russia pt1
03-22-2007, 03:04 PM
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russia pt1
Its now 2am Friday local time and I'm in some internet cafe, but its more like student computer room than a cafe, but there are 2 tables and they sell pastries, coffee and beer.
I'm sorry that I haven't emailed for so long. Its crazy how busy I've been since I left on Sat, where the flight was delayed as well but at least that night we got out at 9pm. Then when we got to Frankfurt, they put us on the 9am flight but we literally got there around 8:45 and no one told us about the connecting flight. We then found out that the flights were overbooked at 1pm and 5pm. Luckily they got a bigger plane for 1pm and we were able to get to St. Pete at 4pm.
So what has happened...
Sunday night when we arrived, we got to the hotel and were greeted by the Russian students. They were cool and very excited to meet us. They were ready to take us out for dinner right then and there but considering what we went through we had to ask for a 1hr break and settle in. The hotel wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. No smaller than what you'd get at like a motel six or something but slightly higher quality I would say. The place is HUGE... and going through a lot of renovations like most of St. Pete.
So we go to dinner and it was just this small italian place around the corner from the hotel. When I say italian, i meant pretty authentic looking with their own brick oven. but it was kinda small and we got there with i would guess 40 people including the russian students. so the russian students go ahead and start re-arranging the tables to put us together and literally put some people out of tables. I felt bad cause we were already starting the stereotype of americans coming in and being loud/obxonious. the food took forever to come and they told us not to order pizza cause they only had one small oven. so what happens. the people that ordered pizza got their food first! I ordered pasta and I got mine last. we ate for like 2-3 hrs and went back to the hotel and crashed. Jet lag was not really an issue since I kept forwarding my watch so my body didn't know what was really going on.
Monday morning I got up at 8am and grabbed a quick breakfast from the buffet before heading out at 8:30. talk about rushing it. our first visit was the st. pete university and the outside was AMAZING! It was an old gov't building for a museum or something and it had the standard Russian design with the onion type roofs. The inside was just as old and you can tell by the narrow hallways and old rooms. We had lectures in the morning about russia, the economy, etc... It was interesting stuff but right now i'm so tired i barely remember what I did in the morning. The interesting stuff was the cafe that the students went to. It was a small little conession stand at the end of a small narrow room with tables and chairs on one end. when we got there, again we took over the place and filled up the room immediately. the russian students told us there was another cafe around the corner and some of us went there. they said that the first cafe was the "popular" cafe and the only reason I could think that was because they served fresh brewed coffee and expresso compared to instant in the other one. but the second one was just as small.
that afternoon we went to Lenta, which was the Russian costco. but they didn't sell bulk items like costco does, but the layout is like costco with large shelves and on the top shelves are the pallets of inventory. we were early so we got a chance to go shopping and shopping we did! first place of business was the alcohol aisle where we bought out one brand of vodka that the russian students said was very good. one kid bought a whole case of another brand, I dont' know how he's gonna send it home. then we went to the chocolates aisle and did some damage there. they showed us some old chocolates that they grew up with and their parents grew up with. then some random items like this milk like thing that is suppose to help you lose weight. i bought it but i haven't drank it since i'm not sure how it "helps you lose" weight. if you get the drift. after that we met with the founder/owner of lenta which was Oleg who was I would guess no older than 40, more like 35-38... very causal and only had like a 10th grade education. very out of the norm here considering we met some import manager, she had a degree in physics and law!
runnign otu of time. need sleeep, nother 8:30am day tomm
I'm sorry that I haven't emailed for so long. Its crazy how busy I've been since I left on Sat, where the flight was delayed as well but at least that night we got out at 9pm. Then when we got to Frankfurt, they put us on the 9am flight but we literally got there around 8:45 and no one told us about the connecting flight. We then found out that the flights were overbooked at 1pm and 5pm. Luckily they got a bigger plane for 1pm and we were able to get to St. Pete at 4pm.
So what has happened...
Sunday night when we arrived, we got to the hotel and were greeted by the Russian students. They were cool and very excited to meet us. They were ready to take us out for dinner right then and there but considering what we went through we had to ask for a 1hr break and settle in. The hotel wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. No smaller than what you'd get at like a motel six or something but slightly higher quality I would say. The place is HUGE... and going through a lot of renovations like most of St. Pete.
So we go to dinner and it was just this small italian place around the corner from the hotel. When I say italian, i meant pretty authentic looking with their own brick oven. but it was kinda small and we got there with i would guess 40 people including the russian students. so the russian students go ahead and start re-arranging the tables to put us together and literally put some people out of tables. I felt bad cause we were already starting the stereotype of americans coming in and being loud/obxonious. the food took forever to come and they told us not to order pizza cause they only had one small oven. so what happens. the people that ordered pizza got their food first! I ordered pasta and I got mine last. we ate for like 2-3 hrs and went back to the hotel and crashed. Jet lag was not really an issue since I kept forwarding my watch so my body didn't know what was really going on.
Monday morning I got up at 8am and grabbed a quick breakfast from the buffet before heading out at 8:30. talk about rushing it. our first visit was the st. pete university and the outside was AMAZING! It was an old gov't building for a museum or something and it had the standard Russian design with the onion type roofs. The inside was just as old and you can tell by the narrow hallways and old rooms. We had lectures in the morning about russia, the economy, etc... It was interesting stuff but right now i'm so tired i barely remember what I did in the morning. The interesting stuff was the cafe that the students went to. It was a small little conession stand at the end of a small narrow room with tables and chairs on one end. when we got there, again we took over the place and filled up the room immediately. the russian students told us there was another cafe around the corner and some of us went there. they said that the first cafe was the "popular" cafe and the only reason I could think that was because they served fresh brewed coffee and expresso compared to instant in the other one. but the second one was just as small.
that afternoon we went to Lenta, which was the Russian costco. but they didn't sell bulk items like costco does, but the layout is like costco with large shelves and on the top shelves are the pallets of inventory. we were early so we got a chance to go shopping and shopping we did! first place of business was the alcohol aisle where we bought out one brand of vodka that the russian students said was very good. one kid bought a whole case of another brand, I dont' know how he's gonna send it home. then we went to the chocolates aisle and did some damage there. they showed us some old chocolates that they grew up with and their parents grew up with. then some random items like this milk like thing that is suppose to help you lose weight. i bought it but i haven't drank it since i'm not sure how it "helps you lose" weight. if you get the drift. after that we met with the founder/owner of lenta which was Oleg who was I would guess no older than 40, more like 35-38... very causal and only had like a 10th grade education. very out of the norm here considering we met some import manager, she had a degree in physics and law!
runnign otu of time. need sleeep, nother 8:30am day tomm
03-22-2007, 03:56 PM
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Originally Posted by Bass' date='Mar 22 2007, 07:15 PM
my company is trying to break into the Russian market - is it true that you have to pretty much pay off everyone before you can sell in russia?
Graft and corruption in Russia? How do they find the time? Must be in between poisoning dissenters and unfriendly reporters with radioactive material!
03-23-2007, 04:06 AM
#6
Originally Posted by paivag' date='Mar 22 2007, 10:58 PM
hmm so hows the talent? Get some pictures!
How about pics of some of those neat buildings with the onion type roofs?
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03-23-2007, 04:13 AM
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Originally Posted by TheToon' date='Mar 22 2007, 07:56 PM
Graft and corruption in Russia? How do they find the time? Must be in between poisoning dissenters and unfriendly reporters with radioactive material!
03-26-2007, 02:55 AM
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Originally Posted by Lainey8484' date='Mar 23 2007, 07:06 AM
Yeah, I want pictures of the "talent" too.
How about pics of some of those neat buildings with the onion type roofs?
How about pics of some of those neat buildings with the onion type roofs?