Theres no place like....

Hello all. I have come to the realization that I haven’t said anything of my flat. Poor effort on my part, I know. :) So, let me describe it to you. And for those with limited imaginations, I will post up some pictures. :)

Ok. My flat is located within an apartment building, which in turn, is located within a group of other apartment buildings. The Building 8K4 on Voronezhskaya Ulitsa (Street) is the 1970’s Soviet Style building. Of all the buildings in block 8, it is probably the best maintained.

My flat itself is a two bedroom job with floor boards in every room except for the bathroom and the toilet, which have tiled floors. In Soviet style apartments, usually one bedroom is roughly twice the size of the other. My flat mate arrived the day before I did, and taxed the large room. The large room with, the couches, and the balcony. The smaller room was mine. So my room. Single bed with an ugly quilt. (I’m off to Ikea this weekend) A desk (hahha. The big room has an uncomfortably low table to use as a desk), Two brilliant shelving units, one with a lockable section. A nice rug on the floor which covers the floor boards, more books than I have time to read (all in Russian), about 200 hundred editions of various interior design magazines. And drawers full of various items belonging to the woman who previously lived in this flat.

As you walk in to the flat, you enter a room that connects you to every other room in the house. In this room there are cupboards hiding jackets and classical music on CD, and drawers with old shoes and boots. Also found a chest full of glassware the other day. Our first dinner party is in the works :) Take off to the left of this room, you find our fridge. Next to the fridge are the doors into the Bathroom and the Toilet, (Yes, they are actually separate rooms) And the door into the kitchen. The Kitchen has three chairs around a basic table. The stove is electric and has the oven section directly beneath it (same unit) There’s a kettle, be it, an old and unsafe to use kettle. There’s a sink with some ridiculous plastic mesh thing on the bottom (Still haven’t worked it out) Cupboards are full of crockery but the utensil drawer has 2 knives, 5 forks, and 1 tablespoon and 4 teaspoons. (Ikea again, this weekend)

The toilet is interesting to say the least. The size of the room itself is only just a bit smaller than the average Aussie room of the same purpose. But the toilet unit itself is slightly different. Slightly more disturbing. I’m not sure of the thought processes that were going on when this toilet was designed. But lets just say that anything that falls, doesn’t fall very far. And when the unit is flushed, the slate is wiped clean. It’s very uncomfortable being that close to one’s refuse. Even if that refuse is one’s own.

The bathroom has the traditional Russian style shower. The bathtub and the snakey hose shower head that can be hand held, or held by a bracket to act like a western shower. To avoid getting water everywhere, I usually take the handheld approach. The bathroom also contains our washing machine. From what I understand, we lucked out where this particular feature was concerned. Apparently the other teachers have had to hire washing machines. Perhaps we should start hiring out ours?? :)

Hmm, that really sums up the apartment. I’ll post a few pictures when the opportunity arises. On the whole, I like it. It has nearly everything I could want, it’s fairly well maintained, and it is fairly comfortable. I wouldn’t mind a couch and a balcony though. :)

Matt.