June 22

So here it is, the evening of June 22. Much has happened in the last few days.

Our trip from Kazan to Tomsk on June 20 was eventful, indeed. The first leg, back to Moscow, was not especially memorable. The second leg, from Moscow to Tomsk was. For three hours, I was seated directly behind a screaming 2-year-old who was clearly having a tantrum, and who had equally obviously been spoiled rotten. So the thought that I might get some sleep between midnight and 4 am went right out the window. By the time we landed I was ready to kill his parents, neither of whom seemed to have a clue, or to give a damn about the people around them. The mother could have taken the kid back to the bathroom and stayed there until he stopped. But she didn't.

We arrived at Tomsk on time, at 7:15 am on June 21, and I decided that with my boot—yes, it's still on—discretion would be the better part of valor, and I rode a wheelchair back to the terminal. Once again, I was piled into the back of a food delivery truck and driven to the terminal. This time, I was the last to get off. Oh well...

We were met at the gate by Professor Mekhman Yusubov, Head of the Department of Technology of Organic Substances and Polymer Materials. Obviously, he had been in a similar situation with other travelers, because he brought us straight to our hotel and told us to rest until after lunch. None of us needed a second invitation. I crashed for about 3 hours. Despite the heat and lack of air-conditioning, I was out for the count. Fortunately, I have now figured out how to use the alarm on my iPhone, and have found a genuinely annoying ring tone for it.

After our naps, Professor Yusubov met us and took us to lunch at a restaurant owned by a friend of his. The restaurant was "Буланже", which is a Russian transliteration of the French, "Boulanger." The food was excellent. After lunch, we piled into his car and a cab, and we took off for TPU (Tomsk Polytechnic University). There we visited the museum of the History of TPU, and they had some truly fascinating photographs that I had never seen. Of course, I begged copies and left my business card to get them. I was also presented with a gift of local pine-nut candy and jams. The jam will definitely survive to Eau Claire, but there may be a question about the candy. After the visit to the Museum, we went to Professor Yusubov's office for coffee and tea in the Russian style. Anna and I had "Tomsk" coffee, one of Professor Yusubov's specialties. The walk from the University Museum to Professor Yusubov's office took place in a refreshing shower of cooling rain.

After another rest for me, and a walking tour of Tomsk for the students, with a Ph.D. student named Viktor, we had supper at another of the restaurants in the same chain—this time "Буланжери," or "Boulangerie." However he did it, the owner appears to have cornered the market on really good cooks. We got back to the hotel around 10:00, so I was an hour late for my Skype call with my students. I did get to talk with Fatou and Chris, but the rest had taken off. I have to Skype two others tonight. After that, I found that I had lost access to my wifi, and my Russian phone was out of minutes because I didn't know how to turn it off, so it roamed all night long, also. I will have to reload it once we are back in Kazan.

iPhone expert that I have become, I set the alarm for 3:00 am Kazan time, so that I would get the wake-up call at 7:00 am Tomsk time. Of course, the phone follows you into your new time zone, so instead of 8 hours of beautiful sleep, I got 4. Then I tried falling back to sleep, and somewhat succeeded. Oddly enough, despite the heat of the day, my feet were cold!

That brings us to today: June 22. This has been another monumental day of highs for me. After breakfast, Professor Yusubov met us and took us back to his office, where we again had tea and coffee in the Russian style (with cookies and cakes and candy). This time we had simple, strong coffee. After tea, I was interviewed by a reporter from the University newspaper (similar to the View at UW-Eau Claire) about Professor Nikolai Matveevich Kizhner, the man who was the main reason that we came to Tomsk. He has two reactions named for him: the Wolff-Kishner reduction, and the Kishner cyclopropane synthesis. I was surprised at how little the locals (except for those who had read my Angewandte Chemie biography) knew about this important organic chemist. The interview took about 40 minutes rather than the 30 or so they had allotted, and then we went outside for some photographs—lots of photographs. Fortunately, I was already pumped, so the smile came easily.

Then we went across the street to the old building where Kizhner had had his laboratory and lecture hall. One thing you should know about Kizhner, dear Reader, is that before he discovered his two name reactions, he had lost both feet above the ankles, and was confined to a wheelchair. And despite that, he continued to do teaching and research in an era when a disability was almost always fatal to one's career. For sheer persistence and courage, I know of few individuals who could rival Kizhner.

After the interview was completed, we went upstairs to where the auditorium where Kizhner taught. I have a photograph of him teaching a lecture on osazones in the same room, so I drew a structure (incorrect!!?) on the chalkboard. But I have now stood where the great man stood. We also visited the part of the Kizhner library that has been preserved in the building (on his medical trips to Berlin, Kizhner would buy books and journals, so that Tomsk had one of the best chemistry libraries in Russia). After lunch, the students went one way, and I went with Professor Yusubov on a tour of the old part of the city of Tomsk. I did not know that the city was just over 100 years old—just over 900 years younger than Kazan! With some of the sharp turns and having to stop fast on more than one occasion (the drivers are nuts!), my back re-emerged as a problem. Sleep was hard, but I got as much as I could.

June 23

Today was travel and touring. We left Tomsk at 10:10 am local time (6:00 am Kazan time), and got into Moscow at 10:20 am Moscow time after a 4 hour flight. We left our baggage bags in a secure deposit, and headed into the city on the Aeroexpress train. Switching to the Moscow Metro (it reminds me very much of the M in Washington, D.C.), we went three stops and got off at the Teatralnyi station (near the Bolshoi Theater) and walked to Red Square. From all the things I have seen, I was expecting something about the size of 3 football fields. Man, what an under-estimate!!! The place is huge! It has to be at least 300 yards across, and at least 900 yards long. I now see how they got all those military parades in there with room to spare. I could see over ten or twenty thousand people without any effort. At the far end of the square is the most famous image of Russia: St. Basil's Cathedral. We got our group photographs taken by a tourist for whom we reciprocated the favor.

As we entered the square through the gate, the Kremlin walls were on the right, as was Lenin's tomb. This Kremlin is much younger, and much, much more intimidating than the Kazan Kremlin. We had no time, so we had to admire the Kremlin from the outside. The left side of the square is dominated by the GUM shopping mall, which is full of places that I cannot afford to shop at. It's OK, though...  We ducked into GUM while it decided to rain; the temperature was a chilly 50°F or so, with a biting wind. When I got goosebumps, I decided that enough was enough. After warming up (and then some), we went and got our group shots in front of St. Basil.

Our three hours in Moscow went by way too quickly, but I was paranoid about getting ourselves back in time for our flight to Kazan. When we got back here, we found the same Gypsy taxi guy whom we had used when we first arrived. It worked well.

I am going to download a bunch of pictures tomorrow morning, and will post a mainly photographic post. Right now, I am weary to the bone (or further).

More tomorrow...

Your Humble Blogger