r&r here we come

What have we learned, our first year in Moscow?

The Metro moves 9 million people a day, and every single one has pushed me.

The happy lamp is used everyday.

How to say carrot. (Now I'm working on learning treedsats-voisem, my shoe size.)

A food called "cottage cheesy miracle" tastes like yogurt.

Learning very little Russian will not impede your success in making friends in high places, as long as you go to the American school. Camille's  best friend moved into a new apartment "But the walls are still being carved," she tells us. Oh, I hate it when that happens. And this morning I asked Camille how Alex got them all from school to his house for the end-of-the-year-sixth-grade-party and she tells me "Limo." 

You can still buy a pickle from a barrel.

Three inches of new snow calls for three-inch heels. Silver leather pants optional. 

This is a country of readers--people walking down the street reading, reading on the metro, every farmer's market has a used-book stall--the literacy rate is 99.4%. I however, am functionally illiterate. 

I'm happy when I figure out a word and discover it's an english word: "best seller" written in cyrillic. Or when a restaurant is named something I can figure out: Kroshka and Kartoshka, "Crumb and Potato,"or  "Yolki Palki" --which means Christmas trees and sticks but Peter's dad always said it to mean, "Boy Howdy."

 

Our closest metro station: Krasnopresnenskaya, it's even better in Russian: Краснопресненскауа.

 

Russia's  got a long to-do list--art, ballet, chocolate, maybe we'll get lucky enough to go back to St. Petersburg and we can see the room where Rasputin was poisoned, shot and tied up, also still need to see the Tetryof Gallery. And maybe I'll really buckle down and learn the numbers eleven to twenty.

Comments

[The Expatresse]

I'm right behind you . . . July 1.

I saw a young woman on the metro the other day reading Don Quixote in Russian. I couldn't drag my sorry ass through it in ENGLISH!

[The Expatresse]

And I have an MA in English lit.

[The Expatresse]

Last one, I promise.

I JUST read The Diving Bell and the Butterfly because I caught the last part of the movie on SKY. Incredible.

The Book Thief kept me sane while I was waiting for our shipment to arrive . . .

Just finished The Geography of Bliss. I'll lend it. It was amusing.

Now off to read the fourth in the Twilight series. Yeah. I'm reading Twilight.

[Tina]

Rasputin's penis in a jar? That's not one I heard about as "must see" for the tourist in Moscow.

Enjoy your R&R summer. I imagine you will be back in the US.

[Melissa]

I read about Rasputin in a guide book. When I come I want to go with you. Also Nabokov's house/Museum in Petersburg.

And have you been to the Idiot cafe yet?!

[MamaLana]

Happy R&R!!!

[annie]

I love this! I just think you are SO lucky! And I'm glad you are sharing.

[Peter Chordas]

Let's not forget; rain and snow. Both the song and the weather!

[michael chordas]

A pickle out of the barrel is worth the trip alone, takes me back to my childhood in Poznan, (one of the things I remember totally).
You do need to get out of the concrete jungle though, perhaps go for mushrooms this fall

[JMc]

I would take most of that Rasputin story with a grain of salt. The guys who were supposed to kill him embellished a bit because they had a hard time doing the job. Kind of like a story an incompetent employee would fabricate for his boss.
and cool picture in a picture (Peter relecting)

[JMc]

reflecting