Arrival in Miass

It is almost Independence Day, July 4, 2009 and here we are as far away from USA as possible in Miass, Russia. I miss pillows, hot cocoa, and washing machines right now.

We arrived Thursday night coming from St.Petersburg to Moscow with at 3-hour layover and then arriving at about 7pm Miass time. On the flight from Moscow, we spent the whole flight talking to our new friend Nikita. I noticed him at the airport, a young skinny guy with curly brown hair, a hai Jewish star necklace, and a ridiculous T-shirt of Oscar the grouch as a gang member “representing colors” with a handkerchief and “G” gold chain necklace. I giggled at his shirt. He caught me smiling and greeted me in perfect English noting that he could pick me out as a foreigner because I was smiling. As he had a snack of baked potato with seafood salad, he told us about his pursuit of studies at University. He wants to be an interpreter and studies English and Arabic. He was smart, offbeat, and into the alternative. Jews don’t typically study Arabic, and Russians aren’t typically snoop dog fans, but Nikita was. (He even rubbed snoop dogs head at a recent concert) Turns out he is from a formerly secret town near Chelyabinsk called Snezhinsk. They make atom bombs there, so there is an electric fence surrounding this pristine green town complete with a lake. His town was not on maps, and his birth cert says he’s from a different town. Now, it is not a secret town, it is just closed. So, we could never go there. Can you believe this? What are the amazing chances we met this guy.

We were greeted at the airport by the head of Rocket Software in Miass, Artem and co-worker Boris. We actually did not know how old he was or what he would look like. Instantly, I liked him. He is young (25) tall, blond with blue eyes, very handsome, and speaks English so well he can easily convey his sense of humor. He is not a big on facial expressions and speaks in direct and concise sentences. As we journeyed along the road from Chelyabinsk to Miass, we observed a picturesque landscape of rolling meadows and wooden house villages Holstein cows we had a pleasant conversation. Artem is another young person who is curious about the world and can look at society with a critical eye. He studied Japanese language and through posting an ad to look for lessons, found his wife who is a Japanese teacher and has her doctorate degree.

Here are Marina and Artem!


That night we arrived at our apartment to find that it was as spacious as we had expected and had furniture, but it had rented by a smoker prior and was in a grungy state. I was upset that there had been no cleaning process after the last tenant left. Besides the stains on the couch, smoker’s rug, and sticky linoleum, another crusty feature was dead Elmo. Now you’ve heard of the bearskin rug. Elmo, had been skinned, and was decorating (and hiding the stains of) two flat twin mattresses on the floor. Not only was Elmo dead, but now he was caked with grime. This was our bed. We picked to sleep on the stained couch instead. (Other highlights I’ll enlighten you of later included the decorative hookah that the landlord insisted must stay despite our request to have it removed.)

I would have been fine knowing that Artem was one great person we could communicate, but then I met his wife Marina, who I absolutely adore. She is so incredibly friendly, cute, and expressive. She is petite and had long brown hair in a ponytail when I met her and she was of course well dressed, but she is not into makeup and does not sport high heel shoes! I was amazed that this was possible for a Russian woman after St. Petersburg. If she lived in the US, I imagine in high school she’d be a popular girl on the gymnastics team and the dean’s list.



On Friday morning we walked one block from our apartment to the office. The office was sparkling clean and modern. It employs only about 10 people right now. There is a room that a ping-pong table occupies right now that will soon be a workspace for new employees at some point.


Sharing Watermellon at the Office

When I got to meet her and she smiled and gave such a warm greeting. She commiserated with me about the filthy state of our apartment. After they had given us old cell phones to borrow and helped us to buy SIM cards (what a relief). Wife Marina came to my rescue further and took me around town to buy necessities of the apartment. She helped me navigate the small specialty stores for towels, sheets, and lotion.

To my dismay, there is no Laundromat. Supposedly there was one in communist times, but now people own personal washing machines. They are half the size of the ones we have here, and there are no dryers. Also, pillows are not common. I don’t think people use them.

We went to a cloth store. Here, you could buy material from bolts of cloth if you want to makes something, but they also have some goods ready to buy. We started with towels. There are several behind a glass case. You work with the store clerk, she shows you the towels you are interested in one at a time. There is no “sets” with a bath towel, hand cloth and washcloth. I had to purchase them all separately and none of them match. Then, we tackled the bed sheet section. One at a time, she would display a sheet with metric dimensions pinned on a label. There are no sizes like king, queen, full. There were a couple of overpriced sheet sets, so I stuck with the same method I used to get towels, random mismatched and different sizes. Then, pillows. There are no $5 pillow bins like at target. Instead, it looked like these pillows had been handmade with the cloth that was provided in the store. They were all random sizes. I ended up with two small square ones, one stuffed with feathers and one with synthetic fiber. Don’t ask about pillowcases and how that works.

Next, we went to get cleaning products. Who says Russia is cheap? $5 for a spray cleaner called Cif. Again, you point from behind a counter and a clerk will hand you the product to look at. The award for most amusing cleaning products goes to Mr. Proper: a powder detergent that has Mr. Clean on it. Mr. Proper is his Russian alias. And the A1 dish detergent is not Joy or Dawn, but Fairy. Watch out Shepard. The paper towels I bought are napkin thick. There were two choices only and basically it was pink or white. Forget it Bounty! Next, I wanted to get some cheap plastic plates and cups. Our kind hosts Marina and Artem had brought over some plates and cups for us to use, but they were old china. First of all, I didn’t want to break them and second of all, the cups are only a small teacup. Where is my “the great one” mega mug or large juice cup? But, to my dismay what did they sell for plates and cups? Again, no sets, just random mismatched china. I don’t get it. Plus we really need a knife. I laughed when my mom had her bagel knife and scissors confiscated at the airport on our trip to New Mexico, now, I realize how greatly needed these tools are.