I’m not a very religious person as I tend to describe myself as more spiritual. I absolutely despise large churches and have yet to find one where I feel “something” is present. The only two times I’ve felt in the presence of a greater power was in a very small church in Madison, Florida and now a Russian Orthodox Church.

One of our hosts, Regina, took us to see this small church…more of a chapel…located near the offices where I was conducing business. The exterior of the church used traditional Russian architecture and nestled serenely in the snow covered woods was a beautiful sight in its own right.

Inside, the dark, single room combined the scents of incense, votive candles, and the wood that had been used to construct the church. There were several very old women quietly praying and I felt as if I had stepped back in time and and intruded upon another world or a simpler place.

I began a slow circle around the chapel observing the various religious painting and icons and then it came to me. There were no profound thoughts, no feelings of being saved, just the sense, that at that instance, everything was ok with myself and life. That there was balance and understanding and despite th occasional stumbles or mistakes, my path was clear.

I spent no more than twenty minutes inside the chapel but upon leaving, I felt as if I had taken the most extraordinary nap. I was rested and rejuvenated and looked forward to not only the coming days, but what else the future might have in store for me.

Monday was the first day at the “Office” which is actually a suburb of Novosibirsk called the Academagorok…which Nick coined, “Hickory Dickory Dock”. This is about 30 minutes away from our hotel and is the home of Novosibirsk University. Russian driving is very different than in the US. For starters, there are no lines denoting lanes on the road. You kind of make your own general lane as you see fit. The result of this is that most cars proudly bear at least one battle wound from a sideswipe or two. The only two real accidents we saw were a result of skidding on snow. Russia also has a mixture of left-hand and right-hand drive vehicles. Cars in general are an eclectic mix of new and old, European, Asian, and North American.

Russia itself is very modern. Even in Novosibirsk which is in Siberia. Actually, due to their proximity to Europe and Asia, I would argue that Russia has access to more goods than we do. According to our hosts, it is only in the last 2 – 3 years that the middle class has emerged. The economy here is booming and many people are becoming wealthy or at least now have money to spend on luxuries.

I have had the time to walk through many malls, supermarkets, and stores so far and it is interesting to see the mix of the traditional with the modern. The Russian people are very friendly and interested in America. The Russian men do not seem to be very into style overall and for the most part dress the same…or perhaps better described as practical. Russian women on the other hand are VERY fashionable and quite frankly, as a whole, some of the most beautiful women I have seen. No matter the time of day/night or weather, it is unusual to see a Russian woman NOT wearing heels, with makeup and hair done.

Did I mention it is cold here? And snowing? More to come later!

They are coming. I have to find the time to resize them all and I’ll make a post about where to find them in my Gallery.

Upon leaving Orlando, it was a 9 hour flight across the Atlantic to Germany. This trip sucked. Apparently, being the largest person on the plane, this meant I had the only person on the entire plane who needed their seat fully reclined, seated in front of me. This made sleeping difficult so I watched 9 hours of movies straight including Rush Hour 3 (terrible), Ratatoullie (ok), Project Gold – A documentary of Germany’s 2007 World Championship Handball Team (very interesting), and Stardust (a Princess Bride rip-off).

After a brief layover in Frankfurt, it was off to Moscow and Mother Russia. We arrived in Moscow in the late afternoon and saw snow flurries for the first time. Due to a crap ass schedule, we had an eight hour layover in Moscow Airport Terminal 1. This may have been the most miserable experience of my natural life. There was no place to sit, the terminal was dirty and cramped, and we were tired. The one amusing part of this leg of our journey was “The Cat”.

While reading the final Harry Potter book at the small cafe in the terminal, I saw something furry. Upon closer examination it was a cat…that I thought was dead. I then noticed it was breathing…although no one else seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary about a cat chilling out in the airport. The cat apparently ran the joint as every hour or two it would move and lay down in a random spot, with no one really cariing. Even when the cat chose to lay in the middle of the busiest walkway in the airport.

After eight hours we boarded the flight that would complete our journey to Novosibirsk, the leg that scared me the most. Surprisingly, this ended up being the most enjoyable part of our flight. We landed at Novosibirsk Airport at 9:30AM local time and were greeted by the team.

Next up…Greetings Comrade!