Warning! Evil Dog! 

You know you can't escape when.....

You see Allan LICHTMAN on television in Russia!

While doing Yoga this morning, I was calmly watching EuroNews, a news program broadcast all over Europe, when a feature about the elections in the states came on, and who should be commenting but Allan-freaking-Lichtman.

This will mean little to people who didn't go to American, and who never took a history class (So Heather, this blog's for you!). He's a history professor there, and a rather "famous" historian of the American electoral process. He's also married to a blond triathete who's at least a foot taller than him, and is at least 10 years younger. Or so I last heard....

Anyway, I realized that I could never go far when an old history professor could follow me to Moscow.

Zero watch

Well, the forcast over the next few days is predicting lows of about 35 degrees, Farenheit, and I'm waiting for the first below-freezing mark here....Honestly, I'll be happier because rain and a high of 40 degrees sucks.

Then again, I have once again missed all the hurricane action in Virginia..... :-)

How to get heart palpatations for the sum of $8

Hello all. I thought I would check in...its been a few days.

First of all - Happy Birthdays to Josh (28?), Mark (27), and Matthew (1) and Happy Anniversary to my parents - 30 years!

What have I been up to....Well, I'm starting to get productive in the archives. I've worked up the courage to drag my laptop to the archives, which of course greatly increases my efficiency. And now that I've started looking at documents....I take a lot of notes, and am slowly getting used to typing in Russian on the Russian layout keyboard. (I can switch back and forth on my laptop). It saps my energy though. I've been running a few times, I'm trying to do that 2 times a week, and am going to take a yoga class....so that I don't get too lethargic. I've noticed that I need about 9 hours of sleep here, as opposed to the 7 I'm fine with at home.

And sleeping leads me to the topic of my NEW PILLOW. On Saturday I paid my old friend Katya a visit. She got married last year and she and her husband Sasha are expecting a baby in a few months, a boy by the way. The three of us caught up, had tea, lots of tea. And sweets, lots of sweets. And I looked at wedding pictures, lots of wedding pictures. One of the great things about Russia is that Katya wore a RED dress to her wedding, and instead of having a bog reception, they registered at ZAGS (our justice of the peace) and then headed off on a plane to India for the honeymoon. I'm going to wear a red dress to my wedding...one day! So we were talking well into the evening and I mentioned that I wanted to go to IKEA or something, because I hated my pillow, and needed a new one. I described what kind of pillow I wanted, and Katya got up and brought one back, and it was just what I wanted. She said that they got it for their wedding, and never use it, so I can certainly use it for the year. My hero! It was very good to catch up with her, as I first met her in 1997 and we've stayed in touch ever since. And she's a Russian/English teacher, so can correct my grammar while she's at it.

As a result of the pillow-miracle, as I like to call it, I did not need to go shopping on Sunday. Instead, I decided to go to the Coffee Bean, down the street and get myself a cup of hot cocoa, and do some reading. There I ran into my colleague, David, and we chatted for awhile. I went to order my cocoa, and the woman held up two cups - small or large? (the large is not large by American super-size standards) so I ordered the large. For some reason (and I honestly don't know why, maybe she saw me sitting with David) she poured me 2 large cocoas....which upped the price a little of my bill. And I thought, well, these are the equivalent of 1 in the states, say at Greenberrys, so I said, why not?

Here is why not:

Russian "hot cocoa" is not hot, chocolate flavored milk. It is pure melted chocolate. Take Special Dark and melt it.....so I had 2 cups of thick, rich, steaming chocolate....and nearly had a heart attack once the caffeine and sugar hit my system. This was on top of all the tea and sweets the night before. In the states, I don't drink caffeine at all, except in emergencies. Lets just say I fell off that wagon.

And so, I have added that experience to my long list of lessons learned recently...
I mean, come on, "caution in ordering cafe drinks" in Russia ranks right up there with "don't date men twice your age", right?

In other news, something is up here, because this morning there were about 10 times as many police in the Metro as usual, and announcements on the Metro to "pay attention to your surroundings, and if you see suspicious looking people, report it to the police immediately". But my TV wasn't working this morning, so I don't know the details. A new threat no doubt....

Farewell for now, I think I've typed quite enough for today.
poka

Desi's Academy Awards of Russia

Okay, its early yet, but I keep making up these lists in my head and decided I should share some with you...

Dumbest thing I did yesterday:
Go to the archive with my laptop without my plug shape converter.

Smartest thing I ever did in relation to this trip:
Buy a second battery for my laptop. This thing gets almost 8 hours of type time with 2 batteries.

Maybe the dumbest thing I did today:
Buy a bottle of Moldovan wine for 86 rubles ($2.75) Maybe? Maybe not?

Things I wish I had here:
1. A colander - I'm sure I could buy one for the apartment somewhere
2. Virginia wine
3. A secret camera hidden in my bag so that I could take pictures of the really funny things I see without bring unnecessary attention to myself
4. My pillows from home
5. An answering machine for the phone
6. A really good girlfriend

Something I have here that I didn't have at home:
A garlic press!

Things that really suck:
1. A yogurt explosion in one's bag. Ick.
2. Centralized, city-wide heating. I will be cold in my own apartment until mid-October
3. Half-ripe bananas
4. my Russian feather pillow that weighs 100 pounds
5. Having to see really elderly people begging for money on the streets everyday. This is not something that I will ever ever get used to here.
6. Bureaucrats

Things that I do here that I never did at home, or never would have imagined doing
1. Drinking tea everyday. Tea? Everyday.
2. Jumping jacks
3. Watching "The Princess Diaries" dubbed in Russian. Yes, I'm doing this right now
4. Not showering everyday. Its just a pain in the ass sometimes. Sticking my head under the faucet usually fixes the bed head.
5. Buy a cabbage
6. Wear really expensive hoochie-mama jeans

Strangest thing I saw yesterday:
A 3-star Admiral (or however that translates in the Russian Navy) riding the Metro

The strangest thing the Russians saw on Wednesday:
Me jogging at 8am, in the rain, in SHORTS

Things I love about Russia:
1. Sour cream. Everywhere.
2. Russian Hospitality
3. Russian women who take pity on me and befriend me
4. Walking down a street and, hey look! There's a building that was built in 1582!
5. Watching women walk down the street in pink vinyl lace-up calf-height stilletto heels
6. Cheap beer, good beer

Some pictures....

Yesterday I took a working excursion to Novodevichii cemetery and monastery.
The cemetery, which has a very interesting history, which I will explain to you later, will feature prominently in my dissertation if I can actually find documentary evidence for it.

Suffice it to say that the Bolsheviks decided that a city cemetery adjacent to a 15th century convent would make an ideal resting place for their nearest and dearest (minus those who ranked Kremlin wall status).

I've included some general scenic pictures of the cemetery, and some photos of specific graves. Most are not famous people in our world, but I'm slowly building a base of these markers from a particular time period (1920s and 1930s) to help with my research.

http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeAM2TVm4bOGzuA

And I went into the monastery itself and walked around. I don't have names of the specifc churches for you right now....

http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeAM2TVm4bOGzx4

And for the record, at the monastery, I successfully talked myself out of the "special foreigner price" of about $7 admission. The woman looked at my money and tried to tell me that it was going to cost me more, but I said [in Russian] "but I'm not a tourist, I live and work here in Moscow." She seemed a bit taken aback, and gave me the Russian price, saying she never knows who lives here. I mean, she still knew I was a foreigner, but I think if you live here, they give you some slack, if you're willing to stick up for yourself! So I got in and paid for the right to take pictures for about $3.5o instead.

I'm going to bed. I'm tired.....my eyes are tired......

Ow my aching head

Things I will write about when my headache goes away....(I've had it for 2 days, I'm not holding out hope here)

Monks in Leather jackets
Potable Moscow water brought to you by the makers of Brita
Moscow TsCKA: 0 Yaroslavl Lokomotiv: 0 (hockey)
The secrets of Novodevichii cememtery
Documents, documents, everywhere

What I would like to do is go back to bed, but my bed, or rather my STUPID RUSSIAN FEATHER PILLOW is the source of the back pain-turned-headache. Does anyone know how to say "muscle relaxers" in Russian? Oh wait, I know, "Red wine." :-)

more later

Liudmila Davidovna

L'usia is my former host mom from 3 summers ago. I lived with her the second time I came to Moscow, the summer my grandma was sick, just before she passed away. She's in her mid-60s and has had quite a life, and has quite a family history. Lusia is a sweet, sweet woman, and we became very close.

Her birthday is June 22, 1937. For those of you who don't study Soviet history, June 22, 1941 was the day Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. 1937 was the height of Stalin's terror, where over 1,000,000 people were executed for imagined political crimes.

Lusia's parents were both devoted members of the Communist Party, and in 1937, when Lusia was born, they were living in Volgograd/Stalingrad, where her dad was an engineer at the Lenin tractor factory. The NKVD (the KGB's predecessor) repeated called in her dad, wanting him to rat on his boss, to accuse him of espionage or "wrecking". He kept refusing, because he knew of no crimes, real or imagined. But the pressure kept building, so late in 1937, her mother and father left with Lusia on the train back to Moscow. Her older brother had already been sent to live with relatives. Had they stayed, it is likely her father would have eventually be arrested, and the rest of her family placed in a difficult position.

Luckily, the Volgograd political police never bothered to look for Lusia's father, and as the family was originally from Moscow, they returned to work and life. But on Lusia's 4th birthday the Germans invaded. Lusia and her brother were sent to their dacha (country house - its not as lavish as it may sound) east of Moscow to live with a grandmother and their nanny. Her parents at one time manned anti-aircraft guns in Moscow.

When she grew up, Lusia decided not to join the Communist Party, even though her parents and her brother were all members. He brother was a trainer for Soviet Olympic team (I forget which sport - tennis I think). Lusia worked as an engineer. This is a broad category in Russia. I once asked her, what kind of engineer. She worked on some component or another for their space program - for the rockets. !

Her husband, her brother, and her parents have all passed away. In the 1990s, she started hosting students to help supplement her pension. In Russia, now, pensions are practically worthless. She does get free medical care, and free public transportation, but her pension from the state is the equivalent of about $25. So the dollars she gets from hosting students is basically the only way she can keep her family's apartment and afford to live. Her son, his wife, and their 4 year old daughter also now live with her.

I was in quite a state when I first arrived here 2 weeks ago, because everytime I tried to call her number, it was busy. And I started freaking out, because she was kind of sick the last time I was here, and I hadn't heard anything from her in some time. It turns out the number had been changed, and through a chain of people, we got in touch with each other and I went to see her this Sunday. She is doing well. We had tea, looked at pictures, had dinner (Yum yum! - For once, I wasn't hungry here!) and talked and talked and talked. Its very complicated and crowded at home with so many people there, and her life basically consists of taking care of the student currently there (which she doesn't mind at all) but also her son and his family. It leaves her little free time, and her heart condition has made the daily tasks of shopping, etc. more difficult for her. But all in all, she is good. I was so happy to see her. She's the closest thing I have to a grandmother - although Lusia would state emphatically that she is much too young to be considered in the babushka category!

And she doesn't miss a thing - including my gray hair. Her first proclamation when I came by was that my face looked much older. Well, comprehensive exams and a year with Brian-the-jerk will do that to a person!

And Katie, her little black poodle remembered me too!

Next time I'm over, I'll take pictures. And Liz - Lusia sends her regards to you, too!

Titling the Title

So I couldn't decide on a witty title for this entry. Not that they all have to be witty, but...

Anyway, the prospective candidates were:
1. The Rat Man cometh
2. I love brussel sprouts
3. Blessed are the tortellini, for they shall fill my stomach

There were others, but I forgot.

The reason why 2 out of the 3 candidates refer to food is that I am ALWAYS either 1) eating 2) hungry 3) thinking about food 4) buying food. I really do love brussel sprouts. I have them with almost every meal, and its my favorite part. Cut them in half, and pan sear them with butter and some salt and pepper. Yum! Amanda and Tina know this secret, and the rest of you are just missing out! And I had real tortellini for dinner tonight, with real spaghetti sauce, and it was wonderful. When I say 'real' spaghetti sauce, I mean Pasta Barilla from a jar. Other days I make the stuff from scratch, but I wanted someone in Italy to do the work for me today. :-)

Rat Man - Rat Man is the reason why I might quick graduate school before too long. Rat Man (so named because that


AAAAHHHHHHHHHH! A f*%&#ing FLEA just jumped up on my computer! Where the hell did he come from.?

Sorry, Rat Man's face looks like a Rat. I don't know what he does in the archive, but he apparently thinks he is important, because everytime he walks into the reading room, and into his little glass-enclosed cubicle, he SLAMS the door. EVERYTIME. Needless to say, this drives me up a wall.

For real information on what I'm up to, read the next posts....

A morning run

I decided the other day that sometime this weekend I was going to get up and run. I didn't drag my running shoes and clothes here for nothing, and I just feel so much better when I'm able to get my heart going. So I planned out a route, and got up at 8 this Sunday morning. My though being that the streets wouldn't be empty, but they wouldn't be so crowded that it would be annoying.

I strapped my documents to my person under my tights, with one of those waist belts. The last thing I would want is to get stopped for a document check and be without my passport. That would SUCK. It was relatively comfy, and not at all noticeable. Now its chilly here, so there was no running in the shorts and sports bra, but rather the tights and turtleneck! Yes, people looked at my funny, but most didn't pay me much mind, which was nice to know. Maybe the folks in the neighborhood will start to think of me as "that crazy foreign girl who runs in the cold". I'm fine with that. I cranked out 1.5 miles, which considering the circumstances, I'm perfectly happy with. Moscow is freakin' hilly, and I had to partially walk up a long incline. Oh well. Of course, I'll eventually have to swap out the running shoes for the snowshoes in a couple of months!

Then I came back and turned on the TV. I got sucked into a Russian cooking show, "Lets cook at home" hosted by this totally gorgeous, spastic girl, who talked 1000 miles a minute, and flung things about her kitchen. Damn, the food looked good though! She was making lamb in a red wine sauce, and tiramisu for dessert. A quote in relation to the tiramisu: "You can add a little bit of whatever liquor you like to the Tiramisu, except for vodka. Sorry, it doesn't work. And if the cream is too think, add a little more alcohol. We're all adults here." Now I'm watching a show much like Larry King Live, in that there is a host, he has a guest, and they engage in serious conversation about politics, etc. Except that its called "Orange Juice." I swear, that is the name of the show! And yes, they are drinking orange juice. I shit you not.

Mmm, I'm hungry. I feel as though I spend a large amount of my free time food shopping. Here for the produce, here for the dairy, here for the bread....etc. In fact, I have more shopping to do today. I ran out of milk. poka!

What, I don't look Russian to you?

Kakaia ironiia (what irony)

Yesterday evening, in an impulsive moment conspicuous consumption, I decided that I was not fashionable enough for Moscow.

Russian women (unlike most Russian men) - especially young women, dress extraordinarily well. Now what I mean by well, does not necessarily refer to American standards of fashion, but crazy European-runway wacked-out standards of fashion. Pointed-toe high heel shoes are taken a new extreme here. And I'm still trying to figure out how these tall, skinny Russian women turn into squat, sturdy babushki who are only like 4 feet tall.

Now I'm not a follower of the latest trends in the states, but I'm not incompetent either. I dress conservatively, and boringly most of the time because its confortable, but I've tried to make the button down shirt part of my own style. When packing for this trip, I took into account what I knew of Russian fashion, and threw in the club outfit or two that I knew would come in handy eventually. And I brought several business dress outfits as well, for the archives, meetings etc. I did not however include my flare leg hoochie mama jeans which I rarely wear anymore anyway, because they make me feel like I'm 16, in a bad, not good way. I should have brought them. So my comfy but perfectly presentable jeans in the states are a mockery here. And Russians don't wear khakis because the streets are too dirty, so my grey pants are only good as long as the weather is. So that left me with 2 everyday functional paris of pants....

I knew what I had to do.

Terranova, some Italian boutique on my block that is reasonably priced was having a sale. I'll go try on jeans there. Italians apparently only come in XS, S, M, L, and they are all 6 feet tall, so I could even get the pants up passed my butt. I'm serious. They didn't even get in the vicinity of my butt. Heather M. these are your kind of pants. Ha ha ha. I guess Russian women don't have thighs like normal people, because several other stores only sold jeans of this variety.... but I've seen Russian women with normal thighs like mine. But stopping them on the street and asking them where they buy their clothes is just not something I'm up to right now.

And suddenly! I spy the Levis store. They have all sorts of different styles. Nevermind I came all the way to RUSSIA to buy Levis in a store. This is the irony. So, I swallowed my pride and told the sales guy, in Russian "look, I have a little waist, but I have thighs and a butt - find me some pants" There was some gesturing to my rear end region during this exchange. He said, yes, I understand. He looks at my waist, and declares me to be a 26. Now maybe my natural waist is a 26 or smaller, but not my hips, which all pants are cut for these days. After barely squeezing into a few styles, I convince him I am a 28. At least Levis has leg lengths, so I get the right size there. My new jeans are tight, so tight, they're practically support hose for the thighs, with a lovely dye pattern that must be popular in the former Eastern bloc. They're really quite fashionable, and once I get some high heels (just kidding) I too, can be a Russian hoochie mama when the occasion calls for it. I can't gain a single pound though!

I'm not going to tell you how much I paid for them. It was a crime. I"m going to be doing some local community service in the form of giving spare change to old ladies on the street for some time to come.

Levis in Russia. Jesus.

Ah ha!

Okay, so I'm not the most brilliant person when it comes to technology and computers, but I think I have at least figured out how to let people link to photos. (haven't figured out how to put them in the blog).

For yesterday's pictures of Red Square and St. Basil's Cathedral:
http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeAM2TVm4bOGzoY

Okay, lets see if that works....

Sanitary Day

In Russia (and maybe in other parts of the world, I'm not sure) there is a phenomenon called "Sanitary Day". Yes, this is a direct translation. It usually happens once a month, and is generally regularly scheduled or announced in advanced. Almost all businesses and organizations do this. From my stint as an intern at the American Center here, in 1997, I am still not convinced that this has anything to do with its stated purpose, namely, sanitation. I seem to recall that we took a long lunch, did some straightening up in the office and got to have a whole day where we did not deal with patrons. Its a lot like teachers' in-service days at school. No students - no customers.

I bring this up because this morning I trekked down to the Metro Kakhovskaia to go to the Moscow Regional Archives. (I visited there in 2002, so I managed not to get lost this time). Only to discover that they were having Sanitary Day today, so I would not be able to use the reading room. The woman at the front door was very nice and told me to come back tomorrow, and so I shall. But this necessitated a return home to re-evaluate my plan for the day. It just so happened that my blood sugar crashed anyway, so I'm having lunch about 2 hours after I ate breakfast.

I think I'll go to the Russian Historical Museum and see if I can start the process of getting into their archive. They have a division specifically related to Novodevichii Cemetery, which is one of the case studies in my dissertation.

First day at the archives...

I can't even recollect what I did on Sunday by now. The jet lag is still affecting my brain. I think I went for a walk. I did buy a small Moscow map and "Girl with a Pearl Earring" in Russian at the nearby bookstore. I basically just hung out, got organized for the archive and vegged. I've been sleeping until past 11am and wanting to sleep more, but I'm trying to get on a normal schedule.

So, Sally, tell me about this guy! ;-)

Moving on...Today was my first official day at work. Which, because of the bureaucratic nature of things here, was relatively unproductive. I am working at the Moscow city archives right now, which for those of you who are interested, is where I am hoping to find sources related to the Christ the Saviour Cathedral and the cemetery at the Novodevichii monastery, and other sources related to the general fate of religious buildings and spaces in Moscow. The reading room is very nice, no doubt a product of Mayor Yuri Luzhkov's ability to funnel large sums of money into Moscow's coffers. The archivists were helpful, if somewhat brusk. They were concerned that I didn't have 20 files to order up right away. It takes 3 days to get them anyway, and I aspire to go about this "dissertation" thing in a somewhat organized manner and work my way into this process so I don't throw up my hands in disgust 3 weeks from now! I think there will be interesting stuff there, but there are many other archives and libraries I have to visit around the city. They all have funny hours, so my schedule will probably become strangely complicated. Monday here, Tuesday there, Wednesday somewhere else....

I worked through lunch, and so desperately had to grab a McDonalds hamburger (I'm sorry! I was hungry and it costs like 60 cents!) while I went to pick up my visa registration. I am officially legal for 3 months.

Then I did some laundry and met Brooke for dinner. Brooke was on the Moscow program with me 3 summers ago, in 2001 and she is here for the year, too. So we caught up, talked about what we knew of the old group and told our Moscow stories, and talked about how everytime we get in the Metro here, we secretly say to ourselves, "please don't blow up, please don't blow up". She's the first verbal English interaction I've had since I got here, with the exception of a conversation with my parents. We ate at Yolki Polki, a Russian/Ukranian style buffet with about 20 different kinds of cabbage salad. Yum! (I'm serious, I like cabbage).

I am pleasantly surprised by my Russian these days. If I don't think about it, I can ramble on, as long as the topic is within my vocab range. I'm sure I make mistakes, but I don't think about every word, and my experience with the archives today was much smoother than any other previous experience. I think it was all marinating in my brain these few years. And my reading comprehension, while by no means 100% is so much improved. I knew that reading Harry Potter in Russian would do me good!

I am waiting with baited breath for Wednesday's 70 degree high....Ahh, two days of Indian summer before it all starts. I'm looking for someone to run with. Brooke says some of the girls in her program are interested in running but don't want to run alone either.

Hey Liz! If you're reading, Brooke wants to come to Latvia with me. We'll make plans soon.

Signing out for now. Thanks for reading. I'll try and do something interesting with a new peice of meat before too long. The remnants of the chicken became chicken and dumplings and I have leftovers for several days!

Tea, anyone?

There's a chicken in my bag!

Yesterday was pleasantly free of obligations. No visas to register, no forms to fill out. And since Russians don't have call waiting, the lines of people I tried to call were busy.

So I took a little excursion to Metro stop "Akademicheskaia" to pay for my internet access. Now, as always happen when I go somewhere new in Moscow, while I'm on the train, I think about how I want to exit the station based on the map I've looked at before I left. I make this decision, but upon exiting the station, note the signs tell me otherwise. For street "x" go this way. I should have trusted myself, because it was wrong, which necessitated several turn-arounds before I was headed the right way. And when arrived, they were at lunch. (of course! Who takes lunch from 2-2:45 except the very people I need to see that day). I pay my 900 rubles ($30) and go to the market.

Instead of shopping at the downtown grocery store closest to my house, I've decided to patronage the Krestomag department/grocery store and the adjoining produce/meat market at Metro "Rizhskaia" where I lived with Lusia the past 2 trips to Moscow. Its not that far away, still technically near the center. It was just over a week ago that a suicide bomber set off a bomb just outside the station, killing 9 people. You can see some traces of the explosion on the pavement and on the building, but of course all the debris has already been removed. Along the sidewalk border, however, is a long row of flowers and candles and other remembrances. I purchased some flowers to lay there, my first participation in spontaneous public monument creation. Its very moving, and the next time I go I'll take my camera and take pictures.

The Krestomag grocery store is really nice and western-style. Not as large as our suburban behemoths, but more like urban stores. And you can find everything there (except fresh produce and meat, which is at the market), assuming one reads German. Many products are from Germany and are so labeled, if not in Russian. I can't seem to find dried basil or oregano, though, which means my spaghetti sauce will continue to be rather boring. Got some frozen blini (like crepes, but thicker) and some tvorg-filled raviolis (Tvor'g is a clotted-cream-cottage cheese sort of thing). I spent about $23 at the store, and a full 1/3 of my bill was the balsamic vinegar I bought. Everything else was either the same price or cheaper than in America.

Then I went to the market for potatoes, mushrooms and chicken. I had ot buy a whole chicken. You can't get a bag full of frozen chicken breasts in Russia. Nope, gotta buy the whole thing. The woman showed me its insides to assure me it was a good chicken. (Like I'd know the difference). So I trekked home, starving with my groceries, and a cold, dead chicken (minus head and guts) in a plastic bag in my Whole-foods canvas bag, and as I walked the chicken kept bumping my leg, and all I could think was, there's a chicken in my bag. .What the heck am I going to do with a chicken!?

So I baked it, froze the legs, ate the breast meat with dinner, and boiled the rest for some sort of stock/soup thing. I'm turning into quite the Russian housewife. Its cold outside - cooking warms me up!

I am very happy to have internet at home. More time for personal emails in addition to the blog. I am not even going to go into my adventure with the Russian tech help line! Let's just say it was an experience! Internet also makes waking up at 6am due to jet lag more palatable. There is no news or anything of value on TV at 6am. Only soccer. Russians start life at 10am. A by-product I'm sure of living so far north, wher for much of the year, its not really light until 8 or 9am.

Today, I don't know what I will do yet. Haven't gotten that far. I will spend some time preparing for my first archive adventure - the Moscow municipal archives. Whoo hoo! :-)

Full-fat yogurt

Sorry for the delay folks. I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I just have jet lag!

After a nearly sleepless night on Thursday/Friday, I woke up in time to settle my lease with my landlord, Sergei, and go with him to the local registering office, so that I could get certification that I may live in his apartment. This involved going back and forth between several lines in the office and of course filling out many forms. It also involved me forking over the equivalent of $50 to the city government for the privilege. Sergei is quite nice though, and pointed me to several less-expensive food stores and drug stores in the neighborhood (which are hard to come by since I am living downtown). After that, I stopped by the IREX office to make my presence in Russian known, and to get instructions for the further registration of my visa. Olga, the woman I talked with is very nice, and I'm looking forward to meeting Natasha Petrovna, the head person in the office.

So I trekked over to the company which provided my visa, and after another $20 or so, they took my migration card, and I will be able to pick up my registration on Monday. Then I will officially be legal for 3 months (after which point, I have to pay another $20 and register all over again!)

All day I felt like crap and was really really afraid that I was coming down with something from the lack of sleep, and from hurtling through the air for 10+ hours in a heremetically sealed metal tube with hundreds of other people and their germs. Maybe its just allergies.

So I bought some Thera-flu, just in case, came home, had tea, prianiki (my favorite Russian cookies) and watched TV, a lot of TV. And now I no longer feel the need to be apologetic about it, because watching TV improves my language skills. :-)

I mention full-fat yogurt, because if you've never tried it, it is amazing decadent. I think its even more decadent than whole milk yogurt in the states. Its like dessert. I love Russian dairy products. I'm also working on building a nice, insulating layer of fat for the winter, in part because its already quite cold, and although Sergei and the news keeps saying that "bab'i leto" (Indian Summer) is coming, I'm not convinced. The apartment does have a space heater though, because the heat is controlled city-wide and isn't on yet.

Soviet-style apartments - Nowadays, when real estate companies describe apartments for rent, they distinguish between western and soviet style decor and furnishings. Its hard to describe Soviet era furniture, but once I get the picture thing figured out, I'll post photos.
Today I'm going to go pay for the cable modem, so I'll have internet at home. Whoo hoo!

Thanks for reading! Fire may have been a more important invention than the blog, but this is more fun! (Laura may disagree here) Frankly, I freak out everytime I have to light the stove here (which is every time I want to use it).

poka! (Russian for "later")

Safe and Sound

Well it wouldn't be a trip to Russia if it wasn't an adventure getting here, so I'll start at the beginning.

I managed enough sleep the night before I left to be fully functional and coherent, ran my last minute errands, including turning in my plates at the DMV just fine. Laura and I were a little concerned when Heather was running somewhat late to pick us up, but she made it fine, and wow, all of our stuff barely fit in her car. 2 people going overseas for extended periods of time makes for a lot of luggage. Especially considering that I packed an extra bag for which I had to pay and my carry on was WAY larger than regulation, but they didn't say anything.

Got to Dulles just fine, checked in and all that, and got on the plane to Frankfurt, which left about a half hour late. (This is an important detail, read on). Instead of getting seated next to a large snoring man, I was sitting next to this girl named Katie, who was on her way to Nice, France for the year for her college study abroad at U Maryland. She was really sweet and down to earth (unlike many 20 year-old girls these days) and we had very pleasant conversation, and she reminded me of myself, 7 years ago, leaving for Russia for the first time. The flight was nice, except for my swollen feet - I hate getting older, if only for that one thing.

But since we departed late, we arrived in Frankfurt at 7am, local time. My flight for Moscow was set to leave at 7:15 local time, from a DIFFERENT terminal. Grr. Now I didn't make this reservation, had I, I would have allowed more time, because Frankfurt is huge. So I get off the plane, and hoping that maybe the other flight is delayed, I take off running for the gate with my 40lb carryon backpack. I was relieved, later, to discover that my laptop survived that sprint. No such luck, flight to Moscow gone. Ride from airport and meeting time with landlord must be rescheduled once I have new flight. While I am standing in line waiting to get a new flight I hear another Lufthansa flight for Moscow being announced, which had I simply been on that one in the first place, everything would have been fine. Even though there were about 5 tiems to choose from, I get the 1:05 out of Frankfurt, which means a really really really long layover, and much later arrival in Moscow. I am tired.

I called the IREX office (my fellowship, for those who didn't know) and re-coordinate my pick up. I also made a fool out of myself trying to say the number 3186 in Russian, which is still coming back to me. THen I realize that I DON'T HAVE MY LANDLORDS PHONE NUMBER ON ME. Dumbass. So I call Shawn, my roommate to be. No answer, leave panicked message. Number is on email, call parents at 1am to wake them up and have them log on. They don't answer. Call Laura in Virginia to do same. She is miraculously still awake and gets the number for me. Call Sergei, arrange new time later in evening. Later when my mom is awake, I call her to let her know the early morning messages are now taken care of and no need to worry. This has all cost me some 20 Euros in credit card charges on the German pay phone. With the exchange rate as it is, that just sucked. Also lost money getting Euros out of ATM to buy sandwich, since I was in the airport for 6 hours, and a person cannot live on granola bars alone. I've since lost a 10 Euro note and I'm pissed. Sigh.

I eventually get on the plane, and sit next to a RUssian couple. We have some conversation and I eat a hot meal, but I am largely comotose. I have the misfortune when I get off the plane at Sheremetevo to stand in the SLOWEST PASSPORT LINE EVER. By the time I get my bags and find my ride its after 7, I don't get to the apartment until after 8 and Sergei, my landlord has almost given up on me.

The apartment is nice. I"ll take pictures of it sometime soon and post them. Its Russian style decor, except the bathroom, which has been remodeled. The tub is slippery. I almost bit it my first night there taking a shower. That would have been a way to go! Sergei went with me to a little food mart, which is a good thing because I couldn't have told you my own name in Russian last night, I was so tired. So he made sure I ordered bread, cheese, Russian processed meat, yogurt, milk and juice. It was enough to eat on last night and breakfast this morning. (Note for anyone who cares, Russian "Cream of Wheat" takes longer to prepare than our own - Mine was sort of raw).

Then my american phone card didn't work, so I had to run out late at night and buy a Russian one, which took me 10 minutes to figure out and THEN I finally got to talk to my parents, which was just something I needed right then. THis is the first trip to RUssia where there has not been a really nice Russian lady taking me into her home, making me tea and prodding me off to bed. It was kind of quiet and lonely in the apt. last night. My roomate doesn't arrive for another 2 weeks.

Then I slept the sleep of the dead. I"m still kind of groggy today, but things look much better. TOday is an errand running day. I need more food, and I need to register my visa with Sergei, and then I'll go strolling and actually realize that I'm here.

And I should realize because its pretty dang cold for early september. Its barely 50 degrees. Brr.

Well, that's my arrival report. Thanks for reading and thanks for the comments. This is fun! More later.

In 24 hours.....

I will be waiting for Heather to get to Laura's so that we can cram all of our luggage in her car and leave for Dulles airport. Yes, I realize that's rather anti-climatic milestone, but what can you do?

Its my last day in Charlottesville, and it rainy and dreary, the last remnants of some hurricane. I can't keep track of them anyway. So tonight is farewell sushi dinner (yes, they have sushi in Moscow, but I have no intention of paying for it over there) and them tomorrow is the last errand to the DMV to turn in my plates from my car. And THEN I'm on my way.

I'll get into Moscow at around 12noon Moscow time, which will be early early in the morning for everyone here. Although my apartment does have internet access, I will first have to go the place and reactivate and get it set up on my computer, so I will probably be giving many of you an arrival email from an internet cafe once I get the chance. I have to meet my landlord and get the low-down on the apartment and the neighborhood. If you don't hear from me right away, please don't fret.

So this is a temporary farewell until I am officially settled in the Motherland! Do svidaniia

95% packed

Okay, so I finished packing, so I'll answer that question cheerfully if anyone asks....Now I need to finish the things that are on my "I absolutely must do these things before I leave" list.

I wonder what happens if I take library books out of the country? I'm tired of photocopying academic tomes just because I haven't managed to read them before I leave.

I promise my posts will be more interesting once I get to Russia, but I'm just trying to get into the habit of posting to this darn thing.

T-minus 5 days....

Well, my friend Ellen convinced me that I should set up a blog while I'm away, which seemed like a strange idea for a generally technically-unsavy quasi-luddite. But it can't hurt to give it a try. Its a good way of replacing mass emails, though.

I leave for Moscow next Tuesday, and no I'm not packed yet, so don't even think about asking me that question. I better set aside money for the excess baggage fees though. The start up costs for moving to a foreign country are astronomical, and I feel as though I spend all my time running errands. I don't *think* have anything else left to buy....

The resurrgence of Chechen terrorist activity over there in the last week is rather unnerving, but more than anything else, it just makes me angry. The Metro station which was bombed yesterday is MY old station, where I lived the last two times I was there, and I walked in and out of those doors hundreds of times. Of course it's all so random, so there is nothing I can do to control it. Lets just hope I'm never in the wrong place at the wrong time.