Daily Routines

It doesn’t matter where I am; my life tends to follow a series of routines. And being in Kazan is no different. I tend to follow the same routine during the week, and have a slightly different one for the weekend. I suppose I’m like everybody else in this regard. Routines allow us to organise our day and leave room for the mess to creep in.
A typical day starts with a shower and freshening of the fangs. I like to face the world feeling clean. Then comes breakfast, which is whatever Galina has decided I deserve – she has yet to serve fillet aspirin, for which I am grateful - with the usual cups of coffee and toast. I call it toast, but it may be fried bread, or micro-waved or something. If I rise early enough, I eat with Galina and we watch morning TV, but if I’m lazy and get up late, I watch TV by myself. Then it’s back to my room to watch an hour or so of morning TV, to kick the brain into thinking, or at least accepting, Russian, make the bed and gather up the stuff for KGU.
Then there’s the morning walk to KGU, which goes through the shortcut, down the street, under the road, up the hill and we’re there. The shortcut can be exciting, because after a rainfall, it becomes a bit of a swamp. Theoretically there is asphalt under the dirt, but the dirt has done a great job of disguise and I can only find the asphalt at either end. The walk down the hill (hill? It would qualify as a small ridge in Aukalofa, and a slight rise in Wellywood) takes me past a pothole that is growing daily. I’m sure that a small family could live in it, flooding notwithstanding, as it extends from the edge of the curb out under the road.
I use the subway to cross the only busy street between me and KGU as I don’t want to become road pizza. Russian road rules scare me; it seems the only one they have is “give way to the right”. This applies even if you are not turning. It leads to a fair amount of confusion and some impressive traffic jams. I head to KGU for 10 o’clock classes and the road isn’t busy then, but still, better safe than in a Russian hospital. The subway has a selection of kiosks that sell flowers, or t-shirts, or CDs/DVDs, that sort of carry on. If I’ve got some time up my sleeve, I’ll do a bit of browsing, mostly by looking in the window. The door on the kiosk is for the providor, not the customer, thank you. If you can’t see it, they ain’t got it.
Then it’s arrive at KGU, disrobe and climb the stairs. I’d use the lifts, but I’ve mentioned the lift/student ration before. The exercise keeps me fit, and the walk is faster than the wait and ride. And then two 1½ hour lessons separated by a ten minute break. This is Russia, we have a 20 minute break, and the lessons are about 80 minutes long. The Russians actually have a word for one and a half, which is useful. During the break, we stretch our legs, eat morning tea if we’ve brought it, and generally relax. The teachers get to unwind too.
After classes, we usually go our separate ways, but sometimes it’s the great lunch hunt, with our mouths all trying to decide what flavours they want today. We’ve all tried a fair range of places, and the best deals seem to be either the “business lunch” (100RR) at a cafe /bar on Baumana, or the daily sandwich at Subway (79RR). Either is pretty cheap, filling, and tasty. Then it’s off home to do the homework, watch more TV, read, do Sudoku’s, and catch the weather forecast. Of course, I also cook and eat dinner, which is kind of important, or I’d be spending heaps on food.
Some days, I take the laptop with me in order to check e-mails or post this blog, or carry a load of laundry to the laundrette. Galina started off doing my laundry, but her washing machine has a minor malfunction now; the door-catch is worn and the door leaks badly with a full load. So every five days I go to the laundrette, where they wash my clothes, dry and fold them and only charge me 91RR for 3kg, which is more than five days dirty clothes. Collecting the clothes, I way myself on their scales, and I’ve lost about 4-5kg since this trip began. All that walking, plus two attacks of the midnight two-step, will do that. McDonalds has acquired the nickname “the Embassy”, as it’s where most of us foreign students go to check our email. It’s one of the few places around town with free Wi-Fi internet. Okay, you’re limited to a 30 minute session and a few MB of download, but, hey, it’s free.
Going home, and because the homework usually only takes an hour to do, I’ll do some window shopping in the mall directly on my path. I’ve caught a few shorts for up and coming films - Ice Age 3, Dawn of the Dinosaurs, for example, looks a hoot. I wonder if I’ll see it on the plane ride home? I also go into the local book shops, browse there in the military section, or stroll past the souvenir vendors on Baumana, looking for suitable gifts for nearest and dearest back home. There’s an awful lot of ticky-tacky in the souvenirs, just like souvenirs everywhere.
That’s about my day, with the real trivia and “too much information” filtered out. Next post: What I would have done differently.