Tentative Spring

It’s been a while -- first the major snowstorm ground things here to a halt, and then a strange bug laid me low (along with a bunch of the other Americans who live in our complex). We never figured out the source of the illness, but for me it was not fun. Seems like maybe it hit the mothers of young kids (and the one breastfeeding mother -- me) among us harder than others.

Now, with temperatures above freezing for the past several days, the snow and ice that snarled our local traffic is finally melting, and I am finally better. Hooray!

What is the news?

Let’s start with a little Anya Report:

The thing that busies the Little Person more than any one other activity is now standing (with the help of someone’s patient fingers for support, naturally). She is very good at communicating when she wants to stand up, and can be quite insistent about it. (There is video evidence of all of this posted on YouTube.)

We recently got a fun new high chair, which is a good addition, since eating various fruits and vegetables has become a much more regular event in L.P.’s daily life. (We’d been making more and more of a mess reclining in our baby rocker, which really wasn’t made for eating.) It’s also a fun to have Anya sitting higher up and safe in the kitchen while we’re cooking or cleaning in there, and when I’m here with her alone it allows me to scramble upstairs or down for a minute to get something without taking A. with me.

What is on the menu these days? Well, carrots and zucchini are well liked, especially when mixed with rice cereal. Apples, peaches, plums, prunes (those come in handy for reasons related to baby-plumbing every now and then), and -- oh my -- bananas are also well received. Peas were not a big hit but I may try again. Green beans are touch and go. And unfortunately those sweet potatoes we had in the US just don’t seem to be readily available on the Russian market, although the chef will keep trying.

Also a big hit with the Person of Diminutive Stature is dancing. Again, this is accomplished with certain Baby-Related Adjustments, so that the one who is really dancing is of course me, and Anya is content to bounce and squeal and laugh from her perch on my hip, held in my arms. In the search for fun sounds to listen to, our aural palette has taken a decidedly World Music turn: the Cajun group Beausoleil is perhaps Anya’s favorite, but Cuban son and the Malian duo Amadou and Mariam follow close behind. Select American jazz and blues artists, and of course good old indie rock, can also inspire a good squeak or two.

Two things that now more than ever before occupy Anya’s awareness, and cause her much amusement, are (a) the cats, and (b) mirrors. She seems to be at an age where she recognizes something more about these things than she used to -- that the cats are interesting furry blobs that move on their own (maybe even some understanding that they are alive, like her?), and that what she sees in the mirror bears some relation to herself (possibly approaching an understanding that this is her reflection?). Whatever goes on inside that baby head of hers, both of these things not only capture her attention, but more often than not they inspire giggles, smiles, and something in the overlapping category of snort-gasp-laugh.

.....

In other areas of life there are also interesting developments. I’ve begun teaching two English composition classes a week at the local international school (with just one student in each class, so no big groups of unruly teenagers or anything like that to wear me out, thankfully). Actually, this is the international division within a local boarding school for gifted students, which takes students in from all over Primorye region. The international division is quite new, having only opened this past fall, in an attempt to replace the Quality Schools International franchise that had served the education needs of the kids of international diplomats and business people in Vlad. QSI apparently closed up shop when there were just not enough kids to pay for the school. (QSI is a non-profit organization that runs international schools in Asia and Eastern/Southern Europe and often serves diplomatic communities.)

I teach the two international baccalaureate students at the school, one a Korean boy whose father is a local corporate representative, and one a Russian boy from Vladivostok. They each speak and read English surprisingly well, at least to me; although the school suggested I use an American 9th grade composition textbook, I was skeptical about whether I could really pursue the class in the same way you would for native speakers of English. But after two weekly meetings it looks like our approach will not be terribly slowed down from the suggested pace for American kids. And despite the fact that things are inevitably framed in a more elementary way in a school textbook, I think this is going to help me think more consciously about my own writing than I have for a long time, which is a welcome side benefit.

That is probably enough to read at this juncture, but I will try to report on the trip to Nakhodka that we took last weekend before it fades too far into the depths of memory. In the meantime, please check out the photos on Flickr!

The Snowy Day

We're baaaack! We have been home in Vlad for about a week now, after a really enjoyable trip to the US, with stops in California and Arizona. It was great to see family and friends, although it was tough to fit so much activity and travel into a short two-plus-weeks. Anya did absolutely great on the trip, on the many domestic and international flights, through all of the disruption of her routine and with all of the new faces and places. Now that we are back and settled, things are pretty much back to what had been our normal routine.


In the States, we were able to get our fill of autentico Mexican food, and Anya was able to stock up on a few new toys and books, since the bunch she had at home in Vlad were starting to get a little old. (Well, really probably they were only starting to get old for me...) One of the books I picked up was Ezra Jack Keats's "The Snowy Day" -- one of my favorites as a kid -- which I thought might be good to have here in Vlad. Little did I know how soon and with what ferocity the elements would oblige!


Today, Monday, March 5, is officially a snow day. We're currently in the midst of a major blizzard that began on Sunday night, has lasted all day today, and is predicted to last well into tomorrow. One news source claims that overnight Vlad got two times the average monthly amount of precipitation. The US Consulate is officially closed, and, although today was supposed to be my first day teaching composition at the local international school, classes there were cancelled, too. And it's a good thing, because it's positively bleak outside, with major gusts of wind and extremely low visibility. We will be fine, but I can't guarantee the same for many of the local population. A big snowstorm that we just barely missed a couple of weeks ago (which was apparently not as bad as this) cut power and heat for several thousand of the region's inhabitants.

The video short linked to the picture above probably doesn't really do the storm justice, and of course, when it comes right down to it, I guess it is just a big blizzard, the likes of which many have experienced at some point or another. Still, I wanted to try to capture some of what it looked like out our window today mid-morning.

Today being stuck inside hasn't been too bad, with Dan home most of the day (he, like most of the other Americans, who can get to the Consulate on foot, did go in for a few hours). But it has taken the better part of the week not only for Anya and us to adjust back to Vlad time, but also for me to get back in the groove of life here in all of its differences from that in the US. It kind of surprised me to feel so badly precisely when I did, although it did occur to me ahead of time that it would probably be tougher coming back this direction, and not just because we'd be heading back into a tougher, more isolated, not to mention colder, life here after seeing family and enjoying the weather in the American West. I sensed that it would be hard to quit cold turkey after having two weeks with several people at a time around to lean on in caring for Anya and to give me a break now and then. And also simply to see an end to the vacation time that allowed me and Anya and Dan to spend so much great time together, as well as to share all the good Anya moments with family and friends. But I guess it is just hard to fully appreciate and foresee what something like that will feel like until you are in it. The first few days back in Russia, even with the help of our Russian babysitter, were a little hard. But now I think I am back on track and ready to start the handful of hours of teaching each week that I've signed up for, as well as the research I was just delving into before we left, and also to spend the hours at home with Anya and taking care of the crazy four-story townhouse.