It snowed today!

Yikes, it is REALLY cold already. It’s below freezing today and it snowed a little bit at noon when I went out.
But let’s start with yesterday. So, I think everything is cleared up at the bank, right! Nope! I stop at the bank on my way to the post office and try the machine where you can put all your currency in at one time. It counts it and deposits it on one’s account. The first button in Russian is fine because I have the translation, but then a question comes which I have to answer with yes or no. Since I don’t understand the question, I’m not taking the chance.
I go over to the post office and they couldn’t have been nicer. We made ourselves mutually understood, they helped me fill out the forms and they even packed the stuff for me. And all for$18! I pay twice that much for postage alone in the States.
Ever the glutton for punishment, I walk back over to the bank and try the machine which you have to feed one bill at a time. It rejected every one of my bills. No I’m steamed. But I mosey down to my bread shop and the grocery store to shop and also buy a pair of crocheted booties from a vendor at the open air market to keep my feet warm. Of course, the whole conversation started up again about where ar3 you from and what are you doing here. These people are really interested in knowing why a foreigner would want to live in Kazan. I don’t think it’s that they have a collective inferiority complex. It’s just that Kazan is somewhat off the beaten path for most English-speaking tourists.
I dropped everything off at home and then took the metro to the craft shop at the big shopping center to find a few things I needed for the projects I’ve planned for the next two weeks. Remember, I’m on vacation the first week of November, so I want to leave enough for my TA to do.
I found what I wanted and made it home in time to hear Wait,Wait, Don’t Tell Me and read for the rest of the evening. The really good news was that I slept well because my cold is finally clearing up.

Today when I get up, I puzted  around and read before I left the house about noon. I was going to meet the international staff for dinner so I figured I would sightsee first and then go to our meeting place. And I thought, if I’m downtown I will make a side trip out of my way to the main branch of the bank because I know it has English language ATMs. I find the bank, go to the machine, push the language button and what do I get? Check your balance or top off your mobile balance! Aaarrrrgh! Then I try it in Russian again and just push yes to answer the question I don’t understand and it rejects my currency. Boy, did I just fire off a text message to the boss’s assistant with my kind thoughts on the matter.

In any case, I then walked down through town a little bit and found the synagogue. There was a service going on so I couldn’t go in the prayer room. But this is also a fairly new synagogue, I think from 1995. It was pretty well ignored and the people were treated poorly during the Soviet era but Kazan made sure that it was restored to what it used to look like.

I spent the rest of the afternoon at the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan. I can not repeat often enough what a rich history Tatarstan has. It’s just amazing to realize the the Golden Horde was here and Catherine II of Russia, and and and. Did I ever mention that Catherine II made 30 cats officers in the Russian army and then turned them loose in Kazan to kill all the rats running around the city? This is such a great city to explore and learn about!

Then I met the colleagues (we have a new one from Spain, who also spent some time in Prague.) and we went to a really great restaurant. It was not the usual cabbage, beets and ground meat! I had lamb and grilled veggies. It was delicious. We had some great conversation and headed back home at about 7:30. Four of us in a taxi for about 5 miles cost us $2.10. Can’t beat that.

So now, the only thing I have to get straightened out this week besides the bank is my visa extension. God knows how long they’re going to make me wait for that!