Captain’s Log: October 18, 2009

After a 7-year hiatus, Elena is once more behind the wheel. It was a challenge learning to drive in San Francisco, the world’s hilliest city, and it didn’t help that her Chinese instructor had unintelligible English, but that pales by comparison to driving in Moscow, where HUMMERS, Ladas and motorcycles weave through traffic as if someone were shooting an action film, where a missed turn can cost you a 45-minute detour, and where certain areas of town are so congested that people resort to triple parking.

Aren't you glad you can avoid this when you head home from work?



Anastasia is adjusting to 9th grade in the new school she picked. It’s one of the best in Moscow and has a very challenging curriculum. Unfortunately, the school is not near our apartment and has exceptionally long hours, so her typical day sees her leaving home at 7:30, returning around 5:30 in the evening, taking a nap for an hour or so, and then working on homework right up until bedtime.

Even Saturdays are school days! Poor Anastasia! It reminds me of the Johnny Cash Song, “A Boy Named Sue”: So I give ya that name and I said goodbye, I knew you'd have to get tough or die.”







Olivia is doing well in school in spite of the fact that her best friend, Nika, transferred to another school earlier in the year. In September Olivia began studying Latin and ancient Greek, and so far so good, but the subject she’s passionate about is cooking (and Papa agrees she’s quite good at it).

April loves her school and is excited about the swimming classes that were introduced last week. We bought her two pairs of goggles, but she couldn’t wait to use them in class, so she tested them out in the bathtub. For Papa’s birthday April made playdough figurines of every family member using the animals in the Chinese zodiac.










Alex has begun walking, though he still spends most of his time on all fours. When he does walk, he looks like a gangly bowl-legged sailor in search of another drink. He also recently learned how to scale our bed and even knows to disembark feet first. Sometimes we find him on our bed perched on a hill of pillows with his belly out like some grand poobah. His favorite pastime is throwing toys into the bathtub, though a close second is pulling back the curtain when someone’s in the shower. We have to be careful about keeping the bathroom door closed when not in use, otherwise his pacifiers end up in the toilet.