Two Weeks to Go!

It's the twenty-first week, with a new grand total distanced travelled of 58,007 kilometers! Which means that 2,265 pages were added to last weeks total of 55,742.

There was no stop in northern China for me this journey! I'm swimming in the Sea of Okhotsk which is:

• part of the western Pacific Ocean, lying between the Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, the island of Hokkaidō to the far south, the island of Sakhalin along the west, and a long stretch of eastern Siberian coast (including the Shantar Islands) along the west and north. The northeast corner is Shelikhov Gulf.
• it covers 611,000 sq.mi. (1,583,000 km².), with an average depth of 2,818 feet (859 metres). Its maximum depth is 11,063 feet (3,372 metres).
• in winter, navigation on the Sea of Okhotsk becomes difficult, or even impossible, due to the formation of large ice floes, because the large amount of freshwater from the Amur River lowers the amount of salt in the water and raises the freezing point of the sea.

I'm also getting closer and closer to the North American continent! It looks like you'll send me not on one round trip, but two trips around the globe! This is fantastic!

Three Weeks to Go!

As this is the twentieth week of the Centennial Centipede Project, we've only got three more weeks and three days during the week of November 18th when the Grand Prize Draw occurs! So, last week the total distanced travelled was 54,372, well this week you read 2,480 pages for a new total distance of 55,742 kilometers!

I'm now at 53 N 83 E in the near the east boarder of Altai Krai near the city of Barnaul. As I covered Kazakenstan's national anthem last week, this week I'll tell you a bit about the national anthem of Russia.

• The song is an adaptation of the anthem of the Soviet Union of 1944, with music originally composed by Alexander Alexandrov. The lyrics were revised for the anthem of the Russian Federation by Sergey Mikhalkov, who had supplied lyrics for versions of the Soviet anthem in 1943 and 1977. The revision removes any mention of Vladimir Lenin's ideas and the "unbreakable union" of the Soviet state, instead focusing on a country that is vast in area and rich in resources that will be entrusted to future generations.
• The hymn was adopted in late 2000 by President Vladimir Putin and replaced "The Patriotic Song", which had been the official anthem from 1990.
  

More can be learned at wikipedia.

Lyrics (an unofficial English translation)

Russia — our sacred power,
Russia — our beloved country.
Mighty will, great glory —
Your honors for all time!

Refrain:

Glory to you, our free Motherland,

Age-old union of fraternal peoples,

Ancestor-given wisdom of the people!

Glory to you, our country! We are proud of you!

From the southern seas to the polar regions
Spread our forests and fields.
You are unique in the world! You alone are like this —
Our dear land kept safe by God!

Refrain

Wide amplitude for dreams and for living
Gets opened up for us with each passing year.
Loyalty to the Motherland gives us strength.
Thus it was, is, and always shall be!

Refrain

And while I wrote about the French and English versions of "O Canada" this week I'm going to direct you to a recording of Canada's anthem done in Cree by 13 year old Akina Shirt on YouTube. She preformed at a Calgary Flames game in February 2007, the first person ever to perform "O Canada" in a Canadian Aboriginal language at a National Hockey League contest.

Keep on reading like mad! We're getting near the end!

Meniñ Qazaqstanım!

This nineteenth week of the project 2,480 pages were added to last weeks total of 51,892 and adding them up our new total is 51,892 kilometers! Fantastic job reading as always!

My location for this weekend of October 16th is 53 N 70 E, meaning that just as I've re-visited Belarus and Russia I'm once again visiting Kazakhstan. I've decided to share with you Kazakhstan's new national anthem which was adopted in 2006, the song is "Meniñ Qazaqstanım" which translates to "My Kazakhstan." (The"Anthem of the Republic of Kazakhstan" was the title of the old national anthem from 1992 to early 2006.)

Bellow are the lyrics, but you can also listen to it here.

Lyrics
Sky of golden sun,
Steppe of golden seed,
Legend of courage -
Take a look at my country!

From the antiquity
Our heroic glory emerged,
They did not give up their pride
My Kazakh people are strong!

Chorus:
My country, my country,
As your flower I will be planted,
As your song I will stream, my country!
My native land – My Kazakhstan!

The way was opened to the posterity
I have a vast land.
Its unity is proper,
I have an independent country.

It welcomed the time
Like an eternal friend,
Our country is happy,
Such is our country.

Chorus

"O Canada" has a more confusing history:

• The song was originally commissioned by the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, Théodore Robitaille, for the 1880 National Holiday of Quebec ceremony. The text was originally only in French, before it was translated to English in 1906.
  
• Since 1867, "God Save the King" (or "God Save the Queen" depending on who's ruling) and "The Maple Leaf Forever" had been competing as unofficial national anthems in Canada. "O Canada" joined that fray when school children sang it for the 1901 tour of Canada by the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall (later King George V and Queen Mary).
• "O Canada" was not officially Canada's national anthem until 1980, when it was signed into law on July 1 as part of that year's Canada Day celebrations. "God Save the King/Queen" is now Canada's royal anthem.
  
• Many English versions have appeared over the years while the French lyrics remain unaltered.

There is more to the story of our anthem then just the above text, so check it out at O Canada at the government website or wikipedia for the song history.

Have fun reading!

Once Again, Hello Russia!

This week of October 9th you read 1,503 more pages for me, making the distance I travelled 51,892 kilometers with last week being 50,435 km.

So, where in the world am I now? If you guessed I'm back in Russian, you'd be right! There's a lot of Russian to cover in my journey, after all it is the only nation that's landmass is larger than Canada's.

My exact location is 53 N 46 E putting me in the of Penza oblast south-east of the it's capital city. (Do you remember what an oblast is?) And while our city is much younger then the city Penza which was founded in 1663 the oblast is younger then our province with a founding date of 1939.

Now, what time is it here? The Penza oblast is located in the Moscow Time Zone which means that if its 4:00 pm in Shellbrook it is midnight here! (The time zone I'm in is eight hours ahead of Saskatchewan.) Which means it's way past my bedtime!

Round Trip, Return Trip!

Week seventeen saw 1,457 pages added to last weeks 48,978 for a total distanced travelled of 50,435 kilometers.

So I'm revisiting the country of Belarus again at 53 N 31 E though not right back at my first stay over! Now what can I tell you about my stop over this time? How about some of the heritage sites?

Belarus has four World Heritage Sites:

The Mir Castle Complex began construction in the 15th century in the Gothic architectural style though one of the owners finished building the castle in the Renaissance style. It was also used in WWII by the Nazi who used it as a ghetto for the local Jewish population prior to their liquidation.

The Niasvizh Castle is a residential castle of the a local nobal family, the Radziwills. In 1706, during the Great Northern War, Charles XII's army sacked the castle and destroyed its fortifications. n 1770 the castle was seized by Russian forces and the Radziwill family was expelled. However, it was restored by the Radziwills and between 1881 and 1886.

The Belovezhskaya Pushcha is an ancient woodland straddling the border between Belarus and Poland which means the site is shared with Poland, my last weekend stop over. The forest is home to 800 wisent (known as the European bison) just like the Prince Albert National Park! Their wisent were reintroduced into the park in 1929 and our bison wandered into our park in the 1960s.

The Struve Geodetic Arc is a chain of survey triangulations stretching from Hammerfest in Norway to the Black Sea, through ten countries and over 2,820 km. The chain was established and used by the German-born Russian scientist Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve in the years 1816 to 1855 to establish the exact size and shape of the earth. (So I guess it's thanks to him that I know the distance I have to travel to get around the world!)

Please check out the wikipedia entries for more in depth information and pictures!

Keep up your excellent reading!