Pukh Season

You are probably wondering what the sam hill is pukh?  I realize it looks like snow, and sometimes there’s so darn much of it that it gets shoveled, but it’s been pretty warm here…so, nope, not snow.

So what IS pukh and why is it falling on Moscow? Well, it’s the stuff that poplar trees release when they are feeling, ummm…frisky? Horny? I don’t think there’s a word for that particular situation. What is SUPPOSED to happen is the female poplar tree will stop producing seeds when she gets fertilized.  Enter Stalin. While he was in power many years ago, he ordered that thousands of popular trees be planted because he didn’t think Moscow was green enough. What he did NOT know was that trees come in male and female, and in tree-talk, every female needs a male. No one mentioned that these female trees get very frustrated and as a result, produce pukh in massive over-drive for a longer period of time.  Another brilliant plan from Stalin. So now every June the female poplars release unfertilized seeds: pukh.

It honestly looks and like it’s snowing again. This picture doesn’t do it justice, but it’s the best I could do that day. But it doesn’t feel like snow—it feels itchy. And it gets everywhere! I am not kidding you. EVERYWHERE. You have to lower your head when walking or it hits your face and itches your eyes. You constantly see people smacking their faces trying to get the pukh off!

Worst of all, you can NOT get away from the pukh! Open a window and the room will immediately fill with flying pukh (not too many screens over on this side of the pond). I was at the mall the other day and it was even floating around in there!

I hope it pukh’s off soon!

My Mother visits the Motherland!

I was so excited for my mom to visit and see where I call home now! She arrived on May 1st and stayed until May 17th. We took a bus tour of Moscow, went to see a ballet, she came with me to my women’s group, met some of my friends, went out for lunch, shopped, visited Red Square, went to Izmylavo (open market) and just had fun!

St. Basil’s Cathedral. Beautiful!

 

Old KGB building. Now it's the Federal Security Service. One of the metro stations that was bombed is underneath this building.

 

 

 

 

Christ the Savior Cathedral from across the river. It’s amazing inside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

View of the Kremlin from across the river.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mom taking a rest on the path around Novodevichy Convent

 

 

 

 

 

Mom in front of Novodevichy Convent

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty green church on Sparrow Hills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a church in my friend Jamie’s “hood”. We spent the day with her walking, seeing beautiful tulips, seeing the “lock bridge”, and eating at an American Diner!

 

 

 

 

The “lock” bridge. Newlyweds put their names and wedding date on a lock, lock it, and throw the key in the river for everlasting love! Very cool tradition!

 

 

 

Close-up one of the newer metal trees with locks. When the trees are full, they move them to the sidewalks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Mom & my friend Jamie.

 

 

 

 

 

Beautiful tulips in a     garden across from the “House on the Embankment”

 

 

 

 

 

Mom & I and the tulips. It was HOT and bright that day!

 

 

 

 

 

I couldn’t believe Moscow had flowers this pretty! Not quite Holland, but still beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 

Quick pic of mom and some tulips on the way back to the metro.

 

 

 

 

 

Mom “rubbing the dogs nose” for good luck at the Ploshad Revolutsi metro station. It’s not just a touristy thing…all the Russians do it!

 

 

 

 

 

Mom in a fancy Russian hat at Izmylavo market.

 

 

 

 

 

Mom & I made homemade oreos—they were DELISH! I mean, ridiculously good! I really think she should have her own show!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had lunch with my friend Krista & Pebbles!

 

 

 

 

 

Bedtime snack. Vanilla ice-cream in a bag!

 

 

 

 

 

Mom’s last full day in Moscow. We went back to Red Square for a few more pictures. This was taken in Alexander Gardens near Red Square.

 

 

 

 

Mom in Red Square with the Historical Museum behind her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My beautiful mama with St. Basil’s behind her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Mom and Me. I Love you Mom!

Two firsts….

I am enjoying having my mom here. She’s really trying to learn all the different letters of the alphabet-and she’s doing well! She’s had some serious jet lag, so we’ve been taking it easy. Today I had my AWO meeting and my mom decided to stay home to watch movies and play on the internet.

After the AWO meeting, my friend Jamie needed to stop at the pet store for some medicine for her cat. Not just any medicine…medicine to help her cat who was in heat. Since I’m the one taking Russian, she decided it was going to be me who asked for this medicine. Of course, we had no idea what it was called. So, we looked up a few words and I was all ready to go. My goal was to not have to use cat and sex in the same sentence. We got to the store and went to the pharmacy area. I tried first to say in Russian “My cat is hot” and waved my hand in front of my face. Lady looked at my like I was NUTSO! Here goes… I said “Моя кошка хочет sex!” (when we looked up sex in the Russian-English dictionary, it was the same) Translation…My cat wants sex"! Jamie was trying so hard not to crack up. Luckily I didn’t have to use ANY hand gestures! As soon as I said it, the lady said “DA DA DA”! (that’s yes-they usually say it three times) Problem solved! Hammie the wonder cat now has medicine for her “problem”. Think they make something like that for husbands? :-)

The second first was ordering Pizza Hut online for delivery-It worked! Couldn’t believe it! We ordered cheese pizza and breadsticks-YUM!

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

Moscow Metro Bombings

I woke up early today, preparing our apt. for my day watching “Pebbles”. After turning on our tv to the Russian ESPN channel to see if any of the NCAA games were being replayed, I sat down and started looking at my emails and facebook. That’s when I noticed a fellow blogger who used to live in Russia, and has recently moved to Luxembourg, posted something about a bombing at the Lubyanka metro station. My heart fell. I immediately switched the tv over to Russia Today (RT) to see what was going on while dialing my friends cell phones to make sure they were okay. I couldn’t get through! Most cell phone signals were shut off because they believed the bombs were detonated via cell phone. Needless to say, I was freaking out. I know facebook is a huge time-waster (A FUN time-waster), but in this case, it was a lifesaver. Because we couldn’t contact each other via cell, facebook and email were how we let each other know we were okay. One friend I was able to get through via cell had left early to ride the metro and didn’t even know anything had happened.

Two bombs went off in 2 different metro stations, Lubyanka and Park Kultury. Lubyanka is in the heart of Moscow, and runs below the old KGB building (now known as the FSB building.) Park Kultury is a bit farther out...4 stops to the southwest, on the same line, the oldest line in Moscow, the Red Line. Neither of these metro’s are close to where I live and I, so far, have never taken them, but that doesn’t mean I won’t. Darron drives to work every day and only takes the metro on the weekend sometime. The first one occurred just before 8am and the other one followed about 40 minutes later. Rush hour, to be sure. People coming and going, minding their own business, going to work, to school, maybe home. All innocent....except for the two female bombers, with explosives strapped to their bodies. Waiting for the right moment....the train pulls into the station, the doors open, people disembarking and embarking, and then for some, life is over.

How did I spend my day? Krista arrived with Pebbles (via George their driver) and we both just hugged each other. We hadn’t been able to get a hold of each other and Krista didn’t know her outing had been cancelled. They both ended up spending the day here and we made pancakes for breakfast and Kraft Shells & Cheese for lunch. Nothing better than home comforts! We chatted with friends on facebook. We worried with the time difference, how we’d tell our parents the news before they saw it on their tv. We OD'd on CNN and BBC World and Russia Today News. We wondered what would cause a woman to travel so far away from home, strap explosives to her body and kill innocent people. What were her last thoughts? Did she look at the people she was trying to kill?  Perhaps her children and husband had been murdered or disappeared. Perhaps she had been raped and her parents “sold” her to these suicide bomb trainers.

What will the next few days and weeks bring? That remains to be seen. Prime Minister Putin vows to find those responsible. Life will return to normal. The Russians are resilient people. Even yesterday, by the late afternoon, the metro stations that had been the site of the attacks were open. Hopefully the violence won't visit this adopted city of mine again. 

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev lays flowers at the Lubyanka Square bombing site.