Blogs from Russia, Europe - page 289

Hi there again, on the weekend of 18th to 20th was the AIESEC May Planning Meeting (MPM) at a datcha - a weekend house a bit outside of Moscow. Many Russians have these datchas to flee from the noise and dirt of the city during summer or at least the weekends. Besides that they grow different kinds of fruit and vegetables in the gardens there, to either consume them themselves, or to sell them at markets. Datchas are very simple houses of wood. They are normally not completely furnished, a bed, some chairs, a kitchen and a table... Lucky if they have a real toilet and not just an outhouse... Well, I didn't participate in the MPM, but I went there with some others to enjoy the evening together with the members of AIESEC in Moscow... ... read more

Some last photos that I thought belonged in my diary....... read more

Now as well in Spanish, at the end of the message! Jetzt auch in Spanisch, am Ende der Nachricht! Ahora tambien en español al fin del mensage! ______________________________________________________________________________ Hi Guys, Long time since I haven’t written, but due to the fact that I wasn’t in Moscow for a while there was not much to tell you… but now I’m back and this is what happened lately: Spring definitely arrived in Moscow and outside in the parks the trees are blossoming and the weather is quite nice! Well, it’s still cold in the nights, but during the days sun is shining and we reach about 18 degrees Celsius. On 11th of May we met at Sasha’s apartment where he invited us to Russian food and a nice get together. We spend a really nice afternoon, first eating ... read more

Hello I have a little time to talk about my observations and experiences in Mongolia and Russia. Without pictures this will take a little imagination. Not hard for most of you!! maybe The steppes are vast. An unforgiving land. Almost solemn and lonely. Winter lasts long this high and far north. But Jeremiah's spirit lives!!!! OHhh does it so. Two out of four Mongolians lives in Ulaanbaatar or another main aimag (state) city. One is semi-nomadic (living the winters in a town or village and the summers tending the stock/herds out on the steppe) One out of four is truely nomadic, existing out on/from the land. Packing up the Ger and moving when the time is right. Each summer brings rebirth. The people just endure the winters. They are brutal beyond description. The landscape shows it. ... read more

Lyudmila Giorgevna's lecture this morning was about terrorism, but later it turned into a discussion about 'what type of world we live in'. The two adjectives that first came into my mind were "American" and "small". Everyone agreed that it is fair in parts and unfair in others. At the end we watched a documentary about the Beslan shooting on September 1st, 2004. What happened in Beslan, a village in a region near Chechnya, was terrible. It is a part of the world where people value their family more than anything, where not just one parent but mum, dad and both grandparents take their children to school each morning. That is why the gunmen could take so many people hostage. In the afternoon I stayed in obshezhitie and made some plans for going away. The second ... read more