Welcome to Siberia

(Sunday 11th written up in the afternoon)

I arrived at Novosibirsk-Tolemechevo airport at 5:40 local time. It was dark and wet. Once again there was a part of the airport where there were old aircraft (often with empty engine housings) awaiting dismantling. And also once again disembarkation was by bus. Of course, now there was no customs or immigration. As usual, I worried a little about whether my bag was going to emerge on the conveyor, especially when the conveyor stopped and it still hadn't appeared. The reassuring thing at that moment was the number of other people who were also waiting for their bags. The Russians have introduced one innovation that I hadn't come across before; as you leave the baggage reclaim room, there are security guards who check that you have the counterfoil for the bag you have claimed attached to your bourding card. If you do, they take it from you and let you pass. I don't know what they do, if you have a bag and no matching sticker.

Once I had emerged from baggage reclaim I had to find my taxi driver. He was standing behind the crowd of "touting for business" drivers and had a clear sign with my name (in Roman characters). We confirmed identities and he handed me a "welcome pack" from the school (probably more of that later). He was rather older than me, had a walking stick and obviously had "a gammy leg". Naturally, I pulled my own case. It's on wheels, and my cabin baggage is a small rucksac, so it was no trouble really, but I didn't expect him to have parked a few hundred metres from the airport building to avoid paying parking charges. It's a reasonable thing for him to have done, but with limited language in common, it was only when he got to the car that I understood what was happening. The drive to my new home was through the "Leninsky Rayon" which is an industrial area with a number of large factories. "Rayon" translates directly as "Region", but the usage in English implies a rather large area. For the Russian application, thinking "district" might be more appropriate.

We crossed the River Ob (which is really impressive) and turned into a residential district. After a couple of missed turns we found the group of buildings which contained my flat. Russian street addresses can be a little confusing because although the buildings are numbered, the buildings can be arranged around a square containing parking and other shared amenities, so on occassions you can see one number (and know you are in roughly the right place) but not see the number of the individual building you actually want. The main roads seem to be easier.

The driver spoke with my host on the phone, got me to the door of the building, got the host to open the door and then left me to climb the stairs to the flat (I don't blame him, even though it's only on the 2nd floor).

My host has left the front door open, and I came in to be greated by a friendly alsation, a black cat, and my host Alyona. Alyona lives with her son "Gleb", dog "Boosa" and cat "Moosa" in a flat about a mile from the centre of Novosibirsk. And that means, at least traditionally, the centre of Russia! I don't know if the flat is typical. It's small, but comfortable. You might find the layout strange (it is to my way of thinking). The rooms are multipurpose. For example, the washing machine is in the bathroom. I think my presence is responsible for some rearrangement of who sleeps where, but I'm not sure.

Alyona prepared me some breakfast; bread, tea, cheese and little salami sausages. After a little conversation I had a shower and went to bed. Alyona went back to bed too. I didn't see Gleb at this time but after all, it was 7am on Sunday! I didn't get up again until after 11:00 local time.

Once both Gleb and I were "up", Alyona made breakfast for us all: blini (pancakes), smetana (sour cream), tvorak (another semi-solid milk product, hard to describe, but good) and, of course, tea. Just like the hobbits, I had a second breakfast. I sorted out my clothes and things and then went for a walk "around the block". I really did stick to "round the block" too. I didn't want to get lost, especially before my orientation excursion later in the afternoon.