A Trip to the Big City

About a week after we arrived back in Russia, Shane was required to travel to Bryansk, to a government building to sign a paper. Whenever we make our 8-hour van trip to or from the airport in Moscow, we pass by Bryansk, but our drivers never stop. So, we made a family trip out of it.
 
If I remember that day correctly, the drive to Bryansk from our house took about an hour and a half. Our company interpreter lives there, so instead of catching the company commute to our farm that day, he stayed in Bryansk and we met him at a bus stop. I jumped in the back seat with the girls and held Echo on my lap. It was a double bonus for her--she got to get out of her carseat, AND she got to sit on Mom's lap.
 
First, a small introduction of our interpreter is necessary. His name is Dima, and we are very lucky to have him as our interpreter. He was born in Kazakhstan, where he lived for the first 5 years of his life. Then he and his family moved to Bryansk. He is very intelligent and a good friend to our family. He helped navigate Shane through traffic, which is more than a little tricky. But we arrived at the government building without as much as a fender bender. Whew!


Shane and Dima in the front navigating traffic.

 
We went in the building and entered a hallway with chairs facing some office doors. There were several men seated on the chairs in the hall, apparently waiting their turn for an appointment. We walked up and down the hall a couple times as Dima made a few inquiries. The men waiting in the hallway watched our comical procession up and down the hall until we also took a seat. No sooner were we seated when Mesa told me she needed a bathroom - NOW! Dima asked for one, but without success, and since we were waiting for an appointment, we couldn't exactly leave to look for one.
 
Now, this topic needs to be expounded upon a little more so you can appreciate my situation. One of my frustrations here is that it doesn't matter where I am, sooner or later, one of the girls will need a bathroom. And when it happens, it's as if the girls just asked me to go skydiving or something, since I am struck with something akin to a small panic attack. It's not exactly like Walmart, or the local grocery store, where there are restrooms publicly marked, fairly easy to find, and you can ask any associate, in English, and they will point the way. But no, here I am instantly sent on an Indiana Jones endeavor to find some semblance of a porcelain throne, in a different country and in a foreign language. And I know that I have about T minus 42 seconds from the time they ask before it's too late, and to top it off, when one girl says the magic word, ALL THREE have to come, TOO!
 
So, back to the moment where I am sitting in this hallway, with several Russian men scattered up and down the hallway, no restroom in sight, and I am in the middle of the city. It's not exactly like I can pull over and find a bushy sagebrush. So, I grab Mesa's hand, demand that Shane keep Rain and Echo, and I troop bravely back out of the building, without the slightest clue of what I am going to do. I look around me as I walk back towards our truck, pseudo-confidently, as if I know what I'm doing. I glance around at the cars parked around me, the people loitering about, the apartment buildings across the street. And since I knew I was running out of time and ideas, I marched Mesa over to our truck, tried to shield her as much as possible and we did our business by the tire. Breathing a quick sigh of relief, and with a little squirt of hand sanitizer, we headed back to the building. We walked pass the men, still waiting, and before I even sat down, Rain insisted she needed to go as well. Out we went again, same routine, and then back into the building. Only this time, by the time we got back in, Shane, Dima, and the other girls were gone. I had no idea where they went, how long they would be gone, or what I was supposed to do. So we just sat in our little chairs and waited. Thankfully, it wasn't too long before they returned, and that was it. Papers signed, and Shane had his official employment card for the Bryansk region.
 
Next, shopping. We decided to try some of the bigger stores in the area since there would be more selection, AND we were armed with an interpreter. My first item to find was a bookshelf. I really wanted something to help me organize the house. But our search was mostly in vain. Most of the stores didn't carry any, or there was only one odd style in the inventory, or it was outrageously priced. There was one store where we almost purchased one, but it would take about 4 weeks to get it produced at the factory, and then Shane would have to go back to Bryansk to pick it up. Not exactly a feasible option. So we decided to wait. I thought about just making my own with some plain old lumber, but Dima, nor his father whom he called, knew of anyplace in the city that sold lumber. Really? Maybe the DIY trend hasn't quite hit our area yet. Perhaps I ought to open a Home Depot here. “You Can Do It, We Can Help”

After that, it was lunch time. Dima took us to an awesome little restaurant called Pizza Hat. No, that's not a typo. It was a Mexican-themed pizza place. There was a huge sombrero hat on the building, and inside was all western decor. I should have taken a picture. But sorry, amigo, no burritos, taquitos, or nachos sold here. But, they made a very excellent Russian pizza. We bought two, and some cheese-stuffed rolls that were excellent.


Yay for food that was almost like home! The girls had fun eating out.

 

 

And believe it or not, the mural on the wall was . . . The Grand Canyon. It was almost as if I was home. We ate until we were stuffed and then left to do our grocery shopping.


Mural on wall at the restaurant

I can't remember the name of this particular grocery store at which we shopped, but it was by far the biggest one we have visited thus far. I would've taken pictures, but there was a sign forbidding it. I didn't want to cause problems, especially after security at the door got after us for putting the girls in the body of the cart, and not in the seat. Oops.

We had only passed down the first aisle and guess what . . . yep, the girls needed the bathroom again. This time I took them both to save time, and Dima gave me directions. I still had a little trouble finding it because they are usually unmarked and in odd locations. I asked some lady associates on break, and one of them took pity on me and pointed the way, and even threw me the roll of toilet paper sitting by her. This was good because I hadn't restocked my purse supply of wipes/TP. Just a tip: bring your own toilet paper because more than likely there won't be any in the stall. And don’t bother checking the hand paper towel slot, they are gone, too. (One time the girls Mom was lucky because I had a small pack of Kleenex's in my purse. Lesson learned.)

We all finally rejoined Shane and Dima who had made it through half of the store. I was quite disappointed that I was missing the guided tour Dima was giving us. Half the time, I'm not sure what I'm buying, and so I was really anxious to find more familiar products, like sour cream, cream cheese, etc. And he was giving good advice about which products to avoid, how to check the expiration dates, etc. I wanted to take notes. But it was not to be because Echo had a messy diaper and it had started to leak through her clothes. The diaper bag was in the truck, so off I went again, out to the parking lot to change her. By the time I got back in, it was really pointless to jump back into the conversation. The shopping was mostly done, and the girls were tired of walking around. So, we checked out and left.

Dima was good about pointing out landmarks and such as we drove. I was not so good at writing them down.


Russian Theatre for Young People

 


Monument?

 


I'll have to ask again which building this one is. I think it was another theater.

 


Just city snapshots

 

 


Typical Russian apartment building

 

 


Little shops along the road

 


It was nice to have someone else to take a picture for us. I rarely get in front of the camera. Thanks, Dima!

 


The girls loved the pigeons. Echo is getting so big. You can see she is actually "running" with the big girls.

 


I wish I had pulled out some bread so they could feed the pigeons. Next time.

 


War monument

 


Another family picture. Yes, Rain is pouting.

It would have been fun to sightsee more, since we never get to Bryansk, but the girls were tired, and I think Shane was done driving in traffic. So we ran a quick errand with Dima and then we dropped him off at the Miratorg office buildings. We got to meet the ladies in the HR department that I correspond with frequently, but have never met personally. They liked our girls and gave them each a water bottle for the ride back home.
 
 
It was another fun adventure, even with our restroom escapades as well. Another note to ease some worries about the public restrooms. You might remember the post with “The Hole”, but fear not, most of the restrooms we have found since then do not even come close to that. In fact, some are quite nice. I’ve included a picture of a restroom at the furniture outlet stores. The only thing I couldn’t quite understand, was why they chose to finish the ceiling in flat reflective metal slats. One only needed to look up and see a very clear reflection of everything in the two stalls on the left, as well as the right. I thought it an odd choice of finish and was glad we were the only occupants at the time.
 


Very respectable restroom facilities



I should have turned the flash off before I took the picture, but you get the idea. Every stall is clearly reflected onto the ceiling 

Well, that’s it for now. There are so many things to post, but they will have to wait until later.

P.S. I apologize that my photos are getting blurry. My children loved my camera too much and now my lens is worn and leaves a fuzzy circle in the middle of my pictures. Maybe Santa will fix my lens for Christmas. =)

A Taste of Russian Driving

Like I have said before, Russians are crazy drivers. I'm not sure I can even articulate how nerve-racking it is to drive sometimes. Shane's wreck was as close as I want to get to experiencing the negative side of sharing the road here. In fact, just yesterday, there was a wreck by our house, almost exactly where Shane's was. Unfortunately, this one ended badly. From what information I gathered, it sounded like a guy on a motorbike was squished between two vehicles and did not survive. It was just on the other side of the trees from me, and I didn't hear a thing. I only saw all the officials on the road and in the trees by my house for hours after it occurred. Very sad.

So, on a more positive note, I want to share some of my favorite "Russian driving" videos I have been collecting that illustrate my point. Especially since the still-photo pictures I've been taking of our close calls, just don't do it justice.

**Disclaimer: For any of you that speak Russian, please do not hold me responsible if there is any foul language in any of the clips. I wouldn't know to censor it. =) **

Source


Here is another one.

Source


And I just can't wait for winter driving and then we can try and survive this:

Our awesome interpreter shared a couple more links to Russian driving, so I had to add another one.

I have my "Russian Driver's License" but I just don't know if I'm quite up to driving yet.

A Lesson in Honesty, But So Much More

The other day on the way back from the barn where we were visiting Dad, the girls and I stopped to pick some wild flowers, since most of the ones by our house have since been mowed. In the midst of the plants, I found a 100 Ruble bill, which roughly equates to $3.21USD. No, it isn't very much money by some standards, but I thought it was probably one of the worker's lunch money and it would be a good opportunity to teach the girls about honesty. I showed the girls the bill, and helped them reason through the situation. "Look what I found, girls. I wonder whose money this is. Someone is probably feeling sad because they lost their money. This isn't our money. We should try to find out whose money this is." And so on.

We decided to turn it into the farm office which was close by. Shane happened to meet back up with us and we all walked to the office. We turned it into the secretary, Tatiana, who looked at it a little confused, and promptly called our interpreter. After some discussion back and forth on the phone, she and the other office personnel started laughing. Now I was a little confused. At the end of the conversation we came to the conclusion that it was fake Russian money--play money like Monopoly or something. We all had a good laugh and left. Rain was ecstatic because now she could keep the money.

As I was thinking about the incident later, I thought how much better it was to be honest and try to return it, only to look a little foolish, rather than to have thought it was too trivial of an amount to trifle with returning, put in my wallet, and then use it at the grocery store. The legal repurcussions from that scenario might not have been as laughable. An American trying to use counterfeit money at a Russian grocery store--probably would have ended with more serious consequences. At the very least, I would have had very hard time explaining to the cashier that I had no idea it was fake money. I probably would have been too mortified to shop at that particular store again. So, bottom line, honesty saved me from a very bad situation.

Anyone care to venture a guess on which is the real bill?


Exhibit A

 

Exhibit B

 Here are some front and back shots of the real and fake bills next to each other. The differences become more apparent. For example, the size of the fake bill is slightly smaller. Obviously you can't feel the difference on the screen, but the fake bill was also more paper-y, rather than having that cloth/fabric feel of real money. Also the fake bill has little red letters on the bottom of one side of the bill. The little shiny security strip that runs vertically was only black ink on the fake bill. Also the words are slightly different at the bottom. The real one, the bottom one in this picture says: сто рублей, which means 100 rubles. The fake one, the top one, I think says сто дублей. So, one character difference on that line. The top right line says: БИЛЕТ БАНКА ПРИКОЛОВ, which Google tells me translates to "Bank Account fun" while the correct bill reads: БИЛЕТ БАНКА РОССИИ, which Google translates as "Russia Bank Account". Other than that, there aren't many more differences and it definitely fooled us.

Counterfeit bill is on the bottom

Counterfeit bill is on the top

Answer: Exhibit B is the real deal.

I'm thankful I was trying to teach my girls to be honest.

Russian Charades: Or In Other Words, How Well I Understand Russian

How well Shane understands Russian and vice versa.
Scenario: The tire on the truck was low. We stopped at an auto store on the way to do our shopping in Pochep. Shane gets out and goes in the door.
Shane: My tire is low. I need some air in it.
Attendant: Garble, garble, garble, garble. (Runs out, grabs the air hose, runs to our tire, and airs it up).
We leave and go to our next stop. End of story.

How well Star understands Russian and vice versa.
Scenario: The light switch in the girls' bedroom hasn't worked since the first week we arrived in Russia, the first time. We assumed it was just a burnt out bulb and we kept forgetting to request a new one at the farm office. Our bedroom light is also a little finicky. Sometimes it turns on, others times it doesn't. But after a quick little punch on the switch, and voila, it works.

We spotted some new bulbs in a store one day, so we picked up a couple. We replaced the bulb in the entry, which was also burnt out, and now it works great. We replaced the bulb in the girls' room... and still nothing. We deduced it was a faulty connection because if you pound on their wall, the ceiling light flickers.

So, a quick call to maintenance and soon two Russians came to work on my lights and our leaky toilet. (By the way, they are getting very good at knocking and WAITING until I come answer the door). I showed them that the girls' switch won't turn on at all, but with a little force, ours will come on. One of the workers smiled knowingly, and laughingly said, "something something Rusky something." I smiled, nodded, and went back to the kitchen.

A little while later Mesa came running up the hall, crying hysterically, "Mommy, I don't like them tearing our wall down." I told her they were just fixing her light, which she accepted more calmly.

Soon, the two workers motioned me back to the girls' room where I could see a newly-installed switch, which now appeared to be working. This is how our next conversation played out:

Russian 1: "Garble, garble, garble, garble." (Pointing at the new switch on the wall and waving the broken one in his hand) 
Me: "Ah, you fixed it. Thank you very much."
Both Russians: (Shaking their heads) "(No), нет, garble, garble, garble."
Me: "Oh, it's still broken?"
Russian 2: (Reaching in his pocket, pulling out some money, and waving it at me) "Garble, garble, garble, garble."
Me: "Oh, you need some money. Okay, let me just grab my wallet" (Thinking to myself: Wait, duh, what am I thinking? I don't pay maintenance. Really, Star, are you that gullible?!)
Both Russians: (Shaking heads, talking very animatedly): "Garble, garble, garble, garble, garble, garble!"
Me: " OHHHHH, you need to go to town to buy a new light switch. Ahhhh, yes, okay. Sounds like a good plan. Thank you. (Thinking: if you had just taken me to the other room where there was still a hole in the wall where a light switch was missing, instead of standing me in front of the switch you had just fixed, I might have been able to cut our conversation in half, and not look like I'm a few fries short of a Happy Meal).

There and Back Again

Sorry this blog has been radio silent for awhile. Our temporary visas were expiring so we packed our bags, hopped in a company van at about 10 PM Saturday night, July 28th and headed out.

 



Visiting the horses while we waited for the van to pick us up



The girls love feeding the horses wheat



Rain's turn





Mesa's turn for a ride

 

Echo had two turns, of course





We drove all night, dozing whenever we could, being slammed out of our seats, or into our seat belts for those who had them, periodically throughout the drive as we navigated normal Russian traffic.



Mesa all curled up and ready for the van ride to Moscow



We actually made great time driving at night and arrived at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow only 7 hours later. We checked our bags, went through security, grabbed some breakfast, and boarded our Aeroflot flight to New York. We sat on the tarmac for about an hour, apparently waiting on the food? Echo slept for the delay, but awoke right in time for takeoff. Joy.



Luckily Echo was right on the borderline weight acceptance for the stowaway cribs the airplane provides, and I was thankfully positioned on the coveted row 11, which allowed for crib use. This provided amazing relief to my arms and sit-bones by having a couple hours break from holding her for the almost-9-hour-flight.



Echo in her airplane crib. Yay for a break!



We only had about a 3.5 hour layover in NY before we boarded our next flight to SLC. And after the hour delay from the last flight we were cutting it close. Aeroflot notified the airport of our delay and those with immediate connecting flights were allowed off the plane first and sped through Customs, Check-in, Security, and on to our next flight gate. We arrived at our gate just in time for them to start boarding our next plane.









All the girls at the window



Rain in SVO airport waiting for our plane to get to the gate



Whenever we have a luggage cart, this is Echo's preferred seat. The times we don't have a luggage cart, and she sees one, she still tries to go sit on it and get a ride.



Even though we were rushing to catch our connecting flight from JFK to SLC, I still did not miss the incredible feeling I had from the time New York harbor came into view until we were processed through Customs. I had an overwhelming feeling that I belonged here, and that I am so blessed to live in such a special country. I am even more stirred to protect our freedoms which are in such jeopardy. God Bless America!



We boarded our flight and also had another delay at the gate for at least another 45 minutes. But then we were airborne, and 5 hours later, we landed in Salt Lake City at about 10 PM. It is always quite an experience to travel for so many hours, and still arrive the same day that we left. 

Rain's face just about sums up our energy level after landing in Salt Lake



We were going to head out that evening in a rental car to stay with family in Dayton, ID, but 2 pieces of our luggage had been sent out on the next flight and wouldn't be arriving for a couple of hours.  Delta said they would deliver them to Dayton for us, which astounded me, but we thought it was a good excuse to stay the night and get a good night's sleep before driving again. It was by far a smarter decision. We were beat and I don't think the kiddos would have appreciated being confined for even 10 more minutes, let alone a couple hours.



The next morning we were well-rested, had a good meal in our tummies, and were ready to head out. It was fun to visit family and enjoy some good American food--namely hamburgers. After going 2 months without beef, I was really craving a good, juicy hamburger with all the fixins'. Unfortunately, my body rebelled and was so bloated after eating a couple hamburgers throughout the next couple days, that I switched back to chicken sandwiches, salads, and such. I think there might be something to eating meat sparingly.



The girls and I hitched a ride home with my younger brother on Thursday night, while Shane stuck around with the rental car and for another ride home since he didn't fit in the car with us. He also took our Birth Certificates and Marriage Certificate to the State Capitol so they could get some special notary seal called an Apostille. Not sure how it's critical, but Miratorg needed it, "so let it be written, so let it be done."



Shane had his invitation letter in hand for his work visa which will last for the remainder of our time here. But the girls and I still needed to apply for temporary visas again. We had a lot of delays in our visas this time around, not any of which was our fault. The company has a policy that if you unnecessarily extend your stay in the US while renewing visas, they will stop paying you until you return. Well, this happened to us, even though the visa company was mostly to blame. Not to mention the fact that the invitation letter that was sent with Shane is written entirely in Russian, without any instructions about which line to copy to which line in the visa application. But I wrote up a nice timeline showing the delays, the promptness in which we responded to each delay, and how we had done all we could to speed up the process. They acknowledged it was not our fault and paid us. Sigh of relief, because outfitting the entire family in winter apparel, and traveling in general is expensive. We received our paycheck (Thank you Julia!), only 2 days before flying back to Russia.

 

There are lots of adventures (and pictures) to post of our 6 weeks in the States which will have to wait until a later post. It was so good to be home among family and friends.



On the reverse, it is strange to lose a day in traveling. We flew out late Sunday night, September 16th, caught our connecting flight in NY, arrived in Moscow, waited an hour for our company drivers, and then had an extra long 9 hour drive back to the farms. We went to bed and woke up to Wednesday, September 19th. So strange. 



Echo entertaining herself while we waited for airport food on our trip back to Russia



The Kid Playground at Las Vegas Airport



Love this little face!



 

The girls playing on Dad during our 8-hour layover at JFK

 

Dad-Approved Entertainment

Waiting some more at JFK



Landing in Moscow at Sheremetyevo Airport



The two things that greeted us when we first walked back into our house was the smell and the flies. We had forgotten some dirty dishes in the sink when we left 6 weeks ago that we knew were going to be bad, but even after scrubbing those, the smell was inextinguishable. After a little sleuthing, we found the real culprits to be the pea trap and other such plastic drain tubes and pipes under the sink. The smell is slowly improving with each load of dishes I wash.



The second item was the flies. They were everywhere. Hoards of them were along the ceiling corners and doorways, but even more of them were dead - EVERYWHERE. All the floors were littered with their little black carcasses. And the remaining population must have mutated in our absence, because now they have become a horrid little biting army. Normal little house flies that bite! Hard. They leave bite marks that swell and itch. Even Shane, who is typically unbothered by mosquitoes, horse flies, and other large pests, has been plagued with fly bites.

Flies camped out all over the house

 

Notice all the black spots on the floor.

 

A quick sweep of the floor in one room

Mesa and Echo must have both picked up a bug before we left because they both started to get sick on Thursday. I think it might be croup. Mesa has a more severe case. Between hot shower/sauna treatments and what medicine we have on hand, we will see if we can beat this, because basically we are on our own medically. It really is a blessing how much confidence the Gospel gives us. There is no way I would have attempted this adventure without having the Priesthood with us. I'm so thankful that Shane is a worthy holder of the Priesthood and that the Lord blesses us so much with its power.



Now we are finishing unpacking and settling back into the routine here. Shane has jumped right back in and has been busy every day with preg-checking and moving cows in and out to pasture. The girls and I have been fighting jet lag and illness, as well as jumping right in to our next challenge: Homeschooling.



But that's enough for now. We are alive and well. 

Knock, Knock, Who's There?

There is something odd we have run into since we have been here. I don't know if it's a cultural thing or not, but the Russians walk right into our house, often without so much as a knock.

It's a mite unsettling to turn around and suddenly have a Russian man standing in your kitchen babbling to you about something, which is exactly what happened the other day.

Shane was gone for the day. I was washing dishes at the sink and subconsciously noticed a man walk across the driveway through the view of the window. Not thinking much of it, I continued to wash. A moment later, the front door slammed and I turned around to see an middle-aged man turn the corner and walk into my kitchen. He kept talking to me in Russian, even though I stared at him blankly and helplessly shrugged my shoulders. I just kept saying "I don't understand" [я не понимаю] which is so far the only complete sentence I know. I kept trying to direct him outside to the office building, but enough time had passed with him trying to talk to me, that the security guard had made it to our house and answered the man's questions and escorted him out of our house. I locked the doors the rest of the day.

I asked an interpreter later if that there was a rhyme or reason to people just walking in without knocking, and she was confused as I was. She said in the villages visitors knock first and wait to be let in. So, it is still a mystery as to why they walk into our house at the farm unannounced.

We have talked to the construction people that are continually working on our house and they typically give a quick knock AND THEN walk in. The knock is a nice warning, however short it is. I try to just meet them at the door so that it doesn't traumatize my girls when one of them walks out of the bedroom smack into a foreign-speaking stranger. But I have been caught off-guard before. After having a late night of visiting with family back home on the phone, I went to bed and woke up to Rain telling me there were people in the house. Always an awkward moment, especially when they come looking for you if you don't immediately appear.

Although drinking is not allowed on the job, smoking is another story. The construction crew was working on our house again the other day and among the 10 or so workers, one of them was smoking every 5 minutes, directly next to our open windows. [Russian cigarettes stink worse than American ones.] So I went outside with my handy-dandy Russian traveling companion book and in my broken, laughable Russian, I asked them to please not smoke around my house and my children. They were polite and after that, they would smoke across the road by their shuttle van. 

They are respectful and always try to get my girls to smile. The girls found a small section of our driveway that had some sand in it and were playing "garden". Some of the workers who were hauling sand to build up around our house, saw the girls playing in their small pile of sand and hauled two wheelbarrow-fulls for the girls to play in. Another one gave them a ride in the wheelbarrow around the house.

The Girls' Garden.
Shane took this picture one night after he came home from work. The girls are always worried he will drive over their garden.

Playing in the Garden

A much bigger-sized sand pile

Perfect decorations always at our fingertips

Castle and dolls eating

Rain getting a wheelbarrow ride

Mesa being "brave". She even told me afterwards she was "so brave to go for a ride." This is true for two reasons: 1. Going for a ride in a wheelbarrow all by herself, and 2. Getting the ride from a stranger.