Rambling Rosa: Setting the scene....

This was our second email home:

Hello Family and Friends!

That blog will be up and running very soon-just as soon as my pesky Russian classes are over. So you must endure another group email. You will see that we have changed the title to "dispatch" since our weekly email goals were not fully realized.

David suggested that each of our notes include a Russian word that we've learned-so you all can learn a little too. So, our word for the day is "Pectopah." Seems easy enough. Until you recall that Russian involves an entirely different alphabet. Using Russian letters, this word is, in fact, pronounced, 'restaurant.' And that is exactly what it means.

Early on in our trip David made the mistake of asking NPR's Russian staff what in the WORLD this word was -- "PEC-TOE-PAH" -- that kept showing up on signs and storefronts along every block in Moscow. They laughed really hard and informed us that every American asks the same thing when they arrive. (Maybe they were just making David feel better).

I will try to keep this short but we are covering two very busy weeks in Moscow here and the Russians are keeping things interesting-so just the bullet points:
- I began Russia classes. Four days a week, 9am-1pm. I don't like Russian. I really want to like it but I don't. The teacher speaks barely one word of English, she doesn't like American women and "told on me" to David. David is taking far more advanced classes than I am but he is still in the same building. When she learned he was my husband she came up to him, pointed at me and said, "We have problems"-more English than I had heard her speak to that point. It was like I was being discussed at a parent-teacher conference.

The only entertaining thing about my classes so far is that they take place in a Soviet dream of a school building-please see the first attached photo for official documentation of what a true Russian experience I'm having.

- Our first American embassy party was interesting. There was an "ancient music" concert involving a famous "countertenor" who came to sing. We didn't know what that meant going in to the event. Now we believe it to mean that a counter tenor is a man who sounds just like a woman singing really high notes. Call us uncultured now but we promise to be very worldly by the end of this experience.
Other embassy highlights: David picks up a drink being passed on a silver tray, thinking it was a nice Russian whiskey without ice. It was apple juice. To go with the apple juice, the embassy did serve pigs-in-a blanket. (I am not sure whether or not they were imported from Costco). The entire experience felt like the beginning of an Indiana Jones or James Bond movie. We were waiting for some Russian oligarch to be poisoned, as drinks were passed, diplomats were mingling, music was playing... then the opening credits roll and the adventure begins.
- The street food here is fascinating-for less than a dollar you can have an entire baked potato with all the trimmings served 'to-go'. And by trimmings I do mean butter and bacon but also things like pickles, mushrooms and fish (not sure what kind yet).
-Speaking of food, we saw a sign in a restaurant window that said pizza in neon so we actually walked in thinking we could buy a slice-it all seemed too familiar for a minute. There was a high table with no chairs in front of a countertop, so it seemed to make sense. The confusion that ensued over us standing there was unbelievable-we were coldly asked to sit and promptly served an entire cheese pizza. (The quest for a New York style slice goes on).

-At restaurants the bottled water (which you must drink-tap water is not exactly reliable) is more expensive than beer. So we order beer.

-We took a lovely overnight train to St. Petersburg last weekend. We had a fabulous sleeping car with a flat screen t.v. and a waitress there all night to bring whatever we wanted. We loved St. Petersburg and the Russian train system-the Russians get high marks here! See photo #2.

-The down-side of the train system is the buying of tickets. You must go to the station where no one speaks English. There are no computers or kiosks-to buy a ticket you must go to the window where you fight off Russians trying to cut in front of you for an hour or more while you wait in line. You pay in cash only. They get mad when you don't have exact change. In fact, you might ask a nice young person (because they tend to be nicer and might speak English) if you are at the right window and if there is a chance you will ever make it to the window before the station closes. Said young person might even wait for you to finish buying tickets in order to present you with a laminated postcard of his favorite Orthodox saint. Why? We don't know-but he did. This country is the capital of random things. Please see photo #3 for a visual of how I felt about the overall train station experience.

But the GREATEST downside of buying these tickets is what happens if you are at the station for three hours and have to go to the bathroom. Please see attached photo #4. I had to PAY to use that facility while a drunk woman was carted away from the booth by uniformed, scary-looking guards. God bless Russia.

-We are on roll-Day 20-no sunshine. Not even one ray.

-David got to watch his very first Steelers game at a bar on a big screen. The bar only serves food from Singapore (again-why?) so he had to get used to eating dumplings with his beer as opposed to the normal chicken wings-but he will make it. Sadly, they lost.

Finally, we want to wish everyone the happiest Thanksgiving ever! We are very sad to be so far from home at the holidays but we are thinking of all those we love. In case you were wondering, there are NO turkeys in Russia. I just learned that the only way to obtain turkey here is to order them (only at thanksgiving time) from the American Embassy or the American school-and you have to have a connection. Awesome. But we have been invited to a Thanksgiving dinner at the U.S. Embassy, so imported turkey we will have! (And hopefully more pigs in a blanket).
All our love-

Rose and David