Burlaki on the Hudson

The wife demands a rebuttal – the shirt did not turn the color of salmon, but rather a very pleasant pastel pink. I should still be a big hit in a gay neighborhood…

Sunday afternoon, Popivker family had to deal with an invasion of voracious Burlaks. This was the first time that our entire gang visited them, and Artusha took some time to warm to the invaders. We had great time. The food was excellent, the company most pleasant, and we were made exceptionally welcome by commentary along the lines of “На базаре всё так дорого”… Entertainment in the form of Тайна Третьей Планеты and Простоквашино appealed to both kids and adults. We should do it more often (Alex seriously intends to put a dent in our budget with a reciprocal visit, but his kids are too little, they don’t eat as much as ours ).

The first family weekend in the foreign land ended, and today was the first day that Kimmy went to school. The whole procedure ended up being very simple: We came, we talked, we left, she stayed. The teacher and the kids were prepared that there would be a newcomer, and did their best to cheer for a Yankee girl. She even has a Russian-speaking girl in the class (who is actually either Lithuanian or Estonian, depending on which teacher you ask).

Kimmy was really excited afterwards, even at the prospect of wearing a uniform, which we promptly ponied up for (thankfully, in a public school, the uniforms are fairly simple and do not cost up the wazoo). During the dinner, she effortlessly demonstrated her mastery of the British accent, by saying the word fork as only a native can. It sounds so unbelievably funny coming out of her mouth, and incredible at the same time, given that she only spent half a day in school. I am sure that she’ll have the accent down in a matter of weeks.

“Mommy, this is not an eraser, it is called a rubber”, was another highlight…

Natasha had her first experience driving on the wrong side of the road today, and to her own surprise, was unimpressed. It is not that hard, it turns out. The biggest challenge was getting back into our driveway – the openings on both side of the crescent are quite narrow. She needed to parallel-park once – and nailed it.

Becky is simply having an impromptu vacation, greatly enhanced by a new television. We had bought one on Ebay and it was delivered to us yesterday. It came with a DVD player and surround sound system, which amazingly does not provide sound to the TV if connected directly through what they call a SCART connector. I have managed to set up only a couple of speakers by now, and Becky has her entertainment, since the DVDs she bought on the last day in the States play in this system. Ebay rulez!

There are still only five channels through the aerial antenna. I tried several times today to order satellite TV through Sky, but the website kept timing me out and the not-toll-free customer service line kept me on hold until I gave up. This is pretty ludicrous, how they try not to earn my business…

Among the stores on the nearest corner from us, there is a shop that sells aquarium supplies, including lots of fish and reptiles. Natasha and kids went as if on a tour. They say the fish is exquisite!

Another first was mailing a letter from the local post office. As I mentioned once, the post office is primarily just another convenience store/newsstand, which also happens to provide postal services. Those services are limited: They did not actually take the letter that we needed to send to the States, they only sold us the stamp, and Natasha then dropped the letter into a regular mailbox.

As for me – does it feel like I have now been upstaged by my ladies, as far as adventures are concerned? – my work is quickly becoming routine. The highlight – or rather lowlight – of the day came on the evening commute, when I barely squeezed myself into a packed train. The next train was in 30 minutes, so I had to disregard the feelings of my fellow commuters. The quicker commute is not always what it’s cracked up to be…

The dinner home compensated for all, though!

Children, Chronicles, Family & Friends

These newcomers to London started with an act of sabotage! I did three rounds of laundry without a problem while I was by myself. As soon as my lovely wife got to it, one of my best dress shirts turned from white to salmon pink!!!…
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Chronicles, London & Environs

Well, the car is parked in driveway, the wife and the kids are sleeping in their new beds – the new chapter in our life has officially commenced. And life is pretty damn good, at the moment (no little thanks to a bottle of nice Cotes-du-Rhone)…
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Chronicles, Customerography, That's England

I watched an unfamiliar billiards game on TV today – hold you jokes, I only have five channels to select from (one of those keeps running some documentaries about deer – !?!?), there is very little to choose from…
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Chronicles, Sports

I’m back from my old life into the new one.

Jet lag is not so bad when traveling eastward, plus I uncharacteristically managed a couple of hours of shut-eye on the plane. But going to bed early today is definitely the sensible thing to do, so I’ll be brief.

The trip home was fantastic. Being among loved ones always lifts a man’s spirits… this man, at the very least. Children’s hugs and kisses, kicking back together, doing some silly family stuff – I have been missing that very much in my two and a half weeks alone. It goes without saying that going to bed with a certain hot woman definitely beats going to bed by myself, if you know what I mean… All in all, I never do well away from my family for long periods of time, and this trip was a lifesaver of sorts.

Then, there was Becky’s Bat-Mitsva – no rabbi, just a small candle-lighting ceremony at the beginning – which was a huge success. It turned into more of a farewell sometime along the way (I am pretty sure that Becky was toasted only a couple of times, while Natasha and I were toasted repeatedly), and most of the female guests in attendance teared up at one point or another, but it was still a blast!

This round of farewells actually turned out to be more pleasant than before. Relatives keep obsessing with “When are you going to come back?”, but friends have managed to overcome their sense of detachment, and basically simply celebrated our upcoming adventures with us. Maybe it’s the quality of food and the quantity of drink that does the trick…

The rest was a bit of a blur. There were still things to do, people to see, calls to make. Saying good-bye to the house was a hard part – I misted up myself – after all, it is our very first own house… (well, who knows, we may end up keeping it; it is now listed for rent as well as sale, but with this market, we may simply keep it as our own secondary residence…)

And here I am, alone again – albeit, for just a few days, – in anticipation of finally starting our excellent family adventure which, depending on your perspective, we either gutsily and admirably (thank you, brat Sashka!) or foolishly and inexplicably (we love you too, aunts and uncles!) inflicted on ourselves.

But seeing so many dear faces together makes me want to eventually come back. For two days now, I can’t stop singing the song that is becoming my personal anthem: “I will be returning here, If I’d only chose the day…”

Я сюда ещё вернусь,
Мне бы только выбрать день!

Celebrations

Sometimes, things come up that you have not really considered when you thought through various pros and cons of a potential life-altering decision (such as starting a new life abroad).

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Expat Topic

Everyone knows why we are doing it, right? I mean the London move. It’s because we want to be able to travel around Europe with more ease than is possible while living Stateside. Should I be at all concerned then that it has been two weeks and I went into the city for the first time today? Hmm…

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Chronicles

Saturday was again spent on the run, and it was certainly a day of several firsts.

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Chronicles

After a long post last weekend, almost a week-long silence. To my regular audience – and I know who both of you are – my sincerest apologies. I had planned on writing the blog at the end of each workday, but there is too much stuff to deal with during the day and it is too hard to force myself to stay in the office for a bit of creative writing…

But, hey, I now have my home computer and a broadband connection, so, hopefully, I’ll get to be more diligent about writing.

Anyway, what happened to me during this week?

I can honestly say that life is already taking a shape of routine.

I am timing my commute quite well. Sadly, the trip back always hovers around 45 minutes, as I have to leave some buffer in order to make sure that I catch the once-in-30-minutes train at Lewisham. On Thursday, actually, I took a different train out of Lewisham – 20 minutes earlier than mine – which brought me further away from the house (but still within walking distance). When all was said and done, I walked for about 20 minutes, arriving exactly when I would had I waited for the right train.

The morning commute is normally less than 40 minutes. Yet, DLR was packed more than usual this morning, which resulted in extra time at stations, which brought the total time to [sigh] 45 minutes.

So much for the initial idea of being 30 minutes away from the office. I keep reminding myself that on a good day, I will still be saving over 2 hours in total over what my New Jersey commute used to be. In other words, “Look at the bright side”.

Then, there are things that really turn out to be easy and pleasant.

Such as selecting a school for Kimmy, for instance. The education advisor working with me found that one of the primary schools in close proximity to the house had open spots. The school is also doing comparatively well as far as level of education. I called and arranged for a visit. The headteacher (i.e. principal, директор ) spent a whole hour with me, introducing me to the entire stuff (including the cook; I’ve heard so many Mrs.This and Mrs.That that I honestly couldn’t put a name and a face together if I tried), walking me around the school, extolling the features and benefits of the school’s approach to achieving its mission (it’s not a joke – every school in UK starts with a mission statement), and basically leading me to saying “I certainly would love for Kimmy to become a student here”. I was only happy to oblige. It must be me having a soft spot for older women being nice to me…

In truth, I have not seen a school closer to the house than this (it should be noted that British educational authorities consider proximities in straight lines, so there may be another one that is technically closer), it looks being taken care of, I have not seen anything unpleasant as far as surroundings are concerned, and I surely wanted to have at something turn out not be a hassle. So, come October 30, Kimmy is a Year 2 student at Middle Park Primary School in Greenwich.

Finding a school for Becky is more complicated. She is going into Year 7, which is the first year of senior school. The process of applying to senior schools starts in October of preceding year, and all good schools are obviously oversubscribed, which means that there are currently no open spots in any public school that has good educational results.

In UK, your place of residence defines your “catchment” – the primary local area in which the kids are supposed to go to school. However, you are neither required to stay within your catchment, nor are you guaranteed a spot anywhere. Proximity to institution plays an important factor in being placed in a particular school, but if you do not live on the doorstep of a school, you may be offered a place pretty far away. And with good schools, it is doorstep or forget it.

We are not close to any senior school, but it is hardly relevant, given that there are no really good schools in Greenwich (which is our catchment). Nearby Bromley has several schools that are better, but neither are they close by nor do they have open places. The best public senior school available to us is actually not too far (maybe, a mile) and is quite ok by Greenwich standards (but still slightly below national average as far as educational achievements). We will consider it, but we are not too excited.

We are additionally looking at private schools (they are called “independent” in Brit-speak). Quite expensive, but also quite a different level of education. I am visiting one of those on Saturday for an open-doors type of thing (for those who is not paying attention, it is October – i.e. the application season for the next year; most schools – public and private – are having open-doors days throughout the month). Becky will have to go for an entrance exam there. At another independent school, there is a two-day trial for which she is already scheduled. We’ll see how that turns out.

But I digress.

The other highlights of the week had to do with getting broadband equipment. First, picking up a parcel from a post office. In our suburban area, a post office is almost always a convenience store, looking nothing like what you’d expect from a real post office. I honestly thought at first that the sign “Post Office” was the name of the store, like “Hallmark” or something. But it really fulfills some of post office functions. For instance, if you cannot receive your parcel at home, you can arrange to pick it up at the post office, which is half a block away from the house.

The package from British Telecom contained a broadband router (which is kind of flaky when installed and configured wirelessly, but otherwise is very simple to set up and use) and a decent cordless phone/answering machine combo. There was also a note indicating that I was supposed to get a super-duper broadband phone instead, but it being out of stock, a temporary substitution was made. I am pretty sure that the terms of my phone/broadband contract do not include any charges for equipment. Without having experienced setting up similar connection in the States recently, I find it pretty amazing that a router and a phone were included with the new line for free. Maybe I am up for an unpleasant surprise when the bill comes…

And the rest of the week was work, work, work. Although I did go out with some colleagues on Wednesday, and even paid for a round of beers.

Tomorrow, after school visit, is the continuation of car search. I am test-driving a couple that I did not get to last week, plus I found a Volkswagen dealership that evaded me previously, and I want to take a look at a Jetta.

Children, Chronicles, Schooling

Driving on the left side of the road is not hard after all. After a couple of hours, I was still struggling with the turn signal and wiper handles being on the wrong side (they are positioned correctly – from my US-centric perspective – in newer cars), and had to catch myself a couple of times at turns, but other than that I did quite ok.

The weekend was spent mainly on going to various auto dealerships and figuring out which car to get.

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Chronicles

Nothing to speak of as far as adventures are concerned, so here is a quick update on how commuting works out.

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Chronicles

First commute took 55 minutes on the way in – but I came to the station good 10 minutes earlier than the next scheduled train. Once I start properly timing it, it should be closer to 45. All the way standing, though, – not a single vacant seat on either commuter train or subway. Let’s see what going home at a fairly late hour means, and tomorrow I’ll try a different route.

Once in office, I had to deal with several set up issues, but by the end of the day felt fairly immersed into my new position. There is tons of stuff to do. There is also a notable absence of adventures during a routine working day…

So, instead, let’s spend some time on describing living accommodations.

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Chronicles

Well, we are now officially the proud renters of a nice house in Southeast London.

The first full day as an England resident started with several mishaps.

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Chronicles