Where do clothes come from?

Alex, all excited, told me the other day two of her girlfriends at school had "skirts made from jeans." I told her if she really wanted, we could get her one. She got confused. "How can we do that?"

My 4 year old daughter has never, in her entire life, gone into a store for the purpose of purchasing clothing. We have amazing friends with well-placed children (each one about 2 years older than my kids, along gender lines) so we get boxes of hand-me-downs during Home Leave that we ship to the next post. To fill in the gaps we either buy online or my mom shops and sends stuff to us. Very rarely I've needed to buy locally but even then it's a solo trip. Clothes come home with mommy or daddy from work or we get them from boxes in the storage closet.

I can't quite decide if this is fabulous or tragic.

Friday Adventure

Zoltan's nannies are fabulous, as I've mentioned a few times. Among other things, they take him all over the town, and he's been to museums I don't even know the location of. Lately he's been transiting the city via "rolly-bus", aka trolleybus. Alex has become envious.

With this in mind, I decided to keep Alex home Friday and have an adventure. We went down to Nevskiy and popped onto the first trolleybus we saw (#7). It was pretty crowded and Alex, in the underneath part, couldn't see much but the kids were thrilled anyway. At one point we passed some former palace or mansion and it had Greek style statues adorning it. Zoltan yelled out "Mommy, they're maykin'd (naked)" One lady standing by us started giggling. I think she understood English.

We got out at the last stop as the stroller was too big and the bus too crowded to get out earlier. We ended at ploschad Truda so I had some sense of where we were. I had thought we'd head to the Neva as Zoltan loves water but he started complaining of being cold - I didn't have the fight in me to force him into his snowpants when he refused to put them on in the morning. So instead we headed toward Nevskiy with a short stop for photos with St Isaac's while the kids enjoyed their snacks.

On the way home we got onto a regular bus (avtobus) and were positioned right by the door so this time Alex could see stuff. All in all they were pretty stoked with the day. Of course it began with TV (Charlie and Lola, the first time they watched one) and ended with a play date so there's little to complain about.

Passover preparations

The joys of overseas life! Not like I didn't know Passover was coming, but here I was with 6 days left - no matzah and no menu. Kudos to the internet: I found a "30 Minute Seder" plus a full seder's worth of recipes, all ingredients of which can be found locally. And, surprisingly, a matzah recipe! (this one: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/matzah/detail.aspx)

Of course, if I could find specially supervised flour here I would also be able to find mass produced matzah*, so mine aren't technically kosher for Passover. Given my level of observance of late, though, this is definitely a step up.

* = OK, OK, the Grand Choral Synagogue store probably has matzah just as they had Hanukkah candles, but I wasn't going to have any opportunity to get there before Friday.

Fabulous resource for studying Russian

I'm kind of a dork, and I'm OK with that. I study Russian not only because it's my only hope for ever having gainful, continuous employment but because the language has completely sunk its nails into me (why didn't it do this 10 years ago when my brain actually wanted to hold things like genative case and perfective verbs?). Anyhoo ...

This site was recommended by someone on the chat group for FSO hopefuls: http://nclrc.org/webcasts/russian/

It totally rocks my world. It gives super short (a couple of minutes) broadcasts of current events in Russian spoken slowly and clearly. It has a glossary to go with each broadcast. It has listening comprehension exercises at the end. These broadcasts have been going on since 2004. There are about 100 of them. By the time I finish them all I should be able to listen to news on TV or radio.

Yippeeeee

Mommy's favorite game

I posted this on Facebook, but that doesn't provide a lasting memory and this one is too good to forget.

Alex: Mommy, I want to play a game with you. What's your favorite game?
Me: Cleanup
Alex: What's your next most favorite game?

Molochovets

I can't believe I never wrote about this! On the corner of the street where we live is a beautiful, special occasion type restaurant called Molochovets Mechta (Molochovets' Dream). It had been recommended by some major foodies, but for some reason our first 2.5 years here we continually gave it a skip. Then we decided to go for my birthday dinner the night before my birthday.

[reprinted from a report I gave a friend about dinner right afterwards - I certainly wouldn't remember all the details now!] Dinner started with an amuse bouche of a smoked fish that's like salmon but not exactly (syomga), then I had a salad that was shredded apple and celery with smoked duck (the dressing was mayo/creamy) and Terry had solyanka. There was sorbet to cleanse the palate, I think it was champagne but couldn't 100% be sure. Main for me was a local fish that's like a Zander (same family as a walleye) in a simple butter sauce and fried cauliflower and T had moose in a berry sauce (he wanted the venison but they were out). The fish was amazing, we have never been able to cook it to taste like anything so I was excited to see what a pro chef would do. I was clearly the winner that night as Terry enjoyed the solyanka but reports it isn't as good as the CGR chef's version, and the moose wasn't exactly what he wanted.

I was stuffed after that but Terry ordered vanilla ice cream. Home made. We had cappuccinos and were just sort of hanging out because we didn't want to go anywhere and it hadn't been enough time in our minds to make it worth our nanny's while, so eventually I made some room in my belly and had chocolate ice cream. mmmmmm. then i was up til 3am - I blame the cappuccino.

Our second round was in honor of Terry's birthday, a bit belated as I had the flu that week. That night I tried the schi (very strange as it was written as "sorrel soup" in the English menu) and the halibut; Terry had an apple and berry salad and veal loin with blue cheese sauce. His starter was fine but nothing special but the veal was perfect - Terry didn't love the sauce but it's incidental anyway to the cut and cooking of the meat. Again we had an amuse bouche, it was a mushroom pate (veggie in honor of Lent - they actually had a Lent menu) My meal was fine on both counts but neither course was as good as the last time. I finished with hot chocolate, the super awesome Russian kind that is thick and tastes like like a melted chocolate bar. It was the perfect amount and perfect ending for me, although my favorite hot chocolate in the city is still Guell's.

Sleeping Beauty on Ice

Alex and I, as well as some friends and their daughters, went to see Sleeping Beauty on Ice. It was performed at the Rimskogo-Korsakova Conservatory, not at any of the ice arenas, which was a bit interesting.

The costumes were beautiful and the skating very pretty. I liked how they kept pretty true to the ballet. I really thought Alex would get into it, as she's been ice skating and her instructor used to be an ice ballerina not too long ago.

Nope, she prefers "real" ballet to this. She even prefers hockey to ice ballet. Maybe she's a purist.

It's Spring, sort of

In Piter the temperatures have been frequently (but not always!) above freezing, leading to ice underlying veritable pools of melting snow. The other day started with snow, moved into sleet, then hail, finally settling on rain. That became snow again by bedtime.

It probably doesn't need saying, but this is NOT the most wonderful time of the year.

This is what happens during naptime

... when we don't actually nap. RIP rainbow slinky.

Small victories

Russian is a difficult language to master. The more I learn the more I realize I don't know. I'm pained when I hear an FSO with a 3/3 or 4/4 tell me that they don't feel comfortable with the language or don't know how to say something simple (of course, at FSI there is a very different focus on what vocabulary is taught, but still ... a "high school graduate level speaker" should be able to buy curtains!)

Terry and I were lucky to get into the 8 week language program before heading to Russia, we learned useful basics such as how to ask directions or buy 2 kilos of apples at the market. As importantly, we learned what likely responses would be to such questions. Once hitting the ground we got into the 2h/week language class and practiced reading billboards and signs. All in all, not much instruction. I probably only got to class half the time between the whole newborn-who-doesn't-sleep thing and later the job-gets-in-the-way-of-personal-activities thing.

Then I passed the FSOA. I need those language points now! Upon my return to Russia last summer I became more diligent in class attendance, asked my teacher to give me supplemental homework, and basically kicked it into high gear. Of course, the rest of life still marched on and I still didn't get much more than 1h/day of Russian study.

I've been studying Russian with varying intensity for 3 years now.

Two weeks ago, I made a restaurant reservation without once slipping into English. This week, I reserved tickets to a performance over the phone ("Sleeping Beauty" Ballet on Ice, I hope Alex enjoys it and gets motivated to go back to skating!) also entirely in Russian. This one was more complex as I was asking for specific seats and also needed to figure out where to obtain the physical tickets. I picked up the tickets yesterday and they are exactly the seats I thought I ordered and cost the exact price I thought they should!

If I put as much effort into learning Spanish as I have in learning Russian, I'd be pretty darn fluent by now. But my small victories are sustaining me in my quest for basic literacy.

Our kids like sausage.

We have some sausage fans in our house.  As you can see in the video below.

Chocolate money

Terry and I were out tonight so it was up to my nanny to watch the kids this evening. We give Zoltan chocolate when he uses the potty when he's got underpants on (he prefers to go commando so we're working on encouraging underpants). I forgot to reload the chocolate so our nanny went out and bought some today. It was chocolate coins.

So, the evening passes, he uses the potty, and the nanny gives him and Alex their coins (to avoid the drama we just give her a treat when he gets one). Alex understands immediately what it is and peels the foil off to get to the chocolate. You'd think after the number of times I have read Silverlicious to these children that Zoltan would also figure it out.

Nope. The nanny is distracted talking to Alex right after giving out the coins so she misses that Zoltan has left the room. Until he comes back yelling "pinky bank! pinky bank!"

Yep, the chocolate went into the piggy bank.

European capitals

One of those "only in the Foreign Service" moments: a friend had Game Night and we were playing Outburst! The topic was European Capital Cities. Of course we got all 10 but the funny part was that before the last one we thought of - Athens - we had yelled out Bucharest, Tirana, Pristina, Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Lublijana, Budapest, and Valletta. None of those, of course, were on the list.

And of all the capitals to forget about until the end, it was the one most in the news right now. Doh!

The coolest shared-babysitting plan ever

We have new neighbors in our apartment building. They have kids older, younger, and similar ages as our kids. As has already been mentioned, barriers break down quickly in the foreign service - if you only have 2 years to be friends with someone (or less!) you waste less time finding out if you want to be friends.

The wife suggested a babysitting exchange: after the kids go to bed one evening, we go out while one of them comes down and stays with the kids. Another night one of us travels the stairway to do the same. We had our first test this weekend, when Terry and I went out for a belated birthday dinner (I inconveniently had the flu over his birthday weekend, even on the big day itself. I guess it's lucky that he doesn't think it's any big deal. He went to the hockey game that night anyway). We were worried because the night before Zoltan had been up about a million times before our bedtime, so I was ready for that "he won't stop screaming" phone call. Nope, the kids didn't make a peep all night.

This weekend will be our turn to monitor a sleeping house. Keep fingers crossed for us that it works out as well as the first run.

I know in the USA - where babysitters are exorbitantly expensive, at least compared to here - friends may not live bathrobe-and-slippers-commute close, but I do think it is a brilliant way for couples to get a bit of alone time outside the house. At first, Terry said he didn't want to do it too often because we can't necessarily afford to go out all the time. My perspective is different: if we do this regularly, there's no pressure to "do something special because we're paying a nanny for this". We can just take a walk, check out an art gallery, get shwarma and sit in the park.

Now that's something different

In April Terry and I will have been a couple of 12 years. That feels like a long time. And in all that time, one particular phenomenon has been a constant: if we both get sick with something, regardless of who got it first, he ALWAYS gets it worse. This means I'm the one who has to keep life going because I'm healthier.

Another constant of my life had been, until the last 3 years, that I don't get the flu. For about 15 years this held true. One of the last two winters we both had the flu and had to call in a nanny on a Friday, or maybe it was a Saturday. In any case we were equally useless and grateful to have someone who could care for our children because they don't have a 10 hour appetite for TV.

Until this week. Because I don't get the flu, I don't get the flu shot. Everyone else in my family did. Hence, I am the only sick one. It's been so long I didn't even remember what the symptoms were or how long it's supposed to take to feel better - I had to look them up.

Next year I will get the flu shot, promise!

Happy Defenders Day

Today is Defenders Day (the full name is Defender of the Fatherland Day).  This is a Russian Holiday to celebrate the men who served in defense of Russia/Soviet Union.  It is a Soviet hold over holiday.  There is more information here.  This is not to be confused with Defenders Day in Maryland.  So in preparation for the holiday Alex's deski sad class made little tanks to give their fathers.  As you can see from the picture.  Originally it had a piece of candy inside for the father's, but Alex ate the piece and left the wrapper.  This morning she kept telling me that she was giving me trash for my present. I guess it is fitting since I never defended Russia from a foreign invader.

Ice Museum

Back in December I saw a fascinating advert for the "Ice Fairy Tale". Constructed outside of a shopping center in the southern part of Petersburg, it boasted a winter fairyland including bell towers, a maze, snow maidens, and evil sorcerers all built out of over 1000 tons of ice and 300 tons of snow.

I wanted to go over Christmas long weekend. I wanted to go during the 10 days of New Year's holiday. It was going on through March so we kept postponing and postponing. This week is fabulous - two holidays! Monday was an American holiday so Terry and I had a "date day" and Thursday is a Russian holiday - no preschool - so we decided to do a family day. We asked another family with kids our kids' ages if they wanted to come too and we caravan-ed out to the mall.

A few navigational hiccups later, we arrived at the place. It definitely looked a bit disappointing from the outside, which was frustrating as we spent about 20-30 minutes extra in the car (due to said hiccups). But then we went inside. It was amazing. You can see our kids sitting on a throne made of ice. Unfortunately, my husband claims almost none of the other photos came out :( There was a huge heart in ice all studded with flowers on the inside, that was my favorite. There was also a maze of ice blocks, about the height of a 1st grader so the adults could look over the whole thing and keep an eye on their kids but the kids got to wander and get "lost".



The outdoor ice slide was a bit disappointing as it was near freezing today so the melt erased any amount of slickness it originally had.


There was also a 2 tiered slide made from linoleum stapled to a wooden structure. We totally are making this at the cabin! My friend and I each went down this one with one of our kids. We thought our coats were long enough to keep our bottoms dry through the slide and onto the ground. Ooops!

After the outdoor fun, we went in the mall for lunch. The kids got Burger King for the 2nd time in 2 days - lucky them!

Arctic Hysteria

For President's Day, Terry and I had a little "date day" - nanny came for Zoltan, Alex went to preschool (American holidays sure aren't holidays for the Russians!) It was all last minute as I thought until Sunday night I might have to deal with an IWC mini-crisis but it got resolved enough that my Monday freed.

Although there are many items on the Petersburg "bucket list" we hadn't yet checked off, we're also realizing that we don't care that much about some of the Must See sites. I'd also noted an exhibition at the State Russian Center of Photography (www.rosphoto.org/en) that looked interesting, called "Arctic Hysteria". The museum is interesting, it takes up half of two very separate floors (meaning, to continue the exhibition we had to go out the door, down the stairs, and ring the bell for the second part of the museum to let us in, show the tickets we had purchased on the floor above, and then be admitted). The artists were Finnish, and the art was varied. Our favorite piece was this one. Terry is astonished that I like it, I tell him I studiously ignore that the bunnies are stuffed - as in, formerly lived.

We also discovered a new artist to admire, Ilkka Halso.

Then we lunched at Russkii Dachinki on Nevsky. My Greek salad was great, and that's about all we can say about it. The pelmeni were the worst I've ever had and most of my pelmeni experience comes from the frozen food aisle.

Baby's Rock-a-bye

Some time in the last 2 years, Alex decided she could singlehandedly stop Zoltan's crying no matter what caused it (even if it was her own action or inaction). I think she got the idea from one of her "I'm getting a baby sibling" books, where the girl sings her baby a little baby song.

The song goes like this "Baby's rock-a-bye, Baby's rock-a-bye, Baby's rock-a-bye..." over and over in a singsongy voice.

2 interesting things regarding this song happened in the last week:

1. For no apparent reason, one evening Zoltan asked Alex to sing the song. He even said "please" and asked several times. She, also for no apparent reason, steadfastly refused.

2. On a different occasion, when Alex was crying over something, we hear this little voice singing "Baby's rock-a-bye, Baby's rock-a-bye, Baby's rock-a-bye..."

Butternut squash smoothie

The kids love smoothies. I love that I can usually sneak into smoothies foods they won't normally eat, as well as simply give them foods they can't get well other ways (any ideas for other good ways to use frozen fruit? I hate how they are mushy when thawed, they have to be used IN something - like a smoothie).

I honestly can't recall how the idea came to me, but I decided to get a butternut squash figuring I'd eat it if nobody else in the family did (I'm the only fan ... or rather I WAS). I also thought to add a bit of the baked squash to the kids' smoothie to give them some nutrition different from what they were already having. I looked up Butternut Squash Smoothie to see what flavors would go well with it and in the end decided to make a smoothie with the rest of the squash. Oh YUM. And the best part is Alex loved it too. Even Terry liked it. Zoltan wouldn't go near it.

So here's the recipe:
Ingredients*

• Butternut squash baked until tender (about 1h)


• 1 banana


• 1/2 - 1 cup of milk (can be rice, soy, almond etc. I used rice)


• 1 tsp cinnamon (or to taste)


• 1/2 tsp ground ginger (or to taste)

Directions

Combine everything into a blender. That's it.

* The proportions listed are just guidelines. I didn't measure anything except the spices. I also didn't have quite enough rice milk and used some ice to thin it. It was still thick so when I poured it for Alex I put in a bit of cow's milk for her so she could get it through her straw.

Korovabar

I've spent many a fine evening at Korovabar on Karavannaya - with girlfriends. Terry had never gotten there yet so when he really wanted a steak that he didn't cook himself, we schlepped to Stroganoff. There's no good way to get there so someone can't have a drink when we go, which does damper a nice steakhouse dinner. As much as everyone raves about Stroganoff, I've never felt the hype, but I kept thinking maybe I just didn't remember it well as I haven't been as frequently or as recently.

Nope. Korovabar has it all over Stroganoff. The meat is at least as good (I still maintain it's better at Korovabar, it's seasoned a bit more strongly and has a lot more flavor), the prices are better and it's a heckofalot more convenient.

Ingenuity and creativity

Alex attends a Russian preschool. Her teachers don't speak English (well, their English is even worse than my Russian so I just go about as though they don't speak any). When they post notices I take a picture on my phone and then look up the vocabulary if I'm feeling adventuresome, or I just ask someone to translate otherwise.

There was a notice on Thursday but I only got around to translating it today. I got as far as: We need to urgently inoculate Alex against something that isn't in the dictionary. Google Translate to the rescue!

p.s. - it was measles. She's has her MMR. We're all cool. Maybe next time I'll be sure to translate the same day though!

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

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.

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.

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.