We've Moved In

Our Apartment Building
They warned us at the mission home that especially in Russia, looks can be deceiving and not to worry when we first saw our apartment building. We enter through the door on the right. We have a coded magnet that opens the door and push a button in the inside to open the door when we leave. When someone visits us, they buzz our apartment and we can unlock the door through a special phone by our front door. By the way, that icy snow is now all melted (less than a week later), even though it's in the shade all day. A few days ago someone was "shoveling" the snow, basically turning it all over but not moving it anywhere. I guess that breaks it up and makes it melt faster.

The Dark Entrance
It looks a lot lighter than it really is because of the flash and because the door was propped open, but the picture with the door closed and without the flash turned out nearly black. Those green mailboxes on the wall are more a formality than anything. They don't have locks and there is no mail service. I think they use them for notices from the landlord and ads.

The Elevator and Stairs
Except when carrying heavy loads, we always take the stairs to the fourth floor and . . .

Our Front Door

The Front Entry
Actually, it's the only entry. There's no fire escape, but the windows do open wide enough that we could get out if we had to. The entry is almost as big as any other room in the apartment! There are 7 doors leading off from it.

Two closets--the coat closet and the water closet
The coat closet is roughly twice the size of the water closet. But that's ok because all that's in the water closet is the toilet. No sink. That's on the other side of the entry in . . .

The Bathroom
Complete with tub & sink (notice the single faucet that swivels between the two), washer (no dryer) and also a shower.

The Kitchen

Yes, there is a fridge that you can't see from this angle. Between the table and window we have a table with our computer. Dave arranged with the missionaries to have some flowers on the table for me when we arrived. :)

The Living Room
Behind the door are two deep arm chairs (that I can't sit all the way back or my feet stick straight out in front of me--they're that deep), a coffee table and a drop down desk/bookcase.

Our Bedroom

Some interesting things about our apartment:

*The water in the bathroom is plumbed backward - the handle labeled hot is cold and the cold is hot. We were afraid that meant only cold water until we discovered the switch. The shower is also plumbed backwards from what we're used to but is labeled correctly. The kitchen sink is plumbed the opposite, with the hot water on the left, cold on the right and not labeled.

*There is a lot of storage in the living room, but very little in the bedroom and none in bathroom, not even a vanity, except for the wire shelf thingy in the bathtub. The only other "shelf" in the bathroom holds the soap in the shower. There are some towel racks, but those aren't much good for holding a toothbrush or comb.

*The size of the apartment is about the same as our family room, kitchen and washroom at home, and is considered good-sized. That's fine. It makes it easier to keep clean.

*Our place, like the two other homes we've been in since we got here, is decorated with swirly, sparkly wallpaper and curtains and bedspread to match, all in the same 1940's froo-froo style. The curtains look fancy and give us the illusion of privacy, but we discovered that when the lights are on inside, it doesn't matter if the drapes are pulled.

*It's surprising how quiet it is - the only noise we hear from other apartments is occasionally running water. No talking, no squeaky floors, no evidence that others are around (at times it seems spooky--we seldom see our neighbors coming and going other than looking down and seeing people moving around outside). We think we know why it's so quiet: the buildings are made of cement, inside and out, even the inside walls in our apartment, hence no need for fire escapes. When Dave put up a privacy blind today, he drilled into cement around the window. After washing dishes and cleaning, I felt like I've been standing on a cement block.

*We blew a fuse the first morning while we were unpacking that left half of the apartment fairly dark. The Elders had arranged for the apartment so we didn't know how to contact the landlady, which is fine since we don't speak Russian, and we had to wait until they came over for the district meeting at noon. They simply broke into the (locked) fuse box and voila, instant power. You gotta' love the gutsy Elders!

*We’re settling in and it’s starting to feel like a home away from home.

We are finding some delightful differences here, the you-know-you're-in-Russia-when . . . type of things. I'll try to remember to share one in each post. This week's is "You know you're in Siberia when everyone is bundled up in coats when it's nearly 65∘ and you're very comfortable in short sleeves! The kids are in snowsuits, playing on/around piles of icy snow (on top of, not in or with the snow). Everyone is walking around and soaking up the sunshine, but with the protection of their coats. Spring has hit and people are loving it, even when they're wading through puddles and slogging through mud. We've had warmer weather here than Salt Lake has had, which isn't surprising, given the typical Utah spring. Almost all the ice and snow that was here when we arrived has melted.

P.S. Brad, Yes I did this post all by myself except I needed Niki's help in figuring out how to stop it from automatically changing to Hindi after I typed a word. We have NO idea how or why it started doing that. Thanks for setting this up for us.