To Minsk (Минск) and Beyond!

Week in Review

Sunday evening we had David’s family party.  We had chocolate cake for David’s party, which he loved, and then he opened his presents and the kids all played until bedtime (no wrapping paper, so he just took it out of the bag!).

Monday was a good day.  Things started out normally in the morning and then I had a car pick me up at 10 am to go and meet the director and deputy director of the Belarus High Tech Park.  We had a very interesting discussion about their ongoing education and training efforts, they showed me around, and we also discussed my involvement in providing workshops to organizational leaders both in Minsk and at other locations around the country over the next couple of months.  I am looking forward to this opportunity.  After I got home, the kids had rest time and I worked while Jacque did the grocery shopping for the week. Last night I had an idea for a Harvard Business Review article, so I spent some time working on a short proposal, to float the idea by the editorial board.  Likely nothing will come of it, but at the very least it was a useful exercise for me, and if they are not interested I have something I can publish someplace else.  I took the girls to the park in the afternoon but we were only there for 15 minutes before it started to rain.  So we promptly came home and spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out in the apartment.  We then had dinner and family night.   It was a good day.

Tuesday was a good day.  We had our normal routine in the morning, but then around 9 Jacque left for her trip to the U.S. Embassy Public Affairs Office to give her presentation to 30 Belarusian teachers from the Minsk Regional Teachers Retraining Institute (teachers of English from rural schools in the Minsk region).  She had a great time and she was home around lunch time.  After lunch, the kids had rest time and I worked prior to being picked up to go meet with management at ScienceSoft, where I spent most of the rest of the day yesterday meeting with the CEO and other company leaders/employees (I posted on this earlier in the week).  

Wednesday was a very casual day.  Jacque was nice enough to let me sleep in a bit, and then we got ready and ventured out to visit the Belarus National Library (a really cool building and one of the places Jacque absolutely wanted to be able to visit during our time here).  We couldn’t go past the lobby, but we bought some cool souvenirs and got some pictures.  They have an observation deck up on top, but that was not open until noon, so we decided to try and do that another time.  Instead, we headed back into town and got some McDonald’s for lunch.  After lunch we came back to the apartment and got the girls down for rest time.  Jacque took a luxuriously long nap and I worked while the kids played and colored.  It was a nice afternoon!  After dinner, Jacque went off to teach her English class and I stayed with the kids and watched a movie.  It was a good day.

Thursday was my big work day.  I had a lot I wanted to get done, so I spent most of the morning working and then came in to the office after lunch.  I worked on research on some other workshops I will be doing in the next couple of weeks and I met again with Vladimir (director of the business school) to talk about strategy stuff.  I had a short dinner break and then taught my MBA class (went well) and then got home a little before 10 pm. 

Friday was a rather relaxing day.  Much of the morning and afternoon was devoted to playing with the kids, reading, and otherwise hanging around the apartment.  Shortly before 5 pm, Valya (from church) came to babysit the kids and Jacque, David, and I left for the Fulbright reception at the U.S. Embassy.  The reception was very nice and David was the life of the party (he pretty much entertained everyone!).  We arrived back to the apartment around 8 pm, got the kids to bed, and then finished the night off with a treat and a movie.  It was a good day.

Saturday was a very relaxed day.  I actually spent most of the day reading a book ("Defending Jacob") and hanging out with Jacque and the kids.  It was nice!   Today was church, which was very nice.  However, it was a bit rainy on the way back, which made it a bit interesting!  All part of the adventure!  Now we are back and warm!