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Published: July 24th 2008
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First, I am still alive and well but have been busy doing all sorts of things and have not made the time to update my blog with pictures and stories from the cruise. I started the blog entry but have not finished nor have I uploaded the pictures. Believe or not, I just got them organized today and only because I am meeting with some of the people from cruise are live here in Moscow on Sunday and they wanted to exchange copies of each of our pictures. I knew they did not want 2 GB of pictures so I cut it down and got rid of a lot of them so it would all fit on one CD.
Last week was Dasha's birthday so I had her to the house for Mark's famous shepard's pie (she loved it by the way Mark) but I put the cheese in the middle instead of on top. I also made a homemade peanut butter pie, which I have never made by myself. It was not as easy as many of the other pies I have baked, but I have to say this tasted GREATTTTT! The meringue was flat as I got tired
Who Is This?
The theme was Roman or Greek, I think I missed the "r" and thought they said "Geek". Those were my grape leaves from IKEA. of wiping it (by hand) but it still tasted great and was perfectly browned. Then Leo and Freddie came over for drinks and to also wish Dasha happy birthday. I thought it was great, when they came in the door, of course I greeted them and when they saw Dasha (they had bought her some roses), Leo bent down to one knee and started this long story about how two knights (Freddie and Leo) went on this huge quest to get these flowers just for her, and even had to fight the red dragon that protected these roses that could only be found in this certain location. I wish I would have taped it, I thought it was great!
From me, I put together a bunch of pictures I had of her and the things we have done together in a photo travel mug. She loved that as well. I also got here an English cookbook with Russian dishes and a little history about each of the dishes. I thought it would help for those times she gets home sick when she moves to the States. Any ways, we had a good evening and like any good Russians, had
.
I do not know the name, but I feel in love with the blue bell tower at night. a few drinks along the way...lol
On Saturday I had the gang over for pizza and to watch the second Lord of the Rings, which I had not seen. It was good, so good that when everyone left and after I finished the dishes, I got the third one out and watched it, starting around midnight so, no, I did not go to bed until 3:30 that morning and then went on into Moscow to meet some friends.
So any ways, I am here and well and I promise to get the cruise blog posted very soon. I am attaching a few pictures from the cruise to get you started.
I also wanted to share an article I received today,
(Unofficial translation from Russian)
Date: July 23, 2008
Source: RBC
Title: Every Second Russian Has a Positive Attitude towards the U.S.
Every second Russian (49%!)(MISSING) has a positive attitude towards the USA and every third (29%!)(MISSING) - has a negative attitude towards this country. This data was received during the research undertaken by the All-Russian Center for Public Opinion Studies (VCIOM). Number of respondents who had difficulty identifying their attitude reached 22%! (MISSING)
For the Stainglass Window
I gave my map away and forget the name of this church in Barcelona but I thought it was a great picture. past five years the number of Russians with positive attitude towards the U.S. has not practically changed (48% - in 2003), while the number of people with negative attitude decreased significantly (40% in 2003). The number of Russians who could not identify their attitude increased from 12% in 2003.
Younger Russians (aged from 18 to 24) have the highest ratio of people with positive attitude towards the U.S. - 59%. Older Russians (over 60) have the lowest ratio of people with positive attitude towards the U.S. - 34%, while 38% do not share warm feelings towards this country. Middle age Russians (25 to 44 years old) have the lowest ratio of people with negative attitude towards the U.S. - 26%, 30% - among the respondents aged from 44 to 59 years old.
For the past five years the number of respondents who positively evaluate the level of relations between Russia and the U.S. has decreased from 64% in 2003 to 54% in 2008. A little less than one third of Russians (27%) describe the relations between two countries as cold (22% in 2003) and 12% evaluate them as tense (7% in 2003).
While evaluating the level of
relations between the two countries, there were no major differences among respondents in terms of their age, level of education and income registered. The respondent opinions differed based on their location. As such, 60%!o(MISSING)f inhabitants of middle size cities (from 100 thousand to 500 thousand people), 57%!o(MISSING)f countryside inhabitants, 55%!o(MISSING)f inhabitants of smaller cities (up to 100 thousand people), 48%!o(MISSING)f inhabitants of larger cities (over 500 thousand people) and only 39%!o(MISSING)f inhabitants of Moscow and St.-Petersburg positively evaluate the level of relations between Russia and the U.S."
The poll was implemented by VCIOM on June 14-15, 2008. 1,600 respondents from 153 locations in 46 regions
Also something else interesting, Aeroflot Airlines just went to electronic tickets as part of a requirement from the International Air Transporation, but because they started this a year ago, they are now marketing it as if it is something new. I can remember back in 1991 or 92, using electronic tickets and Dad and I discussing the pros and cons to them. Here is the article, "On June 1, all members of International Air Transportation Association switched to e-ticket system....One year ago Aeroflot became the first
company to use this system in Russia...Aeroflot together with VTB-24 bank launched a new service, which allows passengers to pay for their Aeroflot tickets via intent by using a credit card...." Aeroflot in-flight magazine page 304. Yes, that is correct, it was not until very recently I could use my credit card to purchase tickets. Most of the time, I would have to send Misha to Moscow with my credit card or cash to get the tickets. I could not do this online. So as you can see, there are some areas we are lagging behind here in Russia, but I would not change the past two years of working and living here so please do not take this as a complaint or making fun, just sharing experiences.
I hope everyone is doing well. Vince
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Gale
non-member comment
Wow!
Those pictures are stunning! I am in awe again in some of the pictures you've posted. How wonderful it must be seeing these sites in person! All I can say is WOW!