Last Wednesday

Has there ever been a period of time that, if you could do it over again, you'd just skip it? Well, for us, that would be last wednesday. Or, more precisely, last wednesday evening. Around 4, I get a call from S that I need to stop over at the pharmacy to buy medication to treat head-lice. C had been given a note at school indicating that she might have head-lice. Great! You know, we've never had head-lice at home, but, move to another country where you can't read the language and you have to gesticulate to make yourself understood (you hope) and you have to buy a treatment medication for head-lice. Awesome!!

I buy the treatment and we spend a portion of the evening combing C's hair, not finding anything. Then, I get a call from a collegue of mine to go shop at the equivalent of Costco. Shure! I'm on board for that, but I just need to go to the school to take out some money at the bank machine. Hmmm, what is something bad that can happen at a bank machine...especially after it already sucked in your card? Dunno if you guessed, but the ATM chose that moment to die. I call S to let her know that I'll be delayed coming home as I'll try to contact the bank (which I was not able to reach, even with the help of the russian guard at school because the bank was closed and I should call back during working hours). Fantastic!!!

I get back home exclaming that I can't believe the bank machine ate my card as I'm opening the door and then I hear my neighbour's voice saying "Hello! I'm here!". I turn the corner to see my neighbour in a big puddle of water telling me that the washing machine broke and that S is over at their place. At the same time, C is telling me that mommy left home crying. Hmmm, what word is better than awesome? Dunno, but I would put it here. Ah well. Needless to say, I cancelled my shopping outing, (where I was to buy a bottle of wine), so our neighbour went back to his place and brought back a bottle of wine for us. Man, we are lucky to have super nice neighbours! Anyways, everything turned out okay (we got a new washer to replace the broken one) and C doesn't have head-lice. Hey, at least we can laugh about it, so that's still good!

So, as I was saying, if we could redo wednesday evening, I would just choose to skip it. Ah well. So that was it...our wednesday evening. ;-)

;-) LIL

First month done!

Well, tomorrow will be the 5th of September. We left Canada on the 5th of August, so technically, today is the last day of our first month living in Moscow. How has life treated us in the past month. All in all, I can say good. Different is also a word that comes to mind. Different is different. It is not better, it is not worse than what you are used to... different is just different. It makes things easier, I think.

So, a question that we had asked ourselves, is this posting really at the hardship level described? Our answer is absolutely yes! Without a doubt, this is a hardship post.

Yesterday, me and S found ourselves watching a sports show in english and I think most of the reason why we watched it was because it was in a language we could understand. Ah well. ;-)

We got to Skype with a few of yous and that is great! It makes us feel connected. I'll try to post a link to this blog entry on Facebook (they have just updated their privacy settings -- once again -- so we'll see how that goes. I think most of yous have the address of this blog, but for those of yous who don't, well there you go.

We miss all of yous!

;-) LIL

Me got lost!

Hello People!

Well, as the title says, me managed to get royally lost! Yesterday was my first day getting back home by metro by me lonesome. Hey, no problemo, right! I got this thing down pat. Ahhhh, so foolish was I! Usually, to get back home we take the green line. But, coming back from work, I took a different line which brings us to a different station. Well, I was sure I had to get off at a certain station, but nope...I was to get out at the station after that one! Ah well. After trying to orient myself unsuccessfully, I called Stéphanie to let her know. Luckily, I found some change in my murse (man purse) and had enough to get another ticket for the metro (which is 28 roubles - about a Canadian dollar, actually, a little bit less than that). I rode the metro back to a station where I could switch to the green line and voila... Two and a half hours after leaving work, me made my way home. Aaaahhhhhh!

So, there you have it! The one piece of advise, if you are lost, get back on the metro, stick to a route that you know.

;-) LIL

Busy weekend!

Man, we can't wait to get our car! I know its still several weeks away, but still, having our own set of wheels would be nice! It would have come in really handy this weekend, but it turned out good anyway.
Friday, we had a little get together after work and it was okay. But just as we were leaving, one of the guys told us some pretty funny stories about ordering food at restaurants. Man, turns out that ordering a simple meal is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're gonna get! ;-)

We thought of ordering a cab, but it would be about 2 hours before it got there, so we decided to metro it back home. We made it to our station okay, but we had just missed the shuttle that brings us home from the metro station. Argh... Ah well. We made it home eventually.

Saturday was the orientation session for new families at our daughters' school. Muchos nice school! As the session was done, we grabbed a bite to eat at the school's cafeteria and wouldn't you know, it was the best cafeteria food I ever ate!  We then went to see giant Russian dolls at AFI mall. Muchos nice! Coming back, we missed the shuttle again! Double Argh! But, we weren't alone in our outing and with their help we managed to grab one of the local buses and make it back home.

Today, we went to the Darwin museum. Hmmm... Turns out that chickens are more important to evolution than we thought! There were chickens everywhere! Ah well... And guess what happened once we made our way to our metro station... We missed the shuttle again! Triple Argh!!!! Ah well... all is good as we got ourselves on the same local bus and made our way home again.

And that's it! Doing some relaxing at home before everything starts again tomorrow.

Until then people!

;-) LIL

Adventures!

Hello people!

Well, have we got adventures to report! Oh, it might seem mundane to some, but believe you me, twas not for us!

Okay, so, yesterday, I had to go to the doctor's. No biggy right? Still, it was completely different from any previous experience. Things went well and fast! Now, I'm taking my anti-biotics and already feeling better! For S and C, they visited an american dental clinic for C's braces, and that was different!

For this evening, the plan was to get a cab to go do shopping and groceries. Tried twice to book a cab by phone, no go (although my second call seemed to be partly successful as they called me at home later that day). Finally, it was S who Managed to book the cab by walking down to the admin building and they booked the cabs for the evening.

Who ever thought that going shopping was an adventure? Well, it was! We were nervous before leaving, but it turned out great! We managed to do the shopping, but not the groceries (ran out of time). It is now that we realize how little russian we speak! But, already we are learning new words, like "fsio" which mean "done" or "complete".

Okay, that's it for now. Da Zavtra!

;-) LIL

Red Square

Salut tout le monde!

Well, took the Moscow metro for the first time today! Stéphanie and the girls had already taken it by themselves this week while I was at work. Wow! There are some beautiful stations! We rode the metro to Red Square. I tell ya, seeing St-Basil's cathedral peeking as you are rounding the corner is a moment I'll remember forever! There were a lot of people on the square! Also, they are setting it up for parades that will take place at the end of august! We then went for a stroll in the GUM mall which is directly off of Red Square. Wow! The place is huge! We found a little restaurant where we sampled some blinis (yum!) and also a baked potato that was out of this world (well, okay, maybe not out of this world, but definitely out of Canada). ;-) We then proceeded to make our way home (I'm not feeling too too great...started having a sore throat after we got here, but I think I'm feeling better now).

We have tasted some pretty incredible products. Russian yogurt is amazing! So is Russian bread. I drank some Kvas (also known as Children's beer) which definitely was refreshing today!

My first week of work in Russia flew by! Woah! Which is fine by moi! I just can't wait to have our own internet connection (hopefully next week) so then we can post more pictures. Currently, we are relying on our kind neighbors for sharing their internet connection. As the bandwidth is not great, we have been strolling to the AAS (the girls' school) to upload pictures as the school has free wi-fi. I know a lot of you have asked for more pictures. As soon as we can, we'll post some more! Promise!

Okay, I'll end it here for now and chat with you all later!

;-) LIL

Jetlagged!!!

First day is done. Just wish the jetlag would be done as well... ;-) Getting up in the morning why easy enough, but the afternoon was hard! It was nice getting home. This evening, more shopping!

;-) LIL