Wind of Change

chivalry is not dead

2011-03-13T19:28:00.003+02:00

So a new mom friend and I were chatting the other day. She lived in Moscow for a few years, left for a few months to have her baby, then returned about a month ago. She mentioned that she really experiences now the chivalry of Russian men. She always has someone volunteer to help her with her stroller on stairs etc. I know I have mentioned all this before. Men will literally run ahead of me to help with a door when I am out with the stroller.

Thought I would share this little story from a recent arrival.

So I met this woman - she has a 3 year old and a 20 month old. And she is 7 months pregnant. She realized one evening that she was short an ingredient she needed for dinner. No problem - she lives across the street from a grocery store! Now - to cross most busy streets you need to go through an underground passageway - a perihod - down stairs, across, up stairs. She gets to the store- where 3 year old promptly knocks a bag of sugar on the floor and it explodes. She tries to offer to pay for it, but doesnt speak much Russian, so feels frustrated at her inability to communicate, and a little annoyed with the three year old. They make their purchases, and head out.

Now - let me set the scene for you - because this is where the story gets good - it is well below 0F out - 5:30 ish in the evening - getting dark - a pregnant woman going down a flight of icy stairs in the snow - holding the umbrella stroller with the baby, 3 year old holding her hand - grocery bags on the stroller, she has her wallet, keys, passports in her backpack (she usually has it on the stroller, but put it on so she could hang the grocery bags on the stroller).

OK - can you picture the scene?

now - she is midway down the flight of stairs and suddenly she feels something - she turns - a man has unzipped her backpack and is rummaging through it!!

HEY! she says - EXCUSE ME!

He stops. Gives her The Shrug.**

then - dear reader, I kid you not - He offers to help her carry the stroller the rest of the way down!!

Ha! Chivalry is not dead!

(she declined his kind offer)

**The Shrug - do you know what I am talking about? - certainly not just a Russian thing I am sure, but I do see it often here. Raise the brows, raise the shoulders, turn down the corners of the mouth, tilt head to the side, raise palms up a bit. There you have it. The "you can't blame me for trying" shrug. The "what could I do - I saw an opportunity and tried to take it" shrug. The "wouldn't you think less of me if I didnt just try to take advantage of you" shrug. The "I'm only sorry I got caught" shrug. you get the picture.

example - I was crossing the street the other day. It is above ground - with a cross walk, and a police officer with his big black and white stripe baton. He waves me to cross. An approaching car doesn't stop. The officer waves his baton (almost striking the car's hood) and yells "dont you see this woman with the stroller?!" the driver stops and gives me The Shrug.

I'd like to make a toast. . .

2011-02-27T08:57:00.003+02:00

OK - well two funny things happened -

Leo and I went out to dinner last night. There were very few people in the restaurant. While we were waiting to order a party of 2 couples came in and sat at a table near us. Leo gets annoyed at me because I eavesdrop - but really, these were speaking russian so I wasn't paying much attention (now another couple on the other side of us, with an older, quite short, english speaking man with a young, tall, russian supermodel looking woman intrigued me). So after a while I glance over and it looks like one of the men is giving a toast - they are sitting with their wine glasses held high while one guy is talking . . . and talking . . .. and talking. I mention to Leo - I think that guy is giving a toast. He motions for me to be quiet so I work on my salad.

After a few minutes he shakes his head and laughs. Wanna know what that guys toast was? he asks. Of course!

So here is a rough translation:

I have money. A lot of money. Really I am quite rich. I like to spend my money on things I like. Incredible things like trips, clothes and nice restaurants. I feel pity for those people with a lot of money like me, but who dont know how to spend it as well as I do.

Nice toast, mister, incredible really.

After we left we were walking home and decided to step into a starbucks for a bit. It was quite busy but we found a seat easy enough. Near us was a group of young people drinking their drinks and chatting. In walks a friend of theirs with a huge box from Dunkin Donuts. He sets it on the table and they all dig in.

So Leo and I agree that bringing food from one restaurant into another is uncool. Not sure on this one if it is a Russian thing, or just young people being young people.

Speaking of Dunkin Donuts -

Kids and I were walking on Arbat the other day. Arbat is a historic pedestrian street in Moscow. When I came for a visit in 1999 it was full of souvenirs, crafts, vendors selling all manner of goods from kiosks. I didnt even notice the storefronts lining the street. Then the vendors were cleared out and only artists were allowed to sell on arbat. When we arrived 2 years ago Arbat the street had portrait artists, booksellers further down and other artists selling their paintings and the souvenir shops inside the stores lining the street.

The artists and booksellers are still there, as well as a few souvenir shops lining the street. But yesterday, as we were walking - I counted 2 Starbucks, 2 Dunkin Donuts, Hard Rock Cafe, Texas Chicken (?), Cinnebon, 2 moo moos (ok, this is a russian place - but a cow themed cafeteria style restaurant). . . . . Arbat is becoming the food court of some small town american mall.

Creative Advertising.

2011-01-10T05:37:00.001+02:00

There are a lot of funny advertising practices here.

Aside from the usual guys who stand at the top of the perihods handing out ads for tattoos, here are a few of my favorites:

One is for a bank - Trust Bank - the spokes person is Bruce Willis. There is a huge billboard with his picture on it - he is saying "Trust - Like me but a bank." I dont know - Bruce Willis doesnt exactly make me think of Trust. Not that I distrust him, but I think if that is the image you are going for, maybe Tom Hanks. Now I trust Tom.

Here is another odd advertising - on our street there is a Porsche parked on the street - often double parked. (can you see the red car in the photo?) There is a sign on top advertising a car wash. There is a man who sits in the car all day - sometimes sleeping, sometimes reading a book. All day, every day. Some job, eh?

My very favorite. My loving spouse found this one for me. In his office building there is an ad for an internet news site. It is a big sign with the letters WTF and a translation along the bottom. They translate WTF as "what's happening" in Russian. Uhm. WTF is NOT what is happing. sorry. Do I need to translate? WTF, for those not in the know is What The Fruck (but not fruck, if you know what I mean). File this one under unfortunate mistranslation - you'ld think someone in the advertising department would know and would say something?

Holidays

2011-01-09T04:55:00.002+02:00

OK, once again trying to post more. Not sure how I got busy - seems like I am always doing something or other, and after awhile I just got tired of the computer. Anyway - here is my attempt at posting a bit more!

Holidays were great. Too short time in Portland, Seattle. Partly because we lost 2 days stuck in Amsterdam due to the weather and flight cancellations. It is a long story, but basically Moscow said our flight from amsterdam to seattle was cancelled when it really wasnt, but we had to go get our luggage in amsterdam because it wasnt checked to seattle and ended up missing our connection - had to wait 2 days. No worries though. I got a hotel and it wasnt too bad. I am thankful I was able to do that. If I was travelling alone I would have waited in the 8 hour lines and tried to get an earlier flight. No way I was going to wait in the long lines travelling alone with 3 kids.

Anyway. We made it there and spent the 2 weeks with family, and driving between portland and seattle I think 4 times. That took up a lot of time.

I didnt go to target, trader joes. I didnt see ANY friends. NONE! just spent time with family or in the car taking Maria to appointments, which was ok. That was the priority anyway.

Before we left moscow we went through the annual process of renegotiating our lease for our apartment. This year the landlord decided to raise the rent so we started looking at other places, turned out to be unnecessary as I married a fierce negotiator.

When we returned to Moscow, however, I went to take a hot shower and somehow there was no hot water in the bathroom. great. Yesterday afternoon Leo went to the gym and once he left suddenly water poured from the light fixture in the kitchen. Simply poured. I filled my biggest pot 5 or 6 times before it slowed. Then suddenly water started pouring from a crack in the middle of the ceiling. Then the electricity went out. In that moment I wished we moved. After Leo came home we flipped some switches and lights came back on. Then the plumber came - he literally chopped through the upstairs apartment door and broke into the apartment as no one was home (the apartment is empty and being remodeled). Turns out the workers had opened a pipe to something or other and instead of capping for the weekend the stuffed a rag in it. hmmm. It ended up spraying water all over the place - and thus the leak.

Leo also figured out that when you turn the water in the bathroom sink on hot, it runs cold, but the makes the shower water hot - turn off the sink faucet and the shower water gets cold. weird. Such a russian-y thing I think it took a russian to figure it out.

Anyway Leo was the hero of the day and figured it all out!

For now we just have to run the water in the sink when we want to take a hot shower.

Self Help

2010-11-17T07:38:00.002+02:00

So a few weekends ago I took the kids to the mall. The big Metropolis Mall - "just like being in America" as my kids say.

I am usually not a mall person, but once in a while it is nice to "be in America".

Anyway it is about a 25 minute metro ride. Leo had to work so kids and I went on our own. I try and gussy up a bit for ventures out. I wore a bit of makeup and all.

For some reason the Metro was PACKED - standing room only packed - so kids and I stood by the door - everything was going well, Natasha was quiet in the stroller, M and P were just standing on either side. No one was pretending to be a surfer while the metro rumbled along, etc. Kids were actually really quiet, they usually count the stops - can I check the Map? how many more stops? look mom, we can that that train instead? what does that say? etc.

A woman, pressed her way through the crowd, and starts chatting with me in Russian, then she presses a book into my hands. hmmm, ok. I tell her in russian "I am sorry I dont read Russian well" as I try to hand the book back.

She is surprised I dont speak russian - but still insists I take it, she says that she too has 2 children, and that one of them is a "sportsman" in America. Then bustles off as the doors open at the next station.

I put the book in my bag and we continue on.

Later, I remember the book and show Leo.

It is a self help book.

So, - how bad off do you have to seem for a stranger to hand you a self help book on the metro?

halloween in moscow

2010-10-26T11:56:00.004+03:00

This article pretty much sums it up. Halloween in Moscow is a night club holiday. Sexy Nurses and Vampires, partying all night. Halloween is a night club holiday. I even saw an ad for a "sexy politician" party at a local nightclub. hmmm.

Not exactly what I think of as Halloween.

Halloween is my all time favorite holiday.

I love the time of year - fall in the air - all the children outside, trick or treating (yes, my non-americans, we go door to door and collect candy). My kids and I dont even care about the candy. well, not that much. We care the night of at least, but usually the day after halloween leo takes the kids candy to work and it disappears. The kids have never asked about it.

The fun is in the process.

Picking your costume - and no - not everyone dresses as bleeding zombies - bumble bees, butterfies, ladybugs, firefighter, cowboy, pumpkin, ninja, cat, are all costumes that I think of, at least for the elementary school set. Of course as kids get older, some veer toward the scary, but that too is part of the fun (except I cant stand those masks that bleed - do you know the ones I mean? ugh!) - I admit I decorate the yard for halloween. I had purple bat nights, and cute pumpkin lights around the front porch. Kids and I usually carved at least one pumpkin each.

The best part, if you live in a neighborhood (or know someone who does), going trick or treating. All the neighbors and kids are out walking, you have a chance to meet and greet neighbors you otherwise wouldnt ever talk to. Everyone is friendly. When we lived on Bainbridge Island, few people lived in neighborhoods, so the city would close the main street to cars and kids and parents would walk and all the shops would give out candy. It was a great social occasion.

In America, Halloween is a children's holiday. Sure adults party and I am sure the night clubs have trampy costume night and people dress as sexy politicians (?), etc. But at least we also have the family aspect too.

Anyway, Happy Halloween!

We are throwing a little party for expats and Russians alike, most with kids, but not all. My kids have decorated the apartment with bats, ghosts and pumpkins. I admit I bought a few fake spiders to leave around the apartment, and have renamed all the party food (hey - part of the fun!) I plan on serving. Check my food blog later in the week for the menu.

Yikes!

2010-10-25T18:41:00.005+03:00

So I have been thinking for a while what "special" think I can do with the son. I am home pretty much all day with baby, I am M's brownie group leader, what what about P?

What interest do we have in common?

I invited him to come run with me at the gym. When I asked him, there was a long pause. . . . . "uhm, ok, I guess, but try to think of something better." M overheard - "Mom! I want to run with you!" and sure enough she came with me sat AND sun! P went with Leo on sun afternoon.

Back to the drawing board.

What would work for us, for our situation, specifically our lack of transportation, living in the center, kids getting home from school late, sort of situation.

Then it dawned on me - I am a genius - a GENIUS I TELL YOU!

Dinner!

I put P in charge of Sunday Dinner! phew!

He liked the idea.

I told him - he had to pick a healthy, balanced dinner, with available ingredients, and NO REPEATS! (otherwise we would have pizza every night!).

He ran and picked up my America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook (picked that one because, as he noticed, it said "foolproof recipes") :-)

He poured over different options.

Finally decided on Pineapple Chicken Bake with Coconut Rice and Carrot and Cucumber Slices.

He was excited about it!

Previously, our Sunday Dinners pretty much consisted of frozen dumplings. I know - there are some good ones out there, but I was getting tired of them, and frankly I always feel somewhat guilty preparing a frozen dinner. But Sundays I hated cooking. We usually spent the day walking around, or cleaning the house, trying to get ready for the week, and I just despised having to deal with dinner on that particular day.

Problem solved.

Put P in charge!

He picks the meal, he has to make the shopping list and plan the timing (like if beans need to soak or something), he reads the recipe and does most of the work - I supervise and take care of any tricky work.

I told you, I am a genius!

Part of the plan was to also have him blog about it, I was going to have him add it here, but instead started a food blog.

For a while I was thinking "gee, someone should write a blog with recipes, and grocery shopping vocab/help/tips, local restaurant reviews, etc - why doesnt someone do that?"

well, be the change, right.

So I started one.

Here it is, hope you like it:

http://eatmoscow.blogspot.com/

with a special Sunday installment written by my own Chef Peanut Butter.

Mind Games

2010-10-22T17:11:00.003+03:00

Seems like some Halloween decorations have hit Moscow. hmmm

Except Uncle Fester has been standing guard at this cafe since last APRIL!

He just appeared one day.

Out of nowhere.

Creeps me out.

I think he will suddenly come alive and lunge at me as I walk by (a la Disneyland Haunted House).

I have to walk by him to get to my gym.

I cross the street.

You wanna know what REALLY creeps me out?

Can you read the name of the cafe?

Cafe Freud! (it is a weird one in Russian, isnt it? took me a minute to figure it out).

They are messing with my head!!

I know

2010-10-13T22:05:00.010+03:00

I KNOW!

It has been forever!

What have I been DOING?

I dont even know! Busy doing nothing I guess.

Lets see.......

M got a kitty for her birthday - a scottish fold names Ashley (I pushed for a russian name, but I lost). We should have named her Zippy, because she darts and zips all over the place, like her human siblings. yep, she is one of us.

we went to kiev to renew our registration. we have to leave and come back into the country once per year - not too shabby as I know some expats who have to renew every three months! that is a lot of travel!

Kiev was great! we really enjoyed it. Quick first impressions:

much older, more history than moscow

very european looking (even more than moscow, which is more asian I think - yeah I said it, more european than moscow!)

not as many police/security as Moscow

very pedestrian friendly - wider sidewalks, crosswalks instead of the underground perihods, less traffic, cars stopped to let you cross

hills (moscow is pretty flat) although an expat friend who formerly lived in Kiev pointed out that the hills are killer when it freezes, making it not so pedestrian friendly.

Seemed to be more trees, fresher air, more open in terms of space - but I think the hills give that impression.

here are a few pics:

Anyway, good times had by all.

just a funny side, how do you know your 2nd grader who refuses to lear Russian is actually learning? She sees a sign and says "what is that building?" "Which building?" "the one that says n-oo-at?" pause . . . "you mean the hyatt?" (if you dont know your Russian alphabet, the H makes the N sound, the Y makes the oo sound). haha. at least she is reading in russian now.

what else,

oh, I am the 2nd grade Brownie leader at the kids school. I have been busy with that, a lot of planning, with limited craft supplies. When we go back to the states in dec michaels will be my friend. It is fun, we had a pumpkin sale, are working on a few badges, I plan on hosting a sleepover and taking the girls to the zoological museum. I am also in charge of planning World Thinking Day for all the troops and helping plan a Father Daughter event. Fun! I love tht kind of stuff though - not the planning, but leading kids in craft and activities. I started a blog for the troop so parents can see (I assign a photographer each meeting) what we are working on. bus, sorry, that one is private for parents only!

I am thinking about what I am going to do here long term.

Maybe after Tushi is 2 looking at getting a job at a preschool (many are looking for native english speakers) - where she can attend too, or maybe getting my teaching cert online. I worked as a preschool teacher before we came here and I really enjoy the 2, 3, and 4 year old set. So much fun!

I guess ultimate ideal goal is to get a job at the kids school when Tushi is in 1st grade so we can all come and go together (and maybe get some tuition covered!!). but who knows - that is a ways off, and I hope to send Natasha to a russian school at least until 1st grade, maybe, if I find a really good one, I will want to keep her there . . . hmm.

Live for today, focus on the now.

So that is about it.

promise I will try and post more often!

You get what you pay for

2010-09-20T10:59:00.004+03:00

So at the gym there are TVs, of course. I like to watch while I plod along on the treadmill. Usually Mtv is on, which I otherwise never watch, but without sound, it is mildly amusing.

So, every so often, commercials come on sponsored by the gym. The ads are usually about some kind of trip they are organizing. So for a while I have been seeing ads for some kind of trip where you parachute out of planes, then have a dance party at night. I am not sure if the trip passed already, or they decided to show footage from previous years. The ad goes something like this (ok - I have my ipod on, so I dont actually hear any sound).

You see pictures of young adults taking some sort of class, putting on the crazy leather fighter pilot looking helmets, they are all laughing, smiling, putting on their gear, etc.

Jump to photos of people inside the plane. Sitting on benches inside a tin can looking prop plane. Still smiling nervously. Picture of 2 trainer guys looking out the open door.

Jump to video of people jumping out of the plane. boom boom boom boom boom, 5 guys jump out one after the other, there is a pause, next group up - boom, boom, two people jump out, one after the other,

but wait

whats this?

third person doesnt want to jump, she shakes her head no - they pull her toward the open plane door,

no! she shakes her head vigorously, trying to break free from the men

like a cat being forced into a tub, she braces her hands and feet across the door frame

she resists with all she's got!

no! I dont want to jump!

there is a struggle

(I glance around - does anyone else see this?)

The two men grab her and throw her off the plane!

boom boom, the next 2 jump.

Cut to photos of people smiling on the ground.

cut to photos of the young people dancing at a disco.

video of some girl dancing.

fade out.

the video of the girl (ok, I say girl because it is a person with a slight frame - I am making an assumption - maybe it is a petit man) is quick - maybe 3 or 4 seconds.

even after seeing it 3 or 4 times, I still wasn't sure what I saw.

I ask Leo - you know those ads they play on the TVs in the cardio room?

he says - yeah, did you see the one where they throw the girl off the plane?

I guess they make sure you get what you pay for.

Run Forrest!

2010-09-13T18:03:00.004+03:00

So a while back - like 5 months ago - I registered for the Moscow International Peace Marathon (the 10k). At the time, I was running at the gym sort of regularly and felt good about running a 10k. Then, - I wont make up excuses - the running got spotty at best, my nanny took another job, blah blah, then the summer, where I ran, like, uhm 3 times? Anywho - I decided I would not run the 10k after all.

After chatting with some friends, we decided, what the heck, we would try it.

So, on Sat I met up with friends in the back room of some swim complex, picked up my number, a chip, and a map and was ready for my first run. I was just happy I did not have to supply a medical release form or my passport (which is getting a new visa, so I dont actually have it at the moment) Sun morning, got up, walked over to Red Square, met up with my pals, took some photos and headed to the starting line. Let me just say that in addition to really not training for the run, it was also my first time running outside. like, not on a treadmill. So I was nervous.

So - hundreds and hundreds of people gathered at St Basils, shot went off and we took off. What fun! So many people. So many older people - like in their 80s! So many kids! Such a diverse crowd! We made a loop, where half the people cut through a park (?) instead of following the course, then made our way to the road along the river.

Seriously, it was amazing running along the river - past the Kremlin, past Christ the Savior, past Gorky Park, loop around then back.

If you are going to run 10k in Moscow - I cant think of a more magnificent route! It was fabulous!

So there is the good.

Now for the Bad -

the site advertised water stations every 2.5km. As I ran along, didnt see anything until around 5k - but they werent handing them out - just a person standing next to some unopened boxes I assumed were water. So I chugged on, at 7k, there was another station handing out water - but apparently only to people running the full marathon (they had black numbers, we had red). OK. So on I ran, I saw the sign for the 10k mark, a big red balloon arch up ahead - yeah I made it!! I pulled my last reserves and sprinted toward the end. . . but wait - why were people still running? no one stopped . . . ok, so I kept on . . .followed the loop around and up the hill to the"real" end (about 200 meters past the 10k mark). Ran through the finish where we were immediately stopped so the chips could be removed from our shoes - kinda weird running hard for 10k, then just stopping - anyway, followed the line of finishers through a gate expecting my medal and tshirt (as the site where I registered indicated we would get)- but instead was given a plastic cup of hot tea (?), told no tshirts and no medals. hmm. So I went back to watch my friends finish. WE all regrouped and went in search of some medals (some people were walking around with them so they had to be somewhere!). I was standing with a crowd and the guy in front of me was talking to a race volunteer/official - he asked in English "where are the Medals? She said in Russian - no more medals! - no more! people around me groan - "how Russian!" "Typical" - Heck, that is what I thought - then the guy gets in the womans face - "you suck!" he yells. yikes - how American, I think.

So, we take a few "after" photos. Frankly I am thirsty so decide to head home to get a drink of water.

I get home and I feeling really good. I really enjoyed the run, felt good after, enjoyed the sights - both cultural and, well, people watching. a few people running barefoot - one guy running with a huge sack of something - flour? - on his shoulders - skimpy running outfits - people running in jeans - pushing strollers - everything. between songs on my ipod it was interesting to hear the pounding of so many people feet. I was disappointed in not getting a shirt or medal, but I have my bib and my friend took pictures, so all in all it was good. I told Leo I would definitely run another 10k - I just still cant get over how much fun I had.

believe me, I know - fun and running are not words I typically put together.

OK, so now the ugly.

So today I get an email from one of my friends I did the run with. After I left they saw someone carrying boxes of medals into a tent. They see some people go into the tent and emerge with medals. So they (my three women friends - who are nice, sweet, and not intimidating at all) go in and ask in their simple russian - may we have a medal. They are told "no medal for you!" my friend who speaks the most russian, asks again (as more boxes of medals are brought in) - they are told the medals are for marathoners - not for people who ran the 10k. Then they are told to look through a garbage can if they want a medal (!). They stood there a minute more to see if other people were getting medals, and a male race worker approached my friend, waved a gun at her and told her she better leave fast! She was shocked, but realizing she had her camera took pictures of him with the gun! After they left, when the shock wore off a bit she realized that it was probably the starter pistol her waved at her. She left the race disappointed and deflated - her sense of accomplishment defeated. I am so sad for her.

she has a great attitude and instead of seeing it as a "russian" thing, is looking at it as a poorly organized isolated incident.

Unfortunately things like this feed into the stereotypes.

I would like to take Russia by the hand and gently say "help me help you Russia! Lets work a little harder to beat the stereotypes!"

Well, so much for a peace run.

She wrote a letter with her complaints to the organizers and a few friends and I left "feedback" on the website regarding the lack of water, lack of medals and tshirts as promised, and threat of violence.

I hope the read it and do a better job next year.

You say it's your birthday . . .na na na na na na na na.

2010-09-05T11:45:00.014+03:00

So yesterday was the Birthday of Moscow aka City Day. Some of the planned activities were cancelled to save money (presumably to cover some of the cost of the recent wild fires). There was of course a parade and concerts all over town. The weather was beautiful (seeded clouds? wonder how much that cost?) and we headed out in the afternoon to see what was going on.

started out getting some ice cream in Alexandrovski Sad

then headed across the river (decorated with flags)

Through the park - lots of concerts, art projects for the kids, clowns, etc. (note the security - we had to go through metal detectors everywhere - each time the stroller set it off and they didnt check it once).

River with all the fountains going

Being Saturday, lots of wedding couples out having their pictures taken at all the sites. This vendor was selling doves to release (presumably they return to the owner)

Here is a wedding party - bride has a lovely fur coat of course.

And for the person who has everything, how about a vest with your choice of Putin or Medvedev on the back?

Not sure where this guy was going but I think he was trying to recreate Up.

Wouldnt be Moscow without running into a cool church? This one was in a courtyard. The sign on the street said it was the courtyard for the Patriarch of Russia.

Detail

more detail

Back view of the church

We had dinner at a little pub called Punch and Judy (kid you not) which was quite good - leo had BBQ ribs with excellent BBQ sauce (again - I kid you not!) Then we headed back . . .

Crossing the river back - Christ the Savior and the big Mercedes symbol on top of the House on the Embankment.

Happy Birthday Moscow.

Patriarchy ponds

2010-08-28T12:40:00.005+03:00

There is a nice area called Patriarchy Ponds. It has a pond, as the name suggests, and a nice playground. Nice path around the pond, lots of benches. I like the area - it is about 15 min walk from our place. It does have a lot of people sleeping on benches (or maybe passes out?), lots of people drinking. But, you do your thing, they do theirs.

It was nice, so the other day we walked over - well, I walked, kids sccotered, natash in the stroller.

here are some pics.

The pond.

Some sculptures

After we came home a friend sent me a message - were you at pat ponds? I saw a woman with a stroller and 2 kids on scooters. The kids had helmets so I knew they were americans - thought maybe it was you.

yeah, it was us. :-)

rainy.

2010-08-28T12:30:00.005+03:00

Every morning, after we eat, we go outside. I usually dont even get a chance to do the breakfast dishes, Natasha is too anxious. So this morning I get natasha all set, we head out. Then I notice it is raining.

"go, mama! go out"

"Sorry Natash, it is raining"

"no! go!"
"it is too rainy, we will play inside."

"Mama, hoodie!"

who can argue with that logic?

Moscow City

2010-08-26T09:00:00.004+03:00

I have mentioned before that Moscow is a city of contrasts. In the very center lies Kremlin, with is old buildings, walls, churches, etc.

Head a little further out, along Moscows Third Ring - about 2.5 miles west of Red Square -and you will find Moscow City. A commercial center, many buildings still under construction, started in the mid 1990s.

We drove out there last weekend, parked, and walked across a pedestrian bridge to the center. Interestingly, there weren't any "traditional" skyscrapers, you know, big rectangles. 2 buildings looked like a tower of blocks stacked by a child, each "block" slightly askew (the 2 buildings on the left side of the photo). Lots of arcs and curves. Very interesting. Very modern looking, which is, I am guessing, the point.

So apparently, in the 1990s, the government decided it needed a modern business center, and viola! Moscow city. According to a plaque it was built for the city, and governments own "self respect" - I know something was lost in the translation, I just think it is funny to imagine a bunch of city planners sitting around and one piping up "any self respecting city would have a commercial center!"

It is projected that 250,000 to 300,000 people will be living/working/visiting the complex at any given time. Pretty impressive. According to my Russian sources (ok, my husband) they forgot to take into account one important factor. Can you guess? Yes, Parking! Apparently there is very little parking in the area. Some buildings do have underground parking - but only for special people.

Another Russian source mentioned that Russians arent used to building so high, many people dont want offices next to the windows because it is too high up. Leo laughed. His old office was on the 62nd floor and he loved it - and he is afraid of heights! (The office had a balcony on the 70th floor of their building where every summer they held a family bbq. Leo make me hold the kids hands and stand against the building the whole time because he was afraid they would fall off the building). He also mentioned that they are having a problem with the elevators in some of the buildings. They, uhm, sometimes drop 20 or 30 floors unexpectedly. cripes!

Ok, thats all for the Moscow City tour.

I gotta go do my Biggest Loser dvd. (I am trying ok!)

call me olga

2010-08-20T17:21:00.003+03:00

just file this under weird kid stuff.

so I was teaching natasha her name. we would point to each person and say "name, whatever" you know - "name, mama" "Name pappous" "name christina" (my sister) etc. So we point to her and say "Name Tushi".

We started this about a month and a half ago. She never answered.

Then, she started to point to herself and say "name Olga".

Olga?

We know 1 olga- the kids piano teacher, and we pretty much keep Natasha out of the room during lessons.

I didnt even know she knew her name!

So we would say - "no, name Tushi". To which she would reply "no, name olga" - pointing to herself.

OK the first few times it was funny, but then I started to worry.

Nothing against the name Olga, but, uhm, it is not her name!

Finally after about 2 weeks (and a lot of happy dances if she tried to say her name), she started saying "Tushi" when asked her name.

But she does call Olga on her play cell phone quite a bit.

"Hi Olga! ok, Bye bye Olga!"

back

2010-08-15T03:01:00.004+03:00

OK! We are back in Moscow. Seems we missed the worst of the heat, smoke, poison smog. . . . .Friday - the day we arrived - it was a bit smoggy, but no smoke smell, yesterday was sunny, hot, blue skies, a bit of wind. Actually a very nice day. Hopefully the smoke will stay out, it will rain, and the fires will get under control. (crossing fingers).

So this summer we:

drove a lot - to seattle and back from Portland (about a 3 hr trip each way) 6 times I think.

went to the beach

sent P to a half week camp (couldnt bear to have him away for longer - we will try and brave a full week next year)

spent a lot of time with family just hanging out

I didnt sign my kids up for anything other than P going to the mini camp

they played outside

rode bikes

went to the library

made forts

just had a regular kid summer

played with each other and their cousins

For P's big 10 birthday we went to Great Wolf Lodge (go ahead and google it). We had a great time. Yiayia and pappous (my parents) gave the kids each some $ to buy stuff in the gift shop. Each of the kids (mine and my sisters boys) chose a picture frame and either a tshirt or a cup. I took a picture of all the kids and had them printed at costco's 1 hr photo when we got back in town. The frame, along with a little mini sandcastle from the Oregon Coast are Ms 2 "most prized possessions."

So what now? Well it is 3am for one thing. We are all up. except Leo. I wish I knew his secret but he can sleep anytime, anywhere, any amount of noise, light etc. He just goes to bed, and well, sleeps. I know it will take at least a week or two to get back the rest of us on the right time. 11 hr time difference is pretty killer. So we have been unpacking and cleaning the apartment, doing laundry. We arrived to an inch of dust on everything. bleh! Not from the smoke. Leo said it came while he was still here (the fires started just as he left). I think it all came from the remont upstairs. I thought I was smart and washed all the sheets before we left, but I had to strip all the beds again because they were all so dusty. Not a problem in the US where my moms washer does a load, start to dry in less than an hour. My wash cycle takes almost 3 hours. 4 to dry, and 1 beds worth takes 2 loads. yeah, washer and dryer have been running since we arrived.

We are just hanging out now, waiting for school to start at the end of august. We plan on heading to Gorky Park sometime later today (you know, after our morning naps!).

**Update - Gorky Park was fun! Forgot the camera - sorry! Kids complained the whole walk, but once they saw where we were going, strangely their energy picked up! ha! P and I went on a roller coaster (not the upside-down one!) P and M on the log ride, Leo took the big kids on the Ferris Wheel (when they got off both complained that "LEo worried the WHOLE time - get away from the door! stay away from the edge!" - I forgot he is afraid of heights), Natasha and I went on a little bumper boat ride, but we were the only ones so we cruised around the little pond, big kids did bumper cars . . I have never seen P with a bigger smile on his face! he LOVES roller coasters, bumper cars, etc. We did notice the smog was worse walking home - and this morning we could smell the smoke. The weather report keeps predicting rain, have only seen a sprinkling so far.

Looking forward to a good old fashioned thunder shower to clean everything up!

Hello Seattle

2010-07-03T03:25:00.006+03:00

just some random pics from our drive up to seattle - in reverse order. . . .

priceless

2010-07-03T02:52:00.006+03:00

Since arriving in the US last week I:

drank tap water

walked barefoot in grass

drove and drove and drove

saw acres and acres of trees

saw snow capped mountains

saw large body of water - puget sound

smelled the sea air

sat in a restaurant and first thing they did was give me water, with ice, for free

at the restaurant they brought a highchair for Natasha, without my having to ask for one.

ordered coffee and they put a thermos on the table. Just in case I wanted free refills

picked fresh raspberries and strawberries and ate them

smelled a sweet fragrant rose on the bush

did an entire load of laundry - washed and dried in less than an hour

made the kids annies mac and cheese

natasha had cheerios

rode bikes to the park with the kids

My kids werent the only ones wearing helmets

Ran into Target to get M socks. I parked, went in, found what I wanted, paid (less than $5 for 3 pair) then left. Took less than 10 minutes.

No one rammed me with their cart.

Kids played at a playground built on thick foam rubber, for their safety.

Amazing what you dont realize you miss.

gee mom, you swore a lot.

2010-06-27T13:20:00.007+03:00

Everyone needs a good airport story. You know - to whip out at cocktail parties and other social occasions where one needs good stories.

So kids and I loaded up into the huge taxi van leo arranged for us at 3:00 am and headed to the airport.

We arrive in plenty of time for our flight.
Check the departure board, find our ticket counter.

There are 3 lines - "Executive" "drop off" and "Economy Class"

Well, I know I am not executive, not sure what drop off means, so we head to the back of the longest line- - the economy folks.

P says - "mom, the drop off line is shorter - lets go there"

me - "no, I am not sure what that means . . ."

P - "but mom, everyone else is just going in that line"

me - "P, we are American. If nothing else, we stand in the proper line"

P keeps nagging. I hold out. I will set a good example for the kids.

SO we stand in line - and stand and stand.

OK - so ends up 1 last person in executive line, 2 people in drop off, and I am the last of 3 people in the economy.

Ticket Lady for executive finishes and waves the second person in the drop off line to come over.

Bless him, the guy says "take the woman with the kids ahead of me" Ticket Landy says - I kid you not - "I dont want the woman with the kids - come over and I will check you in". I frown at her wondering if I understood correct. The man looks at her and says in a curt way "I am alone, I have no bags to check - the flight leaves in 40 minutes - take the woman with the kids!". She rolls her eyes, looks at me, and does the russian look and hand wave. You know, cocks her head to the side, raises an eyebrow expectantly, and does a little wave with her hand like "what the hell are you doing over there, get over here!"

So we go over, hand over the passports (on the way I profusely thank the guy). she slams them around a bit, starts typing, is all sighing and moaning, shaking her head no. Something comes up with natasha's. I dont know what. She calls masha on the walkie talkie - masha cant hear her, she cant understand masha - goes back and forth for a while. OK - so can you imagine the scene? Now P is next to me giving a running timetable of when the flight will leave. "mom- -if we get through this in 5 min, then we have 20 min to get through passport control, 10 min through security, then 5 min to find our gate - we should make the flight!" P - stop - that is making me nervous - "mom, ok now we have 2 minutes, but maybe it will only take 10 min through passport control - then we will make our flight!" "please" I beg - "stop!"

So finally we get our boarding passes, load up the luggage, then she looks at Natasha's carseat - (I buy natasha a ticket so she has her own seat and I bring her carseat - I have a really cool roller thing so I can wheel it through airports and she can even sit in the carseat while I wheel her - it is pretty cool) Anyway - she says - "this is the carseat?" I say yes, she says "for on the plane?" I say yes. She says "no". I say - "what do you mean no? the baby has her own seat, this is an approved seat." She says no - and does the x with her arms (I hate that by the way - sends me over the edge). I called the cabin - they say no. I say - so you are telling me, you want the baby to sit in an adult seat? yes she says. you can check the carseat with your other luggage. (I curse - I think - quietly under my breath). Fine. Check it.

So we head over to passport control line. You know - they people in the glass booths. So we stand in line, when it is almost our turn - guess who shows up? Ticket lady! "I called the cabin again - you can take the car seat" Uhm ok. "great" I say "where is it?" great - back at the ticket counter. I look at the kids. I tell them "stay here - dont get out of line - dont let anyone ahead of us!" with natasha in one hand, I run back to the ticket booth, grab the car seat and run back. phew.

our turn.

we walk up to the guy. Without looking at us he says "how many?" I answer "four". He looks up. He PUTS HIS HEAD DOWN IN HIS HANDS! Shakes his head, then leans back in his chair, sighs loudly and looks at me. I look for a hidden camera, someone must be playing a joke on me. I hand over the passports. He yells at me "tickets - I need the tickets!" I fish in my purse for the tickets, hand them over. He doesnt touch them. He picks up the passports. The top one is Ms. She is standing next to me. The solid part of the wall between me and the ticket guy is in comes to barely the top of her head. He opens Ms passport, hold up the picture and says "who is this?!" I point down to M. He motions for me to pick her up. I say "seriously? you want me to pick her up?" then I say - "maybe you can stand up and then you can see her" (I know - not a good idea to get snarky with passport control) he answers "I can't stand up" whatever, with my free (?) arm I scoop up M - I say pretty snippy "see! this is M." The man laughs. Then he opens my passport, point to my picture and says "who is this?" I say "eta ya!" It is me! he looks back and forth between the picture and me about 6 times. P he can see, then he opens Natashas. Her passport picture was taken when she was 6 weeks old. She is now 18 months. She looks a bit different. He spends at least 3 minutes looking at her and the picture. Finally he stamps it with a sigh, flings everything at me and sends me on my way. I say in as nice a voice as I can muster "thank you very much, have a nice day!" He laughs again.

So then we get into the security line - no biggy there - the car seat wont fit through the machine so they argue a bit about who is going to inspect it. I ignore them. Finally we make it to the gate! phew! We are almost the last ones to board.

Sweet relief!

Then, the stewardess on KLM stopped us as we entered. "oh, here is the car seat" (English!) - yes I say cautiously (thinking hmm, Ticket gal did call the cabin after all!). She asks "how many point harness is it?" I think a minute - 5. I show her. She says- -no - we only accept 3 point harness, you cant bring this on the plane. Seriously? I say, 5 point is safer than 3 point, and this is an approved car seat! She says no again. I say - (deja vu?) - you are telling me that the airline prefers my infant daughter to sit in an adult seat, with an adult belt, instead of this approved car seat? She looks at me and says yes, we can check it here. I flip the seat over and show her - pointing a bit wildly - "it says right here in RED - approved for automobile and airplane use!" She looks, says "oh, ok, bring it on then". my mouth drops open. She says "well, it is good this happened because now you know you have an approved car seat." She smiles at me. I practically yell "This was NOT good! I already knew it was an approved car seat - that is why I bought it!!!" I push the kids to just get on the damn plane (I may or may not have murmured some curse words at that point as well). She just glares at me.

Then I sigh, turn back and say, sorry, I didnt mean to be so snappy, it has been a rough morning.

Uneventful after that.

When we were getting off the plane, my sister says "wow! you flew with Tim Robbins!" Really, I didnt even notice.

sound the alert.

2010-06-24T15:16:00.007+03:00

so I am busy packing - P, M and I are done. Yes, mom, I remembered my drivers license. yeah - I forgot it over xmas, but thankfully Leo brought it when he came. sigh.

So I have Natasha left and guess what? Coco is missing. If you have seen coco the bear - he is brown, and well, a bear. Let me know! Tell him to get his furry rear home! At least I have baby, which is second best. Although baby took a couple terrible tumbles from the stroller at the zoo the other day and well, needs a bath.

I have been trying to get organized before I go. I cleaned out and organized the shkaf....one of the words we like in russian more than in english. It is a wardrobe thing from Ikea. It is huge with sliding doors. One side houses Leos suits, the other is shelves and a few drawers. Anything the kids need, it is in the shkaf. Mom! where is the tape? In the shkaf! I need batteries! Check the shkaf! One drawer is sewing stuff. I recycled all the glass peanut butter jars P wouldnt let me toss because glass takes a bazillion years to decompose - to hold all my assorted thingys. One for pins, sewing needles, buttons, elastic, velcro bits. etc. Next drawer tools - jars neatly lined up tacks, screws, nails, washers, assorted "left over" ikea parts. Yay me for being organized. We will see how long it lasts. I also have a little cupboard in the kitchen i used as my go to spot for hiding whatever mess was in the counter or windowsill when guests came over. Usually some kind of half done art project. Anyway I cleaned it out - top shelf is art supplies, bottom toys for tushi to play with when i am in the kitchen. I have dreams of her playing nicely in the kitchen, kids doing homework at the table, while I prepare a delicious, healthy dinner we will all enjoy together - including Leo - - well, I can dream.

I also have the kitchen pretty stocked with the food Leo needs while I am gone. All the stuff I never buy, but he can fix himself - jarred spaghetti sauce, dry pasta, cans of assorted meats and fish in assorted oil (bleh), cans of heinz chili (actually pretty good), frozen dumplings (ok we eat these once every 2 weeks or so for dinner), etc. Tomorrow I will pick up some more milk and yogurt drinks for him - and some snacks for kids to take on the plane, because for some reason the airline didnt let me select kid meals for them - oh well.

well, I need to get tushi packed and her and my carry ons ready.

Otherwise, we are pretty much ready to rock and roll.

I added a few things to my ever growing list of what I want to get in the US - Halloween stuff - I want to host a halloween party! and a pattern and materials to make natasha a raggedy ann and andy doll. We went to a party at a friends and she had her old Andy and Ann and Natasha played and played with them.

** yeah - coco was found behind the curtain - phew!

If it is free, take two.

2010-06-16T12:35:00.004+03:00

Just a few random odds and ends.

Yesterday I was out for a walk and saw a 2 year old boy with a tee shirt which said "I want to make love with you" hmmm. Kinda weird dontcha think? I think if I bought a shirt for my child with writing in another language I would want to know what it says. Reminds of the time we were here in 1999 and saw a guy wearing a tee shirt which said "Gay by nature, out by choice" I told Leo - Wow! good for that guy! Leo replied - I bet he doesnt know what it says. I REALLY wanted to ask him, but Leo wouldnt let me. When I met Leo he had a sweater with the words Team Boys embroidered across the front in light blue. I wish I kept it.

I was out on Arbat today. It is a pedestrian street, but has a few cross streets which cars drive on. At each cross street there is a guard - OXPAHA - security - in full camo gear making sure only delivery trucks and really important people actually drive onto Arbat. So today I saw one, in the uniform, leaning on a barricade smoking. It was raining. He had a pink umbrella. Gads I wish I had a camera.

Mine broke. And my phone broke. So I did what any good mom would do and swiped my sons cell phone. Only a week left of school, so he doesnt need one. Man I wish I would have spent a little more than the 700 rbls ($21) on his and bought him one with a camera. oh well.

I was at the gym last Thurs - I only go Thurs afternoons now because that is the only time my nanny can come. That is why I keep packing on the kilos. kinda hard to run when I only go once a week I never feel any improvement. But I have plans for the fall people. Anyway . .. . I digress. . .. I did my little run and was in a little "training room" stretching. I was the only person in there. - The room is pretty small so it is not like you would not notice someone else. So this guy walks in. He looks like this:

This is a very famous comedy actor Evgheni Leonov. Leo says Russian Vinni Pukh was drawn for him. See the resemblance?

Anyway - Vinnie walks into the room I am in. Approaches the wall of mirrors, looks himself square in the eye and starts making the "you talkin to me?" a la Robert DeNiro Taxi Driver faces. He doesnt say anything. Just cocks his head to the side, raises an eyebrow, frowns a little. Looks menacingly at himself. Backs away, does it again. It was weird, but I just turned up my ipod and kept on doing my thing.

Ok - last thing. Today I went to Starbucks with Natasha. I picked up a few more moscow travel mugs - the super cute ones with matryushka on the front, for souveniers. I was paying and the guy said in broken english that if I got a gift card, then I would get an hour of wifi free. I said in russian. No thanks, I dont need wifi. he backs up a little, shocked, says again - it is free. I say in english - I really dont need a gift card and I dont carry a laptop with me so I dont need wifi. He is clearly shocked - explains - but you can use the gift card to pay - and the 1 hour of wifi is free! I say - I can pay with cash or my credit card and I really dont need the wifi. His female coworker comes over, says in russian "she doesnt understand - just give it to her" Why would this crazy woman turn down something free?! So he rings my purchases, which I pay cash for, then gives me a separate receipt with a special password for the wifi - clearly and loudly saying in english while pointing to it "FREE WiFi! 1 HOUR!" then hands me a gift card. The same ones they have in the states. Like you would buy if you were getting someone a gift card. So I say - what is this for? He says "you can put money on it to pay!" OK - uhm why would I do that? For some reason, Russians LOVE cards - discount cards, gift cards, membership cards, VIP cards. They love them, cherish them, collect them. No wonder the men carry purses. They have so many cards to carry around. So I ask the guy - is there money already on this card (like maybe he charged me with my knowledge, or it was part of some promotion) - he shakes his nead "no, it is 0. but to CAN put money on it!" yeah, no thanks. After natasha and I sat down at a table, I leaned over to the table near us - a guy was reading a kindle and had the english language newspaper - Hey - excuse me - you want this? slipping him my "free wifi" ticket. He laughed as he took it and said thanks.

What to Bring

2010-06-13T09:54:00.008+03:00

Ok So we are going back the the states for the summer in a couple weeks. I need to plan what I want to bring back. Generally we go with empties inside empties and come back loaded to the gills.

I was also recently contacted by a mom planning on moving here and she asked what she should bring.

The million dollar question.

So I thought I would come up with a list of what you should bring to Russia - of course all depends on how much space you have - whether you are coming with a shipment of stuff - or 8 suitcases (like I did), and how often you will be travelling back to the states to restock.

So here are some basics -

Kitchen:

look on the ikea site - there are 3 in moscow generally the same price as US - you are better off getting it here.

Unless of course if you have your favs. Then bring what you want.

I brought by big heavy enamel coated iron soup pot because love it.

I also had my 3 favorite knives sharpened and packed those (obviously not in carry-on!) -

Ikea knives are crap.

I havent seen cocoa powder, paper cupcake liners, vanilla extract, popcorn (loose - they do have microwave packets) non-stick spray like pam (I have a little pump sprayer filled with olive oil), no cheerios or mac and cheese packets. If you are bringing a foodish item, depends on your taste. I know a texan who brings velveeta to make queso. Another brings crystal light because that is what she likes.

Lots of expats bring aluminum foil (they have it here, but it tears if you look at it) too. Like I said - depends on how often you travel back to the states (or wherever) - I am not to the point where I will bring foil - I dont use it often and I have other stuff I need to spend my precious 50 pounds on.

Some bring ziplock bags. I just use the ikes ones. Yeah, not as nice - no little zipper feel or color code to tell you it is locked, but I dont use them that often either so works for me.

medicine cabinet -

- hmmm well I guess most people stock their own pharmacy - if you think you might need it, bring it - If you dont want to mime it to the pharmacy clerk - bring it.

I bring advil liquigels, claratin (they have it here I am told - but in the US you can choose from different types - 12 hour - etc - here I think there is just one), childrens and infant tylenol and motrin, teething tablets and oragel, I can sometimes find tampons with an applicator, most are without.

Basically if you have a favorite brand of anything and you have room, bring it.

I also bring my kids the gummy vitamins from costco - they have kid vitamins here, but I like to be able to read the label!

oh and fluoride drops - no fluoride in the water.

Natasha had a yeast infection from taking antibiotics and we were told yeast infection creams require a prescription, so maybe bring some monistat just in case.

Kids- in addition to the medicine cabinet stuff listed above -

toys and clothes are expensive, books in english are hard to find. Bring what you can. You can find some good deals - at the end of the winter, winter coats go on sale for example. This is pretty much what I load up on - if your kids are in school, check with them what they might need. kids in school will need inside shoes, gym shoes (for my kids, their inside school shoes are their gym shoes), rain shoes, snow boots, swim shoes, and ice skates (if they offer these at their school - we have crocs for the swim shoes and I bought the ice skates that adjust 3 sizes) and some kind of slipper for inside your house (ok it is dirty here - no matter how often you clean your floors, they will be dirty - everyone takes their shoes off when entering your home, so it is nice to have slippers to put on). You need warm wool socks (we get the smartwool and they are fabulous!) hats for winter and waterproof gloves (get two pair of the same in case 1 gets lost you can still make a match).

As far as kids stuff - it is a tough one, I guess you make a decision that your kids will have less stuff - which is a good thing - the nice thing is there are lots of expats here with kids - everyone has limited space in their apartment - which means chances are you can find someone willing to sell or give you their kids old toys/clothes/books, and someone willing to take your old stuff off your hands. Also turnover is high - lots of people coming in to moscow and lots of people leaving, most people leaving dont want to haul all the kid and baby stuff with them. There are also a number of charities willing to take your old kid things too.

I plan on getting my big kids the shoes listed above, they dont need new wither coats or boots because I think they will fit one more season. They will get school clothes, new swim suits, they both need a new pair of gloves, they both want books and more books. P uses my kindle which is nice, I am thinking of getting him an itouch for christmas - that way he can use it as an ereader too and I can get my kindle back. For baby I need to get her the whole kit and kaboodle because she grows so fast - snowsuit - onsies -- socks - some training underwear and little panties (I am optimistic about potty training when she is 2!)- snow boots, clothes, etc. I wont get her any toys because she has enough (remember I mentioned other expats willing to part with their old stuff?).

for you-

Again, up to you and your situation. I dont buy any clothes here. They are expensive too. I will get some clothes, - I need some nice smartwool socks, etc. If you have a particular product you like - perfume, etc, bring it - whatever will make you more comfortable and feel more at home. I brought some books because they make the place feel more home-y, but like I said, if you get involved in expat organizations you can usually borrow a book from someone - we have a moscow group on goodreads. or get a kindle or other ereader. I need some good shoes. We dont have a driver or car so I walk. a lot. need good shoes for the street. Ones that have it all - are comfy, durable and stylish. I really like some the doc marten's and Clarks heels. I want to try some on before I order though.

So, expats - what do you bring from your home country?

that's all I am going to say about that

2010-06-03T05:58:00.005+03:00

ok - last pukh story - I promise.

So the building I live in is U shaped. The courtyard in the middle is quite nice. Lots of nice tall trees. The kind that produce all the pukh we expats cant stop talking about.

It swirls and blows in circles. The air is thick with it. I think it is called pukh because that is the sound you make when it flies up your nose or gets stuck in your throat. (ok, really it means fluff, but whatever)

Even the nanny (who, as you know take babies out in minus 0F weather) suggested we keep Natasha inside. And you KNOW when a Russian nanny suggests going inside as opposed to staying outside, it is a problem.

It gets trapped in our courtyard so it gathers in great snow-drift piles along the curbs and edges of the courtyard and playground.

What is a maintenance guy/groundskeeper to do?

Why, whip out your lighter and set it on fire, of course!

Now, I appreciate getting rid of it - and I must admit it is pretty cool to watch it burst into flame and spread faster than you can imagine then smolder out as quick as it started. It burns faster than hair. Have you ever seen hair burn? Imagine a packed to the gills church, midnight easter service, and kids holding candles for hours. Yeah, I have seen hair burn.

It is just he does it while I am out with Natasha. (which to be fair I am out with her a lot)

She is as fascinated as I am.

and she is getting fast.

almost faster than me!

I mentioned it to Leo and he says that you could sit in a huge pile of it, set it on fire and you wouldnt burn because it burns too fast.

yeah, I am not going to test that theory. - where are the myth busters when you need them? (I love those guys!)

Just adds one more fun element to keeping Tushi out of trouble on the playground.

And a distraction for me while she is playing.

There is a Russian saying that is something along the lines of:

There are 3 things a person can never tire of watching - water flowing, fire burning and other people working.

I agree!

Sunday

2010-06-01T16:46:00.008+03:00

This sunday I was getting cabin fever pretty bad. By three in the afternoon I had to get out. anywhere. Get some fresh air. Unfortunately right about the time I was ready to pull my hair out it was raining like you wouldnt believe.

REALLY raining.

Drenching rain.

I said - lets get the umbrellas and go anyway!

Leo said no.

So we waited.

20 min later it was done.

The sun came out and it was beautiful.

The air was clean.

All the pukh (white fluff from poplar trees) was down for a bit.

We decided to walk to Hermitage Park.

Along the pay we passed the Petrovsky, or Vysokopetrovsky Monastery. then a little sculpture park. Later we headed to Hermitage Park which is quite nice. After we went to dinner at an Uzbek place which was really tasty. then home again home again jiggedy jig.

In which fubar the Panna Cotta

2010-05-28T14:42:00.006+03:00

So we are having friends over on Sat. Thought I would cook a little Mexican - tequila lime chicken, black beans, slaw, chips and homemade pico and guac to start - the works.

I decide on Panna Cotta for dessert. I know - not Mexican, but sounds good - vanilla with chopped Kiwi on top. mmm.

As I am going camping tonight with M (yes it has been raining the past few days) I decide to get a jump on dessert. I went to the store looking for Gelatin. I see what looks like pectin and know enough not to get that - I see some flavored stuff, but no unflavored. Then I see some желе дла торта Gel for Cakes - except they got all fancy on me and spelled torta with script so it looked like mopma. But I am cool as a cucumber.

hmm.

Gel for cakes?

I guess that is what I need.

So I buy a few packs.

So I am doing the recipe, open the packs and see white powder. Except when I mix it with milk it is not white.

It is pink.

Bright Pink.

wow.

Pink Panna Cotta.

hm.I look at my little packet again and notice in the corner in tiny letters - крацное.

Red.

oh.

who needs red gel for cake?

So I make it anyway. It is cooling in glasses as we speak.

Looks like pink milkshakes.

Think it will gel??

crap - what if it doesnt?

Think it will be weird eating something pink that tastes like vanilla (color and flavor must match dontcha know).

Oh and those Kiwi I bought?

They are yellow.

at least dessert wont look too christmas-y. right.

maybe I will get some strawberries or a pomegranate to, uhm, pull the colors together.

I hope it works - or maybe it is best for everyone if my "gel for the cakes" doesnt work and I just buy a cake . . .

I will let you know.

yeah, too bad my camera broke - pink panna cotta with chopped yellow kiwi - appetizing.

пол dancing

2010-05-25T11:53:00.004+03:00

word of the day - пол. Pronounced pole. It means floor. I know - boring - but it also means sex. . .. as in gender - not the act.

I needed to get some groceries.

have I told you about Utkonos.ru?

I am sure I have - it is an online grocery site. It is in russian, but it has pictures and google translate does a decent job translating.

usually.

So I was looking for floor cleaner. I clicked the heading "goods for the home" and got this sub header:

Mops, Brushes for Sex, Brooms and Shovels.

Am I juvenile for finding it hilarious?

btw - I emailed it to Leo for a laugh and he didnt find it as amusing as I did.

his response : пол is gender - as in male or female. It also means floor. No one thinks of "screwing" when they hear the word пол, kat.

yeah, well I do - and so does google translate!

bwahahahaha

got milk?

2010-05-21T10:52:00.007+03:00

I think I am very positive about life here - I try to keep the rants to a minimum.

here is one - and it seems so silly

the milk situation here drives me nuts.

First of all, you can get pasteurized, sterilized, scalded (which shows up as "milk is melted" when

translated from russian online), ultra pasteurized (the kind that doesnt not need refrigerating), and of

course powdered, condensed, evaporated. . . etc. You can buy it is cartons, plastic bottles or bags -

(I havent tried the bag of milk yet).

I dont drink much milk, but I do like cereal in the morning and of course Natasha and M drink it (P only drinks water - thats it - sometimes lemonade - has been this way since he was 2)

Anyway we go though maybe 7 or 8 liters of milk per week.

I usually buy Valio which is Finnish I think - it seems roughly 90% of expats buy Valio. It tastes the most like american milk. In a pinch, if they dont have Valio I will get the one with the cat on the bottle. Kitty Milk. It is also American tasting.

OK, variety is good, herein lies my problem - they seem to treat all milk as the ultra pasteurized shelf

kind. The dairy section is refrigerated, dont get me wrong. But for some reason they only have one,

maybe 2 rows back of cartons in the fridge - the rest are stacked across the aisle - unrefrigerated.

so when they need to restock, they move unrefrigerated milk to the fridge. Never mind the milk

is not ultra pasteurized and not meant to be "shelf milk."

Maybe it is just my store. But I have seen them do this in a couple stores.

I opened a carton of milk today and it was chunky.

If I wanted yogurt, I would buy yogurt.

Although I often see yogurt sitting unrefrigerated too.

The "In" Crowd

2010-05-20T16:20:00.004+03:00

So our building has a gated courtyard with a little playground. I am out there with Natasha 3 or 4 times a day now that the weather is nice. Every morning, afternoon, etc we see the Maintenance Guy. He is nice. He always says hi, smiles at natasha. He sweeps, has repainted all the little fences, digs up weeds, and turns out he also is the go to guy for plumbing problems. We had a problem last week (I dont want to talk about it, but I ended up throwing out a few towels after some serious overflow) and he showed up to fix it. Told me when he left to just come get him for any problem, no need to call the apartment agent - I am all for cutting out the middleman.

Anywho - I am out there this afternoon with Natash. He is taking his smoking break with a bunch of drivers (lots of residents in our complex have cars with drivers. So the drivers either sleep in the car or stand around smoking while waiting to be needed). I see him walk toward me with his hand outstretched, offering me something - he nods to me - please take it . .. from a distance looks like sticks of gum.

Hmmm, he is offering me some gum.

how nice.

But he gets closer and I notice it isnt gum.

They are 5 or 6 little fish.

Like the whole fish.

Smoked I think. I smile and say нет, спасибо (no thank you), he says something like они чисты - they are clean (not sure if he meant they dont need to be cleaned - you eat them whole, or they are clean as in not dirty). I politely decline again. I look over and all the men are standing around smoking and eating the little fish.

Not really into the little smoked/salted fish you eat whole. Leo LOVES them. He would have taken them.

I do have to say though that it was a really nice gesture and I was flattered he thought to offer me some!

I feel a little more In with the Russians now.

maybe I should have taken them . . . .

the 1%

2010-05-19T20:58:00.004+03:00

a few random bits:

So Leo bought some chocolate the other day. I know - nice! An assortment of individually wrapped little squares. It is a dark chocolate assortment - each a different percentage of cocoa. We like to tell ourselves about all the antioxidants in dark chocolate, you know, how good it is for you. After kids go to bed we zone in front of the tv, drink our tea, and in true russian fashion, have something sweet. I grab a chocolate square - 66% sounds good.

Except it is dark,

and I already took out my contacts,

and it is upside-down.

yep.

99% cocoa

not as good as it sounds.

P asked me today why men's nipples were not private, but women's were.

M asked me the other day if Leo did a mating dance when he first met me.

Spring is in the air.

puttin on the ritz.

2010-05-19T12:09:00.006+03:00

Hi! I am still here.

My camera broke so no more pictures. There are 3 culprits, but I havent been able to pin one down. The screen cracked so I can take pictures, just cant see what of! ha!

Thats ok. Kids and I are going to the states in June so I will either pick up a new cheap-o one, spend some cash on a nice one- or get an iphone and use that as my camera. I am sort of leaning toward the iphone idea, but I need to find out how I can get it unlocked here.

hmm. So May 9th was Victory Day. We walked to the end of our block and watched the tanks roll by - I would have liked to see the American Troops march but I think that was only in Red Square. I wanted to cheer when they walked by. Oh well.

This year was the 65th anniversary. There was some controversy as to whether Stalin should be represented in billboards and such. Interesting question - How much credit do give the ruler of a country for military accomplishments, especially if said ruler was responsible for 25 million deaths. hmmm.

Didnt see any Stalin posters, so I guess protests worked.

After the parade we headed to Tverskaya - which was closed to traffic and open to pedestrians. Kids had fun walking in the middle of a usually very busy street. Had some dinner, then watched the fireworks as we walked back to our apartment. All in all a good day.

We have our tickets to the US. Kids and I are going end of June through mid august. Leo will join us for a week at some point. Should be fun. We are all looking forward to it, and this time the flight is only 15 hours instead of the 25 hrs it took in December.

I have been trying to get all our appointments lined up - kids need teeth cleaned, P has 2 fillings need to be taken care of (yikes!), immunizations for everyone, etc. I also need to plan my purchases (which means trying to calculate weight and space everything will take up. I need to get Natash winter clothes, boots and snow suit, P and M each need 2 pairs of shoes (they need 1 pair each to keep at school which also are PE shoes and 1 pair "outside shoes") I think their snowpants/coats/boots will last another year, but I need to have a final try on before we leave.

I dont know what else. Nothing exciting, just life going on. Last weekend was
Night at the Museum night - museums are free and open late at night. I wanted to take M and Natasha to the Zoological museum Leo was with P on an overnight trip) but the sign on the museum door said they were opening at 23:00! thats 11! yeah, sorry, too late for us! BUT - we go to the toy store, see a zombie parade (yeah - it was creepy) and have a nice pizza dinner - girls night out! :-)

The other day we went to a friends birthday lunch, it was at the restaurant on the roof of the Ritz, we had sushi and champaign. How glamorous is that?! Fabulous view of the city. We sat outside overlooking Red Square. Nice way to spend a Monday afternoon.

Then Tues was Tex Mex potluck! again fabulous! So much fun! My only chance this week to get out of the house sans the little one. My nanny has a new job with another family and she is on a weird rotating schedule with another nanny so I get her on her days off, if she isnt going to her dacha - which pretty much means she will come watch natasha for a few hours once a week. There goes my going to the gym plans. Oh well, I have high hopes for running this summer. Until then Natasha is my buddy, tagging along wherever I go. Which honestly, aside from not being able to go to the gym is ok with me. She is good company, doesnt tell any of my secrets, is happy to share a meal with me if we go out, and pretty much falls asleep in the stroller anyway.

Thats all, sorry nothing more interesting. I have been taking the metro quite a bit and pretty much know my way around - I feel like if I took the worng train or got off at the wrong stop I could make my way home, which is pretty much the important thing, right? (although dont ask me the best exit from my station - I just go out the first one I see and orient myself once I am above ground - I get so turned around underground!)

By the way the moscow Metro is 75! There are signs all over. pretty cool.

clipping coupons

2010-05-04T15:57:00.013+03:00

So we spent the holiday weekend (some kind of labor day - I can't keep track of all these russian holidays - I do know next weekend is Victory Day - May 9th) at a панционат (pansionat). OK - so a little background:

Back in Soviet Days every job was part of a larger Ministry - Education, Electrical, Construction, Metal, etc. Most Ministries had some kind of resort type place where people from all over Soviet Union in that same industry would go for their vacation. (Some Ministries also had their own summer camps for kids - but I will get to that story later). These were called Pansionat or also Hose of Relaxation - we dont really have an equivelant to the one we went to - a resort with a "medical center" - you have have some kind of procedures done as well. Not really clear what they were aside from massages, ultrasounds, aroma therapy I understood . . . . .

I think it had something to do with a Soviet control of where people vacation etc. Now, at each company there would be some person in charge of handing out the vouchers- or little piece of paper (they love their little pieces of paper!) which was your pass to go to said resort. With me so far? You go to person, plan your little vacay - person gives you your voucher (or maybe not!). Anywho, some industries had more money than others, right? so some vacation resorts were better than others. Some on the Black Sea, some newer construction, etc. So people would trade or buy with someone from another industry (or the person in charge of the vouchers would sell them on the side).

So we went to a place for the weekend about 3 hrs drive south of Moscow that used to be a Pansionat for people who worked for the Russian NASA (something space related anyway). Here is the link to where we went.

Let me start by saying we had a really nice time! The weather was fabulous! We wanted to get out of the city and spend time as a family and that is exactly what we did. The place was clean, comfortable, very child friendly, and out in the country. We went with another family with 2 small children. They were very nice. The place itself was so child friendly - there were so many kids there - every table had at least one highchair.

Would I recommend it to other expat families?

uhhm. maybe not so much.

You really need a Russian speaker if you go. And a willingness to throw your hands up and just go with the flow. It was very Soviet in that there were a lot of rules. and a lot of little pieces of paper.

We had to bring our passports and register when we arrived - no big deal.

You get these little coupons when you arrive for medical treatments. Now - to be fair - Leo was not at all into it and so he didnt have any motivation to look into and translate what the options were - but we were told that all massage options were fully booked and not available. Ok - no problem. We arent really massage people anyway. I didnt want to try anything on my own lest I ended up with a colon cleanse.

The place comes with meals. We got a little coupon for them. They have a main cafeteria and 3 or 4 little bars. The free food is only at the cafeteria, only at specific times. Breakfast was from 9 to 10, lunch from 1:30 to 2:30 and dinner 6:30 to 7:30. At 9 they served Kefir (like buttermilk - a sour milk drink). I sort of felt like I wass in a nursing home. It was a bit of a challenge being tied to meal times and not having any flexability, but like I said - throw your hands up and go with the flow.

We found out that the first three days you ate what they served you, no choices, but from the fourth day onward you could choose from 3 or 4 options. Kids were a little dismayed, but they were troopers and ended up eating what was served. Breakfast included - kasha (usually buckwheat), salad bar (carrot, tomatoes, and cabbage - sometimes pickles or crinkle cut canned beets) a slice of ham, and, I kid you not, a fried breaded chicken breast and canned peas. Kids thought it was funny to have dinner for breakfast. A lot of food! there was also a choice of tea or coffee - same choice for the kids - no water, no juice, no milk (although the server did bring milk for natasha when I asked). Not typical russian breakfast - whih leo said growing up he had kasha or a piece of ham with butter on it (!) or eggs. Lunch was salad bar (usually a mayo based salad and pickles) soup (which, whatever you say about russian food, they do good soups), and some kind of meat and potatoes, compote for the beverage (fruit boiled with sugar - so it is kind of sweet juice with pieces of fruit floating around). Dinner was salad bar (same options as above) and a meat and potatoes dish - usually some kind of meat or kasha stuffed inside another meat (ground liver inside chicken - bulgar rolled inside pork - then fried) and some pastry dessert and tea or coffee. Not the healthiest of food! It was ok - i wont say it was bad, - I guess moo moo quality if you know moscow - maybe school cafeteria quality, although they served plenty. We were there 4 days so the 4th day kids were excited to finally get a choice - eggs with ham for breakfast, and big meatball with mashed potatoes for lunch, we left before dinner.

Just as a side note - they actually translated the menu - an option for breakfast was "boiled language with mushroom sauce" did you guess it? hahahaha it is tongue! - the same word in Russian - as in "what is your mother tongue?" I often wonder at the general lack of proofreading when things like public signs and menus are translated. You would think someone would know someone who speaks english to give it a quick once over - but that is another blog post!

ok - so that was the food situation - not bad, but there was a complicated form for selecting your meals and you had to sit at an assigned table. The food at the bars was pretty cheap, although pretty limited in selection.

The kids really looked forward to the pool - they had a big lap pool - 1.8 meters deep, a fairly large kids pool with a slide and fountain and a large bubble pool (looked like a big hot tub, but the water was tepid warm, not hot). So we get ready to go to the pool and the friend we were there with mentions to Leo that we need to see the doctor and get a permission slip signed before we can go to the pool. He had gone earlier and said the doctor looked at his feet and then stamped and signed the little piece of paper. Leo took P and M (natasha was asleep). The doctor didnt look at Leo, but looked at the kids stomachs and backs and signed the papers. Later Natasha and I went and she didnt even look at us. Not sure what the point was - I assume they were looking for rashes or fungus or something, but one would think they would give everyone the same exam. Anyway - with all out little pieces of paper in hand we tromp to the pool where we are informed that we must all wear swim caps in the pool - even the baby. Luckily - they sold caps there for around 100 rubles ($3)

So - we spent most of our time on the playground outside, or in the pool, and also shuffling like nursing home residents to and from meals. we ate, we relaxed, we played. mission accomplished.

Oh yeah -the summer camp story. So Leo tells this story (I swear we could be married 50 years and I will never hear all the stories!) about how when he was little, his mom sent him to camp. Basically everyone worked and had a month off of work over the summer, but kids had 3 months off school. So what to do with all the unsupervised kids? send them to camp! Now, as I mentioned, different ministries operated camps. Unfortunately for little lyova, his mom worked in some kinds of electrical installation in new construction. They didnt have a camp. So his mom somehow got a hold of vouchers from another ministry for camp (either she knew someone, or paid someone, or knew someone who knew someone who owed someone a favor . . .I dont know). Anyway all is grand until little lyova gets in a fight at camp. They decide to contact his mom. Whose kid is this, anyway? whoops! she is not even part of this ministry! bye bye little Lyova! dont come back next year! I am sure his mom was pleased with him.

The Cow Says . . .

2010-04-29T07:04:00.008+03:00

So Natasha is at the magical age where she is making animal sounds. You know - looks at her stuffed monkey and says oo-oo-aaa-aaa not unlike curious george.

I have been doing animal sounds with her for a while. Something I never really thought about until the other day we were outside and saw a dog. It wasnt so much that we saw a dog - we see them all the time. This time though - the owner was right there. in hearing distance- looking at us. I was about to unleash my woof and then suddenly was a little self conscious. I have never been self conscious about speaking english in public with the kids. But this time my mind flashed forward to little Tushi in Dyetsky Sad being admonished for saying a dog says woof! Natasha saved me by pointing to the dog and belting out an "oo-oo oo".

So why the moment of doubt? what does a dog say? woof woof, right? maybe arf if it is a little scrappy dog (I have never met a dog that said bow-wow - where did that come from?!) Anyway - here dogs speak Russian.

They say gav. As in "gav-gav"

I think the cow and cat are the same but here are some other animals - see if you can guess the animal (no cheating!):

1.kva kva

2.chik-chirik

3.krya-krya

4.khryu-khryu

5.kookary-koo

6.ee-ga-go

7.ga ga ga

8. bee

Now the American English:

1 Ribbit

2 tweet tweet (or chirp chirp)

3 quack quack

4. oink oink

5.cockadoodle doo

6 neigh

7. honk honk

8. baa

(1frog,2bird,3duck,4pig,5rooster,6horse,7goose,8sheep)

So - what do i teach natasha? Russian or American animal sounds? I guess I should teach russian as we will send her to a russian preschool when she is old enough- she will learn in English at some point I am sure, and honestly, how often are you asked animal sounds outside of preschool?

If dogs in America said "gav' we would lose our talking dog jokes* which I am sure would be a serious tragedy.

*so a guy and his dog are standing on a street corner. Guy is holding a sign which reads "Fabulous Talking Dog! $100 to hear him speak!" a lady passes by and says "wow! a talking dog! that is Fabulous! Here is $100 - lets hear him speak!" The guy looks at his dog and says "what is the top of a house called?" Dog replies "Roof!" Guy notices lady looking suspicious - "ok" he says, "what does sandpaper feel like?" Dog says "Rough!", Lady is now looking quite angry. Guy says "hold on, one more and you will be convinced! Dog, who was the best baseball player in history?" Dog promptly says "Ruth!" Lady, now furious grabs her money and stomps off, muttering under her breath. Guy looks at the dog with disdain . Dog says "what? Should I have said DiMaggio?"

hilarious, right! :-)

In Which I Take it All Back

2010-04-24T13:43:00.003+03:00

Alright, I admit. I am a baby. I need to grow up. Complaining about not getting out of Moscow when I am going to the US for almost 2 months! Sheesh! Feel free to smack me upside the head and tell me to grow up. I need it sometimes.

So in the midst of my complaining, Leo went and made reservations for us at a little I Don't Know What - resort? outside moscow. Not far - I think about an hour drive out of town depending on traffic. I am not even sure where it is. The webesite states "the hotel, according to experts, it is near Moscow" - I LOVE google translate! An old college friend of Leo's and his family are going and invited us along for the weekend. I am looking forward to it. I looked at their site and they offer swimming pools, massages, paintball, horses, a discoteque, and "deep intestinal cleansing". Hmmm interesting mix, I think I will pass on the last one though.

Hey- it is getting out of the city! Furthest out of town I have been so far is Ikea! ha!

AND later - towards the end of the school year, Ms little girl scout troop is going on an overnight camp out at a dacha. I am really looking forward to some time just me and M. I need to figure something special to do with P - Leo is taking him on his camp out. Maybe a date night with my boy is in order.

Metallica concert was great! We almost had to cancel because our regular sitter couldnt make it. But a friend gave me hooked us up with her nanny. I was really worried about natash, she cries with strangers- but I worried all for naught. Kids said the sitter was great - natash barely cried- all turned out well.

The concert itself was great. It was in a stadium- we had seats - no mosh pit for us this time! :-) Metallica puts on a really good show. James Hetfield interacts well with the audience - really gets people rocking. He talked a bit this concert too, but I told Leo it sounded condescending for some reason. Then Leo reminded me that he was speaking to an audience who, he suspects, doesn't understand him. Oh yeah, ok, makes sense. He was doing a bit of the cave-man way some people speak to foreigners. Very clear, simple, articulate sentences with lots of hand motions. Cute in a way how hard he was trying to make sure people understood him! The audience was great. Metallica has been around for a while so there was a good mix of old and young. The woman next to Leo looked to be early 60s, and the boys behind us looked to be 12 or 13. Only obnoxious guy in the crowd around us was an american guy! ha! We thought if the nanny didnt show up then Leo would take P with him and honestly, after seeing the concert, I think it would have been ok - maybe too loud and late for him to be up. But - they didnt swear (ok some of the song lyrics have bad words, but when talking to the audience there was no swearing - it was all very positive), the crowd was good - we had seats so while everyone stood the whole concert, there wasnt any pushing and shoving, stamping on toes, etc (although the boys behind me kept tapping me on the shoulder and giggling).

I can't imagine writing music (period) and having people all over the world know the lyrics and sing along. Must be an unbelievable feeling.

A friend dropped us off - well Leo told him the wrong stadium, so we took a gypsy cab to the right one. When it was over we took the metro home. As we left the concert, there were crowds of OMOH - . In the perihod (underground crosswalk) they were literally standing shoulder to shoulder. It was weird walking by them. In the metro station (Prospect Mira) they were swarming- crowds of them everywhere. When we changed trains a few stations down we only saw a few security guys.

Not sure if they were protecting me from terrorists, or preventing an unruly heavy metal crowd.

SO - all in all , the experience was very similar to a US concert, but here I smelled less pot - and left surrounded by special forces trained in urban hand to hand combat whose motto is "show no mercy". yikes!

that being said . . .

2010-04-15T09:06:00.007+03:00

Do you watch Curb Your Enthusiasm? Good show. Watch it. Anyway they do a bit on "that being said". How you can make a sweeping statement, then just say "that being said" and say the opposite.

I like living in Moscow. I really do. Aside from being far, hard to get to, hard to get out of, traffic, etc. I feel like I could live here for years and years and still not see all there is to see of this city.

you do need a sense of humor to live here. I still like it. I am not sure I can pinpoint why - it is different, strange, funny, beautiful, ugly. Maybe I like all the contrasts. You never know what is going to happen day to day.

That being said,

I am getting the bug to get out. I dont know what it is about the city (maybe just that it is a big city) but it gets tiring. I have never lived anywhere where I felt like I needed to get out. Ok, well, I havent lived too many places - portland, walla walla (leo and I both went to whitman - I think someone asked once in a comment), seattle, now moscow.

It is not an easy city to live in and it wears you down.

I think part of it is so many of my facebook friends are posting things like "just purchased my tickets for . . ." (insert dream destination). I am happy for them. really.

I have resigned myself to the fact that we are not vacation goers. Yeah, come back to the US for christmas and summer. Aside from that, not so much. We would like to be vacation goers. We talk about going places. But it never happens. something (life?) always gets in the way. I think if leo came home and had tickets to some vacation destination (anywhere!) - mind you not just talk about it, or email me a link to some great place like he often does (this kills me - look at this fabulous place! look into going there! but no, dont buy tickets!)- but actually have tickets, and the time off work - I think I would faint! it is what it is.

AND I havent firmed up plans for the summer. We plan on going to portland to stay with my parents, but I am still waiting to get Ms summer surgery scheduled (I am sure I have mentioned - she was born with cleft lip and palate and this summer they are FINALLY closing the hole in the roof of her mouth!!) I sent an email yesterday -(I have been sending emails since Dec trying to get it scheduled) and am anxious to get it scheduled so I can make our summer plans. At least if I know - ok this date we are leaving, I can cling to that.

Of course we are talking about going somewhere- doing something as a family this summer-maybe mexico? hawaii? yes yes Kat, look into it! (but I know, and you know, we wont!)

AND Leo came home the other day, bless his heart, and said- oh I may have to go to St Petes next thurs, why dont we all go for a long weekend. JOY! nice. except when I reminded him that he bought tickets months ago for Metallica. Performing that weekend. see what I mean? vacations just never actually work out - life gets in the way I guess.

Curses Metallica for ruining my long weekend in St Petersburg!!! (shaking my fist)

How petty and spoiled am I complaining about not going on vacation? shame on me! grow up!

That being said,

I am looking forward to the concert. I can pretend I am in America (I do this when we do not- russiany things, like go to a chinese restaurant, or or Starbucks - pretend I am in the US, and oh look, someone at the next table is speaking russian!) . I am not a HUGE metallica fan, like leo who earned his 10 year member pin of the fan club - a few years ago - yes, leo and every other 16 year old boy. But I do like them and they put on an excellent show.

AND there are some good concerts coming up in May, I saw a billboard for Cranberries. I like them. I am a sucker for accents and she sings with a lovely irish accent. Chris Isaak is also coming. no accent, but a crooner, and cute.

AND the weather is getting nicer.

AND I have been making some really nice friends.

Bulbs are coming up!

Moscow is in the midst of the clean up - everything gets a fresh coat of pain, everything is cleaned, etc.

I feel like, having been here a year now, I can anticipate a bit - I know May the heat will go off and fountains will go on, June is pukh and no hot water season! July and August are lovely, warm, not crowded months.

Like I said, things here are good.

We are a bit anxious about Ms surgery. It is a 2 parter. Surgery #1, then 3 weeks later #2. And it sounds gross. Luckily it is not too intense. I think both will be pretty quick. Not like her 9 hr lip repair, or 6 hour first palate repair. i am hoping they wont need to put her under for part 2.

She is pretty nervous, poor girl.

That being said (tired of the phrase yet?)

she is also looking forward to it. I think it will help her speech AND a nice side effect of having a hole between your mouth and nose is that food particles end up irritating her nasal passage and giving her a permanent crusty nose. Not fun for a first grade girl to constantly have to clean gunk out of her nose.

I am so proud of her. (even though she is in the midst of the 7 year old eye rolling, sighing, too cool phase)

Just for my record as I am not a good mama and dont have a baby book for natasha:

natasha is saying some words! yeah! we have so far - mama, leo, pab-le, babia, yiayia, papoo, lena - ok all names. but she also says (I only count if she says it on her own - not repeating me - more than once) bubble, pop, ball, tickle, baby, and burp (really! say says it after she burps, or has gas - a result of having older siblings!). she can answer what does monkey say? lion say? and pig say? but only if she is in the mood, of course. I have a feeling this summer she is going to get chatty! I am excited!

New Traditions

2010-04-02T12:46:00.016+03:00

So life goes on. I would like to walk over to one of the stations and put some flowers down. Seems appropriate. Maybe Sat we will walk over. For now I am still walking where I need to go. And the weather has been sooo nice.

I looked up some news to see if there was any new information on the bombings. Seems depends where you look. Some sources say the Chechen leader took responsibility for the bombings, another said he denied responsibility. The head of the Russian Security Council alleges Georgia was in league with the northern caucasus. Still other papers say it was an inside job. From what the papers say one of the bombers waS 17! Not a woman, a girl, still a child herself.

Feels a bit like the city is holding its breath, waiting to see if there will be more.

sigh.

Moving on, as life does go on.

So I think I mentioned that I am Greek - I was raised Greek Orthodox, so the whole lent thing, and Easter typically falling on a different day than "Western Easter" (or what we called "easter bunny easter") is normal for me. Althought this year falls on the same day - no discount left over easter candy for the little greek boys and girls in the US! :-)

however, I havent gone to church regularly since I was 17 and moved away to college. Alas, no orthodox church (at the time) in Walla Walla. Then I got married. to a nice jewish boy, and the rest is history. Kind of put me on the outs with the church. I guess you could say my faith is orthodox while I do not belong to any religion.

Anyway, back in our previous life in the US I did passover - yes the whole seder meal - I have the special platter and the books, we would drink our kosher wine. etc. Then we would go to my parents for easter - well greek easter, we really didnt do anything for western easter.

So here we are in Russia. I didnt do anything this year for seder. I dont know why.

honestly I forgot.

I know!

Terrible.

I didnt forget about easter, but since I havent ever done anything on my own for it, it almost passed me by too. But not today!

Today I dyed eggs the traditional greek red. I used yellow onion skins. just boil the skins of about 10 yellow onions for 30 minutes, let cool, then boil the eggs in the dye. Here are the instructions I used.

Some photos for your viewing pleasure. I used white eggs, and 2 brown ones (out of curiosity).

Onion skins boiling

cooling dye (it is orange! - like my pot)

Before and after - can you tell the brown ones? two upper left - think I will do all brown next year.

all shiny and oiled - the far left 2 are the brown eggs.

I also made tsoureki today (Greek Easter break). I doubled this recipe. thought I would make a few small loaves.

waiting to go in the oven. . .

So with the red eggs, the easter bread, we plan on going to the outside portion of the easter church service sat night - that pretty much seems like good traditions to start. i think I will make a pork roast for dinner sun night.

The only thing I didnt do is go to the store and get the kids some easter candy. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow I can sneak out and pick some up.

Yeah I was busy today. Did I mention I had sausage delivered today too? Yes! From this site. I swear you can have anything delivered in Moscow (remember when I had dry ice delivered?)! So minimum order is 3000 rubles. Sure, no problem! I email Leo that I ordered 3150 rubles worth of sausage. he emailed me back - you know, that is $1oo worth of sausage?

oh.

hmm.

Well - here is what $100 worth of sausage looks like - I ordered American Breakfast Sausage - new Orleans Spicy Sausage, Cocktail Sausage, Thai Chicken sausage, Spicy Moroccan Lamb, Spicy Lamb Mergez (?), and "premium" sausage.

good thing there is room in my freezer!

ALSO today the piano tuner came. Apparently the kids piano teacher thought it needed tuning. He has been here a while - she told me it could take 3 -4 hours. Wow. Anyway - he came in a suit with lots of little tools.

I was in the kitchen braiding the bread and natasha was playing away on the kitchen floor. then she wandered out. I finished my loaf then went in search of her. I found her standing next to Piano Tuner. just standing. Next to him. her arm around his leg. He was just tuning away like he didnt even realize she was there. uhm, natasha - lets go play in the kitchen and leave Piano Guy alone. then a few hours later (yeah he was here that long) I fixed her a snack. She took her plate and headed out of the kitchen. Into the living room. I followed to see what she would do. She walked in, walked up to Piano Guy and held out her plate - as in "want some?" pretty funny esp since she spilled her pieces of buttered toast, leaving a trail behind her.

Then she just ran around looking at the guy through her Ikea plate.

Funny how kids are drawn to some people.

Especially people who pay them no attention.

Stunned

2010-03-29T18:06:00.002+03:00

What can I say?

I am sure you heard the news -

the bombings on the moscow metro.

A station near us.

My family is safe.

2 female suicide bombers.

Women.

Why does that seem worse to me?

Who said if women ruled the world there would be no more war, no more hate?

Would they hesitate if they saw me on the metro with my baby?

or a child?

Would they blink?

Breaks my heart.

Prayers for the victims, their families, the 2 women and their families.

yes, these children are mine,

2010-03-28T09:42:00.006+03:00

So people have been moving out of our building like rats off a sinking ship. however, yesterday I saw a new man. where did he come from? where does he live?

M played a bit outside while she was waiting for P to come home from boy scouts (she doesnt know what to do with herself when P isnt around!). Anyway, she comes in and right behind her is a man. mid 50s/early 60s maybe. I think he is heading for the elevator and start to shut the door, but no. He apparently wants to chat. So he starts speaking Russian. Says something about the entrance door to our building. It is 2 double doors, most people just open one of each of the double doors to go in or out of the building. The doors are narrow. My stroller is wide. Get what I am saying? I open both sets so I can fit.

Ok, stay with me here - there is a long metal hook which locks the front set of doors to the back. If you are thin and can fit through just one door, no worries. If you have a fat stroller, you need to unlatch the hook to open the second set of doors. The hook is hanging on by 2 screws. barely.

This mysterious new man motions me out of my apartment to show me the door. look - he says - see the door? he talks and talks - like the teacher on charlie brown - wha wha wa wahhh- Ok - I see - but is he blaming me for the unhinging of the screws? is he just pointing it out for fun? what is he getting at? I dont know! Admittedly I am a little defensive. Over the summer an old lady yelled at me for propping the doors open, which I didn't and I told her so. Now our building has a big sign in russian about not propping the doors open. He talks and talks. After a while, he asks if I understand. No, I say, I speak only a little russian. Why! This is terrible! You must speak russian! I reply meekly - I am trying. Can I run back into my apartment now? he says in english - "hello - my name is a(mumble mumble - he almost whispers his name)" "hello", I say my name is katherine" "what?" " I say in russian - "my name is katherine" he seems satisfied though perplexed. He says - I live and points up.

I think I am home free - I say nice to meet you, dasvidanya and head to my door. Wait he says - do you understand about the door? I say no. He rings the old lady in the apartment across from us - this is the lady whose beloved dog, anton, was hit by a car last thanksgiving. She told me, her eyes full of tears - and i replied "извините" - excuse me (like when you want to get someones attention - excuse me, miss, where is the toilet paper? excuse me, I have better things to do than listen to tales of your dog.)- thinking it was the same as I'm sorry - as in I am sorry for your loss.

yeah. sigh.

Anyway - he rings her door, she opens and he turns to me and says in russian - you dont understand me, maybe you will understand her.

uhm. not likely.

you see, sir, it is not YOU I dont understand, it is your LANGUAGE!

God bless babies, N started crying, I mumbled something about needing to go and closed the door.

Weird story, right?

It gets weirder!

So Leo comes home and I tell him how this funny guy thought that since i couldnt understand him, that I would understand the neighbor lady, har har we share a chuckle.

We head out for a walk with the family - it was 50 yesterday! and sunny! I wore a jacket! (not my snow coat!), same guy appears. Introduces himself to Leo - Leo has to ask him 3 or 4 times for his name, then ends up asking if he has a card (everyone has a card here!) because he literally drops to a whisper when he says his name. He shows leo the door, blah blah. He just wanted all the residents to see it, he says something like "we are all residents of this building united, and if we work together, we can overcome this obstacle!" like he used to write propaganda posters or something - Leo says something like - just hire a guy to fix it and we will pay our share.

So we leave, Leo comments the guy was a little drunk. Leo also thought it was funny the guys asked and was surprised to find out Leo speaks english. What a weirdo- Leo says - how does he think I communicate with you?

When we return, maybe 3 hours later - he comes and rings the bell again! I think he sits up one flight of stairs and harasses everyone who comes in!

He brings up the door, once again, and Leo once again tells him that we are on board with whatever repair plan he has, just let us know how much we owe.

As leo is closing the door, the man says - "I will also discuss this matter with your employees"

what? says Leo. "With your employees - I will discuss this with them on Monday" Leo says I dont have any employees. the man says yes, you do - the woman who runs the dyetski sad (preschool) in this apartment. Leo says - there is no dyetski sad here - that is my wife, and those are my children.

The man nods, winks, leans in and half whispers- ok, we can call them that if you want.

better the devil you know

2010-03-21T18:48:00.010+02:00

So we did something I swore we wouldnt do for at least another 5 years. Yes we caved and bought the kids a cell phone. I know! I hate the kids and their phones. They didnt even ask for one. I did. They have such a long bus ride home, and now they are each starting an after school activity so will be coming on the later bus twice a week and me and my paranoid parenting need to feel they can reach me, and I them in case, oh I dont know, they miss the bus, or traffic gets snarled because some hackers posted porn videos on a video billboard, or traffic gets snarled because a cache of over 900 WWII undetonated bombs are found during water utility maintenance work, you know, things like that.

Anyway we got them one for emergencies only, to be kept in P's backpack only, not to be taken out unless an emergency, get the idea? i think it will be a good way for P to feel responsible too. And, if he shows it off at school or calls random people, then M gets to carry it. Nothing like your little sister getting to do something cool like carry a cell phone to keep you on the straight and narrow, right?

In other news, we decided to sign on for another year in our apartment. First, we hate the idea of moving. And all things considered it is a good place. Cant beat the gated yard. nice playground. good floor plan. Lots of sq footage. And, you never know what you get in another apartment. I know this one and can live with it. So Leo signed the documents, went to work the next morning and the entire plumbing in our previously operational bathroom (not the one with water leaking from the ceiling) went to hell. Water from the shower draining from under the toilet? yikes! Plumbers come, remove the toilet! craw up and down the manhole outside the apartment, then tromp in and out through the kitchen, through the bathroom. Good thing I just cleaned the floors - ha ha!

So after the first day they leave - I peek in the bathroom. I wish I hadn't. There was a hole in the floor. I saw water gurgle up, flooding the floor soaking the bathmats and towels on the floor, then gurgle down.

Next day them come back, work some more. No one even makes eye contact with me. I think our landlord is with them, does he introduce himself. not so much. Anyway, they work hard, so no big deal. 1 approaches and I need to deliver something to Leos office by 1:30. What to do? I dont want to leave them in the apt while I go out. So I approach who I think is the landlord supervising things (did I mention there are no fewer that 5 men working on this little project?). Anyway, I sheepishly say - excuse me Извините пожалуйста. He looks at me shocked I can speak, I proceed I need to go, but will be home in 20 minutes- нада идти, ну быдy дома 20 миныт. Ok, so there are like a million ways to use the verb to go - go by foot is different than go by car, so I use the by foot one, I think. So he blinks. crap - he doesnt understand me. He announces to the men standing there "она хочет идти гулять" she wants to go for a stroll. uhm, well not exactly. I actually need to go somewhere. I got things to do mister besides go for a stroll. (actually I needed to get JJJs poster to the DHL guy, but whatev). OK, I think about saying, not that verb - to go for a stroll, the verb to go by foot. but, ok, I pass, let it go. so what. He thinks I am some crazy american woman who needs to stroll around in the afternoon. So they talk, they say 5 minutes и бсе (and finished). OK. So 5 minutes later they leave. I am not sure if they are бсе бсе or just бсе for the day....... that was friday. today is monday. maybe they will come, maybe not. I will have Leo call. I did spend a good hour cleaning the bathroom, me and Mr Proper (Mr Cleans russian twin). I ended up tossing the bathmats and towels that they used to sop up the water. I just cant find water hot enough to kill whatever septic water they were soaking in.

well, it is an excuse to go to Ikea and get some new towels!

Potluck

2010-03-16T14:11:00.006+02:00

So I signed up for a monthly potluck lunch group. We met today. The theme was St Patricks Day - Make something green. I made some spinach hachapuri* (turned out yummy by the way).

anywho, I was packing up, getting read to go and Lena (my 2 morning a week nanny) asked what I was doing.

"Oh, I am going to a potluck"

"what is this 'potluck'?"

"it is where you get together at someones house and each person brings a dish to share"

(frowning) "you bring your own food?"

"well yeah, but everyone shares"

"oh! I saw this on an American Movie! everyone walking in holding pots of food!" (miming people walking holding pots and laughing)

"yeah - thats it. Potlucks are great!" (feeling a little defensive - no one mocks the potluck!) I explain that they are great for schools or churches, large groups/family reunions, everyone brings something and there is enough for everyone, you get to try new food, no one person has to cost or time burden of having to feed everyone, etc.

"why is it called 'potluck?'"

"because you are lucky if you get your pot back?" I say chuckling- har har, I know. Lena didnt see the joke.

Then I make my mistake.

I say "they are also really nice if you want to have a party, or people over, but dont want all the work of having to prepare everything, you just make a main dish, then call it a potluck and thats it - easy peasy"

"Kat" she says solemnly shaking her head (I even think I heard a tongue click) "this is not Russian. . . . . At. All."

While I am at it, I go all in and explain to her about how once in Seattle I had a couple of Russian families over for dinner and made the mistake of serving the food buffet style. Also not Russian, at. all. One of the women politely told me that I must serve the food to each person. whoops. Lena remarks as she shakes her head that she has also seen this manner of serving food in an American movie.

So one of the things I thought was funny about this was that she had at least seen the idea of potlucks in movies. She noticed it. I probably saw the same movie and didnt even think - oh a potluck. She saw it and thought about it, and remembered it. Crazy Americans making people bring their own food to a party, making them get their own food!

Frankly I prefer to serve myself. That way I have the option of taking what I want, as little or as much, without the pressure of having to eat everything on my plate so as not to offend the hostess. I like it, so I like to provide my guests with the same option. You know what you want to eat better than I do, so take what you want, leave what you want.

Apparently no very russian. at. all.

*(I use nigella lawsons recipe from her book Feast. I just added chopped spinach that I previously wrapped in a dishtowel and squeezed all the liquid out of and some sauteed onions.)

signs signs everywhere signs.

2010-03-15T07:41:00.006+02:00

Oh. My. God. I was folding laundry just now and as I shook Ps pants to fold them a cockroach flew out. a HUGE one. Like the size of my thumb. I grabbed N and ran out. Then I went back in armed with a bottle of Bam! and sprayed the sucker. It then burrowed into the clean clothes.

What to do?

I need to rewash everything on hot hot water to kill any eggs (oh I am shuddering) but I dont want to go in there . . . .I cringe and I squirm. yuk! As I type a roach is crawling through our clothes. I just put a load in so it will be about 2 hours before I can start another (yeah it takes that long to wash). The pile of clean clothes waiting to be folded is about 3 loads (ok, so I am a little behind). I dont even want to touch the clothes.

It is a sign.

Not the first.

the other night water poured from the ceiling down the bathroom wall, a lot of water. Not the bathroom water was leaking from before - the "good" bathroom. At the same time (I kid you not) water poured from the AC in the kitchen. About 2 gallons of water.

we have had ongoing issues with water leaking from the ceiling and light fixture in or other bathroom. The plumber figured out that it leaks when the upstairs toilet is flushed. nice. did he fix it? no! he told the upstairs neighbor to not use that toilet. hell, they are moving out anyway - why waste time fixing it?

a totally different plumber shows up the other day to check if we have hot water (apparently one of the apartments above us doesnt). He tells Leo (over the phone, they show up and I think they are here to repair one of the many ceiling leaks and when they go into the kitchen I call Leo to see what they are up to) that they will remont the whole plumbing system in the building. thank god I think at first. Now I wonder what it will mean for us? Will people be working at night? will they shut off our water? tear out walls? what exactly does this remont entail.

The plumbers note that we dont have hot water in the kitchen. Of course not. We have never had hot water in the kitchen! This is nothing new. while I am at it, my stove doesnt work (well, it half works, heat comes from the bottom, but not the top, so the bottom burns and top is raw).

all signs I tell you.

telling us to move.

Now, dont get me wrong, there are certain things I like about our apartment. the size - it is big. The layout works for us (believe me, there are some funky layouts here - like ones where you have to go through a bedroom to get to the living room or another bedroom, or kitchens on the opposite side of anywhere you could possible fit a table). Our layout works. and the biggest plus is we have a nice, gated yard with a playground. Something happened a while back where our commandant (the one who hated kids) left and suddenly a playground appeared in her place. I can send the big kids outside to play by themselves. they are gated in and I can see them through the window.

It just to happens our lease is up and Leo went to negotiate with landlords lady for next year and that is when the trouble started. He wanted to increase the rent. Leo said no. After a few days landlord agreed to not increasing (I mean come on, so many expats have left, so many empty apartments, not exactly a market for increasing rent). So he agreed, but we havent seen the agreement yet. (another sign?)

So Leo has me looking at apartments online. There are quite a lot in out price range meeting our size/location needs. But in order to see any of them, the agents want us to sign an agreement that we will use their agency exclusively, and will pay them one months rent at the time of signing. Yeah, I dont think so. A months rent for showing me an apartment I found doing a simple search? on top of the commission they are getting from the landlord? If push comes to shove and we end up needing to find a new place, I guess gotta do what you gotta do, but sheesh. I have a lead on a independent agent that charges a flat fee, so we may end up calling her.

So that is where we are. I am finding more and more wrong with this place (ie cockroaches roaming through my laundry) and at the same time, not wanting the hassle or expense of moving. The grass is always greener, right.

So that is that. Hopefully we will get it resolved. Maybe leo can get exterminator negotiated into the new lease. I know we have them because of all the plumbing problems. It is all related. They are drawn to water and we have water dripping from the ceiling. there you go.

Otherwise all is well here :-)

Trying to figure out more transportation issues with the kids. They really want to do scouts and of course they meet different days of the week. Per our agreement with the school bus, they can take the late bus home, but only together - the bus wont make 2 trips to our house - so they will each have to sit around while the other is in their scout meeting. P can do it. He can read or do his homework. And he wont have to wait that long because Ms school days ends 30 min before Ps so he will only have to wait 45 min. M on the other hand will have to sit around 2 hours and I just dont see her being able to. I hate to let one do an activity and not the other.

To every problem there is a solution, right? I just need to find it.

Ok. now it is time to arm myself with a flip flop and head into the laundry. I gotta track down that roach- cant stand the thought of it crawling around in there. blek. oh part of me hopes I dont find it, the other part worries what if I dont find it - where is it?

Babbitry of household work

2010-03-08T12:28:00.010+02:00

1932 Soviet poster for March 8th.

8th of March is the day of the rebellion of the working women against the kitchen slavery" (In Red)

say NO to the oppression and babbitry of the household work! (in grey)

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Women's_Day.

Here are photos of posters up today (ok, yesterday, I was a little late on posting):

hmmm. I guess times have changed.

Anyway.

We had a nice weekend. Did our taxes. repaired our broken vacuum. made grammar charts. you know - wild and crazy stuff.

Leo bought me "some kind of dried fruit" What it is is a mystery. Care to hazard a guess?

Ok - so small, round, yellow, small seeds inside like a fig, but smaller, and yellower than a fig. Also I am not entirely convinced it is "dried" more like candied, or jellied. the skin is soft and translucent. sweet - good with tea.

If you know, let me know because I haven't a clue!

Bated Breath

2010-03-03T14:33:00.006+02:00

We have a winner!

I used random.org

Lucky 6!

counted down 6 participating comments and . . .

JoJo Julz, Julianne you are a winner!!

yay! email me your address and I will send you your prize (you can also find me on facebook)

katbat1(at)msn(dot)com

What did JJJ win?

This lovely poster I picked up today:

I am sure I mentioned I am in the American Women's Organization here in Moscow. The AWO helps raise money for Nastenka , a charitable foundation helping children with cancer. Nastenka raises money for hospitals to purchase much needed medical equipment, medicine, etc, helps financially support families of children being treated, spreads sunshine by bringing entertainment etc to the hospitals, etc. An all around good organization.

Anyway, an AWO member (I think she has since moved back to the US) went around moscow, took some photos, and made the alphabet poster, had them printed, signed them all and are available for purchase, all proceeds donated to Nastenka.

So now all I need to do is find a cardboard mailing tube and get to the post office!!

thanks for playing!

:-)

C - really? 100 posts?

2010-03-01T08:15:00.003+02:00

100th post! woo woo!

In keeping with blogging tradition leave a comment- I will randomly select and send you something- oooh oooh a package from Moscow!

hmmmm, maybe say something russian-y (something nice of course) - if you have been - or are here - your favorite place, if you havent been - what you would like to see, what draws you to russian culture, what sights/sounds/smells remind you of russia, how has your impression of russian life changed over time - you get the idea - anything russian-y.

as for time frame - just leave a comment before my next post - so that gives you at least 4 or 5 days! haha!

take care and thanks for reading!

kat.

beepbeepnbeepbeep yeah!

2010-02-26T16:16:00.007+02:00

sigh.

I miss my car.

now dont get the wrong impression.

Dont go telling Leo I want a car.

I dont.

Not here.

Not even a little bit.

Well, maybe just a little bit. but not really. A car here seems to be a hassle. Not the same as in the US. I love driving. I really miss it. I miss the freedom, the ease of driving in the US, seattle driving is beautiful - you can see the mountains, the water, trees. . . . .

The kids have had the week off of school. They have been EXCELLENT. After their monstrous behavior at Pancho Villa last weekend I laid into them. Gave them the old talkin to. You know the one. I got it in Kindergarten. I remember it clearly. I came home from school, maybe the first day. I waited until dinner to share my great news. I burst with "there is a kid in my class whose last name is snyder!!! hahahahahha isnt that the funniest name EVER!! snyder!! hahahahha" ok. so not really that funny thinking back, but remember, up until that point I was around greeks. with greek names. names 10 to 15 letters long, starting in pappa and ending in annis or iou, etc. Those names were normal to me. Who had a last name like snyder? snicker snicker? I had to share.

Did my family share my amusement? no! My dad gave me the talk. The "you are a Bxxxxxxxxxis, you represent the family, the honor and respect the the entire family is on your shoulders every time you leave the house. Your actions represent not only you, but all of us, all of greece" Holy Crap! "we do not make fun of other people's names! in fact other people will make fun of your name?" (huh? thinks little me? why?!)

Shaped me right up. I was scared. I carried the burden of representing my family forever. I still think of it. So I whipped it out with my kids. They not only represent the Bat family, but all of America!! I even pulled the "others will think poorly of me as a mother" bit. Yes I did. Mother guilt. golden. Then I threatened to never take them out again and I think they got the picture.

Anyway. they have been good this week. Playing with each other for hours and hours, playing outside in the snow for hours and hours, playing with Tushi, helping me. It has been great. They are happy to stay home. They never ask to go out anywhere. I think because P and M are really best friends, and because they have such a long day at school, they really miss playing together, so this week was catch-up week.

I started thinking. I know. trouble. I need to stop doing this, but I started thinking about what would we do if we were in seattle. like I said, trouble. I would probably take the kids and drive to my parents for a couple days. ak, why do I let my mind wander? Then I started thinking I would drive them out on I90 to snoqualmie. Take them sledding. See the mountains. Then we would drive back. Maybe stop and get some cocoa on the way home. We could take the ferry over to Bainbridge to see some old friends, spend the day over there.

Now, to be fair, I could take them ice skating here. the rink isnt far. but snoqualmie has trees, and green, and mountains, and fresh air. And I could dive. Which in and of itself is so nice. I really enjoy driving. Especially in Seattle where it is sooo pretty. Again, i have no desire to drive here. I dont think I would find it relaxing. at all. quite the opposite.

We could get a cab and go out of the city for the day. Nice, but not the point. With a car, in the US, I could go where and when I wanted, in the middle of the week, in the middle of the day. I did not have to rely on anyone else. I probably wouldnt even tell Leo I was going. Maybe call him from the road. The point I guess is not the thing, but what it represents - freedom and independence.

Then I get an email from one of Ps friends. Can he come over for a play date? I would LOVE him to. But I dont know how I would work it out. His friend lives next to the school. They take a bus home. Together. I cant figure how I would work it- I guess wait for M to get home, then take a cab with M and Natasha to pick him up? I just cant work out a reasonable plan. I think I will just invite the family over maybe Sat or the next weekend. Not the same as a play date, but I guess better than nothing.

Did I mention that most of his friends in seattle lived in walking distance? that the school was in walking distance? ugh, see, there I go again.

Moscow is great. dont believe me? look at the pictures in the previous post. It really is beautiful. I do enjoy living here. City life is fun, lots going on, lots to do and see.

I just miss my car.

technical question

2010-02-25T14:47:00.001+02:00

ok - anyone know how I can post pics so you can click on them and they open up larger in another window. Seems in my older posts, my photos did that, but now they dont. . . . not sure what changed.

thanks!

This Week in Pictures

2010-02-24T15:55:00.017+02:00

Sat Leo and I went out without the kids. We went to kalina bar. We had a really nice time. Leo was afraid we would run out of things to talk about just the two of us since we are always focused on the kids, but we managed to keep the conversation rolling. ha! We sat in the very romantic moroccan room - semi private, couches, etc. That was fun, but part of the entertainment is people watching. It was nice to dress up and go out, nice to enjoy my meal without having to feed a baby, nice to order a meal based on what I would like to eat as opposed to what natasha could eat off my plate.

Sun we decided to go to Pancho Villa. what can I say about it. I will give it mixed reviews. We went and there was some confusion about our table, nay. They brought some kind of frothy orange drink for the kids (and didnt charge us!) yay. Brought some of the food quickly -yay. took FOREVER to bring leo and my food (I think they forgot to put the order in?)- nay. Gave kids a toy to play with -yay. kids broke it ,nay. brought balloons for the kids - yay. kids were wild -nay nay. kids made me crazy -blah!. Kids were banned from ever going to a restaurant again. ever. We ended up asking them to box our food and left. We ate it the next day and it was pretty good. So - good for kids (had a highchair too), slow service, decent food (not what I would call "american style" mexican, but no mayo in my fajita and the salsa was good).

Next day it was cold.

I made tortillas (not really - I made them fri night). I was wanting mexican food and even though I knew we were going to a mexican place that sun, I made my own fri night. That way I wouldnt be craving it when we went, thus not disappointed if it wasnt good. see how I plan ahead?

we had some snow. yep there is a car somewhere under there.

Decided to go to the toy shop and get the kids a sled. I had my doubts but we made it down this perihod (переход) and then back up the other side. (by the way, it is the stroller that makes this difficult. walking is no problem - I have no issues otherwise with perihods. - see what I did? just added an s to a russian word to make it plural. hahaha) turns out it is easier to not use the ramp. P helped me bump the stroller down and up the steps. He is a good son.

got to the toy shop and guess what? no sleds! so we had пончики. they look like donuts. They come in 3 varieties : классические, оригинальные, and особые. Classic, original and special. pretty funny. I didnt know what особые meant so I ordered 3 classic, and 3 original. Can you tell the difference? I guess the "original" has a bigger hole? tasted pretty much the same to us. kind of good if you are looking for sweet, oily, doughy.

came home.

P and Tushi shared some love. nice to have a big brother.

Next day (Tues) was Defenders of the Fatherland Day - I think originally it was Red Army Day, then a day to celebrate anyone who "defended the fatherland" now it is men's day - as opposed to women's day in March.

the sun was shining so we decided to head out again and pick up a cake for leo.

I saw these and remembered that I learned a new word. What would we call these in the English? "piles of snow"? maybe "snowdrift" - but I always thought a snowdrift was a naturally occurring pile of snow. Anyway, russians have a word for "pile of snow" сугроб. Maybe I am wrong - I dont know - I am not from a snowy part of the US. I am not familiar with the lingo. Anyway. here are some сугробы. or maybe you prefer sugrobs?

that was taken in front of the TACC building. First time I saw it I said "wow, that building is kind of ugly." I got a deep sigh from Leo. "This is an important historical building!" It is THE central news agency. Ok, sorry. I still think it is not that attractive. What do you think? nice blue sky though.

Here are some photos from around the area showing a sunny snowy moscow.

I dont know the name of this church. It is "the big yellow church where Pushkin got married"

Russian style air condition. hahahaha

thought the sky looked pretty blue - to pink, sun on the steeples.

Conservatory

here are some random kids playing in the snowdrifts.

Here is my favorite from yesterday. Secret Moscow. see the shadow. from the street could not see what was making it. I just know there is a beautiful old church hidden in that alley . . . ahhh, not a russian church at all. P just informed me it is the anglican church casting the shadow. hmmm. secret and surprise.

tea time

2010-02-19T14:28:00.004+02:00

I have been dreading going to the grocery store. The nearest grocery stores require dragging the stroller up and down stairs - icy, slippery stairs. So I have been avoiding. We do have some groceries delivered. Last week I put in an order. The total was around 5000 rbls (I was ordering a lot). When they delivered it was less than 2000 rbls. Meaning they brought less than half what I ordered. Makes meal planning hard.

Anway, I was chatting with a friend today and she mentioned a grocery she was walking to. hmmmm she doesnt live far from me, where is it? walking distance! and no perihod! (the icy stairs leading to the underground crosswalks) why did it take me living here 10 months to figure this out? To be fair, I had been to this grocery once before, but it was the first week I was here, and we had been walking around for over an hour, so I didnt realize where it was, or where I was for that matter. Anyway I went today.

Nice grocery! I found most of what I was looking for - but didnt see any nutella or peanutbutter. I find the jelly/jam/honey section. look look look, no nutella or peanut butter. OK, maybe they dont sell it. I decide to ask. I really want peanut butter - the kids will be on break next week from school and I need to make lunches at home for them. Excuse me, у бас ест nutella? (do you have). She looks at me blankly. Nutella? I ask again. I think, maybe I am pronouncing it wrong. How many ways are there to say Nutella? maybe nootl-a? that just sounds ridiculous. So then I say in Russian - like chocolate cream. for on bread (I make a spreading motion). she thinks. Then says "you make a sandwich and eat it with tea?" (she didnt exactly say sandwich - she used the word "buterbrot" - pronounced german-y like booterbrot - which is sometimes used for sandwich -used for sandwich on roseatta stone!, but I think it can mean any bread with something on it - I know for example bread with butter and caviar is called buterbrot) umm. I guess so. I say yes. She tells me to go into the room with boxes of assorted chocolates. yes, they have a whole room devoted to boxes of chocolates. ok. Sure enough - nutella AND peanut butter!! woop!

Bolshoi

2010-02-17T11:12:00.004+02:00

I have been meaning for a few days now to write about my little tour of the Bolshoi Theater. I went with an AWO group - found out about it late, but squeezed in when someone else cancelled. We met up here - Le Pain Quotidien. Ok, yum! Very cute place, they are all over - check the map - this one is on a fancy shmancy pedestrian street off Tverskaya. I arrived a bit late to order breakfast from the menu as the other ladies had, so I just had coffee and munched a croissant. Their food is beautiful. Their menu says things like "healthy breakfast" with "natural ingredients." Yogurt parfaits with fresh baked granola, eggs, breads, everything looked yummy. I took note. We are going to try and go sat or sun morning. I wonder if they will be super crowded. hmmm, maybe will have to go early (yeah fat chance of getting the family out early on a sat morning) or later in the afternoon (more likely). M will love their hot chocolate. It comes with a huge bowl (like a cereal bowl) of steamed frothy milk and a teacup size cup of melted chocolate to mix in. I can see her closing her eyes and mmmmmm-ing.

Oh yeah, Bolshoi. So after we all gathered, in front of the theater we were met by our tour guide. Expatresse went on a similar tour and we saw many of the same things. Read hers. Although I missed Vladimir.

Before we entered, the tour guide whispers to us "I have 2 pairs of child size ballet slippers for sale! Very rare!" - the theater makes their own ballet slippers, they are stamped on the bottom. Why is she whispering? One woman says "oh I will buy them!" she hands over the cash, tour guide hands over a carefully wrapped package - "put this in the bottom of your bag!" she says urgently "they may xray it!" "um, ok" says the purchaser. We all joke that we will write her if she is hauled off. At the end of the tour, another woman asks to buy the second pair - "ok! give me the money now - I will give you the slippers outside!" she is told, again in a whisper. Not sure why it was so discreet. Some kind of blackmarket ballet slipper exchange.

Coolest part we actually got to see part of a rehearsal. It was the very famous opera Eugene Onegin (poem by Pushkin, music by Tchaikovsky - 2 most famous and beloved Russians!). We in fact saw the famous "letter scene" in which a young Tatyana confesses her love for Onegin in a letter. In a nutshell, she loves him, writes him a letter, he rejects her, years later he sees her - she of course is married and beautiful, who is she, he thinks? oh! he is in love!, he writes her a letter, she rejects him. the end. I told Leo that I saw part of an opera that was a Pushkin poem. He guessed immediately what it was, and knew the scene I described. I am always impressed that all Russians know their literature, ballet, opera, poetry, classical music, etc. Even the poor kids growing up in siberia know it. They are a very cultured people, and very proud. Honestly, I have never been to a ballet, or opera, I think I went to the symphony on a school field trip once.

So we see this tiny wisp of a girl on stage, she starts singing and her voice fills the theater. Amazing. We go out and are told that that night will be her first performance ever. they are very excited to have her as usually, in opera, not much attention is paid to the performers physical attributes, and often this part is played by, more, um, rotund women. They are excited to have a great singer, who "looks the part".

Cool.

There was a lot of winking and laughing about when the original (well not original - that burned down twice) but the old bolshoi, which has been under renovation for 6 years now, will open. "we hope to continue to hope that in a year it will open" I love it. They dont hope it will open in a year, they hope they can hold onto the hope. Once it opens, the old theater will show the classics "Swan Lake" and the new will show more avant-garde. Apparently, Russians prefer classics and have not been too receptive of newer ballets and operas ("they are not on the stage long" we were told). The two will be connected with underground passages so sets, costumes, rehearsal space, etc can be shared. Right now, as there is Opera on the stage, the ballet group "has free time" and are able to travel around Russia to perform and around the globe (I believe they were in Washington DC recently?) which is also new for them.

It was a nice tour, some interesting history.

Go if you get a chance, if not, then at least go to le pain quotidien!

Lenten Menu

2010-02-15T17:31:00.001+02:00

In honor of the start of Lent, an ad from The Moscow Times:

Coyote Ugly. The first bar in Russia with real dance shows performed by naughty "coyotes" and ardent guests. The best happy hour in the city takes place daily from 6om to 9pm. Every Monday we host dance lessons on the bar, Tuesdays are Expat nights, on Wednesday girls get a free cocktail, and Thursdays are body shot nights. Lenten Menu.

Sorry this is a repeat facebook friends! I just can't get over how funny this is.

I think I'm Being Tailed.

2010-02-15T14:37:00.015+02:00

When we were kids we had this Pink Panther toy. It was plastic and had a string in the back. When you pulled it, it said things -I think maybe the mouth moved? Anyway, one of the phrases was "I think I'm being tailed." As the toy got older, and dropped quite a few times, it started saying, much to our juvenile amusement "I think I'm being turd." hahahaha still kind of funny.

I do get tailed here. When I go inside stores, restaurants, etc. Tailed by mop wielding worker bees. I am SORRY! There is snow outside. It is dirty. I have a stroller. With big wheels. It collects snow. When I enter a building, say an apteka or the grocery, I try to kick the snow off the wheels before I go in, I really do! But inevitably I track mud. It is embarrassing. They follow me around. Mopping. Always mopping. Once I took Natasha out of the stroller and left it at the front of the store. Security guy told me not to do that. But. . . the wheels are dirty I say (in russian thankyouverymuch - well, something like "stroller dirty" at least). No! (X's arms) - no stroller here! Ok. Take a look. See the black sludge on the street? It is maybe 5 or 6 inches deep.

notice how they pile up snow? Here is a car hiding behind a big pile.

I bring this up because Natasha (stay puft) and I went for a walk today.

I was a warmer that usual above 0F. We walked on Tverskaya.

past Pushkinskaya square

to McDonalds where we had a coffee and muffin. It was there I was tailed with a mop. Then they stood by and waited for it to melt so they could mop the puddle growing while we snacked. I was really happy though because we conducted all of our business in Russian (often they switch to broken english). Can I help you - yes, we would like the muffin with raisins please and an americano. What size? Classic (there tall is called klassicheski). And a bottle of water. For here? Yes, here. 190 rbs. One more time please (people say number really fast and sometimes I dont catch it). 190 rbls - see here (pointing) you can see how much. Ok thanks, here you go. Here is your change. do you want milk or fill with water? No milk please. would you like a highchair? (dyetski stoolchik - child little chair). oh yes please! blah blah. Anyway, I am always happy when they dont switch to english. I need the practice.

As we were leaving I saw this

a closer look

hmmm golden arches in ice. Dont know if you can tell, but people have stuck coins in it. The boys were all giggles and I couldnt tell if they were adding coins, or swiping them.

Walking home I was struck once again by the stark contrasts on architecture.

(by the way- it is 10th anniversary of My-My -pronounced moo moo - yes, like a cow) you can get pirojki, blini, and salad(i) for 10 rbls!!)

Ok. I know I have posted about the icicles. I spoke too soon. They have GROWN! Am I the only one disturbed?

I leave you with this:

Release the hounds!

2010-02-08T12:19:00.005+02:00

Well, not much exciting going on here. I had a bit of a episode of grumps, but you know it passes, and things are on the up. I weaned Natasha - woo hoo! she is 14 months, so it was time. She did ok, some crying and diving down my shirt, but nothing we couldnt handle. Most difficult part I think is that I had 2 migraines in 2 weeks - I think it must be hormonal. Either that or something to do with barometric pressure/weather changes. We have been alternating between the extreme cold ( -minus 10F), with nice blue clear skies, and sort of cold but cloudy (20s F).

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"

Louisiana Purchase

2010-02-01T13:34:00.014+02:00

So we were off on one of our Urban Hiking adventures and wound up on the south side of the river. A really nice area, lots of churches, wide sidewalks, beautiful buildings, one of those areas where you say - I wouldn't mind living here . . .. see below for pictures.

We walk around for a while and the kids get hungry for dinner (I strategically plan that we leave around 5ish knowing we will stop for dinner somewhere). We start looking for a restaurant. We see the typical Tarus Bulba (cheap, good food, very kid friendly) but Leo was there a few days prior, Shesh Vesh - tasty, Yolki Palki - all three on the less expensive side, good food, etc. Do we go to an ld standard? No! not us!

We spy a little place called "Louisiana" and American steakhouse. hmmm. kids like the idea of a good burger. So we check it out. First of all, it is decorated in a Western theme - complete with waitstaff in cowboy hats, boots, and guns. The walls are covered with license plates from different states (and a few from Canada). Portraits of Native American Indian Chiefs - Chief Seattle, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Geronimo - Wanted posters for Jesse James - Wild Bill pictures, saloon doors- can you picture it? hmmm, in Louisiana? As I said, the decor was very Wild West. I guess no one told them Louisiana wasnt really that far west. . . .

So we are sitting in this themed restaurant, which always makes me feel a little like I am in Disneyland, and I notice the music. Typically, the music in restaurants here is pretty much Euro pop dance music. Not here. Lounge remakes including such hits as "smoke on the water", "macarena" , and "rainy days and mondays" by the Carpenters. sad thing was I knew the words to all the songs.

So, the "off" theme (sort of expect Mardi Gras, or New Orleans theme at a place called Louisiana), surreal music, coupled with sllllooooww service, overpriced mediocre food, we dont recommend it.

But like everything here, an experience is an experience - something to talk about later.

We do plan on going back next weekend and checking out some of the churches, and the tretyekov gallery.

Here are some pics from our hike - not many turned out as it was getting dark and my little point and shoot doesnt handle night well. . ..and it was out of focus . . maybe a new camera for my bday? an SLR with lenses - - ooooh.

Frozen Moscow River:

Pedestrian Bridge with trees made of locks (so the story is when you get married you put your names on a lock, lock it to one of the trees and toss the key into the river - how romantic!)

tretyekov gallery

Here is a link to a map - we crossed the Moscow river on the west side of the Kremlin, walked east along Bolotnaya Square (that is there we saw the pedestrian bridge with trees covered in locks), then crossed the bridge to Kadashevskaya, walked south to the gallery, then headed east, North on Bolshaya Ordinka, the restaurant we went to was on Pyatnitskaya, then north toward St Basils and crossed the river on the east side of red square.

If I Had a Million Dollars . ..

2010-01-28T08:28:00.009+02:00

When we decided to move, we explained to the kids as best we could. Leo's firm closed, he looked for jobs in Seattle, but the best job he found was in Moscow so we are moving there - in a nutshell. We talked about it, we went through the good things, the bad things, what we would miss, what we would look forward to. I thought we had it hashed out. At least the basics.

The other day we were walking and I hear M ask "so how long are we going to live in Moscow?" before I could even answer, P pipes up "well, M, Leo is looking for a job in Vancouver (that would be Washington, where my parents live) and as soon as he gets one we are moving there."

OK. I did not realize this was Ps impression. I am not sure where he came up with it, but seems to be a whole lot of wishful thinking going on.

Let me tell you a little about my P. He is a homebody family guy. If you ask him what he wants to do he wants to hang out at home with the family. He plans on living with us the rest of his life, he has already told us. His career plan used to be that he will work part time as a lawyer so he can spend time with his dad, and part time as a preschool teacher so he can be with me (in my former life I worked at a preschool). He has since "matured" into being an astronaut and will live with us when he is not in space. M, on the other hand, plans on rescuing animals in the South American Rain Forest. She will call once in a while, and we are invited to visit her, as long as we help rescue animals. My dad will build her rescue center. Once a boy asked her if she would marry him and she replied "only if you will work in South America with me" - he said he would think about it. This has thrown P into a loop. How will the family live together forever and ever if M is in South America? Maybe he will help her part time too . . . .

Anyway - P has a dream that my whole family, and Leo's mom will all live together in a compound somewhere. he asked me once what I would do if I had a million dollars. After I threw around things like, well, pay off the mortgage and maybe buy a nice area rug, he changed to a 100 million dollars and I think I told him first I would buy everyone in the family a house close together somewhere cool, on the water, or at the beach (I was thinking in terms of vacation property). This may have seeded his living on a compound dream.

So. He thinks we are only in Moscow while Leo looks for a job in Vancouver (which, lets face it, is a suburb of Portland, at best). Okay. I dont want to burst any bubbles, but reality is reality. So I tell them both. Leo isnt looking for a job in Vancouver. I explain that the type of work Leo does just isnt done there (not much finance law left in Portland, or Seattle for that matter). That we live in Moscow now. How long? who knows! 2 years ago we didnt even think it was possible we would be moving here. We are here now, so we live as if we are staying. I like to have a solid plan. I can't live as if we might leave.

When we bought our first house, leo told me not to hang any pictures (put holes in the walls) because we might move someday. yeah. We lived in that house for nearly 8 years. We still own it as a rental. I told him I cant live like that- we live there so we will live there - know what I mean?

We are, I think, in a somewhat unique position as expats here in Moscow. Although I have been meeting, and hearing about other families similar to ours. One American Spouse, one Russian Spouse. Means he is a "repat" as opposed to expat I guess.

Some expats come with a contract - say 3 years - then they either leave or renew. Some come to work as long as there is work - with no ties to Russia other than the job. Then there are the ones like us. We too are here for the job. But my husband is Russian. It is his homeland (although he says he often feels more american than russian). He has a unique set of skills that are specific to living here (language, cultural understanding, just being russian and not an "outsider", or foreigner when doing business is huge). We have ties here.

This is not to say we would not move to another country - just that the chances are slimmer than those of other expats.

so, like I said, I was honest with the kids, we will live here as long as it makes sense for us to live here. Not too specific, I know, but in this economy, and the "shrinking" globe, ist that true for most people? Regardless, we are not planning on leaving, we are living here so we live here.

If P wants to hold on to his dream, I wont kill it. It is in the slight, most unlikely, realm of possibility that someday Leo would get a job he could do from anywhere (from "home") in which case we would move to Vancouver (well, portland).

I guess stranger things have happened.

Holy Snotcicles, Batman!

2010-01-26T10:03:00.001+02:00

OK, I know - I live in Russia, it is cold here, get over it.

I do have to mention that it was MINUS 11 Fahrenheit this morning.

According to Weatherunderground, the "feels like" temp was MINUS 30 F.

Yeah, Farhenheit - not Celsius people.

Cold.

Did I mention I am from Seattle?

When it is 30 (that would be PLUS 30) we think it is cold.

Even the Russians think this winter is cold.

I wonder what the unfrozen puddles are that I occasionally see.

What doesn't freeze at minus 11F?

Ain't your mama's Walgreens.

2010-01-18T13:09:00.006+02:00

I recently read another moscow expat blog about pharmacies - now I can't find the link. It was a gentleman with a russian wife - if you are reading this - let me know and I will post your link. Anyway he commented on Russian pharmacies.

We have similar stories.

While in the US, Natasha needed antiobiotics.

The clinic we went to faxed the prescription to the pharmacy of our choice.

My mom and I went to pick it up.

As it was our first time at that pharmacy, I had to give natashas birth date, phone number, was asked if she had allergies, asked if she had taken this antiobiotic before. Everything was entered into a computer. She hadnt been on that one before, I was asked to step to the little booth to speak to a pharmacist. This trained professional gave me dosage information, when to give it to her, asked if she was taking any other prescriptions, gave me the signs of an allergic reaction, side effects, how to store the prescription. Then, the pharmacist mixed it for me. The bottle had her name, dosage, instructions, etc. They included a piece of paper with all the information written out.

Ok. pretty standard.

Zip over to Moscow. Local apteka.

We need a prescription filled here.

We go in, show our piece of paper (which is a joke because the dr didnt even sign it). The "pharmacist" who is really a sales clerk hands us a box packaged by the manufacturer - the kind where the pills are pushed through a piece of foil. We pay. No questions. No instructions. They dont ask who it is for. They dont care. No record is kept of the transaction. OK, we say - it is for a baby- we need liquid. They give us a bottle of powder. No instructions on how to mix, I have Leo read the directions on the bottle and we figure it out. We picked some up for P a while back and it was an unflavored. It was terrible. No questions about allergies, about interactions, dosage, storage, age/weight of person taking it. AND - you get to keep the paper the prescription is written on. So, in essence, if you need it again, you can just use the same prescription again.

It is all about personal responsibility. I look up every prescription to see what it is, what the dose it, how to give it, what is in it (P and I both have allergies to certain antibiotics), side effects, etc. It is my responsibility to make sure we are taking the prescription correctly.

Kind of like the dentist I described earlier. A cleaning is a cleaning, no discussion about my teeth grinding, measurment of gumline, counting, marking of charts, etc. I mentioned this to Leo and he said - "oh - if you want that, you need to make a special appointment with the dentist." Go figure.

On another note - I saw alady the other day, I wont say "old" - I will say retiree - she had a big fur coat and, I kid you not, one of those knitted rasta hats with the braids sewn in. You know the ones I mean - a la Bob Marley. Only her braids were blond of course. I wish I had my camera ready!

Occam's Razor applied to Tushie's Tushie.

2010-01-15T17:55:00.005+02:00

simplest explanation or strategy tends to be the best one

OK - may be too much info - so consider yourself warned.

So Natasha was on antibiotocs for 10 days the first week of Janr for her ear infection. As typical this caused a yeast type diaper rash. I didnt realize at first, of course, and kept putting diaper cream on her, which made it worse. I tried everything to get rid of her rash. I changed diaper brands, wipes brands, let her go diaperless, etc.

So finally (duh) it dawned on me what it was. Bright red rash, wont go away, was on antiobiotics (this is what, only my third baby?) Anyway, I called Leo and said

"hi, I know what Natha has, it is a yeast rash, she needs something like Lamasil. Can you stop at the pharmacy on your way home and get some? kids just got off the bus and I am not dragging the whole kit and kaboodle to the pharmacy"

he says "ok. dont know anything about yeast. what do I say?"

me "just tell them she was on antiobiotics and now had a rash that wont go away and we think it is yeast. they will know what I need. ask if they have an anti-fungal cream, like for athletes foot.

he calls from the pharmacy and translates the above to the pharmacist. Pharmacist, says here is some rash cream, I ask, is it for yeast? is it anti fungal because a regular rash cream will make it worse. no - for yeast you need a prescription. really? for a yeast infection you need a prescription? I had leo ask for a simple anti-fungal - pharmacist said firmly - no, you said it was yeast, you must have a prescription! he came home empty handed.

ok.

this was yesterday. So today I walked into a different pharmacy and said in Russian "excuse me please, do you have Lamasil?" "yes, of course, right this way." and I bought it.

the end. (pardon the pun)

Fear Factor

2010-01-12T13:55:00.006+02:00

It is an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day in Moscow. Cold, Crisp, Sunny, Blue Sky. And yet, Danger lurks.

I am already skittish about dogs, clowns and all things having to do with the eyeball and belly button.

Now I have a new fear. Fear of Impalement, or alternately, Fear of Death by Icicle.

Check these out, taken today on my walk with Natasha, 2pm-ish.

watch out purple beret lady!

aaaaaugh! Did you see the one hanging on a wire! Yikes!

I have visuals of huge pointy icicles speeding down, with their pointy tips aimed at one of my sweet and adorables head (or worse, eyeball! or belly button!). I then whip out a super ninja chop or kick, smashing the said icicle to mere cubes , saving them from certain death (or at least disfigurement, or even a bruise)- a girl can dream, right?

Apparently people are killed every year by falling icicles. The city is trying to address the issue by fines etc. Worker bees work into the night knocking them down, taping off danger areas and putting up warning signs.

But still, I had no trouble finding frozen spears of death this afternoon. Today was quite sunny too. Water was dripping from a few of the icicles. . . . . . rendering them weak and losing their icy grip on their building. . . .

Will this fear stop me from getting out and enjoying my beautiful city. Of course not. But I for one walk with one eye skywayd. Ready to bust out some serious ninja chopping.

Doldrums

2010-01-10T14:57:00.005+02:00

I am not sure why, although I have my theory, we have been in the doldrums. We have all been staying up late, sleeping late, lazing around the apartment, not getting out much, or getting out when it is already dark. Putting off housework, laundry, cooking, etc etc etc. We havent really done anything.

Well, we did buy a tv. After 10 months of watching shows on the laptop, we decided it was time. We met a friend at a shopping center he recommended and picked one out. Then he was kind enough to drive us home with it. The shopping centers are different here - there are western style malls, and there are centers that are hard to describe. So you walk in and it is kind of open, with, I guess the best way to describe, big stalls, each selling different things. Some have a sign, some do not. I am not sure how we would tell people where we bought the tv, the name of the shopping center, the tv stall on the first floor? They did have a food court with a mcdonalds and a subway. We have the tv hooked to the antenna and get 4 or 5 Russian channels. We plan on dowloading our shows to an mp3, then hooking that to the tv. Sounds like a good plan, but neither Leo nor I have been really motivated to try it out. We also bought a dvd player and the kids have been watching movies so they have gotten some use out of it. Strangely some of our dvds from the US work while others do not. Leo also fixed our wireless router, so my dream of getting the laptops off the kitchen table is close to reality!

Woke up this morning and decided I needed to do something productive, so stripped all the sheets/blankets and have laundry marathon going. This was actually prompted by natash peeing on my pillow (I was changing her on my bed and she escaped and in a squeal of laughter crawledf to my pillow, sat and, well, you can imagine). It will take me a few days to get all everything washed. My washer will hold a bottom sheet and the pillow cases in one load, comforter cover in the next load x 3 beds, x over an hour to wash, 2.5 to 3 hrs to dry each load . . .

M has been waking in the night crying. She doesnt know why. Not sure if it is bad dreams, jet lag, missing portland, post xmas blues, or because she has been reading The Secret Garden before going to sleep, and it is downright depressing the first few chapters. I had forgotten how sad it is, little girl, neglected by her parents, hated by all because she is "contrary", everyone dies of cholera and forgets about her, she is sent to live with an uncle who doesnt want to see or hear her . . . . hopefully the good parts are coming soon! I am really proud she is reading it - I think I was 4th grade when I read it! but then I was pretty late in finding my love of reading. M reminds me more of my sister in this (and many other ways!).

Kids start school tomorrow so I am hopeful it will be the kick in the pants I need to get back on schedule. Being back at school I am sure will be good for the kids too - being around friends, teachers, learning, remembering why they like moscow. . . .good for me too. I wrote down a little schedule for housekeeping (mon laundry, tues bathrooms, weds livingroom, thurs, kitchen, fri floors). Hopefully I will stick to it. I also will start up my Russian lessons next monday and thurs, and will try and schedule in studying on fridays and weds, during natashas nap. Mon, Tues, and Thurs nap times will be used to read, housework I didnt get done, computer or knitting. sounds good on paper at least.

ugh. what a boring post! sorry.

oh I know! yesterday Leo and I went to the dentist to have our teeth cleaned. Our appointments were at 2:30 and 3 - we had to make the effort to get out of bed at 1 so we could make it - seriously we have all been so snoozy! Anyway it was a beautiful day! sun shining - cold, but not unbearable - on the plus side - I think somewhere in the teens, amazing how much more energy I had just seeing the sun! So we took the metro to the clinic (American Dental Center - I think it is) which is by the zoo, walking distance, but Leo was carrying Natasha so we decided not to walk. Anywho, kids and I waited in the waiting room while leo had his cleaned, then we switched. I have to say, it was the most thorough cleaning I have ever had! The hygenist introduced herself, then got to work, no chit chat. first some vaseline on the lips, some numbing gel on the gums, some cleaning under the gum line, some sort of mini power washer, polishing, scraping, flossing, rinse and done. She did not xray, did not ask if I flossed, did not check my jaw, did not comment on my obvious teeth grinding, did not write anything down. It was a teeth cleaning, and that was it. But like I said, my teeth felt super clean after!

After we went to Shesh Vesh for dinner. Kind of middle eastern cuisine which is quite tasty. Kids each had a "pancake filled with meat" appetizer, we had spicy meat soup and an order of fried cheese (mozzerella sticks!), leo had kebab assortment, I had chicken cutlets, kids shared salmon kebab, each had a juice, we had a pot of tea and it came to around $60. Not bad. Pretty tasty food too!

Well Natash is asleep and I am considering a nap myself! how unproductive! I am so lazy. well tomorrow back on a plan!

Winter Break - in a nutshell

2010-01-05T16:56:00.007+02:00

Ok - so we are back in Moscow - for I dont even know how many days - what day is it today? hmmm. We arrived on the 2nd and today is the 5th (I had to check my computer calendar!). We have had a tough time adjusting back to Moscow time. Well, lets say baby has had a hard time. Last night she went to sleep at 11pm, and was up and at 'em from 1:30 until 6:45 am. Then slept from 7ish until 2 in the afternoon. This has pretty much been the routine since arriving. Good news is, big kids slept well. Although this morning M woke up just as Natasha went to sleep. P was still sleeping as was Leo, so poor M cried a bit because she "had to be up alone!" I set her up with a movie and that was that. I know it is just a matter of time, but right now I have that walking in a daze sort of feeling. I just told my mom I dont think I have seen daylight since we arrived. All in good time.

So trip to portland. Great! We all stayed with my parents, who thankfully have a big enough house to accommodate. We had a really nice birthday for Natasha. Got to see a lot of people. Had a nice relaxing Christmas, Leo made it on Christmas Eve. Natasha then got sick, ended up taking her to a walk in clinic with a fever and found out she had an ear infection and early pneumonia! Our plans for Seattle were blown. I was disappointed and missed seeing Seattle and old friends, but Natasha was sooo fussy and had a fever that wouldn't go down. Leo ended up taking just M (she had her annual Children's Hospital Craniofacial appointment). They stayed at a house of a friend who was out of town for the holidays. Poor M woke up at 1 am and threw up all over herself and the bed, so Leo had to get up, find sheets, find the washer, get her re-settled down, then Russia started calling him for work around 4am. She then threw up again at Starbucks parking lot. Leo said she perked up a lot after her Children's appointment. We figured it was nerves/jetlag. They were in SEattle 2 nights. When they got back to my parents M took a long nap, then the next morning she woke with a fever of 103.6. She slept, watched movies (Secret Garden and Little Princess, which she LOVED!), that night she started crying that she stomach hurt and was nauseated, drinking lots of water. My mom and I panicked that it was her appendix and raced over to the ER (by that time is was 11 pm). Ended up it was diagnosed as some kind of generalized "stomach bug" but she looked much better after an IV. Got home around 1am. By the way it was a really nice ER - had a special Childrens section, didnt have to wait long - make a huge difference!

So Natasha sick, M sick, P and I both caught colds. We pretty much hung around the house all day and did nothing. I couldnt even really help out my mom with housekeeping/cooking because either I was too tired, or Natasha wouldnt let me put her down. But the point of the trip was to see family and that is what we did. While I didnt buy all the things I wanted to bring back with us (I figure, we have lived without cocoa for 8 months, we can live without it until we return again) , we had a good time and it was fun seeing people. Kids got to spend a lot of time with their cousins, I spent some time with my family. For that I am thankful!

Next trip will be this summer, and looks like we will be there for at least 5 weeks. M needs a minor surgery that is a 2 parter, so will have part one, then 3 weeks later part two. Leo will maybe join us for a week or so. I want him to fly back with us. He is special and gets to check 3 70pound bags, as opposed to our 1 50 pound bag each! He also gets us to the short lines. Maybe after this next trip we can be special too.

It was really nice a friend picked us up at the airport. Leo arranged for a minivan to pick us up, and after he saw how much luggage we packed, he was worried we wouldnt all fit it all, so he called his friend to meet us at the airport with the plan that the van would take the luggage, friend would drive us. Turns out "mini van" was not so mini! Could have held us all and our luggage with room to spare. But I was still glad to have a friend meet us, even thought it turned out to be unnecessary. For some reason that always makes me feel better to have someone meet me at the airport. There is such an empty feeling when you land somewhere and you know no one is there to greet you. Like no one cares you are there. Even if you are on a fabulous vacation, it still feels sort of empty landing in a foreign airport knowing no one cares you have arrived. I miss the old days when people met you right at the gate.

The ride from the airport was easy - no traffic - all the trees beautifully frosted white. I am pretty much unpacked (amazing how much one can accomplish at 2 am!).

Many expats talk about "home" and what feels like home and what doesnt. It was interesting being back in the States. US definitely feels like home, but I think because we stayed with my parents in Portland, and not in Seattle (where we have lived the past 12 or so years), it didnt really feel like Home Home. When we landed in Moscow, I did feel relief and it was nice to be back in our apartment, it felt like home, but not Home Home . . . . . yet. I think with time Moscow will, I hope, feel more like the Home with a capital H. Or maybe I will always be a "stranger in a strange land?" I hope not. I know the key is making connections, being involved, investing myself in life here.

Which brings me to goals for 2010:

-work on developing some friendships here. Making those connections, work on putting those roots down.

- start exercising again (I brought my Biggest Loser dvd) - I havent been going to the gym since we no longer have a nanny.

-structure my day better so I make time to do some of the things I want to do - study Russian, read and work on my knitting skills. The trouble is, when Natasha takes a nap there is so much I want to do, I end up wasting my time. I think if I even loosely schedule things, then there is less chance of me sitting around trying to decide what I want to do, or deciding what to do, then regretting I didnt do something else.

Hoping to get everyone up and out the door tomorrow to walk around town, see some sun, maybe buy a tv?!

On a side note - yesterday I took the garbage out and ran into our neighbor (a older lady) and she asked me in Russian (of course!) if I bought a New Years Tree (a yulke). I replied in my best I-forgot-all-my-russian that no, I did not have a tree. She then sternly reprimanded me and gave me quite a lecture that was basically why did we not have a tree? I have children, they need a tree, I should go buy them a tree right now, etc. I, for the life of me could not explain that was just got back, my parents had a tree, and who buys a tree on the 4th of January anyway?

Maybe next year. . . . .

Anywho - Happy New Year - Wishing you all the best in 2010!

HHHHHeeeelllloo!

2009-12-18T14:50:00.004+02:00

Just a quick note - we all made it safe-and-sound. Long trip from Moscow!! 1 hour to the Airport, 11 hrs to NewYork (where Maria exclaimed "everything is in English here!"), 5 hours waiting in NY, they 6 hours to Portland.

I told my mom, and Leo when I called to tell him we arrived, it is like labor, focus on the result - we got here, not worth mentioning the process.

We did meet a nice young recently adopted russian fellow on the flight to NY. He is 7, so sweet. Very friendly, exclaimed "HHHHHeloo!" to everyone. Came and sat with P and M a good chunk of the flight. Natasha started crying and he waltzed over, scooped her up, walked around with her. He tried to give his deck of cards to P, gave his M&Ms to M. (saying in Russian, "do you want a gift? here- take mine, it is for you!"). I really wish them well.

We arrived in Portland to 50 F, and light rain. Didnt even put coats on the kids leaving the airport.

OK, it is 4am and everyone is up, including my parents, bless them, Hoping to pick up a SIM for my cell phone today, finish a little christmas shopping, wrap presents, get ready for Ns birthday tomorrow, and oh yeah, maybe get a little sleep!

Take care and wish you all a wonderful holiday season and very New Year. I will probably take a break from blogging (focusing on the fam and all) and will post back, live from Moscow, Jan 1!

Sunshine Makes me HAPPY!

2009-12-14T14:18:00.007+02:00

Cold today - seriously cold - 3 F this morning at 7:30, then -5 F later in the morning. Since when does it get colder as the day progresses?

BUT - I am not complaining! The sun is out, there is blue sky - I am happy!

I took Natasha out in the stroller because I HAD to go outside and see the sun, get some vitamin D! And I needed to go to the grocery store and pick up some airplane snacks for the kids, and P has to turn in an "edible solar system" (does anyone else think that is weird - I guess it is to get them thinking about relative size of planets or something) and I needed something "earth sized" somehow, we found things to represent the other planets (a lentil for Pluto, hard candy I found in the halloween remnants for Neptune, Circle teether biscuit for Uranus, etc etc . . . )- found some circle cookies that should work.

Off we went.

Enjoy the sun! (all photos taken between 2 and 3 in the afternoon).

this and that

2009-12-13T11:19:00.004+02:00

Typical Sunday afternoon. Leo took the big kids to the gym - we bought them a membership so they can participate in any number of classes at no additional charge. Sundays they have Karate and then Swim lessons right after. Both give Leo enough time to do his work out. He drops them at karate and then meets them in the hot tub after their swim lesson and then they hit the showers and come home. Gives me about 3 hours with just baby. She usually takes a nap for about an hour (although today 15 min!) giving me time to clean up breakfast dishes (sun we usually have pancakes) and - well, go on the computer!

We have been getting ready for our big trip to the US. Our first time back since arriving here in April. It goes without saying we are all excited. We leave Weds morning. I found out this morning Leo had planned on having a taxi take the kids and me to the airport - sans him. yeah, I changed that plan. If it were just me, or even me and the older kids I would say ok, but with all three- no stroller, our luggage, and carry on, and natashas carseat which for some reason is REALLY heavy . . I told him I needed help - so there you go, he is coming with us to the airport.

So what are we packing to bring to the US? (ok, this list is for me because I havent started packing yet)

few pair pants few long sleeve tees, undies, socks, for P (he doesnt wear pjs)

2 pair pants, 2 long sleeve tees, and a few dresses, dress shoes, 1 pj, socks, undies for M

pjs, few pants, few long sleeve onsies, sweater, socks, some diapers N

pants, few tees, dress up outfit/shoes (not sure yet what I will bring, gotta try some things on) pjs, socks, undies, me

trying not to pack too many clothes for myself, because, well frankly, I need to buy some new clothes. I have 1 pair of pants that fit me - they rest are all too big (N was 4 months when we arrived, and I used to go to the gym everyday, so I lost some weight while here).

goodies for Ns birthday party

a few souvenirs, although not many - sent some home with my parents when they were here.

a few matroyshka travel mugs

need to get a gift for my MIL

plan on packing suitcases/carry ons inside of suitcases so we have plenty of empties to fill for the trip back.

OK - what I hope to buy and bring back:

I need pants - I am a jeans and tshirt gal, so jeans and a few long sleeve tshirts

clothes for N size 12-18month and 18-24month

1 size bigger shoes for N

PJs for N

socks for N

Ice skates for Leo and kids (I might wait a year before getting some for me)

2 bags to carry skates (kids need them for school, and need a bag to carry them)

new running shoes for leo

pantry items -food coloring, baking powder, molasses, vanilla, popcorn (I can only find microwave here), cocoa powder, whater I can find at trader joes that looks good!

books all around (I ordered so many - still debating on the kindle - maybe after this trip I will decide to get one!)

vitamins for everyone

leos prescription refilled

OTC meds - chidren's motrin, chewable tylenol, kid cough syrup, etc

2 pair cords for P - his size 8s fit in the waist, but too short, 10s too long - I need to learn how to hem!

knitting needles and some yarn (although I heard good things about a yarn factory here in moscow, but I havent been yet)

I need to pick up starbucks seattle and portland collectors mugs for Ps class (they are auctioning a basket of the mugs from around the world at the school fund raiser) - and I want one each for myself :-)

Ns birthday gifts

xmas gifts -including the "what was I thinking" wooden kitchen santa is bringing N - which was only $99 when I ordered it - strange how prices go up closer to christmas! OK - I know what I was thinking - it was the expat mom guilt - P and M had things N will never have because they are too expensive or not available here. I do try and remind myself that one of the things I looked forward to moving here was cutting down on the things, and living a more simple life, but the wooden kitchen is so cute - she can play with it for years - I think even the big kids will play with it with N - I contacted the company, and even the biggest pieces *should* fit in my suitcase, and fit the weight limit. We will see. If not I can bring it next trip.

thats it so far - - I am sure I will think of more!

We plan on going back to the US over the summer, so the main thing I think is clothes for N because she grows so fast - and they are so expensive here. Next trip I will try and bring back some of my more decorative things I left, maybe some photo albums, things like that.

Happy Hanukkah!

just some photos

2009-12-10T10:09:00.006+02:00

OK - so there is snow in Moscow. So far not tooo cold, though (colder in seattle/portland!).

7:15 am this morning - museum of architecture

4:15 pm yesterday looking down (toward Kremlin) on Bolshaya Nikitskaya

taken at 4 pm yesterday -

7:30 am yesterday - facing Kremlin and Lenin Library - can you see the tree they are putting up? the kids were disappointed it was a metal frame which is then decorated with branches and lights, instead of a real tree.

same shot later in the day

yesterday afternoon- this is the entrance to the underground street crossing - Novy Arbat to Arbat. There is often a group of men and a few women standing around drinking here, maybe homeless? or at least unemployed? See the guy with the bottle and plastic cup? He was refilling and passing the cup.

same street crossing facing other way - see the woman with the long fur coat?

Matryoshka everywhere!

2009-12-02T16:02:00.000+02:00

Thanksgiving turned out great! thanks for all the well wishes - and I even had a minor disaster - my refrigerator and freezer quit working on Friday!! yikes! I almost cancelled! I was afraid all the food would spoil! But - I called trusty husband - who asked around and came up with a plan. We packed the fridge and freezer with dry ice. Yep - you can have dry ice delivered in a huge foam cooler (90 pounds!!). So, it arrived and we frantically packed ziplock bags with ice and packed the fridge. Unfortunately, the next morning we discouvered we were a little over zealous and everything froze!!

But - alls well that ends well. everything turned out fine. After defrosting the refrigerator, we plugged it back in and voila! it works!

Yesterday the kids missed the bus - long story short we were a few minutes late out the door and that was that. So, instead of sending the kids to school in a taxi - which would take an hour to arrive - and I felt weird putting my kids in a car with a stranger - and paying for it - I decided to let them stay home.

We ended up having a nice day. We went to the matryoshka museum to pick up some party supplies - Natasha is turning 1 and we are having a "matryoshka" party at my parents house.

check out my loot- all together cost me about $65

(click to see larger)

I bought 9 "blank" wood matryoshka for the older kids at the birthday to paint

2 sets of little wood painted ornaments based on russian folk tales

1 set of the little matryoshka (they only had the 1 set - otherwise I would have bought more)

and an ornament for a friend.

I also bought these from a bakery on Novy Arbat. Aren't they pretty? 3 flavors (translated by leo)" some kind of nut" "sunshine flavor" and "raisin" I am curious what sunshine flavor is! maybe citrus?

After the museum we stopped by mac cafe for a treat and what was next door?

the dark side!! (this photo was taken a few nights before - it is not quite that dark during the day!)

a new toy store on tverskaya. It is huge! 4 floors! After a storm trooper helped carry the stroller up the entry steps, Look what greeted us as we walked in:

She is made of entirely of Legos!

throughout the store there were other fun Lego creations:

The store is great! Lots of hands on toys - they had a bunch of FurReal pets out available for kids to touch and play with (natasha went nuts for the big dog and cat!), a big train table, one sales clerk gave the kids remote controlled cars and encouraged them to drive various cars around the store, rc robots out, blow pens and paper out. We had a really nice time exploring and playing!I kins of felt bad not buying anything, we really stayed a long time and the kids played a lot! but oh well! I am passing the info on - free advertising is worth something, right? Go to the toystore on tverskaya, next to mcdonalds near Kremlin!

gobble

2009-11-25T11:06:00.002+02:00

I actually thought about skipping Thanksgiving this year. Seriously. Not my favorite holiday. I like the food enough - but that is pretty much the focus of the holiday, right? spend a lot of time cooking, then eat early in the day (we always ate at 3ish) then sit around stuffed wondering what to do the rest of the day. Watch football? we sometimes went to a movie. Have a turkey sandwich when you are hungry again around 8. Fun to see family and all that, but since we are here - it would just be food? right?

The more I thought about it, the more I decided we need Thanksgiving. Not so much for the food, or the pilgrims - but it is easy to lose track of what we are thankful for. Easy to get in the mode thinking - gee I miss this, or that, wish I had this, on and on, focusing on what we miss having. So I decided, especially with christmas coming, kids (and I) could use a day to think about what we are thankful for.

So Thanksgiving is on. But on Sat - Thurs is just so inconvenient.

I thought about just making a pot of soup, but keeping some american traditions got the better of me. We are inviting a few random Russians (my Russian teacher, our first nanny from this past summer, Russian friend from work) all people who have been so helpful to us since moving here. Thought this would be a thank you to them (sort of like the pilgrims inviting the native americans to share their feast as a thank you for their help when they first arrived - the analogy will stop there, though, I dont plan on spreading diseases, etc) :-) And I hope a few fellow expats can make it as well!

Here is the plan: - I need to write this out so I can make myself get organized. I have a small oven with 1 rack - 1 big pyrex, 1 small pyrex, 2 mixing bowls, a glass bowl, cookie sheet, 1 dutch oven, 1 big pot, 1 med pot, 1 small pot. No serving dishes.

Turkey - I bought 2 smallish frozen ones. It is Weds today - dinner on Sat - any tips on defrosting? Cook turkeys in the 2 pyrex sat. - gonna follow this:http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/perfect-roast-turkey-recipe/index.html just cut up and serve on a dinner plate - or maybe back in the pyrex?

Gravy - make while turkey is resting in fry pan. Serve in little blue bowl, or maybe a cereal bowl.

Stuffing - make in big orange pot (dutch)- this recipe - http://elise.com/recipes/archives/000036moms_turkey_stuffing.php minus raisins - will make day before - cool - store in fridge - reheat day of (adding water/broth as necessary) - serve from the pot - classy, no?

Cranberry sauce - found frozen berries - everyone says there are cranberries all over moscow - but I am sorry - I cant find them - only what Leo calls "red forest berries" -these are not cranberries - here is the recipe I will try - http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/cranberry_sauce/ with a little orange peel tossed in. Make the day before and keep in fridge - serve in glass bowl

Salad - serve in big blue ikea mixing bowl - I dont use a recipe - some kind of greens, pecans, chopped pear, red onion, feta, balsamic/mustard/olive oil dressing. Make day of.

Bread - make morning of - serve on cookie sheet - this recipe maybe doubled (my kids gobble up rolls and can use to make little sandwiches later) - http://www.cookingbread.com/classes/class_honey_dinner_buns.html.

Dessert - pumpkin cheesecake bars - ok - gonna try these - I dont have a pie pan so no pie. I will make these the morning of in a pyrex, then cut them up, put on plate and keep in the fridge because I will need the pyrex for the turkey. here is the recipe - http://grandmasdesserts.blogspot.com/2009/11/pumpkin-cheesecake-bars.html

Maybe mashed potatoes. I guess you need mashed potatoes, right? ok - will make in big pot and serve from pot. No sweet potatoes. Havent seen them lately. P will miss sweet potato souffle- but maybe I will make it for him for christmas in the states. . . . . promises promises.

plan on just putting food out and people serve themselves - buffet style, even though this is not the russian way.

I think that is it - most make ahead, I dont even know how many people are coming. I only have 6 chairs, a small kitchen table, 1 couch in the living room, but those are minor details right? people will gather, fill their plates, find a place to eat, right?

If we serve enough wine then maybe people wont notice if the turkey is dry (I have never made a turkey and my oven is terrible so I am a little nervous) .. . right?

I am the FOB.

2009-11-12T11:42:00.001+02:00

I think I have mentioned my Fabulous Russian Teacher (RT - I was going to use FRT, but, well . . . ) before - we usually end, or sometimes begin with chatting about some cultural differences between Russia and America (she lived the in US for 12 years). So today I mentioned that yesterday, walking home from the store (about a 20 minute walk), I was stopped 5 times by people asking for directions. 5 times!! seriously! Excuse me, please, where is the metro? where is Arbat? Where is xxxxx street? That is an average of once every 4 minutes (yeah, I can do a little math, thank you). ( In the store, as I was looking for toothpaste and an older woman asked me something about soap. I *think* she was asking what the difference was between them, why so many types? she seemed a little overwhelmed by the variety.)

Sheesh. Sometimes I can answer in Russian - straight ahead, at the restaurant "Praga" turn left (the pat answer for how to get to starry arbat), or whatever, sometimes I have no clue what they asked (I will say, "I dont know" or "I am sorry I dont speak russian" or sometimes, if I am feeling brave, "I am sorry, I didnt hear you, one more time?" - which sometimes works out and I get it the second time, but is risky, because if I dont understand, I have to say so, then it is like - well, why did you make me repeat my question if you dont speak russian?!), sometimes I understand, but I really dont know and I say so (I dunno!), and sometimes I need to ask clarification, which metro? Arbatskaya? Biblioteka Lenina? Tverskaya? Ahotney Rad? Most people can tell when I open my mouth that I am a foreigner, they will either smile politely and walk away, sometimes they know enough english to ask in english - or sometimes, if I can catch them, listen to my choppy directions. If I know where it is, and they start to walk away, I do find myself practically lunging for them, no - please - wait - I understand you - I can tell you where to go! give me a minute! let me help you! As they walk away I yell out the information they need.

I try to carry my map, but it takes a while to dig it out. Some people have maps, some do not. I often see people frowning at maps.

So, like I said, I mention this to my RT and we get into a discussion about maps. I have a big moscow map in my kitchen. I look at it every day. I know where important things are on the map. I try to carry my map with me, I actually have 2 - one I keep in the baby diaper bag, and one in my purse, they are well thumbed through. If I need to go somewhere, I find it on the map, I make sure I know every turn. I say it out loud like a mantra. When I went to stitch group the first time (ok first 3 or 4 times), I would say aloud to myself, walk out, turn left, at xxxx street cross and turn left again, walk a long time past metro station, then turn left at xxx, etc. Then I write it down and carry it with me. (Have I mentioned I have a problem with getting lost??).

Russians dont like maps. Many do not know how to read maps. RT mentioned that she did not know how to read a street map until she came to the US. Why do you need a map when you can just ask? No problem. There are people on the street, someone will know.

Americans do not like to ask directions (you know the old stereotype? men wont ask directions?) Why? It is embarrassing. It is admitting defeat. Admitting you don't know something (yikes!). It also involves talking to a stranger, trusting the stranger . . . .

Russians dont seem to have this hangup Americans have. They will ask. They will talk to a stranger. - as an aside, kind of goes along with the free, unsolicited childcare advice one often received here as well.

My dad, (from Greece) also has no problem asking directions. Sometimes, though, he did not pick the best people to ask. He would stop a kid on a bike and ask how to get to the freeway (my mom lectured him many times on this, first of all, most kids will not/should not talk to a stranger, and what does the kid know?), I remember once on a family trip we got lost in Compton and my dad asked a pimp how to get to Disneyland (my mom made us roll up the windows) it was very much the scene from national lampoons vacation.

My sister and I always prided ourselves in being able to pick out foreigners in the US from a crowd. "look- that guy, definitely a FOB (fresh off the boat)". Not necessarily fresh, as many immigrants we grew up with lived in the US for more than 20 years, they just didn't update their wardrobe yet. We could tell by clothes, hairstyle, even body language- hey we grew up around immigrants! we were snarky teenagers!

Now I am the FOB, but, I guess I look the part enough for people to think I live here . . . .

Medical stuff

2009-11-11T13:21:00.001+02:00

Ugh - like most people we have been sick. All except Leo and P - just us girls I guess. The kids had last week off from school and thank goodness we decided against going to Rome for the week! It started Mon morning with M complaining about an earache. OK -I will call the Dr and see when we can bring her in. Earliest at the clinic closest to us was 3. She cried and cried all morning because she was in so much pain. Then, around noon, she said "hey it doesnt hurt anymore, and my ear feels wet." Great! No wonder it hurt! Around that time Leo called and asked if we wanted to meet him for lunch, I wasnt sure, but when M heard it was Vietnamese food, she perked right up! Pho is her favorite food! Her favorite restaurant on Mercer Island is I (heart) Pho! We met at VietCafe. P had a headache and bit of a sore throat, I was tired, but nothing big, M was feeling a little better. Anywho, the restaurant was great! P had "Caramel Beef with rice" around 250rbls and it was delicious!!!! mmm. Even natasha loved it! M of course had her chicken pho (also 250 rbls), I had beef pho. I made the mistake of ordering the "spicy" thinking it would be, well, spicy, but it was more spiced than spicy - kind of tasted like beef stew (a tomato-y base, garlic, maybe a little cinnamon) which was odd, but still tasty, just didnt quench my pho craving. So - there is my recommendation. Good food, good price, and we did not order the "business lunch" these are their regular prices.

After the ENT with M, picked up her antibiotic - Dr said the ear infection was also in her throat. Her med (augmentin) was actually fruity flavored (!) as opposed to poor P who had to take an unflavored (terrible!) one. - It's not fair!

Next day my throat started hurting, then went downhill. My throat on one side, then my ear on that same side, fever, then my jaw, my teeth hurt, even my hair hurt. I waited to go to the DR, because, well, that is what I do. Finally on Sat (yes, I got progressively worse through the week and did nothing about it! - shame on me!) we went to the DR, they sent me to an ENT. After some mix-ups and general chaos over my meds, I finally got it all straightened out and am feeling MUCH better. (and still able to nurse natasha with no ill effects yet)!

So all last week we did absolutely nothing. Well, one night we went out to dinner. We went to Tibet Cafe which was also very good and good prices. Hot and sour soup was delish. Only thing I didnt like was it was quite small and so many people were smoking. We all reeked when we left, and I didnt feel great of the kids being exposed to all that smoke. Especially since we were all sickies.

I have to say the kids, once again, did great. Even though we were literally in the house the entire week, they played and played playmobil and lego, they read, I taught them to make friendship bracelets (christina, guess what M is making your boys for xmas?!) and they played a bit on the computer. I ended up making computer a privilege to be earned, as opposed to a "right" that can be taken away. P especially doesnt like this new arrangement, but he has been drawing, and reading more, practicing piano, so there you go! (although he constantly asks - did I earn computer time, when can I play computer, mom, can I play) - I told him he will not play every day, more like 3 days of good behavior, then maybe 30-45 min computer time.(awww, mom!). It is kind of tough since they dont watch tv, but it is good for them - builds character, right?! They do watch Little House on the laptop in the kitchen while I make dinner, and they really like that - we are almost through season 2.

Now that I am feeling better, I look around and the apartment is a mess! a weeks worth of laundry piled up! dirty bathrooms! messy kid rooms! I havent studied my Russian! ugh - I need to get motivated to get working.

You know when you have so much to do, you dont know where to start, so you do something totally not a priority, like crochet mittens?

mittens mcboingboing

2009-11-11T13:04:00.001+02:00

Made em yesterday. easy free pattern here. Used 2 strands of wool I bought here in Moscow.

Think I will make them for the kids in the big family - that would be 5 more pair (2 more in my fam, 2 nephews and 1 little cousin). remember last years slippers?

I also want to make Leo, P and M each a knit scarf.

and my MIL a shawl.

I dont even have yarn yet. or the right sized needles.

Oh and I havent finished my embroidery project which is a present for someone (shh).

hmmm think I will have time?

Up Your Nose

2009-10-30T12:40:00.001+02:00

I made some apple bread the other day and thought I would share. Here is the recipe. I like it because it has only 2 T butter in the whole thing (I used my long Ikea loaf pan and made 1 loaf) - In addition to the applesauce, I grated a whole apple - not sure what kind - the fruit lady I bought it from said "soviet yablaka- ochin fkusna!" (soviet apple- very tasty) I also added extra cinnamon and I think it was too much - stick with the recipe next time. Anyway - liked it, thought I would share.

Today I am making Challah (ok a few days ago - it is taking me a while to finish this post). Everytime I make it, or mention it I want to make a challah pun - challah back, give me a challah! - I know dorky. I am using this recipe - cool site, huh? I like all the pics - and I like their blog - link from the site. I want to make this next week. mmm I love bread.

Got a pot o beans going today from food network - here it is. I like the idea of sharing recipes - I always wonder what other people make - plan for the week - kofta, jedra (lentils with onions and rice), pita, cucumbers tomorrow, salmon brown rice broccoli weds, ham cheese and whatever veggie I have (red pepper and maybe a potato) frittata thurs, roast chicken maybe pasta or polenta, tomato salad friday, sat we either go out or have frozen pilmenie, sun out or frozen pilmenie depending on what we did sat. there you go.

Speaking of good food - halloween was awesome. Went to place2place residence for home-made pizza (yum!) and trick or treating, a little vino, some cake FUN! good people over there! And - not only did the kids score candy loot (much AMERICAN candy!! woohoo! peanut butter cups! Jolly ranchers! Twizzlers!), Dina and the kids were kind enough to pass on some kids books - which are a hot commodity here. Big thanks - and Stephan was so sweet letting P and M borrow his Diary of a Whimp Kid books. Like I said - and I'll say it again - Good people over there at place2place. Just for the record - my kids were pharoah, cat and cook. I only got a picture of the little chef:

here we are walking on Novy Arbat to the embassy - in a bit of snow:

Kids have the week off from school. Nov 4th is a holiday - not sure what it is - it used to be October Revolution Day - not sure if that is still what it is. So today (monday) - first day of break - N woke at 5:30 am (guess I forgot to tell her we could sleep in), M said her ear hurt and P said his troat hurt. Ugh. I had a russian lesson scheduled, which in hind site, I should have cancelled. I gave the kids some motrin and they both were feeling better. Lesson started and of course N demanded all my attention, then M just started crying and crying that her ear hurt, after the lesson, called the Dr and they scheduled us for an ENT specialist. We went and the Dr, bless him, spoke French and Russian and very little english. He kept mixing words - whole sentences in french/russian/english. good thing I could pick out some of the russian, and my high school french did come in handy (I can say j'ai quatorze ans - because that is how old I was when I took it! ha!). Anyway - appointement went ok - asked a lot of questions about her cleft which is natural seeing he is an ENT. So much energy trying to follow what he was saying! Then came time for diagnosis - she does have an infection - in her ear and nose (?) - he prescribed an antibiotic - I asked "are they drops for her ears, or does she drink it?" he replies - " in the nose," me "antibiotics in the nose?" dr "oui - in the nose - you know - nose, throat, ear all connected" me "ok - yes, makes sense" - still seems weird - how do I give medicine in the nose? I think - must be a nasal spray. I pick up the prescription from the pharmacy (conveniently located in the clinic) - go home and open the box - not a nasal spray, but he alsp prescribed a nasal spray - antibiotic is a standard glass bottle with a measuring cup- -the white powder that I need to add water and shake myself (very old school). hmmm. I think I will just have her drink it - I can't imagine I pour it up her nose?! thankfully P was feeling better by this time.

Ahh - I miss doctors who speak my language.

Speaking of which, we have our tickes for december. Flying to portland Dec 16th - yippee! I am soo excited. Every night M sings as she is getting ready for bed "I want to go to America! Can't wait to go to America! America! America! I want to go to America!" funny - in a sad sort of way I guess. It is the people she misses - she likes our apartment - she loves school, she loves the city - but misses family and the cat!

thats it!

ch ch ch ch changes

2009-10-26T13:38:00.001+02:00

dont worry, nothing drastic, we arent leaving or anything!

We did decide on postponing Rome. For a few reasons, but we found out we couldnt use our miles for the tickets, and then realized that if we added the cash we would have spent on the trip to some money we have already set aside, we would have enough saved to cover the kids school tuition and bus service next year, which is a huge expense living here. So, security in the kids school tuition - a good thing.

We also got rid of our part time nanny. She just wasnt that great, and my gut said something was off, so I decided to take a break from the whole nanny thing and try again maybe after the holidays. It was one of those situations that she did a lot of little things that alone wouldnt have bothered me, but a lot of little things add up to a big thing. Leo called her this weekend and told her we decided not to have a nanny for a while and that she could come by and pick up her house slippers and clothes she changed into when she was here. She showed up today and said "someone called me this weekend and told me not to come in!" I said - uhm, yeah, that was my husband, you met him before, I am sure he identified himself when he called (ok- I didnt say that, but you know). It was kind of awkward. My russian teacher was here and helped translate.

Nice thing about my gym membership is they let me put a hold on it for a few months so the time is not lost. I am not used to having someone else take care of my kids, even for a few hours, so this whole nanny thing is odd for me. But we will see. I will still be able to go to the AWO newcomer coffees with natasha, and book group (my plan is to walk her in the stroller prior to meeting so she will be asleep and will just chill in the stroller while we chat away). Stitch group will have to wait - which is ok. The ladies there are super nice, but I am ok with not going.

What else? So now my plan is to get natasha on a good schedule during the day with her eating and sleeping, so hopefully she will be better at night.

My other plan is to get me on a good schedule with my studying russian, housekeeping (I get behind, then overwhelmed, then crabby!), and then time to do a few things I like, like reading for fun and doing some crafts. I have tons of ideas for crafts, but need to focus on finishing what I have started, and deciding what I want to do - I sometimes have great ideas, then get bored with the project half way through. I also am going to wean myself from the computer. I feel like I am always logging on to check email/facebook/blogs. Seriously so much of my time is spent on the computer (uhm, like now).

Thats about it- I know - boring.

On the russiany side - it is getting colder, fur is making an appearance - odd to see after living in a not too cold/paint throwing area like seattle for so long.

Our grocery delivery place now delivers fresh fish (utkonos.ru). Leo ordered some and it arrived. I have in my freezer a sturgeon. A whole one. It is weird looking. Like this, only for some reason ours has a pointier nose.

I asked leo how to cook it and he said I have to clean it first, then cut a hole in the tail, poke the pointy nose through to make a ring, and then braise it in broth. I am sorry. I am squimish. I dont want to poke anythings nose through its tail.

scratch

2009-10-16T09:55:00.002+03:00

So last night, as I was making dinner, I thought to myself and chuckled- I should post my fb status update "soup is boiling, bread in the oven, kids doing homework . .. " and let my friends draw their own conclusions. (pretty sad state when one thinks in terms of fb status updates, no?) I figured my friends would draw their own conclusions. Paints a pretty picture - fall evening, big pot of soup going, smell of bread baking, kids at the kitchen table quietly doing homework. . . . . ha! not my fault if you dont hear the baby screaming in the backpack carrier (thank you moscowmom for lending it to me!) because she MUST be held and I have things to do! What, you didnt notice I was short a cup of flour and substituted a cup of just add water blini mix? or that I put the dough in too small of a pan and it rose over the sides? In your vision of my domestic evening, can you see the kids squabbling over the last sharp pencil? Do you hear the kids complain about the soup? M refuse to eat it, then cry through the dinner? Did you notice Leo was working late (again) and not home? A little peak beneath the surface reveals!

By the way, bread turned out fine- an odd texture, but went well with the soup (chicken and wild rice, if you must know - from left over balsamic chicken and, well, wild rice the night before).

Is 7 too young for PMS? I seriously think sometimes M has it. I do not look forward to the teen years. She already has such mood swings. She already runs to her room and pulls the covers over her head, cries and doesnt speak to me when she gets upset. (speaking of which, she asked me the other day, "what happens" if a girls likes a boy, but he likes a different girl? uhm - you pull the covers over your head and cry? - no - I didnt say that! she also wanted to know what she could do to get a boy to like her- just be yourself M!) But, scratch a little beneath the surface and I can usually figure out what is going on. Last evening for example - a big crying fit over not liking the dinner, turned out it was really about the friend issue. I think I have written about this before. M is having a hard time making friends at school. I finally got the scoop last night (or at least part of the scoop). So, she wants a friend. She sometimes plays with a group of girls, but it turns out they are all russian and speak russian to each other on the playground, so M feels left out (she doesnt speak russian). 1 other girl in her class doesnt speak russian. Miss Priss. So, why not be friends with Miss Priss? M doesnt like her. She corrects Ms speech ("why do you say it like that? say it like this!"), when M accidently stepped on her coat in line (miss priss was apparently dragging it behind her) - she turned and yelled at M "you stepped on my coat - I hate you!" I have come down hard on my kids for saying "hate" and so it really hurt M's feelings. We talked about how different families allow different words, etc, and she probably didnt intend to say something so mean. So who does Miss Priss play with? A boy - who she has "kissed on the lips 10 times!" and said boy - upon meeting M said "why do you look weird?" (which was probably not meant in a mean way, but still hurt Ms feelings). sigh. First grade is tough. So M and I reviewed the options - she can: play with the Russian girls and try and speak russian with them and maybe learn more russian, or speak english to them since they all understand english too. She can find a recess friend from a different class. She can play tag with the boys. She can talk to Miss Priss and "help her learn to be a better friend" I am hoping for playing with the Russian girls, but I can see how M would feel left out if they all speak russian to each other. they are nice girls and have invited M to play with them in the past.

So I had my book group yesterday. It was a lot of fun. It always amazes me the diversity of backgrounds you meet here. I think Expatress did a post on this a while back - how, living here, you meet and socialize with a much more diverse group of people than you probably would back home. In our little book group we had 2 other women married to Russians, 3 had been in Moscow for over 8 years, one arrived earlier that week, some with kids, some with grown kids, some without kids, some married to oil executives, some here with the embassy, some here with nonprofits, some here for the long term, some Moscow is just a 2-3 year gig then off to the next post.

I have noticed that upon meeting a fellow expat the following questions come up - usually in this order - How long have you been here? where are you from? what company are you/spouse with? kids? where do they go to school? how long are you staying? I think we should all wear tags with all this info printed so when you meet someone, you get all the facts up front.

One interesting discussion sprang from the book group and that is regarding the kindle - now with international wireless!! I havent decided yet if I want one or not - -basically the choice is : order books, ship to parents - they ship to NY office, they ship to moscow - I have my hard copy book. I like books- the covers, the pages, them on my shelf. I like looking through them, pulling one off the shelf, flipping through it, remembering reading it - sharing it with a friend. OK, kindle - no shipping. Just plug into computer (or now with international wireless - download from anywhere). Store whatever 1000s of books on one device. Easy for planes, travel, etc. Build in dictionary (because - believe it or not, sometimes I don't know what a word means!). Ah the debate. Check this out for article on expats and kindle.

We like to play "would you rather" at dinner - would you rather speak all the foreign languages in the world, or be able to talk to animals? breath underwater or fly? etc. So I asked the kids would you rather have books, or an electronic device which stored all your books with instant download. Surprisingly, P said books! He is addicted to all things electronic - so this was a surprise, but scratch a little below the surface and ask him why? Well - he likes the covers and the paper of books, but really - Because with books on his shelf, when people come over they will see them and think - wow, this boy is smart - look at all the books he has read! that's my boy!

art- not garfunkel

2009-10-04T20:57:00.001+03:00

Sat we went with the kids to vinzavod - an old brewery (I know - with a name like Vinzavod you would think wine) converted to an big art exhibition - different buildings with different exhibits, a few shops, a cafe. We stood in line for tickets in - it was 300 rbs per adult - kids free. I have to say it was quite odd. I wasnt sure what to expect, but maybe I am just not "artsy" enough. P kept asking "is this art?" so I guess it was a good prompt for discussing what is, and is not art. M did not like it "too creepy" she kept saying. Some exhibits were a little creepy I guess.

I am not sure on the history of the buildings, but I did see a 1850 in the brick of one of the buildings. A few of the buildings were open lofty types, while others you went down maybe two or three stories. These were pretty interesting, as at the bottom were huge arched rooms and tunnels. One exhibit down in a cellars was completely dark, the only light coming from little (maybe 2'x3') opaque greenhouse type structures each with 2 or 3 plaster people squatting in front of a "fire" (light with paper flames). It was kind of interesting because as you walked around underground, you would glance down a tunnel and see 4 or 5 greenhouses seeming to float in the dark. Kids didnt really like it and I made leo hold natasha because the floor was uneven, and parts you walked along wooden planks and it was too dark to see the ground. In another cellar room was set up like a bad haunted house - complete with tacky plastic skeletons wearing costumes - there was even one with a military uniform lying on the ground (I think an ax in his head) and by some kind of mechanism his arm moved every so often. I couldnt tell if the "artist" was going for the "tacky haunted house" look, or not, but again, kids didnt really like it. The coolest part was a huge wall covered in various types of graffiti. Behind it though was another "art" installation. It had maybe 30 stationary bicycles set up on a platform (open for anyone to hop on and pedal), rolls and rolls of thick metal cables connected the bicycles to a skeleton of an airplane while screens on either side of the plane showed clips of old black and white movies. hmmm. ok.

Well, I can say it was an experience, good people watching, interesting in the sense that you werent quite sure what you were going to see next, and we had interesting conversation with the kids about art. Our Russian friend came with us, and he seemed apologetic, but I told him - even bad experiences are experiences nonetheless. I wouldnt say this was bad, just odd. We probably wont go again (in fact I am sure we wont) - not sure I would recommend it, but if you are into various forms of art and that scene - go for it.

After - we went to a Ukrainian restaurant - Shinok. I have mentioned before that themed restaurants are big here - this one is Ukrainian Village theme - complete with a cow, horse, turkey and goat. The center of the restaurant is set up like an old village with the animals an old babushka sits near taking care of them. This is all enclosed and tables are set next to windows looking in on the scene. Yeah - live animals. We didnt make a reservation so we didnt get a window seat - but we were seated next to the kids playroom. Yep - the restaurant had a room with toys, and a tv (Tinkerbel was playing), and two ladies would watch your kids while you ate - nice! M and P went in for a bit. M painted a wooden spoon, P played with some big legos. The ladies kept trying to get N to go in, but she cried unless I was with her - she is very shy around strangers and, like most 9 mon olds, makes sure I am always close. So food there was pretty good - we ordered appetizers - salad and sala - do you know what sala is? hold on to your hats people - it is lard. yep lard. we got the combo platter - lard wrapped around garlic, lard mixed with herbs, lard smoked, salted, marinated. Served with pickled veggies, spicy mustard and black bread. If you can move past the fact yolu are eating lard, it is quite good, buttery, melt in your mouth kind of good. Not meat tasting like I thought it would be. I could only eat a little bite of each kind, because, well, hello, it is lard. For main course we had an assortment of "vareniki" which is a ukrainian specialty - like dumplings/ravioli- stuffed with meat, potato and mushroom, cheese, they were good. A little high on the price (especially if you ordered meals) but ok if you stick with the vareniki. For dessert we had an order of sweet cottage cheese and an order of blueberry ones. Those were yum-o!

Anyway - it was a pretty fun/interesting day. Sun Leo took the kids to the gym for swimming, then we headed out for our regular weekend hike. We were looking for a music store because we need a piano bench/stool for P. He currently is sitting on a kitchen chair piled with books. We found the store off the Garden Ring off Tverskaya - but alas on Sun it closed at 5, and it was 5:15 when we got there. Well, we know where it is now - so maybe later this week if the weather is nice I will walk back with N and take a look. Our piano was such a good deal (6000 rbls- around $200) that I hate to pay more for a piano bench than the piano itself! ha!

Speaking of the weather - it has been cold here! A little rainy - but mostly cold, bright and sunny - my favorite! The heat came on in the apartment earlier this week so it is stuffy and warm - I have the first set of windows open to get a little air (we have double windows) I may turn on the a/c at least part of the day. For now, in the apartment I have the baby in just her diaper and onesie - kids wear shorts an t shirts - then when we go outside it is long pants and sleeves, hats, mittens, down jackets . . . . at least a 15 minute, grunting, searching for missing mitten, sweaty, ordeal. Not looking forwarward to stuffing a baby into a down snowsuit every time we go out. . . .

When in Rome . . . .

2009-09-27T12:55:00.002+03:00

Friday afternoon I went to the AWO (American Womens Org) stitch group - I know - wild and crazy! I choose my activities to participate in based on time and location. this group meets friday afternoons in walking distance (about a 30 minute walk), perfect! It was fun! Natasha didn't cry when I left, which is a first - and made a huge difference in my ability to relax. Basically a group of nice ladies meets at the hostesses apartment to chat, snack, drink coffee and work on whatever project (if you have one!). Many of the ladies are from Texas - spouses work for oil companies. The apartment was gorgeous! The remont (remodel) was very nicely done, but what made it so cozy was that she had it furnished so nice. She came, like many expats 3 years ago - back then, it was very common for companies cover the cost of shipping all of your stuff here. Not so much anymore. Anyway, she had furniture and area rugs, and personal things set out. I came home and told Leo no more art until we cozy up the place.

Somewhat related side story - I am working on an embroidery project - I had my mom buy some iron transfer patterns and supplies because I have no clue where to get anything like that here. Anyway - she brought some kitty patterns for M to do. I had great visions of mom/daughter bonding while stitching- very Little House. Anyway, she picked her kitty pattern (a cat in a fancy dress and the words - the cats meow - I think it is funny). So Leo bought an iron before I came. The joke is, I NEVER iron. I hate it. Only time I iron is occasionally if I am sewing. (another side story - stay with me here - once my mom bought M a little housecleaning set for christmas - a little broom, mop, duster, and it had an iron and ironing board. M looked at me and said "what is this?" pointing to the iron and ironing board) I get out the iron, mini board from Ikea, a tea towel. I read the instructions, place the pattern face down and iron away. Only it wont transfer. Hmmmm, make sure there is no steam ("a Dry iron"), try again. Nothing. Now I am getting irritated. M and I press hard, count to 30, move the iron a bit, try again, still nothing. OK, I tell M lets take a deep breath. Sometimes if something isnt working, take a break and try later. So the next day while she is at school I try again. Same results. I am totally annoyed. I had my mom go and buy these patterns and they wont work! I think about going online and writing a bad review! Then I think maybe it is my iron. Of course! Stupid Russian iron - I curse. Then I notice the plate part looks kinda weird. oh. There is a safety plate to protect the fabric on it. Duh. sigh. OK, remove the plate and voila. works like a charm. Sorry, not stupid russian iron. my bad.

This past weekend has been busy - we went and finally picked out a few fish for M (we bought her a tank - about 30 gallons - last week for her birthday). We went to the little pet shop on Arbat (Starry). I stood outside with the stroller as the entrance - like many stores in Moscow, was not that stroller friendly. Anyway, Leo and big kids went in, picked 2 goldfish and a "cleaner fish" - looks like a catfish. Kids named tham Ozzy, Izzy and Janitor Joe - they spent a long time coming up with names - but now our family has an alphabet run from I though P - Izzy, Janitor, Me - K, Leo , M, N, Ozzy, and P. Yeah - we are cool.

After they came out of the aquarium shop (which, by the way - is in the alley and down some steps to the left of the zoomagazine on Arbat) - Leo was laughing. Apparently some chic lady (makeup, big hair, nails, mini skirt and heels) came in asking for a toy for her little dog- shop worker stated that they only sold fish and fish related items, she would need to go around the corner to the pet store - woman says - but I just want a toy for my dog! - guy says again, we only sell fish related items - woman stomps out saying loudly and very angry- what is wrong with you?! why dont you undestand me?! I just want a toy for my dog!. Kinda funny.

On the way back we stopped at Costa Coffee. Lots of coffee shops on Arbat (including 2 Starbucks, mac Cafe, shokoladni, and I think a coffee house) I have been reading a discussion on the expat.ru site about where to get good espresso in Moscow. The poster actually asked about expresso which made me snicker- hard to be taken seriously as a coffe snob (discussion on depth of flavor, grind, temperature of water . . .)when you say expresso instead of espresso. Anyway - consensus was coasta coffee, there is one on Arbat, so I convinced Leo to stop. It was pretty good coffee - but not hot enough. Kids were happy with the pastries - oatmeal cookie with raisins, orange muffin, and a croissant. I gotta admit, I pretty much will drink any coffee. I do like mac cafe coffee (no way! McDonalds!), Starbucks (mostly to support the hometown), and coffee mania is good too. I just want it HOT.

Speaking of coffee . . . . I am planning a little trip to Rome. The kids have a week off of school the first week in November. I pretty much have an apartment lined up, we will get the tickes by redeeming the kids miles, and leo will buy his own ticket. After getting an apartment when we went to bueno aires, we decided it is the way to go. Usually cheaper than a hotel room (especially with three kids), you get a kitchen so you can make your own breakfast at least, some have washing machines so you can do laundry while there, etc. I, of course, had to research and find one in walking distance to a fitness center - not for me - Leo is obsessive about working out everyday. Oh well - I will take the kids and eat pastries and gelato and drink coffee while he works out! ha! We are planning that the kids and I go on sat, then leo follow tues night (dont freak out mom and dad!) I think I can handle it. I am a big girl now. And lets face it, chances are if I want to travel here -which is one of the reasons I agreed to the move - I will do it alone (by alone I mean with the kids) - or Leo will meet up with us later because he cant take a full week off of work. I ordered a book from Amazon (who me?) called Rome for Kids - I am excited to get it! (sent to my sister, then sent to the NY office of Leos firm, they forward to Leo at the moscow office) - should get it before we go! ha! cross your fingers!

Sunday we had some of Leos friends over for dinner. Leo actually went to college with the husband. He and his wife came with their 2 daughters (16 and 9). They were all very friendly people. They told a lot of jokes and I understood some, so I felt pretty good. I had a "conversation" about the kids school, where I go for walks, what I liked about moscow - all in Russian, so that made me feel pretty good. My goal for learing Russian is to hold my own in dinner conversation. At this point I think I can converse at about a 4 year old level - but better than nothing. I am getting a little frustrated, because -and I know I will sound like a wuss - Russian is hard. Ok I said it. Too many endings - I cant keep them straight - and they often sound alike. I am working on adjectives and making the endings match the subject - ugh. Anyway - I know I am progressing, I just need to do the work and take the time to burn it into my brain. Sometimes I wish my mind worked more like Leo and P - both can read something and remember it forever - they hear a word in a foreign language and they remember it. Once I was chatting with Leo and he mentioned he wanted to learn Spanish. I told him I thought he would pick it up pretty quickly because he remembers words- he says - you don't? Uhmmm, no. I don't. I have to write a word a million times, use it in sentences, label it, and then use that word often enough so I dont forget it. Anyway, as I tell the kids, everyone has their own special talents, learning a new language isnt mine. But I do think desire to learn something, and willingness to do the work, can get you pretty far.

Even as far as a four-year-old level.

kid stuff

2009-09-25T08:32:00.001+03:00

Just an update on the kids. I use this blog as a journal, and to hopefully have to look back on, I decided I needed to periodically post updates on the kiddos. Especially since, poor number 3, doesn't have a baby book. (well, who am I kidding, I didn't keep one for numbers 1 and 2 - P has massive photos in an album, M has tons of photos and video - which, by the way, is obsolete (not digital), and N has all digital photos and video - so in the end, she will probaby have the most documentation).

anywho -

N - 9 months now!! she is crawling a crazy, one leg out, half scootching on her bum, crawl. She pulls up to stand, cruises along the walls, waves bye bye (also can do deely deely - if you are greek and know it), claps, says "ba!" and points when she sees a ball, can say mama, did the sign for bath when I put her in (once, so may be a fluke), points to window when asked, makes car noise when pushing her toy car, points to eyes on stuffed animals when asked. We have fun hanging out together. All in all, she is great - still doesnt sleep at night, but I figure she is too busy thinking and figuring things out, and she is still my easiest baby - so no complaints!

P - busy! third grade is big! gets home, does his homeowork, practices piano (sometimes under threat), reads like mad - is running through books faster than I can supply - luckily he has access to a library now and his teacher has a ton of books. They did some kind of reading testing at school and the result lists books at his level he should check out at the library - the program gives suggestions (as in, if you like this book, you may also like . . . ) and apparently will progress with him through the year. Kind of cool - maybe will open him up to different types of books as he generally has been sticking with animal adventures (black stallion, rascal, gentle ben, shiloh, etc). His teacher says he is doing really well, adjusting, making friends. On Tues the 3rd grade at school is presenting their "museum of me" projects. I plan on going, with Leo if he can. They made posters in Russian, family trees, made masks, power point presentations, and are bringing in "artifacts" to present.

M - she is also doing well, likes school. Her teacher says she is participating, is confident, works well, etc - all the good stuff. She is having a bit of a time making friends. She plays with groups of kids, but has the idea that she needs "one special best friend" and hasnt found her yet. She has cried a bit at night due to this lack of one special friend. I think this idea is from the books she reads and a journal she has been keeping "Junie B Jones Top-Secret Personal Beeswax." It is actually a great book - basically this character Junie B Jones (there is a series of books based on her adventures in the first grade and K) has a journal and for every page she has completed, there is an identical page for the reader to fill out. It has pages such as All About Me, If I were the Boss of my House-Rules I would Change, Favorites and Unfavorites, Things that Make Me Nervous, I SMile When I Remember the Time . . ., etc. I really like the end section - Feeling my feelings - "Embarrassment", "Sad and Blue" "Scared" "Happy", There are questions such as - list things that make me sad, when I feel sad, I . . .. , ways I can feel better. M spends a lot of time reading and writing in her journal. But, back to the friends - there is a big section about friends, writing who your best friend is, things you do together, etc. She has been waiting and waiting to write in this section and she is upset that she doesnt have anyone yet to write about. I tell her that finding a best friend takes time, etc. Her teacher is also going to help her out and try matching her up with a buddy for class projects, etc.

I have to say, after the kids conferences yesterday, I love the school even more. They are so caring - you can feel it. The kids are pround to go there, they loved showing me around. I love the philosophy of the school. They also have a really nice hot lunch program - it is yummy! all home made (examples - salmon with mashed potatoes and peas, chicken cutlets with yellow rice and celery sticks, potato and mushroom pelmeni with cabbage salad)- including pastries and desserts. M loves hot lunch, and even P - my PB and J everyday has been trying new food - and liking it! I want to go there for lunch! Both kids really seem at home and settled in at school.

On another, more useful to the expat, note - I found a really good taxi company - Taxi Da. They speak English and I have had no problems with them. In fact - after the first time calling, now the woman answers using my name - "hi katherine, how can I help you?" I have since used them 4 times - all to go to the kids school and back. After the first 3 times, she called me to make sure everything was satisfactory. The cars have all been clean, on time, drivers nice and safe driving, they speak just enough english to call me when they arrive, tell me the make of the car and the license number, and how much the charge is. It is a great feeling to know I can piock up the phone and arrange a car all by myself and not have to call leo to do it for me! Their number is 8926 533 00 90 if you ever need to call for a cab in Moscow!

back to the surreal

2009-09-23T07:45:00.001+03:00

OK - enough with the touristy pics and blogs - back to the day to day life in Moscow!

walking around town last week - we were actually looking for the "bird market" - a huge pet market where one can apparently get any variety of pet (we did not find it, but happened instead on a small zoomagazine and picked up a little aquarium for M - she requested "any pet but not a dog" for her birthday - fish it is!!)- we saw some little kittens on the side of the road busily munching and playing. Upon closer inspection, they were eating and playing with chicken feet - maybe 8 or 10 feet (somehow seems right to keep it an even number). Thinking about it, is is not odd, someone had 4 or 5 chickens and discarded the feet for the neighborhood cats, but it was an odd sight - all those cute little kittens amongst a pile of chicken feet. . . . I should have taken a picture. I was actually a little relieved we couldn't find the pet market - not sure what to expect. That day, we also saw a bunch of men standing around in front of a Banya drinking beer, wearing nothing but small towels and felt hats. (for more info on Russian banya, check out this). Again, should have taken a picture. As an aside, I wish I had a itouch or iphone - a much more discreet way to take pics, pretending you are texting or something, much better that looking all touristy and whipping out the camera.

The mayor of Moscow announced a week or so ago at a celebration for the city janitors that he is proposing a plan to rid the city of snow in the winter. yeah. The city currently "controls the weather" on important holiday/parade days by blasting silver iodide, cement powder and liquid nitrogen into clouds outside the city to encourage precipitation, or something like that. Anyway, he proposes something similar for the winter snow - to keep the snow outside the city, but inside the city snow free. His plan will not work scientists say as snow clouds are different than rain clouds (really). Like the idea even merits scientific thought! I read the article and thought it was a joke!

I was perusing a grocery web site looking at baby food - generally I make my own, but thought I would see what was out there and came upon this:

Children's Mashed Beef with Heart.

You can also get Children's Puree with Liver, and Children's Mashed Tongue. I also thought Mashed Chickens was a nice translation for baby food. I like that it is canned too - wonder what the shelf life is.

I think I will stick with making my own. thankyouverymuch. (actually I did find some Hipp Baby organic, GMO free babyfood so we will try some of that too - although N is really preferring table food lately)

Not odd, but a little surreal for me - it is not unusual to hear musicians play for money in the underground street crossings, usually classical or folksy music. Yesterday I heard "and all the roads we have to walk are winding, and all the lights that light the way are blinding" do you know it? how about this? "and after all, you're my wonder wall . ."by Oasis. ahhh a little taste of home! How I wish I had some cash to give the guy! I think I will start carrying a bit in my pocket just to give the musicians that move me . . .

I went to an AWO (American Womens Organization) meeting a few weeks ago and met Jenn - how nice! It seems like a really nice group - I am really excited because the book group meets at a time and place accessible to me! (it is all about me, right?). Without a car/driver and with a very part time nanny (2 hours a day) I have limited time/ability to participate in adult things - so this makes me very happy! I am thinking about going to the stitch group too - but I need to see if nanny can come Fri afternoons instead of morning - and I need to figure out how to get there on the metro - I think it is on a direct line so should not be a problem. I also (I know - how hopeful I am!) would love to try the cross country ski group - they meet once per week - Thurs mornings - works for me - beginner group - as I have never donned skis in my life (ok - once when I was 10 my uncle took my sister and I and then ditched us to chase after girls while we crawled down the mountain - remember, christina?, but that doesnt count). Problem is they meet kinda far, I would need to take the metro, then a shuttle with my gear and seems a little daunting, I am thinking of sending out a message to others in the group to see if anyone lives near me and wants to share a cab or something - ooh or maybe has a car and will give me a lift! Anyway - lots to do, and dream about doing (which is sometimes just as fun). Oh - and I met a gal from Seattle! It was fun because we both laughed about how it brought tears to our eyes when we go to Starbucks and the barista says, in english, "would you like room for cream." Maybe you have to be a seattleite to get how moving that is.

Kitai Gorod

2009-09-21T06:43:00.001+03:00

Back in the states, we just got into hiking together as a family. The kids were old enough to manage and we all enjoyed it. It is one thing I miss - being out in nature. Now that we are in Moscow we do a lot of "urban hiking". Pretty much every weekend we pick an area on my big Moscow map in the kitchen and we head out to explore.

Urban Hiking- we had the stroller, but N decided she wanted a better view. (big kids were stepping in Leo's wet footprints on the sidewalk)

This week - Kitai Gorod - translates literally to Chinatown, but has nothing to do with China. The name actually stems from an old word Kitai- a word used to describe how the wall around it was built - poles lashed together.

Basically, long ago, you had the Kremlin - a walled city where all the nobility lived. Then next to it is Kitai Gorod - a place where all the rich merchants lived. They built a wall around themselves for fortification as well in the 1500s. Parts of the wall still stand:

this is tretyekovskei arch/passage.

Now, it is a finance center - the Ministry of Finance, the Treasury, Trade and Commerce buildings are here.

On the left is the Treasury, yellow is Commerce, and I cant remember the green, but it is a beautiful building, I think the tower with the clock is some kind of insurance building.

Kitai Gorod is really a beautiful area. Lots of old buildings, quaint side streets, little parks, coffee shops, and churches tucked into alleys. the kids kept remarking how quiet it was.

this is a cool building - it was the first printing house for religious texts - it has a lion and a unicorn on the side, as well as sundials over the doors.

Churches:

This is a very cool church

Looking toward Varvarka (St Barbara Street), looking back up Varvarka

St Barbara Church

and a synagogue

By the way - were were out for around 2 hours - did you notice how much the sky changed in that time - blue, cloudy, almost black, then grey . . . . fall is here!