Pictures from Ganina Yama

Pictures from Vysotsky Business Center Tower and the Europe-Asia border

Yekaterinburg

Two things I forgot to mention about the train. We passed frozen lakes where guys were still out there ice fishing! The other thing is, if you want tea in your compartment, you go to the conductor and pay for a tea bag (45 rubles) and sugar if you need it(5 rubles). You have to remember to ask for a glass. Then the conductor fills up your glass from a big kettle, similar to a samovar, of hot water and you go back to your compartment and drink it. You can save the tea bag and go back to get hot water as often as you want, without paying.
So, Sonia has a friend whose sister lives here. She met Us at the train station and took us to our hotel, right in the middle of the pedestrian zone. Even in nasty, rainy, windy weather, the pedestrian zone is FULL of people spending money on all the shops. Take note of this, Rochester. It is the future for viable city life! The hotel is a nice, quiet little hostel downstairs with private rooms upstairs. We have a small little room. We hear no traffic, we have two beds, WiFi and a TV. And a bathroom. What more could we want. The friend, Sveta , got us tickets for a jazz concert tomorrow night and then we headed to a place called Fork And Spoon for lunch. It was a nice little cafeteria right around the corner from our hotel where we really ate well. The three of us ate three courses with drinks for less that $15  for all of us. Then we just started walking around the downtown area. Sveta pointed out monuments and gave us a little history of the place. Then she had to leave us to get off to work (she teaches linguistics and rhetoric at the university.) and we started heading back to see if we good find a paper map of Y burg. We stopped at the book store and found a brochure in English that we got. But we also checked on google and saw that there was a tourist office right around the corner of the hotel which was open today until 5, in spite of the fact that it was Sunday.
We went in and, lo and behold, not only did the young lady speak English very well, but she also spoke Spanish. She gave us lots of good tips about what to do. So it looks like we will start tomorrow morning by taking the elevator up to the 52nd floor of the tallest building in Y burg and checking out the view. Then, although we are technically now in Asia, we are going to grab a taxi to the demarcation line of Asia and Europe about 10 miles west of us. On the way back, we want to hit the monastery where the last of the Romanov family were originally buried. This was the czar who, with his family, was assassinated when the revolution came. Then we’ll  just come back and chill out until concert time.
Right now we’re just resting in the room before we go out to get something to eat. Then we will probably sack out. It’s better sleeping in a bed in a hotel than in a bunk on the train.

Pictures of Yekaterinburg

Water tower, church, subway station.

On the way to Yekaterinburg.

OK. So Sonia and I edited my video of the bike lesson and I sent it off. I hope I don’t have to repeat to much.
We got a taxi at 6:30 to catch and 8 o’clock. It was pouring rain. The roads were so bad, there were flooded underpasses. I thought for sure we would stall out. Then a big blast of water from a puddle hit our windshield and totally obscured the driver’s view. He had to brake gently in order not to rear end the car in front of us. We finally got to the station and walked to the station entrance. It was still pouring. Keep in mind, this is a holiday weekend and lots of people are traveling. Keep in mind that the train station has only one X-ray machine for security at the entrance. Keep in mind that it is still pouring rain. So the line of people trying to get into the train station stretched all the way down the sidewalk in the pouring rain. It took us 15 minutes to get inside the door. We got on the train and we found our compartment for 4. We shared it with the dean of pediatrics at a medical university in her town of Tyumen and a man who was a Tatar language teacher. The lady spoke a little English so we were able to have a pleasant conversation. The guy was supposed to have th3 top bunk, but I don’t think he could get up there, so he sat on the end of the lady’s bunk the whole night and just nodded off. I slept in spurts, but it was certainly bette4 than third class. At one point I woke up and was cold. Hmmmm, this guy. Isn’t in his bunk so he’s not using his blanket. I stole it. The next think I know, Sonia’s shaking me awake because we have to get off the train in 30 minutes. So, up and at ‘me. We eat a sandwich, get dressed and packed, turn in our sheets and get ready to walk to the door of the train. The conductor asks us where we’re going. I tell him and he tells us we have another two hours! We knew that we were going to gain two hours, but the ticket said we would arrive at 8:20. Only down below did it say 8:20 Moscow time +2 hours local time. Oh, rats.
So we immediately checked our return tickets to see when we have to be back at the train station Tuesday night. Same thing. So we checked with two people to make sure we were reading it right. But now we know our train leaves at 10:30 pm and not 8:30 pm. We’ll get back to Kazan at about 11:30 am on Wednesday.

Bridge day

You’re  gonna love this one. Tuesday is the big May 1 Labor Day holiday. (Which is why I have several days’ vacation again.) Since the holiday is on a Tuesday, we have Monday off as a bridge day.  BUT... the Russian government determined that today, Saturday, should be a normal work day for everyone. At first I thought the school had made this decision, but it turns out it’s nationwide. Since I had worked some overtime, I took today off as comp time because Sonia and I are leaving to go to Yekaterinburg in an hour. It’s the 4th largest city in Russia and a 14 hour train ride to the east of us. It’s also were Boris Yeltsin went to the university. We’ll have three days to explore. And the forecast looks as if it will be pouring the entire three days. Sounds like a good reason to hit a lot of museums. (Poor Sonia.😬)
We decided to book 2nd class sleeping accommodations this time because we are sick of fighting with school classes to get to our bunks. We leave at 8 tonight and get in at 10 tomorrow morning. I’m ready for another adventure! And I want to see as much of Russia as I can, as long as I’m here. But this weekend I’ll be doing it with a raincoat on!
Here’s another one you’ll love. Fouad had a bad throat fungus so he had to go to the hospital.(That’s not the funny part.). He had to supply his own drinking water and his own tea bags if he wanted tea. Of course he didn’t know this when he went in. So he had them give him the hot water for tea, let it cool and drank that. Wow, talk about messed up health care!
And Friday in assembly we awarded the prizes for best bicycle design. We chose thre3 honorable mentions and the winner. Everyone got a bike bell. The winner, a 7-year-old first grader, got a little bigger one. We sent the design on to the company and we went them to make it as close to the kid’s design as possible.

Thursday’s bike meeting

Hooray, the lady from Kazan who’s so involved with bicycles in the city and whom I met at the Wintet Cyclong Conference was finally able to come to a meeting at school. We laid out all our plans for her, step by step. We told her we would be starting with the bike rack and showed her the winning design.  She liked what she saw and wants us to open up the club to students from other schools. And in a move which is typically Russian, she said we should have a full-blast dedication ceremony, ribbon-cutting opening for the bike rack. She is even going to send the local TV station to cover it! She also said that there training programs in Kazan like the one I’m doing for Bikeability Scotland. I’m going to see if the boss will send our phys ed teachers there.it would be so great, because certificates are so important here.
And she sent us links to tons of material which we can use. This is all such a big help to getting this program off the ground. And I even understand the TV camera aspect of it. Like me, She also wants cycling to become a “normal” means of transportation and, God knows, Kazan could use it with its traffic jams at rush hour. So the more we can popularize it, the more normal it will become. I just hope enthusiasm for the project doesn’t wane when I leave Russia for good next year.

The bike rack

This is the winner of our bike rack design contest. We're asking the company to build it like this. When it's  up, there will be a big opening ceremony and the kid gets to cut the ribbon.

The bike lesson.

Yikes! Monday and Tuesday we had snow again. I had planned my bike lesson with my three volunteers for Tuesday but we decided to postpone it until today because better weather was predicted. And the Russian weather service was right! 

Adina, my colleague who was going to ride with me and who rounded up the other two riders came up with a great idea. We would have had to dig up a helmet for her because she didn’t have one. As she was getting off the bus the other day at the stop near my place, she noticed that the building on the other side of the gas station had a bike rental place. She suggested that she and the guys rent helmets and bikes from there. That would solve the helmet problem and the guys would not have to ride their bikes and hour to get to a 30 minute demo lesson. Ready for this? Helmet renal is less than a dollar, and for the bikes it was about $1.80. Absolutely! It wasn’t the greatest equipment in the world, but it was adequate for the lessons.

I remembered to look around, for danger spots, I remembered to check bikes, helmets and clothing. And I even had my duct tape with me so I could tape Sergei’s pant leg so it wouldn’t get caught in the chain. I explained, demonstrated, the rode, I corrected and they tried again. It was just difficult because these were level two lessons and they hadn’t been through the program to learn level one things. (And, oh crap.   Now that I think about it, I think I was supposed to do a level one exercise also. I’ll have to check the email again and then ask Ravil, Fouad and Sonia to see if they can jump in for me) we did two exercises and not too difficult. I just hope it looks good in the video.

Today for a snack in class, we made Nutella toast that looked like a monkey face, with bananas and blueberries as eyes, mouth and eyes. We used my toaster.   Some of the kids had Nutella from ear to ear. It was definitely a fun snack. 

Tomorrow is big excitement.. the lady from the Tatar government is coming to school to evaluate what we’ve done so far and offer assistance. She was just a genuinely nice person who is interested in supporting alternative transportation projects. It will be fun to see her again.

The weekend has started out great

wow, what an exciting weekend this is starting out to be! The workweek was busy and productive but I was glad that it was over! So, it was with a real sense of joy that the weekend started out with a superb concert. Valeriya, Matthew and I had tickets. They played a Chopin piano concerto that was sublime. The guy, maybe 25, had to play 4 encores. And that was only the first half. The second half was a Saint Saens symphony for organ and orchestra. What a way to top off the musical part of the evening. I can’t say enough good things about the State Symphony Orchestra of Tatarstan. And, I have to repeat what I’ve blogged before. Classical concerts, plays, operas, all sorts of cultural things are sold out because the arts and music are NORMAL here. Men aren’t embarrassed to attend a classical music concert. Remember the commercial in the States about the two guys who get dragged to an opera by their wives and pack some beer bottles underneath their jackets. When the so
Arno hits the high note, the bottles burst. Nah, it’s not like that here. People go willingly to concerts. And every time I go, I meet someone from school, either a parent I know or colleagues. It just so nice. And it’s not that these people are a bunch of Starbucks snobs or something. It’s just everyday people who have been taught from childhood on that music and the arts are valuable and important to the existence of a culture.
After the concert, we walked down to the Georgian restaurant again where Fouad and Sonia were waiting for us. We had another great meal and laughed and talked until midnight. I can’t believe how fast the time went.
When I got home, I went to bed without checking my messages. When I finally woke up at 9 a.m., (Yes, 9 in the morning!) I checked my messages and Anna had found out that we could get in on a tour of the geological museum if I could get there at 11. Nope, can’t do that. I should meet Lorene at Agafredo’s at 1 for and English lesson and then the rest of the gang will join us. When Lorene suggested we meet at agafredo’s I was happy because I had just been there on Monday and I really like the place.
But this is turning into a comedy of errors. I get here at the appointed time and hook into the WiFi. I see a message that says that Lorene is running late. No problem. I tell her I’m sitting there drinking a cappuccino and facing the door so I will see her when I come in. I start blogging and get a message from Lorene that she is here but can’t see me. Hmmmmm. It turns out, this restaurant chain has three locations in Kazan and we are sitting in different ones. Oh how embarrassing, because it’s my fault. I didn’t read my message correctly when we set the meeting up.
(Written a little later)
Fortunately, you don’t need a car to get around Kazan, and Lorene was able to run over and meet me after telling me not to move, she would come to me. As were sitting there we decide we’d better text the other guys who were going to meet us after the English lesson. Lorene writes it and doesn’t press send. Ravil is at the other place wondering where we are. By the time he gets there, he has had the presence of mind to let Fouad know. We couldn’t have screwed this up more if we tried!
The guys were hungry but preferred to go to the Uzbekistan restaurant which was right up the street. So, I paid my bill and off we went. We had a great time talking and Sonia joined us later, as soon as she got done at the university.
As we left the restaurant, it was snowing slightly! So much for spring in Kazan. Now I’m home and the wind is blowing like crazy. As I’m looking out the window, I see the swings on the playground down below swaying back and forth like there’s no tomorrow. Lordy, I hope it’s not like this tomorrow. A couple of us want to go out to Victory Park.

Sunday in the park

It was cold and rainy yesterday. Anna, Thomas and I had wanted to go to war memorial park and I was wondering if we should change our plans. But I thought, screw it, let’s first go to lunch and see how things turn out. We had a very pleasant lunch at Beanheart’s and got into an interesting discussion of paper maps vs. GPS. It was a generational split.
As we sat there, it looked as if the sun was coming out so we decided to head for the park. As soon as we stepped outside, the sun disappeared again. So, screw it again, we decided to go anyway.  We caught the bus and found the park all right. As we started to walk around, we noticed that the lake was still frozen. Holy crap, it’s almost May. The park contains not only a lake, but an extensive collection of soviet military weapons. There is also a memorial area with the names of all the soldiers from Kazan who died in WWII. It was interesting to see that even here the names of the Tatar soldiers  were written in Tatar and the names of the soldiers with a russian background were written in Russian.
When I got home I had a message from the colleague who’s going to do the bike lesson with me that she and the two other guys could do it on Tuesday. Yikes. So I spend the evening going over the materials and planning the lesson because it’s got to follow specific guidelines. I’m thinking at least it doesn’t leave me much time to get nervous about it. So today it snowed and the colleague said it was going to be like this tomorrow too. Let’s postpone until Wednesday. Ok. It worked for Sonia, who’s recording the whole thing, so now I’ve got an extra day to go over stuff. It’s a lot of material. And boy, am I glad I told them to bring helmets. None of them was planning to, and the colleague from work doesn’t even have one! I just hope the guy from school who promised to find me a third helmet thinks about it. Yikes, all the little piddling things I have to remember. Like duct tape, in case someone has a lose pant leg. I have to tape it so it doesn’t get in the chain. And remember to look over the shoulder. And remember to give the hand signal. And, and, and.
Cross your fingers that it all works out.

Our beans are growing!

We started these beans in plastic bags taped to the window. We just transplanted them today and the kids are excited.

This is how much snow we still have at school

This will be a short one.

I had a great pizza last night with Anna. We sat an yakked for two hours. Politics are always an interesting topic and we always try to analyze the situations from each other’s viewpoint.
Today one little guy bought in a whole bunch of toy tools. So I chucked my lesson plans and talked about. Hammers, saws, screwdrivers and drills. My TA found some great cartoon videos of tools and the work they do. Then we spent the afternoon hammering plastic nails into cardboard. Tomorrow I’m going to take in my bike tools and demonstrate a few things. They all got along so well and played so nicely today. It was fun. And it also helps that, although it was 53 degrees, we can still go out and play in the piles of snow.
After work, I got a wash done, then Sonia and I went and did a little shopping. I was glad to get out and walk because I needed the exercise. I’m tired tonight, so I’m turning in early.

Another relaxing day

i waited fo the electrician and the guy from school to come at 10 to check the wash machine. The guy from school got there and the electrician called and said he would be an hour late. So we had to and sat around and chatted until the electrician got here. He arrived at 11 and worked until about 12:15. It turned out there’s nothing wrong with the machine, but the water pressure in the pipes is bad. The guy from school said he would send the maintenance man from school over this week to change the water filter. Let’s see if that helps.
When they left I texted Sonia and we went over to school to do my bike riding demo. I had gone through the materials several times and practiced what I was going to say. So I just wanted it to not take too long because I knew Sonia had a report to work on. I made a couple of dippy little mistakes like saying that I was keeping both hands on the wheel, instead of on the handlebars. So we reshot that. So now I will try to attach it to an email tomorrow and send it off.
I got back and made some soup and a grilled cheese for lunch the. Went out to the water automat and filled up my drinking water bottle. After that I had a great chat with a friend in the States. I got caught up on a lot of the local gossip.
When I got down, I took off for IKEA again to get the stuff I couldn’t carry yesterday. Actually, it was just an e cause to get out of the house. She. I got back, I met some of the neighbors on the top floor. I had seen them in the elevator before and we had greeted each other, but the parents were outside with the kids riding bicycles now, so we stood around and talked a little longer. It was a very pleasant conversation and both Lilia and Rafik speak good English.
Speaking of bicycles, there were tons of people out on the sidewalks on bikes today. Not one of them was wearing a helmet. I was on the team checking out the wide sidewalk and all the riders, wondering if it would be convenient for me to get to IKEA on the bike. From IKEA almost to the metro station is no problem at all, but then it gets dicey. I’m goin to have to check it out on google maps to see how I can get from the metro station to the good sidewalk.
So now it’s time to call it quits and get everything ready for school tomorrow.

The boat lesson that wasn’t and the lazy day that was.

Geez, these people always get always get their knickers in a twist when a VIP visits the school. They told me on Tuesday that they wanted me to make something big out of cardboard with the kids to show the guests when they come. They told me I would have to take the kids out early. They told me the people would come at 10 a.m. OK, so I spend two days planning and cutting the cardboard so that it will look like a gigantic boat. I make lesson plans that build up to the main event. So we do everything the way the administration requests, I’m reading a story which is part of the build up to the boat, and don’t the people walk in, stand in my doorway while I’m reading the story, and walk back out again. They didn’t even bother to look at our boat! But the kids liked it. They got to “row” up the river and on Monday they are going to paint half of it blue and half of it green. It was a tie vote between blue and green so I decided to do half and half.
I had a good English lesson later with Lorene at Kofein. It was a real pleasure to use and explain adult expressions in English! It’s getting monotonous saying, “Napkin,please,” and “Clean up your toys.” It’s so nice having adult conversations.
This morning I cleaned up and waited for Sonia to call so I could do my bike ride.  I watched Real Time with Bill Maher and worked on my puzzle for awhile. Sonia got a message to me that she couldn’t make it, so I took a nice walk in the woods behind the school. The paths are still covered with snow, but the birds were singing, I heard woodpeckers, and the sun was shining. It was good to get out in the fresh air.
After a Skype to Germany I took off on the tram to IKEA. I had been thinking about getting a couple of small tables as night tables and figured, as long as I’m going to stay one more year, I might as well go out and get them now. I found two nice little ones and dragged them home on the tram. They weren’t actually heavy in the store, but they certainly got heavy carrying them from the tram stop to the apartment. And they were awkward to carry. But they are together and they are holding my stuff so it’s all good.
Tomorrow the guy from school is going to come with an electrician and check my wash machine. I hope it’s an easy fix. I’ve got a big pile of dirty clothes. After he’s gone, I’ll do my bike ride so Sonia can tape it.

Time to catch up

It’s  been a busy week. Befor I went on vacation, I ordered 10 copies of “Green Eggs and Ham” to give the kids for a summer vacation present. Yes, my bookstore could order them but they needed cash upfront. OK. Then I get a notification they they won’t arrive until the end of May. Still OK. Monday I get a message telling me that the most they can order is two copies. The supplier doesn’t have more than that. They will give me my money back. So yesterday I took the bus over and got my money back. I’ll just pick them up in the States this summer and bring them back as new school year presents.
Then Tuesday I put a wash on the machine and sat down to do some paperwork. Bear in mind that my wash cycles lasts 30 minutes and counts down the minutes. All the while I’m working, I hear the machine working and occasional beeps. I didn’t pay much attention until I realized the machine had been running for much longer than 30 minutes and it kept rewashing. It wasn’t draining and spinning. I finally got it to stop but couldn’t get the door unlocked, which was actually a good thing, because the drum was still full of water. After pushing several buttons that I didn’t recognize and didn’t bother to look up, the machine partially drained and the door unlocked. I had to set my clothes rack in the bathtub because the clothes were still so saturated. The guy from school is going to check it out tomorrow with an electrician.
I also found out on Tuesday that the school will be getting visitors again and I should do another demonstration lesson. No, I shouldn’t bake cookies this time, I should make something out of cardboard. So I decided on a rowboat. The kids will help me put the last part of it together. We will take a vote to see what color we should paint it. Then we will sit in the boat with our oars and learn to sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat. We won’t start to paint it until next week. Geez, they even wanted my housekeeper to put curtains in our cloakroom window where we have our bees and butterflies hanging, just to impress the guests. Don’t you think they’d rather see the kids’ artwork, I argued? I won.
Wednesday was another meeting of the bike club committee. Things are really shaping up nicely. There will be a contest among the older kids this week to see who can design the best bike rack. I’ve got the track around the school all mapped out, with possible danger points to pay attention to. We’re going to run it by the lady from the government, who, I hope will make suggestions for improvements in the proposal. Once we’re set with the design, we’re going to hire a company to paint the track. Parent response has been positive so far. Saturday Sonia is going to shoot a video of me riding my bike, which I will send off to Bikeability Scotland as part of my training. Things are moving right along.
The worst thing that happened however, was that I really stepped in it, BIG TIME. The principal appreciates (and requests) that I correct his English. When he used the expression, “Things happen”, at the start of the meeting, I asked him if he would like to know a more common expression and told him, “Shit happens.” Turns out the principal doesn’t curse. Whoa, Nelly. I apologized profusely for that one.
So, tomorrow I’m going to go through the Bikeability materials again before I ride on Saturday and I’m also going to work with Lorene on English. She wants a better score on the English exam that  opens so many doors to foreign students who want to study or work abroad. She speaks excellent
English, so we’ll probably just have to work on a little grammar. Maybe I’ll teach her the expression, “Shit happens!”
And, I’ve got the sniffles. I’ve been doing throat spray and sucking on hard candy for two days now. Let’s hope this goes by quickly.

The Flamenco performance that almost wasn’t

When I was in Spain over the winter vacation, I went to a Flamenco performance done by Roma in a cave. When Sonia’s Spanish connections here in Kazan said there was going to be a classical Famenco performance here last Sunday, we jumped at the chance. She ordered the tickets online and since the performance was at 6 p.m., we decided to meet Ravil and Lorene for at late lunch and just hang out until the performance.
We went to the Uzbekistan restaurant, which happened to be very close to the concert hall. Lucky us. Of course everything was WAY too much to eat, but it was good. I ended up taking my bread home and toasting it for breakfast the next day. Ravil has a great new job supervising the machines that count the mail. He has to work 24 hours, then has 3 days off. It’s a great schedule for him.
So we had a nice, relaxing afternoon and then Sonia and I walked up to the concert hall. We find our seats and Sonia sees here Spanish-speaking friends and says hello. The announcer comes out and announces.....a Madrigal group playing medieval instruments! Hmmmm, not what we bought tickets for. We debate whether we are in the right concert hall. We seem to be, because they took our tickets. Ok, let’s wait this one out. An hour and a half goes by and all me hear is Madrigal singing. This is not  what Flamenco is supposed to be, I thought. The performance was actually very good. It was a talented group of musicians. But not Flamenco.
So after 1.5 hours the lights go on. Then the announce thanks the group. Well, it looks like that’s over. So we go to the coat check and get our stuff. We are about to leave when we run into one of Sonia’s friends again and she says, wait, wait, the second half will be Flamenco. It turns out this concert series is part of some international festival and they mixed all sorts of music together in one show. Show, taking our coats with us, we went in for the second half and it was really, truly Flamenco. It was very good. There was a guitarist, a percussionist and a female dancer. And interestingly enough, the dancer was a woman from Moscow who had gone to to Spain just to learn Flamenco dancing. She was very, very good.
Boy, was I glad we went back for the second half. I glad we FOUND OUT there was a second half. We walked to the subway and still had time to run into the grocery store before it closed when we got to our stop.
So it was a very musical weekend.

Dmitry Ishanov

Matthew, the head of the international department, has a pipeline to concert tickets. We went ro a great concert yesterday afternoon. All we knew was that a pianist would be playing with the orchestra. It turns out the pianist was Dmitry Ishanov, an 11-year-old prodigy! My god, he was stupendous. He played Beethoven’s concerto no. 2 for piano and orchestra and then an encore. We had great seats about 7 rows back so we could see everything he did. What a great concert. Afterwards we walked through the rain down to the Georgian restaurant for dinner. I finished my main course of veal cooked in tomatoes and then they bring me my appetizer of mushrooms cooked with Georgian cheese. I’m still surprised at how restaurants serve food here.

I had spent the morning out on my bike shopping. I bought a shower curtain to put on the floor of the apartment to park my bike on. I hope that will satisfy the landlady. It was raining and nasty all day yesterday, so I was nice and wet when I got back.

At the conference on Friday, the guy from school gave us all a demonstration on how to use the smart board. Two of the Russian teachers and I decided to get together when my kids are asleep and mess around on my smart board and learn all the tricks. We’all all improve our smart board skills and hopefully I will improve my Russian a little bit.

This afternoon Sonia and I are headed out to the Uzbek restaurant with Lorene and Ravil. That will be a new eating experience. Then Sonia and I have tickets to a Flamenco performance.  I saw one when I was in Spain done by Gypsies in a cave.  This is one done by one of the Flamenco schools. It should be an interesting contrast.

I am a fire hazard!

I have been back to school since Wednesday and have been riding my bike everyday. It was good to see everyone again and the kids are speaking so much English now! And I’ve been very good about riding my bike everyday.
So, what a surprise when I get home yesterday and the concierge at the front door looks at me sternly. She wants to know when I got back from vacation. I tell her I got back Monday, and without a smile or anything tells me I can’t keep my bike in the hallway of the 5th floor in front of my apartment. Hmmmm, I’ve been doing it for 7 months now. What’s the problem? And my landlady who owns the apartment told the guy from school right at the beginning that she didn’t want me to put the bik in the apartment. So I ask the concierge what I’m supposed to do with my bike and she says to put it my apartment!!! Right. So, the landlady is out of the country for another month and a half.  I can get away with it for six more weeks. I’ve taped a plastic bag to the floor as a parking spot. I’ll probably go out tomorrow and look for a tarp.
But, what do I do when the landlady comes back and does another inspection? Maybe I’ll have to make sure the bike is at school during that time and the tarp is rolled up and put away. Oh, crap. Just what I needed.
So, I had the guy from school call the concierge and ask what was behind this new policy because if she told me I hadn’t understood it. It turns out that managers all over Russia are reacting belatedly to the fire tragedy at that mall in Siberia where 65 people died. They don’t want it to happen in there buildings. My bike, however, was not blocking any doors wand was chained up against a wall. I’m hoping I can get this all worked out.
It was good to get back to school this week. The kids are progressing so well. I hope they keep it up over the summer.

Home improvements

We painted the roof, put on stickers and added curtains.

The day of false starts

It was great that I had yesterday off too. The first thing I did was head to the post office. There was only one person ahead of me in line. Got a package and mailed postcards. Then, since the VTB bank, which deals in Turkish lire was right down the street, that was my next stop. But wait. After I go in and tell them what I want, they tell me that they only deal with dollars and euros. I should go to Ak Bars bank down another street. Geez, this is all beginning to feel very familiar. But, OK. I will do that when I come out of town.
What I’m really looking for today is Velomania, the bike museum in Kazan. So I hop on the subway with my bike and go to the pedestrian zone where the museum is supposed to be. There’s a robot museum there but no bike museum. A guy tells me that the museum doesn’t exist anymore. But it still has a working website and it says the museum is open! So, down to the tourist office. I find a lady who speaks English very well and she starts calling around for me. She says the museum has moved to another location. I jump on the bike and pedal over. There’s a museum there, all right, but it’s a museum for Gorky, a writer, and Shalyapin, and opera singer. The ladies there also tell me that the museum does not exist. Back to the tourist office. I tell the lady about it, she makes some more calls, but nobody knows where this museum is. Rats. I was looking forward to this. But she did steer me to a vodka museum. I’m going to visit that one something me soon.
Headed back home, I run into a guy I know. We head for a restaurant to have a cup of coffee. A young lady at a table near us hears us speaking English and she joins in. It turns out she will be doing a work-study program in Massachusetts starting in June.
So I finally got back on the subway to head home. When I got off at my stop. I headed in the direction of the Ak Bars bank. I knew where it was, but do you think I could find it? Rats, again. So I ended up buying a few groceries and peddling home
GOOD ADVICE: Don’t ride through a puddle unless you know how deep the pothole is! I’m speaking from the voice of experience.
Later that evening, Sonia and I went over to Matthew’s and Valeriya’s to give him his birthday present. Of course that turned into a longer visit. It was nice to catch up with all the news from school.

Back in slushy Kazan

well. The snow is certainly melting, but there are still large piles of dirty snow and very large puddles and road crossings that you literally have to wade through. The sidewalks are full of slush and you can distinctly see the stroller tracks everywhere.
I started off at the bank yesterday trying to put my remaining Turkish lire on my account. Nope. There’s only one bank in all of Kazan that deals with currency other tha. Dollars, euros and rubles. Fortunately, there is a branch near me, so I will try it today.  After the bank, I headed for the bookstore where I had ordered “Green Eggs and Ham” for all of the kids. They love the book and can tell me all the rhymes, so I thought I would give them each a copy as and end of the year present. That, taken care of, I headed back to the post office to mail all my postcards and pick up a package I had gotten a notification for. The “take a number” machine wasn’t working and the line was so long, I didn’t feel like waiting. So I came home and then did a little grocery shopping.
I got my wash done, I got my biKe clean and the sun is shining today, so I think I will head out and go to the post office, then to the bike museum. I didn’t realize earlier that today is also a school free day for me, so I’m going to enjoy it.
Now I’m all caught up with everything. It’s time to get back into the routine.

The last pictures of istanbul

The courtyard at Dolmabahce and the restaurant at hotel.

Random thoughts about Istanbul

On every table in every restaurant (except the really ritzy places) there is always a jar of sharp banan peppers that you can help yourself to. I loved the spicy Turkish food.
There are a few hardy souls who ride their bikes through Istanbul. They all seem to wear a helmet. Istanbul has not noticeable bike infrastructure.

the last day in Istanbul.

Another good breakfast. Hooray. The last one at this hotel. Sonia and I had to leave for the airport at 6 p.m. and Fouad not until after 7 because he was flying to Lebanon from another airport. But we had to check out at 12, so we packed up, left our bags downstairs and headed for the Basilica Cistern just around the corner. The line was short and we were in in 15 minutes.  This is an absolutely amazing structure with Doric and Corinthian columns of marble, all underground of course. It was just so hard to grasp the enormity of it. This was all created during the Roman Empire and thousands of slave probably died building it. The cistern was filled with the water from the mountains in Bulgaria. The Romans were brilliant engineers.
We left the cistern and the only think that was really interesting g for me to still see was Dolmabahce Palace. Sonia and Fouad didn’t want to wait in anymore lines, but it didn’t really matter to me whether I waited in a line or walked through a bazaar, so I went back on the tram to the Palace. Boy, am I glad I did. With security check and ticket, it took me about 45 minutes, but it was totally worth it. It rivals anything Ludwig II build in Bavaria. Everything was so spacious and the furnishings were exquisite. No picture taking was allow at all inside, so I can only recommend that you go online and google it.  I would have been mad if I had missed it.
After two hours, I left the palace and walked to the restaurant halfway up the hill and ate a late lunch overlooking the Bosporus. It was a great way to end the trip. I rode back to the old city where the hotel is and just looked around for awhile, then met the other two at the hotel. The time had finally come for vacation to end.
After one last glass of good Turkish tea, Sonia and I left Fouad and took the tram and the metro to the airport. Check-in was eat and quick, but of course there was a gate change and a take-off delay. But we finally got into Kazan at about 1:30 a.m. and wentvthrough passport control in about 45 minutes. We got a taxi and we were back home at about 3. I was glad to get in bed.

Saturday in Istanbul

I started my day with a hotel breakfast again. Then we all got ready to go and headed for the Vodafone stadium where Besiktas plays because we had to pick up our tickets before the game. It was an easy tram ride to the end of the line and then a 10 minute walk. Of course, befor3 you get to the ticket office, you go past the fan shop. We didn’t go past. When we made to the ticket office, it was easy to pick up the tickets but we had to show our passports. The tickets don’t have the seat numbers on them so you have to remember it from the transfer of the owner of the ticket. The guy at the ticket office said we could not change seats, even among ourselves. Every ticket is associated with the photo that we had to upload to get the fan IDs. In case there is trouble in the stadium, they want to know exactly who is sitting where and who started the trouble. This went into effect when some people in the stadium insulted the president of Turkey and he didn’t take kindly to it. This guy is not to be messed with. We walka way from the ticket counter and run into a Finn who thinks he’s going to stand outside the stadium tonight and buy a ticket from  scalper. Oh no, you’re not.
We were going to go to the Dolmabahce Palace , which is right across from the stadium next, but the lines were so long we didn’t want to wait. So we walked up the hill past the German Embassy and went to the Galata Tower. We were going to climb this tower no matter how long the lines.
While waiting in line, we met women from Kenya and Kazakhstan. This line went relatively quickly. Once we got inside we went through security and got the tickets. (Every single tourist point has at list one security check point.) but we couldn’t walk up. It was required that we take the elevator. When we get out of the elevator there are several restaurants and three flights of stairs. We make it to the doorway to the outside. It is extremely narrow and slopes downward away from the tower. You really hav3 the feeling you’re going to fall over the railing. And, since the ledge is so narrow, it’s one way traffic in a clockwise direction. The people who get nervous don’t care about this, however, and several of them are moving back towards the door in the wrong direction. I wasn’t feeling great about this ledge, but I decided to tough it out. I was glad I did, but I was sweating bricks there for a few  minutes. I was glad to get back inside, and now it was possible to walk to the bottom an not take the elevator. Good decision!
We sat down at a little outdoor place for lunch. I had something called menemen. It looked like a tomato stew with  an egg and maybe some cheese cooked in it. It was actually very tasty.
I had seen a sign that said Jewish Museum of Turkey and knew I had to see that. Sonia and Fouad weren’t interested so they headed back to the pedestrian zone and I looked for my museum. I walked down the street about 200 feet and see a synagogue, but no sign that says museum. So I ring the doorbell and get no answer. Meanwhile, I see two policemen across the street. When I ask them, they say they have no idea what I am talking about. So I walk another 200 feet to the end of the street. Nothing. I turn around to look back up the street and I see I’m standing in front of another sign that says Jewish Museum of Turkey point in the direction from which I just came. Hmmmm. I walk back up the street and, next to the synagogue, there’s a building with a small symbol which might indicate that it’s a museum. I ring the doorbell. This time someone answers. When I ask if I can see the museum, the voice answers, “Closed.” So much for that adventure. I walked backed up the hill through the pedestrian zone. There happened to be a large police presence and there were some people demonstrating, but I didn’t feel like staying around to get caught up in it.
I took the funicular back town the hill to the tram, and the tram back to the hotel area. I wanted to see if I could get in at the Basilica Cistern but, by the time I would have gotten to the ticket counter, I would have had to turn around again and headed back to the game. So I walked over to the courtyard of the Blue Mosque and looked around. It’s being renovated so I couldn’t get inside. But the sun was shining, the weather was perfect, and it was nice to look around.
So,  ow it was time to head back to the stadium. I took a book with me because I wanted to be there in plenty of time and wanted to keep busy until the game started. I got there at about 5:30 for the 7:00 game. I was frisked four times and my backpack was opened and examined as many times. I had to stand and drink my half bottle of wate4 before I entered the stadium. I couldn’t take it with me. So, I had up the correct stairs and show the usher the piece of paper where I ha$cwritten down section 411, row 21, seat 15. It points to a place and says “go there”. I go there. It doesn’t feel right to me but I’m not about to argue. I sit down and rea$ a little, but it’s more fun to watch the fans get excited. These people (mostly men, and way more men’s toilets than women’s toilets in the stadium) are really psyched. Man, I thought German fans were excited, but these people take the prize. And nobody was drunk. There was no beer in the stadium.  But every second person was smoking.
So, it’s getting to game time and no Sonia. I knew that fouad’s Seat was in a different s3ction, so I .
thought maybe she had tried to stay with hi,. The seats on both sides of me remained empty. Finally, during halftime I texted here. Where ar you? Imin my seat. No, you’re not. Yes, I am. No, you’re seat next to me is empty.
It turns out the usher pointed me to row 12 instead of row 21. I only found out because th3 guy’s behind me asked m3cwhere I was from. We got talking about the game and I showed the, my piece of paper with the info on it and they pointed out my mistake. But they told me it was ok to smith there and since I didn’t plan to scream insults at the president, I did. The game was poorly played but we one on a beautiful left-footed shot. The refs were lousy, there were lots of fouls, but the fans were terrific. It was a great way to spend our last evening in Istanbul. Thank you, Sherhat, for arranging to get the tickets for us.
We met after the game at the designated spot and hopped on the already full tram car back to the hotel.  It was another long day.

Friday in Istanbul

i went down to breakfast then we got ready to take the boat to one of the off-shore islands. This is not a touring boat, but a regular part of th3 transportation system, so we could us our transportation card on it. As we leave the apartment, I run across the street to the bank to get a little more money. I but the card in the machine, press the right buttons and get neither card back nor money. Help, help, help. Fouad and Sonia guarded the machine while I ran into the bank. A guy comes out with me and just at that moment the machine unfreezes. Yikes. That was scary. I tried the next machine and that one worked.
We took the tram to the dock  and saw that we had 1.5 hours until the next boat, so we headed back to the Egyptian bazaar. Since we had gotten Matthew a little Turkish coffee pot for his birthday, we wanted to give him some real Turkish coffee. One coffee seller gave Sonia a demonstration in Spanish about how to cook the coffee. We finally bought a pound and I carried it around in my backpack all day. It smelled wonderful! I also bought a couple boxes of Turkish delights to take to school. Now I just need one or two more souvenir presents, then I’m good to go.
We had split up and we had said we would meet at the board at 11:45.  I’m waiting. No Fouad and Sonia. 11:50. I’m waiting. No Fouad and Sonia. 11:55. I’m waiting. no Fouad and Sonia. Hmmmm. Since we had bought two transportation cards, I get on the boat with my ticket. I stand near the entrance so I can see them if they go by. I see them......and they go by. I’m screaming “Sonia, fouad”, and they keep on walking. About 1 minute before the boat pushes off, they come running back and jump on. They had been talking and didn’t realize they’d gone too far.
There were lots of people on the boat enjoying the sun. We talked with some Saudis and some Iranians. The big attraction on the boat was the seagulls. People would hold out pretzel sticks or pieces of bread in their hands and the birds would come and eat the things. As far as I could tell, nobody got pooped on. The ride was scenic and pleasant. I decide to get off at island number 3     because the tourist lady said that was the quieter of the four islands and you could rent bikes there. Sonia and Fouad wanted to go on to island 4, the big island because there was a little more action there and they wanted to take a horse carriage ride.
I got off at my island and immediately checked when the boat went back so I knew how much time I had.  It really was a quiet little island. There were a few tourists, but not overrun. I stopped at one little restaurant and ordered calamari. The waiter had to shoo  cat off a chair so I could sit down. I sat out in the sun and just enjoyed the day. Then I walked down the street to a bike rental place and rented a bike. The guy spoke no English, I spoke no Turkish. But he showed me on the calculator how much it would be for an hour (less than $2) so I took it. It was a pretty junky bike. Before I could even leave the shop with it, I made him pump up the tires. Then off I went, straight uphill. It wasn’t too steep, so there was no big problem and at least the gear shift worked. I rode the big tour around the island, being passed by horse-drawn carriages occasionally, but otherwise it was spectacularly quiet. The sun was shining and the scenery was gorgeous. And there were stray dogs and cats everywhere. All were well-fed a s peaceable.
Now comes the really good part. I’m almost back when I ride past a military installation with big signs in 4 languages telling me not to take pictures. Ok, no problem. But just past the installation is a fire station with 2 trucks standing in front of the door and 3 firemen sitting at a picnic table next to the fire house drinking tea. I have a good friend in Germany who belongs to the volunteer fire department and I just knew she would love some pictures of the trucks. But, I figured I better ask permission before I take then because I would prefer not to take pictures of the inside of a Turkish jail. So I walk over to the guys, introduce myself, try to explain what I want... and nobody understands English. Meanwhile, they’ve invited me to sit down and have already brought me a cup of tea. Ok, so I start again. This time I say the word for “German” in Turkish. Aha. The guys run and get a map because they think I want to go to “German beach” here on the island. Nope, that’s not it.
So we sit there for awhile and everytim3 someone walks by, the firemen ask if he speaks English. Finally, a family with a school girl walks by and she explains what I want. Oh, no problem , of course, of course. Even with the language barrier, it was a pleasant experience and showed me again just how generous the Turks are. You are treated as their guest in every situation.
So I get my pictures And ride back to turn in my bike. A guy sees me and calls the owner of the shop for me. The guy had lived in LA for 22 years, where he owned 4 Turkish restaurants. Then I walked over and looked at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, then walked back to the harbor to drink some more tea and wait for the boat.
It turned out that Sonia and Fouad had missed this boat and then next one didn’t come for two hours. I got back to the hotel and got a lot of messaging done before they got back. They had taken a buggy ride on their island but had also tried a bike ride. FULL DISCLOSURE : I did not wear a helmet when I rode. The ones they offered looked like upside down cat dishes. So I thought I’d take my chances.