It can be cold here too

-11C (13F)

From just now:

J: gah, it's so cold

i feel bad for you having to walk all the way across the street all the time

me: that's why i'm still in my PJs in bed :)

working a little

J: haha, man... my eyeballs are still thawing

Moscow photos

here

So pretty, but kind of cold.

Back in the USSR?!?

My apartment has no water right now! It has internets, but no running water! As in, I open the faucet and nothing comes out!

Thanks God there are showers at work and that work is across the street.

It's comfortably the same

Yup, sleeping the whole flight was a bad idea, which is why I was putting together a kitchen cart until 1am last night. Got about 5 hours of sleep and was pretty useless most of the day :(, but I stayed up until now and now it's time for bed!

Definition of the day:
ALWAYS - all the time starting from the day I met MT.

One more batch of photos coming soon...

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

I finished The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera on the plane. I enjoyed it.

Here's a quote, if you haven't read it and care then don't read on.

Human time does not turn in a circle; it runs ahead in a straight line. That is why man cannot be happy; happiness is the longing for repetition.
Yes, happiness is the longing for repetition, Tereza said to herself.
When the chairman of the collective farm took his Mefisto out for a walk after work and met Tereza, he never failed to say, "Why did he come into my life so late, Tereza? We could have gone skirt chasing, he and I! What woman could resist these two little pigs?" at which point the pig was trained to grunt and snort. Tereza laughed each time, even though she knew beforehand exactly what he would say. The joke did not lose its charm through repetition. On the contrary. In an idyllic setting, even humor is subject to the sweet law of repetition.

Real hot chocolate!

Or maybe hot, real chocolate is more appropriate. Melted goodness!

And I'm back...

The 10 hour 50 minute flight was a breeze. I managed to completely pass out before take off and was very surprise to be woken up and be offered drinks. I slept most of the way home, which was probably a bad idea. Guess we'll see tonight :).

New York's the same as when I left. Back to normal life tomorrow.

Good bye Moscow

I must say Siberia treated be nicer than Moscow though we did get some sunshine yesterday. It's "dubak" here, which apparently doesn't have a good English translation, but as Julia so elegantly put it: "It means really REALLY cold!" :)

Yesterday we spent the day walking around Tsaritsino, took some beautiful photos (which I'll hopefully be able to get off of Julia's camera today), then ate some borsht as a Ukranian restaurant (the same one we went to on my first day Moscow - it's coming full circle). At 7:30pm we took a nap for 4 hours, then hung out with Julia's friends. :)

Now I must run, finish up some last minute errands and get ready for my 10 hours flight back to NYC. Miscellaneous Moscow photos will be up soon after I'm back in the states. Be home soon!

Moscow impressions

I'm liking Moscow a lot more this time around, obviously having a car and an apartment to live in helps. The city has a really old and spacious feel to it, very different from NYC. At night, I love driving down the wide six lane boulevards that are lined with street lamps. (Partially, because we've been sleeping during the day :).) These boulevards still have Christmas lights strung across them that shimmer as you drive under them. There's a Christmas tree on every little square in the city. The beautiful old churches with golden cupolas. The Kremlin with the ruby stars on top of its most intricate towers. The Red Square at night.

It's weird hearing phrases like "This is the shortest way to the restaurant, because you have to drive around the Kremlin." taken for granted.

Drinking magical tea in Il Patio:


On the Red Square:




P.S. Seems like the drivers in Moscow are getting better - have yet to see someone driving on the sidewalk.

Good bye Siberia

I had the luckiest spot during preparations for the birthday dinner. I was cutting vegetables on the counter next to my uncle who was frying up scallops. He was feeding them to me with bread and wine, deliciousness!!!

The evening was nice, a little bitter sweet, sad to leave, but in a way nice to start my trip home.

We got up at 4:00am on the 8th and went to the airport. -6C (21F) seemed warm.

Arriving in Moscow was the first time I really felt chilled at -12C (10F). Except my feet were nice and warm :)! Why is it colder here than in Siberia?!?

Last night in Novosibirsk

We're off to Moscow first thing tomorrow, but tonight we celebrate Julia's grandpa's birthday and Christmas.

Here are a few more random photos, including two photos of the sauna that we went to on the 5th. My uncle rented the sauna from 6pm - 10pm. It was absolutely gorgeous! There was a Turkish sauna room, a regular sauna room, a pool, palm trees, a barrel of ice cold water to dip yourself in after the sauna, a bathroom, a changing room, two bed rooms, a bar and a dining table. We ordered sushi for dinner.

This sauna experience was a lot less extreme and physically exhausting than the banya the night before!