Yup! The mayor of Moscow has a plan to seed the clouds with cement powder, dry ice, or silver iodine, so that the snow falls OUTSIDE of the city limits of Moscow. They did something similar in St. Petersburg for big celebration days (like Victory Day).
In any case, the Moscow City Council gave the go-ahead, and now the only obstacle to implementing this plan are the environmentalists and residents of the towns outside Moscow which would get not only their normal amount of snowfall, but Moscow's as well.
I think that suburban Muscovites are in for a lot of shoveling this year...
I came across this photo as I was looking for images for the Piskaryovksoye Cemetery post I just finished up. I took this photo from the passenger side of the car at a stop light.
I guess it is true that duct tape is the solution to ANY problem.
In my last post, I wrote about the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad, which commemorated those lost during the Siege of Leningrad. Continuing on that theme, I thought I would write briefly about our visit to Piskaryovskoye Cemetery, where many of the victims of the Siege are buried.
A sign as you approach the cemetery...It says, something along the lines of "Glory to the Heroic Defenders..."
A photograph of me at the entrance to the cemetery. It doesn't really convey the size of the place. It is estimated that 470,000 civilians and soldiers are buried here.
Of course, there aren't very many individual graves. During the Siege, no one had the energy or strength to build individual graves for every citizen that died. So, they blasted large holes in the ground and used them as mass graves.
Many of the military personnel did, however, have individual graves and stones. Here is one for a Lieutenant Gorbechev.
The focal point of the cemetery is the memorial set up at the far end of the cemetery. It has a statue called "Mother Motherland".
The writing behind her says, "Here lay Leningraders Here are citydwellers - men, women, and children And next to them, Red Army soldiers. They defended you, Leningrad, The cradle of the Revolution With all their lives. We cannot list their noble names here, There are so many of them under the eternal protection of granite. But know this, those who regard these stones: No one is forgotten, nothing is forgotten."
There are a series of speakers that play somber music. To capture some of the atmosphere there, Paul shot this video. (In it, you can see me concentrating, trying to pull out my best Russian to read the inscription.)
As you can see from the photos and the video, we visited on a particularly nice spring day. I can only imagine how somber this scene would be in the dead of a Russian winter.
You know, I need to post about umpty-teen photos from Russia (and Austria and Spain and Ireland). In fact, I sat down at my computer this afternoon all prepared to write about a tour we took through the 'burbs of St. Petersburg, in which we saw Brezhnev and Khruschev-era housing. Instead, I find that I am in something of a navel-gazing mood.
So, I thought that I would write out some of the things that I have learned by living in Russia.
1. I learned how to NOT follow a recipe. In fact, in the grand majority of recipes I tried, there was some substitution or something missing. Sometimes, the results were disastrous, but I am definitely no longer afraid of getting creative in the kitchen.
2. Lines are for suckers.
3. There is nothing as satisfying as getting a new stamp in a passport. Bonus points if your destination country requires a visa!
4. I learned (again) the value of friendship. I have fantastic friends. I can't say enough about them. My friends in Russia kept me entertained through the long Russian winters, Skyped me when I was feeling down, listened as I bemoaned whatever it was I felt like whining about, and let me play with their kids. Friends from the States came and visited us, which was so wonderful. Friends from past lives found me on Facebook, and now we've reconnected and I'm loving 'hanging out' with them again.
5. Another reason I love friends besides the love and support and fun I get from them: FREE LODGING! Thanks to friends (some of whom didn't even know they were my friends until I called them up and was like, "Hey, can we stay with you? It is the Olmsted way.") we've been able to crash in Cairo, Tunis, New Delhi, Baku, Krakow, Gdansk, Kiev, Moscow, Poznan, Bergen, Munich, and Istanbul for free. Seriously, I have really awesome friends.
6. I learned that I really like to host parties! I had no idea prior to having a few get-togethers. Turns out that the only REALLY important thing is that you have enough beer, wine, or liquor to last the evening. The rest seems to take care of itself. Who knew?
7. As a corollary to #5, I learned to not care if people saw my place in its natural state of messiness.
8. As a corollary to #5 and #6, I was reminded of how much I hate housework, and, if I am ever in a position to do so, would have no problem hiring a cleaning service
9. It turns out my career isn't as important to me as I once thought it was.
10. I am way more adventurous than I thought I was. In the past two years, I've gotten a flat tire in the middle of the Sahara in southern Tunisia, traveled to the India-Pakistan border, ate sheep stomach in rural Azerbaijan, and got nekkid for Turkish bath. I am just about the luckiest girl ever to have been able to do all that. Now that we're in Germany, these sorts of adventures are a little less common, but I'm sure there's some adventure lurking around here somewhere...I just have to find it!!
11. Girls-only week-ends are just about the funnest things ever.
12. If someone on the street is giving you a dirty look, it isn't necessarily because they don't like you. You might just be in Russia. Have to admit that I can give a pretty good stink-eye nowadays. So much so that I was occasionally mistaken for a native.
13. Shoving is an art. You have to jostle yourself so as not to be too obvious about what your doing while maintaining and advancing your position. By the time we left Russia, I could navigate through a crowded metro platform with grace and ease.
14. I love living in kind of off-the-wall places. I don't know if it is because I love being a part of an ex-pat community, or because I like the weirdness of it, or maybe a combination of both. I'm not sure if we'll ever get the chance to live in Russia again. It is possible (though it would probably be Moscow). I would also be happy to live in any of the former republics of the Soviet Union. When I arrived in Russia, all I wanted to do was leave. Now that I'm gone, I just want to go back!
Well, I think that will do it for this session of navel-gazing. Please join us later for another edition of "Navel-Gazing with Courthey".
I tried to think of a witty title for this post, but failed.
If you can't tell, this blog post is going to be about one of the less-touristed areas of St. Petersburg: the southern part of the city. For those of you that have been to the Venice of the North, I'm talking about the area near the airport...
When most people come to St. Petersburg, they head directly to the city's center. And that's as it should be. That's where the Hermitage is. Peter and Paul's Fortress. Church on Spilled Blood. Kazan. The Marinskii. However, if you have had enough of tsarist Russia, and want to see some of its Communist roots, the south side of the city is the place to go.
This is the House of the Soviets. It is built on Leningrad's largest road: Moskovskii Prospekt. Built under Stalin, this area was meant to be the new city center--something to replace the fancy palaces and churches of the St. Petersburg of yesteryear.
Well, things didn't quite work out as they had planned, and this massive building, which features hammers and sickles and freizes of happy workers, now stands mostly empty.
Of course, no respectable Soviet-era building is complete without its own personal homage to Lenin.
And no respectable Lenin statue would be complete without me imitating it. Its a good thing I wear long coats all the time. You never know when there's going to be a Lenin sighting.
Also nearby is a bunker that was used to protect the city from the advancing German army during the Siege of Leningrad.
Speaking of World War II, the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad is not too far away. It is a large obelisk placed in the middle of a traffic circle. Like everything else in this part of town, it is very austere.
This sculpture represents the worker and the soldier, both doing their part to protect the Motherland. People often leave flowers in remembrance of the victims...
A photo of me with some of my favorite people: Nicky, Matt, and baby KitKat!! They toured with us on that rainy May afternoon...
For some reason, I don't have any photos of Paul at this monument. Probably because he was off being a good photographer.
Beneath the monument is a museum with articles that survived the seige. It is quite well-done, but sadly for non-Russian speakers, there are no English translations.
The sound of a metronome plays in the museum all the time. The reason for this is that, during the Siege, the sound of metronome was played over the radio. It represented the heartbeat of the city. During air raids, the metronome would speed up until the all-clear.
I have written about the Siege several times in the past, but if you're not familiar with this particular piece of history, I'd recommend reading up a little on it. It is an integral part of the psyche of the Russian people, particularly St. Petersburgers.
I'm not even going to bother apologizing for my delay in posting. I'm probably just going to have another incredibly long delay in posting something again, and my previous promise of being more diligent about posting will just haunt me and make me feel guilty.
You know, while I'm on the subject of feeling guilty about internetting, here's another thing that is bothersome. I cannot post anything on this blog without being completely up to date on all my other internet correspondences. I don't want anyone out there to think that me writing random crap on the wall of a tiny corner of the internet is more important to me than replying to an ongoing conversation or whatnot. So, if I'm behind in responding to personal emails, I don't want to blog, because I don't want anyone to see that I've posted a blog entry and think, "Well, she has time to blog, but not respond to my emails? Some 'friend' she is! Ha!" as they click the "de-friend" button on Facebook.
Of course, I know I am being dumb about this, and I am QUITE confident that noone out there cares about my email replies (or my Lexulous plays, as the case may be!) to the point of stalking me to see if I'm doing something different with my internet time.
Wow, am I glad that Facebook and the internet wasn't around when I was in middle and high school. I think it would have caused a nervous breakdown or two. I can barely handle the pressure now! How much worse would it have been during adolescence?! How do kids these days manage?!
I swear, I actually started this blog with the intent of writing about some adventures on the south side of St. Petersburg, but I got distracted. Next up: A trip to the South Side!!
And the catch-up blogging continues! Today, I thought I would blog about another one of my behind-the-scenes-tours. The Alfa Jewelry factory!!
I popped out of the metro and I saw this fancy-pants sign! It says "Alfa Jewelry Center". "Not too shabby!" I thought to myself!
Unfortunately, this was not the factory. This was...
As I've mentioned in other posts, even the nicest places, including the Imperial Porcelain Factory and our own courtyard, don't look so great from the outside.
In any case. During the Soviet years, this factory made jewelry. According to the current owner of the factory, pretty craptacular jewelry. After the Soviet Union fell, the company became privatized and started making these charms.
Anyone that's been to St. Petersburg is probably familiar with these charms. These eggs are made in a Faberge style, only instead of diamonds--cubic zirconium. Instead of gold--gold-plated. But, they are really pretty and unique gifts and I love them.
Each of them are crafted and created by hand. Funny story. While we were there, the power went out. Really, not at all uncommon in Russia! The woman that is holding the container in the photo below continued working in the dark, with only a 2 by 3 foot window to allow the light in...
The factory has recently purchased the rights to recreate the Faberge eggs in all their original glory (aka, with precious stones). Here is one of the eggs that they've been working on. They let us hold it, but they wouldn't tell us the price because they didn't think any of us were seriously thinking of buying. Which is true. We weren't.
At the end of the tour, the owner of the factory escorted us into the management suite. Of course, this being Russia, they did the typical Russian businessman's deal, which is to ply potential buyers with vodka and caviar. It didn't matter that it was only 11 AM. Of course, we partook.
It was days like that that I truly appreciated the Russian public transportation system. True, it would have been nice at times to be able to drive from place to place directly without dealing with the masses on the metro. On the other hand, having public transport available was great for those days in which I happened to be offered pre-lunchtime vodka shots.
Oh, and of course, Putin oversaw the entire event. Keep in mind that this picture continues to hang, despite the fact that Medvedev is now president...
Have you ever had an elephant that needs to be eaten, but you just can't bring yourself to take the first bite? That's how I have been feeling about this blog. I have so much that I want to talk about and share and commemorate (for myself and posterity), but it is, quite frankly, overwhelming.
I'm going to try to knock a few posts out today. Here's hoping I am successful!
I guess I'll start off with updating people on our current status. We are not yet in our permanent home, but we're getting closer. In the meantime, we are living in the finished and furnished first floor of one of Paul's work colleagues. We totally lucked out in getting to live here as (1) the landlords are fab, (2) we can stay here until our permanent place is available in November, and (3) it is in an adorable little village.
That being said, we're looking forward to actually moving into our own place and being reunited with our own stuff once our shipment is delivered. Personally, I'm mostly looking forward to seeing my cold-weather clothes again. When we packed out in July, I never thought it would be almost 6 months before we saw our stuff again. Now, we find ourselves in the middle of autumn with only a few long-sleeved shirts and (thank goodness) some jackets we threw into our expedited delivery because we were underweight on the UAB. Happily, I went shopping with one of my new friends here on Thursday and bought a sweater, but, alas, a sweater does not a wardrobe make!
Another thing to look forward to: the delivery of our new car at the end of the month! Paul and I have been very lucky in that we've been able to get by with only one car between the two of us since 2006. That, unfortunately, is just not possible here. This region of Germany isn't really well-connected by public transportation, so we've ordered a new car that is slated to be produced in a few weeks. In the meantime, we've had a fun time trying to figure out who needs the car more on any given day. It is uber-annoying.
Paul's finally starting to get settled into his new job. The good news is that it is interesting work and he has a great group at his office. He's been pretty busy this week, though. The earliest he's been home all week is 8:30 PM! That may have been because he briefed a 4-star general on Friday, and it takes a lot of prep work to brief someone of that rank! In any case, it has been quite a change from our lifestyle in St. Petersburg!!
Wow. So, it took about 40 minutes to actually write all this, and as I re-read it, I'm struck with an incredible impression of, 'meh'. As in, "Meh. When did my writing get so boring?" I blame it on Facebook. I expend all my online energies into reading other people's status's, which really is a waste of time most days (albeit very interesting!!). Here's hoping I find my inner-author again in the near future.
I don't think we've ever talked about the dacha on this blog. A trip to the 'dacha' is a very typical week-end activity for Russians. The dacha is basically a country house outside of the city. Friday afternoons in the summer are always a mess in terms of traffic, because everyone is trying to get the heck out of Dodge and to their dacha. The building may or may not have electricity or running water, but it will definitely have some greenery nearby.
Shortly before we left, one of our good friends invited us to spend an evening at a dacha. Since we hadn't yet had the dacha experience, we jumped at the chance.
The dacha from the outside.
Fairly large for a dacha, but what was REALLY impressive was the interior...
Notice who is hanging on the wall? That's right! Vladimir Ilyich himself!
Immediately below the portrait--his complete collection...
On the facing wall was the owner's collection of items from his years as a Young Pioneer!
As I'm sure we've mentioned before, there is a certain nostalgia for the Soviet Union among many of today's Russian citizens. Still, it is one thing to hear people talk about the 'good ole' times', and another to see items hung in places of honor in their personal homes. Very interesting, indeed.
Near the dacha are several structures left over from World War II, including this collapsed bunker.
In the back of the dacha was the obligatory banya!
The interior...
After steaming for a while in the banya, you're supposed to go for a quick dip in the river. This is actually the Neva River, upstream of St. Petersburg.
Paul will someday write a post about his experiences in the banya. Complete with pictures.
Of course, an evening in the country is incomplete without a barbecue. Here's the Russian version of a grill...
Just like grills worldwide, this one also attracts men...
What's a dinner without a toast and some vodka? (By the way, this is our very good friend, Kolya!)
I'll close this post with a photo taken from the deck behind the dacha. Peaceful, and good for the soul....
(Thanks to Kirsty, from whom I stole many/most of these photos. My photos just never turned out so well!!)
In my last post, I mentioned the IWC-organized tours. I'm really thankful for the IWC because they often organized tours that cannot be accessed without a group tour. The Krasin icebreaker was one such tour. The Krasin was launched in 1916 and did a lot of Arctic explorations and rescue operations. It was active in both world wars and was the most powerful icebreaker in the world for a while. According to my Rough Guide, this icebreaker picked up Yuri Gagarin on spashdown! I'm not sure if I believe this or not, because it wasn't mentioned during our tour, and it seems like that's something that they would have mentioned. That might just be me, though.
It seemed fitting that the tour happened in February, with snow on the ground.
In the control room, there were all kinds of old-timey machinery and gears and whatnot.
Taking a turn at the steering wheel. Full speed ahead, Comrade!
Although it was way cool to be onboard such a historic ship, this was the real highlight for me. A photo of my friend Nicky and her baby KitKat.
I love hanging out with KitKat, and I can't wait to see her (and her parents) later this month, as we are visiting them for Oktoberfest in Munich!!
Enough cute babies. Back to the Krasin. Here's the view of the Neva from the icebreaker.
Of course, we wouldn't want to forget the country that made this very strong icebreaker!
So, I'm going to start working on my tourism backlog. We saw so many things in and around St. Petersburg that never made it to this blog. I'm going to just choose one of these visits at random to write about today. Let's start off with.....Konstantin Palace!
Here's what the Rough Guide has to say about Konstantin Palace..
"Rigorous security checks and rude tour guides rub in the lacklustre interior, whose decor and furnishings hardly seem worth the $300 million spent on the palace, 'donated' by LUKoil and other companies."
I don't know about you, but I'm SOLD!
I went as a part of a tour group arranged through the International Women's Club (IWC). I don't think I've talked much about them before, but they were a fantastic resource for me in St. Petersburg. I made so many friends through that organization. They had regular tours of different St. Petersburg institutions. Meet Julia, tour organizer extraordinaire! She's the one who arranged for us to be taken into the Palace.
So, the story behind Konstantin Palace is pretty interesting. Peter the Great starting building a palace on this site, but halfway through, abandoned it to build the same thing a few miles away. Peter the Great was nothing if not fickle. Now, there is a statue in front of the palace in honor of the guy who abandoned it for greener pastures.
It passed from tsar to tsarina to grand dukes. After the revolution, it fell into disrepair until Putin decided to renovate. Some of my friends call it 'Putinhof'. Pretty grandiose!
This is me in front of Putinhof. I'm pretending I've been invited to a big state dinner.
Have I ever talked about the slippers? They are called 'бухили' in Russian, pronounced, "boo-heely". Or something like that. You have to put them on over your shoes to protect the floors from scuffs and outside ickiness. They have them in all over the place. Museums, palaces, hospitals and clinics, and, of course, the gym. They're usually pretty slippery on parquet floors. They're great if you want to pretend you're an Icecapade star.
So, the above quote describes the interior as lucklustre. I disagree. I'd go with 'tacky opulance'. Here's one of the ballrooms.
Here's another one.
One of the rooms was quite nice. Done completely in mahogany, it is built to resemble a cabin in a ship.
The view from the back of the palace.
You can definitely see the kernels of Peterhof.
This is a sign pointing towards the cabins.
There are a group of large houses where visiting dignitaries stay. During the G8 back in 2006, this is where everyone who was anyone stayed.
It has been a while since you’ve heard from me. It has been an interesting two months…To put it mildly.
I have known for a while that something was up. The humans were even more annoying than usual, with lots of talk of ‘packing out’. At first, I thought that meant they would be purchasing firearms, which would have been pretty awesome. I later learned, to my extreme disappointment, that ‘packing out’ does not mean the same thing as ‘packing heat’.
So, it turns out the humans got some idiot notion in their head that it was time to up and leave. Again. Seriously, they do this every time I’ve established my networks and made my contacts within the local community. I had a really great situation set up in St. Petersburg, by which I could smuggle my catnip to eastern Europe via a stork network. I mean, storks scare the ever-living sh*t out of me in person, but they turned out to be fairly reliable mules. A photo of one of my agents, making a drop.
And you thought that storks only delivered babies.
In any case, the humans decided it was high time to pick up and move, and I was dreading another 24 hours spent next to the girl’s feet. Little did I know that they planned to get to our next destination VIA CAR!! And just to prove that I can use GoogleMaps as well as that dumb chica I live with, here’s the route we took.
The first day or two passed quickly enough. I was content to just chill out in the back and consider my options in our new locale. During the day, we would drive. At night, we would stay at various hotels. In Tallinn, I made use of our downtime to practice my 'come-hither' look.
Not bad, eh?
On day three of our 'trans-European adventure', I had an interesting little run-in with a canine in Poznan. Meet Daisy. She lives with the Parthemores.
As you can see, I quickly made it clear who was boss and had her begging for my favor within hours of arriving. I can be quite intimidating, when necessary.
While I had been, overall, fairly patient with the whole endeavor, I reached my tolerance limit on Day 4, and I thought it time the two jerks in the front seat heard about it.
You would think that would have been the low point of our journey. It wasn’t. Not by a long shot. This was.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I was put into a boarding house. Or ‘haus’, as they say here in Germany. I don’t even have any words to describe it. I won’t even try. I spent about three weeks pondering the best way to let these jerks know how I feel about them. I am still undecided, but am leaning towards my personal favorite-the turd-o-gram. I will keep you updated.
I do have to say that Germany is fairly nice. Much more orderly and law-abiding than Russia, I think. This may present some challenges in setting up my catnip smuggling business, what with the stringent EU regulations on import/exports. However, I hear they have hedgehogs here in Germany, which is intriguing. I mean, how likely is it that a border guard would give a hedgehog a full cavity search? Not likely, I’m thinking. Not likely at all.
Maybe this Germany thing will turn out all right in the end.
I have to say, I am really, really impressed with myself. This, dear reader, is what I spent my Saturday evening on. I made a kick-a$$ MyMap on google. Check it out...
You can click on the map to get an enlarged view, and then click on the various pins to get more details! I am so smart! S-M-R-T!!
All the answers to the little quiz are in that little map! But, if you don't feel like opening up the extra browser to take a look, here are the answers, in numerical order. If you would like commentary, click on the appropriate number on the map.
1. St. John the Baptist Church on Nekrasovo. 2. The Senate Building 3. The Lomonosov Bridge 4. Smolny Institute 5. The School of Technology and Design 6. Ladies' Heads on Malaya Konyushnaya 7. Summer Gardens 8 The Singer Building (aka Dom Knigi) 9. The Mosaic Courtyard 10. Musician Streetlight 11. Random Building on Nevsky Prospekt 12. Moscow Triumphal Arch 13. Future Shopping Center on Bolshaya Konyushnaya 14. Gogol statue on Malaya Konyushnaya 15. Windows near the Louis Vuitton store on Bolshaya Konyushnaya 16. Random Building on Millionaya 17. Konyushnaya Ploschad 18. The Circus! 19. Three muses, across the street from the Marble Palace 20. Dostoyevsky statue, near the Vladimirskii metro station
You wouldn't know it looking at this blogpage, but this post generated quite a lot of discussion among current and former St. Petersburgers on Paul's and my respective Facebook pages. I can't help noticing that people comment on the Facebook notes more often than her on the blog anymore, but that's okay by me! I just can't believe people actually READ this stuff I put up here!
Anyone who's ever been to St. Petersburg knows that you really have to watch where you're walking. The pavement is uneven, there are no pooper-scooper laws, and, 8 months out of the year (give or take), you run the risk of slipping on ice and cracking your skull open. Not to mention broken glass, occasional fish heads, construction zones, crazy traffic, etc. and so forth.
However, if you're able to safely look up and around while wandering the streets of St. Petersburg, you would always be impressed with what you saw. I'm not much of a photographer, but over the course of the last few months in St. Petersburg, I started taking my camera with me every time I went out to snap pictures of beautiful architecture and random things I saw.
So, I thought it would be fun to play a little game. This is for all my friends who either are in St. Petersburg now or have lived or visited there in the past...Do you know where these pictures were taken?
If you've never been to St. Petersburg, I hope that you enjoy the images, even if you don't know where precisely they were taken or the story behind them. It really is a beautiful city...
(You might want to click to enlarge and see some of the details in these photographs!)
(Also, I should mention that I stole a few of these photos from two visitors that came to see me who happened to be great photographers. Thanks, Pauletta and Kirsty!)
So, I still have bagoodles of posts and photos from our last weeks in Russia, but at the same time, I can't resist posting about what we've been doing on our week-ends here in Germany. As you can probably guess, it hasn't been ALL work, no play for the Texasdevils…
(Note: if you're reading this as an imported Facebook note, you'll have to click through to the original post to see the videos I'm posting below I wish that the magical geniuses at Facebook would figure a way to embed videos in these 'notes' things.)
I have to be honest, I know very little about Germany. Despite the fact that Paul and I are something like 159% German, I just never learned a lot about this country or its history. Here's what I knew about Germany prior to arriving here...
1. One of my favorite people in the world is German (Hi, Christina!), so Germany must be pretty cool.
2. They like to use capital letters. A lot. Oh, and the funky letter that looks like a "B" is actually pronounced like "sss".
3. They are an orderly people with good beer.
4. Every week-end surely must look something like this:
Last week-end, we visited our friends the Kishpaughs. They are fellow Olmsteders (in Gdansk, Poland) that are now stationed about an hour and a half north of us. Last week-end was a wine festival in Rudensheim, Germany.Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be a Clark Griswold-style affair, complete with lederhosen and broom dancing!!
A photo of me and my new uber-cool sunglasses at the wine fest. (This has nothing to do Germany and everything to do with how Hollywood I look nowadays.)
The German guys know how to throw a funny bachelor party. I guess, when a dude is about to get hitched, HE is responsible for buying all of his friends' drinks. So, his friends will come up with some embarrassing way for him to earn money to pay for their alcohol. Hence, funny German guy dressed up as Red Riding Hood. He was selling apples and small bottles of apple shnaps.
After a few glasses of the region's best and one mini-bottle of scnaps, we hopped onto a Rhein River cruise. A photo of Chas and I as we head up the river.
We stopped off in Bachrach for a brew (of course). The town was so cute, you could just scream.
On the way back down the river, Paul's ESRP (Extrasensory Russian perception) found a group of Russians on the deck and he settled in to practice his Russian some more.
I declined to practice my Russian and simply enjoyed the views.
I seriously can't believe we live here now. I am really looking forward to getting to know more about the German history, culture, language, and people! Once we finally settle on a home and buy our second car, I'm going to start taking German lessons. I'm excited. People say it is easier than Russian. Here's hoping that's true!!
Well, another week, another promise of more regular blogging broken. Ah, well.
I am happy to report that things here in Germany are starting to look up! We were lucky enough to find a temporary apartment! We are living in the finished and furnished basement of one of Paul’s work colleagues. We have picked Milhouse up from the boarding ‘haus’, and we are, once again, reunited! He has some things to say about his stay at “Rainbow Farms’, and I’m sure he’ll be writing them down in the near future.
As for our hunt for a permanent residence here in Germany, we have a few options, and we hope to know for certain where we’ll be living by the end of the week. Who knows. At least we have a nice apartment to live in now until the day we are able to get into our final location.
Today’s the first day in which Paul’s gone in to work and I’ve stayed home to take care of things around here. I’m hoping to do some ‘blog maintenance’, and maybe even another few posts! (Emphasis on the word ‘MAYBE’!)
I have a few more minutes before the maintenance guys show up with the jackhammers, so I thought I'd throw one more quick post up here.
I just wanted people to know that I am working on re-tooling this blog. We're obviously not in Russia anymore, so the title and address don't quite fit. When I started this thing, I really never imagined we would keep it up as long as we have! I obviously want to keep on writing and blogging, both about the last things we did in Russia as well as our new adventures in Germany, though. I'm working on creating a new blog site and migrating over there, but at the rate I'm going, it might be another month or two before it is ready to go live. When it does, however, I'll let you know!!
So, when we moved here to Germany, I thought that things would slow down. After all, I don't have any friends here at Ramstein yet, so once we found a house, what could I possibly do that would keep my so busy? Surely I would be able to get caught up on my e-mails and work and blogs and so on and so on and so on.
Ha. Ha ha ha. How is it that I've moved 6 times in the last 9 years and yet have such unrealistic expectations for every move?
Here's a quick little run-down of our life here in Germany thus far.
1. It is infinitely harder to find a house here in Germany than it was in Russia. And here, we supposedly have an entire housing office dedicated to helping us in our search. Suffice it to say that we are experiencing an epic housing FAIL. There are only so many houses that are available that meet the approval of the grand housing poobahs, and those are typically gone within a matter of hours. We get up at the crack of dawn and start the search. Everything is either way under or way over our price range. The things that are within our price range rarely come up, and when they do, they are snatched up immediately. Most of the time, when we call and are able to get a hold of the landlord, the house or apartment is already gone. Besides, they aren't really ideal for two people with no kids anyway. I mean, we REALLY don't want or need to be heating a house with 5 bedrooms out in the middle of nowhere when it is just the two of us (and possibly just the one of us, if/when Paul should go on TDY's or deployments). So, at this point in time, we have no place to move, no solid prospects, and our time in the temporary lodging facility (aka a hotel on base) is fast coming to a close. Which means we've been trying to find a temporary place to move. Which brings me to point number 2...
2. It is harder to find a TEMPORARY lodging here than it is a permanent place. I will not go into all the details and reasons why this is so, because were I to do so, I would undoubtedly have a massive coronary from the anger and frustration.
3. I have been studying for the German driver's license test next week, and I am here to tell you that it is HARD. Paul took his test last week and passed. Here's hoping I do as well, because as of Monday, he will no longer be able to drive my sorry butt around. He actually will have to start going into his office and (shudder) work!
4. Relating to number 3-We are on the look-out for a new car for me to drive around. We've been a one-car duo since 2006, but that just isn't feasible in this part of Germany. We're probably going to get something from the lemon lot here on base. We've looked several times, and most of the available vehicles are stick shift. I wish that, at some point in the past 30 years, I had bothered to learn how to drive a stick. I would have so many more options right now!
5. Milhouse has been in a boarding house for 2 weeks now. I visited him yesterday. He hates my guts now and I am quite confident that he will claw my eyes out the minute I get him to our new home. Wherever the heck that ends up being.
6. As I write this, the bathroom in our room is leaking. And when I say 'leaking', I actually mean 'at least a half-inch of standing water has accumulated on the floor and it shows no signs of stopping'. I have two people from the maintenance office coming and going, and the ceiling has already been ripped out.
7. If you couldn't tell from item numbers 1 through 6, our first two weeks here haven't exactly been, well, fun. It has been hard to enjoy being here when the only thing we know for sure is that we have nowhere to live as of 28 August, and no good prospects, either. We can't wait to explore Germany, start language classes, etc. and so forth. I know it will get better, but for right now, I miss the stability we had in Russia!!!! And, trust me, I NEVER thought I would say that!
BATHROOM UPDATE: The two maintenance guys just told me that they think they are going to have to jackhammer their way through the concrete wall to stop the leak. Surely this will not impact my productivity for the rest of the day. Not at all.
Today, I sign into my yahoo account, and I see a notice from Facebook. My very close friend B-Diddy has written a "Happy Anniversary" note on my Facebook wall. You see, B-Diddy and I have the same anniversary. Which happens to be August 10th, 2002. So, first of all, thank you to Bridgette for reminding us that today is a significant day. In the hustle and bustle of the move, I can honestly say we have given it VERY little thought.
Second of all, happy anniverary to our anniversary twins, Bridgette and Mark!
And third....
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US!
As of today, we have been married for 7 years. Two photos of us on our honeymoon in St. Maarten. St. Maarten is divied into two sides: the French and the Dutch sides. We stayed on the Dutch side of the island. In these photos, we are enjoying some haute cuisine in Marigot, on the French side of the island.
I am shocked that (a) It has been 7 years, and (b) It has been 3 years since we started posting photos of our wedding day/week on this blog! For previous iterations, feel free to click on the appropriate year: 2008 2007 2006
A little over a year ago, I put up a post with photos from a midnight cruise we took along the waterways of St. Petersburg. Shortly before we left Russia, we took a daytime cruise with some great friends who were also leaving town.
I spent countless hours with this trio (as well as their husband/father, who is not pictured), and I can honestly say that they were some of my best memories of my time in Russia.
Here was the small boat that shuttled us around. Once we were all aboard, the little table in the center was filled with beer, vodka, and fruit. We had a merry time, munching and drinking our way along the Fontanka, the Moika, the Griboedovo, and the Neva.
This guy was taking a dip in the canal, right next to one of the most famous landmarks of St. Petersburg, the Church on Spilled Blood. In my two years there, I don't think I ever saw anyone swimming in the canals. The river, yes. The canals, no.
A unique perspective of the Church on Spilled Blood.
Paul, myself, and my favorite little girl in the whole wide world in front of the Hermitage.
The Aurora and the Naval Academy (which will get its own post at some point in the future).
Some troops on the Strelka.
The Winter Canal, where it enters the Neva. I believe this is the oldest of the 300-some bridges in St. Petersburg.
The bridge from Petrograd Side to the Peter and Paul Fortress, and the famous hare statue. Supposedly, if you can land a coin on the pile, you'd get your wish.
I remember the first time I visited Russia on our househunting trip in March, 2007. I hated the city. It was dark, damp, dreary, and dirty. Now, I wonder how I could have ever thought this city was ugly. True, it isn't always as pretty as these pictures make it look. But the city truly did have a personality all of its own, and I can honestly say that I came to love it.
We are a married Air Force couple that just completed a two-year tour in St. Petersburg, Russia. We were there as a part of the Olmsted Scholar Program. Now, we're stationed in Germany. You can read all about our adventures (German, Russian, and otherwise) here!
