We are in Moscow!!

Well, we finally made it to Moscow. We have had a in interesting first few days. Our temporary apartment is not very nice, but at least it is temporary until we can find something permanent. Here are a few pictures:

The Entry Way:

The "Office":

The Kitchen, with the extremely important "boiler" since the city's hot water has been turned off for a while. We have to take showers an hour apart from each other so that we have enough hot water!

Our first night, last Wednesday, we arrived at the apartment about 9:30 pm. We were all starving, and the only quick place to eat is McDonald's. We couldn't find anywhere to change money, but luckily Burke had enough Rubles left over from our last trip to buy enough food to tide us over until morning.

We had our first trip to the grocery store last Thursday morning. It was a successful trip, but very expensive. Grocery stores are much more expensive in the city versus just outside the center. Our second trip yesterday was much better. Although, of course, they only took cash, so as we are about to check out luckily Burke asked if they took credit, and had to go change money. Meanwhile, Merrick and Phillip are in the car with the driver, and Merrick was having a meltdown...

We still haven't seen any apartments. Everyone leaves town on the weekends to go to their dachas (cabins), so we haven't been able to see anything yet. People here just aren't about to go out of their way to lease out their apartments. Hopefully we will have more luck next week. However, the apartment that we really wanted from our last trip is still available, just more expensive now, so we are still going to work on getting that one.

Burke goes to work on Monday, and Merrick and I will have to figure out what to do with ourselves. Phillip went back to Tver for the week to see his mom and grandma. We have had no luck finding a nanny yet, but it is the first thing on my list once I figure out the best way to find one.

None of us are adjusting to the time change and jet lag very well. Merrick is waking up around 5 every morning, and we are all very tired around 3 in the afternoon. It is light out by about 4:30 am, and the sun does not set until around 11, so that is making our adjustment very hard. Burke and I are both wide awake around 10 when we need to be sleeping.

Here are some more pics that we have taken. Phillip's grandma, Nina visited yesterday, and she and Burke walked to Red Square with Merrick, which is only about at 2 minute walk from our apartment. This is Merrick's first Red Square visit:



Last of all, here is an awful picture of me that shows how I do laundry. We have a washing machine, no dryer, so we have to hang everything on drying racks, and then iron it all. At first I refused to do this, but I have decided that I find ironing somewhat relaxing. We'll see how long that lasts. Oh, did I mention that our washing machine is German, and all the words on it are German? I had to go online and convert the words to English. Did anyone know that "plfegleicht" means "wash and wear"? I am proud to say, that I now do. I never thought I would learn German here too!!