St. Petersburg TripREPORT

Pierre Abi-aad! 1001674! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Olli Hämäläinen18th November 2010!! ! ! ! TX00AA58-2004 Study Tour to St. Petersburg

«For this report I have decided to have an overlook about all the things we saw during this fantastic week. History, new city, university and industry : in this report I will try to cover all these subjects with my own vision.

I would like to thank Olli Hämäläinen for this amazing trip, Tane for his very nice bus travel and of course all the other students.

»

Table Of Contents

I - Introduction! 4

II - Mixed with history & development ! 4

III - Industrial rise! 6

IV - Russiaʼs framework : students! 7

V - Night life : no limits! 8

VI - Conclusion! 9

I - Introduction! Before my departure I had a quite bad vision of Russia. I tough it was a very poor country with a quite big history but not so huge as it is really. All the titles about Russia from our newspaper and tv are so subjective and they show us only the bad aspects of this country. Nowadays if someone hears «Russia» word he directly thinks (in France) : USSR, President Poutine, Vodka, alcoholic people, poor country. I was thinking the same but we will see in my report how I have changed my mind during this fabulous week of visits (and parties).

II - Mixed with history & development! When the bus crossed the border and made the first break I was quite afraid about our situation. The landscape was nice but quite brown and sad. The station was not so nice as the finnish station and the first thing I saw was a big cat without tail : quite disturbing for the first walk in this country.

! Finally we arrived in St. Petersburg and my first impression was the good one I think : beautiful and huge architecture, a city full of history and full of evolutions. We went to the Hermitage museum and I was very impressed. It is like Le Louvre in Paris. Lots of different rooms whith beautiful decorations and ornaments. The guide told us the strong relation between France and Russia and just by observing this building I just can agree with her.

!

! Like Le Louvre, Hermitage gathers lots of art from different countries and civilizations : Pharaons, Greeks, Romans, Renaissance, ... Moreover, like France has Louis IV or Napoleon, Russia and especially St. Petersburg has Peter The Great. The is the one who really transformed Russia into a powerful country in the middle of the 18th century. He is the father of St. Petersburg. For him this city had to be a bridge between industrial Europe and Russia. He succeeded very well and we can say that St. Petersburg is most European city of Russia.

! On friday we have visited by our own the monastery next to the hotel. It was so beautiful, the weather was nice and we were in the middle of russian people. I was impressed because russian christian are very very church-goer and have lots of specific rituals.

! ! !

! So St. Petersburg has a large historic background but has to renew all the time his architecture and has to extend all the construct area. Between all the old building we see very modern or abandoned buildings. Thatʼs a mix between beauty and need to progress and it seems to be unverifiable.

III - Industrial rise

! Like I said before, St. Petersburg is watching directly in direction of Europe and during this week we saw that lots of companies here are working with foreign partners.The company that interested me more was Arcadia. Why this company ? Because itʼs directly the type of company I will work for later. It was very interesting to know how they are organized and how they are managing all their workers. During this session I see all the concepts I have learned at my university directly applied. I am an entrepreneur in France and all what they said about client needs was very true. I have experienced the same problems. Russian computer companies are known around the world and this session has confirmed my impressions.

! Then of course Baltika company was the second most exciting tour for me. I never thought that the french beer 1664 was produced in Baltika. The guide had a lot of knowledge about beer and it was very nice to listen to him even if he was speaking a bit fast. I have never visited factories in my all life and this one was so huge. Lots and lots of beer vats. All the machines were very recent and the assembly line was impressive.I have also enjoyed Ruukki company. Our guide was very funny and explain very well how this finnish company was producing metal.All these company proved us that lots of foreign investors are trusting the power of Russia.

! To be honest the other companies were not so interesting. I mean it was nice but I did not understand all the explanations. Sometimes it was difficult for me to understand all the words of the guides because they were using very technical terms.

! ! ! !

IV - Russiaʼs framework : students ! Of course a country is nothing without a good education system. I donʼt really know how is the russian system but I have noticed how the students want to get out of the basic system. We have visited four universities and all of them were quite powerful, they were trying to make their best to shape an elite. With all the difficulties Russia had to make up for the economical situation of Europe they have to bet about their next generation of workers.

! I have never went to the french university La Sorbone (Paris) but I think these university and especially the Technical University we have visited have the same nice history and it was a real pleasure to listen the doyenʼs speech. In thirty minutes we have learned lots of thing about Russia and this university. Moreover we can notice that young generation is aware about the obligation to learn english language. The old generation of russian people donʼt speak a word of english but it is going to change and it is again a prove the wish of this country to affirm again their power around the world.

!

! ! !

V - Night life : no limits! Parties were of course part of this trip and one thing is sure : russian people know how to make it right. Lots of bars and club are open in St. Petersburg and I think we had lots of fun each other during the night. One thing that have disturbed me is that most the club have some weapon detection system at the entrance. It is not very comforting because it means that some people can wait for you outside with a knife or perhaps a gun. But it is party so you forget this thing very fast and enjoy your night with the other students.

! In Metropolia it is quite hard to find some finnish friends because all the exchange students are together and make private parties. I am glad that this trip has gathered finnish and exchange students. That is weird to say that but it is in Russia that I have discovered finnish people ! Now I can that they are very strong with alcohol but not strong as the french team. Every morning we were present and the others were sleeping. We are still in contact and I am sure they are waiting for a revenge !

! So why did I mention the «no limits» on my title ? I donʼt if it is because life is hard or if it is because alcohol is very cheap but I have noticed that clubbers donʼt really care about their attitude. It seems they just want to escape their working day and get drunk as fast as possible. Sex, drugs and violence are very close to every one and I think it is better to be careful about it. Perhaps that is why I prefer Finland to make party. Of course taxi is so much expensive but you can walk alone in the street without any scare. In Russia even in group I had a bit of anxiety.

!

VI - Conclusion! This is very simple : I will never forget this week in all my life. It was a great experience.

! St. Petersburg is a melting-pot of architecture, history and people. It is a crazy city that never sleep. I have discovered new cultural points and as I said for Finland : Erasmus program just give you the travel virus.

! I have totally changed my mind about Russia even if we were just staying in one huge city. I think that in the next thirty years we will hear lots of time about this country (like China).