First Days

During my family’s many travels, my mom always said that recording my first impressions of a city were the most valuable. After a few days, the amazing becomes the routine. So here are my first thoughts on Riga. 

The city is wonderful. It’s the perfect mix of old Europe and Russia, history and modernity, comparative low prices, and small enough to call manageable. Everyone is happy and relaxed, enjoying the privilege of being part of the EU, but sufficiently integrated with Russia to enjoy the best of both worlds. Russians make up the majority of Riga’s population, so communication is easy, but Latvian language laws require everything to be in Latvian, making grocery shopping a challenge. The Latvian language appears more Germanic than Slavic, but there are enough similarities between the two to make rough translations survivable. Almost all of the locals speak English or Russian, so we have encounter few language challenges so far. 

The biggest issue we’ve encounters though, is that pushing a stroller on cobble stone is not easy. Our temporary apartment (and the permanent apartment were slated to move to) are both near the historical center, with cobble stone aplenty. Taking CR for walks involves substantial forearm strength and a lot of vibration. C has had a few tumbles on her Strider bike as well, but the benefits far outweigh the sacrifices. We saw amazing cathedrals, medieval city walls, and ate fresh strudel on our first outing around the city this morning.  Keeping the weight off is going to be a challenge. 

The weather is surprising hot, with a heat wave blanketing the city. It’s been in the 90s and our apartment had no AC. Staying hydrated and cool has been key. We spent our diary afternoon unpacking our luggage in just our skivvies, but the forecast shows a high in the 70s for next week. I’m sure we’ll miss the heat when the chilly Baltic winter rolls in in the next few months. 

The next few weeks will be challenging as we adapt to our new life here, get the kids enrolled in school, and learn our new jobs. But that is the foreign service life. Once were settled, I envision a very happy life here for the next three years. 

M

Nothing

One more chapter down, but we're failing to start another.  For the past six weeks, we've been caught in an unexpected paradox of being employed but not having a job.  Paychecks keep coming but there is no office, no desk, nowhere to go, and no work to do.  Some say its a dream, but more often than not feels more like a nightmare.  It all started in late March, when around 1 am Yekat time, we received notice that the Russian government was expelling me, declared persona non grata, and that I had less than seven days to pack up and leave.  Can't say it was a complete surprise, given that the U.S. had expelled 60 Russian intelligence officers the week prior, in condemnation for a supposed extraterritorial assassination of a Russian spy in England using a military grade chemical weapon, Novichok.  It was however unexpected.  Previous bilateral actions focused mostly on the embassy in Moscow, but this round, the consulate in St. Pete was ordered shuttered, 58 officers from Moscow and 2 from Yekat were ordered out.  S, while not formally on the list, quickly decided the entire family would be leaving together.  So, after a bizarre week of packout, cancelling visas, procuring travel orders, getting kitty a health certificate, closing out work, clearing out desks, and saying goodbyes, on April 5 we were on a plane to DC via Paris, with an FSB agent waiting at the gate to ensure our departure from Russia.

We landed in DC with practically nothing but the clothes on our backs.  Our 8 suitcases didn't arrive as scheduled, so after a quick trip to the store to buy toiletries, along with a bleary-eyed detour to Kohl's to pick up some clothes, we crashed at the in-laws.  Early the next morning, we found ourselves at a hastily called meeting with Department brass, thanking us for our service and ensuring we'd be taken care of.  Forty five minutes later, after the leadership left for other meetings, we found ourselves in an empty conference room, heads spinning, wondering what the hell do we do next? Well, I'm doing it now.  The answer is, "nothing."

That is admittedly a dour assessment of the current reality, which truthfully isn't bad at all, but for someone who values hard work and actually enjoys my job (most of the time), being sidelined has been difficult.  The Department is currently working on plans to send both S and I back overseas, but there are quite a few administrative hurdles to overcome, which have taken longer than expected.  We can't really leave town or plan much, as we expect to be called in any moment now, but day after day we check our email, hoping to receive news of new assignments, but nothing.  There are plenty of vacancies available here in DC that they would love to dump us in, but there is a reason they are vacant (they're awful).  We've been given 60 days to find something, and this overseas proposal is great but not guaranteed to work out, and the clock is ticking.

Meanwhile, we're in corporate housing, the same place I started out 9 years ago, now married with two kids.  There is a playground out front, which is really the only redeeming thing about this place.  Anticipating that even after our next assignments come through we'll probably be working in the DC area for a few months longer before we can head back out (and for my own sanity, having sat at home with a 1 and 4 year old all day, everyday, for nearly a month) we put the kids in preschool.  I take them in the morning, pick them up in the afternoon, and then we play on the playground.  Other than that, we sit and wait.  Before I started writing this blog, my goal for the day was to pay some bills. For some reason, most doctors still don't allow you to pay online, so I scrounged up some stamps, but so far have not gotten them to the mailbox, which as of now is the only thing standing between calling this day a success or not.  Looking forward to a better tomorrow, which hopefully will be better than nothing.

M

  



    

Birthdays and Holidays

It’s been a busy month for us.  Caroline and Christian turned 4 and 1, respectfully.  Christian started walking and Caroline is letting me introduce her to The Magic School Bus.  So great.

And holidays: you have probably heard of International Women’s Day (March 8th).  What you may not know is that in Russia it’s been celebrated a very long time and honors all women and girls.  There is a complementary holiday for men on February 23rd called Defender of the Fatherland Day, which used to be Red Army Day, and is still somewhat thought of as a sort of veteran’s day, but is also just kind of a Men’s Day now.  The best news is, we get work off for both of them.  Mike got to participate in a holiday performance at the preschool, and hopefully the women’s one will be coming up soon, they had to postpone it because too many kids were sick.

With our day off this week, we braved the below zero wind chill to go sledding with a friend.  It was awesome (and sunny!).  I’m so proud of us for all learning how to dress appropriately in this weather, including the 12 month old, who now allows me to put on four layers of clothes and two layers of socks and gloves.

New Year’s

We may have all felt under the weather for Christmas, but we made up for it with some awesome New Years activities.  

On the 30th we went to see the Nutcracker ballet with some friends.  Where better a place to see it than in RUSSIA!!!!  And if you didn’t know, they absolutely love kids here, so it was a matinee showing chock full of families with kids, complete with a pre-show activity in the hall with Father Frost.

And even though Christian was by far the youngest there, no one kicked us out or made any comments (we did leave after the first of THREE acts for nap time.  It was in no way an abridged “children’s” version).

On New Year’s Eve, these same lovely friends invited us to ring in the new year a few hours early with the kids, it was too much fun.  

Then New Year’s Day (today):  We took a chance and went out to IKEA which supposedly had an ice slide, but no telling if it would be open or not.  It was!  14 degrees and felt like 4, but we all went down and it was AWESOME!  First time I’ve felt like a kid again in quite awhile, it was great.  Big kudos to Mike for scraping off the car and getting us there, and for making Caroline’s day by finding an abandoned (only slightly broken) sled in the trash, so she could go extra fast.

Good thing we didn’t spend money on the sled, it was pretty destroyed by the end.

McDonalds afterwards for our champion cold-survivors.  Notice the sun - it was actually quite a nice day to be out!

Christmas

We have to admit, although it was our first family Christmas on our own, it felt a little......like a mess.  Jet lag from our 3 week Thanksgiving vacation in the US (which was very worthwhile), then two weeks of trying to kick colds, fevers, eating strikes by Christian, and teething!  By the time we got to Christmas we were pretty well worn out.  Luckily, even though they weren’t there our families made it a special holiday by contributing with gifts and FaceTime video calls.  

Thanks for Great Grandma E for the Christmas dress.

Breakfast cinnamon rolls (and Mike made bacon!)

Our first family Christmas dinner selfie 

Christmas dinner:  Roast chicken, Lake Powell salad, green beans, fruit salad, and homemade artisan bread with Mike’s strawberry jam.  A big team effort that turned out quite nicely.

Another neat part of the day was being able to Skype with my sister Amy who is serving an LDS mission in Italy.  Nice to have the whole family together, one way or another :)

October

Here’s what we were up to for the past month. I gave a 10 minute speech at an English speaking club titled “The Working Mother in America: Benefits and Challenges.”  And since Mike was out of town and it was a weekend, I took the kids.  I felt like quite the pioneer woman with a baby on my hip, wearing those boots.  I didn’t win, but then again I didn’t know it was a competition :)

Caroline was a butterfly and a dragon for two different Halloween parties, and Christian was a turtle.  Here are our pumpkins!

Mike got to visit the nearly-completed World Cup stadium in town.  He may need to dedicate a separate blog post to all the hullabaloo about tickets and such.

And Christian has been developing a wonderful relationship with our neighbors’ chocolate lab.  He can’t stop laughing when he sees her, and she can’t stop licking his face :)

More Weather

I find the weather here endlessly fascinating.  This week we started getting down into the low 30's.  When that happens here, the trees immediately dump all their leaves as fast as they can, even if they're all still green.  Then the leaves start turning yellow or orange on the sidewalk.  I guess they're trying to be efficient and make good use of their limited time with autumn.

Today was our first real Snow of the season.  Very exciting!!!