New York City - Part 3 of Holiday Home

The last part of my trip was to New York City. I have a couple of friends who live here and a few friends that just happened to be in town while I was here. This was more about seeing good friends than about seeing NYC but I still got to do tons of cool stuff.

We took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty.

My friend from University, Liz, moved to NYC two years ago. I flew from Ohio to NYC with her and she kindly let me stay at her place. I also have a friend that I met in Japan, Sara, and she put me up for a few days as well. Not to mention, Kate from the UK, flew in just to see Sara and I for the weekend. Jen and John happened to be in NYC for a friend's wedding and Janelle and Hugh were doing some sightseeing before embarking on a tour of Asia. And Emily ventured far from Poukeepsie (sp?) for the day to see us. It was a great time and can only be expressed in pictures.

A view of Manhatten from the boat.

Janelle giving those classic Japanese peace signs. A habit hard to shake.

Liz, Sara, Janelle, and Hugh.

Ellis Island.

Times Square. Commercial but nothing compared to Tokyo.The American Natural History Museum, aka, one of the greatest places in the world!

We saw a special exhibition on snakes and lizards and I think due to my glasses making me look smarter, one of the volunteers explaining stuff stuck to us like glue! (but so totally worth it!)

The shell of this turtle is huge. I wish they were still this size!

Sara, Kate, and I stood in line for the Colbert Report and got in!! We saw the legend in person! Fantastic.

Emily, Kate, and I took a stroll through Central Park. Because Kate is British, she was loving the sunshine, so we chilled in the park for some of the afternoon. Good times.

A lovely view of Central Park.

Home in Ohio - Part 1of Holiday Home

Once a year, every year, since I started living abroad, I have visited home and this year was no different. Of course, I was motivated to come by the prospects of being in my friend's wedding, getting to eat my way through New York City, and seeing my family.

Tyler and Me

I spent the first week back in good ol' Medway, Ohio with my Dad. It was as usual. I went shopping, visited the family, etc. I also went through all my old things in the back bedroom and thought of what it would be like to have this stuff out of boxes. And of course, I got to see one of my nephews, Tyler. He is my brother's son and two years old. He didn't know what to think of me but hopefully he had a fun few days of being spoiled!

Being in Ohio this year was like a breath of fresh air. The contrast of Ohio and Moscow are huge. I liked seeing all the green grass, the traffic moving quickly along, the friendly smiles, and excellent costumer service.

But being at home also makes me realize every year why I don't stay. Many people don't understand how wonderful their lives really are and don't appreciate the things around them. They live in excess and eat way, way too much food. I know that if you haven't left the United States then it is harder to understand why I am writing these things. I just don't want to get caught in that same trap. It appears that people in Ohio just sit and eat. The motivation/ambition factor is really very low. Don't people want to make their lives better? I understand there are obstacles and difficulties, but you gotta keep your eyes on the prize and look past that. And I won't accept that people's goals are to just live above poverty and shop at wal-mart, even if they aren't motivated by the same things as me. There are other kinds of motivation that lead to success. But I realize that my negative thoughts do not apply to everyone in Ohio, perhaps just to the people closest to me.

After that little rant, I would like to say there is no other place I would rather live than the US. But when I come back, I am going to bring back the things I have learned from Europe and Asia. Things like; don't waste your resources, there is never a reason to be impolite and rude, and taking an interest in things you don't understand can lead to amazing experiences.

The Wedding - Part 2 of Holiday Home

The mascot of my trip home, Bailey, the Wilder's dog. This is how I found him in the morning when I came downstairs!
So if you talked to me at all this summer you probably heard me mention that I was going to a wedding several times. I probably told you about the dress, what we were planning for her bachelorette party and etc. Needless to say I was excited! And finally the big day happened.


On August 30th, my friend Suzanne and her boyfriend Robb got married. The wedding was in Cincinnati at an old movie theatre. It was a great time. I knew that hanging out with the Wilders would be one of the best parts of my trip back to the states. So here is just small sample of the pictures taken at the wedding.

Liz, Suzanne, and Me before the bachelorette party. Liz was excited because she got to wear her beautiful beaded dress. And Liz and I picked out Suzanne's dress, surprise surprise! This is Liz, Suzanne, and Me dressed up for the rehearsal dinner. We ate tons of food and drank great wine at this restaurant called Bella Luna in Cincinnati.
The happy bride and groom.
The wedding party. Also, I got to see great people at the wedding. Andrea and Dave came and it was so nice to catch up after almost 4 years! And then I got to meet Cody's fiance Dana. They are such a lovely couple.

Dave , Me , and Andrea

Dana and Cody

Random Pictures of Parks

It has been PARK MANIA here in Moscow for me the this last month. I feel the call of mother earth and want to return to her natury goodness, so I have been visiting all the famous and close parks. Here are some of the ones I have been to.

This park is called Patriarch Ponds. It is famous because one of the scenes from Bulgakav's novel "Master and Margarita" takes place here. If you haven't read it, then you should. It is quite entertaining.

It so happened that the reason we went to Patriarch Ponds was because I wanted to feed some old bread to some ducks. Unfortuantly I learned that you can't feed the ducks here and that there in fact only one "ponds." There used to be two but the other was filled in and now has a building sitting on top of it.

In the quest to find ducks to feed on this particular day, Todd and I ventured to sokolniki park. At first we were put off by the fact that we had to pay to enter (60 Rubles!) but were delighted when we saw the form of transport depicted below. How unbelievable creepy is that train! All I can say is, "Yes, please!" The park is really quite nice. It has enough trees and open space to make you believe you have left the city. We plan on going back.

This park is called Pioneer Park. It was probably used for the young pioneers who endeavored to be like Lenin. Nowadays it is just a park. This park is neither famous or very nice but it is close to my house (25 minute walk away). I asked one of my Russian co-workers if she knew of a park within walking distance and this is what she recommended. It is a nice place to sit amoung the trees.This is Kuskovo park. A rich family used to live here and they collected porcelain and if you come before 6pm you can be the lucky guest of the porcelin museum! Lucky, indeed! Too bad for me, I arrived too late to see it. So one of my students and I walked around the pond.

And look! Ducks! And not just ducks but baby ducks! But alas, I had no bread on this day. :(

One of the most famous parksin Moscow is Park Pobedy. It was constructed to commemorate the victory over Nazi Germany.

And like any good park in Russia, it has lots of fountains!

Tula

In June Todd and I took an excursion that our company organized to the town of Tula, south of Moscow. It is famous because this is where Tolstoy lived. He owned property a bit outside of town where he lived his ascetic lifestyle.

It was a great trip. Good weather, good company, and eventually, after we got the bus running again, a comfortable ride!

Our bus. We had a nice 3o minute break on a random street in Tula.

The first stop of our trip was Yasnaya Polyana, aka, Tolstoy's estate. Todd wanted to listen to what our tour guide was saying at this point but I made him pose for a picture, look how well he fakes a smile!

Here is Tolstoy's house. Since Tolstoy was an aristocrate he was obligated to provide money or troops whenever the Tsar went to war. Well once, when he didn't have either, he sold the house he was born in and it was disassembled and carried away brick by brick. The house in this picture was one of the wings off to either side of the main house. He lived here for most of his married life.

Tolstoy also maintained a farm and they have continued to keep it up. I was trying to get close to those geese but I was afraid they would chase me!

Tolstoy owned a huge piece of land. It is quite beautiful.

Next stop: Tula Kremlin. Here is the view of it from across the street of the main entrance. Even Peter the Great had visited this Kremlin!

A view of the walls inside the Kremlin. I think that tower was used as a place to torture people.


And a video. Listen to the quiet comments of our favorite four-eyed friend!

The Developments of Spring

Spring has progressed and is almost on the verge of summer. I wish that it felt like the verge of summer but the temperature remains at a cool 65 degrees. I have always looked forward to the change in the seasons and now I long for a climate where I don't have to wear a jacket outside. There may be global warming in the rest of the world but in Moscow, it refuses to get hot.

This is the dacha.

But nonetheless I have been busy. Last month one of my students invited me to her dacha (see previous blog to see what it means) and I got to see first hand what it was like. The weather was a warm 4o degrees, so we stayed indoors most of the time, which only made the time there better. It was great to be in a home. By that, I mean a place with a comfortable couch, a dinning room table, good company, and a person who cooks. Living the single life has left me wanting some of these creature comforts. And I got to try a Russian banya for the first time, I was even beaten with tree branches! It was great. Behind my friend's house she has her own banya where she can sit and sweat. It was an interesting experience but I'm not going to lie, I prefer onsens to banyas.

This is the banya (sauna).

Spring also produced an unexpected surprise. For the last two weeks, when you walked outside, your person was pelted with white balls of fluff, somtimes so thick that you had to put your head down to keep them out of your eyes. Apparently there are trees all over Moscow that produce these seeds and they infest everything. Luckily we have some ingenious youths running around with lighters, now don't be afraid, they are doing their civic duty. They make big balls of the fluff and light it on fire and it goes up in a flash. It is cool to watch.

Here is the white fluff. It is resting on a wet spot on the curb.

One of the best aspects of spring has been on the foliage. Russians love their trees and they all love the untamed forests that fill their lands, so it is no wonder that if there is a place to plant a tree, they plant it! Our neighborhood is now all green and leafy, struggling to combat all the pollution. I like walking down our green street, so I figured I would take some pictures.

This is our claim to fame in my neighborhood, a monument to Ho Chi Min, and you should feel ashamed if you don't know who he is! This is the street where I live. Isn't it green!
This is the side of my apartment building from the street. It has five stories.

And this is the entrance to my building.

With a couple of friends I revisited Novodevichy Convent but this time toured the cemetary. We saw some pretty famous tomestones. I am always a bit amazed to see pictures on graves here. It is very interesting to look at faces but at the same time off putting. Perhaps I don't like thinking there is actually a person below that slab of rock. Nevertheless, I took some photos of the most famous ones.

This is the entrance to different sections of the cemetary.

This is the monument just put up for Boris Yeltsin. Here is a famous clown.


This is the tombstone of Anton Chekov, a famous author.

And unlike most of you slackers out there, Sandra (a friend I met at OU) came to visit me for five days. It was a good time and I got to do some stuff that I hadn't yet done in Moscow. One of the best things we did was take a boat ride down the Moscow River. I really enjoyed it and will probably do it again. But prepare yourself, I was utterly exhausted after four days!

Sandra and I on the boat.