Meeting friends of friends

This afternoon we walked to Traveler’s Coffee to meet Chad Gehrman. We were a bit late and tried to call Chad but seemed to have the wrong number. We were discussing this when we passed a man and his little boy on the side walk. Just as we passed, he said, “Are you Peggy?” As we stopped to introduce each other, Zhenia and their dog, Nanu, joined us.

Chad, a Minnesotan, has been in Russia since 1992. He and his dad were in Indian Guides with Jake and Chuck Ritchie a few years back. Chuck connected us with Chad. Zhenia is from Novosibirsk. Their son Daniel is two and half and bilingual, of course. Zhenia said that Daniel is teaching his grandmother and his playmates English!



We walked on Morskoy Street for a while.
Chad bought Nanu an ice cream cone—quite an operation.

Chad steered us through a neighborhood we hadn’t seen. Akademgorodok has 100,000 people. Bob and I were wondering where they all lived. Chad explained the density of the place. Apartment buildings, like ours on Piragova, house many, many families in the same space that just a few American families would occupy.

We are probably 10 minutes away from Chad and Zhenia’s, through the woods. We can find their house because they have two canoes on the deck. Canoes are virtually unknown here.


There is nothing like being with a delightful 2 1/2 year old! Our time with this energetic family was so enjoyable. We grinned all the way home.

Central Siberian Botanical Garden

Olga, Paulina, Sasha, Peggy, and Jane


We walked to the Central Siberian Botanical Gardens with Paulina, Olga, Sasha, and Jane this morning. Bob and I had tried to find the gardens last week but gave up after walking for over an hour with no luck.



When we arrived at the main building we found out that there were no tours available. Jane used her extraordinary persuasive skills and managed to get us into some greenhouses. Once inside we enjoyed a lively conversation with the botanist as we exchanged names and stories of the plants we had in common and especially about the ones that were unfamiliar to us. A number of years ago, Bob tried his hand at bonsai cultivation. He was impressed with the bonsai specimens here.






























Olga, Jane, Paulina, and Bob with a mammoth's tooth.









Bob, Peggy, Jane, Olga, Paulina, and Sasha









In the outside gardens, we saw this cedum in neat semi-circles. It reminded me of the spiral that Susan is creating with it in St Paul. Looking at the hosta gave me an idea of what ours will be looking like at home after a first frost. Of course we are at the end of the growing season here. Now, we have to imagine how beautiful these gardens are when in full bloom at the peak of the season.







































This is Paulina's favorite tree--you can see why!













Olga and Sasha: Classmates from the Mathematics and Physics magnet, and now group mates at the university














Bob, Jane, and Peggy














Bob and Paulina
















Our guides and interpreters made this a particularly pleasant morning.

Our Piragova Street apartment

Welcome to our home in Akademgorodok! Our apartment has been freshly painted and is clean. Everything works. Together with a housekeeper who comes from time to time, we can easily keep it tidy. We have a telephone where we receive calls but we still haven’t figured out how to make calls to off campus numbers. Ian has loaned us a cell phone and this is totally adequate for our needs.

As you enter our front door, the kitchen is immediately in view down a short hall. The first door on the right is the shower/sink room; the second is the WC.







Directly to the left is a hall-like space where the ironing board is located. We use the coat rack to hang clothes and store other items. We’ve put our papers, books, maps, and other things we’ve collected there.













Another room is in view off to the left. It is about 13’ x 13’ and serves as our living room, study, and bedroom.










There is a big and heavy sofa/bed. Fortunately, its construction does not include the standard American frame that can be so uncomfortable. It is a large and heavy piece of furniture so we have opted not to unfold and refold it each day.



There is a wardrobe in which to hang things. We’ve added several more hangers. Another cabinet with open shelves is next to it. Most of our clothing fits into these two pieces. There is an ample desk where Bob prepares his lessons.



A corner table is our computer center. Conveniently, the Ethernet outlet is below this stand and there are electric outlets in the wall above it. Two office type chairs work with these tables.





The south wall is windows and one door which opens onto a small balcony. Former tenants have left a clothes line out there which is very useful.
There is also a twin bed in this room. It has a soft mattress and serves as a day bed although mostly it just collects stuff. Sometimes this room looks like teenagers inhabit it—stuff is everywhere. Everything looks neat here because we were expecting a visitor when these pictures were taken.








The kitchen is equipped with the essential items. Bob cooks breakfast each morning which is such a nice way to start our day. There is also a clothes washer in the kitchen which is an extraordinary convenience. There is a great supply of hot water.














The bath has a hand-held shower. It has a good nozzle which provides ample spray. The toilet is in a separate closet next to the shower/sink room.
















We are located just a 15-minute walk through the woods from the main NSU building and another five minutes from the main street with its department store, cafes, and grocery. We are pleased with whole situation.

Check the September archives for the September 11 post "Last Day in Moscow" which we completed today. May be caught up within a week or so!

Gymnasium #9

We took the jitney into Novosibirsk this morning. We followed Olga’s instructions and found our way to meet her without any problem. The beginning of our metro ride was at the Ploshchad Lenina station. There are two metro lines and our stop was the last one on the red line so our task was not too difficult. Her school, Gymnasium #9, is a short walk from the Zaelcovskaya Metro station (my own transliteration; we have no English maps!) Olga had asked us to talk with two of her classes of 9th graders who are studying English.



We told them a little about ourselves and our kids and talked about the twin cities, the Mississippi, and Minnesota. We particularly pointed out how many similarities we see between our two cities.







We talked about their families; many of them have no siblings. They talked about the sports they enjoy—swimming, skating, skiing, wrestling, soccer, dancing and some of the other activities they enjoy—painting, music, email, TV, video games. Sometimes school closes because of the weather. Last year it was particularly cold so they missed about 10 days of school. They assured us that they did not study the whole time the school was closed.



The students dressed much more nicely than students in MN. The boys wore coats and some wore ties. They did not wear sneakers. Bob was wearing jeans that they are not allowed to wear! We enjoyed our time with them very much.







This is the 2nd group of students and us.











This class was assembling as we were leaving. That's Olga in the middle.Thank you, Olga, for taking the pictures of us with your classes!





Olga asked two of her students to walk us to the front door. We snapped this photo of them in front of the school sign. The school security officer jumped in the photo too. Does he remind you of Blake's Bob?










On our way home, we stopped at the Traveler’s Coffee shop near Ploshchad Lenina for lunch. After our first trip into Novosibirsk, we learned that the most reliable way to get a jitney seat is to get on the bus at the beginning of the line. We hopped back on the Metro to go to the main train station (via the green line) where the jitneys start their routes.


From a distance, the main train station's profile resembles a locomotive engine.




This morning, we noticed the fare was 30 rubles instead of 25. We wondered if the increase was because we were in the front seats (the prime location for jitneys) or, if it was because we were traveling during rush hour. A sign posted in the bus this afternoon explained that on Sep 25 the fare increased! This is a good reminder to keep one’s mind open to ALL the possibilities, not just the obvious. Traveling reinforces this lesson constantly!

House of Scientists

We made plans with three students to go to the Central Siberian Botanical Garden this morning. At 8:30, it was 46ºF with a wind chill of 40ºF and 16 mph winds. We wimped out. We called Paulina and changed the plan to meet at 10:30 and go to a photo exhibit at the House of Scientists. She thought the weather was fine but went along with the change. As it turned out, the weather has been better than fine! It must be in the 60s; it's been a beautiful day. Next time we'll trust the local weather forecaster!

The photo exhibit of the Altay Mountains had been replaced by a Korean exhibit at the House of Scientists.

Paulina, Jane, and Olga steered us to the exhibition hall at the House of Scientists. We enjoyed looking at the art work--silk thread, instead of paint, on pieces of silk. Luckily, Olga had her camera since Peggy left hers at the apartment.






Paulina, Olga, and Jane







This is the House of Scientists. The museum is here along with a restaurant and a pleasant lobby filled with greenery and a pond.













Olga, Jane, Bob, and Peggy in the exhibit hall.










Paulina, Jane, Peggy, and Bob in the greenery in the HoS lobby.






Jane and Bob walking in front of the movie theatre on ulitsa Ilicha, Akademgorodok's main street.





Peggy and Paulina, chatting away, on our way back from the exhibit.





This evening Bob and I returned to the restaurant for dinner. Very enjoyable.


We added Sep 10, "Sunday in Moscow," to this collection. At this rate, we'll be caught up in about 10 days!

Equinox sunrises and sunsets

Today it was rainy and chilly. The wind chill was 27ºF around noon. Peggy got out her down coat--Bob's still using his fleece (he's no pansy!) This forest photo is from our walk back from dinner around 6:30.

It's actually around 45ºF at 7:45 this evening and the sky is clear.
Today the sunrise was at 8:18 and the sunset is to be at 8:20.
Tomorrow the sunrise will be 8:20 and the sunset will be 8:18.
This seems to be the day of the actual equinox here.
We think that the Novosibirsk weather here in September and October is the equivalent of Minnesota's October and November. We'll see.

How we got to Central Asia

A number of people have asked us, “What the hell are you doing in the middle of Siberia with winter about to set in?” About eighteen months ago, Tom Fraser, a partner at Fredrikson & Byron, received an email from the Center for International Legal Studies in Salzburg, Austria. CILS was organizing a new program which would put volunteer “senior” lawyers in Eastern European law schools. The school would provide the students and housing and the volunteer would take care of everything else. Tom, immediately identifying Bob as a senior lawyer, forwarded the email to him.

Bob made further inquiry into the program. He was sent an application asking for writing samples, list of publications and teaching experience. In the fall of 2005, Bob went to Chicago for an interview with Dennis Campbell, the director of CILS. To Bob’s great surprise, Kent Harbison from Fredrikson was also there for an interview. It turned out that Tom had also identified a third partner, Leo Stern, as a senior lawyer and Leo likewise applied.

Kent, Leo, and Bob in Salzburg, January 2006
An orientation program was given for all lawyer participants (about 49 from the US and Canada) in Salzburg the second week of January 2006. The week-long session gave some basic background in the European legal education system and provided answers to basic questions about the differences among the various legal systems in the countries to which the lawyers were about to be sent.


Immediately following the Salzburg session, Kent Harbison and his wife, Jude, left for their Eastern European assignment, Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia. Kent and Jude stuck out a difficult assignment for over three months.






Leo was assigned to the hardship post of Budapest, Hungary. He was there about four weeks in the spring and had a splendid experience.








We are assigned elsewhere in Eastern Europe, Novosibirsk, Siberia for a six-week teaching experience. One week into it and the enthusiasm of the students is inspiring Bob. We anticipate that it will be all that we expected and that we will have many, many stories to entertain you with at dinners well into the future.

Laundry and a walk

We did sheets and towels today. The place looks pretty funny with everything draped on windows and chairs and hanging on the rope line on the balcony. It was a beautiful day—sunny and warm, so while the laundry was drying we set out to see the Central Siberian Botanical Gardens.






After walking for an hour in the direction we thought the garden was, we decided we’d better get more detailed instruction on actually finding the place! It did get us to a new part of town and on forest paths that are new to us.












































We had an early dinner at the hotel on ulitsa Ilicha and a quiet night in the apartment.

We are listening to music from our iTunes collection on my laptop.