Moscow Shuffle

Alison

Snow again last night, no biggie. I awoke to the snow plows doing finish work on the sidewalks. Yesterday at the cosmonaut exhibit, I saw about a dozen men with pick axes manually breaking up the ice on the sidewalk. What a contrast: manual laborers vs. the impressive snow clearing machines. We are learning to skate across the icy sidewalks - Sasha likes to lick icicles. I remember doing that as a kid. To my amazement, we have an ice skating rink in the backyard of our apartment. I appears to double as a basketball court in summer, unless they play ice basketball here, which wouldn't surprise me in the least.

Today we are off to Red Square, with an American family who have been here a month. They seem way ahead of us in knowing what to do in this place. I fear we will meet “zero” Russian families as there are so may ex-pats to play with. And our Russian frankly stinks.

Shopping still a big issue - I saw bottle of Mr. Clean and it was called Mr. Proper. Everything is tiny, tiny and mysterious. At least I know now Russian for milk, eggs, cheese, bread and pickels.

Have conquered the tiny Euro washer and dryer, wifi up and working. Life is good.