Culbert Report

This year Dan and I celebrated Christmas for the first time by ourselves in Moscow.  We had a great holiday, a lot of presents, a lot of friends, and a lot of fun.  Here are a few highlights of the season. Our team hosted "An American Christmas" English club for over 30 students!  We had so much fun decorating cookies, singing Christmas carols, sharing Christmas memories, and creating some new ones!  We are so thankful for these new friends here in Moscow and for their joy in celebrating the holidays with us! We ventured to Red Square for a morning ice skating session.  You've already seen the evidence, but we're looking forward to trying this again, what great fun! We gathered as a team on Christmas Eve for carols and a Secret Santa gift exchange.  We had a lot of fun together.   Then it was off to downtown Moscow for a Christmas Eve service at the Anglican church and some Starbucks to warm us up afterwards.  I've decided it's officially better to visit Starb...

To those of you who thought our Christmas picture background a little "too good to be true," here's further proof of ice skating on Red Square.  This video is particularly dedicated to members of CU Intramural Hockey Team "Eh."  Miss you all, eh... please come visit and we'll shoot some more footage, eh! -rkc

Welcome to our new home!  Here's a short tour to show you where we live in Moscow.  Hope you enjoy it.

My favorite meal of the week is Sunday tea.  A hangover from my family's England days.  I always enjoyed having tea, crisps, cheese, fresh bread, egg salad, and sausage rolls.  As Rachel and I make our new home in Moscow we've decided to make Sunday tea one of those traditions that we hope our children can enjoy when they're grown up. Although the food (and tea!) itself is essential, what makes it even more fun is praying a vespers service from the book of common prayer, reading some scripture, and then talking about God. The next time you are in Moscow swing by on a Sunday night and break some (freshly baked) bread with us! -Dan 

Translation:  V. P. Nogin -rkc

Sveta, or full name, Svetlana, was born and raised in Baku, Azerbaijan.  She looks back on her youth in the Caucasus as some of the best years of her life.  Like many Russians of her generation, Sveta looks back fondly on her years as a child in the Soviet Union, agreeing that "life was better then."  She misses these old days, and is never pressed for a story about life back in the good ol' days.  This makes for continually interesting conversation, but an even more mysterious, and surprising woman.  For a few weeks, I lived life by her side, understanding more fully her values, her priorities, her goals, her dreams.  What a wonderful example and friend.  Thank you, Sveta. She takes after her Dad in every imaginable way, from the tip of her nose to her feisty and exuberant character.  She grew up swimming, as her Dad managed a sports' facility in Baku, and eventually wound up at Moscow's prestigious sport's institute on a scholarship for synchronized swimming...

October 9th was a big night at 173 Bolshaya Cherkizovskaya.  The little apartment rang with good conversation, games, and a thundering round of Happy Birthday, half in English, half in Russian.  Birthdays are a big deal in Russian culture:  one spends all day preparing food and desserts for all of your guests to enjoy, cleaning the apartment, and thinking up toasts and happy wishes for all invited.  We were no exception!  I started preparations at 10:00 am, and finished up as guests started arriving at 7:00 pm!  But the caviar and crackers, chicken fajitas with homemade tortillas, fresh salsa of all natural ingredients, sliced $6 avacado (a rare find here, but worth every rouble!), pan seared Kubanski peppers and onions, hot tea with sugar, lots of local cookies and treats, and a double decker chocolate chip cookie cake (courtesy of our teammate Kim,) made the day very memorable for all.   Here are some moments from the evening.  I hope you enjoy them as much as we did! The boys (from ...