Kirkenes!

Oh, Norway, how I love you. Let me count the ways:

Real Winter - ok, last year it was below 30 C all winter, and this year it's been more around -10, but that's still winter like.

You've been non-smoking in all indoor places for 4 years.

You make me think Moscow is cheap.

You're beautiful!

Your people are very friendly.

You have very accessible nature.

Even though it was incredibly expensive (we're talking $12 beer, $5 soda, $20-40 entrees, yes, I know, I'm always about the food), we had a great time in Kirkenes. We booked our entire trip - including the hotel in Murmansk - through Anne at Radius Kirkenes. And she was great about helping us when we had to cancel our shuttle after we found out about our visa restrictions.


Welcome to Kirkenes,


You're really far away from cities people have heard of.

On our first day we just walked around, like this guy, except maybe we're not so hip:


And we soaked in the sun,


Admired how cute town was:




We also went to the war museum, which in addition to information about WWII also included some modern art such as a dress made from shirt collars:


Kirkenes, being the last stop before Russia, was invaded by the Germans in 1941. Hitler thought he could bust right through and head into Russia and get to Murmansk. Murmansk was Russia's only port connection with allied supplies. Kirkenes was bombed over 300 times. The town was completely destroyed by Russian's bombing the Germans out. As the Germans left they burned anything that was left standing. Amazingly though, very few residents died thanks to shelter in Andersgrotta, their bombshelter:

Below ground it's huge inside.

Muransk

Well, it's been a great week. Bree (name slightly modified - though this is what her mom originally wanted to name her but her actual name has a bit more "oomph") and I are great travel partners! Although perhaps we encourage each other to drink a bit too much, we were always up early every day and off exploring.

We started the journey with a flight to Murmansk. This is the largest city in Russia (though maybe the world??) north of the Arctic Circle with just over 350,000 residents. Our flight was quite easy on an old Aeroflot plane. If you pushed an empty seat forward it fell flat. This was the source of much amusement to me. The flight from Moscow is just about 2 hours. Our bags arrived with us, everything was great. We waited in the snow for only 10 minutes, waiting for the bus that was parked only a few feet away. Ah, Russian systems. Of course, the people waiting for the bus have to stay out in the cold. Anyway, our bus ride was only $1.50 and in just under an hour we'd made it to our stop. It was a short, but uphill, walk to our hotel.

This is actually on our return to Murmansk, but you get the idea.

Also at the airport, me with Putin.

Once inside, we didn't want to venture out into the cold again, so we stayed in. We had a lovely dinner in the hotel actually with vodka, pickles, trout and salmon. The next day was exploring Murmansk. This is a cute port town. Parts of it reminded me of Oakland with the big port cranes, Monterey with parts that resembled Cannery Row and South San Francisco with the apartment buildings all close together. Another nice thing that we noticed was that there were many birds! I hadn't realized the absence of birds, other than pigeons and huge crows, in Moscow until we were surrounded by tweeting. It was really nice.




Lots more graffiti in Murmansk.


Alyosha, a WWII soldier looks over the city.

We only had half a day in Murmansk, but that felt like enough time. There's not really all that much to see there. So we headed back to the airport. Originally, the plan had been to take a shuttle bus into Kirkenes. However, our diplomatic visas restrict us to where we are allowed to leave and enter Russia. The border with Norway is not one of those places, however, the Murmansk airport is ok. So, we return to the airport only to find out that our flight has been canceled due to ice in the originating city and the airline is going to put us on a shuttle bus. We explain our visa situation and are assured that they'll call ahead to the border to explain. Sure enough, we get to the border and are only detained 10 minutes by the Russians. Amazing!

Plenty more photos in the Murmansk photo set

And we're off!

The college counselor and I leave tomorrow for our Arctic Circle adventure. We fly north to Murmansk, Russia tomorrow. Sunday we'll be heading to Kirkenes, Norway. We'll spend 5 nights in Norway. The agenda is dog sledding, snowshoeing, saunaing (wow, I can't believe spell check didn't highlight that one!!), reading and knitting. Hopefully we'll get to see the Northern Lights. We're back a week from Sunday. I'll let you know then :)

I've been playing with Google Maps. Click on the blue bubble to see the city names.


View Larger Map

Valentine's Day

I'm not so into the idea of Valentine's Day. In America, the past few years, I'd cooked a meal at home because I tend to hate prix fix menus (on holidays that is. I loved Pizzaiola's Fixed Monday menus, of course they've now canceled those). I've enjoyed the day a lot at school today though. Students were encouraged to wear red, white and/or pink and they did overwhelmingly. Maybe it's because it reminded me of my days teaching at O'C, but it was almost like the students were in uniform. And the grade 10s (of which I teach 3 classes) had the most students dressed to show spirit. This is huge as these students tend to be the least spirited as a group.

We also had a very fun assembly. Yes, a fun high school assembly. One of the student bands played so I was rocking out. Then I got to go up and recognize all my math students who one at our tournament. Then they hosted a mock "Dating Game." I don't remember if that was the name of the show, but it's where you have a male looking for a date and 3 female contestants that he asks questions to and then eliminates. Well, they did two games, one with a male and 3 females and then another with one female and 3 males. The later was by far the most amusing. The girl was a senior and after she was blindfolded the 3 male contestants who volunteered were all 9th and 10th graders. And these boys were hams! One of them was one of my students who drives me crazy in class, but this role was perfect for him. When asked to sing his favorite love song he got up and with great accompanying dance moves broke into "Baby Got Back." So funny! He was picked as the winner of the "date" and he walked up to the girl with the rose he was supposed to hand her between his teeth. So funny.

And now tonight, I'm heading down to the school cafeteria for an evening of dinner and choir music. Should be lovely.

So that's Valentine's Day in Moscow, year 1.

Math Team!

That's right, the geekiness never ends. I loved math team in High School. I never did all that well, but I still had a great time. So I jumped on the chance to help coach our team here. It was a huge learning curve for me, trying to be prepared for our extremely bright and fast students, but somehow we made it. This past weekend our school hosted the CEESA (Central & Eastern European School Association) Math Counts tournament. Teams came from Helsinki, Budapest, Bucharest, Sofia, Prague, Warsaw, and Kyiv.

There are two groups - junior level (9th and 10th grade) and senior level (11th and 12th). Each team consists of 3 members. Yes, only 3! It was quite a challenge here picking the 3. Especially since we hosted. So, what we did instead was submit our "official" 3 and then we submitted 1 unofficial junior team of 2 students and then another 3 unofficial teams in the senior level.

I'm so proud to say that our official teams took 1st place at both levels and the unofficial teams took 3rd place. It was a great weekend of math :)

Quiz Night

Our PTO hosted a Quiz Night. It was super fun! You had to reserve tables of 8 and the table I had been on fell apart at the last minute. However, at the very last minute (2 hours before starting time) a friend backed out and I got his spot. So I took it. I'm so glad I did. We had a blast. I love trivia of any kind, but especially team trivia. And this was so well run! They had a different style for each round all modeled after TV quiz shows. There was Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, Price is Right, some British show, Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?, etc. There was also a "compete the song lyric round" where each table nominated someone to go up and sing. I was nominated by our table and out of 20 contests I ended up winning the whole round! I got really lucky. The first song was "New York, New York" and during the 2 rounds of singing it, I always got to finish the second line of a stanza. So I could work of context clues and rhyming to figure out my part. Once we were down to 8 or so contestants they changed the song to "American Pie." While I was at TIP for summer camp, I learned all the words to that song. It was fun!

Grocery Store Foibles

Did I spell foibles right? Is it even a word? Who knows, I obviously don't.

Anyway, I've been meaning to post random grocery/food buying stories for a while now and while I sit waiting for a student who has been absent and said she was coming to see me I'll add them here.

An alternative title for this post could have been the $60 shrimp. Yes, that's right, I went to the grocery store one day and thought I was going to pay $8 for a 1 kg (2.2 lb) bag of frozen shrimp. Not so terrible. While I was checking out, I noticed that the price suddenly jumped, but I was busy collecting all my groceries back in my basket to then later take to the lockers were my bags were to pack. The total was really high - about $90 - for what I had bought, however, my Russian is not good enough to go through the items and argue. It was only upon packing up the bags and looking at the receipt that I discovered that my $8 bag of shrimp was actually $60!!! I haven't been back to the store yet to see if I just looked at the wrong tag or if the price was listed per 100 grams. Nonetheless, I was pissed. But you can bet your ass, I will be enjoying every single one of those shrimp.

I have more foibles to add, but I fear if I don't post this now, I'll never get around to it.

Whoo Boy!

What a week! Report cards for the first semester were due and for the first time in my teaching career I didn't fail a single student! 2 got D-'s which at our school means they had roughly 50%, but still. And it's unclear whether another 2 (well, one of these two is also one of the D- two) will earn credit due to so many absences. But we'll see.

And then last night I threw a cocktail party! Yay, fun! I wish there was a BevMo or other such place to buy cheap booze here. As it was, I made a bunch of appetizers with some great help from friends and asked people to bring drinks. I would have rather offered a stocked bar, but oh well.

The first guests showed up early at 7:10 and the last left at 3:30 in the morning. Yes, me, up until 3:30!

Which reminds me I haven't updated in a while! Bad Traveling Em! Last weekend I had another true Russian dacha experience, this one in the winter. I work with a guy whose married to a Russian woman. Her family has this great dacha about an hour outside of Moscow. So my friend the college counselor, who I'm going on February break with, this guy and two of his Russian friends all went out to the dacha. When we arrived it was -2 inside the house. We immediately got the fire started and B and I worked on getting food ready. The guys went for drinking water from a spring and got to work on heating the sauna. At 1 a.m. after snacking and a liter of vodka, the sauna was ready. So we got naked and went to sweat in the dry heat and hit each other with Birch branches once you get really hot you run out and lay in the snow. It was great. They spoke nothing but Russian all weekend and I immersed even more. My understanding is getting better and better.

Discovery Week

In March, we'll take the 9th, 10th and 11th graders off on a "Discovery Week." There are a variety of different trips, led by many teachers. For example: golfing in Spain, Spanish immersion (you guessed it) also in Spain, college tour in the UK, trekking through Turkey, exploring Istanbul, a musical tour of Vienna, study/community service in Thailand, adventure in Croatia, etc. Teachers who were not leading trips had to rank their choices of places they'd like to chaperon just like the students had to rank their choices as well. However, the students have to pay, teachers don't. Well, my choices were 1. Thailand, 2. Croatia, 3. Turkey (the trekking one). I found out today I got my first choice! Durian here I come! Woo hoo!

And I'll get an idea of the weather in Thailand in March. In my head I'd like to move to Thailand because I love the food so much, but could I really handle the weather???

Getting out in the Snow

I woke up to the first snow of 2008, well since I've been back anyway. And I went out anyway. Another 2 teachers and I walked for an hour and a half to the Pushkin Art Museum, stopping by way of a lovely French bakery. And to be silly:

That's me on the left all bundled up...

Across from the Pushkin is Christ the Savior Cathedral, so we stopped in there first where they were having mass. It was amazing. The inside is incredibly painted, every wall is covered with saints and angles and such and then sine it was mass, there was singing as well, which just resonated so beautifully. Sigh.





We then went into the Pushkin side gallery and saw many great impressionist works up through a few modern pieces. Quite an impressive collection of French artists. We finished with a great, as always, lunch at Daikon, my favorite Asian restaurant here and took the metro home. Now I'm going to enjoy sitting on my couch watching the snow from inside the apartment!

Oh, and just for Mickey I also uploaded a bunch of my recent knitting photos. Actually, only the fingerless glove was made recently, the rest are old, I just finally got around to photographing them:

Ah, routine!

It's very nice to be back into a routine. After work yesterday, I headed over to another teacher's for yummy shared dinner (leftover spicy pork curry and dal from my freezer, basmati rice and mung beans from their kitchen) and then craft night. I sewed in all the ends on the fingerless gloves I made, picture coming as soon as I decided to sit down in front of my home computer again, and worked on another set. And then I came home and slept straight through the night from 9:30 until 5:45. Ah, sleep, I love you.

So now, I'm feeling less anxious about being in Moscow, in case you were worried. And I'm excited to hear where all the other teachers are headed after they went to the job fair in Thailand over the break, thus far: Johannesburg, South Africa; Tunisia; Kobe, Japan; Myanmar (former Burma) and Shanghai! Makes me excited for my opportunity to head off and explore other possibilities. However, professionally it's a really good idea for me to stay here 3 years, so as always, stay tuned as I change my mind another 50,000 times.

Moscow: Love and Hate

Last night was rough. I was up from 12:30 until 4:30 contemplating what I'm doing in this city. Listening to the construction/traffic noise, smelling the air because I was too hot to sleep and therefore had the window open. Feeling very unsettled, needlessly and foolishly, because I am very settled here.

And then I came back to work this morning. I worked out and headed to the locker room to shower. On the way I was stopped by two of my students, both wishing me happy new year. Post shower, three more. And then a student came by my room. She is from Kenya and didn't get to go home as anticipated over break due to the political unrest there. She stayed in Moscow with -20 temperatures and said that she only really went out on Sundays to go to church. And she had come to apologize for not being able to get me an ink stamp from Kenya. The students here are so amazing. I'm constantly blown away and reminded that I love my job.

Now to figure out what I'm teaching today...

In the twists of my mind

As always, my mind continues to flip flop. Never shutting up. I'm so torn between wanting to share my life with someone (is there such thing as a marriage clock that ticks away in people like the biological clock?) and wanting to continue to travel. And wondering if I'll be able to combine those two things or if at some point I'll have to give one up.

Post turning 18, I've never lived in the same city for more than 3 years, unless you count college, and well, even if you do count college, those 3 or 4 year spans have been dotted with long periods of travel.

And now being part of international schools, I can continue the life style, traveling at will, moving every 2 or 3 years and being well compensated for it. But I really want someone to share it with. I miss having an intimate connection to someone. And I see many single women at my school my age or older and I don't want that. I don't want to continue on this path solo. But is there any point even worrying about this right now? Of course not - I'll be in Moscow until June of 2009 at least. Why won't my head just turn off and let things happen rather than constantly trying to envision the future, visions which are always wrong anyway.

In Houston, I had the feeling that I could settle right back into life there. But how long could I happily stay there - especially when the heat and humidity returns? At times, I think of how nice it would be to finally have the vegetable/herb garden I long for, but would I really stick around in the summers to tend to it, or would I be off somewhere?

That's what's got me up at 4:30 in the morning since I've returned to Moscow. That and stupid jet lag.

Howdy, y'all Part 3

People either love or hate Houston. Personally, I love it, well, except for the weather. Although the weather in winter time is right near perfect. Yesterday, I went on a walk with my aunt. I was wearing shorts and a tank top. About halfway into our walk it started raining on us and it was still enjoyable to be walking in the rain. I had stayed over night at my aunt and uncles, was awaked at 8 by the patter of little feet in front of the door and the sound of whispers asking each other if I was awake yet.

I emerged and was immediately set upon by my cousins. I must admit, they're terrible cute. I spent the morning with them and the aforementioned walk with my aunt. I wish I could get my parents to start exercising. I sure would enjoy going on walks with them. According to my aunt my mom has never really been into fitness.

I once again got to hear about what a terror I was in my youth. I refused to sleep anywhere but my parents' bed until I was 3 - how my sister was ever conceived remains a mystery to this day. And apparently I loved those canisters of Cheeto Balls. In case you're curious I was finally bribed into my own bed by being told that if I didn't sleep there Santa wouldn't know where to find me. What?! No presents? Sign me up for my own bed.

I had the pleasure of hanging out with many of my college buddies yesterday afternoon/evening. They all own their own houses, all of the houses are beautiful. Well, I'm just assuming Phil's is because he lives in Dallas so I haven't yet seen it, but it must be great. It's always such a pleasure to see them. It's so easy to slip back into the rythym of being friends with them. Actually, I find this to be true with all my friends across the world. I was commenting with RebeccaT last night that I must bring this out in people since it always seems to happen with me. She agreed that it's because I know that even though I live somewhere else, I haven't changed and don't act like my friends must have changed even thoguh I've been gone.

Seeing all of them so nicely settled, makes me yearn a bit to be settled myself. I could easily slip back into life here, but would I end up going crazy? At some point I'll have to figure something out. My California teaching credential will expire in 4 more years and I'll have to get a permanent credential from some state. I also want to get my masters in math, something I don't want to do online. So there you go, a wrap up of the last few days and hint of the rattling in my brain.

Howdy, y'all Part 2

After leaving Biloxi it should have been a quick 6 hour trip to H-town. However, we didn't leave until almost 11. Check out took a while because my mom regailed the front desk girl with the horror story of our dinner in the casino's steak house the night before. "Let me s'plain, no, that will take to long, let me sum up:" We were one of 5 tables in the restaurant, yet we still had to wait 45 minutes for our salads. That was the highlight. However, due to mom's expert storytelling, for our return trip on Monday we were upgraded to suites and given a $50 casino credit.

"Oooh, Antique Village Exit 10!" Mom exclaims. Dad and I give each other a knowing look, this could be trouble. And indeed, it was a "town", term used very loosely, very similar to Waynesville, Ohio, where my parents antique store is located. It was a main street lined with antique stores, my mom's own little paradise. I managed to make it through 4 antique stores and actually managed to pick up 2 skirts and a funky denim jacket. However, really, I was looking for books. I learned in the many roadtrips of my youth that antique stores are the cheapest place for used books. And they tend to range from literature to cookbooks but mostly consist of pulp fiction, perfect for road trips. However, these stores seemed to be more high class, nary a book insight. It wasn't until the 4th store that I found a meager selection of books. However, books found I was able to pick up a few for $1.50 and head to the car to read it). Dad threw in the towel after the second store, he went to the car to nap. Mom made it through all 6 and 2.5 hours later we were on the road again for the 15 minutes it took us to stop for lunch of delicious Lousianna gumbo and raw oysters.

Finally, 9 hours later, at 8 pm we pull into my aunt's drive way. Where the cousins yell out "Aunt Margie, Aunt Margie" my dad walks in to a very cute "Hi, Uncle Joe!" and they sort of look at me. Maybe I need to visit more. However, by the end of our meal (my aunt cooked, it was delicious) my cousins had warmed up to me and vice versa.

Howdy, y'all Part 1

Two days ago I left for Houston via roadtrip from Atlanta with my parents. I bought them Roadfood a great book of road side diners when I was in SF. We tried one out along our way, Martin's Restaurant in Montgomery, Alabama.

Reasons I loved Martin's:
1. We had to wait for a table, but not long enough to be annoyed
2. Each day the menu has only 4 entrees for you to choose from and about 8 side dishes
3. The sides included all my southern favorites - blackeyed peas or lima beans (depending on the day), greens, dressing (stuffing), string beans, cole slaw, etc
4. The crowd was truly diverse, some in suits, some in jeans, some old (we're talking no teeth old), and I'd say it was equally split between black and white folks.
5. It's in a strip mall, but the second you step inside you feel as though you've stumbled into a deep south cafeteria.
6. The coconut cream pie slice was as big as my head.

Our journey for the day continued on to Biloxi, Mississippi. I'd never actually been to Biloxi; most of my five readers have probably never heard of it either. It is a casino town in the little tail of Mississippi that touches the gulf between Alabama and Lousianna.



On my many drives between Houston and Atlanta I never bothered to stop in Biloxi. When I would stop halfway, it would be in New Orleans. See, Biloxi is a casino town and I have absolutely no desire to gamble. However, my parents, well, odds are if you come to my parents house you'll find my dad watching poker tournaments on tv. He really enjoys playing. He rarely wins very much, but (to the best of my knowlege) he doesn't lose very much either. My mom claims to not like casinos or gambling. However, once at a casino, odds are you'll find her at a video poker machine. In fact my sister was able to give me the exact location of where I could find my mom in the Grand Casino based on previous trips with them. Mom tends to win, I'm not sure how she beats the casino odds, but she does.

Biloxi was destroyed, like most of the gulf cities in Hurricane Katrina. However, they seem to be staging quite a come back. To me hurricane damage was most notable in trees that have been obviously torn in half. A few roofs still have blue tarps on top, but mostly both homes and casinos have been rebuilt.

As I said before I don't like to gamble, and unlike my mom, I mean it. However, I'll admit that I enjoy staying in a hotel - the Grand was no exception. They have a great, albeit small, fitness center and a really nice sauna/steam room with hot tubs and a cold plunge. And the chair in my room that I sat and read in was quite nice as well.

Huevos Rancheros

I've made it to California. And it's so nice to see my friends. It has amplified the things I miss about living here: being able to buy local, organic produce. Being able to walk around small neighborhoods. Dark skies at night. However, I do not feel the need to move back, even though I miss my friends, it's not compelling enough a reason.

I've had a great two days. The first spent with Nate and Vero in my old neighborhood. We managed to go to my two favorite restaurants in one day - Sahn Maru, Korean and Pizziaola, Italian. Sigh. So good. Not cheap, but definitely not Moscow prices. The next morning I tagged along to SFO where Nate was dropping Vero off for a trip to Spain with her mom. Together we're planning a trip through Russia at the end of July. Hopefully I'll be able to convince Vero to come out earlier and travel Europe with me.

Now I'm at Max and Sha's. Max made us huevos rancheros yesterday, I agree with Vero's statement that "huevos rancheros are my favorite American breakfast." Although it's a close tie with a toasted buttered bagel. Which reminds me to go to Bagelicious when I get back to my parents. Anyway, yesterday I was exposed to the video game "Rock Band." I played the bass and it was a lot more fun then I thought it'd be. I also saw the Golden Compass which I thought was great! It wasn't quite as dark as the book, but they managed to get most of the book into a 2 hour movie.

Wow, yet another boring post. Sorry 'bout that. I'll try to find something exciting to write about next time.

'Tis the Season

Somebody told me I should update my blog more, so here goes. It might be boring and mundane, but I haven't updated since the acapella Christmas carols, so here you go. I"ll start off with my arrival into Atlanta which was on Dec. 21st. I don't know if I've ever flown internationally into Atlanta. It's hell. You arrive and go through immigration. Then you wait for your bag - the bags from my flight were arriving on two different belts, so I felt like I was watching a tennis match looking back and forth at the two belts. Finally, after about 45 minutes, my bag arrives. Then, I head towards the exit. At least I thought it was the exit. But no, you have to put your bag on another belt to be sent to domestic baggage claim, you have to go through security, TO EXIT, and then you have to get on the inter-terminal train to head 5 stops to domestic baggage claim. If you were to walk, it is 1.5 km! Finally I arrive to domestic baggage claim and then have to wait another 20 minutes for my bag. And all this after a 10 hour flight. However, I can't really complain about the flight because I got bumped up to business class where I had goose for dinner and a seat that reclined completely so that I was laying flat. This happened because the flight was over sold and I have status on the Star Alliance. Unfortunately, I haven't flown enough this year to qualify for status next year. Sigh, it's back to traveling like the "normal folk" (said very tongue in cheek.)

Anyways, so I finally get to Atlana and my mom has a bad cold. We had our annual dinner with the O's, our parents have been friends with this couple for almost 20 years. Their daughters are about the same age as my sister and I, so we all grew up together. It's a great tradition.

Then the next day, I spent the entire day catching up with the friend I mentioned a few posts ago, Mickey. Mickey and I were really good friends growing up, all through middle school, if I'm remembering correctly. But we lost touch after I left Atlanta. He found me through a Google search. Apparently the first hit is actually for me. It was great. We spent almost 12 hours together and I could have spent another 12 hours with him easily. We talked about our past and present and future. We went to Waffle House. We went and saw Walk Hard with my sister and her not boyfriend.

See this post, isn't really all that exciting at all. What can I write about that's exciting. Hmm, yep, nothing really. Oh, in a very impulsive decision (which follows along with all my decision making) I used the rest of my frequent flier miles to get myself a ticket to San Francisco for New Year's. I figured that if I'm not coming back to the states this summer, I might as well see as many friends as I can. And speaking of doing that I'm going out with 5 girls I went to high school tonight to play trivia.

Ok, guess that's it for now.

Acapella Christmas Carol Mashups!

So good. And so festive!

Choosing to Take Action

My science teacher friend Carole sent this to me. I think it's worth sharing. Another global warming action argument.

X-Mas Poll

Courtesy (that is a hard word to spell!) of zombiegrrrl:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Whatever is laying around as I think of it at the last minute. But I prefer wrapping gifts.
2. Real tree or artificial? N/A, however, Joy and I used to go cut our own tree when I lived with her at 418. However, it doesn't kill the tree - or at least that's what the tree farmer told us. You cut it roughly at waist level and then a new tree grows out another knot.
3. When do you put up the tree? Again, N/A, however, I put up decorations 1st week of December.
4. When do you take the tree down? This year it will be when I get back, the 2nd week of January.
5. Do you like eggnog? Only if heavily spiked with rum and cinnamon.
6.Favorite gift received as a child? In retrospect, the dog house my dad built for my pound puppy though at the time I was mad they hadn't bought me the plastic one. Damn, I was a spoiled brat.
7. Do you have a nativity scene? Noooo. But my mom has one.
8. Hardest person to buy for? My parents!
9. Easiest person to buy for? My sister (she sends detailed lists)
10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? ?? Artificially scented soaps.
11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail, though I only do it every 5 or so years.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Christmas Vacation
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas ? Whenever the first "oh, they would love that" item catches my eye.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Probably
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Cookies!
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear
17. Favorite Christmas song? Baby, It's Cold Outside (is that x-mas song??)
18. Travel for Christmas or stay at home? Travel
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? Yes
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Hrm, I don' t remember what we had at 418 house. Probably a star...
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? When I was growing up, it was one x-mas eve and then the rest x-mas morning. Now-a-days we've been doing them all x-mas eve and having a very relaxed x-mas day.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Crowds.
23. What I love most about Christmas? The lights. (I didn't even bother to edit zombiegrrrl's response.
24. Favorite Christmas Cookie? Any of my mom's. I love the peppermint ones shaped like candy canes. She makes a great mini-pecan tassie or snowballs. I can't wait to go home for the cookies!

In which the sun reappears!

There is this startling brightness in the sky. I'd actually forgotten what it was like to have blue skies and sun. I went out a bit, walked the 20 minutes or so it takes, to get to the US Embassy for a cookie exchange. One of the parents, who's also a substitute at our school, hosted. There were about 8 or so women who showed up, all of us bearing 2 dozen cookies each. We snacked, chatted and all left with a variety of cookies. It was lovely.

But, damn, do those army/navy/marine families procreate! Dear lord, just what we need, more babies on this planet. The women hosting us has 6, the oldest 35, youngest 13. There was another mom who has 2 in the high school, 2 in middle, and 2 in elementary. The tuition at our school is four times what my former car was worth (a 2000 Toyota Echo, I miss that car!) and my guess is that Uncle Sam is footing the tuition cost for her 6 children...

Schmoo

I've gone and gotten myself a good strong head cold. It sucks. My sinuses are so full it makes me feel as if my skull is trying to crack open. I am so glad, that I can feel confident leaving my classroom not having to worry about whether it will be destroyed. I took 3 days off and returned today, though now that I'm here, staying home would have been a better option.

In talking with Russian's about being sick two language quirks have popped out of me. Russian's are far more likely to negate something than use the opposite. For example my masseuse said "Today, not hard massage." Rather than, "Today, easy massage." And "Nose is not working." Also, there are no articles in Russian, so when they speak English, "You got cold." And things like that. I love learning new things about the way people think and speak.

Anyhoo, I'm glad I'm sick now since I go back to the states in a week and quite honestly I'd rather be sick now then on vacation!

Also, a friend from high school just commented on my blog. I don't think I've spoken with him since I was in college. And it's great to see him, so, "Hi, Mickey!"

Dichotomy

There are times that I feel like my life here is hard, that I'm at times lonely and feel very isolated. I think a big part of it is that I'm struggling with being single. I feel like I'm ready to be sharing my life with someone, but I just haven't found that someone yet. And I'm not willing to settle. I don't know that I'll be able to meet that someone here. And then there's the air, which really, really bothers me. I feel like I can constantly smell the air, whether from pollution or cigarette smoke. When I go out, people are constantly pushing you or crowding you. They never hold the door and at all metro entrances the doors swing back like you would not believe.

But then I was on the metro last night with 3 friends, heading out to Daikon (my favorite restaurant here so far), and there was a homeless man on the metro. By the smell, it was fairly obvious that he had defecated recently. People would step into the car and either crowd to the opposite side or just get out and literally run to a new car. And I had the realization that, unless I suddenly develop a shattering mental illness, that will never be me. I have the ability to move from country to country, seeing new places, meeting new people. I will most likely, always have my own housing, sharing it only if I chose to. I won't be sleeping on the metro as it is the only warm place I can sit down. I complain that I can't get the wide range of Asian foods that I used to, poor me. At least I know that I will never spend a night hungry, nor have I ever.

Pho the love of pho!

I love pho. Really, I love all Asian food. I think I could eat it happily every day for all meals. In fact, I'm sitting here eating left over pad thai that I made earlier this week for breakfast. This is one thing I really loved about living in SF. William and I ate Korean food at least one a week and had pho probably once every two weeks. I keep trying in Moscow, but it's just not the same and it's significantly more expensive. I've yet to see pho, so I resolved to make it myself.

I took inspiration from Barbra at Tigers and Strawberries as well as this Washington Post article she refers too. And in the end, I've come to the conclusion that make pho is a big pain in the rear. But for the love of pho, here's what I did.

Inspired by the Pioneer Woman Cooks, I began taking photos about 15 hours into the process, yes, 15 hours in. Here's what you missed in the first 15 hours. I took 2 kg of beef bones, that's roughly 5 pounds, and I put half in my large stock pot and half in my large crock pot. I covered both with cold water and let it sit. Then I walked away. In fact I went out, but now I don't remember where, probably for Asian food at Daikon. Oh, wait, no, I remember, that's the day I went to the Lotte Plaza (the link is to a post below). Anyway, back to the pho, When I got home, I
rinsed the bones. This time I forced them all into the stock pot, covered again with water and brought to a boil. I let it boil for 10 minutes and you would not believe the gross grey scum that rises to the top. If only I'd begun taking photos!! Anyway, all that went down the drain. The pot was cleaned, the bones were rinsed and then shoved back inside. Only to be covered with water again. I put them on the stove, got it back to a simmer and left again - this time to the holiday party. Seven hours later I returned and turned the heat off.

In all honesty, it was midnight, the pot was hot, so I just left it sitting on the stove. The next morning, I removed all the bones, saved the meat that was falling off, and put the pot outside in the snow. Then I went out for dim sum - yes! Yummy Chinese dumplings do exist in Moscow! I returned and scraped off the thick layer of golden yellow fat. And here's your first picture. The fat was already in the trash by the time I remembered, but still:

(aren't my socks great!)

Here's the pan post fat removal - doesn't it look gross!


Next you take two onions and a big ol' piece of ginger and char them in a pan, then add them to the stock (note I've wiped the pan):



Simmer for another hour or two, then strain the liquid:

Be sure to press on the solids with a spoon, liquid likes to hide in the onion layers. And be sure to strain into a pan, not down the drain. My large crock pot insert is actually blending in with the sink...

Now it's time to get spicy. Toast peppercorns, star anise and cinnamon sticks in a dry skillet. You should also include whole cardamom pods, but I didn't have any. So I just used about a tsp of ground in my tea bag:


Another 10 minutes of simmering (note the plan has actually been cleaned now) with 2 tablespoons of fish sauce. I actually prefer the squid brand to the cock, but haven't been able to find it here:


Oh, you're so close to being ready to finally eat this stuff. Just soak some rice noodles and prepare a plate of garnish - bean sprouts, purple basil, mint, lime. What's missing is hot pepper rings and cilantro, which I rarely see. However, I had the siriacha to make up for the lack of hot pepper.

You may notice some mushrooms floating in there. Well, I had them and I like mushrooms. It was very traditional up until that point, I promise!

And the verdict. Well, let's just say it wasn't really worth the 30 hours that went into it. However, since I can't just run out and get a $6 bowl of pho, it sufficed. But the broth wasn't as rich and complex as it is when I get it at a pho restaurant. However, when I'm again over whelmed with the craving, I've got 6 cups (3 servings) of stock left in the freezer.

Here's one

Me and Kate, the intern, at the holiday party. Thanks to Lynn for the photo!

Party Girl

I was out past midnight two nights in a row. That's both weekend nights. This is a huge rarity for me. Friday night found me at the Australian Embassy. The last Friday of every month they have a happy hour. I started off with a glass of wine and then a glass of champagne at Carole's before heading to the embassy; oh, we had some pringles too. Once at the embassy I proceeded to have another 4 glasses of wine (though I didn't finish the last one). No dinner. Yeah, I was a bit tipsy. But managed to make it without slipping on the ice to another bar. Yes, that's right, rather than heading home (as we all know I'm prone to do), I followed the crowd to a bar. Here I had 2 bottles of water. I know myself well enough to know that any more booze would have ended badly. It was fun. It was nice to hang out with other ex-pats who don't work at our school. It was nice that it was easy. Being here, having to translate in your head all the time gets difficult. At the embassy when someone bumped into you, which would happen as the small little room turned bar was packed, they would say "excuse me." It's the little things.

Then last night was our holiday party. I don't actually have any pictures of me, though many were taken, so I hope to return here with some. However, in the meantime, here's a shot of the festivities.



There was a lot of food, a lot of booze - wine, champagne and at the end of the evening vodka and whiskey. I danced all night, drank in moderation and looked fine, if I do say so myself, in my favorite red corset and ball gown type skirt.

Little Korea

Tyler and ventured out into the cold today in search of Korean yumminess at the Lotte Plaza. Lotte is a Korean department store. I went to a few when I was there, they are very big - usually 5+ stories. This one was 7. We headed first to the food court. On this cold (-6) day, I was really hoping for some chi-gae, spicy bean soup, but no. I did get to have some chop chae (sweet potato noodles) and kim chi (spicy, but not quite right) and bean sprouts. Tyler got an ok ramen and a pretty good stir fried beef thing. Then we wandered the floors of the mall looking at the crazy expensive goods - Dolce and Gabana, Juicy, JLo. I looked at a pair of 13,500 ruble ($550) boots. The grocery store part was just fancy grocery store not a Korean market like I'd been hoping for. Oh, well, the quest continues.

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Originally uploaded by Traveling Em

More turkey day photos are up!

Thanksgiving - Russian American Style

I had to work on Thanksgiving and the day after. Boo. Almost all the new hires, plus several other school veterans will be gathering today (Saturday) to have a large Thanksgiving potluck. There will be turkey, ham, pork roast, stuffing, all the "usual" suspects.

However, Bryn (a fellow American, also the HS college councilor) and I still wanted to celebrate on the day. So I volunteered my apartment and she and I put together a menu and invited 6 others to share with us - her boy Dima, their friend Kran, my friend Nat, Tyler, and a Russian/American couple, Dan and Arina. So all together 4 American's and 4 Russians. It was so wonderful to be able to share this holiday. I made 4.5 kilograms of Roast Pork Loin with Apple Cider Gravy (this was delicious and super easy! Well, super easy once I was able to convey to the lady behind the meat counter that I didn't want the pork sliced into pork chops and once Kran was able to find hard apple cider for me, much more difficult that I imagined). I also made corn muffins and mashed potatoes the night before and reheated (the potatoes) in the crock pot. What a time saver! Bryn went way beyond the call of duty making green beans with pine nuts, roasted sweet potatoes, an amazing pumpkin burbon cheesecake as well as an apple pie.

During dinner we all went around the table discussing what we were thankful for. And since I'm still feeling thankful I'll repeat mine here:

This year last time I was in Ohio with my family and grandparents for Thanksgiving. I'm so thankful that I had 28 years with them. I'm also thankful to myself for finally having the courage to go off and live abroad. That I'm came to a country where I knew no one and didn't speak the language. And now I'm meeting these wonderful people, making new friends and learning a new language.

Here I am with the table in the awesome apron that Sharon sent me:


And a close up of the table:

I love my napkin rings!

I'll have more photos in a while, but I let Bryn have my camera battery as hers was dead and she seemed more gungho to take the photos. So once I get her memory card, I'll add more photos :)

Arch Angel Park

I got out of Moscow yesterday. A quick 30 minute bus ride brought Nat, Danielle and I to Arch Angel Park. It's a large open park with a small church,
,
many trees
and fields which are host to many concerts in the summer time .

It over looks the (now frozen) Moscow River where people were ice fishing .

And of course, being a Saturday and a park with nice architecture, there were brides!

Stinky Cheese

One of the things I like about where I live is that it is very communal. People host parties pretty often. On Wednesday I was able to have an impromptu dinner party by sending out an email at 2 in the afternoon:

I'm making stuffed cabbages (includes meaty bits) this evening (wednesday, nov 7). It makes a ton and I'm out of space in my freezer. So I'd love to have people come eat it with me. It'll be done around 7:30. The first 5 people to RSVP will earn a seat. If you want to bring a guest, no problem, just include them in your RSVP.

So, sure enough I got 4 RSVPs and a friend who just randomly popped by (lucky them!). It was delicious and I think I may make it a weekly event.

Then on Saturday night a couple who spent their October break in France hosted a "Stinky Cheese" party. They brought back at least 15 cheeses, everyone brought wine, it was great.

Sunday I came into school to finish my report cards - here we have to write narratives for each student, so they take quite a while. Then on Thursday we sit in the gym for 4 hours while parents line up to meet with us. Scary!

Snow, Germany and Sweden Pictures

... have been added to flickr. Click on the photos to be taken to their sets.


It doesn't actually look like that now. It's colder, but not snowing. That was October 13th!


Aachen, Germany


Goteborg, Sweden


Me and Linus


Ohio


The start of my latest sweater. It's mostly finished now, I just need to sew the seams, tonight's goal.

Baby, it's cold outside

Sorry I haven't posted much. After grandma's funeral, I worked for a week and then immediately headed off for October break :-) This was a real vacation with lots of lounging, eating, drinking, reading and knitting. I got to meet two new children both less than a year old and adorable.

I spent 3 days with Alfred, Julia and their son Philipp in Aachen, Germany. Alfred was the professor I did my senior research with at Rice. He has me reinspired to go out and get my masters in math, possibly a PhD. He took me to 3 countries in 30 minutes, as Aachen borders the Netherlands and Belgium.

Then in Sweden, I was again visiting Linus, Magnus and Petter. I cooked a lot of Mexican food, ironically. Mexican is becoming very popular in Sweden, so ingredients are fairly easy to find. For Linus and I, I made citrus fish tacos with a chipotle cream and then the next night we had a mini-dinner party with Petter, his fiance, Magnus and Hans joining us. Together Linus and I made a feast that included more fish, spicy ground beef, grilled chicken, sauteed peppers and onions, beans and rice, mango salsa, sour cream and cheese. I introduced them to quesadilla making and it was a great night.


But now I'm back in Mosco and I know this is just the beginning of winter, but it was -5 C for my walk to school today and the high today, and for the rest of the week, will be -1 C. That's cold.