Сейчас Я В Казани! (Now I am in Kazan!)

Well I arrived in Kazan very early (around 5 am) on the 27th and was pleasantly met at the airport by two faculty from the International Department at KSTU.  They drove me to the hotel and helped me check in.  One of them, Julia, is the head of the International Department, and the other, Dmitri, is one of the professors there.  Dmitri has been extremely helpful in the past couple of days.  He has shown me around town, helped me get cell phone and transit card, and pointed out useful places like grocery stores and university buildings.  It may seem weird that I need "help" to buy a cell phone and transit card, etc, but in Russia you have to register these types of purchases with the city.  Thus, it is not necessarily the actual purchase, but all the paperwork that comes with it.  For example, the phone I just purchased was very simple, but Dmitri had to buy the sim card himself because it has to be registered to an address and I did not have one at first.  Also, he said I couldn't buy a sim card if I wanted to because I am a foreigner.  I think I have to be living here for a certain amount of time before I can register my own sim card.  The people are very friendly and helpful especially as I trying to learn to navigate the bureaucracy.  Dmitri has also helped me search for and (hopefully tonight) purchase an apartment that is absolutely amazing - great kitchen, unlimited internet, washing machine, bedroom, balcony, in a good area and new building! I won't be able to move into my new apartment until the 4th, so from tomorrow until sunday I will be staying in University housing.  Picked up the keys for it today and looked at the place, it's a pretty nice place but is normally for visiting professors to stay in when they are here for lectures or conferences, so it is not available for permanent housing.  However, it is free, so a much better alternative to more days in the hotel that would cost plenty of money.  Today I went to the University for the first time, the main building, so that they could copy my documents for immigration services and I got to meet the Rector of the University.  I was very nervous to meet him, he is a very powerful and important figure at the institution.  He was extremely nice and even gave me his cell phone number!  This is the first time they have had an American teacher at the University so he was very happy to have me there and excited for me to host English clubs for faculty as well as students.  So far the reception here has been great and I going to try to live up to these expectations as best I can.  I see now that teaching will only be a part of my overall responsibilities here.  I think they will want me to represent the University at some English conferences, host clubs and cultural exchange meetings, and I'm sure much much more.  I am very excited about all these great opportunities and it seems that the university is invested in my being here which is really nice.  The town in general is very nice; there are a lot of districts that are architecturally very soviet in style, but today i went to Плошадь Свободы (Freedom Square) where all the government buildings are and they are magnificent and very new looking.  There is a giant statue of Lenin in the center of the square, and in front of the University building is a statue of Kirov (he went to KSTU!).  I will be taking pictures within a couple of weeks, once I am settled into my apartment next week.  So I will see if I can post them here or somewhere else and provide a link to them.  There are some parts of town that are really nice and I can't wait to see the city in winter! (I will retake many pictures during the winter, I think it will be a cool contrast).  So for now I am going to take a nap as it has been a very busy and exhausting past few days.  I will probably not post again until next week, since there is no internet at the University housing.  До Свидания, до следуюшего раза! (goodbye, until next time!)