Yes, it has been almost a year since my last post. Much has happened since that great trip across Russia, Mongolia and China…I completed an awesome research sabbatical, was election to local public office and a enjoyed a great family trip to Nicaragua (well, my family and 20 students from MMU!). That trip across Asia last year feels a bit like a dream…not very poetic, but not sure how to describe such an adventure. Seven days on a train through Siberia and Mongolia…the Gobi Desert…Red Square and St. Basil’s…Moscow…Tiananmen Square…Beijing…the Wall, not sure how to stop. The beauty of wild open land mixed with unbelievable pollution. Root vegetable farmers in the shadows of dilapidated and abandoned Soviet era factories. Block after block of Soviet era housing dormitories, half always seeming abandoned. The crowds…or better yet, hoards of Chinese tourists around Beijing’s “historical” sites, most of which felt more like a Disney re-creations than actual places of historic or cultural significance.
The contrast between Moscow and Beijing was utterly fascinating, while both ancient, huge and with immense wealth, but Beijing felt like a facade, as if it 
was quickly putting on a show before it lost its momentum or lost some level of prestige. Beijing felt like it was making up for its own insecurities as if it had to show off in order to avoid seeing its true self…full on sense of inadequacy. Moscow, on the other hand, just was. Take it or leave it, Moscow doesn’t really care what you think, for the town knows exactly who it is and feels comfortable. There is nothing you can do to Moscow that has not already been done, it knows itself and is fine and has nothing to prove. For this, I love it.
Where to next? Nicaragua again? Kyrgyzstan? Back to Siberia? We’ll see!
In the meantime, tons of Education work to be done.
Speak, Memory 
You must be logged in to post a comment.