Blog Overview

Hi, and welcome to our blog chronicling our stay in the small city of Миасс (Miass) in the Ural Mountains of Russia during the summer of 2009.

You can explore the city a bit with the map below. It's a highlight of the interesting stuff in Miass that I made for co-workers, and it's in English.  If you know some Russian, you can really get a tour of the place at the Miass wikimapia page.


View Tour of Miass, Russia (Миасс, Россия) in a larger map

You can find a full list of entries on the right side under Blog Archive or you can have a look at the entire archive on a single page, in reverse chronological order.

Some of our favorite entries 
(In mostly chronological order)

Lake Turgoyak, Silver Sands Beach, and a trip to the Banya

Bridging two worlds with S'Mores

The Goat that Ruined Everything

A Visit to a Russian Vegetable Garden

Yekaterinburg, Ganina Yama Monastery and a Russian Cemetery

Supreme, Ahoy!!!

Mushroom Hunting

My Daily Routine

Walk by an old лада. I want to drive this car.

Walk by Пиво из кег ("beer from keg"). I'm told it has tasty beer. I like the unintended environmental aspect: you bring your own bottles and they fill 'em.

Then ключ на дверь, open door number #1.

Open door #2.

Take off my shoes. This is a very common practice in Russian homes and offices - the use of what are essentially slippers. They are not as soft and fluffy like the bedroom variety you know of in the US.

The Russian variety is more along the lines of sandals but for indoor use only. Our office has storage just for this purpose. Using slippers keeps the place very clean by cutting down on tracking mud and dirt around. And nowadays there is plenty of mud here thanks to several days of rain.

Yes, I know, I have a sharp fashion sense.

Here are some window shots. Above is towards our apartment.

Out the front of our building.


A bit to the right, the open market and the super market.

A Visit to a Russian Vegetable Garden

On a dreary Saturday afternoon I had my day brightened with a visit to a traditional Russian veggie garden, called a дача (dacha). Each one consists of a small plot of land with a perhaps a small hand-made house, for storing supplies or providing shelter after a long day. It is common for a family to own one of these gardens and to reap it's harvest all summer long.


There are clusters of these gardens on the edges of the city. From our hike on Перевал, we could see these places all around Миасс. The photo above shows one such cluster.

On this trip my friend Артем took me to the дача of his wife's parents, Владимир Петрович and Любовь Викторовна. We walked from my apartment for about 30 minutes, following a dirt road that runs parallel to the big above-ground pipes which carry heat and hot water.

There are entire neighborhoods of дачи, we are walking down the "street" where our дача is located.

Our destination

Their дача was hand made by Владимир, who is a quite skilled with his hands. He used to make traditional ovens when he was younger so I'm sure he made short work of building this two floor abode. Артем didn't have the key to open up the house so those pics will have to wait until Caitlin and I return in a few weeks.


Владимир and Любовь have constructed several green houses over some of their veggies, here Артем is watering the tomatoes. Almost everything here is hand made, using good ol' Russian ingenuity. They are cultivating everything from veggies like tomatoes, cukes, cabbage, apples, pears to flowers and herbs.

I've come to realize that sometimes the most boring places or activities for a Russian can be the most exciting for a foreigner like Caitlin or I. Артем spent many long hours at a дача when he was a kid, so visiting this place to water some plants is a chore or an excuse to get into the woods. But for me it was a pleasure and a privilege because I can see first hand an intimate part of Russian life here in the Urals. The same also held true when we were in Ethiopia. Our most favorite trip was when we spent 1 hour with the grandmother of our friend, Maha. We sat in her home, we drank tea with her, we saw her farm and her work animals. We were able to glimpse what daily life for her family is like.

Chelyabinsk 8/3-8/5

R to L: Tatyana, Jon, Natalia

Chelyabinsk was such a modern city, I felt like someone moving from Vermont to Boston. Our home for 3 days 8/3-8/5, Hotel Victoria was top notch, very classy. Our first stop was to work. The office here is much bigger, multiple floors and so modern. We went out for business lunch where I had traditional soup and modern pizza, it was awesome, accept Jon is annoyed that instead of saying lunch in Russian on the menu it is transliterated to say “business lunch” биснис лунч.

We had met the classy, brilliant and beautiful Natalia and Tatyana at the company picnic, the two women Jon would be training the next few days who are now our friends. They are amazing and took us out to a classy traditional restaurant where we sat on the patio. It was located in this one very pretty part of the city that reminds me of Faneuil Hall. It is a stone walkway shut down to traffic with plenty of shopping, music and souvenir vendors.


The women took us around on a tour. I made sure I hit it up the next day for a shopping extravaganza, treating myself to some cute clothes for my birthday. We also walked through a park to see their former alma mater. We learned how competitive it is for a job and how rigorous the interview process is. We also learned how smart and talented these women are: Tatyana being a math scholar and former mathematics teacher; Natalia being a Information Technologies major. Both can program even thought their job position is software tester, both studied English at university as well. Not only are they brilliant, they are certainly the best tour guides!

Natalia's University (A Technology and Engineering School)

Cool Chelyabinsk Church now an Organ Concert Hall

On Wednesday, we went out for Chinese food at an amazing restaurant: Dragon. Again, we were completely impressed.


But the kicker for me was the fancy grocery store that blew trader Joes and whole foods out of the water with their array of gourmet naturals and savory prepared foods section. I ate my foot as all the food products I had told legends about thinking were only found in the US abounded the aisles. I’m talkin’ lobster tails, orange marmalade, maple syrup, fresh mozzerela, and basil. I was so excited, I got in trouble for taking pictures of the store. I spent over an hour here with my jaw open, muttering in awe in English (scaring many, I’m sure). There was a drawback though: the basil cost I kid you not $20 USD! Right there, it was a luxury store, but some items were out of reach, unlike at Trader Joes. ALSO- they were missing chocolate chips and peanut butter. I asked for them and they brought me over to the chocolate covered potato chips! My day ended for a cool 1000 rubles with only 6 treasures: fresh sunflower seed bread, pasta sauce, hot sauce (burritos here we come), sweet and sour Chinese pomegranate sauce, birch tree juice, and marmalade and chocolates for friends.

Note the Traditional Wedding Swan Bread!
Hot Russian Delights- Mmmm!

We had a great time in Chelyabinsk, but I am glad we are in Miass because of the nature here. It’s more different from home and therefore exciting for us. Plus, the bus system is so easy here because really there is one main road. In Chelly, I ended up riding buses in the wrong direction until they would turn around and bring me back to where I was trying to go. One bus ride was over an hour. Oy vey.

Met Gorbechev while out shopping.

Company Picnic

On Friday we went to the company picnic with two offices, Chelyabinsk and Miass. It was such a perfect summer BBQ party. I felt like I was 8 again, running around in my bathing suit playing sports all day and drinking juice.

Shashlik

Large Meat Pie

The Russian style BBQ is called Shashlik. You skewer meat, in this case pork, and grill it on a Mangal. They don’t do grilled peppers, onions and mushrooms like we do at home, but maybe a tomato or two. This was the main course, and stretched out on huge picnic cloths were tons of cut up tomatoes and cucumbers, apples, cold meat and potato pie, deli meats, cheese and bread. There was beer, wine and tons of juice. Not a coke bottle in site. No chips! And, here’s the shocker Americans, NO SUGAR. There was no desert. It was actually a healthy BBQ! Plus, most people were playing games: Frisbee, soccer, badminton, and new for most: American football. Someone had brought it to toss, and Jon and I gave lessons on how to throw! This was a hoot, but we weren’t bad.

For a fun treat, we brought a jar of the famous Marshmellow Fluff - made right in Lynn, MA in order to introduce the sugary famous excuse for lunch- “The Fluffernutter!” We figured that we’d have no problem finding peanut butter, but that proved otherwise. We had two Russian friends Sasha and Tatyana on a mission that they accomplished. Each returned with a jar- Sasha’s a natural sugar free version and Tatyana’s a typical American type packed chock full ‘o partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Lots of Russians were able to savor this treat (although, I’ll admit I was nervous someone would have an allergy, but no one did).

We made lots of new friends with the Chelyabinsk office, including Natalia, Tatyana, Dmitry, Ivan, Valery, and Maxim. They are going to show us around after work. The fun continues!

Clockwise starting with Mr. Ghost: Sasha, Alexander, Natalia, Tatyana, Dmitry, Ivan, and Caitlin aka Катя.

The Goat that Ruined Everything

Normally, were I am from we do not have farm life roaming free at the beach so this is very humorous to me. After being dropped off by the shuttle van, on the road down to the beach, there is usually a family of cows taking up half the road. Arriving at the beach, I finally settled down on my towel when I heard cries of upset. I looked up to see a goat ruining everyone's day. First of all, this goats bag was draggin’- it hadn’t been milked in days, and it was a little perturbed, so it decided to cause trouble. First, it hooved across some sunbather’s towel. Next, it trampled on someone’s picnic, eating a few snacks on the way. Finally, it stomped onto some poor child’s sand castle. The boy cried in protest, but the goat took it one step further and decided to pee all over what was left of the castle. Crowds of people were laughing.

It was so funny I wished I had taken a photo, and I didn’t expect to get lucky when I returned to the beach a week later with Jon and the goat was back! More trouble for the happy beachgoers of Miass. After stomping across some towels, she then insisted on trying to snatch lunch away from a family. She wore out her welcome.

Towel Stomping

Innocent bystanders being persued for food (click to enlarge and see her facial expression)

First attempting to drink from a capped water bottle

Rudely taking a dump while asking for food

More Beach info:
OK, here are the rules of the beach. If you are a hot sexy person, you stand up for a while. Also, you will wedge your bikini bottom for a better tan if it is not already a thong. Your hair will be perfect and you will unlikely get it wet if you go in the water so as not to ruin it. By the way, everyone at the beach is gorgeous. It is like a magazine here.

At the beach they sell popcorn, cotton candy, ice cream, drinks and chips. There are also some ladies selling hand crocheted beach hats and cones stuffed with caramel and peanuts. Also, there is shashlik man who basically he grills chicken kebabs and give it to you with sliced onion, bread and bbq sauce.

Hot People Standing Up with Wedged Bottoms

Mineral Museum

Geological map of the Ural Mountains- made out of minerals!

On Wednesday, Jon, Olga, Marina, Artem and I went to the Mineral Museum that proudly displays the incredible wealth of minerals that exist in the Ural Mountain area. The Mineral Museum was a science teacher’s dream. (I am a science teacher for those of you who don’t know.) I frolicked through the rock displays like a kid in a candy shop. My favorite was Chariote. They wouldn’t let us take pics on the first floor, which was the best. There were more minerals on the second floor and a taxidermy animal display on the third floor with some great nature photography and woodcarvings.

Mineral Sample

Another Nature lover carved this!