Roger Holzheimer: Blog

ahh my friends . . . .  many of you have sent messages to ask if all was okay with me.  i realized in looking back that i haven't bothered you with a newsletter since june, and here it is october already.  so, yes . . . .  i am alive and well, still in rostov-on-don russia.  in fact it will be a year and a half in just a few more days.  actually i thought i may be heading back to the usa this month but now it appears the next time i step foot on the soil of my motherland will be at christmas.  thanks for checking up on me.

my short nine day stay in the united states in may and june for the purpose of acquiring my long term russian visa turned into three weeks, then four weeks, then five weeks . . . .  i finally got back to work on the fourth of july (and there was no celebration . . .  oh yeah, it is russia).  being home with my incredible family always makes it hard to leave, particularly when the stay is a long one.  when i read [...]

well, here it is the fourth of june and it has been a long time since reaching out to you, my friends.  and of course i know you all missed my musings . . . .  
 
so, since march, where have i been, what have i done?  i had the entire month of march and half of april to spend time in the ural area of russia as well as western siberia.  what an experience.  living out of a suitcase for five and a half weeks staying in hotels, some modern, some out of the '40's. nothing like working all day, catching a train at 8 pm, 11 pm, or even 1 am for another journey through parts unknown to arrive in another city previously unknown to me. take a quick nap and or shower, then off to work.  as i said in my last message, i visited ekaterinburg, nizhni tagil, magnitogorsk, chelyabinsk, kurgan, surgut, tyumen, perm, nizhnivartosk, and some other towns and villages.  once again, i believe i have seen in the past year more of russia than most americans (or russians [...]

 . . . . out like a lamb.  I hope your March hasn't started out too leonine, and if it has, well, Spring "should" be on the way, so just grin . . . .  The winter weather in Rostov-on-Don was really just about cold, not much snow.  Even my time spent in Siberia was snowy only one or two days.  Go figure.  Now, let's see what the weather will be like during my next journey into the heart of Russia.  Tomorrow morning I leave for Ekaterinburg (Yekaterinburg) for what will be a five week traipse through cities, towns, and villages.  I will be seeing the cities of Surgut, Perm, Nizhni Tagil, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, and Nizhnevartovsk and I am sure I will see a lot of towns and villages as I pass through on trains and cars or fly over on planes.  My trip to Vladivostok was postponed for this extended trip to the Ural area, a large expanse highlighted by the Ural Mountains.  It lies both in European Russia and Asian Russia extending from [...]

Is it just me or is time racing?  January finished and turning into my birthday month.
 
In a few weeks some major traveling for this American ex-pat in Russia. Work will take me from Russian border to Russian border the next six months.  The first week of February I head to Novosibirsk in Siberia.  I am definitely ready in mind and spirit but I don’t think I am ready with wardrobe.  In this city the mean temperature is 5.5 F or -14.7 C.  The AVERAGE low in February is -2.4F or -19.1C.  Yes, I suppose it will be chilly.  Brings to mind the band Three Dog Night (a description of how many dogs it takes on the bed to stay warm).  I think I could be experiencing a few Five Dog Nights!!
 
My travels will mean two weeks on the road, one week “home” in Rostov, then two weeks, one week, then two . . . . well, you get the picture.  For the first six weeks I will work my way across Siberia ending that portion of the trip the [...]

Hello my friends,
 
I hope this finds you safe and warm.  I am safely back home in Colorado and basking in the warmth of family.  Ahhhh, what a strange journey this year has seen me take.  I hope whatever journeys you have taken have been good ones.  But even the most rocky and bumpy of roads lead somewhere, sometimes somewhere good, sometimes not so, and sometimes somewhere sad, but the journeys make us what we are.
 
Little did I know at the beginning of the year that my journeys would take me on an experience of a lifetime.  Little did I know in April that I would be living and working in the Russian Federation.  Little did I know of the the experiences I would have and the friends I would make.  As you may know by now one of my favorite quotes from John Lennon is "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans".
 
Mid-April found me making my first trip to Russia.  Since then I have made four and a half round trips between [...]