Thursday, October 8, 2009

brief update from the States

We do often go silent, but not usually this early in our new adventure. Right now we're living the separated life, as Alex and I have gone home for Zoltan's birth because health care in Russia isn't very good and I don't speak enough Russian to make me otherwise comfortable about the experience. In our 3 weeks in the USA we've been sick, spent a week in Pennsylvania, and had 2 play dates :-) Terry and I have done separations several times in our relationship, but the addition of a child makes it that much harder and I have so much respect for the military and other families who regularly spend time apart.

Terry's in training right now so he isn't home either. If he does much sightseeing in Moscow I am sure he'll post about that. My mom moved to Amesbury a couple of years ago so I am learning a whole new town - and have been pretty happily surprised at what's here. This is definitely not the Amesbury that existed while I was growing up. The next time I take Alex to Cider Hills Farm I'll get some photos - they have apple picking, hay rides, a country store, and farm animals to look at ... and is only about 5-10 minutes away! This whole driving to get anywhere thing has already gotten old to me, but the people in my mom's development are a pretty close knit bunch and nobody minds if Alex runs across their yard or gently pets their ornamental stone animals, so we can at least get some fresh air and exercise without have to go too far.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

He created a monster

The Philadelphia Eagles play today. Hence, in the mindset of any self-respecting Philadelphian, today is a day to wear one's Eagles jersey. Or one of one's Eagles jerseys as who would be caught with only one? Of course, Alex has a jersey (but only one, she grows too fast).

It got chilly in St. Pete as of this last week, so we wanted to put on a long sleeved shirt under Alex's jersey before going outside. The conversation between Terry and Alex went something like this:
T: "Alex we need to put this shirt on first, but then I promise we'll put the Eagles shirt on top of it."
A: "No, Eagles shirt"
T: "Yes, we'll put on the Eagles shirt AFTER this shirt."
A: "No, EAGLES SHIRT!"
Followed by Alex hugging the Eagles shirt to her chest, fending off daddy's attempts to put on the other jersey, then attempting to put the Eagles shirt on herself.

We did get a short video of this exchange, someday to be revealed.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Photos of Helsinki

The photos from this weekends trip are up online. I had a late night last night editing to get them all up. So enjoy the fruits of my labor.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Helsinki, part II

To keep things balanced, some things I did NOT love about the hotel:

- Reception kept directing me to the children's play area, which was allegedly situated in the dining room. Perplexed as to why I could never find it, I asked restaurant staff. It has been closed for "renovation", possibly never to return. So, a) one of the draws of the hotel didn't exist and b) front desk staff and restaurant staff (maybe 50 meters from each other) don't talk :-(

- on our first day, when our room hadn't been cleaned yet at 5pm and we headed out for dinner I asked at the front desk for housekeeping to go right away as we wouldn't be gone long. On the second day, as the cleaning staff was on our floor when we left for the afternoon I didn't feel a need to specifically ask that our room be cleaned. Silly me. I had never felt the necessity of daily room cleaning in my pre-toddler life, but really for us it is a necessity. Room cleaning should be a no-brainer for a hotel.

I'd still go back to that hotel chain, but not that hotel.

Our second night we ate at a Finnish restaurant where the meal was similar but not quite the same as the Lappish place. Terry has completely fallen in love with lingonberry and we tried to figure a viable way to bring some back with us but it wasn't to be. We'll just have to hope that it will grow it at the cabin.

The train ride back was an experience. We had booked the first class sleeper compartment, which has 2 bench/couch/beds and a small amount of space in between. Terry has posted photos so they should explain this description. Soon after we departed, one of the ladies who worked on the train (what are they called? They were basically stewardesses) came and asked if we wanted tea or coffee. It cost 60 rubles for the 2 drinks, which was actually a pretty good deal given Terry's 1.80 Euro coffee on the way there. A couple of hours later they came by again with beer or juice - free. Yes, FREE beer, but coffee will cost you. I love Russia!

The other highlight of the train ride was the sleeping daughter. When the sun started going down, we gave her about 90% of her normal bedtime routine, then lay her down on one of the beds, turned off the light, lay down ourselves, and hoped for the best while not even remotely believeing it would happen. She fell asleep with no crying, and only a few turns of sitting up and being reminded gently by her parents to lay her head down and go to sleep. It was a solid 1.5h before we came into the train station, and she even made the transition off the train and into her stroller without a major, full-scale wakeup.

This is where I extol the virtues of Ladybird Taxi. It's a great concept. The drivers are all women, and they only accept women as passengers - they will take a man if he is with a woman or a child. They carry car seats in the trunk, women's magazines if you want them, etc etc. They only speak Russian so I had asked Alex's babysitter to make the arrangements for me as we didn't have our car seat with us so it seemed like the best option for getting home at 11pm from the train station. Although the train came in 10 minutes before I had asked them to be there, my phone rang the moment we stepped outside the station. Unfortunately, there had been some miscommunication between our babysitter and the booking person, because the lady was waiting exactly at the location I was told she wouldn't be. But she gamely hung on the phone with me and talked me through getting to where she was parked even though I only understood about every 5th word she used.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Even the construction is clean

We decided to use this long weekend as a last chance to get away while we were just 3. Helsinki is a very easy train ride away, and as everyone who's been here told us it was the most boring capital city in Europe, we figured 2.5 days is probably just right to do it up.


We're completely loving life. Start with the train ride. They had coolers of Finnish water - the kind of coolers with the 20 liter bottles of mineral water - in each compartment, just available to drink. Then, the railway booked some compartments fully while others were nearly empty. As a service to us and the passengers without kids, a very nice conductor conducted us, and as it turns out another woman travelling with her little girl, into a compartment that only had 4 other passengers total (even though our assigned seats were in the full compartment). Alex basically had the run of the place, and loved climbing on and off many of the vacant seats. She also loved looking out at the scenery as we went by. We never pulled out the DVD player, even once! Although she never ended up sleeping, I still have a hunch she would have if the other little girl hadn't been around ... Alex climbed into her stoller and asked to lay down, asked for her stuffed dog and blanket and pacifier, and was quietly laying there for at least 20 minutes. However, the other little girl was up and about and just as Alex does she was really curious about the "sleeping baby". In any case, she made it to the hotel more than 2 hours past her bedtime without tantrums.


Next comes the hotel. It was a 5 minute walk from the train station and this train station isn't in a super sketchy part of town like some other big cities. Check in took almost no time at all, and our new standard of rating allegedly child friendly places is whether they have the crib in the room ahead of time. Yep, they did so we were able to get Alex down ASAP. The hotel also has a 24-hour lobby snack bar-essentials shop so we were able to get salads and drinks as we were starving. Our room is pretty close to the elevators, so we hunkered down on the huge comfy couch by the elevators to eat, rather than our usual practice of hanging out in the bathroom while Alex sleeps.


First impressions of Helsinki - everything is clean. The air, the streets, the water. Tap water is safe to drink and actually tastes pretty good. Everyone we spoke with spoke English and we heard it on the street. It was also surprisingly busy with bars, restaurants and clubs compared to what we had expected. On the street between the curb and the sidewalk where people can walk is a bike lane. We've also read that there are stands throughout the city where one can essentially use a bike for a 2 Euro deposit that gets returned when the bike is returned to either the original or another stand. How awesome is that?


Saturday we were up relatively bright and early ... of course it's an hour behind for us so it felt like we slept in. Another reason to love this hotel - at the breakfast buffet they had loose leaf tea and individual strainers. I have never, ever experienced this in my life and in my life I've stayed in some fancy places. Also, many of the items available were organic and according to the hotel everything possible is locally sourced. Breakfast was a bit lunch meat heavy for me but there were plenty of yummy breads and fruits and I got to try strawberry soup. I wasn't quite up for trying the smoked fishes as I wasn't sure where they really stood on the "OK for me to eat at this point in my pregnancy" spectrum.


As it is supposed to rain tomorrow, we chose today as the "get outside as much as possible" day and went to visit the Seurasaari Open-Air Museum, which you can read about here. As first we were feeling a bit annoyed about having paid the 6 Euros each for a place where everything was closed - we thought for the winter - but later realized we had just come too early when we walked back past previously locked buildings and saw folks in period costume hanging out in the open doorways. We stopped at the cafe for lunch and tried some Finnish cuisine - a hearty cheese and smoked reindeer soup with dark bread and a cheese and tomato pie. Soup was definitely the winner, I guess Terry still has the ordering edge on me. We also learned that the Finns drink more coffee than amost anyone.


Alex was unfortunately lacking in sleep so was grumpy and prone to frequent bursts of unhappiness, so we ended up cutting the visit shorter than we had planned. However, it is absolutely lovely there and between the open air museum, green spaces and cafes we could have easily spent the day. Terry came away with several building ideas for the cabin, and I'm actually OK with them.


After family nap we decided to get a recommendation for Finnish food and unfortunately the lady at reception directed us to a place that, although she was probably right that Alex would be welcome, there was nothing Alex would eat on the menu. Luckily, the map she used to show where it was had a bunch of other restaurants on it and we chose another one. I should stop here and clarify that we ended up at a Lappish restaurant. We think we'll try Finnish tomorrow. The lady at reception was careful to explain that they were different. The food was very hearty and very yummy and right now Terry is researching whether lingonberries and cloudberries will grow in Pennsylvania. They brought us a starter of reindeer salami that Alex scarfed down in 10 seconds flat. Terry and I both ordered different types of reindeer and for a man who doesn't like "sweet meat" - his description of meals that include sweetness or fruit in the sauce or accompanyment - he went to town on the lingonberries served alongside his meat. Dessert was a fried cheese in cinnamon cream sauce with cloudberry jam. The jam was more like fresh berries and we gave Alex spoonfuls to eat. She licked the plate clean and asked for more. I figure if they don't have it in the grocery stores, they will likely have it in a souvenier shop.


As we walked back from the restaurant, we commented on some road construction we saw. It was completely fenced off, with the striped tape threaded through the fencing for good measure. There was a big hole in the ground, but the dirt and tar debris, as well as the equipment, had all been cleared away. Those in St. Pete will attest that this is an astonishing sight compared to what we're used to, and refreshing!

Monday, August 31, 2009

Things I'm loving in St. Pete

1. Chocolate. The dark chocolate here is nice and bitter but, unlike most other darks, is very smooth and creamy.

2. Honey. Although Malta was renown for its honey, I actually really didn't like the taste. Some of the honey we've tasted here seriously almost made me swoon.

3. Restaurants with play areas for children. Even some that weren't listed as having them do have little nooks with toys, dolls, and books. And we're talking some of the finer restaurants in town - nothing at all like a Chuck E Cheese.

4. Our apartment. It isn't just large, but for the most part well laid out. There's a door between the bedrooms and the kitchen/living/dining rooms, so the noise of daily living - or entertaining - is mostly muffled from the sleepers. It is also wonderfully located - 3 great playgrounds within 20 minutes, metro within 10, a bus stop just on the corner.

I'm sure I will think of more ....

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Tsarskoe Selo

With summer reappearing this week, we knew we needed to take advantage of the warm weather and venture out to one of the several major sights outside St. Petersburg. We decided on Tsarskoe Selo, which means "tsar's village" and housed the Russian imperial family as a country residence. You can read more about it here.

Our adventure began as we tried to follow our inadequate maps using our inadequate Russian to read the very few signs we came across. The "highlight" was that we actually made it to one of the entrances of Tsarskoe Selo on our first try - but as there was nothing obvious about it as an entrance to the estate we decided this wasn't it and ended up driving around the neighboring towns for another 40 minutes. The second time we came across the same entrance I made Terry stop so we could ask directions. Imagine our delight when I said I was looking for Tsarskoe Selo and the lady said "Здесь" (pronounced roughly: zdes, and means "here") I then looked at the sign on the gate and sure enough it said Ца́рское Село́.

The sight is an attraction not only for the palace but also the grounds. We had packed a picnic lunch and settled onto a bench shaded by trees overlooking a little creek. After lunch we wandered around, interspersed with sitting in grass or on benches and just enjoying the fresh air, greenery, and moments of relaxation. Because we had Alex with us, there was never an intention of going inside any of the buildings. Where we entered was comparatively unkempt and forest-y, as we came closer to the palace the grounds became more manicured and there were more statues, ornate bridges, and flowers.

Although we had planned to stay longer, the gray clouds, grumpy sleepyhead missing her nap, and our own lethargy dictated that we only spent about 3-4 hours on the grounds. The good news was that we missed dacha traffic on the way home, and
grumpy sleepyhead not only fell asleep in the car on the way home, she made the transition back to bed seamlessly and let mom and dad take a mini nap too.

Is there a better way to spend a Sunday (minus the morning confusion, of course!)?

Saturday, August 22, 2009

language lessons

Alex has a babysitter who comes twice a week. She's a lovely Russian lady, and I've asked her to speak with Alex in Russian. Our 8 weeks of classes taught me a decent supply of basic words a child would use (tree, milk, colors, numbers, etc) so when Alex uses a Russian word with me I generally know what she's saying.

For the last 2 weeks or so she's been saying "issue", which I have interpreted as "tissue" because what toddler doesn't love to play with the box of tissues and one of ours sits on the kitchen counter in easy view but impossible reach.

This week, our babysitter and I were chatting about how Alex has grown so much just in 2 months, the playground equipment she has mastered, and some of the Russian words she uses. She mentioned that Alex regularly says "ЕЩЕ" ("more", roughly pronounced "yee-show") but it comes out "issue". Huh. Mystery solved. My daughter knows more of the local language than me!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

More adventures in driving

This morning I had to run an errand that normally requires 1/2 hour walk either way. Today I'm feeling very pregnant, and particularly exhausted from more than usual running around. So, I decided to get in the car.
Feeling very proud of myself, I saw my destination within 10 minutes. Then I remembered that I live in a pretty big city - i.e. there was nowhere to park. Ten minutes of searching for parking, with the attendant anxiety about being lost and frustration about all the people who parked like jerks - if they'd parked closer together there would be spaces available - I found a spot - 10 minutes' walk away from my destination.
Yes, it did save the wear and tear on my soles but I think the wear and tear on my soul may have been the same. Finding my way back out and then to home did end up saving me some time, but on the whole I'm not sure I'll be so eager to hop in the car unless I'm heading to one of the big shopping centers outside city center.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Metro security

Last weekend Terry and I had a child-free date of lunch and museum. We all had slept badly the night before, museums exhaust me (although I love them, what does that say about me?), and by going I was missing my rest/nap time (i.e. Alex's nap). This is all background to explain why I was so completely fatigued when we got onto the metro to go home.

Piter has one of the deepest subway systems in the world (possibly the deepest?), so the escalators are very, very, very long. You're not allowed to sit down on the steps while you're on them, but people do all the time. Every time I have been on the metro I have seen people sitting on the steps. So, in my exhaustion, what do I do? Yep, I plunk down to have me a 5 minute rest.

As we get closer to the bottom I can see metro security down there, as usual. I get up, and as I exit the escalator they gesture me over and start harassing me about sitting down. They point to the sign that forbids it. They try to get conspiratorial with Terry and ignore me when I explain his Russian is worse than mine. They demand an on the spot fine. The one guy pulls out of his pocket exactly what he wants us to give him in case we didn't understand.

We're not allowed to pay on the spot fines (aka bribes). If there is a legitimate ticket it has to be sent to the Consulate through the ministry of foreign affairs. Terry tries to tell them he's a diplomat, they just keep asking for the fine. He calls two different guys at the Consulate who do actually speak Russian to find out what to say to these guys. All the while he's holding his wallet - which contains his diplomatic ID card - in his hand. Finally, I pull the ID card out of his wallet and show the security guys, pointing directly to the part that says "USA Consulate" (in Russian). They say "bye-bye" (in English) and wave us away.

In Malta, being a diplomat didn't even get us discounts at the gym.