Our weekend away
It's so great to see people you haven't seen in years, plop on their couch, and act toward each other like you see them every weekend. I'm horrible at phoning or even emailing friends and family, and I used to get into trouble with people who consider it a sign of not caring. It's actually a sign of my scatterbrainedness and tunnelvision regarding current tasks. I simply do not have the type of mind that has little hourglasses for every person I know and sends out reminders to my conscious: "It's been 24.7 days since you called Miss X, don't you think she'd like to hear from you?" I can not call my mom for days, and when at Costco, call to see if she wants something, only to get a 12 Days of Christmas answer with a ghost-from-Fiddler-on-the-Roof accent: "You haven't called in 12 days, I've had 11 headaches, we couldn't turn on the computer 10 times, your sister-in-law called nine times, I've called your aunt eight times during which her son called seven times, your father and I argued six times, the dishwasher broke down five times, the TV said there were four tornadoes in your town and three fires in ours, we've been in two car accidents, and you haven't thought of your mother once!!!"
Given those typical reactions, it was great to see a person who we've worked with for a month at camp around eight years ago, and have visited once on the way back from Florida around four years ago. It wasn't awkward (unless you count their unique expression of love for each other, but that's a separate topic) and Ali had a great time with their kids, a boy of seven and a girl of five. She had a blast playing dress-up in princess outfits, complete with cinderella slippers and jewelry, there was a kitchen with pots, pans, food, etc., and of course, there were balls and stuffed things, one of which came home with us.
We lounged on the patio, saw a bear cub by the side of Skyline Drive in the Blue Ridge Mountains, went into Luray Caverns (very nice, pretty deep, it would be cool to go do some real spelunking down there, but these were a good scenic walk), visited the Baltimore Aquarium where Ali liked the ramps the best, and burned ourselves sat in the nice large kiddie pool with giant fountain and pool macaroni.
We also spread the Geni.com virus and shared our tons of photos on flickr, as well as visited one of bloguser's previous nice bosses who has a six-year-old as well.
Overall, we were impressed at the amount of interaction Ali had even with the American kid, but especially with the Russian-speaking ones. It was a little tiring, for us more so than for Ali because she got to nap in the car a lot, and conked out each night on the big-girl bed graciously vacated by the five-year-old. Very compact and fun mini-vacation, the last flight we'll take for a while now.
Some great quotes from you know who:
"Девочка, хочешь водички?" repeated every two seconds over twenty minutes or so, to her carseat neighbor on the drive to the caverns. Made all the more annoying, if you can imagine that, by the term "девочка" as opposed to her real name, which Ali knew perfectly well. Props to the stoic neighbor for holding out for a good long time before coming up with something along the lines of "надоела."
"Я хочу опять в кроватку!" yelled in the middle of the night when she fell out of the big-girl bed the first night. Not "Мама, я упала, мама, где я, мама, тут страшно, мама мама папа папа" or something of the sort. Freak. In a good way. For now.
Given those typical reactions, it was great to see a person who we've worked with for a month at camp around eight years ago, and have visited once on the way back from Florida around four years ago. It wasn't awkward (unless you count their unique expression of love for each other, but that's a separate topic) and Ali had a great time with their kids, a boy of seven and a girl of five. She had a blast playing dress-up in princess outfits, complete with cinderella slippers and jewelry, there was a kitchen with pots, pans, food, etc., and of course, there were balls and stuffed things, one of which came home with us.
We lounged on the patio, saw a bear cub by the side of Skyline Drive in the Blue Ridge Mountains, went into Luray Caverns (very nice, pretty deep, it would be cool to go do some real spelunking down there, but these were a good scenic walk), visited the Baltimore Aquarium where Ali liked the ramps the best, and burned ourselves sat in the nice large kiddie pool with giant fountain and pool macaroni.
We also spread the Geni.com virus and shared our tons of photos on flickr, as well as visited one of bloguser's previous nice bosses who has a six-year-old as well.
Overall, we were impressed at the amount of interaction Ali had even with the American kid, but especially with the Russian-speaking ones. It was a little tiring, for us more so than for Ali because she got to nap in the car a lot, and conked out each night on the big-girl bed graciously vacated by the five-year-old. Very compact and fun mini-vacation, the last flight we'll take for a while now.
Some great quotes from you know who:
"Девочка, хочешь водички?" repeated every two seconds over twenty minutes or so, to her carseat neighbor on the drive to the caverns. Made all the more annoying, if you can imagine that, by the term "девочка" as opposed to her real name, which Ali knew perfectly well. Props to the stoic neighbor for holding out for a good long time before coming up with something along the lines of "надоела."
"Я хочу опять в кроватку!" yelled in the middle of the night when she fell out of the big-girl bed the first night. Not "Мама, я упала, мама, где я, мама, тут страшно, мама мама папа папа" or something of the sort. Freak. In a good way. For now.