I GOT THREE CARE PACKAGES THIS MONTH!!! it's beyond incredible. first that they made it here (two took over a month). and second how absolutely fantastic they made me feel. (btw, this is NOT a passive aggressive way of saying please send some, not at all. there is a massive risk they won't make it.). anyway, so i got a wonderful birthday surprise from my friend melissa. it was a package of my fave all natural red licorice that you can only find in dan's grocery store in park city, ut. well, at least i know it is there. then, i got a package sent by my friend alex with all kinds of goodies in it! the best was a package of what once were brownies. they were double-bagged but had been stabbed to death (not kidding, there were knife slashes in the bags!) to make sure there wasn't anything hidden in them. so it turned out to be a bag of crumbled brownie mix. and thinking i could roll it into balls and fry them. fried brownies! they were a hit at this year's fair. here's a pic of the bag:
alex also sent me nail polish, some magazines (ENGLISH!) and a fantastic scarf. super happy. and THEN bridgette sent me a package with MORE goodies! among them: luna bars (THANK YOU!), a grey v-neck t-shirt (love it) and some natural cosmetics. absolutely fantastic. i love it all. i have the best friends!!! yes, i can get approximations of a lot of that stuff here, but it's not the same as the stuff from home. plus, the best part is, it is from my friends. and it's the thought put into the packages as much as the items.
anyway, the weekend i arrived back from iowa was a very summery one. this is probably the bluest sky i've seen the whole time i've been here! gorgeous! this is one of stalin's seven sister buildings...it is the old hotel ukraine, right across the river from me. this is from a walk to the grocery store i took the day i arrived back as a tactic to keep myself awake until bedtime.
another pic from that walk. this is the russian white house. it's a LOT bigger than ours. but i hear it's what's more important is not the size, but how you use it... :)
these are inflatable giant matrushkas. they were part of the entertainment for the IAAF world championships held in Moscow at the stadium where the 1980 Olympic Games were held.
and here's the stadium! it's gynormous.
this is reporters trailing after usain bolt after he helped jamaica win the men's 4x100 relay.
this is part of the american team after they got 2nd place. or maybe 3rd...i can't remember.
this is tamara and i in the sochi OCOG offices being sochi mascots.
this car is for sale. it is 99,000 rubles. that is $3000. WAAAAYYY too much for this partially saran-wrapped vehicle.
this is an amazing amount of food at a georgian cafe near work. pizza's and hatchapori (basically stuffed pizza, or bread. usually stuffed with cheese, but can also be meat, spinach, cabbage, etc). super tasty.
this is jason all russian'd out drinking vodka and with a plate of pickled veggies.
ragtime band that we see regularly. new orleans-style jazz. extremely good. all russian, but they sing in english. very fun.
my best attempt thus far at making turkish coffee!! however, i will say my motivation has diminished since a cute new coffeeshop opened around the corner from my house...now i just go there every morning. and after 4 days i'm a regular! they know my order when i walk in. i love it. and i speak only russian to them!
this is the view from my bedroom. it was a foggy, cold day this day. i'm told this is what september is like. and october even worse. and then it snows.
jess rubbing the nose of a dog sculpture for good luck!
super fun cocktails at an underground (both physically and figuratively) bar. the bar scene here is pretty fun. lots of places make very unusual cocktails...with thyme, rosemary, lots of different kinds of fruits and berries, star anise, etc. it's really fun to test them all!
means "i love moscow." i kinda do a little bit. or at least have a soft place in my heart for it, as tough a city as it is.
our colleage steph photo-bombing my pic of a car with POLAR BEARS painted on the side. it's amazing what these folks choose to paint on their cars. i wonder what this says..."i'm from siberia?"
anyway, so some shots of our end of summer activities here in m-town. hoping for a few more days of sun coming up. trying to plan a hiking trip down to lake baikal in september for a few days on a short tour (which is actually in siberia!! but i bet you didn't know siberia extends very far south...so it won't be the frozen tundra yet). trying to enjoy myself before we go into rehearsal lock down. squeezing out the last drops of summer in the city!
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