Announcement: New Blog about the Life of a Graduate

Dear all,

Some time ago I decided to transfer my blog from my private website to the student portal of Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Three days ago was the kick-off for my new blog about the life of a graduate… content-wise there is no change, I still try hard to make it as exciting and from now on also as informative as possible!

The major change is that as of today I will write in German… my apologies to all my friends who are not able to understand this beautiful language but this is actually almost the only constraint of my work (besides not writing about some controversial political topics, offending people etc.). All my German speaking friends, I would like to ask you to help me improving my endeavours to write about the excitements and downsides of a graduate’s life. I appreciate all your comments!

Please find the blog here: http://thomas.nzzcampus.ch/ ; the main portal is: http://www.nzzcampus.ch/

Thank you all!

Best wishes,
Thomas (inofficial graduation date June 11, 2007, hehe)

P.S. I will not continue with updating me previous blog but of course keep posting my pictures on flickr

It is time for a new relationship...

I spent a brief but very cozy weekend in Zurich. After working very productively on my thesis on Saturday I dropped in to Jens' place for a bbq... great as usual! I love bbq and I do not have a terrasse or even a balcony in St. Gallen so I take every opportunity to bbq in friends' places ;-) after dinner we decided to check out the "Medifäscht" a student party organized by and for medical students. It was great fun and it got late... a reason why my mom vainly had to wait for her breakfast :-) however, we could make her happy by preparing the dinner with my bro! It was the first proper cooking session with my little bro and we had great fun... the result was delicious... for main course ravioli stuffed with parma ham, buffalo mozarella, loads of basil and dried tomatoes... served with olive oil and basil (the first time I tried a receipt out of a Jamie Oliver book)... it was yummie but still has room for improvement. My brother rounded off the dinner by doing a cake with strawberry cream filling... his first real attempt to cook/bake something and the result was impressive! I am looking forward to more cooking sessions with him...

After dinner I took the decision to engage in a new relationship... I did finally order my new camera: Nikon D40x! Soon you will be able to see the results on my page... the first photography mission will be at the end of May in Palma de Mallorca where I go for a career workshop.

Reactions II

the issue, still:


my reaction on his first action: "well, disrespecting as you called it is a little too strong... i might have been ironic... but YES as u can see in my photostream i must be a hardcore terrorist... showing the people the beauty of the world from different cultures and countries"

the reaction on my reaction (a note left at the following pic in my photostream, it shows a piece of the Berlin wall that was a gift to Latvia and is located in Riga):

"Ok first of all. my apologies to you. I shouldn't have been so ignorant and stupid when i commented you last. But i do love my country and tend to get all defensive. So I'm sorry. And second. you said "as you can see from my photo-stream i must be a terrorist" or something along those lines." well, clearly you forgot about this picture. And this is exactly why i chose this picture to comment on. third. your not a terrorist as far as i know. And forth, and finally, Don't be a terrorist and if you are, don't hurt my country of America..."

I am speechless... ok, I respect patriotism but I can not accept stupidity due to ignorance...

Reactions

The issue:


my comment: "that can only be in the US, rite!?" (it was taken during a bike trip through NYC)

the reaction: "You better Be dam right that is in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! God Bless. Homeland Security and Police are around to protect its people from Terrorists like you. Im only being so harsh with you now because from what i read, it seemed like you were disrespect the US, like "why do you even need them, you hard core killers." so just to clear things up with you, America protects its people and when terrorists have big guns, we get better guns to take them out that much quicker. So why don't you stop hating on us just because we are in war. The UNITED STATES is working its best on protecting its people. but i must say. with liberal extremists taking our country over, it will not be safe forever."

I appreciate open mindness and a certain sense of humour...

(you might give him credit and show him that Europeans still have not joined the axis of evil: newstyleskater's)

Venit, vidit...

... vicit. After coming back from a trip in South-East Asia my father had an appointment for a heart check last week. What should have been a kind of normal check turned out to may have been a life saving test. During the procedure the doctors found out that one of the blood vessels in his heart was completely blocked. Immediately the balloon thing was done to extend the blood vessel and they put a little net to keep it open. Well, this event was shocking: my father, 56 years young, doing most stuff right for his health was close to have a heart attack… makes me reflect on my life, my attitude to health, particularly to my own health… and on the other hand that I should enjoy life more actively, just enjoy the moments more consciously. As I talked the first time to my dad as he left the hospital he told me: “Thomas, life is full of surprises, enjoy the moments, all that can be over so suddenly.” I am honest, in general I have this attitude that I do not listen well to everything my parents say but this time it was different, I think. However, I am happy he is fine and I do really wish he will be able to teach his grand children one day Polish.

… non vicit. In the week after the amazing dolce vita weekend in Milan I had an interview day scheduled with one of my favourite future employer. 8 hours travel for 3 hours interview… all about behavioural interviewing: “Please tell me a time you had to take a decision… a difficult decision… a decision and then the circumstances changed… a decision with positive/negative result…” and some cases in between: “Please estimate the total number of shampoo bottles in hotel rooms that are globally sold every year…”. Very dynamic people, nice offices, very international atmosphere and the opportunity to learn from the best… all this points made me consider this company as one of my dream employers. One week after my little dream was over… “We regret that we have decided not to pursue your candidacy.” I still love the company but I am not that happy with the recruitment procedure… though the decision was taken immediately after the interviews it took one week and another request from my side to send me an automatically generated e-mail with the following ending: “Replies to this message are undeliverable. Please do not reply.“ Well, I try to get feedback on my interviews but you can imagine that is not too easy :-). Anyway, now I am back on the application carousel and do preparation for several interviews next weekend.

That were the two most touching and most disappointing events of the past 2 weeks. Well I was also extremely happy to hear that for the first time one of my pictures made it into a magazine: GRUS (check out page 18)… thank you Nora, I do really appreciate that and you know how much it means to me… Besides that I was writing on my thesis, did some interviews with sourcing consultants, reflected on the critical elements of supplier development, went to the career days fair to see and be seen, got cheered up by my ex girlfriend and had a great night out with my Italian (& Russian) friends when Amedeo visited Zurich.

P.S. I had the opportunity to shoot with my brother's latest weapon: Nikon D200... see the results: "after the storm I", "after the storm II" and "garlic is getting wild" and I can't wait till I get a new camera...

dolce vita

Last week I was sitting at my desk in St. Gallen, reflecting about supplier development in Russia and the developed research construct as the phone rang. Rici, a fellow survivor from Piter offered me to come to Milan over Easter… I was a little bit struggling as I just bounced another city trip plan but… MILAN… dolce vita… and the opportunity to meet some people who shared my experiences in Russia was just too tempting. I accepted the nice gesture! At the moment just in the train back to St. Gallen, je ne regrette rien! In just 2 days I had the chance to see Milan from its various facets… from looking at models on Rici’s balcony at Via Spartaco… to a very sweet Italian family get together this afternoon with delicious food… in between lounges, churches, cafes, friends, new people and of course plenty of espressi!

We left Friday at noon and were lucky with the traffic jam at the Gotthard as there was just a 3 kilometres queue (can be up to 15 kilometres long at the Easter weekend!). Arriving in Milan the first sightseeing out of the car (the fact that it was not a Fiat Punto but a VW Polo disturbed my stereotype a little). At Via Spartaco then ‘buon giorno’ and ‘ciao a tutti’. We left immediately for a first walk, took a break for Panzerotti behind the Duomo and ended in the Castello with a phone call and apologies for a late arrival at the dinner with Rici’s parents. After a delicious Milanesi dinner with his lovely parents we headed for Matteo’s flat… hugging, kissing and plenty of ‘ciao’ there. It was great to laugh and talk bullshit with the boys I have had such a great time with! After a beer and of course an espresso we headed to the twelve columns, grabbed some ‘walking beers’ on the way and stayed then outside, preparing for nightlife the Milanesi way… very cool indeed! The night ended at Porta Ticinese in a life music club with one of the strongest drinks in my life, the ‘invisible’.

This clear liquid caused that I was a little tired the next day as we got up at 11 and continued to explore the city. Once again the rule seemed to be proved that you can never experience a place than with a local matador! Passing Bocconi University that creates Italy’s leaders of tomorrow to Milan State University with its fantastic building from the 12th century we continued to the city centre with its shopping streets. We started at Via Monte Napoleone, dropped into Gucci’s store (great interior design) and Armani center (disappointing as it doesn’t meet the expectations of a luxury brand store and annoying that Armani seems to be the master of brand extension: you can find from Armani chocolate to underwear and toilet paper everything with his label), checked out the Bulgari hotel from the outside and back on Via della Spiga what represents in my opinion the stylish fashion shopping of Milan. No money, no shopping… too many temptations but I could resist. Well, it was rather the rational of my wallet… but for sure some of my first salaries will be spend in Milan ;-) we took a break with gelati from tre gazzelle and enjoyed them in front of the Duomo, checking out fashion victims, suburb gangsters (mostly meet the first characteristic too), models, invasions of tourists and other ‘see and be seen’s’.

Saturday night started at Palo Alto with an ‘apéro’ an amazing institution: 7 EUR make you get a big tasty drink and access to a delicious home made buffet à discretion. We continued with a bunch of people to Milano(where I could say ‘ciao’ to Paolo and that is somehow sponsored by the Italian furniture industry therefore has amazing interior design), then an ethnic lounge that served drinks in fruits (it felt for a sec like at the beach on a sunny afternoon though it was 2am in downtown Milano) and ended at Princi with some fresh pizza slices (I am jealous as the Milanesi can even finish their nightlife in a stylish way with great patisserie as back home I usually end up in a smoky kebap place… that of course has its charm too!).

Sunday was dedicated to a lovely brunch with the Bonetta family and its new members. Unfortunately I had to leave early afternoon to get back on track with my work on Monday. Grazie mille to the Bonetta’s and others for the fantastic weekend! Italian lifestyle and dolce vita was just a great escape from daily business. Furthermore I had the opportunity to experience this cool city from a local perspective though for only 48 hours and despite my non-existing Italian.

flickr-mania

Well, photography becomes a bigger and bigger passion. flickr.com is the community where I share my impressions... there is a feature on flickr.com that is called "explore": it chooses the best 500 pictures of a day according to different characteristics.
I made it so far 4 times into flickr explore (well, I am a little bit proud):

1. The Hermitage, 2. On the way home - the Hermitage, 3. Russian wedding, 4. Sultanamet: The Blue Mosque

thanks for all the regular visits to see "the world through my eyes".

Global Warming

Monday, March 19th I woke up, took a look out of the window and what did I see:

Well, global warming or whatever is responsible that our weather is a little crazy. I have been now for 1,5 months back in Switzerland and I haven't seen any snow... now, suddenly there is plenty of! Anyway, sorry for not writing such a long time... but I haven't been "en route" so life is not that exciting ;-) I am kidding, for the past month I went through changes, ups and downs, happy and sad moments, sober and other status. Actually I was just living my life...

Changes in my private life taught me about personal characteristics, rather not nice ones, that accompany me for some time. Changes in "academic" life made me think more about my skills, strenghts & weaknesses and how I have to apply them in my future life (I won't be student anymore very very soon...).

There were plenty of ups such as seeing most of my friends (old & new ones) and spending fantastic time with them, taking more advanced steps in my photography passion by discovering picasa, getting a job offer from a large technology consultant, proceeding in a recruiting process for a large consumer good company and last but not least getting on track with my thesis (well just last week). Downs were rather rare but included some rejections for company workshops, plenty of companies that don't want to participate in my thesis' empirical study and some days with hang-over.

Happy moment mostly correlated with the ups such as being succesful with some of my applications, experiencing challenges in my thesis and getting to know new people (MG7 is great, Flavio thanks for your great b-day party). Sad moments were as I discovered that I haven't changed some of my bad attitudes and that I disappointed and hurt people, one person in particular.

For the moment I am busy writing my thesis (for real this time), reading about the relational view of the firm and supplier development. Furthermore I try to get some interview before our university's career days in order to rock there! Passion-wise it looks promising: I am planning a long trip in summer before I enter serious life (some short trips to Milan and ... before), look for new photography equipment (Nikon D40x is my favourite at the moment) and cook on the weekends for my nice flatmate Maria (and she cooks Spanish dishes for me, yummie).

P.S. @ my ZH-boys: Fuck, during our next trip to Moscow we won't be able to drive around Oligarch style... see yourself!

P.S.II my latest discovery on flickr.com: litalesh, amazing impressions from her travels and home. My favourite: "Police, who?" reminds me of the refrain:


"Police machine matrice d'ecervelés mandatés par la justice
Sur laquelle je pisse" (NTM, J'appuie Sur La Gachette, 1993)

It’s a London thing

After one week of acclimatization in Zurich it was time to leave the country again – destination London. Friday night I took the train to Basel to catch my flight there. Sitting in the lounge and checking cool architecture and fashion magazines (Zurich airport is crap compared, they don’t provide you with all these cool magazines, you have to be lucky to get the daily newspaper) somebody was calling my name. I looked around and I saw this blond girl smiling at me – it was Stephie, an old friend I met ages ago in France during French studies in Antibes Juan-les-Pins. What a surprise! We managed to get seats next to each other and had chats about good old and recent times and some gross white wine. She is doing this internship in art banking (haven’t heard about that before) and was telling me about her experiences and I of course shared mine from Russia. In London I got a warm welcome by my girlfriend; it’s some time I haven’t seen her… all excited we went to her dorm in Knightsbridge. Saturday was a lovely day, the sun was shining so we decided to do some sightseeing. We started in Covent Garden (with a vegetarian breakfast in Neal’s Yard), went to LSE, continued on Fleet Street, crossed Millenium bridge, decided not to go to Tate gallery (though I had to mention million times that it was built by Herzog & de Meuron, our Swiss star architects) and ended up in Borough market. I love such food markets. Ok, Borough market is more this posh place with all these delicatessens from all over the world, full of wealthy visitors and tourists but it is still great and I couldn’t get enough to go around and take pictures. It looks like one of these markets where Jamie Oliver goes to get stuff for his creations. In case I end up in London one day , I will be around in these markets on the weekends… Sunday morning big breakfast with Rösti I brought from Switzerland then Camden town. Another cool market though I didn’t like the clothes section that much but the food and antiques stuff was great. A good place to get some pieces of furniture and cool accessories. In the evening we met a friend for shisha, mint tea and a chat about life. Later Iranian food for take away… reminded me kind of my stay in Turkey, as food is similar. Colbeh is a great place to discover Iranian dishes, ask for the fresh bread to accompany the delicious curries and kebabs. On Monday I had the opportunity to attend a lecture at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) where my girlfriend is doing her master. It was a very interesting and contemporary session about nuclear weapons and proliferation. During the session we went through the instructions for the use of nuclear weapons published by the Bush administration – it was astonishing to imagine that there are still thousands of officers out there that do daily planning for a nuclear war or the use of weapons of mass destruction (not only in the axis of evil!). Before the lecture we had a drink at the student union and I was jealous that we don’t have such a relaxed place (with big bar) to hang out at my university. After the lecture I met Nicolas, one of my Zurich boys, working in London for the past couple of months. I got a brief introduction into investment banker life (sorry private equity) in the city of London and I visited his flat that is nicely located but when asking about the rent I was shocked – London is just fucking expensive! For the rest of the week we enjoyed the being together, checked out some great food (first time Pakistani (go to New Tayyabs in Islington and try the lamb chops), Malaysian (in China town) and South Indian (Ravi Shankar restaurant rather boring for me), went for more markets (Chapel) and saw "Cabaret" (listen to the most famous song: "willkommen, bienvenue, welcome..." check out the samples in the upper left corner) a musical that plays in Berlin before WWII – about sex, politics, sex, love, sex, sinful lifestyle, sex, Nazis, sex, Jews and yeah about sex… the master of ceremony made me like the musical very much.
Friday 5.30am it was once again time to say goodbye, I continued to have sweet dreams on the flight to Basel.

Zurich je t'aime

After the excesses at the Pulkova airport I slept all the way trough to Prague, ignored the guy at the check-in in Prague as he blamed me for the over-luggage and then slept through most of my flight to Zurich. I woke up as the duty-free articles were offered and got myself a present, something like a farewell gift. Arriving in Zurich was not that strange as I expected… just as I waited for the train to bring me to the main terminal I saw this telecommunication provider advertising: “Missing the mountains?”, I realised YES and somehow things poped to my mind that I missed. My father warmly welcomed me and it feelt good to hug him tight. At home my mother welcomed me with kisses and hugs and I was excited about the smell of cheese as my first dinner was (as wished): Raclette! Soon later Jens arrived and we enjoyed a delicious Raclette, good wine and at the end of course some vodka. After dinner I went up to my room, opened the window and just looked the field and forest, enjoying the fresh chilly air. I slept like a baby :-)
The next day warm sunshine woke me up and I decided to go to downtown Zurich to get the feeling for my city again… it was an amazing day, the sun and the view of snow on the hills and mountains started the “reintegration process”. I took the “Postauto” (a very Swiss thing) to get to Zurich, there I walked along the Bahnhofstrasse all the way down to the lake… and I felt that “little big city” the slogan of Zurich tourism expresses the soul of the city very well! The feeling was similar as I came back from my stay in Istanbul and went up the Üetliberg to see Zurich: the city is so tiny! But when you experience it and live there it offers so much… Zurich je t’aime… though I got this globetrotter virus and also want to work as international as possible, I think in the long-term I’ll get back to Zurich… still, despite all the emotions some things already bored me: no chaos, not too many smiles on people’s faces, no rush…
The rest of the week was nearly daily business already (what I actually enjoyed): meeting more friends, enjoying my family (chats with my parents & bro, shopping with my mother!), moving some stuff to St. Gallen, meeting my new flatmate Maria and plenty of administrative stuff. It was relaxed and busy at the same time… not too much time to think about the past 5 months but here and there I could feel that soon there will be this moments when I will miss Pieter…

bye bye Питер...

The last days in Питер past by very fast... though Thursday was the "students day", nobody wanted to come out with me as everyone had exam. Friday we did a last dinner in Gorohovaja 3: mexican food with the Italian boys, Tolik & Victoria and Olivier. A very nice evening that ended at 6am in Fidel. It was good to spend the last party with the people I hanged out the most though some where missing (either because they have already left or were otherwise busy...).
Saturday, the second last day in Russia started late in the afternoon and was mainly dedicated for some souvenir shopping (actually just red caviar & russki standart). In the evening Rici invited us to the dorm to eat the leftovers from his last trip to Italy... I would say leftover is very much an understatement! We enjoyed an amazing Italian dinner, starting with nice antipasti, primi plati oignion soup and carbonara & tuna spaghetti as secondi plati! As everyone was kinda tired from the night before, we did not go out and I had to go back all the way alone (kind of adventurous as the streets were frozen and my Lada taxi driver was not the most experienced!). So I had all night to reflect about my stay in Russia and sorting pictures I collected from the others... so many memories... my English vocabulary is to limited to describe them all! Compared to my stay in Turkey it was less about the place but much more about the people that made this 5 months an unforgettable experience. Though Saint-Petersburg is one huge museum it does not have the soul other cities have (this is just my very personal opinion). The city is just amazing, I think one of the most impressive sites in the world but it lacks the taking-part-of-your-soul thing. Anyway, as I said it was about the people... I will not mention everyone here... everyone who reads this lines will exactly know how she or he made my stay! I just can say "thank you" for the memories, for sharing the moments, for enjoying & suffering!
The last day started with a big brunch with Nico & Nora, two darlings :-) We finished the food, the liquids and waited for Sasha & Andreij to pick us up (thank you so much!). We enjoyed our last drive to the airport, left Nora out on the way :-( and were surprised by the most fantastic (most Russian) farewell gift from our landloards: Zar's style antique crystal shot glasses (old Russian style: appr. 70g) and a limited edition vodka! Time to say good bye to Russian soil... the check-in was tricky, I made it to Zurich with at least 15kg over luggage, being either charming or very annoying (sorry to the stewardess of Czech airlines). Passing the passport control I remembered my arrival: cloudy sky, windy, grey buildings, grim securities all over... but now I got a cute smile from the custom lady and that was not a flirt thing but just a very nice gesture! You made my day! I will keep this country in good memory though by the end I could not deal with the melancholie anymore...
all of us had plenty of Rubles left so we headed to the next bar... Nico and me ended our "being-flatmates-relationship" the way we started! I spent a great half an hour before leaving, Nico thanks for everything, Olivier ZH is not far from Lausanne and Prune I hope you could follow my explanations about my emotional status leaving this place :-) Rici you were late but cya in ZH soon (bring the Italian crew with you)! Sasha & Andreij thank you for being the most amazing landloards and the best farewell gift (besides the most fantastic flat in Pieter)! To all the others: have a great start back home, enjoy the social REintegration process, all the best and keep in touch... the world is small!

Time to relax and enjoy - travelling (part II - Tallinn, Riga & Vilnius)

I am sitting or better lying in my compartment of my train back to Russia. The whole atmosphere gives a good preparation for getting back “home”… a very Sovjet train (but very comfortable), some zakuski (but no zapiwki, only bonaqua) and Wladimir, an Ex-major of the Russian army (he observed for 9 years US strategic bombers somewhere close to the north-pole) that shares fantastic waffles with me. A good time to think about the couple of days I was travelling the Baltic countries, to early to reflect upon my whole stay in Russia. The trip taught me things about this part of the world and made me meet some interesting and also some annoying people (but not as many locals as I hoped…). Additionally I had a “happy end” with my roommate Amedeo.
All three cities had their charm and I definitely want to come back and see and enjoy more, next time longer (as usual), with a car (to see more of the countryside) and during a warmer period of the year (as the beginning of the Russian or Baltic winter caught me in Vilnius). Somehow it was a little preparation for my life back in Central Europe, not as hardcore as my trip to Helsinki, but still I realised the little things here and there I enjoy and may be sub-consciously miss… I don’t want to be misunderstood, I loved my stay in Pieter and I will be back one way or another but until then I want to enjoy some crunchy salad, drink water from the tap when I have hangover and especially escape the melancholy a little…
On Saturday we couldn’t get enough of Tallin’s yuppies and went by night again to stereo lounge, this time for the official warm-up for the club next door. The place was crowded, the drinks had double size (again amazing raspberry mojito) and they played great loungy house. After midnight we dropped in next door to Privé: the official kindergarden for Tallin’s upperclass, for fulltime sons and daughters. We still had fun and finished the evening with ice skating (in nice Italian leather shoes) on an ice field completely covered in snow… the next day was dedicated to chillout in cafés and lounges, enjoying good wine and a good chats. Most of the evening we spend in Bossa lounge ate Italian food and talked about it. I have to visit Amedeo in his birthplace and enjoy some of the homemade products of Abruzzi.
By night Amedeo took the bus back to Petersburg I headed for Riga. I somehow couldn’t really sleep and arrived like 5am in Riga. Completely disoriented and nobody to ask I took the tram just to escape the coldness… it took me like 1 hour to get to the hostel though the place is just 5 minutes away. Thanks to Frank’s hostel for the fantastic description how to get to there from the airport but not mentioning the way from the bus station. Ok, arriving there I realized that most guests came by plane as it was something like the official hostel for Irish and British end-of-college-getting-as-wasted-as-possible-doesn’t-matter-where tourists. Anyway, at my arrival (night from Sunday to Monday, 6am) there was still a party going on and I got a free beer (thanks to the pirate Caspar, wicked guy). I took a quick nap and started the day with a wrap breakfast and John Lemmon. My sightseeing tour started in the old town of Riga and then I checked out the market halls next to the train station (including the very Eastern European style outdoor market). The different halls had different market stalls: meat, fruit, vegetables… all this different smells and colours were amazing. In this part of the town I even found some proper Stalinistic architecture (the Academy of Science) and a lovely Orthodox church. As mentioning the things I miss a little before I forgot about the cinema: in the early evening I decided to go watch the latest James Bond. Fantastic! I got over a first disappointment after realizing that this movie was something like a back to the beginning (honestly my girlfriend gave me a hint ;-) ). So first I was shocked about how could James Bond show emotions and I thought they start to shoot these movies in two parts now as it had no proper ending. Anyway I got over it by enjoying vodka martini in the skybar of the Latvia hotel (not precisely Bond style as I ordered vodka martini BIANCO but still shaked). There I met this US soldier (some high-ranked guy from Michigan) that was on a mission in Latvia to train soldiers with non-combat issues like family, relationship etc. it was interesting to hear his story and to think about how much Latvia wants to get involved in Western organisations such as the NATO and of course to listen to this guys reflections if he is on a propaganda mission or if he is doing something really good. As I received some nice results from my exams in the afternoon (even statistic didn’t suck so much) I thought it’s time to delight myself (hehe, something very unusual). I went to Berg’s for a fantastic Latvian nouvelle cousine dinner. Coming back to the hostel I was welcomed by loud music and loads of drunken backpackers, I planned to go sleep but I couldn’t resist and went with them for a beer or two to a pub next door. There I received an introduction in the art of producing and smuggling illegal substances from some North-African countries to Western Europe from Pedro, a thrilling life story. The next day I visited first the museum of occupation of Riga, very impressively done though not in such a great building as in Tallinn. This second visit made me realise even more the suffering which the Baltic countries went through history and they rather cold emotions about the Soviet Union and now Russia. Hundred of thousand people were arrested, tortured, deported and killed and in this part of the world it hasn’t been reflected that much about the past, I mean together… the repression is neither forgiven nor forgotten.
I checked out the bus schedule and realised that it is only a short trip of 5 hours to Vilnius so I decided to leave Riga in the evening to avoid looking-for-hostels-at-5am exercises. At 10pm I had my first walk in Vilnius and dropped in to Medininkai for some Lithuanian nouvelle cousine (again time to make me happy, hehe, again great). In the hostel I bumped into some guys from all over the world that met on their trip through Eastern Europe in Tallinn. We went together to a pub and shared our travel experiences. As I had only one day in Vilnius (there is only every second day a train that goes directly to Pieter, every other day there is one through Belarus. Would be interesting to see the last dictatorship in Europe but I would need a transit visa) I wanted to see as much as possible of the very pretty city. Yeah I think I liked Vilnius the most, a melting pot for centuries, struggling for independence with an impressive architecture influenced by its different cultures living together. I just should have brought my Siberian winter clothes instead of the preppy coat so I would not have freezed my ass all the time. Anyway, it didn’t keep me away from exploring the city. I visited my 3rd museum of occupation in this week: the former KGB headquarter (Gestapo for some time too) in Vilnius. Again a very impressive and emotional exhibition as one can go through the former cells and visit the interrogation and execution rooms. Hundreds of documents (thousands were shreddered and burned at the collapse of the Soviet Union) prove the facts of the atrocities that happen there over the decades. The early train departure didn’t allow me to see more of the beautiful city I just dropped in to “The Republic of Užupis” a kind of autonomous district of Vilnius (comparable with Kristiania in Copenhagen) but I couldn’t enjoy the location as I had to hurry for my train back to Pieter… got my stuff in the hostel, got some food supply and then made myself comfortable in my cozy and very warm compartment.

Time to relax and enjoy - travelling (part I - Tallinn)

Some of you will laugh but it was an exhausting week with all these annoying exams... unexpected exams, lies over lies in consultations, uncommunicative professors and of course low motivation to study... BUT on Thursday I did the last two exams of my official student life! I don't say last in life because I was taught by my ex-dean Mr. Peter Gomez that life is a constant learning process and that my university education is just a milestone in a lifelong learning process - I can't disagree with his statement ;-) Anyway, during the exam preparation I did various stuff to get distracted from studying such as collecting the dry leaves from the plants we haven't watered forever, cleaning my room, packing for my leave in like 2 weeks and also checking the lonely planet. There I found this schedule for buses and trains from Pieter and that reminded me of my planned trip to the Baltic countries. I grabbed my phone and called Amedeo (my ex-roommate from the dorm) and asked if he would join me... things were arranged and during my final exam (fucking statistics) I was with my mind half way in Tallinn (still had no influence on my performance, I swear my lovely mother!)... Thursday night 11pm we took the bus and arrived after a couple of hours and annoying custom agents ("no picture, no phone and smoking after pass port control, understand!?") in Tallinn... my first impression was already great: cute, small, medieval town with a lot of "European" flair (I don't know if I should generalise in this context...) and Scandinavian touch (what I really like!). Ok I exaggerate a little that I got all this impressions at 6am but they accumulated till I started writing these lines... my first impression after the walk was my pillow in our hostel (can only recommend Alur hostel!). For the past two days we were enjoying ourselves with a little sightseeing (the town is so small that we didn't want to see everything the first day), good food and some nightlife. Sightseeing all over the place but the highlight so far was the museum of occupations: amazing architecture of the building and fantastic arrangment of the exhibition, for me one of the best historic museums I have been to. Food & drinx: of course we had to go to Olde Hanse (medieval style tourist trap), food was whatever but extremely friendly service (one of this fantastic starter, whatever main dishes places...), today we had a good afternoon break at stereo lounge, minimal design, some poshy Tallinn yuppies and wanabes, very cool ;-) ! Yeah I liked it as I haven't had that for some time in Russia, ok also because of the great drinx ;-). Nightlife on Friday: Hollywood (what shall I say... for my Russia fellows: the Metro club of Tallinn)... to be continued!

The days after…

… were relaxing. On the 3rd the time to study started as I have 3 exams left in January. Yeah yeah you say now: “how come you have to study, you are an exchange student!?” The thing is that SPbGU School of Management as “leading” business school in Russia treats exchange students not different than its regular students. I am not sure but I think I should mention that in Saint-Gallen… anyway, it is partly my fault as I wanted to challenge myself by taking statistics (and as I may be mentioned a couple of times before: “statistic sucks!”). Still it is at least a good thing for my future and as I get closer and closer (*sleeplessnightscausedbytakingdecisions*) to join the labour force… I still had some entertainment (JFC jazz club, DVD evenings, gaming…), the most valuable one was the visit to the Hermitage theatre for “swan lake” – this evening kind of completed my cultural experience in Saint-Petersburg. Ok, first it was fantastic to see a Russian classic but it was more the place: in the Hermitage theatre we could sit like 2 m to the orchestra! So one could see the play (in which I loved the second act at the swan lake…) and the musicians in action!

С новим ѓодом!

My Christmas holidays in Pieter will stay in good memory as I spent a very different one than usual… on the 24th the exchange student crowd that stayed organized a dinner in Krokodile, a Russian restaurant close to our place. We had a very cozy evening though Nico and me embarrassed ourselves a little (actually it was to a certain degree my fault ;-) ) first we came like over half an hour late and then we had no gifts to share though Prune told me before about it… sorry guys (and merci beaucoup filles françaises for the nice Christmas gifts we received though, a great memory!). Then at 12 we missed the midnight mess as a Russian guy (pretty tipsy…) offered our table two bottles of vodka for the “nice ladies and my European friends!”. Of course we did not want to offend him so we stayed a little more and shared the gift… finally Nico’s and mine Christmas gift for the others was an invitation for a short party in our place. The night continued as unusual as it was with a visit to a drum’n’bass party in the bomb shelter of Gribodoev - it was great fun but I think I prefer to spend my Christmas eve in a more traditional way from now on!
The rest of the week was kind of annoying: I could not go travelling as planned (postponed my trip to Tallin to the end of January) due to sudden budget restrictions and finally I felt sick (thanks to Sasha and others for taking care!)… so I spend the week rather laid back.
The New Year eve was one of the highlights of my Russian adventure: we were invited to Sasha & Andreij for a barbeque! The guests were a very diverse group of people that we had a lot of fun with! I have to apologise at this point for making you all speak English, French and German instead of having a good chat in your language… but yeah our Russian skills have rather decreased than improved :-(. At midnight there was the decision to either have an emotional moment during the speech of Vladimir or to go out for the firework – we made a compromise: first we listened to Vladimir (though I understood a shit and it was not too emotional as Mr. Putin is not the most skilled rhetoric) then we went to the square in front of the Hermitage and celebrated the new year with a couple of thousand other Russians!

A great experience: I have not met so many friendly and outgoing Russians as during this hour on the square! The evening continued with more grilled meat and some wine (my antibiotics cure prevented me from having too many drinks!) and ended with a short visit to the party in our former dorm at Shevcenko 25.