The High Life
For all of it's, well, lack of charm in the winter, Moscow is one of the world's nicest cities in the world to live in in the summertime. Everywhere you look, there are parks, bursting with green, and the weather is stellar. We've been taking advantage of this fact as much as possible these days.
B even seemingly has instituted a required quota of vitamin D absorption for the family every day, so we've been getting outside more regularly of late. It seems she doesn't want a repeat of our arrival in the States in the spring, when people asked us why we were so yellow (seems a lack of sunlight causes jaundice). Anyway, we're getting stocked up while we can!
So, many of you know that we've been on the hunt for another apartment. Our landlady came at us with a hefty (read: almost double!) rent hike, so that put us on the hunt. After searching high and low, we realized just what a great deal we were getting on rent last year. Only $1000/month for a 2-bedroom! Sounds outrageous when you consider that it's not as nice as the place we had for $500 in the US the year before we came, but when you compare it to some of our options it starts to look great, even at almost twice that price.
I've included a map for those of you with a Y chromosome, and in it you'll see our best option after much searching. Indeed, we were able to find a place that was a little cheaper (and a lot smaller, further from everything as the map shows, and much lower quality). However, by the time you add up the real estate agent fees, moving fees, and the cost of selling all our furniture only to buy new stuff in a year, it only saved us a tiny bit. Once we realized that, we decided just to stay put and trust him. If you're looking at the map, the office is where we go every day to study, and downtown Moscow is to the north. Our lives might get tricky this year, but we know the one who owns the cattle on a thousand hills!
It's been good to get back into our studies, if at a slower pace than we were doing when we were here last. Unfortunately, our teacher went on vacation pretty much right when we got back, so for now we're self-studying in various ways until she gets back. Mostly I've been helping B and our friend Julie review some of the basics, and I've started to read the Chronicles of Narnia in Russian. You may laugh, but even kids' books are tricky when you're at my level. Fortunately, I've read them in English many times, which helps to fill in the gaps when I don't know a word or something. I have learned a lot of new vocabulary, though (who knew that Mr. Tumnus is also a фавн in Russian?)
On Tuesday night we had a friend over from one of the -stan countries (the one we used to want to work in). It was a fantastic conversation, which I can't really get into here, but I was thrilled to finally get beyond the surface in Russian and be understood! Maybe I didn't forget as much as I thought in the US. Anyway, we made some brownies for dessert, but left the pan of batter waiting on the counter while something else cooked.
It seems that I'm not the only one who likes brownie batter! Of course, we had to discipline Steven, which was hard as everyone was trying hard not to laugh so he'd understand that this was a no-no.
Enjoying the weather outside again. Steven really likes to swing, especially these two-seaters where he can share a ride with Mommy.
Of course, we can't have all the pictures be of Steven. Matthew's getting more interactive these days, and here he is smiling for all he's worth. Oh, and he rolled over the other day. It's funny, I remember that being such a big deal with Steven but it seems to be just another event for Matthew. I guess we need to make an effort to be excited about both of their accomplishments, even if we've seen it done before.
While I was in the US, my parents let me copy all of our old photo albums that they had scanned onto my computer. I thought you might enjoy some of the pics of me (that'd be J, just in case anyone was unclear) growing up. And so, I present, for your viewing pleasure, the _ family men (I'm on the far left):
What a muscular bunch! Oh, and of course, there was the classic "Family at Arms" photo that was hanging on everyone's fridge when we went home on furloughs. I'm on the left again, rocking the sports glasses. Actually, as an experiment, if you remember this photo being on your fridge, reply in the comments. I'll be interested to see how many there are - it was definitely a more "unique" choice than most of the other people in my parents' line of work.
That's about it. I might dig up a few more of the family pics from jungle days for future blogs, since I think they make a nice change of pace.
