Thaw

These past few weeks, and especially after we returned from South Africa, we seem to have broken that winter inertia and have begun to get out a lot more with friends and colleagues. And I seem to have fallen into a routine of sorts that involves finally trying a lot more activities in town and more interaction with people than I'd previously engaged in. Well, it feels like a pattern was beginning to emerge, and then I finally left my job at the Consulate to return to my research, and of course I'm going through the inevitable period of adjustment to that, figuring out how to approach work and actually accomplish something, and concentrate well enough during work (or really nanny) hours to really get done what I want to do. But, between preschool classes, playdates, yoga, the theater, poker, and exploring Peter the Great Bay, we've seen a boom in social and exploratory activity in past month or so that's been a great change.

Pink Elephants
I'm not really sure what "Pink Elephant" means to Russians, but I've been told it has various meanings that aren't really appropriate to the toddler set in English. Be that as it may, we are still big fans of the "Pink Elephant Montessori Early Development Children's Center."

We go Thursday mornings to the Pink Elephant, 10:30-12. Essentially that means an outing from 10-12:30, what with getting dressed to go outside into the cold (which this week has thankfully started to end), driving down to the place (although it is relatively close, and just a short distance from the Consulate in fact), getting undressed once we've arrived, etc., etc. But it's worth it. I really enjoy getting out, having a change of scenery, seeing (if not really interacting to any significant degree) the other parents, and getting even more varied Russian language practice. And I think Anya too enjoys it -- seeing and interacting a bit with other kids, which seems so important right now at her age, and also the change of physical scene and the variety of toys and kinds of activities that it introduces for us.

The place is in a converted apartment, on the first floor of a typical older (1930s construction? I'm really not sure) Russian apartment building. The place itself is nice, even if you are greeted with the stink of the common areas when you enter the stairwell/entryway (some things in Russia never change). If we get there in time, all those who're attending that session sit together in a circle to introduce themselves and greet one another, and then it's just off to the races, following what I understand is typical to the Montessori method, letting the kids themselves choose what to do and providing guidance once they've chosen. We gather again just at noon, when the teacher tells a little story with figures, which inevitably has some kind of moral lesson (the time there was an obnoxious, bratty boy, whose behavior actually was really surprsing, given how good most of the children are, she told a story about a boy who always was mean to people and animals and got his comeuppance when he offended a hedgehod and learned his lesson that he should be nicer to everyone). And we all say goodbye in a similar way and then begins the process of getting dressed again, with all of those layers and hats and scarves and boots, etc., etc.

The place has four rooms: the main one has all sorts of developmental toys, from puzzles, books, play tables with sand and beans to rake through and pour; there is the "wet zone" with play tables and basins for playing with water; there is the "blowing off steam room" with more playground-type equipment, for physical play; and then there's more of a creative activity room, where I think you can draw or paint -- we haven't really gone in there much yet.
For some reason we seem to start out at the plastic and wooden fruit, often do some work with the sand/bean stations, trying not to make that much of a mess to clean, spend some time in the "blow off steam" room, and sometimes get preoccupied with the shiny marbles and colorful, flat stones in one of the rooms. This last Thursday was our first real foray into the water room, where we got wet enough to resort to our change of clothes before leaving. The sponge, and all of its properties of gathering and releasing water, made a real hit.

The Pink Elephant has been so inspiring, I have us set to try out a second local preschool on Friday.

The After-CLO
I'm getting out more myself, too. Something about the process of thinking through what we should do next, together with the fact that there is now an increasingly close end-date of our life in Vlad, has me fighting inertia more and getting out and doing things.

I've now been twice to the Sarasvati Yoga Center -- apparently the only one (only dedicated center -- in its own freestanding structure, no less! -- devoted to yoga and only to yoga) in Vlad, although yoga classes are given in various settings around town. This place is actually for me a fascinating mix of The Familiar and The Alien. In some ways it is so very much like the (very few) yoga places I've experienced outside Russia, in the level of informality, the serious dedication to yoga, yet the mix of sports-minded and more consciousness/Eastern-spiritual perspective on yoga. But the funny thing to me is the way the women (so far all the clientele I've seen are women) are just so very Russian in the end. For starters, they all wear makeup. And I guess, for whatever reason, Russians can't imagine going out in town wearing exercise clothes -- it isn't really something I ever thought about, but now that I do, I realize you really don't ever see anyone dressed in obvious exercise clothes outside. So, for yoga, everyone wears their street clothes and changes there. I guess that is part of the reason that all of them also wear surprisingly nice undies and bras, too -- as usual, in Russia, although this time in a new and different way, I feel soooo very un-zhenskii. And finally (I've only been there twice so far; I'm sure I'll come up with more as time goes by), instructor and students alike had no problem sitting down together right after class last Saturday with a big chocolate cake, tea, and champagne to celebrate March 8, International Women's Day, together. This was very nice for me, since they were so welcoming to a newcomer, insisting that I take off my already-donned coat and scarf and join them, yet also for me so curious, since I can't imagine anyone at my old yoga center in DC doing anything of the sort.

The yoga taught there is primarily Iyengar, which is different from the Ashtanga I've done, but still very enjoyable. It's great to get out and see other people, to participate in a class. Iyengar, at least in the way they're teaching it at this place, involves much less intense movement with breath (the "flow" of the style with that name, which I understand is like Ashtanga), and much more attention to individual poses and one's stance and the placement of nearly every single muscle and body part, and how they should be tensed or relaxed or stretched or pointed within a pose. It feels like a good slow, concentrated effort, and it complements nicely any of the more athletic Ashtanga I'm able to fit in at home over the week (which inevitably is unfortunately rushed and/or abbreviated, and done with the aid of either my own memory or an audio recording only, so my attention to each pose is inevitably rushed and more superficial). And, yet again, just like the preschools, this is proving a great way to practice and broaden my Russian: I come home each time and have a handful of anatomical words to look up and/or confirm that understood correctly in class, such as coccyx, shoulder blades, kneecaps, groin, and spinal column.

Exploring More Primorye
We took a ferry ride with friends across the Peter the Great Bay this weekend, for an overnight stay in Slavyanka, and had a surprisingly good time just seeing a new place, hanging out, and enjoying spending time with a fun, well-behaved Anya. In fact, it went so well that we're reminded of how, especially now that spring is really sproinging, we need to get out and explore more, whether on day trips or again staying the night on the road.

It's hard to describe what was good about this trip: it isn't as though Slavyanka has much to offer, really. Our New Zealander friend, a longtime resident of Vlad, suggested that taking the ferry across the bay while the ice was still present was an experience not to be missed, so we agreed to travel as walk-ons on the Saturday evening ferry from Vlad and return on the Sunday afternoon ferry (the only options on offer), for a trip that has us gone from home a little less than 24 hours in all.

It went appropriately not-as-expected in several ways. Anya was great, and our apprehension about travel with her was allayed. After the trouble with sleep in South Africa, we were wary of what might happen in a strange hotel room. And even despite this (and the hotel's lack of a crib), we decided to travel light and not bring our portable crib. But the kid did great, going right to sleep on the bedspread bordered by pillows that Dan set up for her next to our bed when we laid her down at 10, and waking up only at about 7:30.

The hotel (the "best in the town" according to our taxi driver) was pretty good, all things considered, but since we chose to travel on International Women's Day, the cafe downstairs was fully booked and rocking out when we checked in at about 9:30. But we were able to order food (from some skeptical waitresses) up to the hallway outside our rooms on the third floor, where the 5 adults in our group sat around a low table and enjoyed surprisingly good salads and starters, pork chops smothered in cheese and mayonnaise (hey, we've lived here a year and a half -- some things you just get used to) and scallops. On Sunday morning, three (and a half) of us set out to explore the town on foot, and finally found the closest thing possible to the joke fantasia that was spun out the night before about a now settled itinerant Frenchman, an espresso machine and some expertly made pastries. There was no Pierre in sight, but the Buffet "Tranzit" was nothing like what the name may call to mind. It was clean and sunny, with an unexplained American-themed decor, complete with cheesy Route 66 pictures and a photo poster of a double-decker sightseeing Big Apple tour bus on the streets of New York. The pastries were actually quite good (OK, not French, but surprisingly good), and there was even real brewed coffee, even if we were charged a dollar for about 2 ounces of it.

And when we met up with our New Zealand-Russian pair and their 2 kids, we made a post-breakfast tour of Slavyanka and surroundings, care of our previous night's taxi driver's colleague with a minivan. His vehicle did yeoman's service on a couple of muddy inclines and a dusty climb to the top of the local hill, during which our Kiwi friend recited some kind of antipodean mantra to ward off the possibility that our vehicle might roll sideways. The pictures (which really do give the sense of what a non-destination Slavyanka was -- it really was about getting out, exploring, and enjoying each other's company and the beautiful weather, complete with temperatures above 10 degrees C) are on Flickr, as usual.

And in other news...
Things We Learned In South Africa and Haven't Unlearned
A call and response number that goes like this:
Anya: "Tapp!" ("Chop!" from the Nigerian hip-hop song whose refrains asks...)
Mom or Dad: "Whatch'ou wann chop?!"
Anya: "Pah-tah!" ("Small stout!," an adaptation of the response in the song, a baby voice that says "I wann' drink small stout!")

Well, you probably had to be there, or at least have to listen to the song yourself to understand the humor...

What we're listening to:
the new Bettie Serveert, Bare Stripped Naked
more Feist
The Pretenders greatest hits (especially my favorites, Kid and Talk of the Town)
Neutral Milk Hotel, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

What we're saying:
O-key!
U'-oh! and Uups!
Hah-reh! = hooray!
tikka = kitty-cat (also kissa = kittycat in Russian) Both variants followed by squeals and giggles of delight, and, if the cats are unlucky, various attempts to pet or scare them.
shi' = shirt
patt = pants
tait-ss = tights
boo-tay, boo-day = for some unexplained reason, mittens
pato = sweater
bah-koo = buckle
sjak, hyak = sock
yek = light
dahk = dark
bikk/bekk = 1. milk, 2. book
Tatti = Charlie (son of a friend, whose photo sits by the highchair and therefore is very familiar now)
Maya = Mara (family photos also sit nearby)
da-dya = all men who are not daddy, including Grandpas and Great-Grandpas ("Dyadya" does have that meaning in Russian, when it doesn't mean "uncle.")
Ghamma = grandma
Nongo = Noriko, our neighbor
Ngimmi = Jimmy, Noriko's son
yammi/nammi = yummy
yakki = yucky
gabig, kabig = garbage
doo-dats = dirty
koht = cold (Cf. aisseee)
haht = hot
kavvi = coffee (and sometimes cough)
oon = orange
tu-tu-tu = Cheerio
deppi = dipping sauce
hman = pen
hmoon = spoon
man-key/bah-kki = monkey
boii = boy
rou = loud
kah, kau = car (tends to rhyme with "rou")

Turning the November Leaves

We're back to regular old fall, after the snowmelt.



Last weekend we had a really great visit with our old friend Laura, from Berkeley grad school days, which included a little bit of exploring on the nearby peninsula "de Fries." This spit of land is a relatively prominent feature of the local map, but for whatever reason we hadn't driven there before. We were inspired in part by a meeting with a Washington State University historian who studies the cosmopolitan late nineteenth century Victorian world of Vladivostok, especially through the lens of letters written by a New Englander, Mrs. Eleonor Pray, who lived here with her family from 1894 until 1930. The Prays and the Smiths and apparently many other foreign traders and merchants in the city took their holidays on de Fries at a large complex that burned down in the early twentieth century. Our visit to the peninsula didn't really have a lot to do with the history, except that hearing about these old foreign families and seeing some old photographs led us to drive out there.



Now we're heading into a few weeks of work before heading to Thailand for Thansksgiving weekend! Hooray -- the vacation we have been waiting months for! We're meeting a friend from early DC days who is now stationed in Calcutta. Staying in Bangkok at the hotel this friend is fond of, and making at least one day trip to the beach. And hoping that all will go well with baby travel!



I'm going to try again to write more briefly and more often here -- we'll see how well I do. Maybe a little list of current likes and distractions will help in that...



what we're listening to

the latest Bruce, Magic

Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite (featuring fun cannon shots in our Deutsche Grammaphone version)

a homemade mix Dilon Djindji's mellow Afropop, c/o Sir Landau (some may recall that this featured as the recessional music at our wedding...)



what we're munching on (you guess which describes the big people's menu and which describes the small person's...)

a yummy Mexican chipotle pork and potatoes stew

dried cherry scones (although beware of Bittman's recipe in How to Cook Everything; we are still in search of a better one)

well-cooked pasta shells with mushed kidney beans and melted cheese

stiff mashed potatoes with bits of ham

bite-sized broccoli

Back to the Blog

"Last post on April 7" -- ack! That smarts!
I have left this blog thing for way too long without any additions. I guess my only explanation is that, with the spring weather, we've just had much more opportunity to get out, and there hasn't seemed to be any time to write an update. But I'll try to get back to basics and add short posts more frequently after this one.

For now, here is a digest of the news collected over the past month:

China
As our photos on Flickr help to show, we made a successful trip to China with colleagues from Vlad's diplomatic community in the first half of April. It was really a fascinating visit, moreso than either Dan or I (and probably Anya) ever expected. I guess neither of the two of us adults ever really took a special interest in China, and so perhaps we didn't know what to expect. And perhaps it was particularly interesting to take the trip from Russia, with all the comparisons and juxtapositions in the forefront of our minds. Whatever it was, we both really felt extremely curious to know more about the place, the culture, etc., and it felt like a refreshingly new environment, after our time in Russia, which of course is just the latest in a long history of traveling to the former Soviet Union and Eastern bloc for both of us.

Two impressions of China:
(a) Chinese people really do have a remarkable love of babies. The first time we got out of the bus on a city street in the town of Hunchun, we could barely walk around, because at every step someone -- interestingly, both women and men -- remarked at Anya, approached us, talked to us, spoke to Anya in an animated way, squealed with delight, touched Anya's cheeks, etc. I guess I can see how that would get old (we know one diplomatic family with kids who were in Beijing, and the kids started just slapping away the loving hands after a while!), but it was quite interesting, and marked for us on our short visit. It was definitely not the same response a baby inspires in Europe or America.

(Well, I'm sure the people in the rooms closest to ours in the hotel in Yanji were not professing a love of babies, especially on the second night. Somehow this part has faded in my memory, despite the fact that Anya's crying kept us up almost all night that second night. And I think both Dan and I would agree that the trip was worth it overall, although we were cursing the idea all through that terrible night. I'm not sure what the answer is for future trips -- always shelling out for a suite, with separate room for Anya to sleep in? I'm not sure whether it was tough for her to sleep with us right there in the room, or whether the problem was the unfamiliar place and noises...)

And (b) even in smaller (by Chinese standards) provincial cities, that sense of wide open boulevards and impressive -- perhaps even oppressive -- public space that I must have gotten from pictures of Beijing, was also confirmed. Public spaces were also remarkably quite clean and tidy. This probably interests us more because we were visiting from Russia: most Russians who heard we were going warned us to be careful, especially taking a baby, that "China is dirty." (This from people whose own city can kind of look like a garbage dump in places, of course. Some people from here are able to see that and feel badly about, but I guess enough do not recognize it.)

OK, probably not the most interesting observations to you, but that was what impressed us.

Also the trip was a fun chance to meet local folks, actually more local officials and honorary consuls of foreign countries who were Russian rather than other foreigners.

Getting Out

We've really been enjoying the chance to get out more here in Vlad, with the weather so much better. We've enjoyed the great outdoors at some spots outside of town, and we've tried several new restaurants and eateries in town. As you'll see from our recent photos, Anya is getting really tan from all of her time spent outdoors with us and with her nanny, Marina.

The weekend before May Day was gorgeous, and that Sunday it got into the mid-80s F -- actually quite hot! We started out with brunch at the crazy little Canadian hotel and restaurant outside of town that is our guilty pleasure, and we followed our meal with a stroll in the park near the water that I described in an earlier post (when we went for a winter walk there, with the ice skaters and the ice fishers and strollers out on the ice). It was such a lovely day -- the brunch place had tables out on the patio for the first time this season, and the park was great, everyone out with their picnics, obligatory 100 grams of vodka, etc., and even some brave sunbathers. By mid-afternoon we ended up at a colleague's dacha for barbecued pork and other goodies, which was also lots of fun. Anya had a great time just playing with the grass in the yard, the first time she experienced this green stuff.

In town, our spring outings pretty much began with the Indian Weekend -- 5 Indian navy ships visited Vlad for joint exercises with the Russian Pacific Navy Fleet, and there were several events in honor of this first visit of its kind. We took Anya to a presentation of Indian dance at the city theater, which she actually seemed to like. Probably the interesting shiny costumes and movement caught and held her attention. Dan and I got to attend a reception at a new Indian restaurant in town, which was fun and held great potential for future dining. (We also cooked our first Indian meal at home, but that belongs in a different section. See below.)

Since then we've also tried out a surprisingly successful local brew-pub type of place and a pretty good seafood restaurant whose interior was very pleasant. The funny thing about the latter is that it is almost the only real thing to go to that is within walking distance of our house (except the grocery store and little shopping center that we often go to, and have gone to from the time we first arrived, when we went everywhere on foot). For some reason we just hadn't made an effort to try the restaurant -- probably for fear that it would be overpriced and bad. But after Dan and a colleague stopped by and ran into a local official whom we met on our China trip and heard his high reviews of the place, we decided to try it. We were very happy with our meal -- an octopus appetizer, a mussel salad, a salmon steak entree, and a curry seafood dinner plate.

All of this exploring is aided by the fact that we put out a call for more babysitters, and we've tried two new ones in the past week. It helps to have a handful of names of interested and reliable people, since up to now we have really just had one woman to call upon for evenings.

Staying In

Since the kid does require us (or a proxy) to be here while she snoozes all night, we've also been trying to liven up evenings when we're stuck at home:

• We officially rang in the start of the 'cuing season with some mixed grill for dinner guests one Saturday and two delicious burger nights for me and Dan.
• On a warm evening while Melissa was visiting in mid-April we invented a new cocktail: the "Rumdowner." Dark rum, Grenadine, a dash of bitters, and peach juice, shaken over ice. Mmmmm... it has become a drink of choice to take out on the balcony on a light spring evening.
• As I mentioned above, after finding some key ingredients we finally made our signature Indian dishes -- dry spice-encrusted lamb, and bhagan bharta (eggplant puree). That took a trip to the meat market and getting over the weird fear that I still have about the open food markets. It is some combination of not wanting to get ripped off, not wanting to get sick from meat that is butchered or kept in the open market, and just generally not liking the attention that always gets thrown your way as a potential customer (and probably an obviously foreign one) in the markets. Dan forced me to go and participate in a purchase of lamb, which did help me, and now I try to go regularly to get our produce at this one market. Also the lamb dish requires curry leaves, which we found for sale in a freeze-dried form at the local Hari Krishna vegetarian restaurant. (!) The dishes themselves turned out great, even if the "lamb" was a little more toward mutton and next time could use a bit more stewing time. Now we need to branch out more within Madhur Jaffrey's repertoire and make some new dishes.

A Polar Bear Explores the World

Closeup On the Bear
Originally uploaded by lkwalker71.

I guess the most recent photos I uploaded to Flickr probably deserve at least a little explanation, since everyone who has commented on them to me has said "it looks so cold!" (You can see these photos as a group if you look here. And if you want to see where this afternoon walk took place, click on "map.")

So, for orientation's sake: if you have looked at any general map of Vladivostok with much detail, you will have noticed not only that the city is situated at the southwest tip of the Murav'ev-Amurskii Peninsula, but that it also has a tantalizing finger of land dangling from its own southwest edge, which in effect sort of shelters the mouth of the Golden Horn Bay from the open water of the Amur Bay. That finger of land is "Scott Peninsula" in geographical terms (poluostrov Shkota); as a neighborhood of Vladivostok, its administrative name is “Egershel’d.” And that peninsula in turn has an even tinier spit of land (or probably just a spit made up of beach glass and other random detritus), a thin curving sliver extending off of its end, much like an accumulation of, well, spittle that might dangle from a five-and-a-half-month-old's lip. (Here are a couple of other good ways to view all of this geography, and the little spit of land in particular, whose name is actually Cape Tokarevskii: a picture of it in what appears to be summer is here; and "Wikimapia" has pretty good detail on that particular part of Vlad, too.)

I have to confess that these places really didn't hold as much fascination for me personally as it apparently did for Dan when we first got here, and especially when we first received our car. But his interest can be surmised from the fact that the finger, and the sliver, were our very first destinations after we had our wheels. And that fascination can be even better understood (I think) if you realize that that first trip was taken at about 7:30 in the evening, in the dark. He really wanted to see that spit of land -- even if, in going there, he couldn't even see it!

Since then, it actually has become kind of fascinating to me. We've gone a couple of different times (all in the light, I am glad to say). And I find it a really interesting end-of-the-earth kind of place, yet an easy drive for us from our house. There is a lighthouse there: always makes a place slightly more picturesque. And the light out there at the end of the day, especially with all of the ice and snow right now, is really beautiful.

The pictures I posted do look cold, but in fact the reason we went out to Egersheld last Sunday was that it was a beautiful, sunny day and relatively warm. Everything just seemed like it was melting -- in fact, it is kind of gross here when it gets as warm as it has been this past week, with temperatures as high as 3 or 4C, with all the ice and snow on the streets and sidewalks melting and spattering the car, and puddles of mud and goo everywhere. Last Sunday out on Egersheld, Dan and I were wearing our fall jackets, and the sun really did warm everything up considerably.

But I guess the interesting thing about Egersheld is that it still looks pristine and white even in that weather, and the ice is only partially melted in the water out in the direction of the Amur Bay. There were several other people who had also decided to drive out there and take a walk around the lighthouse and enjoy the nice weather. We suited up the munchkin in the car when we got there, in her little polar bear-like snowsuit, and she didn’t seem to mind much at all. I think she got hungry at the end, when she started to fuss a little bit, so we wrapped it up and headed for a nearby café where we had a late afternoon snack and some coffee.

----

NB! We are taking our big trip to the US over the next two and a half weeks, so don't think that I have abandoned the blog if I am not able to add any tidbits until we are back, basically at the end of February.

Ice, Ice, Baby

Ice, Ice, Baby
Originally uploaded by lkwalker71.

There hasn't been a lot of news lately, which I suppose is the inevitable result after the holidays (even though our holidays weren't even that exciting!). I did want to report on a Sunday outing last week, though.

We went out to brunch at the famous Vlad Motor Inn, and it was such a crisp sunny day that we decided to take a walk afterward out by the beach. This is basically an area full of recreation points and "sanatoria" in the best Soviet style (hence the fact that the electric commuter train stop there is called "Sanatornaia").

The little park by the sea has an ice rink and little windows where they sell tea and snacks and things. And then just steps away is the Amur Gulf, which in summer I assume is lovely to take a dip in. This time of year, especially when we've had several good days of temperatures in the -5-10C range, it is covered with a thick layer of ice.

Last Sunday when we went, there were just people everywhere, skating at the rink, walking along the paths that run parallel to the shoreline, stopping for a sandwich and a thermos of coffee or possibly something stronger, playing with their kids (the preferred mode of transport for anyone under about 8 and over about 1 seems to be the sled, dragged by a parent), etc. There must have been people out on the ice fishing, too, but mainly it was peppered with people out strolling and having a good time. It was cold, but the sun warmed us, and there was no wind at all: just perfect. We had Anya in her stroller (see Flickr photos for a dissection of how bundled she can get for these outings), and she slept most of the time. I guess I am having trouble coming up with much detail beyond this to convey what a great time it was, but maybe I have given a flavor of it: just a simple day out in the sun, feeling good, having fun with the kid and with each other, and seemingly enjoying something that many of our fellow Vladivostokians were also happily partaking in around us.

Of course, we forgot the camera, which was a real annoyance -- we could have conveyed it better with a few thousand words worth of pics. And we could have snapped photos of the interesting ice textures that had been created by freezing and thawing so far this season, as well as the hood of a truck that was sticking out of the ice about 50 yards out from the shore. And the interesting high Stalinist architecture of the main sanatorium building in the complex for the Ministry of Defense, complete with many columns, arches, and reinterpretations of Greek athletic statues.

But we didn't, so we couldn't. I took this photo today, over a week later, because the natural scene here on the Gulf right near downtown Vlad resembled what we had seen out at Sanatornaia, although it was much less populated since it was already Monday morning. Hopefully it won't be the last Sunday stroll we'll have out there, though, and maybe we can catch all the ice activity on film at some point soon.

Holidays on Ice

Well, I sat at the window this morning and watched the cars tiptoe their way down the "Church Road" -- the sort of steep road, but not as steep as another more major road, that leads from our location up on the ridge down to the lower elevation where the Consulate and downtown Vlad are located, and which is visible directly out our front windows. I find it kind of fascinating to watch the activity on the road and judge from that what it's like outside. Today what it tells me, or really confirms for me is: the slipping and sliding that everyone predicted for the winter has begun.

We had our first major snowstorm on Saturday, which was kind of exciting. It basically snowed all day, with the temperatures hovering around zero, and then when the snowfall stopped (see the photo), the wind picked up and the temperature began to fall. From Sunday (which turned out to be a White Orthodox Christmas) onward, it has been colder again -- minus 5-10C -- and, due to the lack of any salt or sand distributed on the roads, pretty slick. Happy to say that the XTerra does great in the snow, especially in 4WD, it's the other guys that you kind of wonder about!

Until today, however, at least there weren't many other drivers on the roads, since it was "The Holidays." I don't know whether you have seen this article in the New York Times about the winter vacation here in Russia, but it is pretty interesting: http://tinyurl.com/yzpl2h. Basically the whole place shuts down for a couple of weeks surrounding New Year's and Eastern Christmas. In fact, I hadn't really realized that this was only made official by Prez Putin in 2005 -- I remember things shutting down, in I guess what must have been an unofficial capacity, during my other winter stays here, too. Unfortunately Dan was down with the flu, or recovering from it, for the better part of the week, which he too had off from work. But we did manage to take a couple of drives and relax a little bit during that time, photos of which are on Flickr.

A Drive Around the Peninsula

Sunset North of Lazurnyi Bereg
Originally uploaded by lkwalker71.

Christmas Eve day here in Vlad was a lovely, sunny day with temperatures only around -3C and barely any wind. We decided to take a drive around the south and east edges of the Murav'ev-Amurskii Peninsula, in the direction we hadn't yet traveled. (You can explore the photos and the geography on the Flickr map if you follow the linked picture.)

We were pleasantly surprised at the landscape and the scenery. Although you do get the usual trash deposited all over the place, this lessened as we got further from the city, until it really was nearly pristine nature (the kind that Russians love to praise even while they are throwing their plastic bags and Snickers wrappers out into the vast expanse of "priroda" that they are claiming to enjoy).

We stopped along the way at a couple of little bays and beaches -- we weren't the only ones to enjoy a lovely Sunday afternoon, but I can tell that these locations are surely much more full of people in the summer and fall. At a beachside cafe at the little resort point of Lazurnyi Bereg ("Azure Shore"), we had kebab (or shashlyk in local parlance), Uzbek dumplings (manty), some pickled herring, and a salad of fresh vegetables. And were again pleasantly surprised at the friendly, slightly shy waitress. Definitely not the norm in Russia.

In case you are wondering about the name of the peninsula, Count Nikolai Murav'ev-Amurskii was governor-general of Eastern Siberia in the mid-nineteenth century, and there are a bunch of things in and around Vlad that bear his name. If you're dying to know more about him and Russia's exploration of the Far East (perhaps in preparation for a visit to these parts?), I suspect that Mark Bassin's 1999 historical monograph "Imperial Visions" may provide a good, if academic, overview in English.

A Good Day

Things will undoubtedly get frigid here very soon. Sure, for all of our glibness before coming out here, Vladivostok is NOT actually in Siberia (it’s in Primorye, or the Maritime Province). And sure, it’s actually almost (not quite) the most southerly Russian city, with a latitude comparable to that of Boston, MA (OK, not the warmest city in the U.S., but not Moose Freezer, Canada, either – and anyway, well to the south of Paris, France). And ask any Russian, and he’ll describe Vladivostok as a swarthy southern port city; don’t be surprised if he conjures up palm trees.

But despite all this we know the freeze will come. For the fact is, Vladivostok’s winter mean temperature is lower than that of Moscow and St. Petersburg (although not a single Russian we’ve spoken to actually believes this). Streets are apparently closed down here in winter because driving is too treacherous. The port freezes over (although plying icebreakers will still presumably deliver our mother lode – exploded or not – of salsa come mid-December).

So, the freeze is coming.

Fortunately, however, that day wasn’t today.

Today was a beautiful fall day, by anyone’s standards. Even as I write this, at 6pm, I am in my shortsleeves, on our fourth floor balcony, drinking wine (courtesy of Korean Air business class – yes, goddamnit, I saved it), and watching the sun descend slowly over Golden Horn Bay.

Really the good day started yesterday, with our exploration of the “Pervorechenenskiy Rynok” – the market in the neighboring part of town. This was great for me because I discovered that Primorye is in fact full of seafood. This would of course appear to be self-evident: it is the “Maritime Province,” after all, and home to a sizable fishing industry. Yet some of the people we’d spoken to before coming out here had said that the local seafood offerings were surprisingly meager, perhaps because most of the fishing is for export.

Nevertheless, there was a pleasing array of seafood laid out in the market: fist-sized local scallops, large chunks of conch, all kinds of shrimp, and a number of seagoing fish, including salmon, halibut, and tuna. There was more exotic fare as well: sea urchin eggs; a strange crayfish-like crustacean called medvedka, or “little bear,” in Russian; and a surprisingly diverse collection of seaweed. What is most interesting to me is that all of this food, which I associate with Asian cuisine, was being sold by and to Russians. An indication that Russia is a bit more culturally diverse, perhaps, than it is given credit for. So I bought a kilo of scallops and 250 grams of conch, which I will sauté in butter, lemon, pepper, and chives as soon as I’m done writing this.

Although yesterday was a bit overcast, we woke up this morning to a bright, clear day, and realized we had to go exploring. After getting the munchkin weatherproofed in her oversized baby snowsuit and hitching her to Lisa in the Snuggli, we set off down the Goat Path toward Svetlanskaya street, the main thoroughfare leading into the center of town. Since we’ve arrived here we’ve been a little confused about local transport: how much should taxis cost? Which buses go where? Are we allowed to use embassy motorpool? (That last question alone could be the subject of its very own blog.) But I’m happy to report that catching buses into and out of town was both easy and cheap – 4 stops and 8 rubles (30 cents).

After descending in the center we briefly explored what appears to be a new, toney shopping center in the middle of town, with seven floors of high-priced European fashion and a sushi bar on the top floor. Something to think about in the future.

We then walked along the pedestrian street (Ulitsa Fokina) to the ocean, where there is a sort of boardwalk, where people were strolling. With lunchtime approaching, we very quickly followed our noses to a series of open-air grills, where we bought two plates of shashlyk, or grilled pork. We are pleased to report that it was so nice, we had it twice. And a couple of Bochkaryev beers to wash it down. For her part, Anya mercifully slept in her Snugli.

After strolling some more along the boardwalk (and taking note of a sad “dolfinarium,” which we opted not to explore), we set off back into town. I was pleased to find several purveyors of compact disks (today’s purchase: Modest Mouse’s complete oeuvre on MP3, along with two recent albums by my favorite Russian singer, Garik Sukachev ).

By this time, the munchkin, whom I was now carrying, was starting to stir, and so we found a café that my colleague at the consulate had recommended, “Presto,” so that Anya could feed and we could have some coffee. An oasis in central Vlad: we had excellent cappuccinos, taking note for future reference of the broad array of food and drink (mojitos!?) options. I even managed to change Anya on a windowsill without every Russian in the place giving me the skunk-eye.

(A brief aside: I’m pretty sure I’m the only guy in town who walks into town with his kid in a Snugli. In fact, until I saw a woman with her kid in a similar contraption yesterday, I would have said Lisa was the only woman to do same as well. Russians tend to stare: not disdainfully, but openly. The same way they stare at our clothes, or Lisa’s boots [see previous posts from St. Petersburg]. For my part, I’ve taken to winking at people when they stare.)

Following coffee, we explored the attractive art deco train station, with its announcements of trains headed to Moscow, six and a half days away.

After another hour of walking around, we caught a bus home – or rather to the foot of the Goat Path. 15 minutes of walking straight up we made it to our door.

All in all, a great day. Now it’s time for dinner.

[Post-Script, later that evening, and subsequent evenings: The munchkin paid us back for the fine day by crying her baby eyes out for much of the evening. What's going on, we asked ourselves? 5 hours of crying? We are hoping this is just, as they say, a phase...]