I am not going to lie, taking those steps and actually getting on that plane was one of the hardest things I had to do.
Anyone who knows me…REALLY knows me, knows I am a family bound person. My loved ones are my world. I am truly grateful and blessed with them. I don’t like going away from home and leaving my loved ones behind. Home is where the heart is!
I guess I will just have to make this a second home. Nothing will come close to my SA home but I will make the best of this situation.
I don’t want to make this post all sad and emotional, otherwise you and me both will be in tears soon.
So I decided to tell you how the flights were and my first day here.
29 October 2017.
- Skipping the airport emotional waterworks that could have probably filled up an olympic sized pool!
On my way to security & passport control, (after saying goodbye) I was still emotional & trying not to cry right there on my own. The next thing that happened was the thing that literally saved me right there from crying. It must have been the Lord that knew!
As I was walking, one of the guys working there must have read my shirt as I came towards him. As I made eye contact with him to ask which way I should go to queue, he said: ” Sorry out of order.” For a split second I thought one of the queues where out of order, but as this is processing in my head, he smiles and shows me the way. Just as I pass him, it clicked! The shirt I was wearing read: “Sorry out of order, Temporarily”
When this clicked, a smile popped onto my face. If it wasn’t for him, that smile could have been red eyes and tears.
On the plane I thought that being stuck in a middle seat was a bad thing, but again, the Lord knew!
On my right, a man, in about he’s late 40’s, maybe 50’s. On my left, a woman, more or less the same age. Maybe more younger.
As a few few things happened around us, like a screaming child, being passed earplugs by the flight attendant, the man and I started talking. We had a conversation that kept going, with so many laughs too. The flight was about 8 hours long. When we were finally able to go to sleep, after they removed our dinner trays, and after finished talking, the screen infront of us read that there were only 6 hours left till we land in Dubai. I think my brain would have filled me with to many sad thoughts if it wasn’t for that man that distracted me. I could tell you about all the things we talked and laughed about, but that would mean we both will be sitting here till the next sunrise! After we talked, all that was left to do was sleep because by that time I was to tired to even think.
30 October 2017.
Arriving in Dubai was nothing new to that what I already experienced in previous times. So I thought. The airport and surrounding buildings are nothing like the pictures you see of Dubai. To get to the really fancy and exotic places, you would have to go far, far away from the airport. The minute you step out of the plane, you already feel like someone came and put glue all over your body while you were sleeping, because even your clothes seem to be stuck to you. Now imagine waiting in a line at security with about 500 Arabs in front and behind you. You quickly become happy when you spot another foreigner heading the same direction as you.
The heat gets even worse once you actually go outside to get onto a shuttle bus to transport you to another terminal. Now here it feels like there is 1001 post stamps plastered all over you body with some sticky honey for an extra shine. Or wait, maybe some vaseline. Hey! … Shine bright like a diamond!!! 😀
Luckily inside the shuttle there is cool air. Ag but then you feel like passing out because 1: You are so tired because of the lack of proper sleep and 2: The shuttle is only aloud to go 40km an hour! It took us 20 min to get from terminal 3 to terminal 2.
Extra insert: Before you reach the area where you need to take the shuttle, you first get onto a railway. This railway goes 2 ways, up and down, left and right, back and forth the whole time to drop people between 2 points to get to certain gates.
I needed to reach gate F, but to get there I also needed to get on this railway, then the shuttle.
So I followed all the signs and got on the railway. I sat down and listened to the intercom. She announces that we will stop at gates A-C. On the board inside the cart, it reads D-F as well. I then thought the next stop will be my stop, so I remained seated. Only to realize everyone gets off, I remained seated , new people got on and now we are on our way back to where I first got on. This is about a 3min ride one way. So again I remained seated as everyone got off and new people got on. On our way we were again. I got some weird looks sometimes. The intercom only announces A-C but as you get off, there is more signs directing you to gate F. I bet I was not the first one make this mistake.
(In my defense, this railway was not there the last time I landed in Dubai!!!)
Yes I probably looked very funny enjoying my up and down railway experience, but hey! Then I wouldn’t have an interesting story to tell.
End of extra insert.
The wait on the airport wasn’t that long and soon I was on my next flight to Kazan.
This time I had the window seat. I usually like the aisle seats. For 2 reasons. 1: With long legs, I can stretch them out in the aisle whenever I like. 2: I never have to ask anyone to get up when I need to use the toilets.
But this time I was happy with the window seat. This meant I could lay my head next to the window, enjoy the view and sleep a little more comfortably. I was so happy to realize that the plane is fairly empty and in my row of 3 seats, there was only 1 lady sitting in the aisle seat. So no one next to me!
Another thing you need to know about this flight, is that you don’t get food as part of your ticket. You can purchase food on board or pre-order but it’s not included in your ticket like with the previous flight. Expecting this I made sure to have some snacks. Also not bothered with the food trolley passing, I put my music in my ears, laid my head next to the window and quickly fell asleep.
Probably 10min later someone woke me op. The flight attendant. She asked for my boarding pass and I quickly showed her. She then hands me food and says to enjoy it. (Like they do with passengers who pre-order their meals) I was confused and asked if it was for me and she assured me it was. It was then that I realized the Department of Higher Education must have ordered me a meal when they booked my ticket! I was really surprised and it was a nice meal too. Thank you Department of Higher Education and Training!
After the delicious meal, (as delicious as plane food can get) I fell asleep. After a while I woke up again and saw that the seat where the lady sat was empty, but didn’t think much of it as she probably went to the toilet. I closed my eyes again an drifted off. When I woke up again, she has still not returned to her seat and I then figured she must have gone and found her an open row of seats to sleep on. Which meant I had a whole row to myself! Needless to say, I slept even better then!
My seat was in the 3rd row after business class. But being a small plane, it’s not as fancy. It also meant that I could only use the toilet right at the back of the plane. Not really a problem as you get to walk and stretch your legs a bit.
I must say, whenever I went to the toilet, passing all the rows of seats, it looked more like the plane was transporting dead bodies with the way that almost everyone had their own row and passed out. Even the flight attendants took turns taking a nap.
I am truly grateful that both my flights went smoothly with very minimal to no turbulence or any other possible hiccups. I prayed for this as I get quite anxious when flying but this time I didn’t really. Could also be all the Calmettes I took before my first flight.
We landed in Kazan and I didn’t have to wait for my bags as they were some of the first to come out on the conveyor belt. I picked them up and off I went. (I was really relieved to get my bags as the abbreviations for Kazan is KZN. I really hoped and prayed my bags wouldn’t end up in Durban instead of in Kazan. Can you imagine!!!) Passport control also went quick and hassle free.
But oh boy…the minute the doors open and you enter the arrival area, as small as it was, there is just someone who wants to arrange a taxi for you or who is a taxi driver. You can say no all you want, or even if you say your University arranged for a pickup, they even say they will take you instead. But nothing works! Luckily I had a rescuer!
His name is … No, no Russian or Tatar name, but … Thabiso.
Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, Thabiso!
You have no idea how relieved and amazing it felt to have a fellow SOUTH AFRICAN pick you up! You are in a strange and unfamiliar place. You can’t really speak the language and you are so overwhelmed by this big step you took to move to a new country, that he was my lifesaver!
The Department of Higher Education arranged that a fellow scholar, that already studies in Kazan, fetch me at the airport. We were struggling to get a hold of my University and were scared they might not send someone for me. We did however reach them and they said someone will be waiting for me. Thabiso and I waited and decided to call my University as no one was there for me. It turned out that they had the time wrong so I was really lucky that Thabiso still decided to come!
My University. The Kazan State Institute of Culture.
Thabiso is studying at the Aviation University in Kazan and will be graduating in February. Then his 5 years of studies is complete and here I am just starting. Turns out he was also 22 when he first came. Anyways, he took me to my University (we took a taxi of coarse) and he helped me with translations as he is a fluent speaker. He also helped with documents I needed to fill out. He took me to my hostel, then took me by Metro to the City Center where I got my sim card and some other things I needed for my first day.
To this day I don’t know what I would have done without him. I hope that oneday I can do the same for a new scholar coming to Kazan.
On our way back to my hostel we got off the Metro and was on our way to the exit when Thabiso said he thinks our exit is the other way. So we turned around and went the other way. We got out and quickly realized something is wrong. We came out the wrong way! So back we went. Payed again but didn’t get on the Metro, we just went to the other exit. As we got out we saw that we were right, we did exit the wrong side the first time, but if we just kept going straight we would have ended up at the same place. Haha so we payed for a ticket we never used! = Memories!
When we got back to my hostel we said goodbye and I went up to my room (2nd floor, room 27) and met my roommates. 2 Other girls, 1 Lady (don’t know why she lives here, but she is very nice) and then there is me. 4 In a room. There is also a joint room where 1 other girl sleeps but she keeps to herself.
I unpacked what I could and went to sleep. Oh why didn’t I go take a shower you ask? Well it turns out that the water doesn’t work on Monday evenings. So I used some moisturizing wipes and felt a little better. The next day my very first Russian lesson awaited me at 10 am (9am SA time) so I couldn’t be bothered much as I was really tired and needed the sleep.
And there you have it! My journey to Kazan, Tatarstan (Russia), and my first day here! There will be more stories to come so keep checking my blog and please subscribe! I promise to post more pictures soon. I am still to go and explore more of my environment.
Today after ballet class, Thabiso and I will be going to open my Russian bank account and he will show me where some shops are as I need some things. Apparently there is a super sale going on at some shops. A Black Friday kinda thing. So that will be interesting.
I will talk to you all soon!
To Live is To Dance!
xoxo
Bonus short story: On Dubai I had to tell someone I needed to get to my gate which required me to go through a part where it’s closed off. The guy looked at me friendly and asked where I came from. I said terminal 3. He said no, and asked the same question again. All I could think of is that he must be asking which country, so I told him South Africa. He looked at me in surprise and asked if I’m serious. I said yes and he replied: “Are you sure?” (mmm I’m pretty sure that’s where I came from. Well if not, something big was wrong with my flight or I have serious problems with my birth certificate!)
When I replied with another yes, he literally said the most rated stereotypical thing you can say to a South African: “But you are white.”
Ja Mnr. Daar in die land van melk en heuning like ons van chocolate en vanilla, en moenie die karamel vergeet nie! Saam gee ons vir julle ‘n variety of colors om die reënboog me in te kleur!
“No there is many different cultures in South Africa.” – What I said instead.
He just smiled/laughed an “oh okay” and showed me the way.
