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
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