9/1/09 - In Tyumen

I finally made it to Tyumen!  I landed around 5am this morning.  The second flight was also uneventful and I managed to sleep a little.  I had a feeling that I was entering another world when I would look out of the window and see total darkness, but every so often, a town, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, would pop up. 

After we landed everyone seemed to find their friends and family right away.  Then reality started to hit me and loneliness and anxiety set in.  I felt very much like I did when Kate, my roommate in Spain, and I were about to meet our host mother, Marta, and the subsequent feeling of shock and mild panic when we couldn’t communicate with her while on our way to her house.

Luckily, I relaxed a little once I found Artyom, my host Svetlana’s husband. He was holding a sign with my name on it and a nice note from Svetlana on the back.  Artyom and I had a nice chat on our short drive from the airport to the apartment, and he insisted on carrying my 3 large bags up the 3 flights of stairs to the apartment.  As soon as I walked in, I found a 2 page note from Katherine with detailed information about things in the apartment, which was wonderful to see.  She left instructions for how to prep drinking water, operate the electronics and shower, what to do when it gets cold, directed me to the clean towels and sheets, and more.  She also left me drinking water (everything has to be filtered and boiled), some food and supplies, a disk with her lesson plans and other useful information, and several books.

Today, Svetlana came by just after I woke up at 4:30pm and introduced herself.  I need to report to the University tomorrow at 2pm to register (everyone travelling to Russia has to register with their host within 36 hours of arrival) and to discuss the students and my schedule.  I begin teaching on Thursday. AH!