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!