In Skyberia

So I am finally moved into my apartment and starting to settle in. I was a bit nervous when we were going to see my apartment and sign the lease, because I had no idea what the apartment was going to be like. Russian apartment buildings tend to look pretty crappy on the outside, so it's impossible to know what the apartment will be like just from looking at the building.

My building is a bit rundown looking on the outside, but not actually that bad. The front door is on a courtyard with a playground, so it's pretty quiet and has lots of trees. My apartment is a corner apartment on the third floor. It's got big windows and it's just above tree level so there's a lot of light.

When I first got up to my apartment, my landlady and her husband were here, so I got to meet them right off the bat. They gave me a tour and showed me everything I needed to know about the place. They were so insanely nice. My landlady even invited me to visit them at their dacha once I was more settled in.

I totally lucked out with my apartment. It's newly renovated and really nice. I've got a great landlady. AND I'm only a five minute walk to work and the metro. Pretty good for my first solo apartment! But I'll stop rambling now and get to the photos. I've only got the inside for now, but stay turned for more about my neighborhood!

 




My "living room." It's kinda a blurry picture, but you get the idea. 




My "bedroom"  

In case you're wondering why I put quotation marks in the captions of the two photos above, it's because they are actually photos of two different sides of the same room. In Russia, for the most part, a one bedroom apartment has only one main room that serves as both the living room and the bedroom. My bed is actually a futon so that the room transforms into only a living room if I wanna have people over.



My kitchen. The sink is in the left corner there...I cut it out
 because I'm not a very good photographer.

 

 

 

My bathroom. It's a bit cramped with the washing machine in there, but it's decent.




This is the view from my balcony into the courtyard. I feel so fancy having a balcony.



This is the view from sitting on my bed. It's wonderful. Except I'm a little nervous
 that a bird is going to fly in when I leave the window open..



An Intro to Siberia

Nobody believes you when you tell them you’re moving to Siberia. I guess most people don’t think of it as a real place. It’s more like today’s Timbuktu – it’s just famous for being really far away. But that fact, as well as it’s in Russia and it’s cold just about sum up what people usually know about Siberia.

If you’d like to know a little bit more, then you’ve come to the right place! I’ve put together a little question and answer using questions I’ve gotten over the past couple month:

“You’re going to the middle of nowhere?”
       Siberia is the general name of Russia to the east of the Ural Mountains. It really just refers to the part of Russia that is on the Asian continent, which is actually most of the country. So technically, I could be going to the middle of nowhere, but I’m not. I’ll actually be living in the third largest city in the country.

“Woah, you’re gonna be really cold!”
         I’m moving to the city of Novosibirsk, which is in the center of the country and all the way south. I’ll be around the same latitude line as Edmonton, Canada (I looked it up). Just like us, there are seasons over there. In fact, this week it’s warmer in Novosibirsk than in New York – it’s in the mid-80s! But it is further north, so it’ll still get pretty cold once winter sets in. Don’t worry though, I have a heavy coat and plenty of scarves!

“Isn’t that where they exile people?”
         Back in the Soviet Union, that’s exactly what happened. Political prisoners were often sent to Siberian work camps when the government wanted them gone. But that’s a thing of the past and I’ll be in a nice apartment in a nice city and I’ll have internet. That’s not even close to exile!

“You’ll have to get one of those sled dogs to get to work!”
         First off, if I was gonna commute to work by way of dog, I’d need at least a pair to pull the sled. Secondly, if anybody would like to buy me a dog, I wouldn’t necessarily complain about it. Although I’m sure my landlord wouldn’t be so happy.

“You’re moving to Siberia? You know that that’s not a thing that people actually do right?”
                Well it is now.