Wordless Wednesday (Oops Thursday)

A day of firsts

Yesterday was a big day for me. 2 major firsts occurred:

1. I finally received the flat iron that I finally bought and finally used it. What the heck have I been waiting for?!?!?!?  If you know me personally or know anyone else with Julia Roberts-type thick wavy/frizzy hair you'll know what I mean. And this flat iron is amazing, I didn't have much time so I did really thick sections of hair and wasn't careful about getting the whole thing, but the overall effect was perfect. Better yet, it is even straighter and glossier the next day!

2. I made yogurt for the first time. A friend who left post a full year ago gave us her yogurt maker and then it sat in our closet. Yesterday I pulled it out and went for a trial run. Let's just say the minute the containers are clean again I start experimenting with rice/coconut milk yogurt recipes because this stuff, mixed with our homemade jam, is far too good for me to resist. And then things get really ugly.

[edited to add:  I indeed made Terry scrape his yogurts into other glass jars and made a small batch of coconut milk yogurt. ooooh sour milk how I have missed you!! I'll be trying again with rice milk, and again with a rice/coconut mix and will report back]

Another register update

Apparently right now is when all the superstars are racing through their Oral Exams and landing on the register ahead of my 5.47 - so I've been pushed into the high 20's on the shadow register - not a hireable place to be. And of course right now is when there are no classes in the foreseeable future to drain those ranks. And ... well, they changed the rules once and who knows if, when or how they will change the rules again.

All that leads to this: I officially accepted the extra bonus CNL points and have agreed to serve 2 tours at Russian speaking posts.

I am now #7 of 93. For perspective, when I first got on the register I was 124 of 124. When I passed language I was #17 of 73. That was about 6 weeks ago. 20 more people on the register in that time (shudder).

Wordless Wednesday

Yep, I'm a big honking geek

I have fallen in love, sort of. I've said before the Russian language has gotten its hooks into me in a bad way, and the love affair seems to only be growing, maybe in light of our impending breakup (at least temporarily). After a recent lesson on Pushkin wherein my teacher impressed upon me his significance to Russia and why he is THE poet of the country my current dream is to read (and most importantly, duh, understand) him in his mother tongue. The more Russian I know, the more Russians I speak with, the more certain I am that no translation between these 2 languages can ever properly capture the essence.

I am also once again signed up for the distance learning, but this time there is a new course - Consular Russian. I'm learning the language and idiom necessary to talk to visa applicants about their plans to visit the USA. And I am loving it.

I had said that if I passed the language test in December I'd slow way down, and it is true I no longer do much homework, but ...

Sennaya Ploschad haul

In the regular grocery stores right now, we can choose from apples, pears, oranges, and mandarins. And some globe grapes that aren't worth the necessary de-seeding for the littles.

Today we ventured to Sennaya for the first time in a long time. We got: 2 kilos kish-mish grapes; 1.5 kilos finger bananas (first time ever seeing them in Piter!); 1 kilo mandarin; 1 mango; 2 kilos granat; 2 kilos apples; 1.5 kilo pears; 1 kilo plums; and 1 fruit item I had never seen before but described to me as like an apple and sweet (1 piece was 1/2 kilo). Veggie-wise we didn't get as much, but still the kilo of zucchini, half kilo of winter squash, pack of snow peas will get us partway through the week.

Because the kids get up so early, we're in and out and back home by 10:30am, so no traffic, no parking troubles. It's a good day, and I can't wait to gobble up the fruit salad.

Wordless Wednesday

Ice skating @ Elagin

Both kids have been talking about skating lately. This is due partly to the partial thaw then re-freeze of the city a few weeks ago, which rendered all sidewalks mini-rinks. But, as Terry is hell-bent on getting Zoltan into hockey, the day will have to come sooner or later that he dons skates and hits the ice (hoping, of course, not to really "hit" the ice too hard or too often).

Elagin island - already our family favorite place - has a free, open, outdoor ice rink. I think in the summer they just call it "ground" or maybe "pond". Terry and Alex already have skates, so for the price of 400 rubles to rent skates for Z and me for an hour, the family had a great morning! Both kids said they wanted to go again, although Zoltan said another day - not again today.

 Lunch ended up taking forever so we didn't get home until deep into normal nap time, and both kids had fabulous naps. There's nothing like fresh air and exercise :-)

That's our flag!

There's some big international soccer tournament thing going on soon. Posters and billboards are up all over town. There's one on the way to detsky sad.

As we walked past the other day, Zoltan stops to look at it. He studies the row of flags at the bottom, which indicate the countries that will participate.  He gets excited, points and yells "That's OUR flag mommy! The bottom left."  Yup, the one I figured he was going to notice. It's red, and white and blue. One stripe of each. For the Russian Federation.

I guess it's better than last summer, when he yelled at the top of his voice upon seeing any flag at all (mind you, this was in Washington, DC) "Look mommy, a flag of Russia!"

Wordless Wednesday