A Real 3 Year Old Conversation

Yesterday was Lizzie's 8th birthday. She's getting way too big! We had a little party here with cake and ice cream. There were lots of family and friends that came over and we all just had a great time. It's hard to believe that our oldest is already 8. These years are flying... I'm digressing, sorry.

Anyway, we were putting them to bed last night and Daizi started rambling to me while she was supposed to be getting ready for bed.

She said: Da-ee, Sissy birfday today and my birfday tomorrow.
I said: Your birthday is tomorrow?!
She said: Yeah!
I said: No, your birthday isn't until September...
She said: Tha's wha I told you!
I said: Oh...?

Yeah. She's 3. :)

Motorized barstool sells for $1,125 on eBay

Finally, an end to the bar stool saga: Motorized barstool sells for $1,125 on eBay

Vonn "Skeeter" Watson stands by one of the
motorized barstools he built. The motorized barstool
that launched Newark into national headlines
sold on eBay Sunday evening for $1,125 - Eric George

I remember seeing this on the national news a few months ago, shortly after my old boss sent me a link to it. He always thought I was from a hill-jack town and this story sealed the deal for him (I'm sure). Anyway, I forgot all about it and it was rather funny to see the image of the guy with his creation smiling in front of a 'Skeeters' sign on my Google News feed this morning. :)

Enjoy Issam...

The Meaning of Kay

Jennifer and I were putting our girls to bed tonight and the house always get goofy around this time of night. It's always fun to just let the girls say and do crazy things before going to sleep. I've had Lizzie jump on my back while I was kissing Jazzy goodnight before, and they always seem to try and trick us by making us guess what side of the bed their head is on. Of course, they think it's hilarious when we try to kiss their feet.

Anyway, tonight as we were having a goofy conversation with Jazzy, and we were telling her how we came up with her full name. At one point, Jennifer said: "Do you know how you got your middle name?"

Jazzy just laughed and said: "Because, every kiss begins with Kay!" :)

Maybe our kids watch too much TV?

Jazzy Kay

Everytime I run across this picture I laugh out loud. She made this mask when we were camping a few months ago. She just put it on without saying anything while we were all sitting around the fire. She does these types of things all the time just to make us laugh. If you knew Jazzy, you would realize that this is just "everyday Jazz".

Hoppy Easter

Tomorrow is Easter. Girls were very excited before going to bed tonight and it was fun listening to them try to figure out how the Easter Bunny can visit every house in one night, all over the world.

The quote of the night was when Jazzy asked me, “Daddy, how does the Easter Bunny open our doors without waking everybody up?” And before I could try to answer, Lizzie said “Jazzy, it’s because he’s so magical that he just walks through our walls”.

How can I correct such a genius answer. Thanks Liz! :)

As an adult, I try not to think about how creepy it sounds that there is a human-sized rabbit breaking into my house while I sleep and hopping all over the living room hiding eggs. Cweepy!

I'm posting a blog entry...

This is a hilarious short film about why we are all secretly hooked on Twitter.

"Twouble with Twitter" sous-titré
by LePostfr

It's painfully true. I'm at my computer so much these days that I feel as though it's the only way I can communicate with my "friends". Listening to peoples tweets vocally let me appreciate how ridiculous tweets really are...

Trapper Jazz

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the girls have the day off of school. I'm down in the basement working, and Jennifer tells me a funny story. Before you can appreciate the story, you have to know a little fact about our farm: We are constantly fighting with coyote's out here. Grady (our dog) keeps them away for the most part, but they are a very real threat to our goats.

So any, Jazzy makes a little mound of snow with her hands and then comes to the back door and tells Jennifer the following:

"Mommy, I made a coyote twap... Now when the coyotes come thwough ouw yahd, they'll twip on the snow, then Gwady can come and eat them." - Jazzy (5 yrs old)

Perfect!

Obama Era Press Conferences

Found on twitter: http://twitter.com/shanselman/status/1116626675

I felt it was worth sharing. :)

Jazzy Quote

I really enjoy reading Kimpassionate's kid quotes. Therefore, I thought I'd share one with everyone...

Yesterday, I overheard Lizzie and Jazzy talking about some of the words in their activity book. As I walked past them, I heard Jazzy say:

Yeah Lizzie, cause there are all kinds of whites. There's black and white, and white and wong, and white and left.

I can't make this stuff up.

I Got Flashed Today

I had something interesting happen to me on my run today. :) I was taking my 4 mile cool down run today and took off out my front door down to the bike path. Once I got the bike path, I ran 1/2 mile into the path and took looped back around using the Quarry Rim Trail. On my way back, I crossed the over the Toboso Bridge and as I was approaching Rock Haven, I heard a horn going off with a bunch of girls yelling. I figured it must have been somebody I knew, but had no idea who... As the car passed, I put my hand out in as though I was waving at them and when I turned to see who was making all the noise, I found myself face to face with a car full of (what appeared to be) high school girls. The girl in the passenger seat had her shirt lifted up over her head! :) All I saw were very white breasts against a very tan belly. I just smiled and shook my head... Clicking on the map below will show you where the "scene of the crime" took place. :)


I think that's the first time I've ever been "flashed" by a stranger. It was pretty funny! I laughed and just kept chugging along. When I got home I told Jennifer about it and she couldn't believe it either.

Novosibirsk - Day 17

Today rocked! Literally.

I woke up at 7:30 and got ready to head out the door for the Chocolat. This place is gonna miss me! All of the waitresses know me by my face now and actually bring me a "menu engleski" as soon as I walk in the door. Honestly I don't know why really, because I pretty much order the same thing every time. I either order the ham & cheese omelet or the fried eggs. Of course, I always get the "fruncheski press", which is basically a small pitcher of water with coffee beans in it. The top has a stem on it that you "press" down on after so long... Ok, this isn't making any sense, I'm sure... Basically, they grind up coffee beans and put it in this small pitcher of water and the beans float on top of the water making it browner and browner by the minute (aka: making the coffee). The stem on the top actually has a filter on the bottom of it, and after 4 minutes, you slowly push down on this stem which (of course) pushes the ground up coffee beans to the bottom. At this point, you have a small pitcher of coffee sitting above the filter. I'll try to take a picture of it on Monday before I leave and post it to my blog. It's only fair since it's really all I've been drinking over here (along with water, beer, and chai (aka: tea)).

Scott and I decided to call Semyon to join us and he said to go ahead and order him the usual (fried eggs and a latte). I actually struggled with this order because it's not actually on the menu, but I order it all the time. Typically the waitresses know enough English to understand "fried eggs", but this waitress didn't speak any English, and I had to bust out the handy-dandy dictionary to assist us all through this process. We nailed it after looking up 3 words (ham, eggs, beans). :) When Semyon got there, we had a blast. We taught him a few English phrases that he had never heard before. We made sure to tell him that when he uses this phrase, he can NOT forget the word "with". :)

While we were sitting in the cafe finishing our coffee, Ivan showed up with his son and I was able to snap a photo of them together. It's unfortunate that I don't have a picture of him with his wife, but I'm very happy that I was able to get a picture of him with his son. Sorry Ivan, I forgot his name already! :( Please comment below if you read this. :)

So, after breakfast Scott and I took the mashrutka (a minivan with seats) to work and I stayed busy pretty much all day. Rather than giving Scott his daily "tennis lesson" on the Nintendo Wii, I was given a "table tennis lesson" by Sergey P... Man, this guy is good! It started out as a friendly game of table tennis (aka: ping pong) between Alex M. and I. It got serious when Sergey P. showed up with his ping pong paddle. I was able to play a few games with Lena, Semyon, and Alex M., before getting schooled by Sergey P. He litterally put the smack down on me. I wish I had video of this guys ping pong skills. He's damn good! I was able to steal a few points here and there, but it was mostly luck. :)

Oh, don't let me forget to wish Alex S. a happy birthday. He turned 24 today! We had a party for him in the break room with cake. I was very surprised to learn that nobody sang for him!? I actually sang the song by myself in front of everybody as I was teaching it to Oleg and I'm sure they got a kick out of it. "They" being most of the DataWorks crew. :) The best part about the party is that we all at cake on "mexican paper plates", which was literally plates made of paper. In other words, they were pieces of paper folded in half with a piece of cake laid on them. :) Alex, I bet you didn't think I was going to use this picture, did you!? Happy Birthday man! :)

So the rest of the day @ work was busy / productive / fun, then I got a ride home from Konstantin. This is where I pause and explain how good of a friend Konstantin has become. Before I came over here, I explained to him over Skype that I wanted to run in a race so that I could get a "Russian bib number". A bib number (for those that don't know) is basically just a flemzy piece of paper that runners get when they run a race. Over the last year, I've been collecting them from the various races I've ran and I have a small bundle of them in my basement that really serve no purpose. Anyway, when I told this to Konstantin over Skype many weeks ago, he contacted his mom, and asked her to make me one. Well, today he gave it to me and I am so impressed by it. It is very... what's the word... PERFECT! I could not have asked for a better bib number, or a better (new) friend. Thanks again Konstantin!! You are what us Americans call "Good People!" Please don't forget to send me your mothers address in an email, so that I can send her a postcard... yes, that's right, I said a "POSTCARD!" :)

After Konstantin dropped me off, it was time for me to turn right back around and leave again. A few days ago I had asked the guys at work where I could find some live music before I left Akademgorodok in a few days. I was looking to see any live music really. Being a musician it's just fun to go see other musicians entertaining, and I wanted to see the live Russian music scene. As soon as I asked them, they immediately pointed me to Julia. I guess she's well trained in all the details of such places. Julia got on the case immediately and booked a table at a the Нии Куда (pronounced "nee kooda" which means nowhere). This place is actuall one floor below the "Prime Time" sports bar that the support crew took me to on Day 14. It ended up being Julia , "The Anna's" (Anna A. (aka: Ushanka Anna) and Anna M.), mysef, and Anna A.'s husband, Sasha. I was very happy that Sasha came along for the ride too. Not only is he fun to hang out with, but he helped me not be the only guy! :)

Tonight was "Irish Band Night"! I was elated!! I love Irish music. My sister turned me on to a few Irish bands over the years; namely Gaelic Storm and The Elders. Every year, the whole family goes to Dayton for their annual Celtic Fest. If you've never been to this, you really should go! We take the girls every year and will be taking them again this year... Check out one of the movies that I uploaded to YouTube from last years event: Dayton Celtic Festival 2007

Trust me, Irish music, Irish beer, and an Irish atmosphere make for a good time! Needless-to-say, I was excited for this night to get started. :)

When we got there, I ordered my "farst pint ah Guinness" as we got settled in right beside the band. Our table was in the back right corner of the club, which was literally... "right beside the band". The name of the band tonight was Fire Water Folks and when they came out, they immediately began with their Celtic music and I formed "perma-grin" (no, it wasn't the Guinness at this point). This band was awesome! They were a bunch of Russians, singing Irish songs, in English. I didn't care how weird the whole scenario was, I loved it! They are made up of an accordion player, a bass guitarist, a singer / guitarist, and the drummer. Of course, the drummer was awesome (you had to expect such a statement from another drummer). He had total control of his kit and really drove the band the entire time. The crowd was totally into it and I (personally) was having a great time!! There were even some Celtic dancers that got up and danced the famous "I have no arms, just crazy legs" Irish dance moves.

Half way through the show, some of Julia's friends joined us (another Julia and Nina); they were very nice. I learned lots of Russian tonight and shared lots of English in return. After tonight, Sasha is officially my new "ruskie bradt" (aka: Russian brother). I told him that when he and Anna come to the states, they have to come visit me on my farm and meet my family. He has cousins that live in Pennsylvania, so this is very possible, I hope. We all took turns yelling back and forth at each other over the music and had a great time.

One of the highlights of the night (then I'll wrap up my post, I promise :)) was getting to actually meet the band. Anybody that knows me, knows that I just don't care... Anna wanted to get a picture of the band behind the stage (aka: behind us), so I went with her and we got to meet them. They all spoke pretty good English and really appreciated our enthusiasm (aka: drunkenness). I commended the drummer on his skills and told them all that I really enjoyed their music. I was also happy to know that they had heard of Gaelic Storm. They asked me how their English accent because they really wanted to make it sound "authentic", to which I (of course) said it was awesome... even though... whatever. Anna's husband took some pictures for us with the entire band (including the sound guy) and I walked away with a night too remember.

Well, sorry for the short post!! What else is there to say? Thanks Julia, Anna A., Anna M., Sasha, other Julia, and Nina!! I had a great night!! :)


Russian Words

• Egg = яйцо (pronounced "ij-tso")
• Ham - Окорок (pronounced "o-korok")
• Beans -бобы (pronounced "bop")
• Drum - барабан (pronounced "ba-ra-bahn")
• Shooah - Sure (It's actually English, but all Russians say it with the elongated "oo", including Julia) :)

I also found out that "Luc" actually sounds just like the Russian word for "man hole"... yes, the steal plates in the middle of the road.

And... lastly, here's my icestache (it looks like snot, but it'sss not):

Novosibirsk - Day 14

I'm anxious to see what these last 2 weeks of posts are going to do for my rankings when people search for Novosibirsk. I did a quick Google search for Novosibirsk and I wasn't in the first 3 pages, but I'm sure I'm in there some where (maybe page 30 or something). Somebody commented on yesterdays' post indicating that I'm linked from NovosibirskGuide.com!! COOL! A foreigners blog linked to a major city Guide". :) I'll find the link and post it soon.

Anyway, today was a great day!! I actually slept in until about 11. I called Semyon @ 9am and told him that there was no way I was going to make it to breakfast this morning. I just went to sleep really. I was up all night dorking on some pc work that was long overdue and then posted my entry for yesterday sometime around sunrise. By the time I went to bed it was creeping up on 7am. Jennifer sent me a few IM's here and there encouraging me to sleep, but I just wrote back with "what? :|".

When I woke @ 11, I immediately got in the shower and headed out the door for work. I had a 1 hour walk ahead of me and I was really hoping it would wake me up by the the time I got to the office. Sure enough, it did. Nothing too exciting happened between the time I got to work and lunch time. However, at lunch time I was met with a new "difference" in Russian culture...

Today, I wanted to (finally) send the 24 post cards that I had finish filling out over the weekend to all of my family and friends back in the states. Oddly enough, nobody knew what the hell these things were. I showed them to Konstantin, Semyon, and Maxim and they had never seen pictures with writing on the back. Even when we went to the post office, Maxim had to explain to the lady what I was doing, and I saw some confused faces and giggling. So I knew this was not "the norm". Come to find out it was going to cost me ~90 rubles (or +$3) each to send these to my family and friends in the states. I could not believe this. They suggested that I put them each in an envelope or package them up as a single package and send them this way to the states. I was in total disbeleif!! I'm hoping that I'll be able to figure something out tomorrow. If all else fails I may just wait til I get back to the states and then send them from Columbus. It will just be my little joke to everybody; I flew all the way over to Siberia, only to send a post card from Columbus. :)

So after the post office incident Semyon, Maxim and I all ate at the "East and West" restaurant for lunch then headed back to the office. Nothing too cool happened at work really except for the fact that I kicked Scott's butt in Wii tennis, but that's neither here nor there. :)

After work, Segery A. organized an outing with the support crew. This is where my Russian culture lesson of the day really began. :) We came back to my flat and we dropped off my book bag and a bottle of vodka that he got me (thanks Sergey). From there we went to a place called "Prime Time" which was a Novosibirsk sports bar. We sat at a large table and watched Soccer on a HUGE tv for much of the night. I was finally able to put a face with all of the names I've been seeing in my inbox. I got to meet Sergey R., Andrey T., Igori (aka: Bala-bul), and Eugene, who also brought his wife Sophia (aka: Sonya). We had a GREAT time!

We played "American pool" and drank lots of beer. These guys know how to drink. :) Then around 10pm we headed off to a pool hall over by where Scott and Oksana live for the remainder of the night. The best part about the transition from one location to the other is that I was able to take my beer with me!!?? I was drinking in the taxi and it was not a problem. No way is this allowed in the states. It felt strange to say the least, but I got some good pictures out of it. :) My Russian vocabulary began to get larger and larger on this ride as everybody was teaching me new words. I just repeated them one after another and then forgot them. If I remembered every word that I've been taught, I'd be jamming. However they go in one ear, get recited through my mouth, generate some laughs, then I let them go out the other ear most times. :( I do remember "balabul" though and it was the word of the night. :)

At this pool hall, I was able to show everybody my stellar "Russian Billiards" skills. I think it was a case of beginners luck to be honest. I won both games. :) Basically you have 15 white balls and 1 red ball. The red ball acts as the "bat" and it's only purpose is to break the balls apart. Once the rack has been broken, this ball acts as any other ball. The purpose of the game is to knock in 8 balls. The first person to knock in 8 balls wins. There are no rules as to which ball you can hit and which ball goes in "next". The three biggest differences in this game are as follows:

1. The pool table is maybe 33% larger than the standard (American) pool table
2. The balls are maybe 25% larger than the standard (American) balls
3. The pockets are sized exactly large enough to fit the ball into the pocket

These three factors make the Russian pool a lot more difficult than standard pool. Other differences include the fact that you can hit any ball to any other ball and the ball that you hit can actually act as the ball to go into the pocket (similar to 3-ball for all you Data Dynamics employees). Needless-to-say, I liked Russian billiards very much! Especially when I'm winning. :)

After I put the smack down on the Russians @ their own game of pool, we went to the bar area and drank more!? I was keeping up pretty well, for being a light-weight with alcohol. Sergey introduced me to a B52 drink which contained vodka, Baileys, something else, and then it was set on fire. The trick was to drink it with a straw before it melted the straw... which I did. Hiccup! I think I ended the night with a Captain Morgans and practice my Russian. I recall saying "Andddrey... Tsotsoho..." many times and getting yelled at for not pronouncing it correctly (though I'm convinced that they were just messing with me now).

I got home at 1:30 and spoke with my girls for a few minutes, then went to sleep. By the end of the night, it was clear that we have a great... hiccup... shupport team. Th'are very shmart... and fun!! :)

Novosibirsk - Day 10

Today was a great day. I got to sleep in a bit this morning, and it felt pretty good. I woke up at 10:30am and got ready for my long walk to work. While checking my email before heading out the door, Jennifer pinged me and I was able to chat with her and the girls for a while.

my flat

Honestly, there isn't a whole lot of cool stuff that happened today. I did a lot of work related items most all day. I did ask the guys if they wanted to go get pizza for lunch today. And they all agreed that we would do this. So about 3 o'clock we all went to a local pizza place called "Belissimo's". I got to meet Ivan's wife and they looked very "tough" together. :) I really wanted to make conversation with her, but I didn't want to be rude and expect her to speak English to me, so I just smiled a lot, like this :D.

This place was a real Italian diner that was joined together with a coffee shop and a Russian restaurant. It had free wifi and an old school phone booth like in Superman. I ordered a slice of pepperoni pizza, a slice of Hawaiian pizza (yes, it's even called 'Hawaiian' pizza over here), and a beer. I had a heck of a time figuring out what I ordered when the food came. Apparently I was eating somebody else's quesadillas, but nobody stopped me. :) I honestly thought it was my pizza, and I was totally confused as to why everybody else around me had "normal" looking pizza's while I had these folded "tortilla pizzas". I figured I just screwed up when I told the cashier what I wanted, so I just kept eating figuring that it was just what I ordered. Eventually it was brought to my attention that I was eating somebody else's food. :) We had a good time to say the least, more confusion was sparked when the waitress brought more food than we ordered. It was a huge guessing game at this point. :D

After this (rather fun) excursion, we all headed back to the office and worked until about 7:30pm - 8pm. I got a ride home from Maxim tonight because it was pretty dark and I simply didn't feel like walking home in the cold tonight. When I got home, I immediately opened the computer and spent the rest of the night finishing up my work related items. I told you it wasn't a very exciting day. :) I chatted with my girls for a good while tonight while I was working and told them all about my plans for the weekend. Lizzie told me about her wedding day with "Q" and "U" (apparently the wedding was on Thursday... who get's married on Thursday anyway?). Good thing too because Lizzie didn't have school today (Friday) because of the weather. Apparently there was ice everywhere and Newark isn't prepared for such weather like Novosibirsk is. I wonder how many "snow days" the kids over here get...?

Jennifer is doing something pretty cool at home while I'm away. She and the girls have made a "Daddy Chain". Basically it's just a chain of paper hoops that they made the day I left (Lizzie and Jazzy both made one) and with each passing day they take a ring off of this chain. As the chain gets shorter, I am that much closer to coming home. This is pretty cool! The girls tell me how many rings I have left each day so that I know exactly how many more days until I come home. Today they informed me that there are only 13 rings left. :) That means I'm almost there! Boy, that Mommy, she's pretty innovative! They don't really understand "3 weeks" or "2 weeks" yet, so this was a great way for the girls to really "see" how long I was going to be gone and keep track of when I'll be coming back home.

Ok, so the big news for this weekend is as follows. Tomorrow (today actually), I'm going to the city with Scott, Oksana, Maxim, and Lena. We will be doing all of the "touristy" things that tourists do. I'm taking my camera and I'll be sure to take lots of pictures. We are going to try and go to the zoo too. Even when I was in the states, (I think) my mom did some research of Novosibirsk and said that I had to visit the zoo because it was known for having some rare animals. That should be fun.

Then on Sunday, I'm having a little party in my flat. I'm not sure what to expect. I'll probably buy some cards and beer and just wing it. I don't really have a whole lot of things to do in here, but I'm really going to enjoy everybody's company. It stays so quiet in here and it will be nice to liven it up a bit. I invited everybody's family to come too so that it was just a "sweat shop" (American term for 'all guys'). So if you live in Novosibirsk, work at DataWorks, and have nothing to do on Sunday, please join us for some American jokes. Ivan said that he and the others may explain why there are so many locks on the door. :) I said, I would love to know the reason and I'll be sure to wait until we get some beers in us before having that conversation. :D

Russian Cashiers
Another thing that has been different about Russia is the way that you pay for things. In America, you either swipe your card into a small little computer, or you just hand the cashier your cash and then they hand you back your change. Well over here it is a bit different and I'm still getting used to it. Basically every cashier (supermarket, restaurant, ma-n-pa shops, etc..) have this tray on the counter that is specifically used to transfer money back and forth. When I pay for something, I'm supposed to put my money into this tray and then the cashier will then take my money from this tray, make change and put it in the tray for me to pick up. Luckily most places around here are pretty leaneant with me once they see that I'm not from around here. Like I said, I'm still getting used to it, but it's definitely different. :)

Novosibirsk - Day 9

Today was a pretty long day. I went to bed pretty late last night (~2:30 am), and my internal alarm went off about 3 minutes before my Tungsten T|X alarm (B'DEEEE) went off @ around 7:30 am. I laid in bed for a while debating on whether or not I should try to get another 30 minutes of sleep, but eventually opted against it and got up.

I was pretty much ready to leave the flat around 8:15, but I had already agreed to meet Semyon at the Gorodok @ 9:30 am. I decided to catch up on my blog role a bit while I let the clock tick away. Semyon and I eventually met at the Gorodok and had some good conversation, then decided to walk to the office. He was a bit reluctant to walk with me, but eventually agreed to join me. We actually power walked there because he was a bit late for his daily sprint meeting (btw: it is not my fault he was late). :)

By the time I got to work, my left foot was in some pretty nasty pain between my big toe and the one next to it. I'm not sure if I pulled something during my power-walk with Semyon, or if I screwed it up on Saturday when I was skiing with Konstantin and Alex. I remember that this area was in some pain as I was making my way up some of the hills with my ski's on... Basically, I was hyper extending my feet around the ski's so I could put my ski shoes on the snow and not slide backwards. It was causing pain in my big toe's because my toes were locked into place and my foot was twisting around the foot plate (not recommended). After about 1 hour of this hyper-extended noob move, they started to shriek in pain here and there. I had forgotten about that whole situation until I got to the office and sat down. I very well could have (yet another) stress fracture, for that is what it kinda feels like. This sucks! My feet have been getting on my nerves lately; either I'm being to hard on them, or if they are just being sissies. :) I've been very good about not running for the last 3+ weeks due to the other minor stress fracture in my right foot. It's been killing me not to run, but I keep reminding myself that if it will pay off come "race season". I'd better cool it and let them heal now during my "down time". However, after todays' walk, I'm getting a little frustrated and I'm about to just gonna say screw it and get back into my weekly mileage.

So anyway, I decided to work in the conference room today and not with my team upstairs. The entire team that I work with are all on the 5th floor, but the heating system is pretty intense up there and it stays pretty warm. That along with my sub zero wardrobe makes me pretty hot for the most part. Today I kicked it down stairs with Scott and stayed fairly comfortable for the most part. Tomorrow I may dress down a bit so that I can go back upstairs and zone out. There are some distractions of the conference room (especially with that Wii staring at me all day). Plus, I really do enjoy being in the same room with my team... I can almost feel the synergy up there. :)

I didn't do anything cool today or go anywhere exotic for lunch. I didn't even do any Wii-ing. I just sat at the conference table and worked until 5ish. Around that time I packed up and headed out the door for my long trek back home. I wanted to get home in time to see Lizzie and Jazzy before Lizzie went to school, then I wanted to do a couple of laps around the "Scientist Loop" with my reflective clothing and head lamp (yes I brought it) before it got too late. Well, about 50 meters from the office, I took a NASTY fall on the ice. I had my hands in my pocket, so I wasn't able to catch myself on the way down... It happened so fast... but essentially my feet slid out from under me and I fell knee first with all of my weight on my left knee bone. OUCH!!! I knew it was a nasty one as soon as I landed on it. I hunkered over for a few seconds trying to just let the pain come full force and get it over with. Then I got up and began my walk home. Clearly I'm a noob with all this ice... Note to self: take hands out of pockets when walking on ice. I'm sure I could have offset some of the impact had my hands been out of my pockets.

When I got back to the flat it was about that time for the girls to be ringing so I got setup and they called me almost as soon as I got my pc linked up. Of course, Jazzy woke up about 2 minutes into the call. It's funny, because Jazzy gets up with Lizzie every morning to eat breakfast and then goes back to bed with Jennifer. Nobody wakes her up, she just wakes up. As much as I'd like to think she does it for moral support, I honestly think she just doesn't want to miss anything. :) Regardless, it's nice to talk with them both on Skype while they eat their breakfast and yawn and stretch.

After the Skype meeting, my feet and my knee were both begging me not to run, so I obliged. Instead I did some dishes and picked up around the flat a bit. I am sooooo bacheloring it over here! I have dirty clothes laying in like 4 piles. I have clean clothes folded and laying in a 5th pile. My bed isn't made. My fridge consists of thawed out butter, 2 huge jugs of water, and 2 bottles of beer. My table has a tray of wafers and a basket of mandarin oranges. Best of all... my toilet seat is permanently UP! I actually had to force myself to do that, because I'm so trained to just put it down. This is really the only time I could even try to enjoy such a luxury, so I de-trained myself for these few weeks. :)

Once the flat was put back together, I sat down on the couch and caught up on a few things for work before calling it a night. It is now... 11pm and I'm ready for bed. Depending on how my lower body feels tomorrow morning, I may force myself out of the flat and put in some miles. I'm really itching to get out and run... yes even in Siberia. :)

Siberian Hot Water
Today's fast fact is about the hot water situation in my flat. When I got here, I noticed that there was a large tank above my shower and I had no idea what it was for. I assumed it was reservoir for water to fill up and then I had to pull a lever or something to let water trickle onto me. I'd never seen this before and failed to ask Oleg or Scott what it was for. Honestly I still don't know what it's for, but I've come to accept it's place in the bathroom. :) I'm sure somebody will tell me tomorrow once this post makes it into everybody's feed readers... If so, I'll update the Comments section. :)

HOWEVER (all of that is beside the point), when I took my first show, I quickly found out that they do not screw around over here with their hot water. There is cold water or there is scorching hot water. If you need warm water, you basically just tap the faucet 1 mm at a time until you get a (fairly hot) warm water mixture. There is only about 1 cm of play between "melt your skin" hot and "that's kinda cold" cold. I really notice it when I have to wash my hands or brush my teeth (I brush my teeth with hot water... that's "Ohio" hot water, not "Novosibirsk" hot water). :)

Speaking of brushing my teeth, the faucet in the bathroom is a bit... different. For example, when I brush my teeth I'm constantly turning it on and on and on. Basically, I turn on the water and it releases clear magma into the sink, and then it slowly comes to a stop. I then turn it some more and more clear magma comes out... then it subsides again. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with my mystery tank above the shower or not, but I'm learning to accept it as well. I just keep turning it on, then when I'm done melting my teeth, I crank the spicket all the way back to the "off" position.

Just to give you an idea of how hot this water really is (or maybe a glimpse into how lazy I really am) I'm basically just using one glass out of the cupboard. When I need to clean it from any germs or anything, I just put it in the kitchen sink and turn on the hot water. Surely, no germ can withstand that temperature. However, I almost need an oven mit to retrieve my cup from the sink, because it feels like a hot coal that right out of a wood burning stove. I'm totally serious too. :)

Tune in tomorrow, for I'm really gonna try and push that "Q" and "U" wedding idea at the office. :) Just kidding. But I do plan to finally get in another run and maybe go shopping for some souvenirs at the Trade Center. I just didn't feel like it tonight... and I'm aloud to say that... At least for a few more days anyway. :)

Novosibirsk - Day 6

Today was a very good day! I woke up at 7am and got ready to meet Semyon at the Gorodok for breakfast before going to work. We had a hard time ordering what we wanted; apparently they don't have many options at 9:30am. I got eggs, tomatoes, beans, and ham... very tasty! We talked about farm living in America and some of the differences between Russian city-living vs. American city-living. All in all, we had a very enjoyable breakfast and talked about lots of stuff.

We got to work at 10:30 and we all had our scrum meetings. Every other Monday is very busy at both Data Dynamics and DataWorks. Our teams are setup into 2 week sprints and it allows us to get together and discuss the progress of last sprint and plan what will be accomplished next sprint. It is a very nice way of getting things accomplished in a reasonable amount of time; everybody seems to like it.

Around 2pm, the team (Maxim, Konstantin, Oleg, Ivan, Julia, and myself) went to "East and West" restaurant in the Trade Center for lunch. There are two "East and West" restaurants; one on the top floor of the Trade Center and one on the bottom floor. The one on the bottom floor is the "Cafe" portion of it and it is where Scott and I "shot the shit" and where I was unable to eat the breakfast that Konstantin bought me before our skiing trip. Today we ate at the one upstairs (the restaurant portion), and I ordered spaghetti (pronounced the same in Russian), chicken soup (no where near the same pronunciation), and a Coke (of course this sounds the same everywhere). The spaghetti actually had noodles, shreds of cheese and ketchup of all things in the middle of the noodles... no marinara sauce.(?) It was actually quite good. We had a good time at the restaurant and I taught them all what "sissy" meant; they claimed that they will say "good morning sissy's" from now on when they arrive at work. I'm anxious to try this tomorrow morning. :)

After lunch, we went back to the office and worked some more. Did I mention already that it is so great to be in the same room with these guys. We all collaborated on various things and was able to use the white board to explain things clearly. It allows me to ask questions, because many times I'm not exactly sure how things work until I see them in boxes and lines organized on a drawing surface. Even if you ask my coworkers in the states, this is how I see things in my head, so it's much easier (maybe "quicker") for me to see them this way physically in the first place. Anyway, we decided to make a needed change on the project we are working on and it was nice for me to see it in all it's glory in dry-erase marker before any code was written.

After work, Konstantin gave me a ride home and I was able to meet up with my girls on Skype. Jennifer was taking Daizi to the doctor today because she has a very high fever and she hasn't been able to break it for the last couple of days. I was able to see that she didn't feel so good. She used to get so excited to see me on the webcam, but tonight she didn't want to have anything to do with me and she looked very pale. It was nice to see Lizzie and Jazzy though. I talked to them while they ate their breakfast and told them about some of the cool things I saw today. Toward the end of the conversation, Jennifer's mom came over and I was able to talk to her on Skype for a bit. She is very non-techie, so Jen thought she might like to see me on the computer just to blow her mind. I think it worked. :)

After meeting with my family, I got some chores done around the flat and made myself a sandwich... boy was this adventurous. I had a lot of food sitting around that I needed to get rid of. I had a full loaf of bread that was starting to grow green fuzzies and a block of cheese that was getting old and forming various hard spots from exposure to the air. I had to something with them before pitching them, so I decided to try and make a grilled cheese sandwich. It was not like making a grilled cheese sandwich in America. I had to cut the bread into slices with a steak knife (avoiding patches of fuzz), then I had to cut slivers of frozen butter using the same steak knife and strategically place it on the bread and dice it up into tiny blocks before trying to smash it into the bread. I'm not sure why the butter is frozen...(?) It's just how you buy it over here I guess. Once I got the butter blotched onto these two pieces of fuzzy bread, I used the same knife and cut of little slivers of cheese and placed them aside so that I could put them on the bread once in the pan.

Now that I was prepped, I got the burners hot and threw my bread (butter side down) on the skillet and it let out an evil hiss that probably woke the neighbors. The skillet immediately filled up with liquid... apparently I used waaaaay too much frozen butter. No problem, I'll just sop my bread around and let it soak in. I threw the slivers of cheese onto the bread and decided it might be cool to have some ham in there too, so I got some ham and threw on top of the cheese, then topped it off with the other piece of "butter logged bread". I waited for about a minute and flipped it. Another roaring hiss shrieked throughout the forest of Novosibirsk while all the townspeople knew that the crazy American was concocting something delicious. A few more flips and turns and I was done. I looked at my masterpiece and was pretty excited to try it out. It looked pretty good!

I took a bite and my eyes almost popped out of my head... Damn, that's a lot of butter! I force-fed my self 2 or three more bites and threw it in the trash. At this point, I was done being adventurous, so I grabbed a banana, some wafers, and a glass of orange juice and considered myself fed. The flat was still in a haze of smoke from the burning butter residue all over the skillet. My eyes were stinging for almost an hour afterwards and my nose was constantly reminded of my grilled cheese disaster.

Before going to bed, I was able to get a few things done on the computer and went to bed rather early; around 10pm.

Russian Facts

• There are many Institutes around here, but they are not part of a "school" per se. They are ran by the local government and professors are paid by the government (if I remember correctly).
• Gorodok is actually short for Academia Gorodok. People use Gorodok as the shortened name. I compared this to how we say OSU Buckeyes and Buckeyes. Maybe that's totally not the same though... I don't know? O! H! _? _?
• Not many planes fly over head here. Scott pointed out a plane in the sky the other day and stated that it's not very often that you see this since Novosibirsk is so remote. In America, you can look up and see up to n planes in the sky at any time of the day.
• You buy frozen butter and must go to school to figure out how to use it apparently. Just kidding, I'm currently thawing it out in the refrigerator and I'll try to use it again before giving up so easily.
• Some people claim that Russia is not a safe place. However, I see so many children (ages 5 - 10 even) at the Trade Center running around with no parents. The people around here look after these kids, and take care of them. You wouldn't see this in America; parents don't let their children run around anywhere by themselves at this age for fear that someone would hurt them. Which country is really safer? Think about it...

That's all I have for today, tune in tomorrow and see what I get myself into... I'm going to figure out their whole trash system (mine is piling up quickly), and I need to exchange some American money for Russian money. This may prove to be adventurous, we'll see. I'll also try to make a movie of this whole old school / high-tech locking system at my flat. I'm finding it more and more frustrating as I enter and leave the flat. 'Til then, pah-kah!

Novosibirsk - Day 5

Well, another great day! As you may have already read, I crashed last night around 5pm and slept through the night for the most part. I woke up here and there, only to roll over on one side and go back to sleep. My stomach was still acting up a bit, but nothing like it was yesterday morning. After talking with some people about my problems, they all feel that it's probably from the change in food & drinks that I've been consuming. I agree, for that is really what it feels like (unwelcome foods).

Anyway, I woke up at 7am and worked on the laptop for a bit, checking off some emails and posting yesterdays' events. Around 8am, I found my girls online and we chatted for a while. Daizi was sleeping, because I guess Jennifer took them all out shopping at the mall and she was pretty sick (high fever, etc..). I enjoyed seeing my other 3 girls though. :) They all got really cool hats at the mall and they modeled them for me. Jennifer actually bought her own ushanka so that we can match when I get home. :) Very cute!

I kicked it around the flat for a while until Scott showed up and then he and I took a 3.5 mile run to the Botanical Gardens which was a bit past the Scientist Area. It was a beautiful area, but of course it was completely covered in snow, so i couldn't really see it in all it's glory. From what everybody tells me though, it's very beautiful in the summer months. I can only take their word for it right now, but believe that this whole place probably looks completely beautiful in the summer months. I am honestly located in the middle of a huge forest. See for yourself:


View Larger Map

It is very pretty in the winter time, so I can only imagine how pretty it is in the summer time. Anyway, we had a great run. Click on my running links to see the actual route that we took. We went through the forest on these very narrow and packed down snow paths, ran down a big hill and up a big hill before reaching the Botanical Gardens, only to turn around and run back. We were both spent by the time we got back to my flat. It was a great run!

When we got back I was able to see a little bit of Ace Ventura Pet Detective, in Russian. :) It was hilarious, even without the words. :) Once we were able to get our bearings back and warmed up a bit, we headed to the Trade Center (close to the ice slides, and the Jelly Belly restaurant). I was able to buy some groceries and then we grabbed a quick bite to eat at the same restaurant that Konstantin took me to yesterday (which I didn't eat). Scott and I "shot the shit" for a while then proceeded to go grocery shopping for some items I've been needing. I have totally been living like a bachelor the last four days. I've had nothing in my refrigerator but some foreign beer and some cheese. Today I got hooked up with all kinds of goodies (snacks, bananas, oranges, mass amounts of bottled water, hand soap, juices, etc...). I'm good to go now!

After Scott left, I blogged for a while and forced myself not to go back to sleep. I was able to get my washing machine working, I did my dishes, watered the plants, organized the flat and so on. This bachelor crap is for the birds. :) Jennifer, I appreciate you! :) Believe it or not, I'm still a bit thrown off on this whole time change. I thought I'd be adjusted by now, but for some reason I just can't shake these "seepies" (kid talk for tired). My stomach has been acting up a bit today still, so that may have something to do with it. Honestly, I have never been one to require much sleep; I hardly ever take naps during the day unless I pull an "all nighter" the night before; I can go for days upon days with only 4 hours of sleep each night with no problem... Yes, I know Mom... it's not good for me, but it's true. :) However, over here, I can't seem to get enough sleep. (?)

So around 6:45, Konstantin and Irrene picked me up and we headed to a very nice Mexican restaurant not so far from here to meet up with Scott and Oksana for dinner. When I got in the car, Konstantin and Irrene said that they read my blog and mentioned that they saw where I stated they were a "cute couple". Needless to say, that in and of itself was cute. :) It's like a recursive method that just never ends here... :) I noticed also that they were playing some O' Sweet Static on their CD player.

We arrived at the Mexican restaurant a little after 7. I think the name of this place was "Amigo". It was very tasty! I had sizzling chicken fajitas and a dark lager (makes you wonder about my stomach, huh?). It was great to just hang out and talk with everybody. We talked about everything. The whole time I was wondering if it was odd for Oksana, Konstantin, and Irrene to be speaking in English? Regardless, I appreciated it, for I didn't feel like I was staring off into space while they talked. :)

After we ate and enjoyed some tea and desert, we got up to play some billiards... It was pretty interesting at first to see the differences in pool over here. We had to schedule a time to play pool because apparently it is in high demand over here to play "American Pool". There is a very similar game called "Billiards" that is played on a table twice the size, where the balls are all white and much bigger, while the pockets are actually much smaller. It looked pretty difficult, so I was happy that Scott and Oksana reserved our "American Pool" table. The guy that was in charge of the pool room actually racked the balls for us on our first game, and then we were off and playing pool for the remainder of the night. I was able to sit and learn some Russian words while the others played pool, and I must say that I'm getting better at understanding the characters. I'm kind of forcing myself to learn this so that I can speak the written words.

When I got home last night, I was able to see my girls again. :) It is true, I can't get enough of them! This time it was a very quick Skype call, we just caught up for a bit since it was fairly uneventful on both sides since our last talk. Jennifer was getting ready to get all of the kids dressed to go outside and play, I was getting ready to catch up on some computer work before tomorrow's (rather big) day. We had some good laughs, while Daizi tried to speak a bit of baby-English, to Jennifer. She would look Jennifer in the face and (very seriously and softly) say "boo ja b'day soo sha dee" or something to that effect, and then point like she knew what she was trying to say. :) It was way to cute! We wrapped up the call, then went about our days. I stayed up 'til about 2:30am preparing some stuff for tomorrow, then went to sleep. My stomach is still in a bit of a conundrum, but I'm hoping tomorrow will be better.

Here is some Russian that I learned yesterday and today:

• ah-low = Hello
• skol-ka = How much?
• dah-vadj = Go ahead!
• kah-zli-kah = Goat (this is actually an insult... don't use it)
• svo-kar = Father in law
• svi-krof = Mother in law
• oosy = Mustache
• mno-gah = A lot
• pir-chah-tach-na-ye at-di-lye-ni-ye = Glove compartment (they don't have these in all cars)... Probably because it is so hard to say. :)
• prik-rah-ti = Knock it off!
• Mah-kah-roe-nee = Macaroni :)
• pach-ti = Almost

Many of these words I simply looked up in my Russian dictionary while the others played pool; hence the randomness of the words. It was a great way to pass the time and learn something while waiting my turn. :)

Novosibirsk - Day 4

Today was a great day!! I woke up at 8am and was able to find my girls on Skype, so I talked with them for a while. They all had things to show me and I loved it! Lizzie and Jazzy showed me some pictures that they colored and Daizi showed me some piece of paper that she found with in reaching distance for no good reason. :) It was rather funny!



I must note that when I woke up, I had HORRIBLE stomach cramps. I'm not sure if it was from something that I ate last night at the Jelly Belly (it's the name the Russian Restaurant we ate at last night) or if I am just coming down with a stomach bug. Either way, I was miserable from about 8am - 10am. Konstantin came and met me and I told him that I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to follow through with our plans today because about every 5-10 minutes my stomach would knot up and it was some major pain. I'd never had this type of thing happen before. It was pretty weird...

Anyway, Konstantin took me to the local Trade Center so we could get some breakfast and buy me some shoes. :) I was able to get a nice pair of Russian shoes that are made for the weather over here. They sure beat the hell out of my New Balance running shoes. After shopping for shoes, we went to a very nice restaurant and got some omelets, but I wasn't able to take a single bite. :( I should have just not ordered anything because Konstantin paid and I just let it sit in front of me. I told him that the next time we eat out, I will pay and he can not eat... He agreed. :) It was about this time that we decided medicine was the best thing for my stomach issue, so we went to the local pharmacy and got some powder for my stomach. I think it helped honestly, because my pains were fewer and farther between. Most people that know me, know that I'm not one to take medicine unless I realllllly need it; well today I realllllly needed it.

Something that I noticed that was different with the stores around here is that they have lockers that people put their stuff in when they come inside the store. I was amazed by this! Basically when you walk into a store, you take all of your items and put them in these lockers and then take the key with you while you shop at the store. When you are done shopping you take your things out of the locker and leave. I asked Konstantin if it cost anything for this and he said "No. Why should it cost anything?". Good question! But it would in America. Like, if WalMart had lockers like this, I imagine that they would probably cost $1 or something. Anyway, this was something different that stuck out for me today.

After our shopping extravaganza, we headed to the local ski resort to do some cross country skiing. I had wanted to do 15 km's today, but due to my stomach pains, I informed Konstantin that we'll start off with 5 km instead. :) Good thing!! I found out today that I'm not a very good cross country skier. :)

We met up with Alex and headed out to the ski path. Amazingly enough, if you don't need to rent ski's, you can come and ski on this path anytime you want... for no charge! This is so odd to me. I was trying to explain that in America, you have to pay to get through the front door of any ski resort. After about the first 100 yards I realized there was NO WAY I was going to be able to do 15 km today. I would be lucky to do 1 km at this rate. I felt like an unbalanced unicyclist, only I had 2 ski's and 2 poles. Konstantin and Alex made it look so easy, but I kept falling for the silliest things. For example at one point, I was trying to do the "run & ski" motion, but my left ski got tangled up with my right ski and I did an instant face plant. The best ones were when my ski's got criss-crossed and I fell gracefully, but looked like a turtle on his back trying to get up. I had to un-click my ski's many times to stand up because there was no way I could have gotten them untangled otherwise. Here is a quick video of a single downhill with a double fall:



The course was setup to where there were turn around points all along the way. So, for example, at the 2.5 km marker, you could turn left and take the return path back to the ski house. They had these setup at various points, but we turned around at this first one for my sake (thanks guys). :) By the 2.5 km mark my arms were very sore. I found that I had been skiing with my arms the whole time and not so much with my feet. It seemed that any time I tried to pick up my feet or move them I would either loose my balance or just fall. At one point, I broke one of the rental poles while I was trying to stand up. Alex was very quick to give me his poles and he was able to show me that it is possible to ski without these things, for he did it the rest of way. Amazing! I want to also point out that there were about 2 or 3 hills that I was able to go down with no problems. Here is a video that proves this fact:



Anyway, I felt as though I was getting better and better at skiing as the day progressed. I have a whole new respect for cross country skiers; my shoulders were sore and tired, my legs were tired and my feet hurt from climbing the hills on these things. I'm sure that if I knew how to ski, I would not have been in so much pain, but I didn't and I am. When we were all done, I mentioned to the guys that I might like to try this again before I go back to America. They agreed that we could possibly do this next weekend or the following. I'll be sure to post my experience if we do. Until then, I'm going to let my body heal from all of the torture I had put it through. :)

After the skiing adventure, Alex went on his way and Konstantin came back to my flat for some pizza. He called his wife to join us and we had a great time. They are newly weds and Irrene (?) - pronounced Ee-rrr-ee-nah - brought their wedding pictures to show me. They are very happy together and make a very cute couple. I had to explain what "cute" meant, and that made them even "cuter". :) Jennifer and I have always been labeled the "cute couple", so it was nice to see another couple that is just as happy together as we are. If Konstantin comes to America, we all agreed that Irrene will have to come with him so that she can visit her friend in Illinois and go to a warm beach in Florida, for these were the two things that she wants to do most. :)

When they left around 5 o'clock (I think), I went strait to bed and slept all night... I think I'm still trying to adjust to this time change (if that makes sense). I don't know, I was just beat and needed some major sleep!

Novosibirsk - Day 3

Today was another good day. I woke up at 9:30am after a 14 hour nap and felt rather rejuvenated. I was able to get a bit of work done before Scott got here at 11, and then we headed to the Gorodok for breakfast. I had crepes with (raw) Salmon in them. They were surprisingly good... Considering the last time I had raw salmon, I almost "refunded" it. I also discovered that I like sugar in my coffee. :)

After breakfast, Scott and I walked to the office. It was about a 1.5 mile walk and I loved it. It was cold, but not so cold that I couldn't take a deep breath. As we walked, Scott gave me little bits of information about certain landmarks and I was amazed at their "sidewalks" over here. Many times I found myself walking on a "make shift" path through the woods. This is very normal for the locals to walk on these paths, but for it was very strange. I know that as the days go by, I will grow accustomed to it all, but for now it is still all very new to me. Of course, I took a few pictures as we walked and I will be sure sort through all of the good ones and put them in my online photo album when I return to the states.

We got to work around 1pm - 1:30pm and nobody seemed to have a problem with this. :) This is my kind of work environment. The fact that most of us work late at night is very acceptable and coming in "whenever" is not such a big deal. I really like this motto and actually live by this back in the states on the days that I do go in to the office. I'm not sure, but I don't think this is as "socially acceptable" as I some may claim... Even though people act as though they don't care, I still feel that certain "where you been?" vibe sometimes.

Of course, as soon as Scott and I got to work, I let Scott beat me in a game of Wii baseball (shhh). I got to create my own Wii Mii too and I made him look a lot like me; scruffy beard and all. :) After I let Scott win, I was able to get some work done in the "Apache room". It's great because the whole team that I work with is located in one room. Therefore whenever anybody has a question or thought, we just talk it out. It's really quite nice to be so close to each other, even when we don't talk... It's hard to explain, but very nice to know that when any of us have a question, we don't have to go through the whole process of:

1. send an email from side a
   
2. wait for time difference delay
3. read email on side b
4. send email from side b
5. wait for time difference delay
6. read email from side a
   
7. rinse and repeat as needed

We just talk.

Today, Anna took me back out to get my Ushanka... Ok, have your laughs about how silly it looks on me!!! Are you done yet?... I'll wait... Seriously though, this thing was worth it's weight in rubles. I was surprised at the difference a "real" Russian Ushanka makes in this weather. I have been wearing my Carhartt toboggan for the last few days and I thought it was warm... well the "real deal" takes the cake. I put this thing on my head and went outside for a little while and actually felt the heat on top of my head. I think there is some kind of a magnetic heat suction utility built inside of these things. Honestly, my head was VERY warm; even without the ear flaps pulled down. :) Though, I must admit that there is a certain "cool" factor with the ear flaps down...

Anna and I did pretty good at communicating today. We had a few moments of miscommunication, but, all in all, I think we are getting better at talking with one another. :) She brought some English books with her today and I tried to use them in her car, but the Russian equivalent words were (of course) in Cyrillic text, and I'm still struggling to understand all of these symbols. I'm sure that by the end of next week I'll be better, but for now it's still 95% gibberish. I didn't want to frustrate her too much by pointing to words as she was driving, so I just shut the hell up and played "passenger" most of the time. :)

Let me add that I'm a bit amazed at the women over here! Most all of them wear very skinny high heel boots. To me, I would think that this would be very difficult for them to walk in, especially with all of the slippery / compact snow everywhere. However, I asked Julia about this and she explained to me that it is actually much more easier to walk in these high heel boots because the back heel acts as a "spike" that can be driven into the ice. Therefore, she has more traction than me in my "Americanski" shoes. It makes sense to me now, but before talking to her, I just thought that all of the women over here went to "Paula Abdul School" (ie. Paula Abdul is known for doing amazing things in high-heels... like flips, splits, jumps, etc... just YouTube it).

Around 6:30pm (Novosibirsk time), I was able to talk to Jennifer, Lizzie, and Jazzy over Skype from the office (Daizi was sleeping again). I got to point my web cam out the window and showed them how much snow is around me and the area where I worked. They all said "coooooool". :) As I was pointing the web cam out the window, there were some stray dogs walking around the streets and I explained to them that there are many stray dogs around here. The locals actually take very good care of them and they are all surprisingly very friendly dogs. I think it is great, for I am a dog person, and some of the stray dogs around Toboso are actually known for being mean... Especially when they get into packs. They have been known to kill livestock just to survive, and farmers are actually very intimidated by them when they are "in the area" (rightfully so).

We left work around 8:15 - 8:30 and then Scott and I met up with Oksana and her two friends (Tatianna & Gulia) at a restaurant. We had a blast! It was at the same Russian restaurant that Ivan, Maxim, & Semyon took me to yesterday. I ordered Jaquoi and 2 Piva's (beer). Luckily, Tatianna and Gulia both spoke very good English. Tatianna was actually an exchange student in Arkansas when she was in school, so her English was VERY good. She actually spoke faster English than I could comprehend. She helped me learn some of the russian words on the menu and we had a great time. It was cool to see Oksana and her friends talk "girl talk" while Scott and I just stared off into space until we heard English words. :)

After we ate, we went to this place where there were ice sculptures everywhere and many "man made" slides. Scott and I slid down the slides while Oksana and Tatianna just watched us like grown children. It was very cool to see such a place in the middle of the city. Apparently there is a bigger one in the center of the city and we will go there before I leave; rest assured, I will take pictures. :) Man, my girls would LOVE this place! Check it out:


When I got home Jennifer pinged me on Skype so that I could say good night to her, Jazzy, and Daizi (Lizzie was still at school). This Skype crap is AWESOME!! Especially for a husband/father who misses his family. I realized tonight that when they see me on Skype, they are actually more excited about seeing themselves than they are about seeing me. :) It doesn't bother me at all though, for I am more excited about seeing them, and that is what's important. :)

Ok, so the words of the day today are:

• Pah-kah = Bye
• Dah-svee-dawn-ya = Good-bye
• Ah-din = One
• D-vah = Two
• Tree = Three
• Chi-tree = Four
• Pyaht = Five

Tomorrow is a big day actually, and I will wait until it is over to surprise all of my readers with the events that take place... yes, both of you must wait. :)

Novosibirsk - Day 2

Today was a great day. I stayed up all night and posted my first two blogs and did a few work things. Around 5am I got a call from Jennifer over Skype, so we all talked for about an hour or more and the girls had a blast being on a web cam. I was able to show them my flat and they were all very impressed.

I caught up on emails until Scott got here around 9:30 am and then he and I went for a 2 mile run around the "Scientist Area". Wow! What a beautiful run. It was FREEZING cold. Both Scott and I's face was covered in ice from the sweat. It felt pretty weird to have a frozen /white mustache. My snot froze as soon as it exited the nostrils. :) Yes... gross, but true. The place where we ran was beautiful. I'll have to take pictures next time!! We ran on about 1 foot of packed snow the entire duration. Honestly snow is everywhere here. Even when walking on the sidewalks, it is just packed snow. Therefore the snow really acts as the side walk. I found that in order to get where you are going, you just follow the carved snow. :)

(NOTE: click 'View this map in MapMyRun' to see the hi-def 'satellite' view)

When we got done running, we met up with Semyon at the local breakfast house (called the Gorodok), and I had some kind of a fufu-latte and an omelet. I am surprised at how well Semyon speaks English. He (of course) things his English is horrible, but Scott and I both assured him, he speaks very good English. We had a great time and it was cool talking with Semyon, because I've known him over email for over a year now and now I can put a face and a personality with his name. :) This is turning out to be a well needed trip to Novosibirsk. I've been asked numerous times why I haven't come sooner... My answer has been: "I just haven't."

From the Gorodok, we went to the office via a minivan that is tricked out with bus seats. This thing is called a "marshrutka", and it is very popular over here; more so than our taxi's and bus's in America. It's amazing how this minivan works. The people get on this minivan and, since the driver is so busy, they use a "trust system" to pay. The people hand their rubles to the person closest to the driver and this person manages the money and gives the correct amount of change back to the other people. It is a total "volunteer" job that is assumed by the person sitting closest to the driver. Needless-to-say, we sat in the back of the bus. :)

By the time we got to work it was almost 12pm. I wanted to get a lot of work done and did for the most part, but then Maxim, Ivan, and Semyon took me to eat a fancy Russian restaurant. I had some Russian soup (aka: soap :)) and a crepe-like burrito. This sucks, I forget the name of both of these items of food (note to self). We had a good time and I was able to give them a little bit of history about Data Dynamics and let them ask me questions. We laughed and it was great to get to know them.

Later in the day (at the office), one of my co-workers took me to get a Ushanka. Her name was Anna and she was hilarious!! We had a great time! We had a very bad communication problem because she spoke very little English, and I spoke zero Russian. We did a lot of talking with 1 word and lots of hand gestures. I did learn one word while we were on our little "adventure"; this word is "popo-gree-eh-shka" which means "hot ass". She had a heated seat and I made her laugh when I realized that my butt was getting hot. :) She is a very fun person and I look forward to going back into town with her again today. Unfortunately my Hardbarger head is too big, for they didn't make Ushanka's in my size. :) I told her that my family is known for having "big heads". :)

We got back to the office and I worked with my guys for a while and we did some "white boarding" for a while, then I came home around 7pm and CRASHED!!! (aka: fell asleep). It is for this reason, that the daily blog post was delayed a few hours; it is now Day 3 and I'm getting ready to start my day.

Before I go though, let me teach you a bit of Russian. I found that once you know how these characters sound, you can go VERY far. It's surprising to me now, how many of the Russian words are similar (or the same) as their English meaning. You would never know this to look at the word in writing though if you can't make out their sounds. Here are some of the letters and their pronunciation that I've learned in the last 2 - 3 days (again, these are the ones I know and there are many more):

• Б = b (like "booger")
  
• В = v (like "vase")
• Г = g (like "gorodok")
• Д = d (like "dog")
• Ж = g (like "genre") / s (like "pleasure") / zh (like..."zhust kidding")
• З = z (like "zoo")
• Л = l (like "like")
• Н = n (like "no")
• П = p (like "pepsi")
• Р = r (rolling r)
• С = s (like "stop")
• Ф = f (like "fox")
• Х = ch (like "bach")
• Ч = ch (like "chip")
• Ц = ts (like "sits")
• Ы = i (like "still")
• Э = e (like "met")
• Ю = u (like "use")
• Я = ya (like "yard")

What I found surprising is that once you learn these letters, Russian isn't really that intimidating. I was watching the news yesterday morning (day 2) and heard them mention "Columbus Blue Jackets", I quickly looked up and... low and behold I saw "Columbus" spelled in Cyrillic characters (Колумбус) on TV. Suprisingly, many words sound the same! Another example is seen everyday here; all of the "Stop" signs actually say "Stop", in Cyrillic characters (стоп). Pretty cool huh?

Ok, tune in later tonight and I'll have another post! I'll try to remember all of the words that I forgot today and maybe find some new ones. :)