What's the name of this town again?

There are so many things to learn when you've moved to a foreign country. It's really amazing and daunting sometimes. This weekend I had the opportunity to go and visit a friend from summer camp to talk with and encourage him. He lives in Yekaterinburg about 5 hours by train from Tyumen.

The problem is that NO ONE calls the city Yekaterinburg. Everyone calls it Sverdlovsk, it's old name. So when you get on the train, it's labeled Ekat. But everyone refers to it as Sverdlovsk. I was absolutely okay at 4am when I got on the train. Sasha and Zhanna insisted on coming with me to make sure I got on the train okay (turns out that this isn't special AMERICAN treatment, but how Russians treat their family and friends. Really almost everyone has someone seeing them off. Sure does make me feel special in a good way though! Well, anyway - when it came time to get off the train, I'm glad I was paying attention earlier, because the conductor said, "Sverdlovsk" and not "Yekaterinburg."