Springtime at the Dog Park - hooray!

Finally, finally, the snow has melted to reveal the true face of the dog park.

Siena and I went today and she had a nice time exploring all the newly exposed nooks and crannies of dirt. I threw the ball, she chased it and then ran in the other direction without "retrieving," all the usual fun dog park stuff.

After about 20 minutes it started to rain (as predicted - I just knew Siena really needed some exercise so we risked it) so we left to find the driver. Unfortunately he was no where to be found, but fortunately the rain never got to be more than a strong drizzle so we meandered for about 10 minutes in the neighborhood by the park (which is pretty quiet and nice). By the time we circled back to the park, the drizzle had subsided and there were two dogs inside! Yippee!

other dogs at the dog park = happy girl

This time the dogs were reddish brown like Siena. One was huge and a little scary and the other was a daschund. Since I learned my lesson from last time, I knew we needed to proceed with caution. We slowly and loudly approached the dog park fence and I waved to the owner. He came over and asked in fast Russian if Siena was a "devatchka" (девочка) or girl [dog]. I said "da" (до - yes) and the big dog came over to sniff hello through the fence.

Then the owner said something else that I missed, came closer to the gate, clipped his leash back onto the big dog's collar and very graciously opened the gate to the park for us. Yay! Proper Russia dog park etiquette had been achieved!

Then everything went fine. Once inside, the three dogs made their initial sniffy greetings in which Siena rolled over on her back, her usual wimpy submission to the other dogs. The little dog, as is often the case, was a lot feistier than the big one. He wanted nothing to do with Siena and really just stuck close to his dad with a continuous low growl in his little throat. Not ideal but his owner was very aware of it so I felt we were safe. The big dog wasn't all that much friendlier but he was okay with sharing the park.

After about 10-12 minutes it started to rain again so I decided to leave before anyone got too soaked. I also didn't want to press my luck with the little dog since he seemed to have less patience than the big one.

Once we left I still couldn't find the driver, so we waited under a doorway for a while. Everyone who came and went was very happy to see Siena and give her a pat. All in all a very nice outing.

my sweet mushy-ball tired girl :)

Where Matryoshka Dolls (aka Nesting Dolls) Are Born

This weekend I went shopping for souvenirs at Izmailovo Market, a GINORMOUS craft market on the outskirts of Moscow where you can get tons of great Russian-made creations, the most popular of which (in my mind at least) is the Matryoshka Doll. This is a set of 3, 5, 7, 10 or 20 hand-made wooden dolls, one nested inside the other, getting smaller and smaller.

Overall the outing was extremely successful: the weather cooperated and I think I even managed to negotiate (in English and Russian) a couple of good deals (I think...). Win-win for me!

Typical Matryoshka Doll display at Izmailovo. There are probably 100+ vendors selling these cute little dolls.

My taxi driver: business in front, party in the back, baby!

Lacquer boxes - aside from the nesting dolls, this is another classic Russian souvenir.

A man selling fur hats.

Used Soviet "treasures" for sale.

Iconographic paintings.

Two Russian vendors doing business.

Snack cart for the vendors (since the market's location is somewhat isolated): Vodka, Whisky, cookies and hot tea / coffee. "These are a few of the Russians' favorite things!"

Fashion Standout

One thing that is really all over the place here in Moscow is fashion. There is a huge range of what people wear and when. Scott mentioned to me once that he thinks a lot of women make their own clothes since brand names are so expensive...but then there seem to be a lot of women who exclusively wear the really high-end brands (e.g. Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Guess, MaxMara, Alberta Ferretti, Christian Dior, etc etc) so they're walking around in uber stylized couture outfits. And we all know how hard it is to pull off Couture. I just can't make heads or tails of any of it.

Along the lines of making heads or tails, here is a getup that I saw in Starbucks recently. I believe this was a pair of hand-doctored-sweatpants. I mean really people, it's still quite cold here, so you can't just walk around in a basic sweatpants. You need an extra quilted layer of colorful fabric sewn onto each leg! Come on. And please do not miss the coordinating royal blue scarf and turquoise Chuck Taylors. This took some work.

By the way, this young woman had on a full face of makeup, so we can't assume that she rolled out of bed in this outfit and was just 'quickly picking up her morning cup o' joe.' Also, it was 2 in the afternoon.

I hope I don't sound too snarky here. It was just such a strange combination of fabrics and colors...

Taxi "Service"

Late last week I had a disaster of a day; nothing went smoothly. And to top it off, I was sick! I’m still coughing, sniffling and sneezing, but definitely on the mend now.

So one of my favorite activities here in Moscow is Zumba. So FUN! It’s offered through the AWO twice a week and is held in the US Ambassador’s Residence because the Ambassador's wife is a member of the AWO and she volunteered the space (pretty cool). It’s a great "organized" activity with other ex-pat women, a nice way to get some exercise, and perhaps most importantly, I find that participating in it requires so much concentration that, for a solid hour, I forget about any and everything that's bothering me. I always leave feeling much more optimistic! I may do a separate post exclusively on Zumba, so I’ll leave it at that.

So even though I felt terrible when I woke up, I figured I'd rally and go....maybe doing a little exercise would "flush" out some of the bad stuff etc etc. The class is located in a part of town that’s not too convenient to any one Metro that is near our apartment. If I take the metro, I have to switch and it ends up being just a couple stops with more transfers than anything. It’s just one of those places that’s more convenient by car for us. Unfortunately we recently had to fire our driver (long story – maybe I’ll get into that another time) so Scott had his assistant arrange a taxi for me.

Sign #1 that things were not getting off to a smooth start: Scott texts me to say that the first taxi company they tried was “fully booked.” Nice.
But, we persevered and were able to book a taxi from the 2^nd company. Okay.

Sign #2 that things were not going smoothly: Initially when I went out to get in the taxi, I couldn't find it; our building has a bunch of exits so it's never clear where someone in a car will be waiting. This was annoying b/c the class (obviously) has a set time, and I really didn't want to be late. Little did I know.

Well I did finally find the car and off we went. Scott’s assistant had already told the taxi company the address of where I was going so I didn't really say much. When we started out, I noticed right away we were going in a different direction than usual but I thought, well, this is a different driver and this is his job, so leave him be...(this was probably Sign #3... and the point at which I should have just gone home). Where do we end up? The American Embassy, which is not at all the same as the Ambassador’s Residence! Argh!! When I told the driver, "Nyet" (No) and gave him the proper address, he just gave me a blank look and literally had NO IDEA where it was!!

I tried to bring it up on my phone and OF COURSE, for some inane reason at that moment, the internet / maps / data on my phone wasn't working (and this taxi driver didn't speak Englsih, OF COURSE)!!

Next I tried to pull it up on his phone but he only had cyrillic letters on the keyboard which made it painfully slow for me to type, and I had no idea if I was spelling it correctly. Ever so thoughtfully, the driver pulls out an old dog-earred road atlas – without opening it to central Moscow -- and dumps it into my lap: "Go ahead, you find it!'

So I start flipping pages, trying to figure out where to begin looking; you know how those atlases have the 10,000 foot view and the 1 foot view and every neighborhood in between? And mind you, we have 8 minutes to get to class at this point. EIGHT! I had allocated 45 minutes to get there and we’d already been driving around to the wrong place for over 35 minutes. 

“Just a total cluster,” as Scott would say.

For the record, much later, after I’d already called Scott and his admin told the driver where we really needed to go, I did find the right page in the atlas. :-) Really, one of the more irritating parts of the experience was that the admin was the source of the problem: she’d given the taxi company the wrong address and when I told her the correct street / address (I knew the address, just not the route), she, too, had no idea about the street or building I was talking about! While I had her on the phone, I made her look it up online and then Ihanded the phone to the driver so she could clarify in Russian. But wouldn't you think that a taxi SERVICE would make it its business to really know the ins and outs of its home city? This is Russia!

When the driver finally understood where we needed to go and I saw we were correctly en route, I looked at my watch and saw that we were going to be at least 25 minutes late to class. It had now been an hour and ten minutes of back and forth with the admin, the taxi company and the maps and nobody understanding anyone! UGHHHH.

We were probably a block or two away from the Ambassador’s residence when I just decided it was really not appropriate for me to walk into class THAT late. It’s just rude and disruptive and I didn't feel right about it.

So I told the driver I just wanted to go home (in Russian). He just kept saying,“Moment, moment…” and gesturing toward the building. Yes, Mr. Taxi Driver (I’m sure his name was either Oleg, Sasha or Sergei), I see we are only 45 seconds from the destination, but you get the booby prize for getting me there 25 minutes late! So I just repeated for him to take me home.

But boy was I pissed. I didn’t feel good, no one knew where we were going, I couldn't communicate properly and now I had missed my class!

He finally understood (read: actually listened to what I said) when I wouldn’t get out of the car. Then he got pissed! He started grumbling and asked me “Why? Why?” (in Russian) and shooting me dirty looks. I just shrugged and pointed to my watch, to indicate that yes, we had arrived at the proper destination, but alas, we were just too late.

I really should have just stayed in bed that day. When we got to my building, I paid him ½ of what the meter indicated since the driver certainly didn’t deliver on his end of the bargain. Of course this made him grumble even more, but I just got out and didn’t look back.

The crowning glory of this wonderful morning was arriving home and finding that Siena had scraped off a bunch of leather from our couch in a new spot (she's already done it in a few other areas but we've been trying to limit the damage to just those few). AAAAHHHH!!! Thanks a lot, Siena. Some days you just need to throw in the towel and move on!

Embassies of the World Ball - 23 March 2013

"Ball Season" in Moscow! 

Scott and I have a friend (I'll call him S) who is really "into" going to all the charity balls around town and we've heard a lot about them for a couple years now. There are actually a series of balls that happen every spring in Moscow, each sponsored by a different organization, each benefiting a charity.

So when the American Women's Organization (AWO) started promoting the International Women's Club's (IWC) annual ball, we thought it might be fun. The IWC ball is supposed to be the most formal, and you have the opportunity to get a ticket that includes a small dinner party at a participating embassy before the actual party. I'm a member of the AWO and we have a couple of women who volunteer on the IWC's special events committee so of course they want to get as many people as possible from the AWO to attend. Besides, one of my favorite things is getting dressed up for black tie events and then people-watching all the outfits...and I already knew I had the perfect outerwear! A little more on that later. :)

We asked the organizers if we could be assigned to the same embassy as S and his date (I will call her N), and the four of us were placed for dinner at the Hungarian Embassy. Cool!

Dinner turned out to be so so great, and I think it was the highlight of the night for me (besides getting all dolled up for a fancy evening). It was just really a unique opportunity to participate in an intimate dinner (there were only 6 couples in total at the dinner) with the deputy ambassador to Hungary and his wife! Wow. What a cool experience.

The meal had several courses but first, the non-pregnant dinner guests all got to do some Hungarian wine tasting! Our host was quite knowledgeable about wine, and explained to us that Hungary is large enough geographically to support a number of different wine regions. He then walked everyone through each wine and why it was special. Yum.

The subsequent meal was delicious, all prepared by the Embassy's authentic Hungarian chef using imported Hungarian ingredients! The elegance of the dining experience prevented me from taking any photos of the food, but trust me: each course was beautiful and flavorful. We did, however, manage to save the menu.

Of course the ball afterwards was fun too. It was at the Intercontinental Hotel, about 2 blocks from our apartment building. The theme was "Ooh La La Paris" so there were (not-so-subtle) French touches everywhere.

There was even a professional photographer taking pics of all the ball attendees, with a very archaic-looking setup. Why do the ladies have to sit?? And what's with the fake flowers?

When we got our photo back I told Scott I didn't like how I looked (he certainly looked handsome) - all fat and round and seated submissively next to my dear husband - and what does he do? He posts it on Facebook for everyone's entertainment! Ugh!! So while I originally wasn't planning on sharing it with anyone, that ship has sailed so there you go.

Back to the party. The IWC had found a great 5-piece band who played covers of recognizable songs and a couple French opera signers kicked off the night. I'm not an opera aficionado so I have no idea how good the singers were, but it was a very nice touch.

Scott, N and S at the ball.

Before we left the party, there were a bunch of raffle prize giveaways which unfortunately we didn't win but here are our ticket stubs, proving our participation in a good cause. :)

Last but not least, I said I had the perfect outerwear for this ball. Oh yes I did! I wore my spectacular cream-colored fur-edged coat! Boy did I fit right in with the IWC crowd with this number...I'm so glad it still fits, too!

Me in my fabulous white furry coat! How can you not have fun in a coat like this?!

All in all, we had a fantastic evening. Great company and fun people watching, tasty food, good music and a chance to dress up, all for a good cause! Sometimes, Moscow ain't too bad.

Dog Park, Russia-Style REDUX!

So Siena and I went back to the infamous scary dog park for a 2nd round and...woohoo! We had the place to ourselves!

Perhaps it was because the temperature had risen enough to make the place a big soupy mess, but we didn't care! Wet, slushy snow....bring it! My girl loves to run, and wet snow makes it all the more invigorating!

Even M the Driver got in on the action and threw the ball a few times for Ms. S in between smokes (below).

The only thing that would have made this outing better would have been if that cute, white, fluffy dog friend from our first trip had shown up to hang out and play too. His owner probably wised up about the melting snow and took a pass. But Siena loved it just the same and I was happy for her.

Sopping wet, happy girl.

The Dry Cleaning Babushkas

Dry cleaning in Moscow. 

Ah yes, this deserves a sub-heading of its own. It is one of my favorite crazy-making activities in Moscow. I think it is basically a few decades(?) behind the U.S. and it is a Big Deal to get something dry cleaned here. What makes me crazy (and why it's a Big Deal) is two-fold:

BIG DEAL REASON #1

The system is very, very inefficient so it takes a long time. Like 30 minutes, maybe even more, to drop something off. And an additional 10-15 to pick something up. Seriously.

The place we go uses computers to keep track of everything that you bring in, but they ALSO create a hard copy receipt for every item in each order. And what goes on this receipt? Oh, these receipts contain state secrets!

The dry cleaning babushkas (as Scott calls them - these are the middle-aged/older ladies who work at the counter of the place we go) actually go through and look at each item in extreme detail. They count the buttons on the shirts and write down detailed descriptions of the color, cut, and style. Further, they will make a note of the color of the lining inside the waistband of a pair of men's trousers, the type of waist closure that it has (hook or button) and whether or not it has cuffs. I'm sure there's some kind of note about pleating too. All written by hand AND all re-typed into the computer. FOR EVERY ITEM THAT YOU DROP OFF!

Here are 2 examples of receipts that have not been signed yet. Very important!!

Pickup is no more efficient. You MUST have your receipts in order to collect your stuff, and if you don't, it is a HUGE catastrophe for the babushkas. Scott and I have gotten lots of dirty looks for showing up empty handed! Without original receipts, you need to present your passport to PROVE that yes, the clothes are really yours.

Then once you've proven you really are not a closeted clothing thief, the babushkas count the pieces and you put your initials on each and every hard copy receipt (keep in mind, there's a whole page of information that was documented for each piece of clothing). Then each initialed receipt gets an official stamp. Oh, the Russians love their stamps! This is very important stuff we're tracking here...

BIG DEAL REASON #2

It's very expensive. So not only does it take a ridiculous amount of time to drop off and pick up, it costs twice as much. One would hope that by paying so much more money, EITHER the quality of cleaning would be leaps and bounds better than in the US, OR the speed at which it's all processed is miraculous. But.....it's neither of these. I mean, how do you dry clean something better than someone else?? And we already know that the price paid is not for efficiency.

Here are the ladies, hard at work doing their best to keep the city of Moscow's pants and shirts in order and with their proper owners.

The infamous computer with duplicate info. This lady is actually stapling the hard copy receipts right now and not paying any attention to the machine in front of her.

The one saving grace of this highly inefficient system is that our babushkas happen to be located inside a nice grocery store. So what we do (Scott invented this technique for us, thankfully) is drop off the clothes and then head into the grocery store to do some shopping while the ladies do their paperwork. Even then, sometimes the receipts are not ready (since you have to sign and they need to be stamped). And of course if you're picking some things up, you still need to wait and sign all of those receipts. BUT, at least you get some groceries out of the deal while you're there.

So this is why it's crazy-making and a Big Deal.

These Boots Are Made For Walking...

Siena and I have been taking lots of walks. It helps with curbing / channeling her energy and it's good for me to get out too. So win-win.

The only issue is the wet snow and dirt. Yes it is April 1 and we still have lots and lots of snow on the ground. Temps are still in the 30s. So our Siena is a complete and total mess after even just a short walk. And it's not just the paws. It's the "undercarriage" as we like to call it.

Moscow is SO SO dirty and mix in a little rain / slush when the weather is slightly above freezing (or even when it's below freezing for that matter) and...well, you get a dog with a wet, grimy, matted mess of a coat.

So then you spend almost as much time wiping and cleansing as you spent on the actual walk...and then she needs to go out again and the whole process starts over!

wet. wet. wet. dirty. wet.

But really these walks are great for both of us. I know I feel better afterwards. And once the snow all melts and the rain gets less, I know it will be very nice for us.

The other interesting thing I stumbled on while walking was an ad for a fencing tournament! Totally thought of our wunderkind fencing nephew S when I saw it.

hey, cool, a Moscow fencing tourney!