Siberia: First Impressions

The Calvanist and I arrived in Tyumen at 3 am Saturday morning. Our hosts, Jeff and Amy were good enough to pick us up in the middle of the night. They borrowed a Lada, pictured here:



You may be surprised to hear that this sportscar did not want to start. But it didnt. Jeff fiddled with the choke (yes, it really has one), and it still wouldn't start. He then offered up a prayer, and the engine roared to life (okay, maybe "roared" is a bit much for this car; but it at least meowed to life, and that was enough).




The Calvanist and I dragged our sorry carcasses to bed, but whatever system in my body that keeps track of what time it is was completely confused, and I woke up in five hours. I spent the rest of the day in the fog they call Jet Lag. I think it feels like a hangover, but I've never been drunk, so I will have to ask Chris Huff what that feels like.



This is a pic of Jeff and Amy. She is the one on the right:




Jeff and Amy invited an engaged couple to join us. Dan is from Scotland, and Sascha is Russian. Long story.




After lunch Jeff took us for a walk around the city. Tyumen contains around a million people, and almost all of them live in apartments. A nearby mall has a unique color scheme:



The inside was quite similiar to American malls. The computors were about twice the price that we pay in America, but otherwise prices seemed comparable (though the average citizen makes 500 bucks a month).



For dinner Amy made killer Lasagna, and a group of students came over. They are not believers yet, but come over for supper and discussion every Saturday. Very cool group, but no pics here, cuz I didn't want to freak them out ("Mind if I post your mug on some foreign web site?")

Bed felt good last night.