P.S. (that's for "pre-script") Am I back on the blogging bandwagon? I'm not sure yet. All I know is that I've got a lot of pictures (mostly baby related), and I need to do something with them. If that happens to work out as blogging, well then... lucky you! I'll try to give them to you a little at a time. With that being said...
I left Moscow 7 1/2 months pregnant with my three other kids in tow.
Dave rode with us in the taxi and helped us get checked in at the airport.
I left Moscow 7 1/2 months pregnant with my three other kids in tow.
Dave rode with us in the taxi and helped us get checked in at the airport.
It was the last day in January. It was about 3 degrees farenheit (if I remember correctly), and it was 9am. Good bye snow. Good bye dark mornings.
It was probably this light outside at 6am today (I don't get up until 6:30, but when I'm up with Neil at 4, it's starting to get dusky). I will never get over the light/dark here.
Good bye rynok.
(there are places like this all over the city. from what I understand, up until about 5-10 years ago, this is how everyone did all their shopping. now there are a lot of malls and markets. a lot. like a tiny little mall every few blocks. it can be very convenient, or very frustrating. like today I need to buy some western boots for evelynn, and i'm not sure where to look. I certainly am not going to check every little mall I know.)
Good bye traffic. I won't miss you.
Good bye shapka (hat).
(this is supposed to be a sly picture of my driver wearing his hat, which of course he would never take off. even though it was roasting in the car. shopping in Moscow kills me in the wintertime. they crank up the heat, but everyone keeps their coats on. I've tried it. I don't know how they do it. I have to carry my coat.)
A long flight, three months in beautiful, clean, convenient Utah, and then a long flight back.
We have always moved around a lot. I think we have only lived in one other place for more than a year, so this place has really started to feel like home, and I was excited to come back! Of course, this is the weather we came back to:
Hello guy on the side of the road.
When I very first got to Moscow, I wasn't sure what to expect. I had a few guesses and I was wrong about a lot of them. The guy peeing on the side of the road though? I was exactly right about that. It was one of the first things I saw. This guy is at least going up to the egde of the trees for some reason. Maybe he is not going to pee. I've never seen someone make that much of an effort. (should I be saying urinate?)
We have always moved around a lot. I think we have only lived in one other place for more than a year, so this place has really started to feel like home, and I was excited to come back! Of course, this is the weather we came back to:
Hello guy on the side of the road.
When I very first got to Moscow, I wasn't sure what to expect. I had a few guesses and I was wrong about a lot of them. The guy peeing on the side of the road though? I was exactly right about that. It was one of the first things I saw. This guy is at least going up to the egde of the trees for some reason. Maybe he is not going to pee. I've never seen someone make that much of an effort. (should I be saying urinate?)
Hello Moscow sign! I've always wanted a good picture of you!
Hello hot water heaters. I don't remember you being painted so nicely. Maybe that is new.
This is how they heat the hot water for the whole city (can you see the steam?). And I haven't confirmed it, but I'm pretty sure they run the pipes of hot water under the roads. I've seen the snow melted in funny patterns before. And they shut the hot water off two or three times a year in an orderly fashion around the city for maintenance, etc. We have our own hot water heater, so we don't ever have to worry about it. Our driver on the way home was very talkative, and made sure to point out that these were not nuclear.
Hello thousands of apartments.
a) check out the Russian style truck
b) check out the bus stop on the side of this road, which is effectively a freeway
c) there are these little mini cities of a ton of huge apartment buildings all around the outskirts of the city. Moscow doesn't feel like a really big city, but there are so. many. people. These are just the apartments outside the outermost ring road (of which there are three complete, and one partial). There are also aparments all over the city.
It's so crazy.
And now we are packing up and getting ready to leave for good.
And as crazy, and different, and inconvenient, and sometimes hard as it has all been, it has been amazing. We have definitely made some great memories here in Moscow.
