If someone would have told me in the 1980's that I would be teaching students in Russia I would have shot them. As a US Marine, Russia was our enemy - in fact I remember getting my ass chewed as a Lcpl for not saluting some visiting Russian officers - another story for another time - In 2006 after having been to Russia numerous time and even spending 6 months teaching at another university I was asked by Dr. Vadim Golubev if I would teach at the Canadian studies centre of Philology faculty under the Canadian consulate in St Petersburg, I had nothing else to do so I accepted and that turned into 7 wonderful years there, which seen me get married and have 2 daughters born there. I later started teaching at the Journalism faculty as well. My time there allowed me to help students, especially at the Journalism faculty, to understand articles written from a cultural aspect so as to properly understand the article they are reading.
MY FIRST CLASS OF STUDENTS FROM THE BALTIC STATE UNIVERSITY (VOENMEK)
MY FIRST JOURNALISM CLASS AT JOURNALISM FACULTY ST PETERSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY
MY FIRST PUBLIC RELATIONS CLASS AT JOURNALISM FACULTY ST PETERSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY
Living in St Petersburg was one of the best times of my life - I love history and this city (and Russia) is rich in history. I have lost count of how many times I visited the Hermitage or the Russian Museum - I would often stop off on my way to work or from work depending on the time I had to walk their halls - the neat thing was as a professor at the university I had free admission - I became such a regular that the lady at the admissions desk just waved me through every time - of course there is much more outside of museums to see also and I was never disappointed.
St Petersburg Russia will always be home to me - my wife is from there and both our daughters were born there, and this is where in the future we will return. Я служу России
