Leaving Siberia for a summer in the fast food lane

Eight college students from Krasnoyarsk, a city in Siberia, are working this summer at McDonald's through the Spirit Cultural Exchange program based in Chicago. The students are (front row from left): Dmitry Komovich, Yera Kozulina, Olga Zaruba, Olga Panasenko (back row from left); Yulia Grigorieva, Vadim Osipov, Denis Dukov and Evgeny Danzhurov. By Linda Redeffer ~ Southeast Missourian

They eat borscht and blinis for dinner and drink orange juice instead of soda. So what are these young people doing at McDonald's?

Eight college students from Krasnoyarsk, a city in Siberia, spent four days on a train headed to Moscow, and from Moscow flew to Amsterdam, Holland. After 24 hours in Amsterdam, they flew to Detroit, where they got on a bus and rode to Cape Girardeau, arriving around 4:30 p.m. June 9. After a week of traveling and a day to rest, they went to work at McDonald's on Broadway.

The eight Russian students are here on a 12-week cultural work-travel program through Spirit Cultural Exchange of Chicago. In Krasnoyarsk, Dmitry Komovich and Vadim Osipov are studying economics; Vera KIozulina, real estate; Olga Zaruba and Yulia Grigorieva, foreign languages; Olga Panasenko, food management; Denis Dukov, speech therapy; and Evgeny Danzhurov, medicine with a specialty in pediatrics.

But for the summer they're cooking burgers and fries, filling soda cups, making change and waiting on customers.

It's not the sort of job they would do back in Krasnoyarsk. Evgeny Danzhurov said the city once had a McDonald's but it closed. Russians don't like fast food, he said.

In addition to working, the students are learning about life in America, specifically Cape Girardeau. They're earning more here than they could in their home town where the average family earns $200 to $300 a month, according to Eric Minkin, owner of Cape Girardeau's Cafe Azu who is also from Siberia.

Once they arrived, they learned how accommodating some Americans are. Through a miscommunication with the Russian agent who arranged their trip, there was no housing ready for them when they arrived. Mark Myers, manager of the McDonald's on Broadway, first contacted company owner Shannon Davis who advised him to put the students up at a local motel until they could find housing.

"They looked like lost puppies. They were tired and hungry," Myers said. "They thought the motel was the greatest thing. They were whooping and hollering when I closed the door. The rooms were so nice and the beds were so big."

Myers and his office administrator Myrna Thell made a few phone calls and within a day found a three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment where the students could live. Marsha Toll, who owns Bellevue Bed and Breakfast, is their landlord.

Toll and Thell raided their own homes and provided dishes, bedding and furniture. Davis arranged for the students to have a computer and Internet access so they can stay in touch with their families.

The first stop they made the day after arriving was at Cafe Azu, where they met Minkin who fed them food they were familiar with and stays in touch with them.

Russians' work ethic

Davis said he offered to let the students rest until Monday, but the students insisted on going to work Friday.

"They said they wanted to work immediately and they want to work full time," Davis said.

According to the agreement with Spirit Cultural Exchange, said owner Kathleen Bader, students -- mostly from Eastern European countries -- pay between $1,500 and $2,000 to come to the United States and work. Spirit Cultural Exchange, she said, is designated by the U.S. State Department as an exchange-visitor program sponsor. The students all hold work and travel visas. The fee they pay covers their transportation and medical insurance. A stipulation of their contract with the American employers states that the rent they pay must be no more than 30 percent of their monthly wage.

"They go home ahead," Bader said. "They're able to pay back the money they needed to get here and take some money home to put toward their studies."

Most of the students in the exchange program work at fast food restaurants and amusement parks that always have openings for seasonal workers, Bader said.

While they're here they get to know their American co-workers and the Americans they work with learn about Russia. Thell said one of the first observations they made to her was that Americans aren't as aggressive as they expected. Dmitry Komovich said he noticed that Americans, at least those in Cape Girardeau, seem to be homebodies. In his hometown, he said, he likes to go to the theater, take walks with his friends and participate in sports and games. Olga Paasenko, who admits to being a little homesick, said she misses Krasnoyarsk nightclubs.

All said they were having difficulty adjusting to the heat and humidity. They're accustomed to a larger city with public transportation. McDonald's provides them transportation to and from work, but the only other means they have to get around are two bicycles, so they can't venture far.

"They're really nice kids and good help," Myers said. "I really want for them to go home and take a good impression of what Americans are like."

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160