June 6

Here is a brief resume of my trip thus far. I am staying with a family of five – Alexi, Nena, and three daughters – Olga – 26, Nadya – 18, Luda – 7 (she reminds me of Laura – blue eyes and blonde hair, many people here have blue and green eyes). I am using the computer in the partents bedroom, so my posts will have to be truncated.
Naberezhnye Chilny is a city of 700,000 and it is located on the Kamaz River, which is one of the tributaries leading into the Volga River, not far from here.

Backing up a bit, I arrived in Moscow on Thursday, June 2, Sergey from the Institute met me, but because of a short layover in Amsterdam, my luggage did not accompany me, so I had to wait at the airport for three hours while it followed my on Russain Aeroflot Airlines. So Sergey went back to MTI to run errands in preparation for the graduation ceremonies. Thankfully, my suitcase did arrive unmolested, and we all arrived at MTI that evening.

In preparation for the ceremonies, everything and everyone was hopping in a flurry of frenetic activity – busier than a one-armed juggler. Lynn, Natasha the cook loved the quilt. She hugged it and said this is the first one she has ever had. She was deeply touched!

When I arrived at MTI, I was greeted by all the students I had taught, and many were from Vorkuta. Everyone lined up for hugs. It was great to see them all! We visited for quite a while.

That evening I did get about 7 hours sleep, which felt great. I am staying in the professor’s apartment, which is really nice.

Friday, June 3
In the morning, Andrei and Dmitry from Murmansk (north of the artic circle close to Finland), accompanied me to Ismaylevki Park to make some purchases. Since it wasn’t Saturday or Sunday (their big days when all the merchants are there in full force), there was advantage and disadvantages – advantage was that the price of entrance was 2 rubles instead of 10, and the merchants were more eager to settle for lower prices, which I took advantage of. Lynn, the angel I wanted to get you was not there, but I did get you a large one that is blue and really beautiful. Laura, I got you three M. Dolls – yes three! I will tell you all about it when I see you. I also got Ewan and Eliot a carved santa. All for very good prices. Andrei said I did really well in negotiations.

More later.