This autumn of 2004, our second time around the world, our train wanders through a rolling fairy-tale landscape in Siberia filled with gentle grassland (steppes) and Birch trees (the forest is called taiga) with the sun glinting off the red and yellow leaves. Dilapidated little unpainted houses with gardens of cabbages, carrots and garlic appear every few miles…and the kids at home say they have nothing to do???

We arrive in Yekaterinburg, the capital of the Sverdlovsk Region which is the capital of the Urals Federal District, with the population of 1.4 million people.

We make our way to our next homestay with Olga, a pretty blond dressed in leapard skin tights with a nice caring smile. We are sleeping on a make-down counch next to the wall and during the night Bob crawls over me to go to the bathroom and tips the bed with the two of us falling onto the floor. Whomp goes the bed back down to the floor. My god, I say to Bob, she is going to wonder what the heck we are doing in here!

Olga wakes us up the next morning for guel and raisins and sliced sausage and cheese and black coffee for breakfast. She has already canned several beautiful small jars of zucchini with tomatoes and garlic and big jars of tomatoes, peppers and garlic. She wraps them lovingly in blankets on the living room floor before storing them “so the flavors will continue mixing.” She would earn awards at our state fair. She says her husband left her for a younger woman. Her son lives with his girlfriend, works and attends a local university, one of about 20 colleges and technical schools in the city. Yelsin grew up and was educated as an engineer at one of the local schools before he became political and ended up in the Kremlin.
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