Summer Days

Today began three weeks of upcoming visitors.  We are so excited to host one of my brothers this week! The Munchkins were beside themselves with anticipation!  I am having to put my best foot forward, remembering everything I have seen or don't the past 10 months in hopes of using it now.

Today we went to Red Square and toured St. basils Cathedral.  It is worth the 250 rubles to go inside, tour the museum and look up into the onion domes.  Preparations are under way in the city for the celebration of Russia Day. June 12, 1990 is the day the Russian Federation was born. The Russian Federation adopted its own Russian Constitution to reflect the new political landscape . The country's new name Russian Federation was established on December 25, 1991. Happy Independence Day Russia!

Tomorrow...Gorky Park

Safety Sam

The only thing that stands between these men and their death is a 2x6 board and self made knot. CRAZY!!!

Hello Mr. Man

I hear a noise coming from somewhere. Thinking it is from upstairs, I walk into a hallway and see this...a man staring at me. He is held by one rope, hand tied and knotted. He has shimmied over the side of our 25 story building to scrape and patch holes, repairing winter damages.
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The List....May It Rest In Peace

Since our first day in Mother Russia I have kept a rotating list of items I plan to buy when in America this summer. These are Items I either couldn't live without or items to make our apartment feel more like a home.

I would like to tell you what is on my list, if it weren't for the fact it is gone! Deleted....went in cyber unknown....never to be seen or heard from again..... Can we please have a moment of silence?

This list was my life line to the outside world. Okay, so maybe not THAT dramatic. When we first arrived in Moscow, I knew what I wanted here, but could not get. I knew what was available in my local store. Note-I said store as in ONE and not the FOUR I have to go to here. This is the reason the list started in the first place. I wanted vanilla extract. I found the extract. After a few weeks, I broke down willing to pay the $5 for 2 tablespoons of what ended up to be flavored sugar. Russians don't do baked goods or sweets well. They all look like beautiful works of art. Yet when you bite into the masterpiece it tastes like cardboard. In all seriousness, it isn't worth even tasting a bite. It's kind of like seeing a well made cake covered in Fondant. Have you tasted fondant? Let me save you some calories....DON'T! Why people use that stuff I will never know. A perfectly moist cake will turn uneatable in my eyes at the mere sight of Fondant. A wide arrange of food products were never available until the early 1990's. Russians had to make and bake with what they had access to. Vanilla extract was not one of those items, especially when you need toilet paper. Now that there is abundance (insert laugh here bc it is available IF you can find it, along with every other product you want and can't find) they don't know how to use it....because they never could. The extract isn't very good and now I import mine from Poland. It has been scratched from my rotating list of American items and placed on my "I will hoard whatever you want to bring me from another country on your travels" list.

Isn't that a great list? Doesn't it just sound fun? Items on that list include English magazines. If I could get a hold of a copy of People magazine, I would read the same one over and over again. You only have to bring me one. I will spend hours with my nose in the bind, studying every last word. A good Gossip magazine is worth the money! Want me to not talk? Give me a People. You have just bought yourself three hours. Ask the Mr. Another item on this list are TimTams. Have you heard of them? No? Good! That means more for me. Stay away. Dangerous.They are these amazing chocolate covered wafer cookies in different flavors made in Australia. Oh my! Put them in the frig and you have (sing with me) Heaven....

So where was I? Right! My list....it's gone, may it rest in peace. The longer I am here, the more I make do without luxury items. I improvised my way through not having canned pumpkin at Thanksgiving for a Pumpkin Pie. Minus the stress to not only find a pumpkin but the proper pumpkin, it turned out fabulous. A can of pumpkin filling may go on the new list just to have, just in case. Luxury like maple syrup for our pancakes. Russians (and Europeans) don't put syrup on their pancakes. Less face it, their pancakes really aren't even pancakes! They are given a fancy word like crepe or blini to be topped with jam or cottage cheese. Um, ok, maple syrup is going on the list! Thank you Canada for your gift of Maple. Can we talk cereal? The Mr goes through a box of cereal every other day, his breakfast of choice. I live in a world where chocolates occupy 2 long, American supermarket aisles. Coffee and tea has its own aisle. Did you know there was a dedicated cold section strictly for sour cream? And when I say dedicated, I mean 3 shelves, 10 feet long, stacked with different sour cream. In America, we have three kinds....regular, skim and fat free. Pick one. Oatmeal? No wonder why everyone is constipated....who knew there were so many kinds of oats. You can have your pick! But a healthy cereal with fiber will run you $8 a box and thats the cheap stuff. No, we don't have coupons here. But if you spend a certain amount you always get these stickers with your receipt. The receipt that is printed out on dot matrix paper and each page is stamped not once, but three times. I have yet to figure out what to do with those stickers. So, cereal may be going on the list.

Apparently, I can not live without those luxury items. I have just talked myself into needing them. Thank you for talking me into them. What have we learned here? What is our lesson for the day? That the Mr will be spending a lot of money on excess baggage this summer. It's really all your fault. I was doing fine with my lost list, until our little conversation. You talked me into it....

It's a good thing my brother is coming to visit and my parents, at different times...there's two shipment right there! The Mr will return from the States before we do. I will load him up! And I'll bring a shipment. Four shipments.....can you imagine?! Oh boy....I better get started on that list!

.....Medicine, spices (chili powder, nutmeg, cloves), food coloring, ziplock bags in all sizes, aluminum foil, powder Gatorade, hair care products (if you have seen the Easter Egg colored hair here-you would add it too!), yummy smelling candles, gifts-for children, friends, teachers, on bday s/holidays, hostess gifts.......

Feel free to add to my list Munchkin Reader! What would you like to put in your list?


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Contentment

This is why I love this place......the weather.

Ironic isn't it? Freezing cold, snow piled miles high, winter lasting a ridiculous 5 months that started with snow and ended with snow. In a matter of two weeks the snow melted and green grass sprouts. The tulips are in full bloom. The colors are amazing. It is said this is a country of extremes...and it is! From the weather to the people, the spectrum is alive. On days like today it makes it worth living here. According to The Weather Channel iPad app, the high today is 71 deg Fahrenheit. The sky is blue,not a cloud, with a gentle wind tickling your ear. It is gorgeous! I see vitamin D in my future!

The Mr has been gone all week. The first time since September he has traveled. A lot has happened since then. A new place, new people, strange noises, attempting to find my way whether it be meeting new friends or finding the supermarket. This time, I have it! I am not new anymore. I know where things are. i have friends, a support system. There is a comfort in being settled.

Contentment.......

Reflections....

Inspire Me....

So many topics roll in my head.
To write about Weather or London instead?
The sun rises at oh dark thirty....
And London is really not that dirty.
The sun sets at half past ten...
On the Eye we saw Big Ben.

Seems quite trivial to write such things;
On the TV, news of CIA agent sings.
I could focus on discrimination, the normalcy here.
Americans are clueless what racism is; yet plead fear.
The man at the dumpster, looking for food.
He comes every day at just about two.

Want to talk driving? Forbidden-No left turns.
Yet reversing on a highway is what they learn.
Or the mean mashrutka man who never smiles?
Turns nice and friendly as the heat climbs.

Russian lessons are ongoing and underway.
Accusative, genitive? What the hell do I say?
You want me to write cyrylic and speak it too?
I'm still translating the British word "Lou!"

I miss my friend. My first friend here....
She left in January; shed many tears!
A few emails on the net,
Then to a restaurant where we met.
My first blind date. Will she like me, I ask.
She calls me the next day...she likes me I bask!
My first friend here. My first hello.
My first ride alone on the metro.
My first hello. My first good bye.
In all of this country, my first real cry.

School is nearing its final days close.
More friend moves is how it goes.
Vacations are planned, visitors arrive.
Fun in the sun is what we thrive!

So much to say, how do I write?
Uninspired by day, I am missing my light.

What do you, dear reader, have to say?
What do you want to hear? Have your way.....
Questions you have about Russia or life?
What to bring? How to pack? Fur coat for the wife?
Tell me something you want to know.
Give me the topic, the words I will sew......





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