Fun Week While Getting Ready for Mom

Aside from getting ready for my mom, this week brought on some new experiences. Tuesday I played Bunco with the women’s group and had a BLAST. And it wasn’t just because I won! This group of ladies was so much fun and we just laughed the entire afternoon. Every time you threw a Bunco, you had to wear the “BUNCO tiara”. I am looking forward to June’s Bunco afternoon!

 

Wednesday was also a great day-I met a new friend! I received a message on my blog from an American-expat living in Belgium. Her husband had to come to Moscow for business and she and her 9 month old daughter were coming too. He had business meetings and she was looking for an expat to hang out with. Of Course! Although it was a rainy day, it was great to meet her and her daughter. It’s always interesting to meet expats in other countries and hear about their experiences and travels. We met at her hotel, had lunch at LPQ, then headed over to Christ the Savior Cathedral. Her daughter was adorable and the afternoon was quite enjoyable! Just bummed I can’t find the picture I took of them!

Today and stayed home and did some final cleaning. Tomorrow I am going to the grocery store to stock up! Saturday I am going to meet my mama at the airport! Yeah!

Eyjafjallajökull

Eyjafjallajökull - the volcano eruption in Iceland.

Go ahead. Try to pronounce it. Now look away and spell it. Not so much. Since I am the nicest blogger EVER, I am going to attach a video explaining how to pronounce it properly.

Okay, this video just made me laugh so I thought I’d share.

I am only guessing that this dude knows what the sam hill he’s saying…

When we initially heard about the volcano, we honestly didn’t think much of it. We certainly didn’t think it was going to cause this much chaos in the travel industry! Darron and I are glad we are both here in Moscow and don't have any travel plans in the next couple weeks. We have several friends who are stuck somewhere, have family that are stuck HERE, have travel plans that have been postponed, or have visitors that have had to cancel or postpone their trips. We are one of those “have visitors that have had to cancel their trip” people. We are bummed that our friend Mika from Finland had to cancel his trip to see us this weekend. He was in Greece, and after a week, finally made it back to Finland. He spent a few days in Belgium too. A few other volcano stories from friends:

Jennie’s husband David has been back in the states for over a week longer than he was supposed to! They are trying to find a flight for him through Japan but no luck yet!

Krista’s mom has been here from Canada for 3 weeks. She was supposed to leave this morning and Lufthansa isn’t flying out of Moscow until at least tomorrow (Friday). With all the backlogged flights, they were able to guarantee her a seat on a flight on MAY 3rd! That’s almost 2 weeks longer than she was supposed to be here! They suggested she go to the airport every day and try and get an earlier standby flight!

My friend Erin’s (who I just went to see in London in March) parents were supposed to arrive in London from Boston yesterday. That didn’t happen. Their flight was cancelled just a few hours before the British air space re-opened.

Hopefully my mom has no issues with her visit in May!

We pray things get back to normal soon—and everyone can get home safely!

First Visitor of 2010~ Debbie!

Our first visit of the year was my friend Debbie! She was only here a short time (2.5 days), but we managed check off most things on her must see list. She kicked jet lags BUTTOLA!

She arrived Thursday and I took the metro/train combo to pick her up at the airport. That was a first for me and I am glad to have that experience. It was super easy! The only tough part was schlepping her luggage once we got to my metro station. There’s 70-80 steps and we definitely got our cardio workout! She rested and we set off and walked down Tverskaya to Red Square. I showed her rym mall and took pics of her by St. Basil’s Cathedral. We stopped at LPQ on Kamergersky (a pedestrian street) and had hot chocolate and tea.

Friday we metro’d to Krista’s apt. and her driver took Pat (Krista’s mom), Debbie, and I to the drop off for a Moscow Bus Tour. Krista stayed home (no sitter for Pebbles) and met us later at the Pushkin Cafe for lunch. We enjoyed the tour, but we weren't given many opportunities to get out and take pictures.

Stopped at the Coffee Bean before getting on the metro

Christ The Savior Cathedral with water refection

Kremlin with water reflection

Debbie and I

Saturday, Debbie and I left early and stoped for a coffee on Old Arbat. Then we met some of my friends from AWO and headed over to the open market Izmylava. Debbie did some damage and then we all went to a fun Georgian restaurant for lunch. She ordered lamb chops and thought they were delish! Unfortunately, she thought that 150r meant 150 rubles (about 6 US bucks) but r is a g in Russian (an r in Russian looks like a p). It was the grams. They were A LOT more expensive than that! Thank Goodness they were good! Before we headed back, we stopped at a nearby grocery store so Debbie could by some fancy vodka to take home.

We came home early since Debbie had to get up at 3am Sunday to head to the airport. She was flying to India for work and had a LONG day of traveling ahead of her.

 

Classic Tourist Picture!

 

We certainly enjoyed her visit -just sorry it was so short!

It’s Been a Year…

Yesterday was Easter Sunday and also the anniversary of our first year in Moscow. The year seems to have gone by so fast!

I found adjusting to life in Moscow pretty easy and feel I settled in rather quickly. I can thank Paris for preparing me for “expat wife life” and my AWO friends for showing me the Moscow ropes.

I will admit there are definitely things I still miss about the US and things I find a bit strange about life over here. Now there are many things I miss about Paris too! There aren’t too many things I can say I like more about Moscow than Paris or the US. But I still am really enjoying living here.

Okay, things I still miss about the US (in random order).

• My mom, family, and friends
• Watching my friend’s children grow up and being a part of their everyday lives
• TARGET-just no substitute
• Window screens
• Going to Purdue football and basketball games
• Convenience foods (a few examples: bagged shredded cheese, canned Campbell's soup, canned broth)
• Good Steak (Ruth’s Chris), Good Pizza (Aurelio’s), Bob Evans, and Cracker Barrell. Okay, I sometimes think about White Castle and Taco Bell too. I’m not afraid  to admit that.
• Various food items that make me a nerd: chocolate chips, bagels, BBQ sauce,  canned tuna (sorry Cassie), grape jelly, normal honey, Hidden Valley Ranch dressing, Kraft Shells and Cheese, etc…
• I’ll add for Darron: zone bars, whey protein, Mexican food,
  I am sure there’s more…

Things I miss about Paris.

• Friends in order I met them: Elise, Christina, Janae & Erin
• BREAD. BREAD. BREAD.
• The smell of bread baking as I walked past the patisserie
• Smoke –free the last year we lived there
• American library, used English bookstores, and English WHSmith Bookstore
• My hair salon in Paris-stylepixie—LOVED Vicky! My hair will forever miss her.
• The numerous choice of transportation so close to our apartment (metros, several busses)
• The ease of traveling from Paris (flying, train, driving)
• Monoprix---LOVED that grocery store!
• No visa’s needed!
• Direct flights home!
• Reliable post office!
• Going out for tea and macaroons
• Quality of food in grocery stores
• Great neighbors (we have one set of neighbors here and we’ve NEVER seen them in a year)!
• I better add that Darron REALLY misses the inexpensive red wine. Not so much for me—I missed Dr. Pepper!

Things I find interesting or have grown to like on this side of the pond:

Ummmmmm, even though I am happy here, can’t really think of anything that I like more about Moscow than home or Paris. The friends that I have met here have made Moscow a super fun place to live.  Okay, I’ve racked my brain and here are a few things…

• The obvious—the AWO group. They keep me busy and smiling every week!
• Despite the recent event, the metro system is FANTASTIC here—much better than Paris!
• Darron likes the cheap, good quality vodka
• Banyas. It was quite nice being in a sauna while being beat with branches…see post from August of last year
• Our apt. here. I love it. It’s not as close to the city center as I would have liked, but still an awesome apartment!
• They do have quite the selection of yummy sour cream here! (you just have to be sure it’s not expired!)
• Among Skype, the webcam, and the Slingbox—we are able to keep up with most things at home.
• Things are open VERY late or all night. Big difference form Paris.

We don’t know where our next assignment will be, but we are thankful for the almost 4 years we’ve lived in Europe.  We’ve met some wonderful people and seen some amazing places.

Easter Sunday

Darron and I were thrilled that Krista and family invited us over for Easter dinner! Krista’s mom is in town visiting and I was really looking forward to meeting her. It was also a special day for Darron and I—our anniversary of ONE YEAR of living in Moscow. We SURVIVED!

Since my food poisoning on Wednesday, I hadn’t really eaten anything. My stomach was still really sore but I was determined to go and have a good time! I am so glad we did! 

The boys having a few beers and watching “Aussie Rules” football. Yes, Krista’s husband is Australian has has the bestest accent EVER.

Krista and her mom made a fabulous dinner of beef roast, mashed potatoes, veggies, and Yorkshire pudding-a specialty of Krista’s mom! My contribution was deviled egg and these cupcakes. I tried to make the frosting lavender, but it looked a bit odd….but they were DELISH. It all was yummy!

You might be asking yourself why we had beef roast instead of ham on Easter. Are You? WELL, Krista and I had looked for a ham at the grocery store on Friday. There was one that looked semi-normal- just sitting on the countertop. Due to our recent food poisoning (yes, we BOTH got it, we had eaten the same rotisserie chicken), we now avoid any meat that is just sitting out in the open. She called one of Jeff’s company drivers and told him her dilemma. He’s lived in the US so we were confident he knew what to look for. He said he’d go and pick it up for her. YAHOO! Not so yahoo. Actually, no yahoo at all. What he ended up delivering was something called DAK—a version of SPAM! Hence, the beef roast.

Happy Easter!

Krista and her mom

Jeff mashing the potatoes

Little “Pebbles” waiting patiently for her food

Krista and I!

DH and I!

US. Vs. Russia

YES! WOO HOO! Another interesting article for your reading pleasure!

http://www.rbth.ru/articles/2010/04/02/russia_and_the_US_ten_dimensions.html