More Pictures of Thanksgiving!

I almost dumped the turkey all over myself before this guy, Vanya, came to my rescue and helped me.
We fit 14 people in our kitchen with a ton of food.

And my first attempt at gravy!

Ground Cloves on Tongue - Bad Idea!

Thanksgiving time was a wonderful time of trying to cook the turkey for the 1st time in my life, making stuffing, attempting to make pumpkin pie without canned pumpkin, grinding cloves in a coffee grinder because we couldn't find ground cloves anywhere, grating a wedge of parmesan as a topping for boiled broccoli, figuring out how to make cream of mushroom soup without a can of soup, and trying to have it all ready for the 14 people that showed up starting at 1:30pm on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

The turkey turned out, after deciding that about 20lbs. of peices would be enough! It was so fun realizing that I could actually cook the turkey!

I tried and accomplished making pumpkin pie from some baked pumpkin Julie had frozen. It worked, but I had to make 2 crusts because only half the filling filled the 1st pie crust. I made a 2nd crust real quick and it all worked out.

I would NOT recommend tasting cloves that have been ground, regardless of whether it looks like coffee or not. Julie and I tried to find ground cloves, but couldn't, so I decided to try grinding the whole cloves in a coffee grinder. After I had cleaned the grinder to make sure there would not be any more coffee in it, I ground the cloves. When the cloves were ground, I pulled the container out that had the ground cloves. It looked like ground coffee, so I tasted it to make sure it wasn't. Nope! Cloves! Nice and Hot! Oh well, a bad mistake on my part. I started coughing and between laughs tried to tell Julie what I had just done. :) It was too funny. I had a burnt part on my tongue! I felt it for a few days, but it just made Thanksgiving memorable.

It turned out to be a fun group of people from 5 different countries. We had a wonderful time. I have a few more fun photos of the meal, but will post them at a later time.

Cookies and Liver!

The other day I was really wanting some "syrniki". It is a Russian desert patty that is made from cottage cheese. My teacher told me that I could buy them in the grocery store next to the frozen "blini", which are thin pancakes. So off I went!

Well, the one store I went in did not have any, but they did have some blini which, I thought, said that they had cookies in them. I asked a worker at the store if they had sour cream in them and she said yes, after telling me they did not have the syrniki that I originally wanted.

I read the word "печень" and understood it as cookies. So I thought I was getting cookies in my blini.

I got home and fried a couple of them up. As I tasted them I could not believe the taste in my mouth. I was tasting salt, onion, carrot, and some sort of meat in the blini. I was thinking, "Wow, this is an interesting tasting 'cookie' blini." I admit, I am not a big fan of liver.

That must have had something to do with the taste in my mouth. So I finished eating what I had prepared, then left the rest for later.

The next day while I was at class, I asked my teacher what "печень" meant.

She was like, "Oh, it's liver." Right then I could not believe what I was hearing.

The whole time I thought I was suppose to be eating some cookie filled blini, and yet, I was eating a liver filled blini. Oh to understand the differences in this language sometimes!

"печень" is liver!
"печенье" is cookie! Such a surprise! I now know if I want cookie filled anything to make sure of the spelling before I buy it!!!!

Language

So Yeah, language is coming along. I got use it quite a bit the other day while picking my friend up from the airport, showing him around the city, then taking him back to the airport. It was fun and comical all at the same time.

For instance, while we were out walking around Moscow State University we stopped to get some food on the side of the street. I ordered our food. A guy came out of the booth and started to talk to me. I was understanding enough that he wanted to know if we wanted a roasted chicken. Daniel is standing next to me asking me what the guy is saying. I had to think in order to attempt to translate for him, but it was fun actaully knowing some of what was being said.

When I took Daniel back to the airport we were going through the initial security. I set my bag down and walked through. No problem. Daniel set his back down and the lady did not like the side he set it on. She proceeded to say something. He looked at me. I asked her again. She said something else. I had no idea. Daniel turned his bag on another side. She did not like it. He turned it again. She still did not like it. Finally, after 3 or 4 attempts he laid it on the right side. Who would have thought there were like 10 sides you can turn your back on, and only one is right. His response afterwards was, "She could not have turned it herself?" Of course not. Granted it was 3:30am. Oh well.

The next time he was going through another place. Another lady asked him what flight he was on. I told her the flight number. She asked again. I told her again. She still did not like the answer. I said "Amsterdam." She asked "Rome?" I responded "No, Amsterdam." She was finally satisfied. This whole conversation was in English. Once again. I think it was because it was early. So, life goes on and language sometimes progresses.

These posts seem to be getting fewer and farther between...

I am just prefacing that I keep trying to write more often, but somehow it just never happens. :) I have been somewhat busy with traveling, that is no excuse.

After getting back from Germany we (Julie, Nathan, Matt, Julie's cousin, and myself) have been trying to rest and catch up from constant travel for 2 weeks. I have been so tired it feels as if I have been a fog for quite a few days. So evidence of our trip...

The Electricity!

So... it all started when Julie and I woke up to crackling one Saturday morning. Neither one of us knew what was going on. My computer was on the floor and we looked to see if it was making noise. Nope! We continued to hear it. Finally, I figured out that the outlet on the other side of the room was sparking! We then decided to call our office lady who could get an electrician to come and fix it. We forgot until Sunday to tell her, then decided to call her on Monday to have the guy come.

Well, the office lady called the electrician on Monday and they said they would be here SOON. She decided to come over and help us describe what was happening. I had gotten home from class by this time, around 2pm. She arrived an hour later to help me talk to the guys who arrived, since Julie was still at class. I taught Larisa how to play cards while we waited. That was a chore and half, but so much fun because I accomplished it. Then Julie arrived home at 5pm. The electricians still had not come. We all chatted for while, played a game or two, then decided to go out to get food since we had had to turn off the power for the all the outlets because the outlet in our room was smoking and sparking and the stove and fridge were both electric.

So we walked out to KFC, got food, came home and ate. The electricians still had not come. Larisa had stayed at the apartment while the rest of us went for food. Half way through supper, at 7pm, the electricians finally arrived. And here is what they did.

They were here for about 5 minutes! They decided that 2 outlets were too close to each other and so decided to disable one as a permanent solution! Larisa took care of the whole thing and the guys left. This is what we saw! They totally cut the wire from the outlet! So now we have one less outlet in the apartment.

It is all good! No more smoke, no more sparks! Thankfully!

A Day In the Life

I wake up at 7 am, ready to leave the apartment by 8 am. After leaving, I walk the 5 minutes to the bus stop where I wait with a few other nationals for the bus to arrive somewhere around 8:15 am. If I am late for that bus I get to wait 15 minutes for the next one. As the bus arrives everyone pulls out their bus tickets ready to slip them through the machine as we all step onto the bus. After getting on the bus, I find a seat, turn on my mp3 player and start listening to Russian lessons.

One particular morning as I sat on the bus in traffic, it had stopped and let off some passengers then, closed the doors and turned off its engine. I did not have anyone with me to ask what was happening so I just sat there and waited. I continued to study from my notebook and listen to my lessons. The bus eventually started again about 15 minutes later. No one else on the bus seemed worried or in a rush. I was only going to be about 10 late to my language helper! No big deal.

It is usually about a 15-20 minute bus ride to the metro station, 2 stops on the metro and another 5 minute walk to my language helper's office before I am ready to begin reviewing lessons with my language helper. This is a typical start to a long day. The rest of the day: I take the metro back to the stop that is closest to the office for classes, walk the 15 minutes to class from the metro, spend 2 hours in lessons with my teacher, walk the 30 min home from class, probably stop along the way at the store for some food or just to browse, make lunch at home, do homework, then relax for the rest of the afternoon before supper. Julie and I usually make supper together then I continue to study while she has friends over to practice language.

One other day, I decided to take the metro to my language helper's. Bad idea that morning. I ended up having to stand next to 2 drunk guys who were half sleeping on the metro. As I was getting on the next train I was standing behind a guy. Another guy got off the train and hit the guy I was standing behind in the face. He fell back and knocked me back. I composed myself and walked around the fight to get on the train. The same day my phone ran out of money and I did not realize it. I had gotten off the wrong exit of the metro and could not call anyone for help. I pulled out my map to figure out where I was. Then, had to use a text from my language helper to get past security to go see her. She was able to put money on my phone for me, thankfully since later at the office the security there would not let me in. I had to call my teacher to come out and help. She was able to figure everything out. Long Day. I learned so much that day!

The Name, Elisabeth

It has been amazing to me how much time has gone into picking out a name for me. You would think that my name is the best to use. But, Oh No! The process went something like this:

"What is your name?"
"Elisabeth"
"What do you want people to call you?"
"How does Elisabeth sound?"
"No, but we think of the queen when we hear that name. It also sounds very foreign."
"Is that bad?"
"No, What do you want us to call you."
"What is a different form that would be more acceptable?"
"What about Eliza? Or Elizavieta?"
"I would prefer Eliza." (pronounced Eleeza)
"Are you okay with us calling you Eliza?"
"Yes, when I introduce myself, I will say my name is Eliza. Is that what I need to do?"
"Yes"

This conversation happened with at least 3 people within the first 2 weeks that I was here. I was trying to work with them all and get ideas of the names. There were other ideas of why my name would not work, but I can't remember them now. Each conversation about my name took at least 10 minutes to finally come up with a name. Each time I came up with the same name.

I found this very fascinating, can you tell?

Wow, So Many New Things

I have started language study! Woohoo! Julie and I have a wonderful plan of cooking then watching some show online while we are eating.

I have bought a McChicken from McDonald's, a little roll from the metro stop, a bus ticket, a metro ticket, some groceries, and all of these things I did on my own! I also have used the metro and walked to our coworkers apartment on my own. Talk about accomplished! :)
I am using language such as "I don't understand", numbers, and greetings. It proves to be more difficult than imagined to come up with the right phrase at the right time.

Another Chapter of Life Begins

Wow, here already, in the country I have been working toward for a very long time. Hard to believe as I walk the streets and read signs from a language I am only slightly familiar with. I arrived Saturday afternoon. Since then, I have met my coworkers, begun unpacking, bought a cell phone with my coworker's help, done some grocery shopping, slept some, went to visit Red Square, took the subway, and tried to adjust to this schedule. It has been wonderful to be here and experience where I will be living.

Crazy Weekend

Wow, Quite the experience.
I was headed to see Mom in Savannah, GA when I hydroplaned and lost control of the car, to end up in a shallow ditch of water with the car on its side. The car is basically totaled. I am fine, just sore. So now I am sitting at home while my brother uses my car for work and I get stuff done like, taxes, emails, thank you's and the like.

The trip to Savannah is hopefully my last trip before I head out to Moscow on March 27th. My tickets are bought, and I am just finishing last minute things. I am very excited, but feel like I have so much to do still.

It snowed on the way home. I got to get out and build a snowman on the side of the road. So cold, but so much fun.