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Hello friends and family!

We’re now almost to our three week mark here in Moscow and thought we’d take a few minutes to post an update.

So to the first issue… and everyone’s asking. It’s cold! It snows every few days and the temperatures range from about 30 degrees Fahrenheit to almost -20 on the cold nights with the wind chill. Our down coats and heavy boots are doing wonders, though, and we went fur hat shopping the first weekend we got here. So, with our US gear and our new mink hats we’re warm even in the wilds of the Russian winter. The dogs needed new snow boots to match their polar fleece jackets (try communicating in a pet store with a vocab of 20 words that your dogs need snow boots!), but now they’re enjoying their time outside. Clifton is another story. He’s taken immediately to the house, in no small part due to the wonderful heated floors which are fabulous for frosty felines. He also has established a hideaway from the dogs in the bottom shelf of Vince’s armoire.

The day after we arrived, I was put right into a language class that meets twice a week at the embassy, so I spent my first few weeks attempting to design my own intensive course… and so far so good. I have been able to get around on the metro and grocery shop without any trouble and the Russians don’t mind at all that I’m mangling their language. In fact, despite their reputation (some of the Americans in our community have had bad experiences) the Russians have been nothing but nice and even talkative and friendly to us. Who knows, but so far I’ve attributed it to our not standing out too much as American and our willingness to try to speak Russian.

I think the strangest thing of all is that within our gated community (like a compound) we might as well be in Cleveland. Our house is a three story, three bedroom furnished townhouse. There is a downstairs study/family room that can close off to become a guest suite with a pull out sofa. On the second floor we have an eat-in kitchen, formal living room and dining room. On the third floor there is a divided staircase leading one direction to the master bedroom and bath and the other to two smaller rooms (one is my office) and a full bath. We don’t have a cable for Vince’s camera to upload pictures yet, but our social sponsors Joe and Robin took pictures of their house this fall and our house and furnishings almost exactly like theirs… check it out by clicking here: Joe and Robin's House

Almost everyone on our street and the next street over is American and working for the embassy and the rest of the community is occupied by Canadians, American oil executives, IKEA executives, and a few ‘oligarch’ type Russians. Within the community we receive the Moscow Times, the English language daily paper, free in the morning as well as free cable television with about 20 English/American channels. There is a small grocery store on the compound, and they run a shuttle bus to the metro which is then only a few stops from the embassy and downtown attractions. The embassy compound is then another ‘little America’ with a commissary, gym facilities, a cafeteria, apartment complexes, and a bar. It was more than a little disconcerting for me to realize I could spend years here and never really know or experience Russia. After one week of ‘compound life’ I started getting claustrophobic and began touring through the city a bit more on my own.

On that note, Moscow seems to be a modern European city… if not more lively and exciting than many we’ve seen. The downtown area is glamorous, full of lights, and a bit touristy with high end shopping and fancy restaurants and hotels. We’ve been to one Uzbek, one Georgian, and one German restaurant already and they were all fantastic. The suburbs are maybe a little more crowded and there seem to be some soviet-style apartment buildings, but I have yet to see anything truly awful excepting the traffic, which can be bumper to bumper and completely immobile for hours. There is a mega mall not far from our home in Pokrovsky which boasts an IKEA, a Macy’s-like department store, a Home-Depot type store, a Costco-like store, and other typical mall-like shops (Benetton, Adidas, shoe stores, etc.) So, we’re certainly not wanting for “things.”

Vince is now fully in swing at work and our first embassy event will be next weekend out at the embassy’s vacation house (the Russians call them ‘dachas’). The party is to celebrate the end of winter, but I’m not placing any bets. :) The ambassador’s wife is also hosting a women’s luncheon the following week at their residence, the Spaso House, so by that time I hope to know more about the international women’s organizations here in town… apparently a big deal among professional women and should be good for networking.

Finally, effective this week my Moscow office is fully up and running and I expect to be busy with work. Vince and I hope you will take advantage of our new Vonage line to give us a call: 703-521-6996 (this is our old home number and you dial it just as you would if we were in the States). Within the next few weeks my old cell phone number 202-302-5914 will also be routed to this phone. Anytime before 3PM EST reaches us if we are home and please leave us a voicemail if we’re not. For those of you who do not have it, I’ve also included our APO address below. This is a US address that reaches us here and standard postal rates apply.

We miss you all and hope we’ll see some of you here as the weather gets warmer!

Katherine


Our address:

PSC 77 (Con)
APO, AE 09721