Thursday, July 28, 2016

From Russia with Love



The analytics from  Blogger are fun to look at.  I am particularly curious to look at the map and numbers from  time to time of what countries visitors have come from. Interesting to me, but I seem to have a growing audience in Russia. I’m sure it is some sort of robot viewer housed there, doing random and frequent clicks and views, but I get a kick our of thinking that a 50 something mom sitting in a cozy Moscow apartment is reading my words, and laughing at or cringing at my words. Hello Russia!  If any person is really there reading, please comment below. I’d love to get to know you.


I had an interesting conversation with a coworker this morning. It started off with a check in on the status of translated documents. We have a large Spanish, Somali, and Hmong speaking population in Minnesota, as well as dozens of other languages from countries around the world. We have limited our formal translation of documents to these three languages due to cost and reach. Part of the delay for the Somali and Hmong is the limited number of people that can read and write fluently in the languages, and as we do a community review, the disagreement sometime in the community as to the right interpretation. As conversations often side step, I leaned my 50 something colleague was foreign born herself, having immigrated from Eastern Europe through an adoption by her aunt when she was just nine years old. 


She went on to share how her early years were in utter poverty, and on her few trips back, the culture shock was overwhelming. She was now assumed to be the rich American, expected to give money to remaining family members, had drivers and officials expecting monetary tips to do their job, and begging children in the streets. I recalled previous conversations about travel where she had stated she has little to no desire to leave the US. This coworker looks about as stereotypical middle class Minnesotan as a person can be.  My perception was that  she seemed very closed minded about travel, foreigners, and conservative views about poverty and educational attainment. Having this conversation flipped my paradigms completely. I should know by now to never make assumptions about anyone's views, opinions, and behaviors when  I know nothing of their story. 


The United States is a vast country of different cultures and stories, and as much as I want to travel abroad, I need remember I have barely experienced the diversity within my own country. We’ll be staying put, with the exception of the day stop in Canada, on  native soil for the next few years, but will read hungrily travel blogs and writers from other countries. If you are a reader from another part of the US, (or heck from St Paul), or another country, please post a comment on what makes the place you call home special. Let’s all be arm chair travelers and travel guides together. And if you are that 50 year old mom in Moscow, I am waiting to connect !

10 comments:

  1. So, I have to say, I got very curious after reading the title of your post so I HAD to check my own stats.....YUP! Russia "viewed" my blog more than DOUBLE the amount of the USA! LOL

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    1. Oh darn! I was hoping I was wrong and I was making a worldwide impact!

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  2. Same here. I got more page views from Russia than the rest of the world. I wondered why but it looks as though it's a common phenomenon. But all of us can dream!

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    1. Ironic that it's Russia with all the media hype of emails and sabotage!

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  3. US, Canada, UK, France and then Russia. Okay, why don't the Russians like me as well as you two? I am going to go and pout.

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    1. Since it does appear the Russians are cybermen, I think you're lucky. A little Doctor Who reference.

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  4. When I'm not physically travelling I'm arm chair travelling and visualising places to visit. Travelling is a state of mind I think as even when I'm static I'm roaming about in my head. However I also love my home and surrounding area. For us travel is important and due to having less than half the income we used to have sacrifices have been made in other areas to keep my travel dreams alive. There are also many places in the UK I have not seen so travel closer to home is on the cards too. I wish I could blog as frequently as you I still have my last trip to post about and now getting ready for the next. I'll have to check the page view thingy lol I really enjoy your blog conversations Sam always interesting and thought provoking.

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    1. When I'm done working, last daughter out of house and college, I'll be doing more physical travel as well! I like the state of mind thought-I try to visit that often. Don't compare your blog time with others. For me, it's a bit of stubborn personal persistence,but there's days I can't think of anything and other days I bore myself so probably should't have bothered. Write when you feel like it-I'll be ready to read when you do.

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  5. You all made me go and look too. I never look at those stats but what do ya know, TONS from Russia! More than any place else that's for sure. You know, most of those are recent though. When I look at "all time stats" vs. this month then Russia drops down from a whopping first place to fourth. I wonder if it has anything to do with all the hacking they've been doing lately. Now you're on their Radar Sam. You shouldn't have blogged about them :)

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    1. Well, I did have connections, seven degrees of separation front the White House! I'll never leek confidential Intel!

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