I did do something drastic and ended my Russian lessons. I know. pretty bad huh. Part of it was I just needed to change something, I wasnt taking the time to study that I knew I should, was feeling bad about it. I wanted to do well, and feel like I was progressing, but hard to make progress when you dont study. ha! I know, lame. I never said I wasnt lame. I sort of feel like a loser, but whatever. Decided I need to get my feet on the ground and feeling like I belong here, then I will take it back up.
So I have Lena, our nanny from the summer coming for a few hours tues and thurs. I hope to get out to the gym, be able to meet up with friends for a coffee, maybe go to the monthly pot luck lunch once in a while. Not stress about russian. Maybe listen to some tapes (ok, mp3) of conversation, maybe rosetta stone - to just get a better feel, get some more vocab, and then get back on the grammar horse in a few months.
Sat was beautiful and a friend called and invited us to Starbucks. While there we made dinner plans and ended up going to a pretty cool restaurant. мари vanna. Yeah - first part is in cyrillic second latin. The site also has their new york location so you can get an idea of the type of place. It was really neat. Our friend picked it. It is considered a "Soviet" restaurant. Although not what I pictured. I thought by Soviet it would be like a cafeteria. It was anything but! Very nice decor, excellent menu, very cute touches (the menu was attached to clip boards, english option available, ok here are pics of the interior. I cant do it justice. Very homey I guess. the food was excellent! We started the meal with borsht which was served in a big tureen set on the table and an assortment of salted/brined veggies (cucumbers, tomatoes, garlic, etc). I had chicken cutlets, P had the fish ones, and our friend had rabbit - they all were delish - I would say the fish were the best of the 3 - the menu lists them as "hamburger" but they are meatballs. I had mine with grilled veggies which were also good. M had the salmon (what she always gets) and it was quite tasty too, served with grilled oranges. Kids had water and we all shared some home infused vodka (we got the horseradish kind). mmm. For dessert we ordered tea and all shared a piece of Napoleon cake (white pastry between layers of cream - - - -mmmm), carrot cake (very much like american style carrot cake - very good), P had apple muffin served warm and M had pistachio ice cream which, she was disappointed in. She thought it would be like the street vendor variety which serves a green ice cream with very little pistachio taste (in face we had to ask them what it was because we couldnt place the flavor), but instead this had lots of nuts in it and was definitely pistachio - the rest of us loved it. Anywho, we recommend it. It is right next to Mamina Pasta on Спиридоньевский переулок (also good by the way). OK, Americans, one thing I should tell you is that they have a very large cat in the restaurant, as well as a chihuahua and a bird (the bird is in a cage). The cat and dog just sort of roam freely. Not a big deal but we did see the cat sit on unoccupied tables. I know that would bother my dad (we always had cats growing up, but they were never allowed in the house, because they were animals). So if cats sitting on the dining table bothers you, consider yourself warned.
Yesterday was another beautiful day to so we ventured out to Izmailovski market. I have written about it before so I wont repeat, but I did get an Uzbek teapot which I really like. Here is the guys site so you can see what Uzbek style looks like. I bought a mid sized tea pot - it was 350 rubles.,
On the kid front things are good - Natasha is just getting bigger and bigger - uses 5 or 6 signs now. She still makes me laugh a thousand times a day, she is pretty funny - giggles when she burps, likes to play chase, smiles when she is caught touching something she shouldnt, dances when she eats, yells leeeeooo when he walks in the door .. . M is good too. She is excited for Fri as the first grade is doing a special musical performance. She has a special singing part she had to try out for, plans on wearing a dress and everything. She was working on her valentines last night and here is a snippet of convorsation-
mom, I like him, but I dont LOVE him, can I write "I like you"
yeah, M, that is fine, if you like him, go ahead and write "I like you"
well, the other boys might get jealous, so I will write "you make me smile" is that ok?
that is perfect.
P is good too. you know, he is 9. what can I say.He has pretty much taken over my kindle which is ok because I havent had much of a chance to read. Cops an attitude once in a while, but he is maturing though - I can tell.
Whelp that is the update.
oh. here are 2 good russian words to know - a little lesson for you:
кошмар - nightmare, terrible.
отлично - excellent
-Mr Burns, Homer Simpson is here to see you.
-кошмар! (koshmar - kosh rhymes with gosh)
-Dont worry, I've released the hounds.
- отлично! (drumming finger tips together)* (otleechna - ot like I "ought to")
*ok, I took some liberties. Apparently when translated to russian, Mr Burns does not say "отлично" - he says something else entirley. But, I Iike to imagine Mr Burns saying "Otleeeechna"

