Arrival Thursday, 2/19

Mornings on a Russian long distance train are interesting. There is a small bathroom at the end of each car, cleaned by the train attendant periodically, but still slightly stinky---very similar to what you get on an airplane. Around sunrise, people begin to stir, and then queue up for the bathroom in the very narrow hallway. I usually get my business done earlier and had done so this time as well. Fellas line up shirtless with a train provided small white towel----I think there is some kind of sponge bath thing going on. Most people put there regular clothes on, eschewing the evening track suits/loungewear. If you are out in the passageway at this time, it is impossible not to get rubbed on by the attendant(providnik or providnitza) as he/she goes by with tea for everyone as well as anyone else moving in the hallway. Personal space is not a big deal in Russia---everyone lives in apartments with generations of family----and this closeness on the train doesn't phase anyone---often people put their hand on your waist as they go by. It is not at all intended to be creepy. In fact, of anywhere I've been, Russian men are the least creepy. There is very little catcalling, overt ogling, or general inappropriateness as far as I can tell. Still, I make myself very skinny in the hallway. The few women in my car quickly get themselves back into high fashion pretty quickly. By 7am things calm down and most folks are up in the passageway watching the approach into Saratov.


Upon arrival, Valia from the office informs me that they'd all been waiting for me yesterday at 11am, when I was originally supposed to arrive. I'd sent several emails to everyone from Dulles, Brussels, and Frankfurt airports informing of my weather delay. Most of them having yahoo email accounts which I suppose surprisingly determined that a NOVA email is dangerous. Several notices, upon inspection, were in my sent box informing me of this. I'd gotten a facebook message from Natalia in my Moscow hotel that sounded as if they had not gotten this info, and this was confirmed by Valia. My friend Stepan knew about the change because we talk on FB and he certainly didn't think he needed to inform anyone. He by the way showed up a bit late at the depot on Thursday morning, missing me...as Valia quickly found our driver and proceeded to drop me at my accommodations in the college dorms. I was to get the "directors VIP room" with a small fridge, single bed, small TV, and a private bathroom/shower. Russian dorms are like 1950s America. There is security at the door. Keys are kept at the desk. There is an 11pm curfew!!A fellow even knocks on your door around 10pm to see if everything is "Narmal". I was a little tentative about all this beforehand, but it turns out that this is just fine for me and I think I'll stay here. Stepan and his family offered me a small apartment they own in Engels across the river----very kind of them---but it would mean a bus ride whereas I can walk to the school from the dorm(not an easy walk...I'd say 2.5 miles, but I like walking, even on 4 inches of ice)....besides that, I don't think I'm going to stay out late very much.


After I deposit my bags in my new accommodations, Stepan arrives and invites me to his parent's home for breakfast. They live on a slight hill west of the city center(Stepan has a car and motorcycle) with a beautiful home and small indoor swimming pool/banya!!!!(pics in this blog from last year). Here I meet again his Dad Dmitri, Mom Anna, and little brothers Igor and Arhip. Charming family---and now dear friends. I am seated soon and fed delicious porridge with mushrooms, small meat filled turnovers, and "house pizza" as well as tea. My appetite is not great with all the travel but the food is very good. Afterwards, Stepan takes me upstairs to do some emailing and such but soon we are back on the road to deliver me back. He picks up a classmate on the way, a young woman, Alina(in my classes last spring), because they are competing in a "negotiation" competition later that morning. I have to teach this day as well---now the day of my arrival---and I need to wind down/up for my 3:20pm class on International Entrepreneurship. Can't sleep so I fuss around emailing etc until about 1pm whereupon I begin the cold 50 minute hike to school. The ice is a nightmare, glassy, uneven, melting in spots, a real challenge....but to this date I have not crashed and burned.(last year I fell probably 10 times in 4 months)

Train to Saratov

I checked out of my hotel near Paveletsky Station on Thursday afternoon and rolled my large duffle bag the 7 blocks to the train station, a huge 19th century classic building with hundreds of people going in every direction---there are metro trains, commuter trains, and long distance trains from Russian Railways. You don't really want to take photos in train stations for sort of obvious reasons---sort of akin to the "suspicious Muslim'" taking pictures of the Brooklyn bridge. Russia has its own security issues that are believable and obvious---last year, while I was here, someone, perhaps militants from the Caucasus regions, blew up a bus and the main train station in Volgograd---a few hundred miles down the Volga River from Saratov.


So, you enter the station where there are police waiting, checking luggage, with metal detectors and such. The authorities are VERY vigilant in train stations, pacing everywhere.....soldiers, police of various kinds, and security guards.I must say they make you feel very safe. Much of their activity is scanning the crowd and prodding the poor souls who try to sleep in the chairs while waiting for their train.
I passed my time reading a book on the Chinese economy called "Age of Ambition" by Evan Osnos while waiting for my train. You learn the track your train is on by paying attention to a big board in the waiting area. At 5 pm, the board announced my train was on track 2, and I descended to the platform. Your ticket tells you what car(wagon) you are in......mine was #13. Most trains that go long distances in Russia leave in the evening---I was in a second class compartment with 4 bunks;  I'd made sure to request a bottom bunk. I wrestled my bag in and was joined soon by my compartment mates, a young Russian couple---he was Sergei---his wife was not happy about something. There were some tears and it is very crowded with 3 people trying to maneuver(there are many interior train pictures on this blog from last year). I left the compartment for about 15 minutes to stand in the passageway to allow them to settle and change into something more comfortable. Russians usually change into track suits of some kind and wear slippers. When I return to the compartment I do the same.We soon settle in for the15 hour journey. We eat a small dinner provided by the train---chicken and porridge. Sergei and wife speak no English, but I can now get by in Russian. Soon he asks if I'd like to share a drink and we do a couple of vodka nips out of his flask. Around 8pm his wife climbs up to the top bunk and we all settle in for the night. Soon they are both softly snoring. I sleep fitfully but do get some rest. The bright lights of Moscow fade and we enter the dark and foreboding(at night) Russian steppes. In the morning I see an incredible scene before most are awake...an old lady is very near the tracks with a big pot of something, feeding a large group of dogs very near the tracks. Many are shaggy shepherd like puppies and look very healthy. There seem to be feral dogs all over Russia, but the elderly are very kind to them everywhere I go. Just this morning a few minutes ago, a great howling commenced outside my accommodations in Saratov-----it is just the dog population settling on a hierarchy for the day.
We roll into Saratov around 9am. Valentina from the office is there to meet me with a cab, none of my emails were received, and they had a had a bit of a scare waiting for me at the station when I was supposed to arrive yesterday.

FW: My new students in International Entrepreneurship

 

 

Russians, Chinese, Slovakians, Hungarians......wonderful people, highly engaged students

 

Miguel B. Corrigan
Assistant Dean for BUS/FIN/MKT, NVCC-Loudoun
Associate Professor of  BUS/FIN/MKT, NVCC-Loudoun

2014 Fulbright Teaching Scholar, SVRIA, Saratov, Russia

mcorrigan@nvcc.edu

703-450-2615
an

Travel to Russia Feb 2015

My plan after leaving Russia last May was to return on a regular basis in order to continue moving towards academic cooperation and cultural understanding.


I bought tickets to Moscow(very inexpensive) and planned to travel Monday Feb. 16 in the evening to Moscow---then traveling Tuesday evening to Saratov(15 hours by train), arriving Wednesday morning.


Monday, weather got I the way. it began snowing round 2pm as Janet prepared to deliver me to Dulles airport----the weather reports had begun to change, predicting 6-8 inches of snow. My wife said good-bye to me at security and I prepared to embark on a 2 week trip to Saratov. I was worried about her drive home....the airport is an hour drive from our home in Hyattsville, Maryland, but Janet was driving our Subaru which is great in snow. The same cannot be said for other drivers in the Washington area. The worst culprits are those who drive the BMW( an oxymoron--the ultimate driving machine). Something about driving german cars makes DC residents complete idiots.


Anyway, I boarded my plane, a United/Brussels Airlines flight at around 5pm. The ordeal then commenced. The plane was supposed to take off at 5:45pm. First we waited an extra hour for a bunch of high school kids on some kind of school trip to Europe----then invaded by hordes of noisy, stinky Vermont teenagers. Snow falling outside was at around 4 inches. If this had been Moscow, nobody would have batted an eye, but in DC, 4 inches is a national emergency. Pilot began to come on the intercom every 15-20 minutes explaining that we were in a line for de-icing. Minutes began to turn into hours. I tried to breathe deeply. I needed to catch a flight to Moscow Domodevo Airport in Brussels where I had a two hour layover. I watched that two hours go by. They opened the door to the terminal so people could bail out. I did not bail, but I remained calm knowing that at worst I would go home. Snow continued to fall. The. cue for de-icing began to grow. It was 10 F outside and snow falling heavily. Finally around 11pm, 5 hours later, we taxied to de-icing, the plane was deluged with the solution and about 11:30pm, took off. I knew I was now not making my connection to Moscow nor was I making my train to Saratov on Tuesday evening.Those train tickets were going to be a loss.


We arrived in Brussels at around 1pm, several hours late. I'd missed my connection by 4 hours. United was waiting at the gate----they'd re-booked me on Lufthanza to Frankfurt, then an Aeroflot flight to Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport, arriving at wrong airport at 11pm. I now needed to take a taxi, get a hotel, and try to escape to Saratov the next day.


I got some cash from Sverbank ATM in airport---found a taxi driver--negotiated an approximately $50 fare to an Ibis hotel near the paveletsky station where I could get a new train ticket to Saratov. My driver was all fired up about a football/soccer game involving Chelsea---they have a good Russian player---I was able to carry on a reasonable conversation about football with him though he spoke no English. He kindly drove me around the city center, pointing out the Kremlin and the Bolshoi theatre before depositing me at the hotel. I slept like a dog, waking at around 9am. I then got up, walked to the Voksal, bought a ticket to Saratov---all in Russian!!!(I am improving at glacial speed but improving nonetheless). I must check out this afternoon, train leaves at 6pm. Then 15 hours, arriving in Saratov at 9am.
Moscow is a bit balmy-- not much snow or ice---temps around 20F. This city is like London---everyone busy and hurrying, but my second time here is low stress.


All for now. I miss my wife and pups but will see some dear friends soon.

"Faces of Russia" exhibition

Janet and I installed my photographs of Russian people in the NVCC-LoudounWaddell Art Gallery yesterday with the help of Art Professor Dwayne Treadway. The show opens on Friday with a reception from 6-7pm. We printed about 60 photos size 11X14 and attached them to foam-core backing, then attached them to about 100 feet of white wall. This is a first for me and I am not sure what to expect.
While we were working several students came in and looked around, seemingly very interested. One young fellow asked if I might tell him what was the "theme". I mentioned to him something about Russian stereotypes and how I hope to dispel them through my quick photo portrayals of people I'd met in Russia. The open, pleasant, smiling faces---all virtually un-staged---make me feel good about the world in which we live---and I hope to convey those feelings to others.


He said---"Hey, I'm a Russian....from Ekaterinberg....." and we talked for several minutes. I think my theme surprised him but we had a great talk about several of my "faces". He went around and pointed out the "real Russians" based on appearance. This never fails to confuse me---that even if your family has been in Russia for several generations---only people with a certain look are "real Russians".
I should not admit that I watch Downton Abbey, but last week's episode included a Tsarist refugee exclaiming that a Jewish family from Odessa was not "real Russian". Someday I shall understand.


I leave for Russia on Monday and will arrive in Saratov on Wednesday. I shall begin teaching International Entrepreneurship  on Thursday. I return on the 1st of March. The Ukraine tensions may be ebbing a bit due to Angela Merkel's tireless negotiation with you know who---but I do not worry. I have a great many wonderful friends who keep a close eye on me. I have a feeling many people I know are suffering a bit due to sanctions and such. I feel it is very important to continue to my work in helping bridge the differences between our two societies---even something so miniscule such as my visits can have great symbolic significance(at least I hope so...)

I apologize for the lack of posting here recently!
A brief update---I am tentatively scheduled to return to Saratov and SVRIA to teach business as part of NVCCs M.O.U. with SVRIA---and will hopefully be the first participant in our fledgling faculty exchange program. This will likely take place in February, and I hope to continue efforts in  developing distance learning classes and future faculty exchanges with our SVRIA partners.


Here in Northern Virginia, Final exams are approaching. Students are all stressed, worried, and trying to mitigate the perils of procrastination. I try to be as kind and understanding as I can.....
I have at least 25 hours of grading to do before it is over!


In a few days my wife Janet and I will be joining old friends on the Caribbean island of Bonaire for a brief respite from the ravages of every day life. Photos to follow.

I recently inquired about possibly exhibiting my "Russian Faces" and other photos in our NVCC-Loudoun Waddell Exhibition space. Success. "Russian Faces" will be on exhibit from Feb. 16 to March 20.

We at NVCC Loudoun, along with our friends at Stolypin Volga Region Institute of Administration are also working on a possible Fulbright Scholar in Residence grant for an SVRIA faculty member to join us in Virginia for a year. Exciting. Much work needs to be done however.

NVCC-Loudoun's Workforce faculty are also continuing to work on an initiative to develop "english conversation" as an ELI course and offer it to Russian college students at SVRIA. We had a conference call with our Russian colleagues in Saratov last week that went well.