Apartment Improvements (With Pictures!)

Yesterday was a banner day in our journey to fully settling into our lovely little apartment here on Kanareechnaya Ulitsa. Thanks to a ton of help from Kevin, Tammy's (the headmaster at IA) amazing husband, we now have our very own water filtration system installed! This means that we now have a small faucet in our kitchen sink that dispenses filtered water that is safe for us to drink (there is bacteria in the water in St. Petersburg that can make you sick). So far, we've been buying bottled water to drink and brush our teeth with, but we were really hoping to be able to get a water filter.

So yesterday afternoon, Kevin and Tammy came over and took us shopping. Kevin had told us that he could help install the filter and offered to help us find a good one. We found one that we liked for less than we were prepared to spend, which is always a nice feeling. We also got our very own drying rack for our clothes as well (pictures below). It is a big, fold-out rack that we currently have sitting in our entry way. It is a lovely, Italian made model that proudly reads "Jolly Silver" on the packaging. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any additional fans, the other item we were looking for. We stopped at two big stores, but neither of them had any fans. Apparently fans are pretty hard to come by in the city right now, which made us 100 times more grateful than we already were for the one little fan we do have. Fortunately, today was pleasantly cool.

After we got back, I set to work "installing" the filter. What that meant was that Kevin provided all of the tools, expertise, and step by step instructions while I did the work. I learned a lot about plumbing and I'm flattered that Kevin keeps insisting that I installed the filter, but I realize that all we would have is a pretty looking box with a filter system in it without his extensive help. All told, the process of getting and installing the filter took over 3 1/2 hours, but seemed even longer in the sweltering heat of our tiny kitchen as I tried to fit myself under the sink to drill and wrench things while Kevin patiently tolerated my gross inexperience and ineptitude. On the upside, it did give Amanda and Tammy a nice chance to sit in the living room and talk:-)

So now with a drying rack, a working washing machine, internet, and filtered water, we are doing well:-D We feel very blessed by the helpfulness and generosity of so many people here who have helped us find things, install things, tell us to call them at any time (something we have taken advantage of several times), and in general done so much to make us feel welcome here in St. Petersburg. God has been extravagantly good to us! We've now been here for a full week, but it feels like so much longer than that. I'm so glad that we arrived here three and a half weeks before we start teaching, and I'm sure I'll be surprised at how much more adjusted we will feel two weeks from now.

-Matt

And now as promised, pictures!


Our giant key to get into our apartment!


Our drying rack, hard at work.


The packaging label that came with the drying rack. The words "Jolly Silver" amused us enough that for the moment it is hanging on our wall.


A view under our sink to see part of the water filtration system. This is the filter that we hooked up to the cold water pipe behind the sink.


And here is the faucet that dispenses clean, filtered, wonderful water:-)