August 17-19, I was invited by the Zabaikalsky Krai Department of Tourism to tag along with a Chinese music group going to Krasny Chikoy to participate in a folk music festival there. Krasny Chikoy...
CHUCK RITCHIE WRITES: August 20, 2018. We are in to our second day in Irkutsk with our wonderful tour organizer Olga Kostina and our interpreter Irina Shipley and her protege Lyosha. Yesterday we toured...
It is later in the summer now, and things are being canned and pickled as they are back home. I have benefited from this as a fortunate guest. People keep giving me their stuff:...
This will be short. Yesterday I met a group of Kristina Mkrtchyan’s summer English students in a very interesting setting–a kind of cafe/meeting place where you can rent a room for cheap for an...
Petrovsk First visit Part B: Camp Following the recital at the music school, Ivan Nikolaevich, lead volunteer of the loose group of local and Chita volunteers that support the Children’s Home, drove me, two...
Petrovsk-Zabaikalsky: First visit. Part A: Road and Recital We were five driving southwest to Petrovsk-Zabaikalsky from Chita at 8:30 the morning of August 3rd: Victor and Elena, Olga Fleshler, me, and Janna, a publicist...
On Tuesday, July 31, I met the children and staff of the English Explorers language learners program of Gorod Detstva (City of Childhood Child Development Center). Originally, I was to teach at their summer...
A quick note about yesterday and today. Yesterday I was invited to Ksenia Shuvalova”s (“Ksyusha”) and her husband Dima’s dacha outside the village of Karpovka, 45 minutes from Chita, for a swim in the...
I arrived in Chita on the morning of Thursday July 19th to grey, rainy skies and vast puddles in the roads from the airport to the city. It was sprinkling at the moment, but...
Siberian Bridges’ Secretary-Treasurer Judy Boudreau shares her experiences on auditing Russian 101 at the University of Minnesota this past Fall. I’ve been wanting to get a better handle on learning to speak Russian. My...
We Will Go to Paris After All This is the story of two children from the Children’s Center “Edinstvo” in Zabaikalye, Zoya Chizhkova and Vitaly Tolochkin. They were finalists in the vocal talent show...
More than five months of work and preparation for the competition. Several complications, emotions, and finally – a second-place finish and the award of audience favorite. Zoya Chizhkova and Vitaly Tolochkin, participants from the...
The 10 year-old Zabaikalsky prize winner of the show “YOU ARE SUPER” Vitaly Tolochkin at a meeting with President Putin in Sochi asked the commander and chief what he dreamed of when he was...
On the evening of November 16, 2017 — to coincide with International Students Day on November 17th in Chita, Russia and Harbin, China — Siberian Bridges co-hosted a long-distance, live video-conference for university students...
Save the afternoon of Sunday, December 3rd for our annual Get-Together at the Mayflower Church, 106 E Diamond Lake Rd, Minneapolis from 3 – 5pm in the Chapel. The party will again be preceded...
This was my 12th visit to Chita in all these years, and for most of them leave-taking has been a wonderful comedy of scheduling, generosity, and impossible luggage. This time was no exception. It...
This summer has been marked by visits to the dachas of friends. Dachas have been a boon in the difficult economy that most Russians have endured for 2-3 generations now as they are almost...
In 1997, Tanya Sukhanova came from Chita for summer study in Vermont. We took a trip to Washington, DC, and I asked if there was anything she wanted to be sure to see. She...
I joined Elena Anatolievna and her family on a camping trip on Lake Arey. This lake is 220 kilometers west of Chita and sits alone in the larch, birch and pine forests. There is...
HOW THE CENTER IS FARING On Saturday at the camp, Director Natalia Nikolaevna talked to the committee of volunteers about the state of the school. Some of the good things are that the 2nd...