Maddux Moscowian Life

For today's post I thought I might give you a little taste of what things have been like day to day here in Moscow.

In this picture Scott is at his parent's laptop checking email, as always, at the kitchen table. It was surreal to walk in the front door of the apartment and recognize the furniture knowing we had just traveled to Moscow. The same grandfather clock I am used to seeing and hearing in their house in Flower Mound, Texas now resides in the entry way of their charming two bedroom apartment in Moscow.

This apartment is different than American apartments in several different ways. Expectantly, one of those ways is the presence of a bidet in the bathroom that holds the newspaper. However, unexpectedly the towel rack is heated! The towels are always dry and cozy. Also unexpectedly,...there are windows on the bedroom doors...*raised eyebrow* (pictured right of Scott) Now, don't ask me why there are windows on the bedroom doors, it's just the way things are. In fact the only doors without windows are the front door, and the two bathroom doors. Needless to say, it has made life interesting.

Life outside the apartment has had its surprises too. It turns out that early June is when all the poplar trees are seeding witch means that there is this cotton-like fluff constantly in the air. These trees are EVERYWHERE, so the "cotton" falls like snow, and collects on the ground like snow as you can see in the picture on the right.

Cars here are surprisingly familiar. The cars we have actually taken rides in are Fords! Other familiar cars we have seen are Toyota Corolla, Honda, VW, Suzuki the list goes on. There is even a little Scion xA that is parked everyday on the same street as our apartment! I have only seen one Smart car in all of Moscow. I think there are more in Iowa City!

Our adventure here has been wonderful! Scott worked with the fossils here for the last time today. We had dinner with Erik Trinkaus which was great. He's an intelligent, gracious guy. Tomorrow we have one more day of leisure and site seeing with Scott, and then Sunday afternoon we fly to Rome. We have been very comfortable here this week, and we hate to see our stay draw to a close. I may or may not get to post again before Rome, so ciao......