Everything has a beginning. It all started back in 1994 when the need to understand some elementary Russian language took on a life of its own. It started innocently enough  with a cassette tape course in beginners Russian. I did get as far as the letters A, M, K, O, T. Then  I moved to Germany, Guten Tag!  Again in my overwhelming need to learn the elements of conversational Russian, it quietly sneaked into my gray cells. This time on 905 cd tapes (only kidding). With hard work and diligent study, paced between copious amounts of Bitburger Pils, I was pleased to confirm I obtained fluency in the Russian letters of A, M, K, O, T. Progress to be sure.

Crunch time had arrived. My fluency in the 5 letters, learned very well, along with an occasional Zdastvooyte, Preevyet, Dobriy vyecher and Mne zhal all got me through until February 2020. Then it happened. I was moving to Russia. I need to learn the language post haste. I found numerous Russian language aids like:

• 2000 Russian Words in Context
• Teach Yourself Beginners Russian
• Sputnik An Introductory Russian Language Course, and my very favorite;
• Learn to Read Russian in 5 Days.

I moved to Atlanta and learned to speak southern. Howdy all! All the while, lurking deep in the confines of my mind were A, M, K, O, T!

Fast forward to my arrival at Domodedovo on a late Friday afternoon from London. I had scripted out a basic hello conversation which prompted a 2 hour discussion with the very efficient Border Control Agents centered around prolific use of Da’s, Nyet’s, Sorry I don’t speak Russian and a Welcome to Miami under my breath. After arriving in Vladivostok my extensive knowledge of A, M, K, O, T letters did serve me well. After 4 months here in my adopted land, I have gravitated from A foreigner, to THE American, to OUR American. The miles between the and our is immeasurable.

My study habits have changed a bit. I do my vocabulary flash cards, my Cyrillic alphabet practice, my sentence construction and my word palatalization ( you try it 🤯).  I have been embraced warmly here. The locals see me trying with the little I know and I actually solicit anywhere between a up-turned lip, a scowl, or a genuine smile.  I know I am making progress when my dearest mother-in-law tells my wife he actually knows some Russian!!

My Date With a Russian….Language is fickle. The more attention she gets, the stronger her gentle embrace.

Our American….I think a statue is in order.

We are going mentally into  a far and cold land. The temperature can get as low as -52°c or -62°f. Yup, which way to the pool?

During our travels we hopped into an Uber driven by the very distinguished Sultan Sergei.  He is part Chechen and part Yakut. This area also know as Yakutia or The Republic of Sahka. This is one of the coldest regions on the planet.

Sultan Sergei is 37 years old and has lived in Vladivostok for 5 years. He is married with 2 children. He runs an importing company as well as driving for Uber. We were lucky to be picked up by Sultan Sergei. He was a breath of fresh air with his desire to speak English. Quite good in fact.

What makes this special to me is the uniqueness and depth of  the people we meet day in and day out, just by chance. A quote by Avijeet Das goes like this…

“We meet so many people in life, but we connect to the heart of very few!”

We are sure we had a connection to the point of not wanting to get out of the car.

Ok. It’s 16° F.

There is no way I’m walking around outside to take street snaps. So I’m standing in the kitchen up against the radiator and looking out the window. Classic man and dog against white snow and ice. Hum, what else is there? Light and shadow on a white park. Interesting.

I’m reading an engaging book called Zen Camera: Creative Awakening with a Daily Practice in Photography by David Ulrich and published by Watson-Guptill. Those of you who know me can appreciate my feelings when considering anything “Zen” however Ulrich has impressed upon me (so far in my reading) a number of important additives to make life more dynamic:

• Take a lot of pics, some will be good,
• Have an open mind on how we communicate with what we see.

He states regarding creativity;

“since the world is always new — no moment ever repeats itself — you must flexibly adapt behind a camera”

As I try to manage the newness of each day, with varying degrees of success, I learn that I must approach the struggles with an open mind and love the flexibility I need to get to the other side. As the saying goes “we’re not in Kansas anymore”.

The snap above is of an old apartment building used by the railway department. Railroad management and staff would have individual and shared apartments. If I understood correctly, there were 7 or 8 buildings of this type in the early day of Balyaeva Str. It currently has normal apartment dwellers residing there. I tried to do a painting of this building, but with little success.

I bet it holds alot of mystery. It sure looks like it.

Henri Cartier-Bresson has nothing to worry about here. For the last year or so I have been reading about the art of street photography from the likes of Eric Kim and John Lewell. So today…..I decided to give it a chance.

I used getting the breakfast bread as a chance to get out early. I took this on my cell phone and used the LitPhoto app to compress the file to fit the post. I was interested on the solitary figure on the upper right side of the frame. The camera set an aperture of F1.7, ISO 50 and a shutter speed of 1/2000s.

It’s a start. (fun too!)

On Sunday 10/25 we went out for a early dinner. As we wandered around the old city of Vladivostok we found ourselves in a small alley. It seems that the building on our right was built in 1909. I was intrigued by the shadows on the upper half of the building. Pic below.

Semyonovskaya Street (Ulitsa) is named after the first head of Vladivostok.

We had a wonderful Korean feast with some old friends. Just like being in Seoul!