One thing my experience living and working here in Russia has taught me, in many ways, we are very similar yet in just as many ways we are and that is what makes it exciting! Let me tell you the story and you will see why I started the blog with that sentence. Last week, Vladimir, my Deputy, asked me to his flat for dinner and to meet his family. He told me after dinner, we would go to the sauna with some of his old plant workers and then I could stay the night at his place. I knew this [View Full Entry]

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Before I forgot, I will now be on my fourth translator. Denis resigned on Thursday, but does not have another job. Really since coming back from the States, his attitude has not been the most pleasant and while I was home for the Holidays, he did not do much at all so this may be the best thing, but I hate this process. Does anyone know of an English and Russian speaking translator?...lol Today, I went skiing with Freddie and Alexander in Moscow at Volen Park (www.volen.ru). For you advance skiers, do not pack your bags and head this way, but [View Full Entry]

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One thing I really enjoy here in Russia is the way they celebrate birthdays. I received many fine greetings today, both near and far, but I wanted to share a few from some of my Russian friends: 1. May your birthday be the beginning of another great journey!...Cirque du Soleil, okay so this was not a Russian friend, but I really liked it so I thought I would share it with everyone. 2. Happy birthday to you, Vince! Wishing you a good health, a big success & happiness, and big money with great love. Many happy returns of the day. 3. [View Full Entry]

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In keeping with what has become an annual tradition, I decided to go skiing over MLK weekend, which is also my birthday weekend. I got the idea when Freddie was looking for (cross country) ski pants and I threw out the idea to Leo and/or Freddie about downhill skiing. Neither had downhill skiied, but both were interested. The other barrier we ran into, they have not served in the army yet so they do not have their external passports so we had to stay in the country. There is some skiing just north of Moscow, but I wanted to do something [View Full Entry]

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Happy New Year! I am back from a very rushed 10 days in the States; however, I did visit everyone I wanted to see and got everything completed that I wanted to do. All kinds of funny stories to tell, but thankfully nothing major. It all started on the night of the 20th when I was laying in bed wondering if I told my driver the correct time to pick me up depending on traffic. I went to check on my tickets again and realized I was an hour off from what I thought. I am use to taking the Moscow [View Full Entry]

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This was a short business trip to Kiev to visit another poultry company there. I did not get to see much of the town so I only have a few pictures and they were all at night, but it was enough that I would like to go back and visit some more during the day. The town was much more "European" than I thought for. One could still see a lot of Soviet in it, but it has a lot more color and design than you normally see in Russia. We also learned the country is very divided between the pro-EU [View Full Entry]

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I decided to venture to another Russian city, south of Moscow, called Voronezh. Of course me, I decide I can do it by train and I have to admit, I am getting better at it, but still not real comfortable. This time, unlike when I went to St. Petersburg, I asked the porter where my room/bed was. After she tells me three times and I am still standing there, she got the idea. (Actually, she was very nice about it.) When I got in the room, my cabin partner was already there and ready for bed. This was around 8 PM. [View Full Entry]

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I know I have been offline, but I am here (snow covered) and doing well. I have three blogs started with activities but no time to finish them and load the pictures. I did get moved, but no internet access yet at my new place; hopefully this week. If I actually stay around this weekend, I will try to get the blogs updated along with the pictures of the new flat. I hope all is well with everyone. I will be home in the States for Christmas if anyone is around. I will spend a few days in Gainesville before Christmas [View Full Entry]

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Again, I just have not had the time to enter the blog so I decided this evening after volleyball to come home and get at least several of these updated before I leave for Christmas. We had a great time in Moscow for Thanskgiving dinner. I do not know if it was because it was my first year or the restaurant or what, but last year our time together meant more to me than this year. I had a great time and food was good (for the Russian's version of American Thanksgiving) but it just did not feel the same as [View Full Entry]

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I started this blog almost a month ago, but never had pictures to go with and once I had pictures, I never had time to update the blog so finally after almost a month, here it is. I owe a huge thanks to Freddie for his help in finding it, working out the details, and just all of the time he took in the process to help! I am so glad we found this and got it all taken care of before I leave on Friday for the States. We looked at several, all two rooms (one bedroom). The very first [View Full Entry]

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