Wordless Wednesday

Concert and Ballet and Hockey, oh my!

A couple of weeks ago we had what was for us a crazy busy weekend.

On Saturday, one of our Consulate colleagues performed in a cello concert (accompanied by a pianist - the teacher of several of the Consulate kids and a parent or two) at the CGR. Our game plan was that Terry and Alex would go and Z and I would stay home as it was naptime. Thus, I can't say much about the performance other than everyone reports it was very good and there is video I hope to view. When Z woke from his nap the first thing he said was "Can I bring doggie [stuffed animal] to the big house [CGR]?" So we went, hoping the concert had ended by the time we arrived. It had. So we got to hang out with

The next day we went to the children's ballet production of Sleeping Beauty at the Gorky Culture Palace out in a part of town where we had never been. Because the dancers were kids, some of the spectacular moves that make me love that ballet so much were toned down, but overall Alex and I enjoyed it, the boys got antsy.

We rushed home from there to get the kids a bit of naptime, because when we woke them we were off to hockey! Terry's been playing on an intramural type league and that Sunday evening was "skate with your kids" night. Alex couldn't participate as she was still in the cast and Zoltan was very eager outside the rink, very iffy inside. In the end Zoltan skated a tiny bit and we all got to see Terry play a bit and I got photos and video that will probably never see the light of day. A couple of the other kids inspired ours and they both said they want to skate more. I'm pretty sure Alex would have been on the ice if she could have. So, if we're here when they do another round, it will be another family night.

Happy Earth Day!

13 years ago today I went on a first date with a guy I met in his own kitchen. He was the new roommate of a friend from graduate school and I went with some other friends to their housewarming party. Funny how I don't remember the date of the party. But I do remember I had papers and exams and although we soon started talking every night on the phone, we hadn't seen each other since the party.

We decided to check out the Earth Day doings on the National Mall and met up at noon. The conversation never stopped and it felt like we'd already known each other forever. Fourteen hours later we were still talking, I was seriously starting to fall asleep, but he hadn't kissed me yet. And then he did....

I blame the next 10 lb on customs

We just discovered we aren't allowed to ship back home USA acquired items (i.e. commissary, amazon.com). Cans, jars and boxes we had assumed we would be using for the first few months of new-home are now lost to us. For a lot of this stuff we feel that slight twinge we all feel whenever we spend money and then never experience the value of the expenditure (think: clothes "just in case" you lose weight or have that perfect event; gym memberships; gift cards, etc). But there are a few items causing a bit of heartache.

Today the kids helped me make maple sugar cookies. Dinner was meatball subs with homemade tomato sauce (organic diced tomatoes). Then maple sugar candy. When the kids settle down I'll be making maple bread pudding. Tomorrow we may do homemade pizza (bonus: the crust will rid us of some whole wheat flour). We seeing a pattern here? It is entirely possible I will use so much maple syrup that I will voluntarily never have any again. For at least a few months.

A busy week, but finally progress!

It's hard to write about an overwhelming experience. And some of the personal stresses of the last couple of weeks have even been good ones.

In the space of week we have decided to medevac Alex for her various medical issues that need testing to figure out (on Monday we should know for sure whether MED agreed); we first unsuccessfully, then successfully, bid on a home (different properties); listened and watched in horror as the Boston Marathon, MIT shooting, and West, Texas tragedies unfolded - each of which involved a location near and dear either to our own hearts of hearts of good friends. I am thrilled to report that my father was not at work so never in harm's way.

Now that we seem to be heading the right direction with Alex we have nothing to do except wait to hear when the appointments are set up and then we can worry about flights and hotels. Now that our bid has been accepted and we've made the calls we needed to make for inspection and appraisal, there's nothing to do except wait for those reports to come back. The cortisol surge of the last few weeks hasn't abated yet and is looking around for a good target.

Wordless Wednesday

Sleeping Beauty

In my 4 years in St Petersburg, I have seen the ballet Sleeping Beauty 4 times.

1. Mariinsky, classical interpretation
2.Ballet on Ice, a child-friendly performance. Alex and I agreed that it wasn't good enough ballet or good enough ice skating and the two should not be merged.
3. Mikhailovsky, Nacho Duato's interpretation. My favorite of all time. I may try to see it one more time before we leave here.
4. Children's Ballet at the Gorky Culture Palace. Zoltan's first ballet. Very modified due to children dancing it.

It probably goes without saying that this is my favorite ballet.

CKA Hockey - Playoffs

[Editor's note: this event took place 2, maybe 3 years ago. I edited the post to add labels. Somehow it re-posted as of today. Love technology]

Wow do they take their hockey seriously. We went to a playoff game on Defender's Day (aka Men's Day) and it was a great game. Spartak scored a tying goal with 3 seconds left on the clock, and CKA won in overtime. And we still got home in time for the sitter :)

Some interesting points.
1. The Moscow fans get their own section and it is blanketed with Policia (formerly militsa, in any case the riot police) The photo is from my phone so it isn't so good but there is literally a police officer sitting on either side of the aisle on every single row. Terry tells me they do this for every game, even when the other side only had 6 fans at the game. Wowsers.

2. There is a special CKA fan section, you need to be on some special list to even sit there. These folks are hard core, they have their special chants and arm movements, and the flags. Oh, the flags. I took some video of them cheering for something great the CKA did, I don't remember what. Enjoy.

A home for our weary heads...

... or not.

Twice in the last few weeks we told our realtor to get a contract ready for us to sign, then learned in the middle of that process that the house had just gone under contract to some other lucky buyer.  This time, at least, we managed to actually complete a bid and successfully transmit it to the seller's broker.

We wait until Monday to find out our bid is rejected (we're not too hopeful, it isn't the strongest bid in the world). And then back to the drawing board. But, hey, this is farther than we've gotten so that has to count for something!

Riga Day 2, a.k.a Radisson Blu

The next morning we were at the Radisson Blu by 11am for our spa day. Little did we know how much of a day it would be!

On the booking for our spa treatments was a line about showing up an hour in advance to take advantage of the Thermal Suite and Relaxation Area. It meant a whole floor devoted to DIY relaxation: eucalyptus scented steam rooms; saunas; heated glass tile benches; an outdoor "vitality pool" (yes, OUTDOOR. It was heated. Super cool); a "shower experience", basically a sort of trail you can walk through where the showers vary from cool to hot, from a rainforest type overhead to an all-over 6-nozzle dealio; male and female relaxation room with these Posturpedic type beds, cozy with terry cloth "sheets" and blankets over them, soft music and dim lights, and headphones you can plug into each bed/chair's own listening station; and a sort of common room with fruit, tea and water to snack on.

I didn't bring my camera up there, but here's some photos from the espa web site:
(top) This is the outdoor vitality pool. It has a couple of waterfalls that you can see to the right, and one whole side is benchlike and jacuzzi type bubbles blow through that way.
(bottom) this is the "experience shower" trail.

But I get ahead of myself.

We check in for our treatments, ditch our coats in the cloakroom, and are shown to the changing rooms where we are each handed a towel, robe, and slippers. These slippers are real; I think the soles are cork or something similar, whatever Birkenstock uses. The lockers are in 2 sizes, decent and enormous. We each chose enormous because why not? In the changing room in addition to the normal bathroom, showers with aromatherapy shampoo and body wash and hair dryers, are a bathing suit centrifuge, light-up makeup mirrors and flat irons.

 Quickly changing into our bathing suits and wearing our robes we head up to relax. Although we didn't get into every steam room or sauna, we hit one of everything that place had to offer. We were chatting and sipping tea when our spa professionals came to fetch us. When I got to the room, it had all the expected: soft lighting and music, aromatherapy wafting in the air. The lady gave me a plastic bag for the bathing suit and a pair of disposable panties to wear and said to change and get under the covers. The massage table thing had what looked just like sheets made of terry cloth, with a cozy blanket thrown over it. We had wondered how comfortable our relaxation would be in wet bathing suits as we go straight from the water relaxation to the treatment - and this was the answer. They think of everything!

The facial turned out to be facial/scalp massage and hair treatment/shoulder and neck massage. When she said it was over I had to gather the energy to get up. Next was the post-treatment relaxation room, which came equipped with more of the lounge chair - Posturpedic bed things with terrycloth sheets and blankets, plus tea, water, dried fruit, nuts and adorable little cookies we decided had to be healthy because they wouldn't serve anything else. The 3 of us had the room to ourselves so we chatted, rested, ate and drank.

After about an hour of that we decided it was time to move on to the next thing. It just so happens the Radisson Blu houses the Skyline Bar, with famous panoramic views of Riga. It was lunchtime for us so we went for some food and drink and pretty views.

 And as we chatted and looked around and ate and drank and drank some more, we decided we had made a mistake not picking up a table right by the window, so we had to move.

We saw the sun set.

We got comfortable.


And, at 10:23pm my friend remembered that our coats were still at the coat check at the spa.

As I am normally the speedy one in the family I volunteered to race down there to fetch our coats or get someone in the hotel management to open the door as we assumed the spa was long closed. Turns out it closes at 10:30pm. I did have to wait about 5 minutes for someone with a key to come by, but we didn't have to take a cab home in our sweaters so I call it a win.

Riga - day 1

Friday I hurried the kids to sadik and rushed back to the house because the taxi was arriving at 9:30am.  We got to the airport and checked in. Boarding, arriving, getting cash from the ATM, taxi ride with a driver listening to Russian radio got us to the hotel - all smooth as silk. We grabbed a drink and snack at the hotel and waited excitedly for our other friend, who we expected any minute.

This is how the ladies' weekend began. Travel with one small carry-on bag, reading the magazine on the plane, moving easily from one thing to the next.  Terry had his turn last month when he visited a friend in Sweden, and this weekend one friend from Petersburg and I met another friend from Lithuania in the mid-point of Latvia.


By the time our friend arrived at the hotel to meet us, it was Happy Hour at the hotel bar. Her travel SNAFUs dictated that we take advantage of the buy 1 get 1 free cocktails (well, in Latvian and English it said BOGO. In Russian, interestingly enough, it said buy 2 cocktails get the 3rd one free. Hm)



The in-flight magazine highly recommended a restaurant in the old city not too far away so we went. First, the building was adorable (seen below). Appetizers were phenomenal. I had a cream of chestnut soup with duck, I forget if it was roasted or smoked but anyway it was delicious. One friend got an elk goulash and the other had beef carpaccio. Then the mains came. I am so glad my soup completely filled me up, as my pheasant was so dry and overcooked I  could barely swallow a bite, and actually had to take a sip of water to help it go down. One friend's catfish was undercooked although the asparagus that was the real reason she ordered the dish was perfect. The third friend, just like Goldilocks' littlest bear, had a perfectly juicy lamb.

 After dinner we stopped at the wine bar a few doors down from our hotel and ordered a bottle to share. The proprietor was extremely cordial, especially as we were the last people to leave the restaurant and had only bought a bottle of wine.

On the way back to the hotel we saw this interesting Riga phenomenon of bicycle rickshaws. As I never saw anyone riding in one, I wonder what kind of business they get. The rickshaws each have a blanket to keep you cozy in the snow and they all pipe out pretty loud music.
NOTE: TERRY DOES NOT APPROVE OF THIS PHOTO.

 

And now she reads

Today I went to the book store and found some "my first reader" type books in Russian. I know Alex is ready, I hadn't realized how ready.

Tonight she read the entire book of Masha and Medved. 25 sentences. She didn't know the meaning of every word but then neither did I. After dinner I read the book to her and we talked about what was going on.

We are opening a whole new chapter! I am so happy Bukvoed is having a big sale on children's books this month!

The countdown really begins

Plane tickets, purchased. Hotel for rest stop, booked. Dates for packout, still tentative but in process. Pre-packout survey date set, if that counts.

On our list of "must do" before we go ... only 2 things we'd be heartbroken if we didn't do:
1. One more day at Elagin
2. One more shashlik night in Tavrichesky Sad.
  2.a) and if I could get to one more Mikhailovsky ballet before we go, it would be great. However I do recognize I have been completely ballet spoiled, probably gone more time in the last 4 years than in at least the 20 years preceding it if not my whole life.

The main points on that list are entirely dependent on Mother Nature, who doesn't seem to be a big fan of Piter this year. We'll see how much we get accomplished.

Wordless Wednesday

Russians and their language

It is well known to people who have ever tried to speak Russian to a Russian that they are very particular about how their language is spoken. "Muttonburger" gets wide-eyed stares, "Moo-ton beurh-gher" get the waitress scribbling in her pad. So far as a I know every detsky sad has a speech pathologist who comes by to check that the kids are able to speak properly.

So it should come as no surprise that all over town for the last few months have been these billboards proclaiming:
"Let's Speak Like Petersburgians"

At first I had no idea what it was all about. T explained that it's meant for people who are not from Moscow/Piter but other Russian speaking countries or other parts of Russia who may not
speak "properly".


One billboard I saw a few months ago went through numbers. This one seems to have negotiation and worker type words (agreement, facilitate, draw/scoop, quarter/block ...  but then "utterly"?)

Go Gevalia!

And on a lighter note ... I have to give a shout out to our coffeemaker.  If, hypothetically, someone were to turn on the coffeemaker without having ever put any water in, the thing simply shuts itself off. Almost immediately. Yay for no burnt pots or electrical fires!

Wordless Wednesday

This vs. That

Last week Terry had training in Portugal. He did this:

Some beautiful building on the water

 Some beautiful monument on the water

A seagull eating a rat. Notice the water flows, as in it isn't ice

Ah, wine

Meanwhile, I was home with 2 kids who had just gotten over Daddy's last trip. Alex had all the medical issues going on. We did this:

Yep I let Zoltan have the camera. Heck, Terry doesn't like it (camera) anyway.

  Treat!

 They gave him that lollypop free. Alex's was red.

That sign says "Happy Phone" above the seafoam green telephone

 Playground at the detsky sad when we went to pick Alex up after our special day together

 Of course, Alex and I had to hit the same cafe on our special day.

 The tea here is amazing. And comes with a little cookie.

 Super heroes duking it out

A different view on medical care overseas

Back in October, Alex started coughing. I don't know much about the first week or so, it happened while I was in Tver and the family caught a cold - which was to turn into more than a cold for each of them.

She hasn't stopped coughing. At first the teachers and other parents thought she was still sick and I was accosted and accused for bringing her to school. This continued even after a month - c'mon guys, anyone with an iota of reason knows than more than a month later you don't still have a cold. And she clearly didn't have tuberculosis.

We went through all the obvious things, bronchitis, allergies etc and the coughing never let up. We saw an ENT who diagnosed post-nasal drip. I cut dairy out of her diet in case it was causing the PND. And yet ... she woke up every morning coughing, and spent some time coughing every night before falling asleep. Sometimes she woke in the night coughing. Naptime at school was the same.

A couple of months into all this mess, she told me she had a tummy ache. She pointed pretty high up her chest. We gave her 1/2 a Tums. A few weeks later, it happened again. Then, constant tummy aches, and daily heartburn. I get on the trusty old internet and ... GERD. All the symptoms, none of the causes. The Consulate doctor is away. A friend hands me her bottle of Zantac 150, we look up dosage for children and haphazardly chop up a pill for Alex.

A week later Alex still coughs but not as much. She says her tummy hurts less, but it still hurts every day. I put her bed up on some thick books but I'm not sure it's high enough. We got to see the Consulate doctor, who wants her to finish dinner 3h before bedtime. Yeah, Russian kids go to bed way later than American ones - she's still at detsky sad 3h before bedtime. Doc agrees GERD but is concerned as to why Alex has it - she's not a baby, not an adult, not overweight, doesn't eat any offending foods, etc etc.

She first recommended an endoscopy. Here they are usually done without anesthesia as "without" it's 15 minutes, "with" you have to plan 24 hours in the hospital. So we got to stress out for a few days about whether that is something we want to do at post or if we can/want to medevac. Sounds ridiculous for a 15 minute procedure but the quality of medical care received at post, especially diagnostically, has been bad enough several people have had to medevac after tests in order to get better tests. I am not making Alex go through an endoscopy twice.

THEN we hear back, after the local doctor confers with the American doctor in Moscow, that she first recommends doing a test for h.pylori bacteria as it is the likely cause of this. Does this test exist in Russia? We don't know yet and thus need to continue to worry about Alex's GI health.

Just one more thing that would be so much easier if we lived in the USA. At least we can get broken arms set properly here - something not true at every post!
[note, this post was written in draft form, the last sentence included, before Alex fell and broke her arm again. Quel coincidence!]

Some good things about being posted overseas

As already mentioned, Alex broke her arm yesterday. She fell off the bed, started screaming and crying in that way that means "I didn't just bruise something" although I did get the ice immediately in hopes we were all wrong.

In the USA ... I don't actually have any idea what I would do in the USA. Show up at an emergency room? Call her pediatrician?

In Russia, I immediately called our local doctor, the one who comes to the Consulate every week and is American board certified. Best of both worlds. She called the private clinic closest to us, found out when we could come in for a consult with the pediatric doctor on call (this is a weekend of course) and get an x-ray if he concurs it's necessary. I kept Alex in ice and TV until it was time to go - a little less than an hour.

When we got to the clinic and checked in, we were told to go right up to the pediatric floor. The doctor met us as we were coming out of the elevator. After he checked Alex out, we did have to wait about 10 minutes before heading down to X-ray. When we got there, we waited about another 10 minutes before we got in for the X-ray. They ushered me out of the room (last time they let me stay, just gave me my own lead apron thing) and I saw the x-rays as they came up on the screen. I knew about as soon as the docs knew that yep, she broke her arm across both bones.

From there we went directly to the room where the doctor, who had been with us throughout, met up with an assistant and put on the cast. He told me when to come back next week, and that was it. I paid $350 that I hope insurance will reimburse me for and got home about 2 hours after I left the house.

From friends' stories back home, I imagine the snacks and activities I had throw into my bag before leaving would have been much more heavily utilized had this occurred in the USA.For this trip, the Leapster was more than enough.

Here we go again

322 days ago, this happened.

Today, Zoltan and I were playing in my room.We were pretending to sleep in my bed with 2 stuffed animals who were not doing a very good job of sleeping. Alex came in and perched at the foot of the bed. Too close to foot of the bed, apparently, because she soon rolled off the bed onto the carpeted floor. Cue up the screaming and crying. And holding her hand. And actual tears.

I started to feel nauseated.  Isn't she going through enough right now medically?

Got ice on the arm, got her watching TV to calm down and give it some time. Maybe we're wrong about this. And it is Saturday afternoon and Terry's not here.

When she said she wanted to go get an x-ray like last time my heart sank. Called the Consulate doc, called our upstairs neighbor to see if they could keep Z til Terry got home and we watched another show to distract her til it was time to go.

I was standing in the technician room with the doctor while Alex was in the other room getting the x-ray. I could see myself that damned black line crossing both bones in her lower arm. Here we go again ...

We Have Orders!

Which means that we will now be allowed to pack up our stuff, buy plane tickets, and actually travel from Russia to the USA this summer. Now, it's REAL.

More things the kids say

Some of these are old, and some are things we have had to say to them, but they need to be preserved for posterity before they are forgotten:

Parent: No Alex, don't hammer the cheese

A: I'm talking to pop-pop.
M: is he saying he misses you?
A: no. he's saying is that baby's teddy bear and are you allowed to play with it?

A: I'm a ballerina! I have a dress, and my legs are strong, and I can dance

Parent: No Alex, I don't want a real pee-pee in the pretend potty

Z: I want to go out! I want to go out in the city!

A: (after pretend trick or treating) Halloween candy is separated into M&Ms, chocolate, candy and french fries

At dinner:  Mommy, no singing. You have to eat your dinner

T: Tell my why you want to go into the dining room. I want to hear your reasoning.
A: That's an excellent question. I want to go in because I want to.

A: No Benjamin, I can't play right now. I'm eating a cookie.

A: Zoltan, you like to do everything I do, so why don't you eat your grapes? I'm eating my grapes.

Wordless Wednesday

79 days

We don't have actual orders yet so this is only proposed/theoretical. But the real day will be within days of the one we're aiming for. 79 days. After 4 years. Doesn't seem like enough time.

Zoltan has self confidence

Zoltan has been due for the a haircut.  So tonight we gave him one.  After is was all over the following conversation took place.

Me: Zoltan you look sharp.
Zoltan: Yeah I look sharp!
Zoltan: Mommy, I look sharp! 

If nothing else this boy has self confidence.  He does not require a lot of coaxing to tell you how good he is.

Russia vs. Belgium: The Chocolate Edition

The FS Swap is an awesome concept created by a blogger currently in Moscow. As I'm newly active in the blogging community (well, "this year" new)it was the first time I'd heard of it and I was thrilled and excited to sign up for it.

In the sign-up thread, a blogger in Belgium mentioned she needed to be matched with a chocolate-lover because, duh, she'll be sending treats from the [alleged] world capital of chocolate goodness. She phrased it better. I replied she needed to be introduced to the joys of Russian chocolate. And thus, the chocolate taste test was born. We weren't matched with each other for the swap, but we each sent off our favorite chocolate to the other to try.

The contenders
Yeah, silly ol' me didn't think to photograph the goods until most of the Belgian had already been eaten. But it is still clear to see the concept.

The verdict
Presentation: Belgium hands down. Look at this pretty box and beautiful pieces of chocolate with the name of the chocolate's source.

Texture:  Belgium. It is completely smooth.
Flavor: Russia.