Cuisine, Condi, and Cheburashka...

I’m sorry it’s been so long. Things have been slightly crazy around here and it’s easier to do big updates than lots of little ones. 

I suppose a lot has happened since I last updated, I’ll start with last weekend. Last Saturday night all the interns went to a nice dinner at this Indian restaurant called Aroma.  I had a chutney, mint, curry chicken dish something, a mango lassi, some great Nan, Indian tea, and a weird dessert I don’t know the name of.  It was a great experience, the food was great, the staff was amazing, and it was a wonderful atmosphere.  Afterwards we all went back to the guy’s apartment and hung out and drank vodka.  I was on antibiotics so I was only sipping a screwdriver, but everyone else was knocking the shots back pretty fast. It got interesting in a hurry.. interesting, but fun.  Around 3 am we ran out of vodka and the metro didn’t open until 5:30 and I didn’t want to sleep on their couch so I convinced them to go buy more. You know, it’s Russia, I just assumed you could buy vodka WHENEVER you darn well pleased. Well I guess that pretty much used to be the case, but they recently passed a law and now the amount of time in which you CAN buy vodka in Russia is smaller than in Wisconsin. Someone please explain to me how this makes sense? It’s Russia!?! So you can only buy vodka from 10am-10pm so at 3 am, we were stuck with wine, beer, or champagne. Of course, we picked champagne. Two bottles.  On our way out, these two obviously drunk guys started coming up to us, yelling in Russian (I had noticed them  on the way, but paid no attention). I told them I didn’t understand them and kept walking across the street. When I got to the other side I turned around and Aaron, Josh, and Olivia had stopped to talk to them.  I was mad for two reasons, first, why stop and talk to two belligerent drunk guys while you yourself are also drunk, and second, I had to go to the bathroom like crazy. So here I am yelling at them from the other side of the road, no idea what in the world is going on and finally I walk back across and grab Olivia and start pulling her across the street. Turns out they had said something to her on the way in, but she couldn’t make it out and just responded with random mumbling and it pissed them off. Which is why they came straight up to us after we left the store.  She was afraid they were going to try and fight us and/or follow us home so she was trying to sweet talk our way out of it, the whole time I’m standing on the other side thinking she’s flirting, lol.  They didn’t follow us and I assured her our two champagne bottles and the fact that we outnumbered them would probably keep them away.  We got back to the apartment, had some champagne, then some Georgian wine, talked about the most random things and then around 6 am I got on the metro and went home. By the time I got home, got ready for bed, etc… I didn’t go to sleep until 8:30 Sunday morning. 

That day, I didn’t eat a single thing (mostly because I slept all day).  Our friend Ben Richards and his friend visiting from Germany, Josh, invited us out for Ukrainian food and of course, we said yes.  It was probably the best dining experience I’ve had since I’ve been here.  First, we had AMAZING borscht and wonderful bread.  Lots of garlic.. mmmmm.  Then we had a really good salad which was pretty much like a potato salad with chicken in it (that’s kind of the texture of most salads here) and then the most amazing holubtsi, a Ukrainian stuffed cabbage roll.  MMMMMM. The best part of the night, though, was the honey pepper vodka shots.  Wow. It’s homemade vodka and you can only get it at this restaurant.  I only took a sip, again antibiotics, but wow. The most amazing sensation.  I can’t even explain it.  I’m bringing some home for sure.  It was a great experience all around and I left feeling nice and full. 

Last week was pretty uneventful.  On Thursday I was helping Olivia escort some Stanford MBA students onto the compound for a quick briefing before their reception at the DCM’s townhouse.  After we got them on the compound, all the escorts left and Olivia still needed help with the Stanford alumni that were coming not long after.  I helped her escort them, only they went straight to the townhouse and part way through that, Baron, Olivia’s supervisor and the control officer for the entire visit, asked me I would be able to stay and help escort after the reception. Now considering this was a reception for the Stanford group, of which a certain former Secretary of State (yes, Condoleezza Rice) was a part of, it took me all but .102 seconds to agree.  I was able to hang out with some of the MBA students, listen to Condi give a little toast, and then shake her hand and get a picture taken with her as she left. She told Olivia and I that she had once been an intern for the State Department and that she understood the need to be nice to your interns.  J  (I don’t have a copy of my solo picture with her yet, but it gets better).

On Friday night there was a little fireside chat event with Condi and the Ambassador that all the interns except Aaron and I were going to. We tried to get in, but were told the list was too full as it was.  SO, me being resourceful and all, talked to a good friend of mine who happens to be in charge of those access lists.  Magically, mine and Aaron’s names showed up on that list.  Unfortunately, the person who told us we couldn’t come saw us almost immediately. She came up to us and reprimanded us for coming after she said we couldn’t. We pointed out that our names were on the list and so we thought something had changed and it was ok (hehe).  Really, she was just worried about not having enough food, so we assured her that we would not eat anything.  She also told us we had to be working guests if we were going to stay, meaning we had to mingle with all the guests, not just embassy workers.  By this time, we had seen the MBA students numerous times and knew them pretty well, so “working” turned out to be super easy and really fun.  It was great to listen to her talk and she did a decent job fielding questions.  We were able to get an intern picture with her afterwards, which I will post.  It was pretty exciting to get to meet her… twice.  For those of you who don’t know, Condi is the reason I was ever interested in the State Department in the first place, ultimately, the reason I am here.  It meant a lot to get to meet her.

After the event at Spaso House, Olivia and I went out with Ben and Josh and their friend Tim.  We were suppose to meet up with the Stanford students, but when we got to the club, the bouncers asked us if we had a reservation and we said no and then they asked the Stanford guy if we were with them, and he also said no, so we didn’t get in.  Maybe it’s because they’re from Stanford, or maybe it’s because he’s just an ass, either way, we were pretty put off by the whole thing.  On top of it all, I didn’t have my wallet and was super scared I had left it a restaurant earlier in the day. So I was not exactly the life of the party that night.  On Saturday, Olivia and I did some shopping, went to Ismailova, and then we went to dinner at this little hole in the wall place on the corner across from the White House called 317.  It definitely ties the Ukrainian place for my favorite place in Moscow.  I had tomatoes with grated garlic cheese as an appetizer.. YUM. And then Beef Stroganoff (go figure) as my main entrée.  SO good. Again, though, the best part was definitely the vodka. They are called Nikolayshkas.  The vodka is super smooth, but instead of just getting a lemon for a chaser, you get lemons covered in ground coffee and powdered sugar. I was GOONNNEE before we left the restaurant, AND I was eating. That’s how good they were, we just couldn’t stop.  I spent about a half hour at the club (one mojito) before I decided I needed to head home. Stephen, the intern from the Foreign Agricultural Service (why didn’t I think of that??), left with me and we grabbed a cab (I was able to tell him where we needed to go and negotiate a price… my Russian is so much better when I’m drunk) and headed back to the compound.  Sadly between the club and the cab and the cab and the compound (lots of c’s there), I feel twice.  I had been bragging about making through winter in Moscow without falling once and I fall twice in the same evening. Stupid Karma. L

Sunday was pretty uneventful, we left the house only to go to the gym and pick up our takeout Indian food (Aroma delivers anywhere in Moscow for free).  And then we went back to bed.

This is Olivia’s last week (sniffle) so last night we went to her favorite restaurant, Kish Mish (it’s the Uzbek restaurant we went to my first night) and I had amazing borsht and shashlik.  Then we walked up old arbat again and I found Breanna her Ovechkin jersey, finally.  AND Aaron, Olivia, and I got matching Cheburashka shirts. For those of you who don’t know who/what Cheburashka is, he’s the main character of a Soviet cartoon and very popular in Russia. The episodes are really short and all on YouTube, if you’re curious.  Anyways, if you look at his name, it’s become pretty common for some people to take liberty with it… like CHE Burashka.  Our shirts are pretty epic in that sense. Let me see if I can find a picture of it online…. And nope.  I’ll get a picture up soon.  Pretty much we each got a different color shirt (red, white, and blue) and on the front it has Cheburashka, but he has the Che Guevara hat on and is holding a gun and his name is split up like Che Burashka.  It is absolutely adorable. We had been looking for our sizes all night and we found them in the last store. Sorry, super excited.

Anyways, time to actually get some work done.  Bye for now.

Also, all the interns went to Swan Lake last monday.  I just wanted to add that in the blog... I know most of my facebook friends knew this already, but for those of you who don't have facebook... it was at the Kremlin Theater and it was AMAZING.  It made me miss ballet SOOO much. :( Also, a dream come true...