Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Comedy of errors, minus the comedy. Part I

The holiday began uneventfully enough. Left the house "early morning" Petersburg time (right about 9am), decided to trust Garmin and although the route was pretty slow, it was all within the time it had calculated for the trip so we weren't delayed. Not too many problems on the road, Zoltan fell asleep and Alex was surprisingly entertained for us not giving her TV to watch.

We got to the border around 11am. Given that the line was a mere 3 cars, we decided not to try to flaunt the red plates and snake ahead. Our turn arrives, we go to the window and present our passports. The lady says something about a "green card" and we understood that was what the Estonian car insurance document was called, so we handed that to her as well as our Russian car insurance documents. After some bad English (them) and very bad Russian (us) we figured they were asking for our Russian car registration document, which is a laminated green card.

Well, the very day before we had been told by someone at the Consulate not to leave that card in the car but instead to leave it in the apartment, in a safe if we have one. So, Terry had brought the card into the house after work. Fewer than 24 hours before this moment, the card sat securely in our glove box. The Russians first try to figure out why we didn't have it. They tell us to go back to our car and wait there. We hand the kids snacks and discuss our options (go home and try again tomorrow. Go home and try again later today. Go home, period) They eventually call us back to tell us to move the car out of the way and they would call to the Estonians and see if they were willing to let us into the country without the Registration. At this point the kids were getting pretty grumpy, so we hauled out the Archos for Alex and got her watching Mickey Mouse, and I nursed Zoltan. Not too much later, they asked for Terry again so he went back to see what the answer would be. The woman gave him our passports and told him to go ahead. By this we assumed she meant the Estonians had OK'd the situation. Ha.

We drive across to the Estonian side of the border and the rigamarole starts again. The official asks for our documents. We hand him our passports. He asks for the insurance documents. We realize they were still sitting in the booth on the Russian side. So, the Estonians let us do a U-turn out and cross the border again. At this point we're pretty happy to have red plates, as we get to jump the line. The line wasn't so long in either direction, but go around a few times and every delay adds up. At this point we're debating just going home but we have to get our insurance documents anyway, as the Russian docs were sitting with the Estonian ones. When we get to the Russian side, on the other side of the fence from where we had been, the woman who greeted us was very confused as to what we wanted. Terry's Russian was up to the task, but just barely. She told us to stay in the car and we saw her going over to the other side. Not too long afterwards, she returned with a folder we recognized in her hands. Our documents!

One more U-turn and one more short drive across the border. We hand the Estonians the passports and insurance docs again. They ask for registration. Sigh.

More waiting as officials decide what to do with us. One official comes up and copies down our VIN number. Eventually they seem to decide the car really, most likely, is ours and they say it's OK to go into their country. Yay!!! It wasn't the several hours at the border that others have encountered, but it was close to 2 when all was said and done.

Here I take a quick digression. The importance of the Registration card is to prove the car is indeed ours, meaning it wasn't stolen. Many stolen cars make their way in or out of Russian and it's a lucrative black market. BUT …. here's the thing … our car is a 1994 medium blue Corolla. Seriously, WTF?? Who would bother to steal the damn thing and who would buy it anyway? We're expecting to drive it til it dies then be required to pay someone to take it away from us. Seriously.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Comedy of Errors, without the comedy, prelude

We were excited to take a trip to the Baltics. Our original plan involved hitting all 3 capitals: Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius. When we got out guide book and started mapping out a planned route, we realized it would take at least 2 weeks to make the trip without excruciatingly long days in the car. Schedules, timing, those silly Jewish High Holidays meant we had just about 10 days to accomplish the trip. Vilnius fell off pretty quickly. An evaluation of our children's temperaments caused all the one-night stopovers in smaller towns to fall off as well. In the end we were going to spend 4 nights in Tallinn, 3 nights in Riga and 2 nights in Tartu. We found apartments to rent in each city, as hotel rooms are more challenging with our kids than the kind who nap easily and deeply (I have heard of these kids and have even seen one or two, but have difficulty believing they truly exist). We had fabulous visions of days leisurely wandering around pretty cities, seeing the outdoor sights and stopping at cafes for snacks and lunch, then evenings quietly at “home” while the children slept peacefully.

Ha! Read on for our adventures …..

Friday, September 10, 2010

working woman!

After a too short lived flurry, I've basically retreated into my hole again. Not that there aren't things to report about, but I have less than no time. The main event is that I'm working at the Consulate in the same position I held in Malta - CLO - but also preschool has begun with its joys and headaches, and finally the International Women's Club, of which I am co-president this year.

We're off for a short driving holiday tomorrow assuming Terry can get our travel requirements in order, which means we should have some time to at least comment on the things we're seeing and doing while away from home.

Happy Fall everyone and L'shana Tova for those who celebrate.

Friday, August 6, 2010

unfriendly city

In the store today I dropped my diplomatic ID card on the ground when I searched my pocket for correct change. A lady actually came running outside after me to return it to me. Who says the city is an unfriendly place??

milk

The refrigeration in Spb stores isn't very good. In the last 3 weeks I have had to throw away 5 bottles of milk because they went sour before their due dates, several were sour in the store as I tried them immediately upon arrival home. I had gone to different stores and even had different brands of milk.

I think long life milk is going onto the next grocery list.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Learning the language

Before we came to Russia, we got an intensive 8 week course in the language. This was followed by our 4 week home leave, in which we practiced nothing and forgot everything. With many fits and starts, several months after our arrival we finally started the post language program, which permits 2h/week of language instruction.

Suffice to say, we're treading water and no more.

Since the economic crisis of 2008, the restaurants are barely ever full. Reservations are rarely needed. In our time here, I have now made reservations 3 times. The first 2 times were in English, speaking with a person whose English seemed pretty good. Both times, there was no reservation when I got to the restaurant at the appointed date and time (happily, it was never a problem as mentioned previously - even the night there were 8 of us). The third time I decided to try it in Russian. I was able to convey everything the person asked!!! And, better yet, they had the reservation when we showed up! Hmmmmm.

Divo Ostrov

When my dad visited earlier this month, we took the opportunity to go try out the local amusement park - Divo Ostrov. Located on Krestovsky Ostrov (ostrov = island) it is a mix between a local fair and Disney. We went during the week, which partly explained the absence of people; the oppressive heat may have also played a part - smarter folks were probably flocking to the water park.

You can either pay per ride or get a day's pass. We opted for the pay-per-ride but will give it a good think next time. There were plenty of rides Alex was big enough to go on, and some required adult accompaniment and some didn't; some charged for the adult accompaniment and some didn't. There was also a decent couple of sets of playground equipment, one for the preschooler and one for older kids - free of charge. In addition to the kiddie rides, there were plenty of adult ones with roller coaster and bungee jumping things I would never set foot on, as well as an arcade, a roller-skate rental, a Segue rental, plenty of tchotchkes to buy, some fair-type games, and several cafes. Given my bulk of experience in the USA with these types of parks, I was amazed at the tastiness and the reasonable prices at the cafe. I shouldn't have been, of course, as Spb is one of the better food cities I have lived in (or, for that matter, visited).

No funnel cake though :(

Friday, July 30, 2010

chuckle

This would have been funny if it had happened to anyone other than me (OK, fine, it did happen to me and I was laughing quietly to myself about 10 minutes later). Alex's behavior has been appalling for the last few weeks (long story, not relevant). So today she was in the stroller and told me she was hungry. I gave her 1/2 of her PB&J sandwich. She ate some, then proceeded to rub the rest of it all over her hair! Needless to say, even if it weren't a bath night already, it would be.

Monday, July 26, 2010

more details

Terry is, thankfully, back in Spb. His one week of training in Budapest became about 4 days then an almost-no-notice trip back to the USA for his grandmother's unexpected death/funeral. As fabulous Vonage gives me free calls to Hungary, I was the conduit between his family and him to figure out details and arrangements.

This one will probably get a bit whiny as it was an almost intolerable 10 days without Terry. First, he left the same day my father did, so we'd had no real opportunity to manage household things in the week beforehand. Second, Petersburg had a record heat wave that began right around the time my dad hit town. Being "record" means that it was way hotter than it had EVER been at least for such an extended period. So, the fact nobody had a/c made sense, but didn't make it tolerable. The kids couldn't sleep well and were cranky. Zoltan decided to go on a bottle strike, I wasn't making enough milk for him, so he got almost dangerously dehydrated. This did nothing good for his mood and really he spent most of the days screaming. Alex was further miserable because she really noticed Terry's absence and punished me (as the only one around) because she missed him and he wasn't here. It was almost comical when she demanded Grammy read her the books when we video chatted, and when Terry started to read the 4th book she said she wanted someone else to read it. I was so grateful when she decided to forgive him upon the moment of seeing him, rather than spend days being miffed. I even had help most days for at least a half day - but the kids were so miserable I think I would have needed 3 people all day to manage.

Oh, and Zoltan cut tooth #6 during this time too.

Next update will be about fun stuff we did when my dad visited

Saturday, July 17, 2010

overview update

In the last month:
- Alex finished preschool until September
- Zoltan started crawling like a fiend and cut 4 teeth
- I got a job offer at the consulate (haven't started yet)
- My father visited for a week
- Terry left for a week of training the same day my father left
- Petersburg got record high temperatures. It is worth noting almost nobody here has air con, including us. Hot children are miserable. Hot babies are worse

I have lots to write about between the places we went with my dad and lessons learned on the travel front (from previous post). They will have to wait until Terry's return.