Night out and Shopping trip!!

I can hardly believe that I’ve already been here two weeks! On one hand it feels like I’ve only just arrived and on the other it feels like I’ve been here for years!

I’ve been having problems with my mobile phone, first the sim card that was left for me was too big and now the new sim card does not work as I’ve not had my phone unlocked!! And getting your phone unlocked is not as easy as it sounds; there are not the 101 phone shops here as there are in the UK. Anyway despite all that, I’ve managed to be in touch with Rebecca, who is out here doing the same thing as me and was very excited when she invited me to hers for supper last Saturday, my first night out!

She was able to order me a taxi and I had a copy of her address on my ipad and so when the taxi arrived I jumped in and showed the driver the address. As we set off I suddenly felt a little nervous! What would happen if we got lost… do Kazan taxi drivers have to take ‘the knowledge’ as they do in the London? I didn’t have a phone that I could call Rebecca on, nor would the internet work, so I couldn’t email. I did however have a photo of my address so thought if we do get lost he could always just take me home again. My fears turned out to be irrelevant as about 10 minutes later I saw Rebecca’s smiling face. The taxi ride was 96 roubles which is about £2.00.  

It was wonderful to have a conversation with someone who understood exactly what you were saying. She was a great help and gave me a map with the instructions of how to get to the nearest supermarket. Apparently I’m only about a 15 minute walk to the city centre and a shopping centre call Koltso. I had a thoroughly enjoyable evening and was filled in on the trials and tribulations of working for Russian families! It's so great to have met someone so nice that is doing the same sort of job, I no longer feel alone in a strange city not being able to communicate with anyone. All I need now is for my phone to work!  

The following day, armed with my trusty map and crossed fingers I set out to find Koltso. I live just above where it says park on the right handside and the shopping centre is by the 'M' .

 

 

 

 

It looked easy on the map, just follow the road round to the bottom and then turn right. But life and map reading is never that simple! I followed the road round and then found a huge pile of snow … it surly can’t be this way so I turned around and tried to see if I could work out where I was by looking at a street sign, just one slight problem, the signs on the buildings didn’t match the ones on my map! As I stood there pondering what to do, a young chap walked past so I stopped him and pointed on the map where I wanted to go, he pointed in the direction of the mound of snow, then he obviously decided  that I’d never find it on my own, gestured for me to follow him, so I followed. (It’s amazing what you do in a strange country that you wouldn’t do at home!!) Anyway we went passed the mound of snow and onto a footpath. As we reached a fork in the path he pointed in the direction I needed to go and then disappeared in the opposite direction. I walked on down the hill past some sort of building work, not a bit of health and safety in sight as I stepped over wire rods and other building materials.

 

After about a 10 minute walk I had reached my destination…Koltso. It was very simple to get to and was just follow the road (or footpath) to the bottom and then turn right, I would be fine to find my way home.

Kolsto is a large(ish) shopping centre, with a supermarket on the ground floor and a cinema on the top floor. The middle floor is full of cloths shops and what look like shops selling beauty product, I guess these are in place of our phone shops! As I made my way down the escalator, to the ground floor I could see into the entrance, I saw ladies putting their hand bags into a clear plastic bag which was then sealed, not wanting to get shouted at for not following the rules I put my bag into a plastic bag and had it sealed, however whilst I was shopping I noticed lots of people walking around with unsealed bags, so made a mental note to ask Rebecca about it.

The first isle that I came to was the fresh fruit and veg, although you wouldn’t know it to look at it. There was very little produce and what there was, didn’t look very fresh. I think we forget how lucky we are with the variety of products we have in the UK. I had the choice of cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumber, apples and oranges. Although it didn’t look completely fresh it did look like it hadn’t been sprayed with preservatives. I put a few apples into my basket   

Next was a fridge filled with pouches of mayo, so many different varieties! I stood in awe for a few moments. This whole photo is mayonnaise, and there was more, this was all I could fit into the camera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I then saw the freezers fill with the ravioli stuff I’d seen on my first supermarket experience. I’ve since discovered that it is called, Pelmeni (пельмени in Russian). They are a Russian version of ravioli, and, yes, you do eat them with sour cream!

I also purchased some pasta, yoghurt, grape juice, crisps, and a jar of what looks like pickled baby tomatoes – just to see what they taste like!   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shopping done, I had to remind myself not be buy too much as I had the walk home, up the hill and then up all the stairs to my flat. When I got in, put the shopping away and made myself a cup of tea, I felt very relieved that I had made it there and back in one piece and had even crossed a couple of roads. Later that evening I made myself a supper of pasta and pickled baby tomatoes…  on their own, cold,  they are not that tasty, but heated, mixed with pasta and a little cheese on the top they tasted quite nice.

Mad Driving!!

OMG!! I thought that the car journey from the airport was hair raising enough but I hadn’t experienced the journey to the country house with ‘M’ driving. (The family have two drivers; for the purpose of this blog we will call one ‘M’ and the other ‘A’.  A is very friendly and tries to communicate with me through hand signals and broken English, M just grunts when I try and talk to him, but I won’t give up… I will make him communicate with me by the time I leave here!!)  
It takes about 45 mins to an hour to get to the country house from Kazan and I seriously thought I was going to end up in a horrific car accident more than once as we raced along the roads at speeds of about 160km/h weaving in and out of the traffic. But we made it there and back in one piece…just got to do the trip all over again tomorrow!!

Today’s journey was not as bad, ‘A’ was driving so we didn’t go as fast or weave as much! On the way we stopped at the Raifa Monastery to collect some water from a spring they have there. Apparently ‘the water is very pure with a low content of salts and other admixtures. It has been consecrated and so is a good means of purification, it also last a long time!’ (I picked up a guide book)

Whilst we were there ‘A’ pointed out some ice sculptures that were at the bottom of a little hill. We went down and had a look at them; they were all carved by the monks and made to look like the inside of a church. I had a quick walk around before getting back into the car; it was -24 C and I was beginning to think that my nose would fall off!

As the girls were having their afternoon nap, I got out the guide book to see if I could find any information in it about the sculptures, it was whilst reading that I realised they were built on the middle of a LAKE! The book explained that on Epiphany day an ice hole is cut into the lake and hundreds of pilgrims dive into it.  I don't know if I'd be brave enough to just walk on as I did it I'd known it was ice, but then again they did have 100's of people standing on it in January I'm sure it will be able to hold my weight!!  

 

 

After work today I went out to the little shop or the  продуктовый магазин, which is pronounced -  produktovyy magazin. It's a funny little place with two shops in one. One side is for fresh stuff, like bread and cured meet, the other side is for everything else! It's very much like how shops used to be in the UK years ago, with everything behind a counter and you have to ask for what you want. I didn't want to be to ambitions on my first shopping trip alone so thought I would just try and buy some bread! Well I was able to point to the bread I wanted but didn't get so much as a smile or even eye contact from the lady behind the counter!! Maybe next time I'll go to the left side of the shop and see if they are more friendly!?!?

First Day!

Kazan has had a brand new terminal built, it’s very nice, the only problem is, is that they have built it a 10 minute bus ride away from the runway!! The cold air hit me as I step off the plane and onto the bus, however the sun was shining and the sky was blue.

After I’d collected my bags I walked through to the waiting area with my fingers crossed that someone would be there to meet me. It was a relief to see the smiling face of Linar; the English speaking chap who works for the family and who picked me up last time.

As we drove through the streets of Kazan we talked about the weather (-18°c today), cars and the fact that Kazan will be the hosts of the 2013 university games this summer. The drive was a little hair raising, I don’t think it helped that they drive on the other side of the road as well as there being no road markings and everyone seeming to have their own rules. Although most of the cars looked road worthy some defiantly didn’t. Linar  informed me that they are lots of young people, with lots of money, who own fast cars but don’t drive them particularly well and as if to prove a point 30 seconds later we past two cars that had driven into a truck!!

We soon arrived at the family home, where I was greeted by the mother (L). We had a quick chat about the job over a cup of tea, typical Russian style – black with lemon. She informed me that I would have tomorrow off to get settled and that the driver would take me to the supermarket on route to the apartment.

The trip around the supermarket was completely confusing and very comical. It was about the size of a small local supermarket with about the same amount of people you would get in a larger place in the UK. As we were walking around trying to communicate about what all the different things were, we came to a row of freezers all containing plastic boxes filled with what looked like pasta (Ravioli). As we stood looking at it, trying to work out if it was pasta or not, a lady next to us said in English that, yes, it was ravioli. I asked her if it was eaten with tomato sauce and she looked as I asked, would you eat it with custard! Apparently if you are in Kazan you need to eat ‘fresh frozen’ ravioli with sour cream!

I really wanted to spend hours in there looking at everything in detail, however I was becoming conscious of the time I was taking, so left with a bag of bread, cheese, butter, apples and some sort of meat pie that the driver recommended, I just kept my fingers crossed that it didn’t contain horse!

It was then on to the place I’d call home for the next year or so. The building is at the end of a quite cul-de-sack. After lugging (with help) my cases up 9 flights of stairs to the 5^th and top floor of the building, I let myself into the apartment. It's sparsely furnished, but has everything I need, a bed, cooker, fridge, and a place to sit!! 



 

 

 

 

After I had unpacked my bit and pieces, I had a bag of rubbish so I went to put it into the big bins that I'd seen outside the block of flats. As I was just going out for less then a minute I decided that I would not need to put on my coat!! lesson learnt... ALWAYS PUT YOUR COAT ON WHEN GOING OUTSIDE, no matter how short you think you might be out for!

 

Saying goodbye :(

Well, here we are my first blog from Russia, well my first blog ever...

 As I shut the doors and posted the keys back through the letter box it suddenly dawned on me, I really was leaving and would not be coming back to the place I'd called home for the past 4+ years. Had I made the right decision? It wasn't too late to phone the agency and sat that I'd changed my mind... after all I'd not yet signed a contract! After a few tears and telling myself to get a grip, I set off to meet mum at the hotel we had booked for the evening.

Whilst I wait, I went through my bags again, for about the 100th time in the last few days! Decisions, not one of my strong points, should I take that with me?, of course not, but I might need it, I won’t, I’ll pack it just in case…. and so it went on. Having finally made a decision on what to take I’ve two bulging bags, which are quite possibly well over the weight limit.

On Monday afternoon we headed off to the airport, after a last minute trip to Westfields to grab the things that mum said I needed, mainly ties to go around my luggage in case they split open when the luggage handlers ‘threw’ them about as they are loaded onto the plane, however I think they are both so heavy they will hardly be able to lift it, let alone throw throw!!

As I sat in the airport waiting for my flight, trying very hard to fight back the tears but not really succeeding, I watch the people coming and going and wonder why I’m the only person in the airport in tears!! Is no one else leaving people they love? Where are they all going? I look at the destenations board to see if I can play matching pairs with people and places. The time goes so slowly and as my phone is no longer working I go and use the computer in the airport to send a last few emails. At £1 for 10 minutes, amazing how quickly the time now goes!!!

The plane is almost empty and I get the whole row of seats to myself, it’s a quick flight and we land in Moscow ahead of schedule. I then work my way through sea of people to collect my luggage, go through passport control and re-check in for my flight to Kazan.

The view from the plane was amazing; there was not a cloud in the sky. I was beginning to feel a little less sad and more excited about my new adventure!!!