Ketchup!

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Okay, so to get this straight, no, this post is not about the great condiment, Ketchup. I apologize for getting your hopes high.



I am currently on the 8 hour plane ride to Beijing, China from Moscow, Russia and decided to take this opportunity to finally “Catch-up” on my blog. ( I know, I’m clever, tricking you into clicking this post because of the title.) In reality though, I just woke up from an almost 2 hour nap and came up with the title of this post right now and here- clearly I’m hungry and luckily food is on its way!!

So while I have been taking over friends’ Twitter feeds and Facebook newsfeeds with the help of Instagram …The ability to share a couple of pictures to show what my day looked like in captions is still not enough. And maybe, still you don’t understand how that makes sense since my captions tend to be a story, but maybe this insight will help. In Russia alone, I have over 5,000 photos/videos that were taken over the course of 4 weeks. That’s over an average of 100 pictures a day and you only get to see not even a tenth of that. I know this is partially my fault but… I am trying to make it up.

So continuing on…

To wrap up my time in Russia in one post might be difficult, most likely will be extremely long…but please bear with me, I’ll try to keep you entertained if you stick with me and take the time to read through all of this.

First, the food I just ate… pretty decent, good job Aeroflot, even if you don’t have movie screens to keep me personally entertained, you’re alright in my book because you only asked me (out of the rest of the group) what seat I wanted, aisle or window, and of course I chose window AND you fed me right after I had an amazing nap (great leg space). Oh and I don’t want to forget to mention. To those who have seen Bridesmaids (the movie)…. I AM SOOOO SITTING NEXT TO AN AIR MARSHAL!!!

Anyways, getting back on track…I think I’ll start at the beginning…where I left on this blog… So rewinding my life by what? 2-3 weeks?!? (Note: I don’t even know what day it is right now, so these events are most likely not going to be in the proper/ chronological order, if you even cared)

Here are just some of the highlights in Saint Petersburg, Russia:

<!---->1. <!---->I went to Novagrad

Okay- pausing the listing…THIS IS A STORY TO TELL. So it takes normally 3 hours to drive to Novgrad from St. P….not only did it take double the time, 6 hours being stuck on a bus, BUT we also got pulled over twice by the police! Th first time, it was a quick 10 minutes max stop but the second time was closer to 45 minutes. Apparently there was a people’s rally in Novgrad and it was decided that we should have a police escort to get there. Nothing special happened after that, we just had to cut our lunch time from an hour to 30minutes, and we walked through the attractions in record time. We were in Novgrad for less than 2 hours because we had to make sure that we got back to St. P in time for the ballet that Professor C got us tickets to!! Oh and we were crazy luckily, not only did we make it back in time for a quick dinner, we also had luck on our side for the weather! On the way back it started raining once we got on the bus to leave Novgrad and continued until we were entered St. P and the sun was out only in Novgrad and when we were outside in St, P.

**We have been told numerously that we are an extremely luckily group because the weather that we have experienced in Russia. For the most part it was always sunny whenever we had to be outside and when we were at attractsions, the only time that it was cloudy and rainy was when we went to the memorial, where millions of Russian’s died during the war, the weather has suited all of our visits, it’s crazy how global warming is affecting it (It was apparently warmer than their Summer).

<!---->2. <!---->I saw the ballet production of Swan Lake. AHHHH, it was amazing. So beautiful!! I knew that I loved and enjoyed ballets, but this definitely hits the number one favorite on my list of the ballets that I have seen. It was just breathtaking. THANK YOU Professor C for the amazing opportunity to see the ballet at no cost to us, when it would have been over $100 (USD) for a ticket. Connections, they’re great in life.



<!---->3. <!---->I injured by foot, in a very strange place. (I’m alright now, although at times it does swell up still ( I think it’s the extra scar tissue that builds up in injuries..?) but besides that, I can walk like I used to, after of course a couple of days of a good amount of pain)

But…because I got injured I got to see the American Clinic (a form of Russian health services) and how efficient they are. I was literally in the clinic for a maximum of an hour. I had to fill out paperwork, get checked over, get two x-rays, get those looked, got a gel and stretchy tape to force the swelling out of the side of my foot. Yes, I somehow caused corrosion of legiments on the side of my foot…pretty much my foot could have broken in half, luckily it didn’t. (Here this might be easier to explain if you can find it on your foot yourself. – Look at your left foot and glide your hand on the left side of your foot…feel that random bump in the middle of your foot? That’s exactly where and what I ended up spraining. Strange I know.)

That same day, an hour after I left the clinic, Professor S was leaving, going back to good ole’ Babson to teach, so luckily I got to through medical records (including a copy of my x-rays!) at him to bring back home to be dealt with my insurance since the clinic did not take Blue Cross Blue Shield, even if it is one of the better known insurances out there. Good fact to keep in mind. So thanks to him for taking that back!

<!---->4. <!---->I got to meet so many amazing figures in the Russian business environment!



Once again, Professor C out did himself, he got us so many business meetings lined up that we were always moving from one visit to another, hustling to make it in time (which for us, ended up meaning.. on average 5-10 minutes late- but in Russia, that’s okay because Russians are never on time)



So this list included:

<!---->1. <!---->The GM of Courtyard Marriott

<!---->2. <!---->American Chambers of Commerce

<!---->3. <!---->International Paper

<!---->4. <!---->Grand Canyon Mall

<!---->5. <!---->Oleg-Entrepreneur- the founder of Lenta (he sold) and the founder of a new Medical Manufacturing company (his current poject)

<!---->6. <!---->US Consulate

<!---->7. <!---->Imperial Porcelain

<!---->8. <!---->Baltika Brewery

<!---->9. <!----> Zenit’s Marketing manager? Not sure of what the employer’s position was…



<!---->5. <!---->Right after meeting with Zenit’s employer…WE GOT TO SEE ZENIT PLAY- KUDOS TO PROFESSOR C, ONCE AGAIN. So I ended up experiencing my first futbol game in Russia and it was insane! The crowds were crazy and it was just a lot of fun and a great experience overall! It was the best way to end our class time (before having to start the three papers that we had to write within a little less than a full week- the workload is relatively intense- but so worth it in the end) And I wish I could elaborate more on the experience- but this was definitely a “you had to be there” moment. You can try though, to imagine the chants, the unity of the cheers, the flares, and smoke taking over the fields; but it still isn’t the same effect as sitting in the stands watching this happen and wanting to so badly be part of it- wishing that you knew what the chants and cheers were.



<!---->6. <!---->On the Sunday after that (the game was on a Friday), which was the last full day in St. P, I went on a 6 hour walk. I walked through three islands with a planned destination to make it to the Church of Spilled Blood. This was one of the great explorations that I had in St. P. I got to do quite a good amount of video-blogging…which of course needs to be edited first before anyone can see it…if I share it, but I got to see a lot more of St. P than I expected myself to on that day, which I was sooo excited about!



-----End of post…to be continued-----

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