Undergraduate Blog / Defining Your Babson

Only 10 days left in Russia! …What?!

I don’t think any of us have grasped the fact that we’ve spent almost a month here in St. Petersburg already. I mean, it’s not like we’re not aware of the days that pass – it’s more like we’re so busy that the days just seem to pass more quickly!

Our first two weeks were filled with awesome tours to the Hermitage (one of the world’s largest museums), a trip to the Mikhailovsky Theater to see Swan Lake performed by some of the world’s best ballet dancers, lots and lots and lots and lots of tours to other museums and historical sites (Sergei, if you ever read this, we love your tours!!!), and learning about how Russia’s history has impacted its business practices today.

Since Professor Seitz left, we’re now into Prof. Coyle’s section and we’ve visited some awesome businesses so far. Yesterday, one of the business people we met was Oleg Zherebtsov, self-made entrepreneur with no formal education past the age of 17. Yet just two years ago he sold his company (Lenta – the Costco of Russia) for $1oo million, and is now venturing into a completely different market that he hopes to be up and running by early next year – no biggie. And in his spare time, he’s just a world class sailor, studies German, and is learning to play the drums. No biggie.

Today, we visited the American Consulate here in St. Petersburg and also went to Imperial Porcelain – a company that’s been there making porcelain for the ruling classes of Russia  since the 18th century. It’s all hand-made goodness, which explains their exorbitant prices. (I would show you some pictures, but unfortunately my internet connection is just a tad too sloth-like to upload anything. But seriously, take my word for how exquisite they are!)

Anyway,  I have to get back to working on my next paper – like all of us on BRIC are!!!

Hope you all are having a wonderful semester back at Babson!

-Mountainnugget (aka Shirley Z.)