Russia

Transportation is a real trip here in Samara. There is a near constant traffic jam on the main road outside our hotel. Snow removal does not seem to be a high priority in this city either. Taxis routinely have to barrel their way through the snow rutted side road to get to our hotel entrance. […]

I was trying to get off the city tram yesterday during rush hour. Several other people were trying to get on at the same time. Pretty soon the doors shut and I was stuck - on my way to wherever the next stop was. The other passengers looked at me, unimpressed, as if to say, […]

I am sitting in my Hotel room in Samara, Russia with an open beer, with a BBC Documentary on Billie Holiday playing on the TV in the background. We’ve dubbed this hotel we are staying in “America” as many of the people staying here are from the US. Also the hotel has any of the […]

Another great but cold day here in Samara. I know it’s typical of a Minnesotan to talk about the weather but in this case it’s justified.
I’ve really enjoyed my time here in town. It was a nice change of pace to leave behind the giant cities of the past weeks for the more intimate confines […]

Russia has a certain vibe that we felt almost as soon as we boarded the Aeroflot plane in London. The Russian people, at first glance, appeared to be rather unfriendly and even a little gruff. The cab drivere who accosted us at the Moscow airport were downright aggressive as they got in our faces with […]

We had a long flight out of London on Wednesday night. We changed planes in Moscow and headed out in our 1960’s era Russian jet about 1000 kilometers east to the city of Samara. As most of you know it’s really, really cold here in Russia at the moment. There were all kinds of records […]

Today in Samara I saw a young boy of 12 or 13 hauling a snowboard. He then pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and made a phone call. This wouldn’t have been likely even ten years ago. Snowboards and cell phones are part of the new capitalist Russia. Samara is a town of […]

Bob, a probation officer in Minneapolis, traveled with The Listening Project to Brazil, Russia, and the United Kingdom…