Happy Holidays From Moscow

Happy Retirement Barbara D'Aversa; sorry I couldn’t be there for the party.

We truly live in a world of ‘e’ everything.  As a result of living in Russia where we can’t receive mail, I didn’t get a single birthday card - which is to be expected. I did however receive more than thirty e-cards.  Five from airlines, four from hotel chains, four from cruise lines, six from online places like LL Bean and Amazon, and a host of others from friends and family.  I was also told to go onto Facebook where there were more greetings, and several songs were left on Skype.  It sure is nice to be able to stay in touch at long distances.   While all of them were wonderful, you must see the one from Carnival, a cruise line I’ve sailed with only once!

The house is filled with open luggage, scattered gifts, odd bits of clothing and some freshly polished pairs of shoes.  In short order all will be packed away and ready for departure tomorrow.  We are doing the old bag in a bag routine for this trip.  We really don’t need to take many clothes with us since we are going home and have an ample supply there. However we know we are going to be bringing back lots more stuff so we have a small bag in a larger bag so that we’ll have 2 extra suitcases for the return.  The good folks at the Hyatt at Charles De Gaulle airport have said that they will allow us to store the two big bags with them from the 28^th until we arrive there on the night before our trip back to Moscow, Jan. 7^th.  That will make things so much easier for us as we travel from Paris to Oporto and back.

The laundry has been going since six this morning so that I can make sure we leave everything here clean and also that what little we are taking with us is clean and fresh. We’ve been making lists of things for the cleaning lady to do while we are gone. It seems that in Russia, you pay the cleaning lady when you are gone whether she cleans or not.  So if all works out, we should return to a spotless apartment with flourishing plants.

Last night we had the leftover lamb, excellent, and the chicken covered in potato, very tasty, along with a fresh oriental Cole Slaw that I made with some stuff left in the fridge. We polished off the remainder of the Champagne and the French white. We got to bed early since Cindy had another early morning, this time playing Christmas Carols in the entry way of the school to get the kids in the spirit on this the last day of school.  A lovely touch if you ask me.

I took my last walk of this year in Moscow, marveling at the gridlock.  It appears that Moscow stops working at 1pm on Fridays, and everyone heads out to restaurants and bars in their cars.  Truly amazing today, with lines of people waiting to get into the trendier restaurants and equally long lines of working folks waiting to get into the fast food emporiums that surround out train station. There were throngs of people waiting at all the little kiosks that sell beer and by 2 pm I would guess that half of Moscow was loaded!

Moscow Christmas

Golden Glow from both the Church and Tree

I came across what I think is the prettiest Christmas tress in Moscow, and there are many of them. This one is in what could be called our neighborhood.  All the decorations are gold, just like the dome of the church behind it.  Very lovely and perhaps a good place to stop and wish everyone a very delightful holiday, whatever ones you celebrate.  Here is the one I love the most.

Christmas Bells and Balls

Since this is supposed to be about Moscow, I’ll most likely discontinue writing until I return in January. I’ll use the time to be with friends and family. If events warrant, I’ll perhaps post to the online site, but I’m hoping to take time away from computers so as to focus on being with people.

Best wishes to all and to all a good night.  Cindy and Wm

Birthday Bash Dinner

Who would have thought that a day that started out so crappy would end up being a total delight?  We had the best dinner we have had in either Bahrain or Moscow last night and the wines, well they were out of this world.  As you might have guessed, I decided to cook last night but I wanted to make it a very special meal since I knew in my head what I wanted for my birthday dinner.  I decided to splurge and went to a very, very high-end grocery store. This is the kind of store where they do a credit check on you before letting you in! This is the kind of store where they sell ten baby French green beans in a little package for only eight dollars! It is however, the only store that I knew would have what I wanted so off I went, shopping bag in hand and thousands and thousands of rubles at the ready.

This is a clean, well-lighted shop, almost devoid of people at four in the afternoon. I had my personal floor cleaner following me as I walked around in my snow sneakers leaving black melted snow and dirt with every step.  I started with the smoked salmon - they had about fifteen choices - and I decided on Scottish Smoked Salmon because it looked the best, had the freshest date on it, and was cheaper that some of the other varieties from Russia.  I lingered over the caviar, but with one ounce costing more than $100, I reluctantly moved on to the meat department.  I’ve not been in a Russian butcher shop yet - they are few and far between around here -but this little meat section was one of the most elegant I’ve seen outside of Harrods in London.

While the butchers here don’t wear straw hats, they do wear paper ones and they are women, not men.  I looked around and almost decided on rabbit but then I saw what I really wanted, tucked away in a little corner of the display case.  It was a perfect set of rack of baby lamb, two eight-bone racks, trimmed of most of the fat and all of the felt:  They just sat there glowing and calling out my name. With that in my bag, I went to the ready-made food display case. At this late hour I really didn’t want to start cooking the entire meal so I just looked for things that I thought would be great.  I found a lovely looking treat of eggplant layered with tomatoes and topped with what looked like some kind of cheese, but was really GARLIC.  I then saw these wonderful looking straw potato patties and I carefully read the first word on the label and sure enough it was potato, and that is what I asked for in Russian. I figured the second word was patty or something.  I saw and purchased six little broccoli blinis for the salmon, and then it was over to the fresh veggie area where I got one onion. The lady in produce weighed it and placed it in my basket; I guess no one wants to touch food.  Now so far, I had interacted with four people and all of them had smiles, greetings and lots of thank yous, well worth the prices they charge. 

I dashed over to the bakery section and got a crisp whole grain loaf of French style bread and three of the most adorable little pastries you have ever seen.  Two were fruit tarts, cherry and apricot, and the third was a Napoleon, and they were beautifully wrapped and placed in a violet box with matching ribbon for my hair.

I raced home, put on my cooking clothes and started to make the base that I would place the roasted lamb on.  It was caramelized carrots, onions, garlic and fresh ginger and it filled the apartment with tantalizing odors. While that slowly cooked I set the table and opened the red wine.  I prepped the salmon and the lamb and laid out everything I would need for the final cooking and assembly. 

I quickly shaved and showered and got into some clean clothes and by 5:15 I was ready to party.   When Cindy came home we had a quick Kir while finishing the blog and getting organized. She was mighty surprised that we were not going out but I told her she would not be disappointed, plus she would be able to get to bed early since she had a very early meeting the next day.   I opened a bottle of real Champagne and we sipped it as I received my lovely gifts. There was a homemade card, in Russian, a Russian child’s picture book called My First Thousand Words - which I love - and two extraordinary bottles of French white wine.  Soon it was time to retire to the dining room.

The first course was the salmon served with a curried crème fraiche and the blinis, which was accompanied by marvelous Chablis.  We lingered over the Chablis while I got the oven as hot as I could.  I then popped the potatoes and the eggplant dish into the oven while I seared the lamb chops.  Once they were brown and crispy on both sides out came the potatoes and eggplant and in went the lamb to finish cooking for about eight minutes.  I prepped the plates and as soon as the lamb came out, I placed the racks on the carrot dish and served it right away, along with a rich Cote du Rhone.  The first surprise for me was how perfect the lamb was cooked and how great it tasted.  It was much better that most I’ve had in good restaurants.  The second surprise came when Cindy asked if the potato dish was chicken. I was quite perplexed since Cindy has a great palate and I told her no, it was just potatoes.  Well, of course she was right. I had not gotten to the potatoes yet and when I did I realized that I had purchased two chicken breasts wrapped in potatoes, that darn second word on the card was chicken, not patty!  Oh goodness did we laugh.

The food, the wine, the conversation - all was just over the top and I was so happy I had decided to cook instead of going out.  You can take a visual look at The Birthday Dinner by clicking here. It is best viewed in Mosaic mode.

Cindy insisted that I sleep in this morning, which I did.  I took a long walk today and ended up at an optical shop where Cindy wanted me to price contact lenses. It was fun to go in with my prepared sentence and even more fun when they seemed to know what I was asking. I don’t think they were prepared for me to not purchase anything; I suppose most folks don’t window shop for contact lens!  I took a shortcut through a Metro stop; it was the fastest and warmest way to get across a major road.  Our good friend Robert from DC sent us this article from the Washington Post, which was most appropriate today. Most of the pictures are of our station, Belorusskaya, and I can assure you that every word in the article is correct.

One more day until we are heading home and I know that Cindy will want to sleep for days and days once we are back in Charles Town.  I’ll leave you with two items related to Moscow Traffic. The first is a clip of a new record for traffic jams. The next is a rather graphic example of Road Rage Moscow Style.

Best wishes to all, Cindy and Wm

Birthday Blog

Happy Birthday Tom, Patricia and William!

The birthday got off to a much earlier start than I had anticipated. Cindy was awakened by some noise at 3:25 am and I had a hard time getting back to sleep.  By five however I was in a deep sleep and dreaming that I was in an elevator going up and I could hear the little bells going off as we passed each floor. Turns out it was an alarm that was going off, and neither Cindy nor I could figure out what alarm or why.  I have a little clock/ barometer/ humidity and temperature thing from LL Bean. It is meant for hiking I guess and I didn’t even know it had an alarm, but the cleaning lady must have pressed some button yesterday as she dusted the night table and she set the alarm.  There have been a great many magic mornings on my birthday, especially when I was working and had some decent money to spend and Cindy and I both had flexible schedules. I loved it when I would wake up on a luxury cruise ship somewhere at sea and the only decisions I had to make were when to start drinking and what to order for meals. I still revel in memories of waking up in a grand hotel in an exotic city where we would meet friends for three-hour lunches and then nap before four-hour dinners. Today was not one of those magic mornings!

I never really got back to sleep so I was up with Cindy getting her breakfast and coffee as she got ready for work.  Even that was a comedy of errors since she had planned on going in late so that we could have a quiet breakfast, but since she was already up we decided it would be easier for her to go at the regular time since it was snowing and I didn’t want her to have to drive.  So, she grabbed her to-go cup of coffee and transferred her breakfast to a plastic bowl and was out the door in record-breaking time.  I tidied up the kitchen and made an executive decision to go right back to bed and start the morning over again!  The second awakening was so much more civil and relaxed, far more in keeping with a birthday morning.

I took a long and very careful walk down to the frozen Moscow River.  The combination of frigid temperatures after a lovely day yesterday refroze everything into a messy and really slick surface. The addition of a light coating of snow helped to decrease the friction and there were lots of folks splattered all over the sidewalks.  I noticed a lot of police and security teams at all the public buildings and Metro stations. Seems lots of riots have taken place this week all due to an incident at a football game on Sunday.  Lots of thugs are using the incident as an excuse to riot.  The mayor has said he has had enough.

This walk, which normally takes me about forty minutes stretched into ninety, but I got home safe and sound and none the worse for wear. During the walk I scouted out potential restaurants for tonight’s dinner. Some looked good but they were way too expensive; others looked okay but I knew we would have a mediocre meal with mediocre wines and it would also be expensive.  Additionally, the thought of having to bundle up like an Eskimo, delicately dance over slippery sidewalks and roads, and then sit and have some kind of celebratory dinner with hiking boots on, had no appeal to me.  We’ll save the grand celebration for Paris.

While I’m sure I’m supposed to have lots of insight and words of wisdom now that I’m sixty-five, it all eludes me. I really feel like I’m just a day over sixty-four and I didn’t have anything then either.  I do know that I’m going to drink better wines, perhaps not as much, but certainly better.  I know that I need to introduce more Champagne into my diet, and I would love to get my hands on some black market caviar, but so far I’m striking out.  I think I’m going to have to get more engaged in some type of work because with the bad weather now upon us, my options for external activities have diminished.  When I think about it, I’m a pretty lucky guy. I’ve got Cindy, which is swell, I’ve good health, which is remarkable and I’ve got a loving family scattered about - but with technology, they all seem to be here whenever we need to communicate.

And finally, in preparation for my sixty-sixth birthday, I’ve finally found a destination that will light up my life!  What an exciting opportunity for tourism, one that would never have occurred to me.  Will you join me???

Best wishes to all, Cindy and Wm

From CC: It makes me sad that Wm’s birthday isn’t a bit more fun, but I’m trying!  This morning after I got to school I sent him an email thanking him for making MY day so nice.  I’ll make it up to him soon.

Christmas Time in Red Square

What a glorious day it has been. The sun came out at about 9:30 and it has been clear blue skies and bright sun ever since.  We now have fewer than seven hours of daylight so this was a rare and much appreciated treat.  I wanted to take full advantage of it so at ten o’clock; I headed out with my shopping bag and no real destination in mind.  As I began walking I decided that I should go and see what Red Square looks like in the winter. 

Skating Rink and Tree with GUM in Background

Christmas Tree in Red Square

I walked over to Tverskaya Street and turned right.  This street, which has also been known as Gorky Street and Piterskay, is best known as the Fifth Avenue of Moscow, and with good reason. There are more fancy shops, brand name stores, (Think Louis Viutton, not Target) and magnificent old buildings on this street than anywhere else in Moscow.  It is the epicenter of nightlife in Moscow, with trendy restaurants, high-end clubs, bars and cafes.  It is the third most expensive street in the world, based on the rental rate of commercial real estate.  It is decorated so beautifully for Christmas, well for New Year’s since they don’t official like to call it Christmas. The Mayor’s residence has a sixty -foot Christmas tree display that is fantastic.  I very much enjoyed walking long distances again since it has been a while and I was distracted so much by the decorations that I almost slipped on ice several times.

By the time I got to Red Square the sun was as high as it was going to get today and it bathed the square in a piercingly bright glow.  Poor old Lenin would have died all over again if he could see what the Square looks like at Christmas.  It is half filled with a huge outdoor skating rink that blares American style Christmas songs from speakers placed atop all the little gingerbread like huts that surround the rink. Smack dab in the middle of the square is another enormous Christmas tree decorated like the one at Rockefeller Center. I took a few pictures with my phone and I’ll attach them if they look ok.

I went into the GUM Store, which stands for the Glavnyi Universalnyi Magazin or Main Department Store. It was also known as the State Department Store, but now it is just GUM.  It is a breath-taking piece of architecture that fortunately survived all the political nonsense that enveloped Moscow over the past hundred and twenty-five years.  I’ve talked with friends who visited Moscow in the 80’s and remember GUM as being a dreary place with nothing on the shelves. Now it is a vibrant mall with high-end shops, cafes, restaurants, toy stores, (for kids and adults) and it is ever so tastefully decorated for the holidays.  I have a favorite toilet that I use there, which gave me a chance to wander around and warm up a bit before the next leg of my journey.

GUM Department Store

Red Square Looking at St. Basil's.

I walked across the square and was going to go and have a look at Lenin’s Tomb but the lines were too long and I know he’ll be there a while longer.  I did walk through the Peace Park and took a look at the eternal flame and the two guards that watch over it. It commemorates those lost in WWII. From there it was an hour’s walk to the embassy, passing lots of magnificent old mansions and museums.  Once at the embassy I paid our cable bill, the only bill we have, and then did some quick shopping.  As I was getting ready to check out I remembered that someone told me that you could sometimes get away with purchasing beer or wine at the Liberty Store.  Supposedly, we can’t buy any alcohol but some think that means hard booze, so I picked up two lovely bottles of French wine and held my breath.  Sure enough, no problem, and I left with a grand Chablis and glorious Cote du Rhone, purchased at a fraction of the price I would pay in the grocery store.  The only thing I forgot to consider was that I had to carry them home, along with the can goods, mayo, brown sugar and other heavy items.  If I’d had a corkscrew, I might have consumed one of the bottles right there to save the weight.  I made it home without slipping and was thrilled that I had been walking for more that three and a half hours.  My fingers are crossed for tomorrow.  Best wishes, Cindy and Wm

News Item from Moscow Times:

Wal-Mart closes Moscow Headquarters abandons Russian market for now saying that Muscovites are too well dressed!  (The last seven words are mine.)

Education

I was ruminating on the subject of the teaching profession last night.  Not sure why, perhaps because I had seen some AAS teachers on a Sunday taking the Metro, where they would then have to walk for forty-five minutes to the school because there were things they wanted to have ready for the students on Monday.  Anyway, I was thinking of the bad reputation education has and the low esteem with which it is held as a profession in the USA.  Then I realized that most everyone in the USA only knows about the profession from the articles it reads in the papers, which are mostly negative and not about the teachers, but about the unions that represent the teachers.

I started my education career as a sixth grade teacher in Connecticut, no training, just plopped into a class because they needed a replacement teacher in January and I had a BA degree.  The teachers I met there ranged from totally engaged to totally not caring.  I never saw a teacher on a weekend because the school was closed and you couldn’t get in even if you wanted to.  There was never a teacher around before 8:15; school started at 8:45 and they were all gone seconds after the last bus would depart at 3:15.  This was a union school and you worked to the rule, which was a seven-hour day, 181 days a year, period!

There was an article in the New York Times about teachers in New York who have been removed from their teaching assignments, as in fired, but due to union rules and regulations they are free to appeal for up to three years, all the time being paid full salaries.  One woman was interviewed and she makes $100,000 for sitting in an office with NO responsibility for six hours and fifty minutes (the official work day for teachers), every weekday and she has been doing this for two years!   No wonder the profession isn’t celebrated, at least in New York.

Cindy’s mom was a teacher and Cindy was a teacher and in Minnesota, that meant something in the community.  Here in Moscow, it means something to the AAS community.  Elementary teachers are usually given lovely gifts by the parents of the children they teach, tickets to the Bolshoi, gift baskets, wine and cheese, etc.  They know that these young teachers are working ten hour days, and go in on weekends to make sure they are providing the best materials and presentations they can to the kids. I don’t know what the pay scale is but I doubt that any of the really experienced teachers are making any more than  $45,000 and most are making much less.  Everyone always says, “gee it must be great to have two months off every year” and for some it is great, but most have to spend at least a month of the summer attending colleges and universities at their own expense in order to maintain their teaching credential and to upgrade their teaching skills.  It isn’t all suntan lotion and parties, I can assure you. 

I managed to get in a ninety-minute walk today between loads of laundry.  The temperature is about 28 degrees and there is a freezing fog, which gave everything a ghostly pall but it looked good and the walking was grand.  With the sky so low, there was a lot of exhaust in the air so I tried to take back streets and alleyways to avoid walking along the main drags.  I walked past a factory that must make valuable things since a very high wall capped with razor wire surrounds it and every truck and car coming out was being inspected to make sure it wasn’t carrying away anything it shouldn’t be.

Russian politics are getting very interesting.  Last week Putin put on a show for visiting Hollywood starts and sang his version of Blueberry Hill ala Fats Domino. Not to be outdone, Medvedev sent a gushy Twitter message regarding his attendance last night at an Elton John concert.  Meanwhile two of the Russian ‘Spies’ who were swapped for some sap last July have secured big jobs as advisors to a bank and to a large oil company, yet neither of them have any experience in either profession.  So it should come as no surprise that all of status conscious Moscow can now talk about is the fact that Madonna is going to open, not one, but two über-luxury gyms called “Hard Candy Fitness.”  It will cost you $25,000 a year to join; not counting the designer workout clothes you’ll have to wear for entry!

Cindy should be home soon so I’ll let her add something and I’ll sign off until tomorrow.  Ciao, Cindy and Wm

From CC: today they celebrated Santa Lucia Day at school and it was really cool.  All of the Swedish students (33 of them) were dressed in traditional Swedish garb – white dresses with silver wreaths on their heads for the girls and brown outfits with pointed hats for the boys.  Father Christmas was there too and the littlest boy was all dressed in red.  The processed into the auditorium in the dark with Santa Lucia wearing her crown of lighted candles and all the other kids carrying a lighted candle, all the while singing the traditional Santa Lucia song, and once on stage they sang several Swedish carols.  Made me proud to be a Swede!  (Well, a partial Swede)

Mall Marching

The party last night was lovely.  The director’s home was decorated for Christmas and it was a perfect venue for an elegant evening.  Everyone brought enough food to feed forty people but there were only twenty of us so there was lots to go around.  My Basque Chicken was well received and I must say it looked festive.

Basque Chicken

We took a nice walk this morning and ended up at our little café for an espresso before heading home for breakfast.  After cleaning up and doing some emails we headed for the Metro and took a ride to a mall we’ve not visited. My Metro pass had expired so I had to purchase another one and I must say, it was much easier to do knowing the words than it had been the first time I purchased a pass.  Progress!

We were looking for little trinkets for Christmas and we wanted to price some Russian Fur Hats. We had no idea how much these hats might cost so it was fun to go into stores and look around. The quality and prices are truly amazing, ranging from faux fur and cheap fabric for about $25 up to some breath taking fox fur that was about  $1200.  We passed on all of them; maybe someday we’ll buy one.

This mall, like most of them downtown, is rather upscale and has all the shops you have come to know in big malls worldwide.  I must say the fancier shops were almost empty - perhaps the rich shop during the week - and the lower end shops and department stores were doing a brisk business.  We went into one of the upscale department store’s food area and selected a couple of bottles of wine and some jams and jellies, only to be confronted by an enormous line at checkout. Only two people were manning the seven registers so we simply placed our items back where we found them and left.  We ended up in a grocery store and got all of the same stuff for a third the price and no lines. Not only that, Cindy found Arborio rice so we got two packages and I can predict risotto for dinner one night this week.

We jumped back on the Metro and then walked the long way home so that we could stop for bread. Our timing was stellar since the loaves had just come out of the oven and we got two, one dark and one French, and raced home while they were still warm. I made some great sandwiches and then we just snuggled on the couch and napped for an hour or so.  Very refreshing. 

Dinner tonight will be, yep, Basque Chicken with yellow rice. There was plenty left over so we’ll finish most of it off tonight and the rest will become a soup with the chicken broth in the fridge.  We are trying to use up everything in the apartment before we head back to West Virginia so as not to leave anything that might go bad. 

That’s it for the weekend.  One work-week and counting before the great escape.  Best to all, Cindy and Wm.

Happy Birthday Cathy

Happy Birthday sister Cathy. (Yes we’ll still need you; yes we’ll still feed you.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCss0kZXeyE

Basque Chicken Ingredients

What a perfectly lovely day this has been, and it ain’t over yet.  We got up and took a long walk in a great snow shower, which ended shortly after our coffee stop and then the sky turned bright blue.  To prepare for tonight’s party with the AAS administrators, I made the potluck dish, Basque Chicken, with one of the young teachers who really enjoyed learning to debone a chicken and cook the dish. Cindy did some shopping, which required her to carry two very heavy bags and she was sweating when she got back, that’s how lovely the temperature was.  I’ve a picture of the ingredients for the dish and I’ll take one when I arrange it on the platter.  This young woman is also from Minnesota and Cindy and she talked about how every home there has the right carrying bag for a hot dish potluck.  Good gracious!

Po'Boy Stage One

Po'Boy Finished

For lunch I made pan-fried chicken liver po’ boys and they were really tasty, especially washed down with some dry white wine.  By three we were beat and took a bit of a rest and now are finishing up getting ready for the big party.   Should be a grand evening and I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow. 

Ciao, Cindy and Wm

From CC: In case you’re wondering what was so heavy, it was a 5-liter container of windshield wiper fluid that’s good down to -5 F., and a 5-liter box of wine.  Doesn’t sound like much until you try to carry it on very slippery sidewalks.  Hmm, I should have sprayed some of the fluid ahead of myself as I walked!

Dinner Lessons

What a seesaw twenty-four hours we have had with weather.  Yesterday afternoon I was cleaning the car from all the snow we had; by seven pm when we went to dinner it was warm and foggy and when we left the restaurant it was raining.  The temperature was up to about forty degrees overnight and then at about ten this morning it started to drop quickly. It is now thirty degrees and it is snowing again, what a mess!!  The Moscow River unfroze and now it is filled with ice floes that will all soon freeze again, ruining it for ice skaters.  Here is a winter wonderland clip that will give you a feel for Moscow.

Our dinner last night with our tutor was really quite fun. She came with worksheets for us filled with words that we need to know in a restaurant.  I had my own cheat sheet that I had prepared so that I would be able to order favorite foods. There were eight of us at a big long table and we were taken care of by our favorite waitress.  I was given the task, by Cindy, of ordering for the table and Tara, our waitress, helped me with all of my pronunciation, much to the giggles of the rest of the table, especially Natalia our tutor, who kept helping me with new words. While I might have butchered a few words here and there, my message got through and we ate very, very well.  We had plates of eggplant rolled with nuts, spinach soufflés, spicy chicken with veggies, grilled lamb, grilled pork, grilled quail, roasted potatoes with fresh mushrooms, rice, grilled veggies, fresh homemade breads and pitchers of red and white wine. There was toasting, word drills and at some point our tutor asked me to dance. While I love my snow sneakers, they are better for sloshing though bad weather than tripping the light fantastic. 

At the end of the evening Natalia gave us each a little gift of Father Winter to place on our fridge.  As we left it was really raining so I walked her to the Metro to make sure she didn’t slip. By the time I got home I was really soaked but nothing a short brandy could correct.

I got dressed to head out for a one-hour walk this afternoon but the fates intervened.  The combination of rain this morning followed by plunging temperatures and then snow, have created conditions on the sidewalks not suited to walking.  Decades ago when we lived in Munich, we were amazed to see all the locals standing around outdoor kiosks in February, drinking coffee, eating wurst, drinking schnapps and beer just like they would in the summer.   We finally determined that all the locals felt that they were really a lost tribe from the Mediterranean that had been separated from their homeland when the Alps sprung up overnight.  It is just like that here in Moscow. There is a willing suspension of disbelief that winter is here and so the sidewalks were littered with people who had fallen on their butts on the black ice.  Mostly these were men in shiny leather shoes and fashionably dressed young woman in spiked heels. It was so slippery that I almost fell several times and I was dressed for the occasion.  And yet they get up, dust themselves off, redial their phones and continue on until the next spill!

I did manage to get to the store so that I could purchase all that I need to make our potluck dish for the party at the director’s home tomorrow night. I’m going to do Basque Chicken and I’ve a neighbor coming over to learn how to cook it tomorrow morning.  Not knowing what the weather will be, I decided to get it all now so that I don’t have to worry about it tomorrow.

From CC: so far winter has been pretty mild, if messy, and I’m waiting for it to really hit.  In the meantime running through the forest at noon has been great fun.  I can’t get away every day, but some days I force it into my schedule.  That may have ended as of today with the layer of ice underneath everything – we’ll see what happens, but I have no intention of taking chances with broken or sprained limbs!

Wm was adorable last night as he pored over his notes to order things at the restaurant.  Sometimes he had the accent or pronunciation a bit wrong, but Nataliya was only too happy help.  Heck, Nataliya was correcting the waitress on pronunciation!  The waitress is Georgian and apparently there are some differences.

Happy Weekend,  Cindy and Wm

Talkin' Russian

Happy Sixty-Sixth Anniversary, Pop and Kay!

There are little victories in life that can have far more meaning than the victory itself.  It snowed hard today for about five hours and when it stopped I bundled up and went to a store I had seen yesterday to purchase two three foot reed brooms. The folks that take Cindy to school each day never have the time to get out and shop and they don’t have a broom to get all the snow off their car, so I thought I’d buy one for them and one for our car as well.  I entered the store knowing right were to go, but once there I couldn’t find a price on the brooms, all of which were stuck into some ratty pail.  There was a clerk nearby pricing items and without stopping to formulate my words, I asked in Russian, “Please how much is this?” and then, even more amazingly, I understood exactly, without question, what the answer was.  I was in a bit of shell shock, so much so that I really didn’t get too angry at the stupids in line ahead of me who were so dumb they couldn’t go out without each other since I’m sure they each could only remember half of how to get home.

I walked into our gated complex behind a woman who had the door automatically opened for her by the guard.  I headed into the parking lot, instead of to the apartment and I suppose I looked strange with two brooms sticking out of my bag and he called to tell me to stop.  He came over and asked me where I was going (I’m guessing here) and still filled with the confidence of a two year old learning to talk, I said pointing, “There to my car, number 123.”  He understood, and even smiled as he backed away.  Good gracious, all this learning just so I can forget it all in the next three weeks.  Tonight all of us who use the same tutor are taking her to dinner at the Georgian place so that we can learn all about menus, ordering and tipping.

Cassoulet

Dinner last night turned out to be rather good.  We invited another couple to join us; only one of them could make it however.  We started with a mixed salad of beets, carrots and tomatoes over arugula with an herbed crème fraiche dressing.  The cassoulet turned out very well with a crunchy garlicky breadcrumb topping which helped to absorb all the great juices.  I had found a marvelous Bergerac from just outside of Bordeaux on one of my shopping trips and it was perfect to pair with the cassoulet.  Apple Crisp with sweet crème fraiche finished off the evening.

Just before leaving Bahrain, we met a couple - he French, she Norwegian - who have a daughter who was at SDSU and needed help with an internship.  I was able to provide that help and they were very grateful.  We just heard from them again and they are living at their home in Provence, just outside of St. Remy du Provence and they’ve invited us to come and visit for a few days at the end of February, which coincides with Cindy’s vacation.  So, this morning I booked our flights to Marseilles, where we’ll spend two days, then via rental car to Avignon for two days and then three nights with our friends.  Ah, to be in Provence at the end of February!

And now, in the ever-entertaining category of “Has The World Gone Mad?”  Here is today’s entry: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/11957863

So the guy can’t decide if he is Catholic or Buddhist, but the court gives him money. Somehow I can’t remember where, in either religion, rape isn’t frowned upon! Geez.

Time to get ready for dinner with the Language Club!  Ciao (that’s Italian), Cindy and Wm.

A warm snowy day.

Some of you have suggested that my dislike for winter is a condition of age. True, I’m getting older, but I can assure you that I have disliked winter since I was a little elementary school kid.  Part of the problem, I’m sure, is the fact that we were never really dressed correctly for winter; in fact, no one in the housing project we lived in was ever dressed correctly for winter.  When it got very cold, we would keep our pajamas on and wear shirts and pants over them.  We would wear boots over our sneakers but when our feet got too big, we would wear two pairs of socks and then put on the boots. (No one got new shoes until Easter!)  Gloves usually consisted of two pairs of old socks worn over the hand.  The kids that had gloves would beat the heck out of us with snowballs because they could make round ones. With socks on your hands the best you can do it a kind of egg shaped thing that did not match the aerodynamics of a nice round snowball.  I remember having chapped hands for weeks because I would take off my socks in order to make perfect snowballs. So fast forward fifty-five years and I still hate winter even though I now can afford the right clothing.

We had a little snow fall this morning, only about an inch or so, but it did cover all the brown snow and things look lovely. It is also rather warm, about 27 degrees, which makes it enjoyable to walk, which is what I did after starting yet another load of laundry. (I’ve yet to convince Cindy that wearing clothes several times is okay).  The little bit of snow was all it took to yet again snarl traffic to a standstill.  The frustration level of Russian drivers can be gauged by the number of them that decide to honk their horn, even though most of them haven’t a clue as to what is holding up the traffic.  They were very frustrated today and the decibel level was hovering around painful.

There were very few people shopping at the market today so I was able to get in and out in record time.  I once again purchased too many heavy things for my two little bags and that walk home was challenging, but at least I broke into a sweat.  Because of the snow, there were about five women mopping the entry floor to the little mini-market, so the floor was very wet and people were slipping around. The Russians love to use smooth surfaced stones, tile and marble on their floors, which if nice if they are dry, but oh boy, Slippery When Wet.  While shopping I got inspired to make a ‘mock’ cassoulet. I’ll let you know tomorrow if it worked out. 

The meal last night was a nice straightforward fish dinner with no fancy sauces.  Pan seared Mahi-Mahi fillets, finished with just a touch of butter and lots of fresh lemon juice, served with buttered boiled potatoes with just a hint of garlic and minted peas.  I did make a little tartar sauce that I decorated with lemon peel flowers but that was the extent of fancy. It was fresh, it was hot, and it was delicious.

Mahi-Mahi, fresh from the freezer!

Cindy’s home so it is time to play!  Ciao, Cindy and Wm

Pearl Harbor Day

For a day that was supposed to live in infamy, you’d be hard pressed to see any evidence of it today.  I’ve seen not a single mention of it on the news or in any of the four news sources I read daily.  So, let me be the one to say, Remember Pearl Harbor!

I had a pretty busy morning; some of it filled with great frustration, the rest not so much.  I had wanted to talk to an agent of Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), who we are taking to Paris later this month, to see about getting seat assignments and a reservation code so that I would be able to get a boarding pass online.  My Internet search pinpointed the SAS office and to my sheer delight and disbelief, it was within walking distance of the apartment.  I brought all of my documentation with me and walked over in the freezing cold to take care of business.  The receptionist took a look at my paper, which has SAS and the address in Russian and just kept shaking her head. Они переехали! (They moved!) Когда? (When?) Два года тому назад. (Two years ago!). 

Wasn’t the Internet supposed to make sure that we always had up the minute information??  Anyway she wrote down the new address but I couldn’t make heads or tails out of it and I decided that would be an adventure for another day.  I headed over to the embassy for some shopping and ran into the woman who is the Community Liaison Person. I introduced myself and she remembered that her assistant had talked with me last week about my doing a wine program for them.  It turns out that she had been a dean of an accounting college before coming here so we had a lot of deanly stuff to discuss.  She is very nice and it is good for me to have a contact at the embassy. 

Fortunately, I had brought my backpack with me since I knew I would be buying heavy things like liquid detergent, frozen foods, milk, canned goods and other goodies.  Have I mentioned that I hate winter, especially cold, god-awful cold, winters?  I go out of the house looking like the Michelin man and every time you go in or out of a building you have to do a Gypsy Rose Lee, but with speed. Hat, gloves, scarves, boots, big socks, it is a pain, and it is doubly painful when you have to put on a full and very heavy backpack!  I finally got it on my back and secured, slipped my “man bag” over my head, got on the winter junk, and stepped outside into a cold drizzle that was glazing the road.  The trip home was slow as I tippy-toed my way over slippery surfaces and slushy pockets of brown snow.  I must say, the best investment I made was to get those snow sneakers; they are divine.

Dinner last night was a red pepper and garlic risotto.  Every time I start to get ready to make a risotto, I can hear Pat Lucas, my neighbor and kitchen muse from Winona.  “Baby cakes,” she would say, “ there are no shortcuts to preparing risotto!”  I chopped up the red pepper into rather small bits, did the same with a head of garlic and started to heat three cups of my turkey broth.  In a big pot, I softened the pepper and garlic with butter and olive oil, making sure nothing turned brown.  When it was just right, I added the rice and cooked it all slowly for about four minutes until each grain of rice was coated with oil.  I turned the heat up and added a half-cup of dry white wine and cooked it until the alcohol had evaporated and then turned off the heat and covered the pan.  I made a shredded beet and chopped tomato salad with spinach and arugula and when that was finished, I started on the risotto for real.

Glistening Risotto

Risotto and Wine

A good risotto should be made with Arborio rice, but I’ve not been able to find that here so I use a good quality long grain rice instead. My stock was very hot but not boiling, and once I had the rice back to temperature I started to add one ladle at a time and would stir and stir until that ladle’s liquid was all absorbed and then do it again and again and again. It takes about twenty minutes to do a risotto for four or six and the time you spend is well worth the effort.  When it was just soft enough I turned off the heat, added some salt and pepper and a half cup of grated Parmesan and stirred a bit more and then served it up on a hot dinner plate and decorated it with a bit more cheese and parsley.  If the picture comes out ok, you should be able to see that each grain of rice glistens, which makes it a beautiful sight to behold, not to mention eat.

I’ve done four loads of laundry today, which is a new record. I had to clean all of the rugs since we’ve been tracking in mud and grit, even though we take our shoes off.  It took three loads to do five little rugs, and oh my, the lint in the dryer!  At least the house is sparkling clean for the next day or two.

Best to all, Cindy and Wm

The Gala Was

My Personal Violist

Cindy Jamming with the Quartet

The Gala was just that, a gala.  It started strong with Cindy and her quartet playing for about ninety minutes as everyone arrived, changed shoes, and stood in line to check coats, shoes and other odds and ends. They were just great and I’ve a photo or two that you can enjoy.  

The Hotel Lotte is really a five star place and the service and atmosphere was top shelf. Accomplished wait staff were walking around with ice-cold glasses of Russian sparkling wine, which was really excellent. There were three bars set up in the foyer so that if you wanted soft drinks or juice or beer it was all available.  By three almost everyone was there (the second bus from our housing area didn’t get there until four, two hours late!) and they opened up the doors to the buffet area where a teacher choir was blasting out Christmas songs. They were really very, very good.  There were an additional two bars in the buffet area where they were now serving very good Chilean wines and Italian beer on tap, in addition to more sparkling wine.  There were printed menus on all of the stand up tables, which gave us a sneak peek as to what was on the buffet. It all looked great and as soon as the teachers were done singing and the director gave his welcome, they opened the buffet and the lines were immense.  There must have been about two hundred and fifty people there, half Russian, half English speakers.  If you had just come in from the outside you would never in a million years have guessed that this was a holiday party for a K-12 school. It was, as is everything AAS does, quite classy.

As soon as they opened the buffet lines, the band started playing and that was it for me. I think I danced to every song in every set. Most of the time with Cindy but I was in great demand and danced with lots and lots of the single teachers.  By the time the band took its first break most of the food had been eaten so I picked at some salmon and rice and some excellent lamb stew, but then the band started with some more disco music and I as on the floor again. I was one big soggy mess by the time they called us for the bus, but my, it was a grand evening.

Ratatouille with Poached Egg

The route that the bus took to the hotel took twenty minutes since he had to go over the Moscow River Bridge to turn around and go under the bridge and back over it just to get on the correct side of the street.  My illegal U-Turn when I’d dropped Cindy off had saved us fifteen minutes.  Coming home the driver really didn’t know where he was going but I kept my mouth shut and enjoyed the long ride.  (No he didn’t – he kept telling me what the driver should have done, where he should have turned, etc.  And of course he was right!) I made some grilled cheese sandwiches on French bread when we got home since we were both a bit hungry and then it was right to bed since Cindy had another early morning.

I mostly did laundry today and I got in an hour walk, which almost froze my face off, but it was good to be out there and moving.  I can walk pretty fast, but with the sidewalks filled with ice and slush I’m a bit more careful, so it always amazes me how these young women with four-inch heel boots and waist length jackets come zipping by me on the sidewalk.  Speaking of sidewalks, they do a great job of cleaning them off but what they do is toss the snow onto the street curb, which has the unintended consequence of narrowing both sides of the street so that what had been a two lane road is now just one and the game of who will back up first to let the other person’s car pass is not pretty to watch.

Time to go work up a risotto, ciao, Cindy and Wm

PS: Why I like walking the streets of Moscow

Manic Driving

This will be mercifully short so as to not interfere with your Sunday.  The big AAS Gala is this afternoon. The school has made buses available from the three housing areas so that no one has to drive. UNLESS, you have volunteered to play Christmas music as folks arrive, then it is up to you to figure out how to get to the Lotte Hotel with your instrument, music stand, music, shoes and other junk.  A taxi would have cost far too much for such a short distance and walking to the Metro and making two connections and then another walk to the hotel was out, SOOOOOO  I drove Cindy. It was a harrowing little trip in which I made not one, not two but three illegal U-turns in order to get her there and me back to the apartment.  On the third U-Turn some guy followed me and he was pulled over by the police.  Thank goodness for Red DIP plates. I got Cindy there in ten minutes and it took about twenty-five for me to get back since you can’t make left turns anywhere in Moscow.  I’ll hop on the bus from here and that should be a lot more relaxing. Can’t wait to see what route they take!

Dinner was fun last night since I had already made the ratatouille. For Cindy, I added a poached egg and for me some fried sausage. We had taken a little walk and got some fresh bread so it was a simple but enjoyable evening.  This morning I used the rest of the bread to make some French toast with real maple syrup, which took the edge off the cold. I shouldn’t complaint since it was 20 degrees this morning and it was great to get in a longer walk while Cindy ran.

So, off to the Gala to listen to my sweetie play music and hopefully to dance a little.  Details at dawn!   Cindy and Wm

Snowy Saturday in Moscow

We woke up to a mantle of white and a balmy 24 degrees.  It was too slippery for Cindy to run so we took a bit of a walk and when we were cold enough, came back for a warm breakfast.  Most of the morning we just played catch-up with things we were supposed to talk about but never had the time.  Mostly we laid out plans for various options regarding Cindy’s February vacation.  She has to be in San Francisco from the 9^th to the 13^th and is scheduled to return on the 14^th.  Her vacation starts on the 19^th, but AAS policy is that you can’t take any personal days before or after a vacation so she has to come all the way back to Moscow. We had hoped to be able to stay in the USA for the vacation but it looks like we’ll now go somewhere warm in Europe.  I tried to convince here that we should go to Bahrain for the vacation since it will be warm, but she just won’t listen.  (Yeah, right – how I miss Bahrain!)

Potato Pancake with Salmon and Cranberries

Yesterday I spent a lot of time cooking.  I made a great big ratatouille, this time with some potatoes and lots of spice in addition to all the other normal veggies. I let it cook for about four hours so as to soften the veggies and blend all the flavors.  As an appetizer I made four lovely little potato pancakes. When they were hot and browned I placed one on each dish, covered the pancake with sliced smoked salmon, added crème fraiche and then repeated one more time.  I topped it with some tarragon and served it with cranberry sauce on the side.  My goodness was it delicious and the cranberries, if I say so myself, were a stroke of genius.  The ratatouille was also really wonderful and a great counter to the rich salmon dish.

As a weekend surprise I also made a dessert, which I seldom do.  I went to the store and got some great green apples and made an apple crisp.  I plumped some raisins with a teaspoon of cognac and a quarter cup of boiling water. While they macerated I cut up the apples and stirred together the sugar, cinnamon, black pepper, nutmeg, and ginger.  I then rubbed the baking dish with butter and floured it to help the juices thicken up.  I mixed the apples with the sugar and spices, added the drained raisins, and let it sit a bit while making the ‘crisp’ part of the apple crisp.  I incorporated some butter with some muesli and then added some crushed wheat flake cereal, for the crunch.  I transferred the apples to the baking dish, sprinkled the top with flour and dotted that with butter, added a touch of maple syrup and then patted the ‘crisp’ on top and shot it into a 375-degree oven for about forty minutes.   The apartment smelled divine and it was the first thing that Cindy noticed when she came home.  I served it with yogurt to help cut the sweetness and then we had it again for breakfast.  Pure bliss.

Cindy’s been practicing for the big party tomorrow where she’ll play arrival music for all the guests. Sounds pretty good to me and it will be better tomorrow when the other three play their parts. Should be a fun afternoon, as was today.

Ciao, Cindy and Wm

Weekend Wonderland

TGIF!  Cindy needs rest and lots of it. Her schedule this week has been even more hectic than normal. Last night she didn’t get home until 5:45, which isn’t too bad if you don’t consider the fact that she left school at 4:30 in an effort to get home in time for us to review our language lessons before our tutor arrived at 6 pm.  For the past two days the only way that Cindy knows what I do all day is to read the blog!  We have no plans for the weekend, except for the gala on Sunday afternoon. We’ll not invite anyone over for dinner but will instead be selfish with our time and just hang together.

The lesson last night went pretty well for the first half hour. We got her to work with us on common nouns, kitchen stuff mostly, so that we can communicate in a restaurant when we need a fork or spoon or a glass of something. But it wasn’t long before we were right back into the agreement of pronouns in various nominative cases!  Boggles the brain, especially for me since I have no idea what that means in English, much less in Russian. I’ve been trying to figure out how I might have used that information when dealing with my cashier yesterday.  Mercifully, that was our last lesson for a while. We are taking her to dinner next Thursday in an effort to learn restaurant vocabulary, customs and practices.  In only two weeks from tomorrow we’ll be jetting home to West Virginia for a quick holiday respite.

Happy New Year, Russian Style

While shopping yesterday I purchased two holiday things, my concession to decorating the apartment for Christmas.  I hung the decorations so that Cindy would be surprised.  I thought the colorful sign said Merry Christmas, so it was I who was surprised when our tutor said it meant Happy New Year. (Have I mentioned how well I’m learning the Cyrillic alphabet!)?  She told us that New Year was the big event and that Christmas was just a holiday in Russia. We’ll miss both!

 By the time the lesson was done we barely had time to have a drink, while Skyping, and then I dashed into the kitchen to make some dinner since it was too cold to go out and we were both too tired.  I made a passable cheese/mushroom omelette with sliced tomatoes and pan-fried leftover smashed garlic potatoes.  We tried a new Gewurztraminer from Marlborough, NZ, which makes lovely Sav. Blancs but horrible Gewurztraminers. It was far too spicy/fruity/sweet and overpowered everything. Luckily we still had a grand Touraine so the meal was saved.

Mushroom/Cheese Omelette 

Today the temp is up to a lovely 15 degrees with overcast clouds and slight wind. This is much more hospitable weather. Tomorrow we are expecting temperatures in the mid to upper thirties, which I’m sure everyone will welcome, even if it does come with snow. We are lucky that we aren’t getting hit with the snow and bitter cold that is sweeping though Europe. Poland had temperatures that were 25 degrees below zero yesterday and it appears that most flights and trains are having real problems with running on schedule.  It is so nice that we don’t have to travel anywhere for a few weeks.   

Have a great weekend, I know we shall, Cindy and Wm

Crystal Crisis

Another cold day, but at least it is sunny and there is no wind so I was able to go to the store and walk just a little bit. The stairwell is getting too boring for me and, while it is good for the heart, it makes my muscles ache.  We are able to buy some rather decent Russian sparkling wine at our local grocery store, and now that it is the holiday season they even have some Brut, as opposed to the really sweet stuff.  I don’t like drinking sparkling wine out of a big wine glass so when I saw that they were having a sale on six Champagne Flutes from the Czech Republic, I had to check them out. The glasses themselves are really lovely and quite delicate, which might explain why the first five boxes I opened all had at least one broken glass. (Yes, I’ve lived here long enough to know that I have to check out everything just to make sure it is what it is supposed to be.)  I finally found one box that had six perfect glasses and brought that up to the cashier along with my bread and a few Christmas decorations for the house.

This cashier is one of the snarly one’s who actually asked to see my carry bag, the very same SDSU bag that I have used in that store since August. I don’t know if this is now standard policy to avoid shoplifting, but I was a bit miffed.  She rang up all the items and then opened the box with the glasses.  She had to check (Brava) to make sure they were all there and all in one piece. As she tried to replace the last glass with her fat fingers, she hit the edge of one of the other glasses and chipped it. I was disheartened since that meant I would have to go back and look for six more, but she seemed to have no intention of admitting that she made a mistake and placed the glass in the box and rang it up.  I was flabbergasted and tried to mime that we needed to replace that glass.  Fortunately a supervisor had been observing this entire transaction, as they do all transactions, and she stepped in and said something quite harsh to the cashier, removed the chipped glass, called over a stock boy and gave him a quick set of instructions and then asked me to pay the bill and come with her.  I did what she asked since she made the matrons of TSA look like pole dancers, and followed her to the entrance of the store. In a matter of seconds the stock boy returned with a new glass, she placed it in the box and gave me a big smile and thank you.  Perhaps I’m known as a daily shopper, perhaps they just watch their cashiers like a hawk, whatever it is, and it made me very happy.

Speaking of happy, old Volodya (nickname for Vladimir) Putin is hopping mad at all the Batman/Robin jokes, not to mention the fact that everyone is claiming that Russia and Belarus are being run by the Russian Mafia. I’m told that he really got going on the Larry King Show, letting the world know of his displeasure with the West.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11893886

I’ve mentioned before that there is a great deal of graft and corruption associated with almost everything in Russia. It is one of the reasons that big international companies come and then leave rather quickly since they don’t want to see all of their profits go to paying off officials. There is a good article that really delves into the state of Russia today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/world/europe/02wikileaks-russia.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Last night I decided that we had had enough turkey, pasta, stuffing, potatoes and other wonderful, but less than healthy food, so I made a Scandinavian Dinner.  I cut a lovely chunk of smoked salmon into thin slices and decorated the plate with lemon. We also had some hard cooked eggs, herring, sour cream, a homemade mustard sauce, some flat bread, fresh dark break and butter, broccoli blinis and lots of frozen vodka and aquavit. We sang drinking songs, shared a beer and had a grand old time and it was just the two of us.

The Ministry of Moscow Central Heating has had its hands full these past several days.  Working round the clock to make sure that hot water flows to all the building in town. While walking up the stairs today I was able to get this shot of two of the heating facilities billowing steam into the cold crisp air. 

Central Heating Working Overtime

Language lessons tonight so I’m trying to learn as much as I can between now and six!  Happy Hanukkah, Cindy and Wm