… And Other Things In Life

Boris went to Saint-Petersburg to figure out a way to get his money (The answer – no way, except for taking cash within the allowed limits and bringing it to Finland).

When the Allegro train stopped operating again on March 28, we felt it like “The Last Flight from Casablanca.” But the buses are still running, and with no competition, they even added a couple of extra runs per day.

Like everything else, it’s hard to tell how long it will last, so I asked him to buy a return ticket even when he is unsure when he is coming back. I know it does not guarantee anything, but still.

Although the bus itself is more comfortable than it used to be, the joy of passing the Russian border control and customs on the highway remained the same – the worst possible way of crossing the border.

***

For the first time since I moved to the city, I felt a sort of resentment: I can’t take in a refugee family. It would be possible in my old house, and it can’t work in the new one. I hate myself when I see that people worse off than me take refugees, and I don’t. And when I see people dropping everything and going to Poland to help while I only entertained the thought: I should drop everything and go to Poland to help. Yes, I know very well that it would be the dumbest thing to do. I know that I won’t be able to help efficiently without knowing any of the local specifics. I know that sending money to Warsaw is the best thing I can do. I know all of the above.

Still, not being able to do things fills me with frustration, the worst of them not being able to do anything to bring this war to an end.

And enough of that. I often resent people worrying about the wrong things, and I don’t want to be one of them.

Apple Is A Black Hole, And Nobody Comes Back!

I started using AirTags. First, I resisted the desire to buy a package of four for $100 and bought one for $30, but after that, I already bought two more :). Boris was the first to give me the idea; I didn’t even pay attention when Apple announced the new product.

Buying the tags was not enough; you need to have some case (either a case to attach to a keychain or a case to stick it to something). So I got those, and my first AirTag went to my keys. It’s pretty cool and funny. First, you can find your tagged object using the FindMe app on your iPhone. I practiced it: the tag starts to make a sound, and the phone tells you “14 ft to the right,” and so on, and it displays the arrow on the screen. Second, if you leave this object behind (and take your phone with you), the object will start beeping. You can mark some places “home” so that the tag won’t beep when you leave an object there. The funniest thing was that when I opened the AirTag properties on my iPhone, it showed two homes: mine and Boris’. Boris agrees that your phones know too much about us! In fact, we have already caught them a couple of times communicating without our consent!

Monday And Tuesday In DC

I just realized that I didn’t post my National Gallery post when I wrote it, and that’s probably because I already started to get sick and didn’t pay much attention. I think it’s mostly because I hit the point of not being able to cope with multiple things happening in the world and the way they affect people close to me, also because I had several days in a row with very little sleep. I slept eight hours last night, but it is not enough to compensate. Unfortunately, I have a big project to complete over the weekend, and I have no idea how I will be able to accomplish this.

On a brighter note, a little bit about the past Monday and Tuesday.

These are the days that Vlad has off. He spends them catching up on sleep, but he is alive and awake in the evening, and we spent both evenings at Vlad’s and Dylon’s place. Vlad and Dylon taught us to play mahjong, and everybody, including Nadia, loved it.

Igor found a refuge in the local library

I also really liked their place; it’s different from what they had in Chicago, but nevertheless.

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National Art Gallery

After the afternoon tea, nothing went as planned. First, the weather got sharply colder, and all of us ended up not being appropriately dressed for the weather. Anna and Nadia went to meet with Anna’s friends, and I wanted to go to one of the Art museums, but it turned out I mixed up which of the museums was open late. And then it was super cold, and then Nadia got sick with the same bug as Kira, and we had to cancel several things. Then Anna got sick with the same thing, and the weather turned even worse.

One thing I managed to do on our third day was visit the National Art Gallery.
The sculpture garden:

Since it was impossible to see even a quarter of the museum, I decided to focus on one of my favorites – Italian Medieval art. That was one of the best things I’ve done on that trip – seeing this art brings me immense joy.

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An Afternoon Tea At Mandarin Oriental

Vlad worked at the Mandarin Oriental hotel for the first three months in DC. During his tenure there, he designed the Sakura Pink Empress Afternoon Tea, also cherry-blossom-themed. He could secure only four tickets for Sunday, so he, Anna, Nadia, and I went.

I think that that’s one of the cases when “a picture’s worth a thousand words,” so I am going to show the tea menu (each of us selected their own tea, and Nadia got a kid version of the menu, and she also had a sparkling juice).

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National Museum Of Natural History

Sunday was our big museum day – we spent a half of it in the National Museum of Natural History.

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Hanami

There was one more thing which Anna and I did on Saturday. Vlad made a reservation for us for a Hanami experience in his bar. I had no idea what it was, so I came completely mentally unprepared. Since the whole idea was to come to DC for the cherry blossom season, Vlad wanted us to have a complete experience. As you can see from the pictures, the bar was decorated to look like a cherry orchard.

We were presented with picnic baskets with traditional Japanese treats.

We were also offered several other drinks and later an ice cream and some oyster-like jelly sweets.

Later, Vlad explained to us that the music was purposefully set loud enough so that people could not talk to each other and would immerse themselves in the experience.

https://youtube.com/shorts/V9tzWe30VRk?feature=share

And here is an article which describes the whole experience in detail.

Touristy Things In DC

The first day in DC we were mostly walking around the city center. The weather was beautiful, and way warmer than in Chicago. We had a late lunch with Vlad

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In DC

Our family trip to DC planned six months ago, goes on as a combination of unique experiences and major disasters. The first thing that went wrong was that Kira got sick just 36 hours before the trip, and so neither she nor John was able to come. The rest of us got to DC safely and checked in at Riggs hotel. This building used to be a bank (you can read about its history here), and Vlad is a beverage manager at the Silver Lyan bar in this hotel.

Some pictures from the hotel: