An American in Moscow 09-29-09

An American in Moscow
The last step in our long trip happened today. The American Embassy to pay for our children to become American citizens. It’s the American way. The Russians want paperwork on top of paperwork, the Americans want cold hard cash. God bless America, I can’t wait to get back!
We started the day getting breakfast at the cafe in the lobby. This time Elena didn’t want to eat and she was angry. Yesterday or today we gave those Nintendo DS systems and we have been telling them we would take them away if they were not good. At breakfast Elena was mad and made what looked like a stabbing motion with her fork toward Teri. We both say it and interpreted it that way, Elena said she it was a throwing motion not a stabbing one, and we talked it over and left it on hold for the time being.
We had decided to go take a trip on the metro today to the zoo and red square and the hard rock café. Last night we had decided to do just the Hard Rock Café and see what time we had left after that. We walked past the crap dog café and went down into the metro. It took a few minutes to get our barring and off we went on the next train. We had seven stops to our location and we also got a newer train that showed the stops and what stop we were at, life was good. At our stop we get off and head up to the surface. This is where the trouble started. We had neglected to get more specific data and a better map to help us out. I went to the street and tried to find a street on my map while Teri held on to the girls. I neglected to mention that it is a windy and occasionally showery day and the girl’s jackets and sweaters are a little light for the weather. Bad Parents, Bad! I take our little party to the left and we get to New Arbot st. We wanted Old Arbot st. so I look at the map, ask a person, with my wife’s kindly encouragement and he say we are going in the wrong direction and need to go back the way we came. In reality he said “Hard Rock Café” and pointed in the direction we’d just came. We walk past Old Arbot st. and again with my wife’s quiet encouragement I ask another man and he again says we have passed the location we are looking for and must go back to the corner we have just passed and it is just down the street. And yes, all he did was point and said soon, soon.
We got to the Hard Rock and had lunch, we gave the girls French fries, Teri had a Cobb salad and I had a burger. It was expensive, but it was nice to again eat something you could relate to.
Anatoly picked us up at the Hard Rock and a few minutes later we were at the Embassy. They ask you to get on a line separate from other people; I guess it is the line for Americans. We showed the guard our invitation and we then went to the desk and gave up anything that was not allowed inside, camera, cell phones, and the like. We then went to window four A and we gave the government 800.00 and I didn’t mind, it’s the end of the road and there is no line and my instructions say to go to window one and hand in my instructions, which we do. We are asked to sit down and wait until we are called. Within a few minutes several other families come in with the same business. They are from Texas, California, Chicago and one was from St Petersburg and she was adopting a girl and had plans stay in Russia for about a year and a half to teach Foreign Service worker’s children.
We were out in about an hour or so and we imposed on Anatoly to take us to Red Square, I guess I did. No one else wanted to really go. We were close to it so the trip was short. I have seen Red Square and some of the other building on TV for years and to finally see it in person was nothing short of amazing. I saw where leaders of the USSR would stand during parades, I stood where soldiers marched by and where Czars of Russia had walked. It was truly a great experience.
We got back to the Hotel and had dinner in another buffet in our hotel and went to our rooms.

Turn your Head and cough 09-28-09

I know some of the girls in the audience will not understand the title of today's blog title. We went to the doctors office and being a boy all my life that was one of the things I never understood the doctor doing. He would put his had between our legs and say turn your head and cough. We all thought the doctor a little strange.
  Got up and had no breakfast had to get to the Doctor's Office at nine and it's an hours trip. Traffic in Moscow is bad and its going to get worse. The roads are mostly side streets in width and they have buildings on both sides and no space to widen.

On the way to the Doctor’s office we stopped at a clothing store to get the girl’s jackets or at least sweaters. We walked into a store that would fit into any American downtown and it had the prices to match. Jackets started at fifty dollars and went up. Sweaters started at thirty and went up. Anatoly our driver said it was the cheapest store around. We bit the bullet and purchased two sweaters and hope that will be enough for now.
Got to the Doctor’s Office before nine and we were guided through a group of people to a private office and we were the first people there. We were greeted by a woman wearing a very short dress and I really didn’t mind except it was a place of business and not proper attire. Plus she was wearing clothes you’d expect a woman younger than her to wear. She needs to update her wardrobe.
The Doctor came in and we went into the examination room he talk to Teri and I for a moment, then he talked to the girls and he then asked one of them to undress. That was when I got the look that I will have to get used to. It said go,Pappa, I don’t want you to be here. So I left. I did get a rundown from Teri afterwards. Both have flat feet, we have to watch Elena’s TB spot and they need glasses, Dentist and one other doctor I don’t remember.
We Left the Doctor’s and went to McDonalds for an early lunch. I was waiting for Anatoly to park the car to order. Teri said she was in disparate need of a coffee and I said that I could order one. Coffee in Russian is Coffee, easy. Just fake all questions. I get on line, when it’s my turn I say coffee, pajalessta. The guy behind the counter says anything else? I'm dumbstruck and not prepared to do an order and I am a little surprised so I say no. I take the coffee back to Teri and get an order and go back.

The food was MacDonald’s and it was nice to have something familiar after all of the mystery foods that I have eaten lately. Nastia again refuses to eat her meal, this time it was a fish sandwich. We are at the point that if she doesn’t eat she gets nothing else until the next meal. We took some pictures and left. Anatoly had to take care of CJ and Fran (their day at the embassy) so we were on our own. We were going to try the metro on our own, but we went back to the rooms and took a nap. Mostly the reason we took a nap was because Nastia was bad and we sent her to bed. It turns out it was a much needed nap everyone except Teri slept for a few hours.
We went to eat at a buffet at another hotel and it was not bad. The food was a little cold and that seems to be a Russian typical. There is no ice to make drinks colder and a lot of the things you buy from coolers are just slightly cold. At the buffet I bought two bottles of beer. I saw the display on the cashier’s desk and I asked for two. I figured I’d get two from a cooler; nope I got the two on the counter. Trying to not be the ugly American I took them and left.
We went back to the room, CJ came over and we sat around and talked about things and drank some cold beer we had. He talked about some people he knew who were doing a bike trip across Russia. It sounded fun but I would never want to do it.

Join the circus, like you wanted to when you were a kid* 09-27-09

Join the circus, like you wanted to when you were a kid* 09-27-09
* Jim Dale from Barnum the musical
And going to see all those Broadway shows finally pays off, isn’t it a wonderful life Jimmy Stewart.
Monday was a nonevent day. We didn’t get moving very fast and when we were moving we went nowhere.
The previous night the hotel was filled with guests and the vast majorities were athletes. I walked around the hotel looking for some soda because I was in need. Caffeine headaches are not fun. I was tired and it seemed too much trouble to go through the language barrier to get what I wanted so I just went back to the room. I paid for it the next morning.
We had two hungry kids and I had a headache. We went down stairs at 7am to catch the opening of the breakfast buffet, we had waited several hours. I don’t know what time it opened, the sign said 7am last night, but the place was busy and very full at a few minutes after seven. It was twelve dollars per and it was a pretty good buffet. Being a nonamerican buffet they had no soda. I had cranberry juice which has no caffeine in it. Teri had a coffee. The buffet was good. It had a lot of things that Nastia would eat. Peppers, eggs, lettuce, tomatoes, and lots of stuff Elena would eat. Teri and I enjoyed it too. The Russian pastries as I’ve said before are not as sweet as American and are a little disappointing.
After breakfast we tried to get a hold of CJ and Fran, but we waited too long. It was chilly and we had no coats for the girls and we were short on clothes that fit the girls so we went to an outlet mall to get some clothes for the girls. We ended up at Gloria Jeans, I don’t know if they have them in America, but the mall was just like an American mall, just smaller. We spent about two hundred dollars on about six outfits and I took the girls outside while Teri checked out. The girls weren’t cooperating and a security guard came by and told them quit climbing on the rails and act good. We then went up stairs to see if there was anywhere to eat and while looking the girls were climbing on the rails again and again a security guard came over and told them to quit climbing on the rails and act good. Where was I during all this you might ask? I kept telling them to quit climbing on the rails and act good. I think the guards noticed the trouble I was having with them and came over. They weren’t out of control; they were just not listening as quickly as I wanted. Does that sound credible? I really did have them under control. They like and respect me. Really, they do, really!
We went to eat lunch after that and on the third floor of the mall there is a food court. They had a KFC, an Uncle Sam’s café and two other places that didn’t interest us (Teri and I). We decided to eat at Uncle Sam’s and have a pizza, French fries and soda. We start ordering in Russian (a word or two in Russian and lots of pointing) to a girl. A guy takes over after we have ordered the pizza and he slips in a word of English and Teri goes you speak English? He smiles and says yes he does and that he’s has not been to American, but would like to go. Teri says that if he is wording here we are coming here for every meal he is working. He only works weekends. So we ate lunch, it was ok, and haven’t been back.
English is very often spoken here in Moscow; it seems the exception when it is not. The only think I really hate is not being able to read the signs and the memos and street signs. I feel like a functioning illiterate. It can make you feel real dumb sometimes.
After the lunch and shopping we tried CJ and Fran and they still weren’t back and we were going to try to go the zoo, but I didn’t feel confident we could get there. We ended up staying in the room We seem to be getting up a like 3am, 4am, sometime as late as 5am. This may sound like it is not a bad thing, but come early afternoon you get tired really quickly and so we all went to the room. CJ and Fran called and said they were going to the Moscow Circus and we sort of invited ourselves and without tickets CJ and Fran introduced us to the Moscow Metro. It is beautiful, mostly easy to use and has a few surprises, like the escalators (they are fast and steep).
We get on a train down the street from the hotel, past a little hot dog stand that looks like its name is crap dog. Several stops later we get off and switch to another train, and arrive at the circus. During the ride over to the circus CJ tells me about the metro and how to use it we are going to try and use it tomorrow and go to red square and or The Hard Rock Café.
On the way to the circus there are several aisles of vendors. CJ and I split off from the others to get Teri, Nastia, Elena and I tickets, on the way there we stop at a vendor and get this potato thing, which is good and eat it on the way to get the tickets. I comment to CJ that if this was the city I would never buy something from a vendor like I have been doing here. He replies that he just wants to know if it walks or flies. I add creeps (as in Mice and Rats). We meet at an agreed spot and have a flour tortilla filled with chicken, ketchup, mayonnaise, peppers and other assorted items and again it was good.
At the Moscow circus, it is a small building maybe half the size of Madison square garden and the like. We go inside and of course a bathroom break is needed. The show starts and we have to hustle to get to our seats and we miss a little of the start. It’s a lot pageant and light show with some amazing feats of strength.
The first act is a dog act and it was very good, next the clowns, a man and a women who entertained while the next act set up. It was different from circuses of old. Here there were lots of pageant, lots of beautiful women with little clothing on at sometimes and a dazzling light show.
During all this enjoyment, we had two suddenly sleepy girls on our hands. One tried to crawl into my arms and sleep. Failing to get comfortable she chose to sleep next to me. The other one, Elena has to go to the bathroom and when she gets back she too wants to fall asleep. She starts in my arms, tries to stretch out over two seats in my arm, then use my coat as a pillow, next she slides under an arm rest and finally she stretches her legs under a third seat, kicking and awakening her sister. I am not exagerateing when I say the minute she got comfortable the house lights go up and people get up and start moving around. Mind you I didn’t say leave. Teri and I are tired and the kids are asleep already, we figure we will try and find CJ, Fran and their son Max to convince them to leave. I look around for them and see them in the mirrored wall talking to Teri and the girls. They are ready to go even of it is only intermission. So we all get out of there having had an enjoyable evening even if we only saw half the show.
The Metro home was enjoyable and an easy trip. Teri played flip the invisible coin with the girls and everyone got involved. We got home around ten and went to bed and I think we got up again around five or so.