Siberia...close to home

Today I truly realized that parts of Canada are not so different from Siberia. We hear about Siberia as children, or when learning about Russia in junior high school. It sounds so foreign, so isolated, so desolate. Some times, we forget that although we are so far apart, the common thread of nature always exists between us.

I saw splices of home (Calgary home) everywhere today on our trip to Baikal Lake. We had a water shut down emergency (no water...anywhere) around our area so classes were cancelled and we had to try to get away for the day. Why? It's Russia!

Our interpreter & site contact, Kate, rented us a car and driver for the day and we spent about an hour listening to Russian music while observing the Siberian country side from the window. The scenery is a little of what you would expect of the Siberian country side...vast dry yellow fields, little civilization. However there was an additional palette of colors that I didn't expect - the bright evergreen trees, the white birch trees, the burnt sienna backdrop of the bushes. The sun was bright today, and the drive was peaceful.

First we stopped at the open air museum of siberian log architecture in Talzia, a place where you could see how ancient Siberians lived. It is situated on the bank of the Angara River between Irkutsk and Listvyanka.  We saw huts and traditional Russian churches made of wood. I felt like we had been transported back into time.

[an ancient woodent church - using no nails, just interlock]

[Kate and I in front of the horses]

Then we made our way to see Lake Baikal - absolutely beautiful. Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world, and one of the largest bodies of fresh water with 3500 species of living organisms. We visited the Scientific Museum to learn more about the lake, and then went on a hike with a Russian tour guide. Thankfully, we had our translator along. The hike felt like I was walking in Calgary or Banff. Familiar smells, sights, sounds. Evergreens, pine cones, squirrels. The weather was literally like a typical March day in Calgary. The Sayan mountains were in perfect sight over the incredibly clear waters of the lake. Then we went to the main fishing market and bought the local speciality food, smoked omul salmon, and ate it with our picnic on the beach. I literally haven't felt so relaxed since lying on the beach in Xcaret last December. After smelling the choking smog of Irkutsk during rush hour, it was such an incredible feeling to breath in the crisp, cold, Lake Baikal air. Tomorrow our students will be taking us around the town to show us some local Irkutsk sites.

[view from our trek - Lake Baikal with some ice. Hard to see the mountains in the background, but they are there]

[the beach]

[the ice]

[our picnic]

[me]

[the smoked omul]

[I actually ate this and it was amazing!]

Another day in Irkutsk

Today was awesome! I was much more energized than I was yesterday, so teaching was a lot of fun.  The students are so friendly here and so willing to learn.  The first case that I taught today was about an innovative product to prevent foot infections in dairy cows.  The students had a great debate on whether the product would be marketable in Russia.  Then we let them work on their business plans, and finally I gave a lecture on balance sheets/income statements/cashflow.  The lecture stressed how even though a business is profitable, it may not be in a good cash position.  We also discussed ways of strengthening your cash position by making various adjustments to your business, ie reduce costs, increase prices, shorten A/R or lengthen A/P.  I straightened out the common misconception that holding inventory is a good thing.  I cannot believe I was able to successfully deliver this lesson - it really shows me how much I have learned in my MBA.

The weather he was beautiful today, surprisingly! It was bright until around 9:30 PM, and the weather after school was around 15C. We walked around town and took pictures of the sites.  Pictures are below! Tomorrow there is a "planned emergency" - all the water is shut down in the area that we live in.  Classes are cancelled, so we are taking a trip to Baikal Lake.  On Saturday our students are showing us around town.  Can't wait!

Teaching Day 1

About to spend my first sleep here in Irkutsk, on a couch in a 2 bedroom dorm. Our accommodations are pretty good - I was pleasantly surprised. We have a little kitchen, a room with a bathtub, a little toilet room, and 2 bedrooms, each with a bed and a couch. We are right on the campus of Baikal National University of Economics and Law (corner of Goirken and Lenin street), so it is quite convenient to get to classes. Pictures of exterior below!

[In front of our flat]

[view of the university from our flat]

[Open manhole ourside our flat]

I got in today at around 11:30 and it was go, go, go from there. Our awesome site contact, Kate, met me at the airport with one of those signs that you see in movies and always wish some one had for you..."LEADER Project 2010". Came straight to campus to catch up with the rest of the crew (Yves, Yussef and Susan) and then we went to the campus canteen where they provided us with a great three course meal. Went straight to teaching after that. Yussef and I are teaching a 3rd year class in Russian, so we are teaching through a translator. We had an awesome class today - the students were so energetic and engaged! They all wanted to contribute to the lesson, which made it a lot easier for us to facilitate discussion.

Each day's format is pretty consistent - first we do a case, then we let the students work on a business plan, and finally we have a lecture style class that is used for background of the next day's case. Class starts at 2:00, and runs until around 5:30. The case we covered today was how the owner of Lululemon, Chip Wilson, decided to grow his business. Then we talked about what it means to be an entrepreneur, why someone would want to be an entrepreneur, and what makes an entrepreneur successful. After that, we split the students into groups -- they will each be working together in their groups to come up with a new business venture and develop a solid business plan. They will present their proposal to the class on the last day of the LEADER program, where they will pitch their business to us as if we were investors. The business plan lesson was on idea generation, and how to successfully brainstorm ideas. Finally, we delivered a lecture on opportunity recognition, which will be the basis of tomorrow's case.
I am super tired today and can't wait to teach again tomorrow!

Below are some pictures of me teaching - the woman beside me is one of our translators.  :)

From Russia, With Love

Currently sitting in the Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport, waiting for my flight to Irkutsk. Local time - 10:37 PM. About to cross 5 time zones in a matter of hours - will arrive in Irkutsk at 11:10 am and go straight to teaching a class.

I just had my first Aeroflot experience from Heathrow to Moscow - it was a bit rough around the edges but not as bad as I expected! I heard some terrible stories about botched Aeroflot flights before I left Canada...but my airport taxi driver put my uneasy feelings to rest when he mentioned that Aeroflot recently revamped their fleet. They used to use refurbished military planes from commie days, but fortunately the ones they have now seem like the old school Canadian Airlines planes...except they have royal blue mismatched seats with harsh orange accents. Quite a utilitarian experience though - no luxury personal TV's, no peanuts or snacks, and no safety sheet in the front pocket. Not that I ever READ the safety sheet, but its presence gives you some sort of psychological comfort that there IS a backup plan. For some reason, the absence of the safety sheet made me really make sure my seatbelt was buckled tight! The takeoff was shakey, and the passenger beside me turned to me and said "Don't be afraid...be terrified!!". I didn't know how to respond so I just let out some nervous laughter, as he imitated the pilot hammering back vodka shots. "Why is the plane taking off an hour late?", I asked...."Eees Russia!" he proclaimed. Ah, the answer to everything..."It's Russia".

We became fast friends from there. His name was Maxim and he was with his girlfriend Dasha -- a sweet young couple, about 24. They taught me some words that I need in my vocabulary, including a few choice curse words, "just in case", they said. When I told them I was going to Siberia, Maxim was appalled! He proceeded to tell me all the bad things about Siberia, warning me that some people might consider me too "exotic" and thus may not answer me when I ask them questions (???). He said they would probably just shake their heads and walk away, but he assured me it wasn't racism...just the unknown. He also mentioned that because it is so cold in Siberia, the people are "cold" and like to stay silent!!! His beautiful wide eyed girlfriend kept elbowing him in the ribs and reassuring me that things would be just fine. Kind of like the two sides of me - one telling myself that I'm crazy and the other telling myself that I will be just fine! I bid them farewell after promising that I would sign up for a bootleg Russian Facebook (vkontakte.ru) as they boarded their flight to St. Petersburg.

My faith in the order of the universe was restored when my luggage was magically sitting on the carousel in Moscow - I have NO IDEA how it got here seeing as how when I was in Heathrow just hours before, they could not locate my luggage. Needless to say, I am ecstatic, especially after hearing that fashionable clothing is hard to come by in Irkutsk. Now off to Aeroflot Experience #2...Siberia!

[I think this is my flight....but its in Russian!]

Russian Roadblock #14 Gazillion

Do these bags look a little dejected and forlorn to you?

Yes, I thought so as well. Upon further investigation, I found out that the feelings of forsakenness stemmed from 2 main reasons. Allow me to elaborate:

1) Lulu Bag, Bulk Barn Bag, and Medium Sized Black Luggage...they may be misfits apart, but together they form a crew called "Meena's Essentials".  However, Medium Sized Black Luggage is MIA - nowhere to be found! The "friendly" baggage folk did say that they would ship my bag to Siberia when they find it...for some reason that strikes me as almost comical. Again, that's kind of like saying "Ms. Nanji, you can be rest assured that when we do locate your luggage, we will be sure to send it to Timbuktu". Here's hoping!

2) Both the Lulu Bag and the Bulk Barn Bag were photographed outside Heathrow Airport in London, at precisely the same time that they were supposed to be in the overhead compartment of a flight to Irkutsk via Moscow. Ya thats right...looks like they missed their flight to Siberia!

Jokes aside....this sucks! Now I ain't lookin' for sympathy here...merely want to share my frustration at the fact that anything that can go wrong, usually does. Also, crash course in "taking things as they come"...this is an unfortunate situation but just hoping that all will iron out eventually, as it usually does. Thankfully I have such a great support system - thanks to my precious loved ones...they always help put things into perspective.

How did this all happen? Bad start to the day I guess. Munich flight was cancelled, and I was rerouted through Dusseldorf. Flight got into Heathrow with only 1 hour to spare before my next flight (at a different terminal no less). Got past border control in Terminal 1 only to realize my bag didn't share the same fate...dramatic, I know, but it's still lost in transit somewhere. By the time I filled out a missing bag report I could see the writing on the wall...there was no way I was making my London - Moscow - Irkutsk flight. Had the Munich flight not been cancelled, I would have had the comfort of enough time between my flights at Heathrow to boot it to Terminal 4 to catch my flight to Russia. But, what can you do...c'est la vie!

Although I am of the "Glass is Twice as Big as it Needs to be" school of thought, I am trying to summon that little thing called optimism that sometimes rears its pretty head in these types of situations.

Meena's Attempt at Optimism - Take 1:
I am currently in a hotel room near the airport that has HWOD - Hot Water On Demand! Just as I wished! Now if only I had ROD to catch up on Gossip Girl/Survivor/ANTM...

Meena's Attempt at Optimism - Take 2:
I am in a fluffy white bathrobe enjoying room service. I will refrain, however, from taking a picture of my meal as I think all I do on this blog is show pictures of my food. This IS really good pasta....but I must say, it would taste even better if it were in Canadian dollars.

Meena's Attempt at Optimism - Take 3:
The presence of the May 2010 In Style Magazine (UK Edition) on my hotel desk. Just what I need...a dose of Euro fashion to cheer me up :)

Ok that is all the optimism I can muster for the day. How exhausting. Over and out.

Flight LH3277 to Munich...CANCELLED

[My sweet setup at the gate...2.5 hours to takeoff]

Somehow I knew this would happen! Maybe because I was worrying about this very thing so much. So I got literally 3 hours of sleep last night and left my hostel at 4:15am to catch my flight to London (via Munich) at 6:30am. I walk in and see my worst nightmare on the screen....flight cancelled!! I had to trek to another terminal, and then wait in a massive line up to try to rebook my ticket...now I am going via Düsseldorf (I had NO idea where this was...had to get Imran to check). Good news - I can still make it to London before my flight out from London to Moscow. Just on a very tight time schedule now! Not to mention the fact that this flight doesn't leave until 8:50am so I really could have had a full night's sleep....I guess I'm back to watching the Bourne trilogy on my laptop. Thankfully I have free airport wifi! Yippee!

Praha = Gastronomical Euphoria

[Týnská Bar & Books]

Currently sitting in a dark little lounge lit by candlelight, eating olives and enjoying a glass of vintoski, lonesome [Týnská Bar & Books - Prague/New York]. This is my type of place - jazz music, dark mahogany, red walls, and shelf of books covering the wall behind me. All I think I have done in Praha is eat...eat and wander the streets. Whether alone or with company, I have tried to take as much advantage of the food this city has to offer. I have eaten at numerous swanky cafes with beautiful patios overlooking the Old Town Square, I have shared laughs at a restaurant on the top of a hill over looking the city, I have enjoyed Czech food in random side streets in front of various bohemian crystal shops, and of course frequented the many pastry, Trdelnik , and crepe kiosks. All I have to say is WOW....the food is amazing and the views make it even better!

[My solo lunch at a random cafe: caprese, goulash, bread/olive oil/balsamic vineger, finished off with a cafe latte and lemon sorbet]

[Eating yummy crepes for brekky]

This has to be one of the most beautiful European cities I have ever seen. It is so clean and safe - other than a smattering of obnoxious male attention, I have never felt safer! The people are friendly, the music is great, and the gothic architecture is divine. Every part of the city is beautiful, so you can literally just walk around and let yourself find new places to admire. Today was my last day in Praha and all I did is get lost (purposely). I walked around for about 10 hours, going wherever the cobblestone path took me. I saw random gardens, the Jewish Quarter, and of course a variety of trinket shops. I admired the stores full of garnet and amber (gem stones that the Czech Republic are known for), but alas I did not purchase any. This gives me yet another excuse to come back one day! I resisted getting a "I heart Prague" shirt, mostly because I am hoping that Lauren will bring me back an "I heart Moldova" shirt. I can't have TOO many "I heart" shirts in my closet...then I would just feel like a traitor. Unfortunately, due to my baggage and wallet limitations, I was unable to go crazy shopping here. I did however find a killer denim acid wash vest that I just love, love, love!! I'll find a way to squeeze it in, somehow. ;)

[Me in front of the Astronomical Clock]

[Random scene in Stare Mesto]

 [The Jewish Quarter - beautiful part of town with lots of history]

This trip has made me feel so very much unlike a backpacker...except for my accommodations and our little foray into a backpacker pub crawl yesterday! Details for those who would like to know more:

Accommodations:
Hostel Týn - amazing location, right beside the Týn Cathedral in Stare Mesto. Pretty bare bones accommodations though - extremely clean but really no luxuries. In fact, we only had hot water 50% of the time! Would I recommend it? For the location and the price, yes! However would not stay here if I ever came back, mostly because I feel like I have done the "backpacker" living much too much in my life and am ready for the luxuries of an actual hotel room with hot water on demand!

Nightlife:
Lauren and I tried to do the "local" thing on Friday night and wandered around Old Town area stepping in and out of lounges. Great music, but we decided to try to meet some English speaking people last night by joining the pub crawl that meets at the Astronomical Clock tower. Average age: 19. Average product mix: mostly female. Needless to say, we met more people walking around outside! Good line-up of lounges though, but probably would not recommend it as we have just become to old for these things (unfortunately...sniff). Places that I have heard about that are good: Karlovy Lazne (5 story club on eastside of Karlov Most - good club but lots of tourists), Lavka (next to Karlovy Lazne), Duplex (Wenceslas Sq - heard this place is quite good), & Roxy (live band type stuff).

[Lauren and I, getting our backpacker swag on]

Well I'm off tomorrow morning and beginning my long journey to Irkutsk. Flights: Prague to Munich, Munich to London, London to Moscow, Moscow to Irkutsk...I know, going west again before I go east - don't ask! I will get into Irkutsk on Tuesday afternoon.  For my mother - Happy Mothers Day!!! Love you and miss you lots, don't worry I am safe and I'm not taking candy from strangers. To the other best mother I know - Appa! Miss you lots and hope you had an amazing day!

Time to catch some zzz's before this crazy flight schedule! xox!

Bohemian Rhapsody

Prague's got style. Seriously. If Prague were a woman, she would be a timeless yet eclectic beauty...almost an enigma, if you will. Her cobblestone streets are lined with art galleries, cute little patios, and wonderful architecture. Everywhere you look is a beautiful scene that you just feel like painting!

My hostel is on a cute little street called Tynksa, right beside the Tyn Cathedral. I started off my day alone yesterday, and found tons of stuff to do by just letting the city be my guide. First I discovered a funky little vegan Indian resto near my hostel - Beas Vegetarianaska Dhaba. This place had an assortment of vegetarian Indian choices that you pile into a thaali and pay based on weight. Nothing better to beat jetlag than a wholesome Indian meal! Not to mention they had the most amazing ginger, orange, lemon and mint tea...on the house! This place was so cool it even had baby blue toilet paper. :)

[view of my thaali]

Then I wandered around Stare Mesto [Old Town Square] and soaked in the sites and sounds of the city.  I perused through a random Czech book store, admired the wares of a blown glass shop, wandered up alley ways full of art, and of course checked out the famous bohemian crystal shops. I ended up in a concert at the Church of St. Nicolas listening to the Prague Mozart Trio. It was a ton of fun however I have to say that the beautiful music was lulling me to sleep as I was trying to fight my jetlag (I had been up for 30 hours by that point). It's a good thing the church was so cold or I would have really fallen asleep! I needed a little pick-me-up after that was done, and found the best pastry ever! Everyone must try a Trdelnik - a crispy but soft structured hollow roll full of vanilla, almond, cinnamon and sugar. Oh so good! The Trdelnik gave me the energy to find a shopping area (surprise, surprise) with a bunch of cool stores. Lots of great style, but seeing as how my suitcase is already overweight I don't think I will be doing much shopping on this leg of my trip!

[Yum best pastry thingy ever!]

Lauren got to town in the middle of the night yesterday so it was nice to have some company today. We started off the day by meeting up with my friend Danijela's cousin, a local named Zlatko (thanks for the intro, D!) at the Astronomical Clock. He gave us a great tour of the city - we saw Nove Mesto (New Town), Vaclav Namesti (Wencelas Square), and the beautiful Karlov Most (Charles Bridge). Karlov Most is lined with little booths of trinkets and paintings, and has the most beautiful views of the city. The other side of the bridge is known as Malostranksa (I think - will confirm) and it literally feels like you are walking down a movie set. Everything looks so old and perfect - hard to explain and pictures don't do this city justice! We stopped for lunch at the cutest little shop that is owned by Danijela's uncle, Cafe Il Balcone. Zlatko gave us great ideas of places to go - always nice to have local advice!

[Caprese - tomato & buffalo mozzarella...what else do you need in life?!?]

[Lauren, Zlatko & I at Danijela's uncle's cafe]

[Cafe Il Balcone]

[Artist on Charles Bridge]

[Love the cello]

After bidding farewell to our new friend, Lauren and I trekked up to the Prague Hrad (Prague Castle). We stopped at random puppet stores and did the tourist thing...purchasing random trinkets along the way. We didn't make it all the way there though because we found a little restaurant overlooking the city on our way. One glass turned into a meal of Goulash (must try!), turned into glasses of bubbly, turned into 3 hours of great conversation while admiring the scenery! The warm pinks and burnished amber of the buildings looked absolutely divine when splices of sun would shoot through the clouds.

[One of the many random puppet shops in Prague]

[Amazing meal near the Prague Castle]

[Nothing better than bubbly!]

Came home to rest and blog until we head out tonight to check out Prague night life. Loving my new mini computer - perfect size for travel blogging this whole adventure!!! Ciao ciao!

Packing Dilemmas....

I finally got my passport back with a shiny red Russian Federation visa posted in one of the pages!  Thankfully everything was completed in time...now I just have to figure out how to pack like a minimalist...and minimalist is NOT my middle name.  I have to pack for site-seeing in Praha, teaching in Irkutsk, lounging out on very long plane rides...3 weeks in one suitcase, weighing less than 20 kg.  Not my forte to say the least!  I think back and still don't understand how I was able to pack ONE suitcase for the 6 months that I lived in Australia!  Or ONE backpack for 8 weeks of backpacking! I just went and bought a pile of "travel" size products...and of course did some calculations on how long my contact solution would last based on the exact amount that I use on a regular basis (~ 6mL/day...ya I'm a nerd).  Here's hoping I can channel my inner backpacker so that I can pack light but still travel in style!

Excuse me, ma'am, what is the status of your Visa?

Hmm…not quite sure!! We have been facing so many roadblocks this past couple of weeks that I am not even sure if I will be embarking on the adventure as scheduled….9 days from now!

This is the usual process flow:

Receive Letter of Invitation from Host University ---> Send to Russian Consulate --> Get Visa in passport --> Start LEADER adventure

However, everything that could go wrong in this process, has! Murphy's Law I guess.

Our Letters of Invitation (LOI) were sent for the wrong day (meaning we had to reschedule our flights so that we would be entering Russia on a later date than originally planned) and then we found out that we need to get certain blood tests because they sent us a different class of LOI then they usually do! This puts us in a very tight time frame…as the tests generally take 2 weeks to get back…and I am leaving in 9 days.

Silver lining:

Since I couldn’t go to Moscow as originally scheduled, I have re-routed to spend some time in Prague….which I am VERY excited about. Prague has been the political, cultural, and economic center of the Czech Republic for more than 1100 years and is situated on the Vltava River in central Bohemia. Castles, architecture, crystal, oh my! I am staying in Old Town (Staré Město) and cannot wait to check out the spired towers of Týn Cathedral.



That is, of course, if I can get my Visa in time to make my flight! These types of roadblocks teach me a very important lesson - there is no point in stressing out when it comes to travel plans. Life flows on and, as my dad always says, everything will work itself out. You have to go with the flow and hope that life is unravelling as it should...

Ya ni gavaryu pa ruski

Я не говорю по-русски

Translation: "I don't speak Russian"…yet. But I hope to change that soon! It started with an impromptu lesson from a classmate on key conversational phrases like "Hello, how are you doing?" (Pree-v'eht, kahk dee-lah?), but now it's time to ramp things up! I have been meaning to pick up some books on Russia from Chapters, and finally had a chance peruse through the aisles today.

I decided to pick up "Russian Phrases for Dummies", and I'm going to somehow try to fit reading this into a crazy semester full of stacks of cases. The first line in the intro of this book is: "Speaking more than one language is like living more than one life, one of the ancient philosophers said". I would tend to agree. Picking up this book also made me realize that I still need to learn Italian, French and Japanese. Ah well, I guess I have lots of time for that…

As for LEADER updates, we just had a training session that started bright and (too) early this morning. Our "Super Saturday" training sessions generally consist of each site group teaching a case to the rest of the LEADERites. Cases include examples of foundational practices that are important when starting up a new business, with topics such as effectuation, bootstrapping, developing effective marketing plans, and understanding financial statements. The purpose of these sessions is two-fold: to ensure that we learn the content that we will be teaching, and also practice teaching through the case method.

Just as the case method of learning is different from lecture based learning, the case method of teaching is so very different from lecture-based teaching! Now I have to preface this by saying that I have had about 6 years of experience teaching community youth (junior high and high school students) topics of ethics, leadership, international development, history, and art….but this is completely different. The case method of teaching is as dynamic as the case method of learning, and completely unpredictable! It really gives me a new appreciation for my professors at Ivey that have mastered this method of digging deep and creating a safe forum to explore your decision making capabilities and insights, while thinking on your feet when your choices are challenged by others.

Another great thing about teaching before we go is that we can identify certain habits that we must minimize to be able to teach effectively in another country. For example, it is important to avoid the use of common North American colloquialisms that are second nature to us but will not be understood by the students we are teaching. Also, writing on the board usually feels so safe, but some of the sites don’t have boards, and some of the students can't read English! These are certain subtleties that are hard to capture if we don’t have constructive sessions where we really understand the cultural diversity that we will be plunging into.

Something that I am personally really excited about is teaching with a Russian translator. Some of my classes at Baikal National University will be completely taught with a translator…which adds a whole new level of complexity to the mix! Trying to instigate a dynamic and exciting forum for conversation and learning when students don't understand a word you are saying will be interesting to say the least!

We are still undergoing massive fundraising efforts to be able to raise the $60,000 needed for the trip and are throwing a LEADER event at Century Room in Toronto this Friday, March 26th. Click here to donate to LEADER (be sure to indicate that it should be directed to the LEADER project). To purchase a ticket to the event, please click below!

Do svidaniya [Till the next meeting]!