Location, Location, Location

Today started off kinda bumpy. I forgot to reset my cellphone which doubles as the alarm clock. Moscow is 2 hours ahead of Gborg, so 6am on the phone is 8am in Moscow yougettheidea. The rooster went off as programmed at 5:45 / 7:45 (the alarm is a rooster crowing to remind me of the rooster in St Lucia) and E&I had to get dressed and ready for breakfast in 15 minutes. The relocation agent is a young woman named Julia. She missed the memo that said all 4 of us were coming. She was just expecting Peter and myself. The car wasn't quite big enough for all 6 of us (us + Julia + driver because everyone in Moscow has a driver and trust me you don't want to navigate this traffic on your own), so Andrew took turns sitting on E's or P's lap for the first couple of hours as we squished 4 into the back seat. Whatever - makes for a good story.

Today we lived our own version of Location, Location, Location, as we drove around different areas of Moscow to look at housing possibilities. Altogether, we toured 5 houses, 1 apartment, 1 townhouse, had meetings at 2 schools, met one very keen ex-pat named Carole from Ireland, and spent a lot of the inbetween time sitting in traffic (15 million people in Moscow, I'd bet most of them had a car on the road). It was a day in Fantasyland trying to imagine living in these places. All of the houses were massive!( 2 had pool tables and jacuzzis in the basement and every property had a sauna). But do you know, they all showed signs of leakage in the basements, and one had a roof leak. Another had tiles missing and cracks in the walls. Tomorrow we're focussing on apartments inside the city and checking out another school. I'd explain the map to you, but it's hard to understand without the visual. Our current fav is house #1, should we ever actually live here.

Dinner tonight was at Pushkin's Café. It's a very famous restaurant in Moscow (and a bit of a tourist trap except that from what I could tell, we were the only tourists there and the place was packed!) I had to explain to the waiter how to make a white wine spritzer and it was fine. The borscht was amazing. They even brought me a footstool for my purse so it wouldn't have to sit on the floor.

Today's best story (other than the 4 of us in the backseat driving around Moscow): We had an appointment scheduled with the principal at British Intern'l school #3. In my book, if you have an appointment with someone, and they are 10 minutes late, you are already ready and waiting for them. Not here. We (get this) stood in the hallway outside the office to wait for him. The secretary came out to chat and went to tell him we were here several times, but he didn't show up. So we stood. Now, across the narrow hall from the office is a senior class science room. They sound like they are doing an experiment. The young lady science teacher is not impressed with what's going on. She starts to ream them out. We enjoy this immensely because she is really good at it. We especially like it when she tells them she isn't finished her rant yet. Unfortunately, we startled the pants off her when she opened the door and discovered us as the audience. Very entertaining. Oh, and the principal eventually did show up.

p.s. The photo is of the view out the window of the apartment, looking across the river at one of the Seven Sisters. There are several big parks in Moscow. They're like High Park with walking paths and playgrounds from what we've been told. The Seven Sisters are 7 magnificent skyscrapers built by Stalin in the 1940s and 50s. The one in right of the skyline in the picture is now a Radisson hotel.