Saturday, January 28, 2012

Lenfilm

Our new Consul General invited the Consulate to accompany him on a tour of Lenfilm back in December. Lenfilm, for those who don't know (I didn't) is a film studio in Petersburg that was basically Russian Hollywood. Every important movie was filmed there, and even actresses such as Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Fonda came through a few times. The studio only shoots about one movie a year itself, but its space, sets, props etc are used continually by other studios.

Terry can probably add more but I'll just finish with a few photos of the place.

The set of Sherlock Holmes (his study of course)

Original old films and some of the stars showcased in them (photos above)


Props, for when you need just the right old typewriter

Monday, January 16, 2012

Peter the Great's Original "Palace"

In celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day Terry and I decided to do a bit of touristing. One place we'd been meaning to see was Peter the Great's Summer Cottage, and as part of the Russian Museum it is open on Mondays (most museums are not).

I hadn't done my homework so I didn't realize the cottage was literally entirely enclosed in an "outer" brick building so I was surprised when Terry pointed it out and said it was the one (the cottage was made of wood).

Observation #1: The place is super, duper tiny. It's 3 small rooms, constructed in 3 days - although Terry noted there must have been many days beforehand spent cutting the lumber.

Observations #2: For the Russian price of 70 rubles it was totally worth seeing. For the foreigner price of 200 rubles, I'd have given it a skip.

We hadn't paid for the "photos permitted" ticket so I just got a couple of shots of the outside.

After the museum it was lunch time. We pretty much stumbled upon Troitsky Most, a restaurant that's been on the Consulate list of recommended restaurants forever and we never gave it much thought. It is vegetarian, so I thought Terry might not want to stay but he did and ... YUM. He even liked my mushroom plov. We'll definitely go back whenever life takes me to the Petrograd side.

Friday, January 13, 2012

the kindness of strangers

Russia observes New Year plus Orthodox Christmas over the first 9-10 days of January, depending on the location of weekends. When the host government is closed, generally, US Embassies and Consulates are closed too. So, we just had a great week's vacation without having to use annual leave.

Relatively early in the long week, I dropped my Russian identification card (my diplomatic ID). It isn't tragic - it meant I had to carry around my diplomatic passport for identification and when the Consulate re-opened apply for a new card. Carrying the passport is a bit of a hassle and a stress as pickpocketing is the most likely crime any foreigner is likely to encounter here.

In the morning of the first day back I get a phone call at the Consulate. The woman speaks Russian so my instinct, as usual, is that she has the wrong number. But I focus my attention on figuring out what she's saying and - yep - she found my card. She can meet me the following day to return it to me. At one point, when I couldn't understand the name of the metro station she was saying and I mentioned the station closest to my house to give her context on which line I would take, she said she was comfortable coming to my station. (!!!) When we met, she was exactly on time.

What I said to her as I thanked her profusely was that in the USA, nobody would have done what she did. Then I wondered if I was being jaded about my own country or just realistic. Then I read this Washington Post story.

My inverate skeptic

This Christmukkah Terry and I participated in a form of "direct charity" via a blog I have come to love, Rants from Mommyland (www.rantsfrommommyland.com). The gist was that mothers in need wrote to the bloggers, and people who wanted to help also wrote in, and we were matched up. We sent store gift cards in whatever denomination we felt comfortable giving. It was a total exercise in trust and faith, perfect for the holiday season.

My husband is a skeptic and that's being gentle. Our compromise was that I'd sign up to help 2 people and we'd send each half of what I really wanted to send - that way we were a bit "protected" as it was very unlikely that both of our matches would be scammers.

Read THIS to see what happened to one of the bloggers in the aftermath of the experiment (warning, if you have any heart you'll tear up a bit).

In today's mail came a thank you note from one of our matches (the online store sites required a return address on the gift cards, so she got it there). My husband's comment was that it was no guarantee that she hadn't been a scammer. It kinda make me want to smack him upside the head, but instead I stared at him until he agreed that was ridiculous.

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Home Rules Police

I started to walk into the living room with half an orange I was going to eat in relative quiet while the kids had a snack in the kitchen and Terry was supervising. Out of Zoltan's mouth as I walk into the room "Mommy, back in the kitchen!"

You see, we don't eat in the living room.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

our little komunelka

So if you know my mom - and as she's one of two readers of this blog, I know you do - you know she, um, likes to shop.

Last year she got Alex an awesome doll house for Hanukkah. It's an eco-house, with windmill, solar panels, a rain barrel, and a motorscooter for more efficient commuting. It was also very sparsely populated with minimal furniture and a family of 3. We had decided that this year we'd ask my mom to get furniture for the house for this year's Hanukkah gifts. I think she forgot the whole house only had 4 rooms.

So now we have 2 families living in a house with 2 kitchens (well, 2 stoves), all 8 human beings stuffed into 2 rooms, and only 1 sink in the entire house.

I'll let the photos do most of the talking here ...


The first thing you see when you enter the home is the stove and sink, which live in the foyer because the kitchen is largely taken up by the bathroom (see below).

Yes it is an open floor plan. As all walls are in your imagination, please imagine a wall between the toilet and kitchen. At least the shower faces the wall for some privacy. As you can see the table only fits 2 chairs, so they eat in shifts. At least they have recycling!

One bedroom (each family has 1 for the family) does manage to fit some furniture other than the bed - an armoire that probably has to be shared among everyone, and a vanity with mirror - also to be shared among as everyone as it's the only mirror in the house. The poor baby has to be fed upstairs as there's no room for the high chair downstairs.

The baby belongs to the "other" family and you can see the crib in the corner of their bedroom. The blue to the right is the bedspread on the parents' bed. The baby's changing table doubles as the family's dresser.


The living room is surprisingly normal. They even have a TV. I can only imagine the family feuds that arise when everyone wants to watch something different.

Everyone is out in the playground because the furniture takes up all the room in the house.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Anticipated budget cuts


In anticipation of the likely upcoming budget cuts, State has decided to return our Kovenskii building to its former configuration of housing 45 families (from back in the komunelka days. Note, today there are 6 families in the building)

These will be Alex and Zoltan's "bunk beds".

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Happy Hanukkah!


It's hard to see with all the junk up on the counter, but the kids asked me to turn the lights off and they were just watching the candles burn.

Next to the real Menorah is the plush one Alex uses to count the days :)

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

The deafening sound of silence

A large part of my job is organizing the celebration of American holidays. There's also the "job" of being co-president of the IWC. Between the two, November and December are nightmares. In the span of one month I put together Thanksgiving, the American table for the Charity Bazaar, co-put together the monthly IWC meeting which involves a guest speaker and lunch at a hotel, and, finally the Consulate holiday party which is the biggest event I plan all year.

That nightmare ended last night, with the successful conclusion of the last event. Zoltan was sick so he was in the nanny's hands all day - they were out when I came home to change for the party so I saw my son for 20 minutes (in the morning) all day. Terry did bedtimes. Tomorrow I will be with Z all day. Happy Hanukkah to me! Between now and January 10 I will work 4 more days.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

The samovar festival that wasn't

A friend alerted me to what appeared to be a samovar festival. It was definitely some kind of fair thing, sponsored by Petersburg Samovars, so our mistake is pretty understandable.

There was one stall in this huge convention center/arena thing selling samovars, plus about a hundred selling tea and a thousand selling honey. And every honey was different. In fact, the white one that looks like frosting was billed as bring good for childrens' health (polezni deti zdorovie) We ended up at only one honey stall, tasted about 10 different honeys - about half their supply - and spent what, to Americans, would be a scandalous amount of money on three small containers of honey. But ... ooohhhh ... let's just say I got the kids to keep their shoes on during the drive home with the threat of no honey when we got home if they didn't.

I'm pretty sure Terry is adding beekeeping to our retirement plan.