Re: Hope you are enjoying your trip

Hi Siggy,

It's just about midnight again here in StP. I'm about to pack my bags as I have to catch a taxi to the airport at 3:50 AM! Oh my, I might play hooky from sleep and just go for a stroll down Nevsky Prospekt instead :-)

Our conference wrapped up today at 2 which gave me opportunity to go visit the Russian Museum of Art with a good friend from Australia. What a place! The Mikhailovsky Palace's ornate decorations are just unreal. I'm sure you visited it as well. The older iconic pieces didn't do much for me but oh boy, some of it was amazing. Aivezosky's images of oceans and Kuindzhi's and Levitan's landscapes really really grabbed me. I had never heard of or seen their work before.

My final dinner here was spent with our conference organizer, Eduard Podgaisky and his wife and son, as well some other colleagues. Eduard was born in Germany but moved to StP when he was 2 years old. We ate at a very upscale place that served traditional Ukrainian food and music. Good wholesome stuff with tasty vodkas to clean the palette between courses :-)

I'm really looking forward to meeting up with Kelly and Leah tomorrow and to whisk them down to Switzerland for the week. And yes, I do have a day and half set up in Geneva. I have an afternoon meeting with some folks at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) together with my program's director. So work is paying for a nice room on the lake on Thursday night. The girls will be with me and they can spend some time on their own exploring the lake front after getting a tour of the WMO building. I too hope the sun will be out so that those alps are reflecting on the lake.

I think you should definitely spend more time in Switzerland. After reconnecting with folks over here, I again realize that this part of the world is close to the soul and that I need to have a closer connection. The girls, with their Swiss citizenship, have the entire European Union at their beck and call. They can live and work and go to school in any of the countries over here. Endless opportunities to expand their perspectives.

Love and hugs,
Bruce

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From: Siggy <slight3@bellsouth.net>
To: Bruce Muller <bruce@mullerb.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 2, 2009 4:17:10 PM
Subject: Re: Hope you are enjoying your trip

Bruce Muller wrote:
> Greetings from St. Petersburg, Siggy.
>
> 'The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes but seeing with new eyes.' That quote from Proust has been a guiding tenet for this trip. My preconceived notions of both Helsinki and StP have been blown away. Partly because it's summer and the people are at their most lively for the year but mostly because both places have presented themselves as very livable, fun, and vibrant communities. I've been most  impressed with StP. The history here is amazing. It's hard to imagine such a European city clamped down by the Soviet doctrine. Aside from the amazing buildings, walking down Nevsky Prospekt is no different from walking down the street in any western city. At the university, where our conference is being held, the faculty and staff are amazingly accommodating and gracious. It's been a very pleasant experience once I started looking past the somewhat run down state of the infrastructure. When the economy picks up again, this place is going to explode. The seaside neighborhoods look like South Beach: big, modern apartment buildings, walking malls with loads of nice restaurants, tons of happy frolicking people, and lots and lots of business offices.
>
> The musical on the Thuner See sounds interesting! Can you get more info? All I could find on a Google search was reference to a performance of Andrew Lloyd Weber's 'Jesus Christ Superstar' which is at a theater on the water. There are pre-show cruises with dinner and drinks before the theater performance.
>
> I do have a day of work in Geneva so our week will be a short one. We'll see how much we can squeeze in between visits with relatives and friends.
>
> Love and hugs,
> Bruce
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Siggy <slight3@bellsouth.net>
> *To:* Bruce Muller <bruce@mullerb.com>
> *Sent:* Thursday, July 2, 2009 2:10:17 PM
> *Subject:* Hope you are enjoying your trip
>
> Hi Bruce, just briefly ... I wanted to tell you that my Swiss friends told me
> that there is a unique performance of a very melodic American musical (don't remember, but ?Evita comes to mind) on a boat, in the middle of Lake Thun, during the entire month of July. I think it would be very romantic for the girls to experience this by moonshine (hopefully). I would be happy to pay for you three, as the tickets are probably expensive. When I talked to Rachel about it she thought that this was probably of no interest to any of you. Have difficulty accepting it. Our friends go there from Ascona, overnight.
> Think about it and let me know. Have a great time whatever you do. Love Siggy and Julian
Oh, my God, it is midnight where you are. Thanks for the response. Most
interesting, I love your quote by Proust. You know, that this is constantly true when I revisit old haunts. When we just visited Ala, Miss, Louis., N.Fl., most of which I visited 30 years ago - amazingly enough how gratifying it is to see with new eyes. StP. will be one of the most beautiful cities in the world one day; architecturally, we/I was amazed at the original beauty of it all. An absolutely amazing city full of history and beauty and tradition which still survives inspite of the ravages of history. I amvery happy to see how much you appreciate all of that.

I don't know how long you will be in Thun. I think there was another musical
-- theater on the water. I am not sure you need boring pre-show cruises, I hope this is not the only way you can see the show. On the other hand, business is business, even in Switzerland. I had a most wonderful trip with my friends, boy did they all spoil me. I am thinking - if not buying something - of
renting an apartment in Geneva for a month. This way, Julian gets home-away-from-home; and it is a city with a real city atmosphere, essential for him. Car excursions would allow us to go to Chamonix, Lake Annecy, Lyon, as well as Bern, etc, etc. I would just love that. A whole month of exploring my student haunts, what exhilaration that would be! Seeing it with "new eyes". And maybe, even you and Rachel would visit!!!!!!!!!!!  There is a lot of culture in Geneva; it turned out - by sheer accident -- that the day I visited, my alma mater was celebrating its 450th anniversary of its founding (Calvin and Zwingli). All very moving to me, as I feel the reliving of history. Can you imagine that the entrance doors to the University dated back to then, have not changed at all, don't close properly, but nothing has changed. That was just wonderful to me as well as my friends from then.  They live there all year round, so they do not pay that much attention to it. But they were pretty touched by it all. What coincidence that I came that ONE DAY!!! They could not believe it.

When you visit Geneva, I hope you have a sunny day so that you can see the mountains of the French side of the LAKE. I hope the girls are with you, to see the jet d'eau; and maybe, just maybe, you can pass by the UNIVERSITY and the old town above it. Nothing has changed: the same cafes/restaurants, the CLEMENCE (our student haunt, I was amazed). See the old Cathedral,
and I will tell you a story about it which I experienced personally. I could cry with the nostalgia of it all. Even the student cafeteria is the exact same as it was when I met Bob, whow, I was pretty overwhelmed. And so were our friends. We were altogether in this in the late 1950's!

What is your next destination?? Helsinki is a really neat place. We have two friends living there, semi-perpetually..... I wish you had told us. Julian and I
visited that town in the early 1980's and we were most impressed with the dynamism of this little country.

Enjoy - I truly enjoyed your update. Love you, Siggy