Dublin recap finale

On Thursdays near the hotel a bunch of vendors set up shop and I had a chicken tikka wrap ... mmmm ..... and cupcakes for dessert. More mmmmm.












Thursday nights the shops are open late so everyone went to get their gifts for the back-homes. This is a whole lot of parking space right in the shopping area taken up by bike racks. I sure do love this city!








Friday we got out early (4pm!) so a couple of us ran to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells exhibit, which closes at 5pm. When you arrive 15 minutes before closing time, you only pay half - and the exhibit is small enough that 15 minutes was perfect. I closed my week of culinary delights with Thai takeout and packing, as I had to be up at 3am-ish for our 4am taxi.

Dublin re-cap Part II

Wednesday I actually woke early enough to go for a run. Here's the park right by our hotel (OK fine, it wasn't open during my run so I ran around it but I walked through on a different day. It doesn't make it any less pretty.)



Wednesday was also our "official" group outing to the middle of nowhere to Johnnie Fox's to hear Irish music and see Irish dancing. Yes, those are chamber pots on the ceiling. I think.


If I find where my husband hid the poor quality videos of Irish dancing, I'll post them later! I am sad to say I think I know where he hid them ...

Dublin long-overdue recap part I

The last week of August I was in Dublin for training. It was serious stuff, and I learned a lot, made good connections, blah blah. One of the main responsibilities of my job is event planning, so when you put together 20+ of us, the odds are good that someone's going to come up with a plan.

Our first night after training we went to the Guinness Storehouse tour - the tour went until 7pm until the end of August so we had until Wednesday. I forgot my camera that night so I don't have much to show about it, but it was really well done for a self-guided tour. And the "learn to pour" schtick was fun as was the beer tasting.

Monday night the fire alarm went off in the hotel. The story at the time was it was "electrical" but the next morning's tale indicated it might have been more like "user error". All I know is when someone pounded on my door at 2am all I thought of was stupid drunks so when I opened my door to yell at them, and they turned out to be hotel staff in bright orange vests and I could smell smoke, I impressed myself with the coolness and speed with which I figured out the most important things to bring with me, changed into jeans, grabbed my coat and got outside. The fire alarms didn't work everywhere in the building (hence the personal wakeup calls). Aren't we glad it wasn't worse? One of the women in the training was right by the fire site and the hotel dry cleaned ALL her clothes and, obviously, changed her room. We got back to bed some time after 4am.

I skipped Tuesday night's Jameson's Whiskey tour and studied Russian like a good girl at a Malaysian restaurant. Mmmm.

Here are some pretty things near the hotel. I love the bright colored doors in the somber brick or stone homes.


Here's the canal that stood between us and the heart of the city.

Licking the beaters

With all the baking I do, today was a special "first" for the kids .... I made frosting and let them lick the beaters. Alex enjoyed hers as much as Z enjoyed his, but of course he looks the part a bit more :)

Amsterdam airport

If you have kids and haven't planned your transit through Amsterdam, here's why you should stop being so silly (yes yes it does require you fly KLM, but I swear it's worth it).

There's a whole big room of these little "pods".



Yes that is an actual CRIB you see.


The library. See the whole shelf of "children's books"? See that it's written in English? There's even more books for adults, as of course you didn't pack reading material because all your time is spent making sure the little people don't melt down.

The "treehouses". Climbing, sliding, running. Things that wear out little travelers and give you a shred of hope they will sleep on the next leg.

Our new fancy pants car alarm

We have a new remote starter/alarm system for our car.

We drive a 1994 Toyota Corolla in "that" blue color. See? (photo taken in its younger, shinier days in Malta)


Incongruity?

Absolutely. It is totally ridiculous. However, of course, there is a back story.

Last year we couldn't use our car for about 2-3 months because the locks froze. Can't get into the car, can't drive the car. Once the weather warmed a bit - to, you know, just above freezing - we were able to get in. The summer Terry tore apart the door and did various things to try to ensure the locks wouldn't freeze again, but you just never know. Also, the automatic door locks had been broken for a while and getting 2 kids into the car without anyone running into traffic is an unfortunate challenge - particularly when each door needs to be manually unlocked (meaning for the back seats, of course, that the front doors must be unlocked first, the one must awkwardly reach around to pull up the lock by hand). Now I push a button. Same for locking all the doors on the other side. Bliss.

Friday Hermitage with Zoltan

We bought a membership to the Hermitage last spring and have definitely not used it to its potential. I had an epiphany that Z is getting much better about being able to sit in the stroller or otherwise behave when he's out and about so I decided on a Friday - my day off work - I would take him to the Hermitage. If the weather's good it's a nice walk, and because of the membership if we only make it 1/2 hour it's still worth it.

Today was the inaugural visit. As I didn't know about getting up and down the stairs or where exactly those elevators were, I took the umbrella stroller. It was raining so we caught the bus, totally by accident got let off exactly where we needed to (Moika) and easily got ourselves there. It was an absolute madhouse inside though, and the woman at the entrance told me I'd need to check my jacket if I couldn't fit it in the stroller basket. I looked at the line of people checking things and decided if I couldn't make it fit we weren't going in. Somehow I got the jacket, Z's sweatshirt and the diaper bag all in the tiny little basket.

When we got inside, Z wanted to walk. So we start going up the main staircase baby pace. I was bumping the stroller up behind us with one hand - no way I could have done it with the Phil & Ted. At one point a Russian woman was energetically trying to say something to be about a "detskaya kortka" (child's jacket) and I figured she was yelling at me for not dressing Zoltan warmly enough. After pondering what she could have possibly been saying, I realized that Z's raincoat had fallen out in the bumping so I ran down and luckily it wasn't too far down the stairs.

Z was amazing. He wanted a walk a while but was happy to hold my hand. Then he wanted to sit and eat his snack. We were there an hour and only left because it was getting close to nap time. We got to get back to the Annie Liebowitz exhibit, which Terry and I had seen on its opening day with massive throngs of people. Today was a much more leisurely pace. Z especially loved the photos of Sarah Liebowitz (granddaughter?) and in each room we looked for the photos of "the baby" (his words).

I will absolutely be repeating the experience.

Detsky Sad Part II

Day 1: Alex doesn't nap during naptime. Instead she and the boy next to her talk the whole time while every other kid in class sleeps. I ask if he's the American in the school and she says no. I ask if he spoke English. She says no. Hm.

Day 2: Alex's teacher instructs me to bring a hat or scarf for her for the next day. Alex and I are in T-shirts. Hm.

Day 4: When I come to pick Alex up she's so excited. She has 2 friends! Yes, one is the boy she talked with during nap and the other is a girl ... which for Alex is a bit of a novelty.

Sightseeing off the beaten track

Happy Labor Day everyone! Two places I've been wanting to visit are finally crossed off the list:

- Alexander Nevsky Cemetery: the cemetery is comprised of two parts, one side holds famous artists and the other side, I believe, holds average citizens. We only got to the famous people side, and got to see Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky, Stradivarius, and other luminaries. As today was a mind-blowingly beautiful fall day, sunny and cool, it was a perfect day to be outside and contemplating mortality without getting totally depressed. We will definitely be back with a tour guide.



- Loft Project Etagi: this is a multi-level gallery and more, currently hosting the World Press Photo contest winners. We went to see the photo exhibit, although there are 3-4 other exhibits there according to the Loft Project's web site, as well as a restaurant that's gotten some good reviews. For another day, though. The photos were generally beautiful and powerful, but as the media's love of sensationalism requires, often shocking and horrifying. The photos chronicled many human and natural disasters that I don't remember heading about when they happened, which makes the photos all the more powerful as now the events are etched in my memory.

Detsky Sad

Today we brought Alex to Russian preschool for her first day - school began on September 1 but as I was away we decided to wait and bring her today. A few awesomenesses:

- The boy and his dad walking in behind us. The guard said dobri den (good morning) to us all, and I hear behind me "Can you say priviet ("hi")?" So I turned around and asked in Russian if he spoke English and it turns out they are American! I don't think he's in Alex's class but I am sure they mingle on the playground ... and I could be wrong, he looked about the right age to be in her class.

- The teacher. When I went to bring the paperwork to school 2 weeks ago I brought Alex and she met the teachers and saw the classroom. The lockers all have different animals on them and the teacher remembered that Alex had liked the elephant. Unfortunately, a kid who showed up on the first day had already claimed it, but Alex seems happy with the jaguar :)

When I report back on how it went, I'll try to get a few photos of at least the outside.

Early morning team building exercise

We now have fabulous fodder for our upcoming discussion on crisis management and personal preparedness! Around 2am those who heard the alarms from their rooms were awakened, the rest of us had hotel staff pounding on our doors (of course I assumed it was drunks and I opened my door to yell at them and noticed the smell of smoke).

I really hope we get to start late tomorrow. Oops. Today.

CCCP ice cream

We keep forgetting to put this up. This is our favorite of the plain vanilla non-gourmet ice cream and not just because of the cover!

40 by 40

In the last 4+ years I have spent exactly one night alone - the night before I took the FSOA. Now I'm about to accomplish two huge feats - (1) I am going away for a week of training for my job, and (2) I get to do it in Dublin. I have wanted to visit Ireland forever, seriously it has been on my wish list for more than 20 years and somehow it never happened.

AND, Ireland will be the 40th nation I have visited in my life. I'm hitting 40 by 40 a bit more than 2 years early. It's a tiny bit sad not to celebrate that with my family but then they weren't with me for most of the other places so I guess it isn't too awful.

The real question is whether I will end up being a little crybaby being away from the kids for a whole week. Wanna place bets?

Youth Hockey in SPB

Friday I was asked to go as a representative of the Consulate to a youth hockey tournament being held in St Petersburg. The tournament has three teams from the United States so the consulate shows support in going. My job was to go to the opening ceremony. It was a non speaking role and there was interpreters there so it seemed like it was in my realm.

The event was pretty fun with some interesting things worth sharing. The first big thing is I meet Vladislav Tretiak. For those not familiar he was the goalie for the Soviet Union on the national (Olympic) team.  He played in the Olympics from 1972 to1984.  The only year he did not win the gold was the year of the infamous miracle on ice.  He was the goalie pulled at the end of the first period.  He was one the guys we all grew up hating and dreaming of beating when we became famous hockey players. My oh my how the world has changed since then. He seemed like a nice guy.  Granted I didn't have any lengthy conversations with him.

The second in true Russian fashion. There was a small luncheon after the opening ceremonies. One gentlemen offered me wine. I used some of my limited Russian to say no thank you. Then he proceed to say something to the gentlemen sitting next to me. This second gentleman looks over at my place setting and starts pouring me a glass of vodka. Clearly between them they decided that if I didn't want wine then I must want vodka.

This would happen in Philly

A friend of mine was on his way to the airport and either his taxi cut someone off, or someone cut his taxi off. They drew up to a light and the drivers both jumped out of their cars. They proceeded to beat up on each other until they light turned green. Then they both returned to their cars and drove away. I only heard the story, didn't experience it, but it was like a taste of home.

Creative Awesome Nannies

I have raved about my fabulous nannies before, although possibly not on the blog. I figure let's put a little photographic evidence as to why they are so super awesome.

"Club house" window shades and a flower box... and detailing


Pipe cleaner animals and Silly Bandz

Fish balloon

Bagels

It's been almost a year since our friend's husband somehow met a Russian man who had lived in New York a long, long time. This prodigal son just happened to be a baker. And he learned, in New York, how to make bagels.

For me, bagels are the thing I forget that I miss until I have a real one (aka NOT Lender's). So last fall I ran a test order for the Consulate and our CG sponsored a "Bagel Day" morning so everyone could enjoy the treats. The bagels of that first batch were ginormous. Although I thought the taste was great, the slightly off texture distracted Terry too much to love them.

The next couple of orders I ran - every few months as even the bagel lovers need a bit of time to want them again - we held off. This last week we decided to try again and oh! what a good decision that was. They have clearly been tweaking their recipe and although still not quite chewy enough for a true New York aficionado, they are soooo close it isn't really even worth saying anything about it.

We had some issues with the delivery guy and in the end the partner of the guy I'd been working with brought the bagels on his way to another delivery. When he tried to explain where they had moved - way out by Peterhof - he told me they had gone "Upstate. Well, not exactly like upstate..."

I kinda seriously love these guys.

Foreign Service Worldwide

Because our home leave address is more than 14 transit-hours from our post, when we go to post for the first time (aka PCS or Permanent Change of Station) we are permitted to stay overnight at our plane-changing location - called a "rest stop". A long, long time ago we would have gone business class and straight to post. While I internally yearn for the business class seat, with our children at this particular stage in their lives, I actually really appreciate not having to get on the 3rd plane after 18 hours of sleepless transit.

So there we are in Amsterdam, with our mountain of luggage that's only a mountain because it has to include 2 car seats, the double stroller, and any luggage at all. We look like death as we haven't slept in a very long time and have had to spend every ounce of our being keeping an 18 month old and a 2.5 [editor: oops! 3.5. Thanks mom.] year old from completely melting down in their sleep-and-proper-nutrition-deprived states. And then .... a very friendly and enthusiastic woman who's clearly waiting for someone coming off the plane breaks away from her family comes over to us and asks in perfect American English if we're from the embassy. Our jet lagged haze made us first look very confused, because we're from a consulate and then we realized - this lovely woman was a sponsor to some new family coming to post in the Netherlands. How cool and small world is that?

More culinary experimentation

We have been making jam since the early-in-the-relationship strawberry picking date landed us with waayyy more berries than we could eat or pie. Turns out, though, only Americans use commercial pectin in our home-jam making. At least, we can't find pectin in stores anywhere else in the world. So we started looking into making our own pectin.

Supposedly, it's quite easy: chop up some underripe apples; simmer them forever in just enough water to cover them; strain through cheesecloth overnight; boil the resulting liquid until it has halved. We did this last night/this morning.

Today the weather was perfect - sunny and cool. We decided not to travel so far outside the city and instead set our sights on the recently-opened New Holland Island. Sadly, it's an "I can see it but I can't get there" place, so we aborted the attempt and decided to stop by Sennaya Ploschad instead and see what produce they had. Peaches were cheap enough and hard enough to find jam-wise here, so we decided that would be our test batch.

You can't find jam recipes that include homemade pectin because it all depends on the pectin content in the liquid you have on hand. So we muddled through and got ... peach syrup. It was our backup plan as maple syrup is ridiculously expensive and I love my pancakes, however it means we had too much sugar or not enough pectin. We'll try again someday and report back.

btw - today's culinary explorations included some old favorites - waffles, cobbler (blueberries at Sennaya!) - and a first try at plov (an Uzbek dish). Thank you to my friend who taught me how and my other friend who took much better notes than me :)

Mamy

Zoltan spends most of 4 days each week with a Russian nanny. It seems the Russian is starting to seep in. He definitely understands a lot ... and this week he's starting to say "Mamy" (pronounced Mamoo). It's accusative case, and in one words it means "I want mommy." Just in case I wasn't sure that was what he was really doing, today he alternated. "Mamy! Mamy! I want mommy!"

Next week he'll start negotiating at the rinok for us :)

We saw a movie! In the theater!

I read in the St. Petersburg Times (the city's twice weekly English language "newspaper") a review of the movie Melancholia. I noted that it claimed the movie was in English with Russian subtitles. As it was showing at the new movie theater in the Galleria mall, I thought it was certainly plausible.

Terry wanted wings so we were already planning to be in the area, and our babysitter had successfully put Z down to sleep the week before (a test run) so she came pretty early in the evening, and we decided to check out the theater. Turns out there were 3 movies in English and Melancholia looked like the best of the bunch. It was our very first foray into a Russian movie theater and in fact we can't remember a movie seen in the theater since 2007. I was pregnant with Alex at the time.

Terry didn't like the movie, I did, but we both agreed it was a good test run and totally worth paying attention to what movies come to that theater and finding out which will be in English.

Sighting of the rare & elusive Customer Service

Last night, as Terry craved Buffalo wings, we decided to go to the TGI Fridays that recently opened in the Galleria mall. We placed our order, our server repeated it back to us, and yet when the meal came out mine was something completely different. Grrrr.

The manager came over, and in lightening Russian apologized for the mistake and said the corrected dish would come out, if we had the time and could stay, in another 10 minutes. At least, I think that's what he said as I caught about 2 words in each sentence. He repeated himself in English and as we had plenty of time to kill and at that point I really wanted the dish I'd ordered, we decided to wait.

#1: The manager apologized for a problem in our dinner.

Terry and I then got to discussing the manager's possible background, as his English was both excellent and accented American - most Russians speak with a British English accent. When he came over later to ask if the meal was OK and if it came within the time he'd promised, we asked and learned he had studied in Ohio and was never able, later, to shake the Americanisms out of his accent and vocabulary. He and Terry bonded over Cleveland, where both had spent some time. And then ....

#2: He offered a complimentary dessert or cocktail for our inconvenience.

Is Customer Service beginning to migrate into Russia? Will such sightings become more frequent? One can only hope. Stay tuned!