Siberian Shivers

Sam's translation of Russian New Year

2011-12-08T18:22:00.001-06:00

Sam and Sophie help decorate our
Christmas (or New Years) Tree.

Sam has been going to his new preschool for a month now and has been picking up some new Russian phrases. What's interesting is to see how he translates them into English. His translations rely heavily on context and, of course, he doesn't quite understand that the language exist in different cultures.

Recently at school they had the theme of New Years. [Russians recognize but do not celebrate Christmas like Americans do. They decorate an evergreen, but it's a New Years tree (ёлка). They have a Santa Claus figure, but he is Grandfather Frost (Дед Мороз) and he comes with presents for children on New Years.] So when Sam started singing a song about New Years in Russian, we complimented him on his song. But when he explained the song, he was sure that it was about Christmas and not New Years. We started to explain the differences, but quickly realized that 4-years old is too young to try to discuss the differences in cultural holidays. Lucky Sam will get to celebrate often. There's Christmas, then New Years, and then Russians celebrate Christmas and New Years again based on their old calendar. Yes, they celebrate Old New Years :) .

Getting our Russian drug tests (the 11-step process)

2011-12-02T08:06:00.001-06:00

We got our drug test documents today because we are applying for our temporary residency permit in Krasnoyarsk. We're told that this is the easiest of the four medical tests (drug, AIDS, TB, and skin diseases). Overall it was painless and quick. To get a quick picture of what the proces is like- here are the 11 steps we went through today when we arrived at the Regional Narcotics Clinic.

Step 1: Check winter coats at the coat check.
Step 2: Go to the registration window down the hall and give them passports to fill out the proper forms.
Step 3: Go to the doctor's exam room down the other hall and give them the papers from registration. They look them over and write your name and some letters on a scrap piece of paper.
Step 4: Go to the second floor with those scrap pieces of paper and pay for the tests at the cashier's window. (it cost $12 for the test)
Step 5: Go back to the doctor's exam room. They fill out an order to test a urine sample.
Step 6: Follow the doctor to the second floor and pee in a cup while she stands at the door of the bathroom.
Step 7: Take the sample and doctor's order down the hall to the lab and wait while the lab worker runs the test and gives you the results.
Step 8: Take the results back to the 1st floor with the doctor.
Step 9: Show the doctor your arms, free of needle punctures. The doctor then fills out the form saying you are drug-free.
Step 10: Take that form back to the second floor to the cashier who stamps it twice making it official.
Step 11: Don't forget to pick up your coats before you go back outside to the 5 degree (F) weather :)

Our Siberian Thanksgiving

2011-11-28T05:21:00.001-06:00

Sliced turkey and gravy, dressing, green beans, corn muffins,
cherry pecan bread, mashed potatoes, sweet potato
casserole (made with squash) cranberry sauce.

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday with friends, both Russian and American. We couldn't hold the feast on Thursday or Friday because they were both working days here in Russia. Finding a turkey was an adventure this year. After checking a few stores, I finally found one selling pieces of turkey and asked if I could order a whole one. They said they had one in the freezer, but when they said it was only 4kg (9lbs), I asked if they could get a bigger one. The store manager called up the farm manager and said they could have a bigger one for me on Wednesday. I came in Wed. only to find that their delivery man gave them the wrong turkey but they told me to come back the next day. So Thursday I went back and sure enough the saleswoman went to the back and with one turkey leg in each hand barely made it to me with a 8.5kg fresh turkey (18.5 lbs).

On Saturday, I had to wash the turkey in the bathtub because our sink was too small and it barely fit in our oven (Russian ovens are smaller than most US ones). The turkey turned out great!

As for the other dishes, Jamie did amazing and our friends helped out by brings some dishes as well. Here's some notes on the food Jamie prepared and the alterations she had to make with the ingredients on hand.

Corn Muffins: Corn based products are not as common in Russia (corn oil, corn starch, cornmeal, etc.) Jamie found something that Russians use to make corn porridge and somehow substituted it for cornmeal. We had no trouble finding honey in Russia. Honey was the first export from Russia and the business of beekeeping is still thriving.

Sweet Potato Casserole: We have yet to find sweet potatoes in Siberia :( Jamie decided to try using squash and it ended up tasting amazingly similar.

Cranberry Sauce: No canned cranberry sauce here. Jamie found a recipe online and made a fresh sauce.

The Desserts! Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie, and Cheesecake
(as you can see they don't have pie dishes here). Our Russian friends brought the
sweet rolls, fruit, and waffle cones with chocolate sweetened condenses milk inside

Jamie also made two pumpkin pies from a fresh pumpkin.

Our Russian guests said they really enjoyed the food, but admitted that it was not what they were used to. We taught them the tradition of going around the table, having everyone say what they were thankful for. They were shocked that we didn't have any toasts during the meal. In Russia, holiday or not, when you gather with friends to eat there are at least a few short toasts.

After the meal unfortunatley there were no football games to watch, but we did get in a fun game of Dutch Blitz.

BYOB Clinic

2011-11-06T00:01:00.003-05:00

As you probably know, we are expecting our third child and Jamie recently had her first doctor visit. God blessed her with an amazing Russian friend, who has been amazingly helpful in finding clinics and scheduling appointments.

Jamie's first appointment was meeting with the head doctor at the birthing clinic, who graciously made some calls and helped her get an appointment with a doctor at a nearby women's clinic to help figure out a plan for Jamie's care. In Russia the doctor who sees you throughout the pregnancy usually is not the doctor to deliver your baby.

When Jamie was finished at the birthing clinic she went to see the doctor at the other clinic. Thankfully, she had already stopped by there with her friend so she knew to bring her own бахилы (baxili -- plastic booties that go over your shoes). This clinic like many in Russia is a BYOB clinic (Bring Your Own Baxili). Usually before you enter an exam room, you slip the booties over your shoes to preserve the cleanliness of the room. At private clinics they are usually provided for you, but in most other places you have to make a stop at the drug store and buy a pair for 2 ruble (6 US cents). At such a good price we couldn't pass up buying a couple extra pairs to entertain the kids with. Sam is pictured above sporting his new pair of baxili.

Other places that baxili are used in Russia:

the dentist
hospitals
day care centers
in airport screening areas (when you take off your shoes you put on the baxili over your socks)

Name Change + New Adventures

2011-11-01T02:11:00.000-05:00

Changes happen (way too) often in life. We welcome change, but we were heart-broken that our plan fell though to work in Tuva. We still plan to visit and possibly live there in the future, but for now we are settled here in Krasnoyarsk. With this change to our plans, we've decided to give our blog name a change-up too. So. . . welcome to Siberian Shivers.

First let me give credit where credit is due. I might have been able to come up with the name of the blog on my own, but years ago I read the book Siberian Shivers by William Harris (you can download it for free on their site!) It is a great, and very humorous book about the Harris' adventures in Siberia. If you want a light read, some laughs and an insight into Siberian/Russian culture, I highly recommend it. When I tried to brainstorm names for the new blog, Siberian Shivers kept coming to mind.

Why shivers? Of course because it's cold here, but also because of how often we get those emotional shivers during different situations we run into. There's the shivers of excitement as we take our kids on the train and see Sam's face light up at the train station. There's the shivers of fear as I try fish liver from the fish we just caught with friends down in Tuva. There's the shivers of joy as we find out that we are expecting our third child.

On that note I should also mention that you have some very entertaining and enlightening blogs to look forward to. Jamie went to her first doctor's appointment today to confirm the great news that she is pregnant. The system here is very different than in the U.S. and we will enjoy sharing the adventure with you!

Almost Missing the Train (June 8-9)

2011-08-02T03:11:00.000-05:00

Train Timetable

After waiting 45 minutes for our taxi to arrive, we finally found him and rushed off to the train station. Normally we arrive at least half an hour before the train arrives and let the kids run around the big plaza that is in front of the train station. When our taxi dropped us off, we had 5 minutes to make it across the plaza, up three flights of stairs, find our track number, run down three flights of stairs and then then find our train car. My quick calculations told me that Sam (3-years old) would take about 4 minuts to climb the stairs, so with a duffle bag in one hand, I hoisted him up with the other and climbed the stairs. The monitor that displays the trains and their track numbers, can be difficult to read for foreigners, but thankfully we've mastered the art of reading it and quickly found our track number. As we raced down the stairs, the employee that checks tickets directed us to our train car and told us to hurry. No sooner had we boarded the train and taken our seats, then it jolted and off we went. Whew!

The train ride was uneventful, except that it was very hot! We were very thankful that we had not left when we had origninally planned with Sophie having a fever. She definitely would have overheated in the sauna that was our train car.

Sam still loves riding trains! It's one of the advantages of growing up in Siberia. He has also grown accustomed to sleeping on the train which is a huge blessing for us, especially since this trip was a 11-hour overnight trip (8pm-7am). We arrived in Abakan early in the morning and took about an hour and a half to let the kids run around before hoping in our taxi to go to Ak-Dovurak.

Trip Delayed + Urine Sample Delay= Everyday Life in Russia (June 7-8)

2011-07-23T03:12:00.001-05:00

Sophie, when she's not feeling under the weather.

After a persistent fever, with no other symptoms, Jamie took Sophie into the clinic for blood and urine tests. An appointment wasn’t necessary but the clinic only took samples from 8-10am. When Jamie arrived, they took Sophie’s blood sample and then looked to Jamie and asked her for the urine sample. Of course the doctor had said nothing to her about collecting it ahead of time, so she left with instructions to go to a drug store for the proper container and baggie. There are some things you just have to learn as you go when you live in a different culture.

The first drugstore Jamie went to didn’t have what she needed, so she headed to the another one, which had the right container but not a “sterilized” one and the pharmacist wasn’t sure if the container was strong enough to be boiled. Realizing that an unsterilized container for collecting a urine sample is pretty useless, Jamie finally found everything she needed at the third drugstore. Thankfully in Russia, there are drugstores on every corner.

We were able to collect the sample with no problem and Jamie dropped it off at the lab the next day. By that afternoon the doctor called to say that the tests were clean and we had nothing to worry about as long as Sophie’s fever went down. Thankfully, it did. The doctor’s guess was the same as ours: that the fever was caused by the six (yes, 6) molars that were coming in. With the all-clear from the doctor and Sophie’s fever subsiding, we bought tickets to leave for Tuva Thursday evening.

Here's a link to a previous blog that we did on Russian Drugstores.

Sick Baby = Trip Delayed (June 4)

2011-07-17T21:51:00.001-05:00

We had our train tickets and our bags packed, but when we woke up Saturday morning our one-year old daughter had a high fever. Our train left in the evening, and since Sophie didn’t have any other symptoms, we reasoned that the fever could be caused by her new molars that were coming in. We continued packing up our things, still planning on catching the 8pm train. At 6:30pm we took her temperature again and it had spiked up to 103 F. Because we were heading to a remote location where healthcare options were limited, we decided to postpone the trip at the last minute.

Poor Sam was so pumped up for the train ride, that I ended up taking him down to the train station to watch the trains for a couple hours. We were able to control Sophie’s temperature, but it was consistently high, so on Monday we called the doctor. In Russia, doctors make house calls for sick kids, so the doctor showed up at our apartment and checked Sophie. She found no symptoms of infection and gave us a medicine for her fever. If the fever was still present on Tuesday the doctor wanted us to bring her in for blood and urine tests.

Her fever didn’t go away, so on Tuesday morning Jamie took her in for the tests. But that was an adventure in and of itself and will be the subject of our next post. . .

Preschool Pics

2011-05-11T21:16:00.000-05:00

It was picture day at Sam's Russian preschool. He would have been in more pictures. . . but he got blocked out by bows :)

Beware of the bows. Big bows are popular for girls in Russia.

Coloring time! Sam knows most of his colors in Russian now.

Sam loves doing puzzles!

Russian Drugstores

2011-05-07T07:44:00.000-05:00

Because our kids have been sick, we've made several trips over the past few weeks to the aptyeka (аптека): the Russian drugstore. The nice thing about drugstores in Russia is that there is always a couple within walking distance. Usually they are in one small room and when you walk in, you are surrounded by glass display cases. After glancing around you can usually find the window where a pharmacist will help find what you need, that is if you can explain it clearly enough in Russian :).

Here's are some interesting facts about the drugstores here:

You can buy individual bandaids for aout 5 cents. This turned out to be nice because the first couple brands we tried we horrible at staying on.
There is no need to fill out insurance forms or figure co-pays, because pretty much all the medicine they sell is priced well below $10.
Some of the medicines we bought for the kids required that we add water to a power and shake to make the syrup. This was new to us, but my parent's said that it used to be that way in the U.S.
Most drugs do not require a prescription, however, since we are unfamiliar with most of the medicines here, the list of meds our doctor wrote out for the kids was a huge help in the drugstore because we just handed it to the pharmacist.
Drugstores and optometrists are the only places that I have been able to find contact solution in Siberia.

Sick in Siberia

2011-05-04T19:25:00.000-05:00

For the past few weeks, our family has been taking turns being sick. Between coughs, congestions, sick tummies, bronchitis, and now an ear infection, you can say we've been under the weather. Russians usually say Spring is one of the worst time for sickness, because it's warm enough for the germs to live outside again. In the winter, it is believed that the -30 degree wether kills off most of the germs.

Last week Sophie's cough started sounding wheezy, so we called the doctor. In Russia, if your child is sick, the clinic sends a doctor to your apartment. Let me tell you, it doesn't get any better than that! Not having to bundles up and drag a sick child to the doctor is an amazing feeling :) The doctor was wonderful and prescribed a couple meds and a few days later, Sophie was back to her normal self.

Yesterday, Sam came home from preschool with a fever and sore ear, so the doctor came out again and diagnosed an ear infection. So now Sam is on a regiment of antibiotics and nose drops. Poor guy!

If I have time in the next few days, I'll blog about some of the differences between US drugstores and the ones in Russia, but for now, I need to go hand out with sick Sam.

Russia Abolishes Daylight Saving Time

2011-03-27T03:19:00.000-05:00

This morning we set our clocks forward an hour for daylight saving time, but thanks to Russian President Medvedev, this will be the last time. The government has decided that the perils of losing and adding an hour are worse than the benefits. Apparently the amount of suicides tends to increase around the time of the time change.

What effect will the elimination of DST have on us? It changes what time the sun will rise and set in the winter. In the depth of winter, the sun will not rise until 10:30am (as opposed to 9:30), but it will be light until 5:30pm (instead of just 4:30pm). If that meant that I got to sleep in until 10am that wouldn't be so bad, but that certainly isn't the case.

There's also a rumor that the time zone that we are in right now (in Krasnoyarsk) will be combined with one of the adjacent zones. A few years ago Russia went from having 11 different time zones (yes, it's that big), to having only 9, when the two zones surrounding Moscow where merged into Moscow time.

Right now, we are experiencing an unusually warm March for Siberia with highs in the lower 40's which has lead to the messy melting of snow. Unlike in America, where Spring is associated with beauty and new life, here in Russia, it is peoples' least favorite season because of the messiness of melting snow and the months of trash that have been hidden beneath during winter. Here's a link to a post we did two years ago about the joys of Siberian Springtime.

Sam Starts Detcki Saut (Детский Сад)

2011-03-08T07:40:00.000-06:00

Sam brought home a picture of a hedgehog from school.

This past week Sam started Russian preschool. Here it's called detski saut, which literally translates to kid's garden (aka kindergarden). In Russia, kids often start preschool at age 2, after they are potty trained. Because the government preschools are free, there is usually a long waiting list to get in. It just so happened that a new private presechool opened last month in our apartment building, so we decided to enroll Sam for half days to start getting him exposure to the Russian language.

After a 5 half-days, Sam love school. We were nervous about him settling into a school where no one else speak English, but he is learning quickly and having fun while he does. He is learning how to share and not take away toys from other boys and girls. In Russian, the command/request "give me" is дай (said like "dye"). So when I asked him if he was being nice to the other kids, he told me, "Daddy, when the other boy is playing with a toy that I want, I tell him to die." I couldn't help but laugh as he mixed English and Russian.

One interesting thing about Russian preschool is that there is always a scheduled time for kids to play outside as long as it is warmer than -25F outside.

Sam's Tongue + Frozen Metal Gate = Ouch!

2011-02-26T05:34:00.000-06:00

We warned him. He knew better. But he is a 3-year old boy and was bound to do it sometime I guess.

On the way home Sam decided to lick the metal gate by our apartment building.
Gross-- Yes!
Dangerous- Yes!
His tongue stuck to the gate, but because it was -20 F out, it gave him such a shock that he just ripped his tongue off the gate. It bled for about 10 minutes and he complained that it hurt for about half a day, but luckily the tongue is a fast healer. Below is the post-incident interview.

Seeing Siberia: Rows of Apartments

2011-02-20T09:54:00.000-06:00

Instead of blogging about an experience and then adding a picture, I've decided to add a picture and then blog about what it shows about life in Siberia. For lack of a better name, I'm going to call these types of blogs Seeing Siberia (so they can be easily categorized later).

I took this picture a week ago from the forth story of a shopping center. The thing that caught my eye were the rows of apartment buildings. In Chicago this layout was called the "row houses" and referred to the worst projects in the city, but here in Russia it's very normal. A huge majority of the population live in apartment buildings that are built very close together. Private homes are very rare. In the bottom-right of the picture you can see a group of people ice skating. In the summer that is a running track and in the winter it has been converted into an ice skating track. On the other end is a huge rink. A great part about living in Russia is that in the winter you can usually find a free ice skating rink within walking distance of any given apartment building. Now if only we could learn to skate :)

Siberian New Years

2011-01-22T07:25:00.000-06:00

In Russia, New Years is the BIG holiday. It's what people look forward to for months. The decorated trees are New Years trees and Grandfather Frost brings gifts to children on New Years, not Christmas. Here's a few interesting snippets about New Years:

The ice village in a park near our apartment.

Grandfather Frost (дед мороз- dyet ma-ros) is usually accompanied by his granddaughter, the snow maiden, who is always played by a very attractive young lady.
Kids always get gifts for New Years and usually stay up to "meet" New Years.
People love to shoot off fireworks. In our case a bunch went off shortly after midnight and then again at 4am, which was when Moscow rang in the New Year. Our apartment is on the 9th floor and there is a small park nearby, so there were fireworks exploding right outside our windows all night (see the video below).
In Krasnoyarsk there are several parks around the city that are made to be ice villages with creative ice sculptures and fun ice slides.
Russians usually watch Irony of Fate (Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром!) around this time of year (like we, Americans, watch It's a Wonderful Life around Christmas). It's a classic Soviet movie made in the 70's. It plays on the fact that apartment buildings during that era were carbon copies of each other: having the same floor plan, exterior, interior, etc. On New Years Eve, four friends go the banya (Russian sauna) and get very drunk. Too of them pass out and the two that are awake remember that one of the two needs to catch a plane to Leningrad and of course they put the wrong one on the plane. When he finally comes to his senses, Zhenya, the main character doesn't realize that he is in a different city and catches a cab to his home address. The building is the floor plan and the apartment has similar furniture (common during Soviet times) and his key worked in the door. What ensues is a surprised young woman who comes home to a drunk man on her couch. After many tense and comedic moments, they end up finding them selves spending New Years together and falling in love. It's on YouTube with English subtitles if you're interested.

Ice Slides

2010-12-27T08:42:00.000-06:00

After completing our Christmas morning traditions, we put on our winter gear and headed out to a nearby park where we had noticed some ice slides. Along with several different ice sculptures, about 5 different ice slides were being built for the New Years celebration. One was done enough so we decided to introduce Sam to it. He was hesitant at first, but we couldn't pull him away from it by the end. A few things to know about Russian ice slides.

Almost every kid carries around a small round piece of plastic with a handle and it's sole purpose is for ice sliding. Stick it under your bum and go down the slide to keep you warm and give you some extra speed.
NEVER try to walk down an ice slide. Sam did this a couple times and took a couple hard falls.
Because the temps stay below freezing for 4-5 months the slides are good long past New Years.
Every once in a while workers will close down a slide to pour water on it to keep it running fast and smooth. The slowly pour water on and pull a rug/blanket over the water to smooth it out. Most days, the water freezes with in a minute or two.

FYI: That is Sophie asleep on the sled in her pink snow suit.

Our Winter Stroller

2010-12-12T07:28:00.001-06:00

It's undeniable- winter has arrived in Siberia. At least every other day it is snowing and since the temps won't go above freezing until March, the snow is here to stay. Since pushing a stoller over ice and snow doesn't work too wel, most people here use sleds. Last week we picked out a sled and it's been working out great. It's super easy to push over the icy paths and much lighter than a stroller. See the video below.

We talked to people about the best kind to buy and we got a few tips:

Stick to the sleds you push. With the one's that you pull, your kid can fall off and you might not notice for 100 yards. Or if you go down a hill you might loose control of them.
The fold up sleds are great for taking on the bus. I've even seen a sign on the public buses that say kids' sleds are allowed to be carried on the buses.
Bring a blanket. If you're walking a ways, it's wise to put a blanket over your child's legs since he won't be walking and keeping them warm.

This weekend the temperatures have hit an all-time low for our experience in Russia (-49F). We've stayed inside for the most part since it hasn't gotten warmer than -40F. But it is supposed to warm up tomorrow with a high of -25 :)

Leg 3: Getting 2 kids & 6 suitcases through a 4-room airport

2010-12-10T20:03:00.000-06:00

Our S7 flight from Beijing to Krasnoyarsk was delayed about 45 minutes, but the kids slept almost the entire 4-hour flight. We arrived to a snowy Krasnoyarsk morning. Before deboarding the airplane a customs agent came around with a little machine scanning people's hands. I assumed it would detect or show if they had come in contact with narcotics. A police officer held Sam's hand down the icy stairs from the airplane because I was carrying bags. The great part about Russia is people are always eager to help with kids. We hopped on a bus, which transported us all to the customs room, where I filled out four registration cards before going through customs with no problem. The sole luggage carousel was right off of the customs room and I missed it at first. The Thai restaurant we ate in while we were in the Beijing airport was about as big as the entire Krasnoyarsk airport. Jamie and the kids found a seat while I put all the bags through the xray machine to check that we were not smuggling in goods from China. The nice thing about a really small airport is that I was able to walk Jamie and the two kids to the other side of the airport, near the exit while I went and retrieved our bags.

In the waiting area, I found some taxi drivers and started negotiating a fare. They said we would need two cars because of the luggage, but in the end a new dirver pulled up with a big enough car to fit us all in--barely. He jokingly called it his transformer-taxi as he folded up seats to make room for the bags. Sophia sat on Jamie's lap and Sam sat up front with me. Russia has car seat laws, but they don't apply (or maybe I should say: are not applied) to taxis.

After about a 35 minute drive, we arrived at our friends apartment where we stayed until we were able to find our own apartment. That whole process will be the subject of a future blog.

The picture above is of Sam and Jamie during our second day in Krasnoyarsk. We couldn't find Sam's scarf so we used a baby blanket :) Since that day we have also switched hats because the blue one is a little big and kept covering his eyes. As we walked around the city, we would here him giggling and Sam saying, "I can't see. I can't see."

Journey to Krasnoyarsk: Leg 2: Layover in a Smog-Filled Airport

2010-12-01T06:48:00.000-06:00

So, I decided to count our 10-hour layover in Beijing as a leg of our journey. Our United flight arrived on time in Beijing. We were all very tired because it was midnight Chicago time and we didn't get a whole lot of sleep on the flight over. We made our way to customs and found out that there is a special line for international transfers (if you are picking up and rechecked your luggage, like we were). The nice thing is that there was no line at this checkpoint so we went right though and picked up our luggage. With the help of a porter we hauled everything up to the check-in area where we had to wait for the counter to open 3 hours before the flight.

Not my picture, but almost exactly the same conditions
with the horrible smog.

When our plane landed it looked like Beijing was covered in a heavy fog, but we later found out that it was smog and at night (Beijing time), the smog got so bad that it made its way into the airport. Visibility inside of the terminal was actually limited because the smog was so bad.

We were all exhausted and took turns napping and entertaining the kids. Sam, of course, was thrilled to have almost unlimited options for riding escalators and elevators, and we finally got him to go to sleep by putting him in the stroller and pushing him in circles around the airport. We were in the new Beijing terminal, which is huge- the biggest I've ever been in and there were plenty of options for eating, even at midnight China time. We ended up eating at a Thai restaurant. The only thing harder than eating with chopsticks it doing it when you are extremely exhausted. We checking into our flight without problem and made our way through security and to our gate.

My next post will be about the final leg and trying to find a taxi in Krasnoyarsk with enough room for all our suitcases :)

The Journey to Krasnoyarsk: Leg 1

2010-11-20T17:53:00.000-06:00

Well, we made it to Krasnoyarsk!

Our first leg was from Chicago to Beijing. We got through O'hares security a lot quicker than usual and had enough time to grab some lunch before boarding the plane. We had four of the five middle seats in United's 777. And we were lucky enough that the fifth seat in our row remained empty so we were able to spread out a little more. More space is always good!

The flight is 13.5 hours and the kids did great. Sam loved plugging his headphones into the armrest and listening to music. We put a small piece of duct tape over the stewardess call button on the armrest and told him that (and the overhead light) were the only buttons off limits. He had a great times pretending that the other buttons did something that had to do with a machine that made lots of different sounds. He took a nap without any problems and then went to sleep again for a couple hours at the end of the flight, around his bedtime. We ended up only using about half of the new toys that we brought along to keep him entertained.

Overall the flight was good. They did have technical difficulties with the in-flight entertainment and never could get any of the little TV in the seats to work. Luckily we had the kids to entertain us, so it didn't bother us that much and United's customer service is offering everyone of the flight a few compensation options of the inconvenience. We arrived in Beijing on time and without any parenting crisises on the plane.

When I get some more time I'll blog about the second leg of our trip and our layover in Beijing.

Getting our required AIDS test

2010-10-12T08:54:00.001-05:00

Last Friday we made a family trip to a local clinic to get blood work done for an AIDS test. The test is a requirement for everyone who wants to receive a student visa to enter Russia, even Sam and Sophie. Sam was his usual brave self with no tears, no crying. Sophie wasn't a fan of the tourniquet they put on her to help find a vein, but we all survived.

We have found a website (www.pomlabtest.com/) that will issue the doctor's order for the tests to a local clinic. This is the second time we have used them in order to get AIDS tests for our visas. It's easier, cheaper, and quicker than making a doctor's appointment. We do have to make sure they put our names on the results because usually everything is done confidentially.

So we have our test results now and we are just waiting on the university in Krasnoyarsk to receive and mail us our invitation. We are starting the process of sorting through our things and deciding what to bring with us to Russia. It's never a very fun process, but we are excited that we will be returning to Russia soon.

Russian Student Visas: Our Timeline

2010-10-06T12:21:00.006-05:00

So we've been accepted by Krasnoyarsk Pedagogical State University (KPSU) to study in their Russian language program. For those of you interested in these type of things, here's what we have to do in order to get a student visa to study in Russia.

1. We contacted the school and let them know we wanted to study there.

2. Once they accepted us (and more importantly agreed to give our two kids student visas), we emailed them copies of every page of our passports and some other basic info (birthplace, address, etc.). We completed this step on Sept. 20th.

3. The university fills out paperwork to apply for a student visa invitation at the local immigration office. They turn in all our information and copies of our passports. It takes 3-4 weeks for this office to process the paper work and return a visa invitation to to university. If all goes to plan the university will have our invitations in hand around October 14-21.

4. The university then sends us the invitations via DHL which takes about a week. So we should receive the invitations Oct 21-29.

5. We then send everything to the a company in Washington D.C, who goes to the Russian embassy and applies for our actual visas. By the way, "everything" includes

Passports
Visa invitations
Applications for a visa
An AIDS test result (yes, even for our baby and 3-year old)
Plus about $200 per person for processing fees.

6. The visa application takes 2-7 days (depending how much you want to pay to expedite the process).

7. The Russian Embassy issues us a visa our passports with visas in them are mailed back to us.

8. We fly to Russia!!!! (Somewhere around Oct 23-Nov5)

Sam Turns 3

2010-09-11T13:29:00.005-05:00

We celebrated Sam's third birthday at the end of August. His favorite thing right now is trains, so we had a train themed birthday, which turned out to be a blast. Jamie and her sister created a beautiful train cake and Thomas the train was everywhere you looked.

One thing people ask us a lot is if Sam still speaks Russian? The answer is no. When we left Russia, he was one and a half and understood everything our nanny said when she spoke in Russian, but he was at the age where he was only speaking a handful of words in English and also in Russian. Being in the U.S. for six months now, Sam has lost most of his Russian ability as he learns to speak more clearly in English. Of course he will pick up Russian quickly when we return and he'll be bilingual before we know it.

The thing that brought all this to mind was that yesterday one of our friends commented on how Sam says his own name. Sometimes he says it Sem (rhymes with hem), which is how Russians pronounce his name because they don't have vowel sound that we use in words like ham, ram, and Sam.

Day 14: Going "Home"

2010-09-02T09:56:00.005-05:00

Day 14: Monday

My flight home to Chicago was scheduled to leave around 5am and because of the terror attacks on the Moscow Subway the day before I figured I should arrive at the airport early. It turned out that there was no need for that. The security line moved quickly and before I knew it, I was in the terminal with 2 and a half hours before boarding. Almost all of the stores and cafes were closed because it was so early, so I found a seat and tried to stay awake so I wouldn't sleep past my flight. In Russia, instant coffee machines are popular and easy to find. You put your change in and select your drink (coffee, hot chocolate, espresso, etc.) and the machine drops a cup and dispenses the drink. It's no Starbucks, but it you select a sweet enough drink, it's tolerable.

Our flight left on time. It was a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, Germany. I was happy to translate for an older Russian couple sitting next to me who spoke no English or German. I knew who they felt :)

I had a 3 hour layover in Frankfort, which has a huge airport. I walked a couple laps around the terminal to stretch my legs and ordered a sandwich at a cafe. Finally the time came to board my United flight to O'Hare. The flight was full, and somehow I got moved up to their Economy Plus seating. The few extra inches make a huge difference on an 8-hour flight.

The flight arrived on time and I made my way through the long line at customs. The agent welcomed me home and I picked up my luggage. Yay for no lost luggage on this trip!

We were staying with my in-laws outside of Chicago, but home to me is always where my wife and kids are. Jamie and Sam met me at the airport. Sam, being 2, was more interested in riding the elevators and escalators than seeing dad, but when we got in the car, he was sure to give me lots of hugs---one of the best parts of being a dad!

Day 14:

Spent most of the day: In the air

Ate: airplane food (I already miss Russian food)

Slept: at home, which is nice, even if jetlag made me sleepy at all the wrong times :)