Not Yet Settled

Well, so much for my goal of writing every few days - it's now been four weeks since my last entry! We're not quite settled in yet, and I'm still wrestling with jet lag and low energy levels.

Despite those challenges, we're doing our best to make the most of each day. Sleep remains a mystery, but we're finding small joys in the chaos.

July 14, 2025

One of the sweetest surprises since arriving in Moscow has been the strawberry stands—yes, Moscow is known for strawberries, and now we know why! The charming little stands selling strawberries and other fruits are scattered across the city.

And the taste? Absolutely divine. We've already eaten our weight in strawberries. Jet lag and sleep confusion aside, these berries are keeping our spirits high.

  

Some of our adventures have been super fun and exciting. Others... not so much. Take, for example, our quest to find the Church of the Ascension, where Alexander Pushkin got married. It was our first walk without Earl—just the kids and me—and it took a while to get oriented.

GPS signals are often jammed here (deliberately, we’ve learned), so relying on a navigation app is a gamble. There are no street signs, and while some buildings have blue plaques with street names, they’re not consistent. It’s like a scavenger hunt just to figure out where you are.

Add to that the Cyrillic alphabet, which makes everything feel like a puzzle. I’m learning the language—currently through Duolingo, and soon with a tutor—but it’s a steep climb. In my head, I’m still decoding: “the backwards N makes an ‘ee’ sound, and the thing that looks like an A makes the ‘deh’ sound.”

What should have been a 1.59 km walk turned into at least 3 km. But hey, we’re embracing the metric system! And Celsius too. I now know that 26°C means hot-hot-hot, while today’s 18°C calls for jeans and maybe even a sweatshirt.

Back to the Church of the Ascension… after all that wandering, we finally made it—only to find it completely closed for renovations. No signs, no estimated completion date, just scaffolding and silence. Argh.

It was a bit of a letdown, but honestly, it felt like part of the adventure. The journey itself—navigating without GPS, decoding Cyrillic, and exploring with the kids—was memorable in its own right.




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