
As most of my students know---the first day with me can be a bit overwhelming. Lots of things for them to think about. I shall describe that in some detail soon. Pictures to follow.
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