| At 9:30 we have had our breakfast at the university cafeteria and are gathering outside the entrance to the university main building, ready to make our way to the bus stop which was just on the otherside of the fence and to left. As you can see, the day started out a little wet. |
| Sandjar and Natacha under the shelter of the main building. |
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| At 9:46 we are at the bus stop, and Sandjar is eagerly looking out for our bus. |
| From the bus stop there was an impressive view of the spire atop the university main building disappearing into the mist, although this picture doesn't really do it justice. |
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| At 10:08 we are on the bus, making our way to IBMP for our 10:30 opening ceremony. Looks like it is still a bit damp outside. |
| The day begins with the opening ceremony at 10:30, with welcome greetings from Academician A. Grigoriev, which was followed by a video presentation on the research conducted here at the Institute for Biomedical Problems. |
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The last speaker of the morning is instroduced at 12:21 -
Cosmonaut Doctor Valeri Polyakov (centre), with Elena Dmitrieva (on his left) doing the translation. |
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Dr Polyakov holds the record for longest continuous stay in space, having
spent 437 days, 17 hours and 58 minutes in orbit from 8 January 1994 till
22 March 1995.
He gave a talk entitled "Long term space flights on the space station MIR and perspectives on a flight to Mars". |
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| At the conclusion of the lecture Dr Polyakov is mobbed by people wanting to speak with the famous cosmonaut. |
| Ulf manages to elbow his way to the front of the crowd to get a picture with the famous man. |
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The Welcome Buffet
| At 13:55 (a little later than scheduled) we had our lunch break, and were led down a flight of stairs to a room where a Welcome Buffet (and it was indeed very welcome) had been prepared for us. |
| Amoungst the pictures I obtained from Ulf I even found one in which I appear. |
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| The table, which was initially full of food, somewhat depleted by the time this picture was taken. |
| Jennie, Marisa and Natacha, the three girls from our group that were staying at the university dormitorys, having lunch in a more dignified fashion in a corner of the room. |
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| And in the opposite corner is another one of our dormitory group - Patrick. |
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A different view of almost the same scene.
Most of the preceding pictures from the buffet were from Ulf's collection, but this is one of mine that appears to have been taken at nearly the same time. |
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| A slightly different angle again, taken about 30 seconds later. This time I almost got Misha Grafov (the summer shool organizer) in the picture, talking to Svetlana and Natalia from Byelorussia. |
| After lunch it was back to upstairs, where we concluded the days lectures, and then at 16:10 we were back on the bus enroute back to our respective accomodations. |
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| And the nice thing about staying at the university is that my accomodation was fairly easy to pick out on the skyline... |
| A self portrait by Ulf on the bus... |
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| And another inside bus picture with a rather less closeup picture of me.. |
Moo Moo
| After our lectures we return to the university and Sandjar offers help us find a suitable venue for dinner. After a quick review of the options, he takes us on a short metro ride to the area where the clinic at which he works is located. There he takes us to 'moo-moo', a resturant that is part of a russian fast food chain. (This is the wrapper from the after dinner confectionary that was served with my coffee). |
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| At 18:57 at our table at moo-moo, from the left Patrick, Ulf, Risto, Kelly, Natacha, Marisa, and I think just out of the shot is Jennie and Sandjar. |
| Ulf took this one from his position, getting Jennie into the picture. The empty seat to her left is Sandjar's - he had gratiously volunteers to hold the table while the rest of us queued for our food, and it seems at this point he had not yet returned from entering the queue himself. |
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Local Sightseeing
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After dinner Sandjar takes us for sightseeing in the vicinity of
his clinic.
At 20:31 we stop for a group photograph in front of a statue, but it looks like this one was taken before I was ready.. |
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A more successful shot.
The statue is of a doctor whose name I think was Filatov (1847-1902). He was called 'The Childrens Friend' on the inscription, apparently because he was famous for looking after young children. |
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| One of the outtakes from Ulfs collection. It looks like Risto is about to burst into song, possibly explaining why I am running away.. |
| Of course everyone in the group wanted a picture taken with their own camera, so here he is hard at work keeping everyone happy... |
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| Then we continued on our tour, and not long after - at 20:36, we found... |
| Another statue - also apparently of someone associated with the medical profession judging by the skull on his knee. The inscription seems to indicate that it is 'N.I.Pirogov' |
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| At 22:19 we were back at the university, and Ulf seems to have taken a picture of Risto being attacked by a triffid in the common area on our floor. |
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