Amiram Hayardeny's My China Experience

More Russia Observations

I will try to summarize my trip to Russia.  Professionally it was excellent.  I listened to some really educating presentations about Solaris, OpenSolaris and Java.  The keynotes were educating as well as entertaining.  The venue was nice and the organization was outstanding.  Participation was beyond expectation.  There is something exhilarating about seeing the technology you are involved in developing being used in another country.  I was impressed with the level of knowledge, the level of interest which was displayed by our Russian partners, colleagues and ultimately customers.  I got to meet some interesting people, a colleague from France (nice to have met you Frederick Pariente who shares some of my familial background), and from Norway (Bernt Johnsen, you are a cool guy, and we share many family values, it was great meeting you).  Again, the professional side - great.

On the personal side, I have some mixed feelings.  I saw some unbelievable places: The Hermitage Museum, the Church on Spilled Blood, the St. Isaac's Cathedral, The Bronze Horseman were absolutely beautiful.  Indeed, I tasted Caviar (overrated), and Russian bread (outstanding).  I also had additional understanding for things I grew up with.  For example, Powidel.  Powidel is a prune jam or jelly.  I guess there's nothing special about jam, but it was always present in my childhood, and it makes it very special to see it again after so many years, in fact it reminds me of my late grandmother.  Same with Halva - a candy made of ground sesame seeds and sugar.  In short it was a taste of home.  Speaking of home, I come from a very mixed background: my father was born in Israel, and so was his father.  Originally the family was from Spain, and they spent years in Morocco.  My father's mother was born and raised in Turkey, but her family originated in Spain as well.  My mother was born in Romania, and the family had roots in both Romania and Russia.  I could say half jokingly, that everything reminds me of home...

Let me talk a little about my airport experience in Russia.  In short - the worst.  No offense meant.  Arriving in Sheremetyevo International Airport is not a pleasant experience to the non Russian speaking tourist or businessman.  The signs are confusing (when they are present) and the lack of direct help for transfers makes the occasional visitor an excellent prey for the entrepreneurial taxi drivers, who are lurking just outside the arrival area.  But that stems from the interesting idea of placing the domestic and the international terminals a few miles away from each other.  (You can tell that I am bitter about getting skinned coming in.  I bargained a better deal going back...).  But aside from that, the airport is in complete disarray, there are a few X-Ray checkpoints at the various entrances to the airport.  I was standing at one of them, when suddenly the security person decided that the line is getting too long, and just opened the gate for everyone to go through without a security check.  There's another checkpoint before checking in.  X-Ray again.  Then another one entering the gates...  So security is taken seriously, then again, not that seriously.  The place is far from clean, the attendants whose help I asked were less than nice or helpful.  Again, this is a very local and individual observation, I will not be surprised if others has a completely different experience.

But there was one thing I saw for the first time in my life.  A guy was standing right in front of me, checking in at the domestic terminal in St. Petersburg.  His suitcases were obviously way over the weight limit.  I could not understand the exchange between him and the attendant, but what followed was amazing to me: he left the counter, stepped into the nearby store, came back with a large package of chocolate, handed it to her, and the suitcases were cleared to go into the plane.  I have heard about it, but never in my life have I actually seen it.  Please note: I am not being judgmental here, just playing observer.

The Beijing Capital Airport, is years ahead of its Russian peer.  It is well organized, not only for Chinese speakers.  I can say with confidence, when the airplane touches the ground in Beijing, I feel like I am home.

Posted at 05:55PM Apr 16, 2007 by Amiram Hayardeny in Personal  |  Comments[0]