About Blagoveshchensk

So one thing I forgot to post was information about the city that I will be living in for a year... Blagoveshchensk! Blagoveshchensk is the capital of the Amur Oblast and has a population of about 250,000 people. It is located in Siberia/the Far East, on the intersection of the Amur and Zeya rivers. The mur river forms the southern border of Russia with China. I will be able to look across the river and see China! The city across the river is called Heihe and has about half a million people living there. The present-day city of Blagoveshchensk was founded in 1856 as a military outpost. During the Chinese Boxer rebellion, the city was shelled for two weeks, and it was taken by the White Army during the Russian Revolution. The city does a lot of trade with neighboring China, and has a port, an airport, and is connected to the Trans-Siberian Railway. In the Summer, the temperatures reach +35 C (95+ F) an in the winter, the temperatures drop to -20 to -30 C (-4 to -22 F).The View from outside the Murzakova's apartment window