Catching Up w/ MC & Moscow

Well we have arrived in Brussels and have been looking for a place to live as well as finding more classes for Scott to take.  He had a class scheduled to begin at 10 this am and received an email sent at 2 am from the professor telling him that the class was not going to be offered this term! They do not seem to be very well organized.
As for apartment hunting that is also a challenge.  Almost all leases are for 1 year so looking for a 3 month lease is difficult at best.

Brussels is a beautiful city and we are looking forward to being here for the next few months.  The weather has been beautiful and today will be in the 70's....

Since I started writing this earlier in the day there have been some developments,  we have found a place to live while in Brussels, YEA!!!  It is a one bedroom flat right next to Place Flagey.  We have many little shops and small grocery stores as well as many bakeries, including a middle eastern bakery selling many, many, many different kinds of baklava!   I guess I might not lose any weight after all....

Russia was interesting but I'm glad we are done with that part of our journey.  St Petersburg

Moscow U. - one of the 7 Sisters

was a nice place to visit, many museums and lots to admire. The city itself is very easy to manage on foot, but the metro is very efficient and is well used. My favorite part was certainly people watching and I must say the Russian women are very interesting.  They are for the most part very attractive and the younger generation makes an effort to always look very put together.

Moscow is a very militaristic city with police, army and all kinds of soldiers, etc. in big hats, trying to look as intimidating as possible.  Our home stay host told us on our first day there that if you are stopped by the police they will ask for your papers (you don't carry your passport, just a copy, because of theft.  You must also have a copy of your visa and your registration, a document showing that you have registered with the police upon your arrival. For us Canadians and Americans this seems crazy!) She then said, "they will say that there is a problem with your papers and they can fix it for a fee, but do not give them any money, it's a scam."  Now that is scary!

Moscow is huge and very drab. When walking around you are overwhelmed by the noise, most streets being 6 to 12 lanes wide, you feel like you are walking on the freeway!

Most of the museums we went to were deserted and always seemed to have more Russian museum employees watching you than visitors. Many had a few descriptions in English but never as much information as in Russian.

Our home stay host was a very interesting 76 year old widow.  She described herself as a victim of Stalin, having been orphaned at the age of 3, father murdered, mother sent to the gulag, she was raised by her aunt in Siberia.  Always being at the top of her class, she was sent to Moscow to attend university.  She became a chemist and headed up some foreign department.  Her English was good but said that her husband (who died 2 years ago) spoke much better.  They have been home stay hosts in Moscow for 18 years and already this year she had hosted 20 times.  Scott was able to have many conversations with her about life then and now.  She is quite a remarkable woman, very outspoken and certainly has had a very interesting life.

We took the new high speed train from St Petersburg to Moscow.  While waiting to board the train I noticed that the luggage tag of the couple waiting behind us had a Sacramento address.  Small world!  We struck up a conversation with Irina and Dave, she originally from Moscow and Dave from Yuba City.  Had a nice chat and went our way.  The next day we went to Jesus Christ the Savior Basilica for services (one of Scott's requirements is to attend church in his study country).  There we ran into Irina and Dave!  They were actually there for services, they are Russian orthodox, we ran into them again after the service.  We decided to get together and had dinner with them at their hotel and had another point of view from someone who lived in Russia until 1991, and has been back every 2 years since then.  We hope to see them again in California.  The world is getting smaller!