Hey guys... sorry I haven't updated since Saturday. I really don't have an excuse except that I've been lazy. On Sunday Olivia, Katerina, and I went to Red Square again (which wasn't the original plan, but since we were nearby and Katerina had never been there, we decided to swing over). We then went back to the underground mall and had an amazing lunch that included a greek salad, some chicken and mushroom type salad, and an AMAZING pork cutlet with tons of melted cheese and tomatoes... yuuummmmy.
Then, Sunday evening we had a fiesta night at our place and like 8 or 9 of the marines came over for tacos and margaritas. As you may have noticed from a previous status that I was a bit skeptical of the meat, but it wasn't that bad mixed in with everything... and they ate it all... actually there probably wasn't enough food, but no one really confirmed they were coming and we didn't want TONS of extra food lying around...
Monday was an extremely lazy day for me... Yay Presidents...
Today was a great day at work. I actually had stuff to do, although it was mostly clerical... we have a delegation coming in soon and I had to put together welcome folders/print of a TON of documents for it. Sadly, the color powerpoint presentation had to be printed off in a classified room and only one of those rooms has a colored printer... and the color printer is ancient and EXTREMELY slow. I had to print 15 copies of a 22 slide presentation (1 slide per page, double sided, manually)... it seriously took 2 hours JUST to print it... and that was only one of the document that I had to print. I was at work until like 6:30. It really was nice to feel useful... and the RSO officer was in there with me for awhile.. it was nice to have company and he was pretty funny.
I'm really enjoying reading up on Russian news in Russia. Seriously, I love this flipping country and it's political elite. My life would be so boring without the added suspense... you make my work so meaningful...
I was thinking about going with Olivia to Poland when her family goes after their trip to Moscow, but I think that trip is the same time as the Advance Visit for the BIG VIP visit coming up... which I can now tell you about... ready?!? Drum rolll.... I get to work hand in hand with the site officer for the meeting of Mikhail Gorbachev AND Vice President Joe Biden.. Yes, VPOTUS. It has been 11 years since Moscow has had a VPOTUS visit... and I get to be here for it :) AKA, I cannot miss the advance, since the real site officer is going to be in London and the other one has never actually been to the site. I'm excited!
There's also been some drama with one of the other interns. I feel bad for him, he's been put in a tough spot... but he feared they may ask him to leave so he resigned before they could... he leaves Friday :( There's a lot of complicating information going around about what happened, but you could careless... on the bright side, I met the newest (and last) intern today... his name's Josh and he goes to school in Indiana.
Well, I need to sleep... we have a Dunkin Donuts date tomorrow with all the interns... lol
Haha... So I realize I didn't even mention the fire alarm reference in my title. This morning there was a fire alarm at the embassy... and Olivia and I were just getting into the elevator when it started. We rode it to the floor we were headed to and when we got off everyone was kind of like "What the hell?"... I ran into PAtrick and told me to get my coat and by the time I did, my whole section was filing through the stairway... when we made it to Post one, there was just a huge back log of people trying to get down the stairs and then the Marines came on the intercom and said they did not know why the alarm went off, but that they were not aware of any fires and "if you see a fire in your section, please let us know." Most of us ended up going back up and the alarm went off like two more times and then the Marines came back on informing us that the alarms were fixed and any future alarm should be considered real. It was scary for like 5 minutes though because no one knew what was going on and the alarm was crazy annoying... so yeah, that was my eventful morning :)
ReplyDeleteHi Ashley, I am so excited for you and the BIG political meeting coming up. What an oppor-tunity for you! Once in a lifetime & you'll be there for the history making event! I care about your intern friend that resigned, it must be a complicated matter that isn't for us to be talking about.(Gossip should not be an option).Must feel good having the US Marine Corp next door. Talk about heavy protection, you have THE BEST! Would you be interested in a "meatless" taco meat? I might have a recipe that uses nut-meats and spices, w/a vegetable, like carrotts, to make a hamburger consistency. Let me know if your interested in that or any other recipes or hints. I'd like to help you in any way I can, it may not be much, but because I care about & feel a love for you, I just want you to know this. God bless you Ashley, Cindy
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