On the train to "Hogwarts"?

30 July we loaded the largest truck we could find (as individuals -- larger are commonly commercial use only) and sent off our belongings on the sometimes perilous (as in pot-holes) road from Moscow to Perm.

31 July we paid for someone to clean the apartment, got our deposit back from the landlord, and loaded 5 people, 3 carseats, 3 Trunkis, 5 backpacks, 5 suitcases with wheels, 3 carryons with wheels, two Ikea bags of pillows, 2 Ikea bags with houseplants, and 2 bags of food/kitchen stuff into a minivan taxi.  

Taxi to train station, where we got ripped off by some luggage carriers, who said we had to pay them 3,000 rubles (over $50 at the time) to take our stuff to the train, or else we would have to carry it ourselves up & down two flights of stairs.  Turns out you can just go around the train station to the actual platform, and we didn't need the stairs anyway.  This was Kazanskii vokzal, at which trains go in the direction of, you guessed it, Kazan, and beyond, but through Kazan.  (Moscow has 7 major train stations and 3 major airports.)  

Boarded the train 10:00 pm, got the kids settled, though it was a long time before they slept.  We thought about buying a compartment of 4 beds (two upper, two lower), but didn't think we could fit the luggage in, so we bought two compartments of 2 beds each (K and A as the smallest shared a bed).  Good thing E and K and A have seen the first two Harry Potter movies, because they were so excited to be in compartments -- are we really going to Hogwarts?  (no).  Well, let's pretend we are going to Hogwarts, until at least midnight. 

Most everybody slept, at least a little, until the train made its first stops on Saturday about 5:30 am.  Our ticket prices included one meal, plus we had a lot of food with us, so we never did see the dining car.  But between books and coloring and plopping on the piles of our pillows and train pillows and looking out the window, there was plenty to keep the kids busy until we arrived in Perm at 9:30 pm, Perm time (which is 7:30 pm Moscow times).  

All trains run on Moscow time.  It is tough, for getting to the station in time to meet a train, to remember the train arrival and departure times are listed on Moscow time.  But when you are ON the train, the "internal" time ALSO runs on Moscow time, and this makes a lot of sense, so when you order dinner, you look at your watch still on Moscow time and you know how long til dinner, or how many hours/days you have been on the train.  But a little disconcerting for really far away places.

There are towns for which trains stop (long stops) and towns which stop for trains (whistle stops, where an entire economy springs up around selling stuff from the platform to the people on the train).  

Our total train trip was 21 hours on the train.  Getting too and from the train was much harder, the train itself is the way to go!  No traffic jams, can stretch your legs, can read a book (if the kids let you...)

On to Perm! 

Happy Birthday Mommy

This little hand is E giving Mommy flowers for her birthday.

These are the flowers she made.

Happy Birthday Mommy -- candles on the omlet for breakfast.

Playing on the Playground

This is a very interesting circle on the playground literally outside our front door.  You can walk around it, or stand in one place and it turns.

This is E riding her bike in the big park across the street and tram tracks from our house.

This is in our own playground.  Each time A tried throwing the ball it ended up behind her.  

This is our two year old hiding in a train structure in the park across the street.  

This is our four year old K on top of the train structure. 

This is another view of E on a bike, this time in the playground outside our front door. 

This is a view of our playground with our building in the background, facing the door we go in.  Our apartment is on the seventh floor, the windows where the small balcony is not enclosed with windows. This is the small tail end of a building roughly the shape of a U, with the top of the U on each side bent inward (this is the turned in part).  The ground floor of our building houses two pharmacies, a grocery store, a hardware store in the basement, and two doctors offices.  Our entryway has two floors which is part of a preschool (Not the one we go to, unfortunately).  The building has 8 entryways, each with its own elevator, with four apartments on each of floors 2 through 8 or 9.  Apartments range in size from 1 room to four rooms (ours).  Six of the doorways (including ours) face into the central courtyard, half of which is this playground, the other half is just grass and trees.  Someone once had a flower garden in that latter part, but we do not know whether that gets renewed every year or not, since we have only been in this building since November 1st.  

Literally two buildings away from us is the entrance to the subway, which is considered absolutely prime location in Moscow, that is, to walk 5 minutes to the subway, any stop, is considered better than any building where one needs a bus or tram to get to a metro.  

Underground shopping

Most very large streets in Moscow are crossed either by a pedestrian overpass or underpass.  If you are lucky, you have an underpass.  The overpasses have more stairs, and only some of them are enclosed or covered from the elements.  The big street we must cross everyday to and from preschool has an underpass because it also feeds to the subway entrance.  And the best part of an underpass, is not only is it a break from the snow/rain or wind (which can be really severe), but also because any self respecting underpass has a string of tiny shops, called kiosks, of a lot of things people might need on the way somewhere.  Our underpass has kiosks for all kinds of useful things,  from hotdogs and other snacks, water and candy, gift bags, flowers, batteries for watches, chargers for phones, cases for phones or glasses, umbrellas in the rainy season, charging cables for phones, key duplicating, it also has no fewer than three kiosks for womens clothing, and one for nylons, and two for household linens. The clothing is mostly cheap chinese stuff, but the linens are Russian made.  

Underpasses without such shops can get dirty, and used as urinals, or by beggars, but underpasses with kiosks have none of those problems.  Not to mention it is convenient to grab a snack or buy something on the way home.  But the mayor of Moscow wants to shut them down, for some reason. 

But I Cant Wait Until I am 8

For then I'll be baptised, you see--

The Big Day, The Big Event...

14 February 2015 2 pm Moscow Time (GMT +3)

Church built building (only font in city of Moscow) located at Moskvarech'e 21, Moscow, Russia

Yes, E picked Valentine's Day for her baptism. 

And, for those who keep track, as a child of record, she was entitled to be confirmed during the same service, which she chose to do.  This happens so rarely in Russia that some members were confused on Sunday -- why wasnt she confirmed at church like the converts? 

Baptised by Dad

Confirmed by Dad, assisted by two Russian members (who were also formal witnesses for the baptism).

The special girl:

Proud father and daughter

Our family

Four of the sister missionaries who helped teach E the lessons before baptism.  She met with them since August, two of them are now in other cities so they couldnt come. 

Missionaries and us... 

We invited members from our Russian speaking ward in which we reside, and also the English speaking ward which have been visiting lately.  Only one person came from the English ward, because she was giving a talk.  One other excused herself in advance, while the others just didnt bother.

From our Russian ward, this is a photo of most of the people who came.  The man holding the little girl came despite the fact his wife had a baby that morning.  Another family texted in the middle of the meeting to apologize that they were stuck in a huge traffic jam/gridlock, and wouldnt make it, two others called ahead to say they were sick, and two others couldnt come because they were organizing the Young adult conference which was scheduled for Valentines Day.  A few saw us on Sunday and had forgotten, but most of our Russian friends either battled odds or tried really hard to make it.  

The three ladies nearest E have been pinch-hit kid minders for us, ie have been to our house.  The younger one with the long hair is currently the Primary president, while the man in the white shirt was the designee from the bishop to preside and conduct.  In the second photo, the man with the curly hair teaches the 2-yr olds in nursery, and has on occassion been able to give us a lift home.  

We also had a total of 10 or 12 missionaries, but we didnt manage a photo with all of them.  They sang "Nephis Courage" (Primary songbook). It turned out great! (can you just picture 10 enthusaistic 20-year old men and women belting out "I will go, I will Do!" -- yeah, it was cool).

Her presents, some of which E got given during the meeting so we couldnt take a picture of the gifting.  

These treats were supplied by the missionaries (we brought juice and store bought cookies, but only had to open up the juice).  

Presents _and_ treats (which Mommy let them eat as much as they wanted) -- awesome!

"Our turn next" 

the girl in pink is named the same as our middle daughter, and is her special friend from Primary (about 4 months younger than our K).

Each brings a greater joy to me

E's 8 year old birthday party.  At our apartment, beginning 3 pm, was supposed to last until 5.

Planned activities: make cards or other paper crafts (ready supply of pencils, colored papers, stick glue, scissors), pin the tail on the dog (E painted the dog herself), cake (E chose no ice cream), open presents from guests. All the planned activities took half an hour.

Spontaneous activities, dreamed up by the girls (these are three of her friends from school, so they have lots of experience playing together at recess etc): crawling in the Dora tunnel or standing it up and dancing in it, piling baloons in the Dora tent, popping the balloons, playing with the presents they gave E, taking out ALL the kid dressup clothes (we have a suitcaseful) and trying on everything that would fit, bouncing on the exercise ball, playing hide and seek (we had NO idea that our 4 rooms had so many good hiding spots, and not the usual under the bed!), and bouncing on the bunk bed (which they all thought was cool, no one had ever seen one for real).

One girl brought a younger sister (without asking, I might add), who is 3, and she played quietly on her own or with our 2-going-on-five-year old A.  Only K, our four-year-and-half year old, wanted to join in and got left out.

E wanted her friends to stay and watch some movies, but we said, no, its already late.  The girls called their parents (who knew so many 7 year olds had cell phones?) and the last guest left at 6.30.  We were exhausted, but the birthday girl had fun.  Of course, no one got to bed on time that night....

I love my birthdays every one