Some cultural observations

When it was raining our first day here and I told Alex to wear her rain pants when we went to the hospital, she wanted to take off her skirt and just put in on when we got there. I had to tell her in America kids don't wear just their panties in public places even if it's just while taking the rainpants off and putting the skirt on.

People are way friendly in America. Every place we go there's someone who wants to talk to Alex. I am amazed and relieved that when I talked with her about it, she said it's OK. This is a kid who is fastidious about her personal space, so I've been worried about future tours in most of the rest of the world where people are more intrusive than in Russia. The part I don't like is they all tell her she's pretty, which she is, but I don't want her to learn to define herself that way.

The garderobe phenomenon in Russia has become so ingrained I was actually indignant when the hospital didn't have anywhere for us to leave our wet raincoats and the stroller. Same with the Franklin Institute (well, just the stroller. It was a hot sunny day)

We've been worried about her losing her Russian language skills. While we've been here she's read half a book and talks and sings in Russian every day. It certainly may still happen, but I think we'll be OK until we get her to Russian afterschool care or a babushka babysitter.

Home sweet America

On Monday, Alex and I began our journey home. We took the rest stop but I have to admit, flight times sucked and I am not 100% sure it was better in the end. We had a couple of really crabby days and I am sure today will be as well.

I had the stroke of brilliance to think up a solution to the too many bags for too small muscles at Pulkovo and loaded our huge duffel bag onto the stroller and had Alex push that. I was able to manage the rest of the bags. British Airways started off on the wrong foot. First they somehow lost the 2 seats together I had reserved online, then essentially accused me of lying when I couldn't come up with which seats they were or any documentation of having done it. We ended up in the very last row, where each time the flight attendants had to get something out of a locker they banged my seat. There is also apparently a new thing (well, new from the last time I flew with extra bags, which was admittedly a long time ago) where you check your bags, they hold your ticket hostage and you have to go somewhere totally different to pay for the extra baggage. At Pulkovo, it meant going back out into the entrance area, then upstairs to the Finnair ticketing booth, where they processed the payment. Then back to the British Air counter where at least I didn't have to wait in line.

The flight was relatively uneventful. Alex managed to color and do her mosaics (thank you again Jenny for getting her the first pack!) and we didn't even use any electronics. At Heathrow I was reminded how much I like Europe and all their baggage carts. The down side is we flew into Terminal 5 and were flying out of Terminal 1. I found my way to the Heathrow Express and here's where the amazingness of strangers kicks in. One of the HE employees let my cart through the barrier then helped me load all our bags onto the train. At Terminal 1 he reappeared and help me unload, then he got one of his colleagues from Terminal 1 to get me another cart right at the trainside. From there it was easy to get to the left luggage place and drop off all the checked bags, then catch a taxi to our hotel.

We stayed at the Renaissance Heathrow. One side of the hotel faces the runway and you can watch planes touch down and take off. It was absolutely the highlight. The room was tiny and dingy, the plug in the bath didn't work and Alex is traumatized by showers and she was already overtired so getting her clean was a bit nightmarish. The mini fridge is also ridiculous, hard to explain but the gist is to put anything in it garners a charge so we just wasted the huge bowl of yogurt we'd had to order to give her the medicine. Club access is also a plus, we were able to get snacks and water and the breakfast there was impressive for being "continental". All in all we'd probably stay there again, if only because of the runway viewing.

The next day we were up too early, so we just went ahead and started the day. It turned out to be a good thing as there was a bunch of running around at Heathrow - like at Pulkovo we had to check our bags at one place and pay for the extra bag somewhere else. Also annoying is that they don't put up the gate info until 90 minutes before the flight departs, but boarding begins 60 minutes before AND some parts of the terminal are a 20 minute walk from the center area.

When I saw on the e-ticket that the flight was meant to take 8 hours I was surprised, because I've done London-USA enough times in my life i knew full well it's 5.5h to there, and 7h back. And, we left 30min late and arrived 30 min early. Talk about padding the time! At least I wasn't misremembering the duration. During the flight things were a bit rough - Alex tried to nap twice but just couldn't fall asleep even though the plane was empty so we took a 4-seat row and she stretched out over 3 seats and got a 3 blanket cave. Knowing I'd have to drive to Philly from Allentown I napped while she watched shows, I probably slept 10 minutes but rested/dozed through 2 full shows so maybe 45 min?

We ended up having plenty of time in Philly, largely due to arriving early. There's a children's play area, so I like them even better than I thought I did as I've been very annoyed at American airports for not having them. We got ice cream for dinner :-)  The Allentown flight was bumpy and Alex proved again that she will be riding the roller coasters with Terry as soon as we go somewhere that has them, by telling me she liked that feeling in her tummy when we went bump.

When we got to Allentown Terry's hatred of the credit card was good for me, as there was only 1 taxi already hanging out and he didn't take CC but I had enough cash. He also very kindly managed to get the Subaru trunk open, which apparently T's mom or step-father managed to do something to and nobody's been able to open it for a little while. We were at the house long enough to make and have Alex eat a PB and J, for me to grab a few things we'd need, unload some of the vodka and maple syrup (although I missed 3 bottles) and one suitcase we didn't need, and head back out. Thank you Randy for leaving me a full tank of gas!

Wordless Wednesday

Miniature city

The first 3 days of our 5 day weekend were largely consumed with chores. There were too many things that absolutely had to be done before I left next week. We got outside every day, but the outings were largely brief and close (major exception being shashlik ... it was important to me to do that one last time, and there's still a chance we might go one last, last time).

Today the sun was shining, and I just had to get out. I suggested we metro to Gorkovskaya and see if we could find the miniature replicas of the major buildings in Piter that's supposed to be behind the metro. If not, there's always Peter and Paul Fortress, the Artilliary Museum or the zoo. The kids love riding the metro, it could be an outing all on its own. So we threw some things into a bag and off we went. It is remarkably freeing to go out with the family with no stroller and everything we need fits into a large purse. As that was packed, however, I took my leather backpack.

I hadn't realized it was actually a miniature of the city. Shiny, polished marble represents the rivers and canals. Grassy areas are parks and a couple of the major ones, like the Summer Garden, had its polished marble "pond" laid out.  The buildings are where they are supposed to be. We read an article a couple of months ago about how this was a gift to the city but the city never did anything about it and vandalism was destroying the place. Today everything was cleaned up, if Spilled Blood lacked color, and a gentleman with a megaphone kept anyone from touching the displays. Or rather, he yelled at everyone as they touched the displays.

 It was warm enough to be without jackets in the sun. The kids had the best time running around town. Zoltan even got on his belly to "swim" in the Neva. We got lunch in a nearby cafe and home in time for nap only a little late.

Troubleshooting

The latch on our dryer broke and it's a long holiday weekend here so I have 2 thick strips of masking tape keeping the dryer door shut so the wet stuff doesn't get moldy. At one point the tape stopped sticking and it turns out the dryer is happy to operate while the door is wide open. I learn something new every day.

Wordless Wednesday

Tickets!

I finally got confirmation from CWT that my and Alex's tickets are changed. I went into the airlines' web sites and got us seats together (except for the 40 minute flight where no non-premium seats were available. Sure, some stranger can sit next to the 5 year old on the 19-seater). This is really happening. Tomorrow is Alex's last day at school due to the long holiday. We're both sad and excited together, and having lots of talks about how that's normal and OK.

Security Clearance, for the nth time

The joining-the-foreign-service process is like a marathon. Every step you successfully take leads to more, and just when you think you see the finish line you realize it was a mirage and really it's still several hurdles ahead. OK that's a mixed metaphor, the process is so long and arduous one metaphor isn't enough to capture it all.

Although more and more spouses of FSOs are joining the foreign service, the majority of the ones I know of declined to use their "deferrment" option and instead take the first A-100 class they can. With an 18 month "ageing off" window from being put on the register to being dropped off, and the security clearance we get when mere hopefuls has a different expiration date from the one we get as actual FS employees, it means not too many people are in the situation of having their clearance expire before they either join A-100 or drop off the register. I am one of those rare individuals.

The first time I asked my Registrar about what to do, she told me nothing could be done until after my current clearance expired. This would mean, with certainty, I would not make it into the January 2014    
A-100 class, which has been my hope and dream since the day I learned I passed the language exam.

Then I remembered. Another EFM/FSO actually went through this exact same thing! And I sort of know his wife through the blogosphere! So I quickly got in touch and this lovely couple were so incredibly helpful and specific and the EFM/FSO said it was OK to reference him specifically when I spoke with my Registrar and even gave me some diplomatically worded ways to say "No, really, I AM right" and ....

I called my Registrar, explained why I was taking her time when we'd already exchanged a handful of emails on this exact topic, and dropped some names and dates. After putting me on hold for maybe 2 minutes, she came back to me and said I could start the process within the week or two and even, kindly, suggested I email her to remind her next week if she hadn't sent me her part of the process yet.

I am giddy. One hurdle smoothly cleared. And all because I "waste time" reading blogs.

Congress

I'm reading David McCullough's John Adams. Nearly to the end, I just found my very most favorite quotation, "Having failed at nearly everything he ever tried, he had lately been elected to Congress."

Not much seems to have changed in 200 years.

This isn't how I wanted it to end

Our family is supposed to depart St Petersburg, likely forever, in June.

But instead, Alex and I have to curtail. We thought we could medevac, but it is within the month before PCS and therefore we can't. When we leave in less than 2 weeks, we are not coming back.

We had plans for May, one of the best months in Piter. Alex was supposed to perform in one last school production, which would have been a goodbye for everyone as this is the last year of detsky sad and the kids all scatter to different schools next year. We were supposed to have time to revisit favorite places and share meals with friends. And try to eat up some of this load of food we accumulated.

Most of Russia will shut down May 1 and not reopen until after we're gone. People go away on vacation. Alex's last day with some friends may well be tomorrow. We're lucky that when faced with medical problems that nobody local can figure out, we have the opportunity to travel elsewhere. We are lucky that although we now have an odd, uncomfortable block of time in the USA without husband, son, or any more stuff than we can fit into 2 suitcases, we have plenty of options of where to go and what to do. We know that we're only cutting a month off the end. But this month was meant to be filled with goodbyes and will now, likely, be filled with a gaping silence.