HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

I know it's not the New Year for most of you, but I've been enjoying 2009 for 8.5 hours now and it's been amazing! Don't forget to make a wish and I hope that wish comes true for you in the new year. And enjoy the extra second :).

Thinking

It's awesome that I can still switch thinking in Russian and English so quickly. Well given that I'm actually awake and functioning :)... On the flight to Novosibirsk, I was listening to people talking in Russian and then I decided to read, so I opened my English book and started reading. I got this eerie feeling of being uncomfortable, then realized that I was expecting to be reading in Russian and my brain hadn't quite switched languages. Weird.

Specials on the 2:40 am flight to Novosibirsk

1. Announced on time, so we registered, checked our luggage and went to the gate. Boarding announced with only a slight delay. Stood around at the gate for 10 minutes waiting for boarding to actually start. Got on a bus to drive us to our plane. Waited 20 minutes on the bus for the last passengers to arrive. The bus drove about 100 meters to our plane. Waited 5 minutes for them to let us off the bus. By that time we could have walked to the plane and back 20 times on foot!

2. Running out of water in the lavatories on the flight that same flight.

Quick hello from Moscow

Wow, how I did not want to be reminded of what airplane food tastes like! Yuck! The flight was relatively easy though - slept most of the way. As always there were a couple of Russian men on the plane that bought vodka in the Duty Free store and wanted to drink it on the flight, to which the stewardesses did not take kindly since its apparently against Aeroflot company policy.

So we got in around 2pm Moscow time and Julia's friend and her boyfriend picked us up at the airport. We went out to eat to a Russian restaurant (I had borscht and stuffed blini a.k.a. crepes). Then took at a nap at Julia's place and now we're off to the airport again for our 2am flight to Novosibirsk. Nearing the end of 4 days on the road.

Moscow is all decorated for the New Year. Many, many, MANY Christmas trees all over the city. Everything is in lights and glowing. Very different feel for the city when driving around in a car.

Temperature: -4C

And we journey onwards...

or something...

We're in JFK waiting for our flight to begin boarding in 15 minutes. We shopped Duty Free, we drank Guinness, we ate paninis and chatted with a couple Russian girls I know from Ithaca who are on the same flight as us to Moscow. The world is small!

In a short 26.5 hours we'll be in the Novosibirsk airport. Who would have thought that I would be spending New Year's eve in Russia with my family?!?! It's a dream come true!

For those who don't know of the third largest city in Russia:


View Larger Map

P.S. Just as fair warning, once I'm in Russia I'm going to start blogging in Russian :).

Check your flight time and check it often

Good thing Julia looked at our tickets, because the flight is not at 6:20pm as I told her, but at 8:20pm. Yay two extra hours of last minute gift shopping (mostly for ourselves - who else?).

My first time snowboarding (or the story of my butt)

Most anyone who has ever stood on a snowboard before can probably guess how this story ends. A few of you have already shared your own experience in the matter with me.

So on day 1 Julia and I took a lesson on the bunny hill from Paul, who studies commerce at the University of Queensland. The lesson went better than expected in that I had a lot of fun, but was expecting to hate it. I could actually get down the hill without falling and was bored of it by the end of the day even though I was way off from mastering any of the techniques, which of course means that on day 2 we wanted to go down the green slope.

Here's me after Dave managed to get me up on the board:

Of course I was already sore from day 1 and drifting down a 6K slope on your heel side the whole way is super exhausting. And Max decided I need to go on my toe side to take a break because I was doing fine on the heel side.

Here's a photo of Max and I taking a break, waiting for everyone to gather:


And of course the first time I try going toe side I don't lift the back of the board up high enough, catch snow on it and fall flat on my tailbone! That's when I realized that I have not experienced real physical pain for a long, long, long time. I have literally not been able to sit since! Walking hurts, bending down hurts, sittings hurts :(. Is this what it's like to be old?

Taking a break on my knees sometime farther down the slope:


There have been plenty of jokes at my butt's expense this weekend, but at least we all get a good laugh out of it. And I have not lost my determination. One way or another I will conquer the slopes! But only after my butt heals...

Merry Christmas!

So Canada ended up being uncivilized after all, hence the silence :). In Mont Tremblan there was only a small internet cafe with three computer that spoke French and had only Internet Explorer (I said uncivilized!). I couldn't even figure out how to type a question mark on their weird keyboard, had to have J chat one to me.

Diving w/o headlights - just the brights; just crossed the border back into civilized country; stay tuned for photos and my snowboarding stories...

Best Christmas wishes!

Are we there yet?

Been in the car since 10am, driving through complete whiteness and unfortunately I was not smart enough to charge my iPod and my laptop last night. The iPod has been dead for hours now. And these are the last minutes of entertainment that I have left. Feels like we're on a never ending highway. Are we there yet?

Hanging to my last threads of sanity...

Last Monday - at the holiday party

Sisters:


With two co-workers. Gotta love SB:

And we keep going

Party was a success, went to bed at 2am and just got up at 9am to try to beat the snow to Canada. Not sure what the internet situation is there (Canada's a civilized country, right?) or whether I'll even make it out alive... it'll be my first time snowboarding... who wants to bet that in a few hours time I'll give up and go to the lodge to drink hot chocolate?

Blogging from the Metro-North Railroad

Alright K, you asked for it... so I figured its about time to resurrect this... at least for my 3 week vacation.

But actually, this story started one week ago when my cousin Юля (Julia) arrived in NYC. (Photos to come...)

And now Julia and I are on the train to the ever exciting little town in Connecticut where we're stopping over for a Russian celebration of the 50th birthday of a family friend. But that's just a rest stop on our way to Mont Tremblant.