Novosibirsk - Day 13

Today was Ok. :) I woke up around 8am and posted my journal entry from last nights party. Around 8:30, Jennifer found me on Skype, so I plugged in my webcam, hooked up my headset and talked with her for a while. She was watching the SuperBowl and she was able to give me the "play by play" for the last quarter. I was able to hear the New York score the winning touchdown while in Russia (in real time). I was convinced that I was the first person in Russia to know who won the SuperBowl. :) Go Giants!!

After catching up with Jen and getting ready to go, I met Ivan (aka: Von-ya) at the Gorodok for breakfast. It was quite fun to sit and talk with him mono-e-mono. I introduced him to my favorite omelet with ham and pineapple, then we headed to work. He took me on a back way to the office and it was very scenic. I got to see little shops that I had never knew existed behind the main street. It was just your basic "back way" to work really, but all the much better with good company. :) We made conversation and it seemed to go by very fast.

When we got to work, it was just work stuff until it was time to go home. I did manage to play some Wii Tennis and realized that Scott's Mii has got some mad hops. :) Oh yeah, this morning Jennifer actually suggested that we look into getting one... Uh, Ok!

So after work (around 8ish) I got a ride home with Ivan and that was pretty much my night really. I stayed up on the computer working on various items, but all in all just busy work. About 10pm, I cooked myself a pizza, but totally didn't know how to work the oven. The top was nice and melted, but the bottom was all doughy. I ended up eating the outer crust just cause I was that hungry, but threw away the doughy center. Afterwards, I totally regretted even doing that. It really should have stayed in for another 20 minutes or so or just been thrown away. Raw pizza isn't good, I don't care who you are. Man, I can't wait to get back home to Jennifer's cooking... I'm having a hard time with food over here. :) She had the never to tell me that she was making meat loaf tonight!! :'(

For an update on the washing machine, it's still winning. Though I think I may have finally figured it out now that it's wasted two full boxes of tide. I actually found myself flipping it off tonight and I tried to start a fight with it. I stopped counting how many times it filled up and drained water without cleaning my clothes, then it would just sit there for 15 minutes doing nothing. Of course, it's being such a jerk, that it won't even let me open the door to retrieve my dirty wet clothes. I'm about this close to trying a Russian laundromat... Maybe I'll buy another box of Tide tomorrow so that it knows I'm not so easy to give up.

Lizzie is still sick at home. She stayed home today and got to hang out with Jennifer and the girls. I spoke with her on Skype and she was pretty chipper for a sick kid. While talking with Jennifer tonight, I realized that Daizi is beginning to talk!!?? That sucks I'm not home to see this, but it was pretty cool to hear her say "Da dada", which translated to "Hi dada". The fact that she put the 3 syllables together was what shocked me. I then began quizzing her on the basic things that we always work on, like "How old are you?", "What's my name?", "What's your name?", etc... and she was nailing them all. It's the little things!! I can't wait til next week to see them all again!!

Russian Facts
I realized something very quickly when I got to Novosibirsk. It was something that stuck out for me like a sore thumb and I've noticed it the whole time I've been here. The kids over here are really cute. I told this to Oksana and Lena the other night when we were in town, and Lena (I think) asked me why I thought so. At that point I think I realized that it's because they are all bundled up so much that they look like little stay puff people. Call me crazy, but it's true! The cutest thing next to my kids are Russian winter kids.


Russian Words
Putinka - A Russian Vodka given to me by my friends Anna & Sasha
Pre-vyet - "Hi" or "Hey"
St-draft - "Hi" (short for "st-draft-st-vetti" which is "hello")
Soo-bah-ru - Subaru only with an accented "a". :)