Michael's Birthday, Part 2 - the office party in Novomoskovsk

One of the Russian traditions is the importance of celebrating a birthday... a key component of this is celebrating at your workplace. What is a bit unusal though is that the person celebrating the birthday brings in all the food for the party. Traditionally, this is done within your team or core workgroup, and the food selection is pretty consistent - tea, instant coffee, juice, fruits (whatever is available and in-season - but typically oranges & bananas). Often there is assorted dried meats, sometimes cheese, sometimes fish (salmon, cavier), bread, chocolates (ofen with liquor centers). I decided I would do something a bit different...

I figured I should do foods that are a bit more American... so I brought Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies, a more elaborate fruit selection (apples, plums, gooseberries, grapes), tortilla chips, salsa, Skyline Chili dip (which is a Cincinnati-specific dish... cream cheese + Skyline chili + cheddar cheese - heat in the microwave and dunk tortilla chips into it - it's very easy and very tasty - if you like Cincinnati chili that is).

I had to explain to the those that were partaking with me what each dish was... much of the fruit they had never seen (they took pictures of the gooseberries)... and had never seen a tortilla chip. They were very relunctant at first to eat - since most things were very different for them... but they did eventually enjoy the feast. Since we do much of our shopping in Moscow, they were very surprised to see the different brands and different types of things available in Moscow vs. in Novomoskovsk. Oh yeah - and the concept of "dipping a chip" was completely new, and unnatural, for my team.

As is customary, my team bought gifts for me... a picture with a world map and a very nice tea mug with a ceramic tea diffuser. It was a nice day, as several others stopped by the "wish me congratulations" on my birthday.

Michael's Birthday, Part 1 - visiting Moscow

So I celebrated my 31st birthday in Moscow (on May 28 & May 29)... had a very nice time. We left Novomoskovsk around 7:30 AM with Ravil... arrived at the Marriott Aurora Hotel around 10:15 AM (i.e. we made great time - thanks to nice driving by Ravil). We checked in to the hotel and, before he left to return to Novomoskovsk, had Ravil drop us off at the Starlite Diner for breakfast.

As we were going into an underground crossing to get to the diner (in MOscow, you really don't cross the street at the surface - you walk under the street - in many of these - you can get many goods and services - drinks, food, clothes, flowers, etc.). But as we headed into the entrance of the underpass... we heard someone yelling our names. Strangely enough, our British neighbor from Novomoskovsk, Carol, was in Moscow and somehow we happened to cross paths with her... small world...

We were going for a "mostly American" weekend... the Starlite Diner feels very American - burgers, fries, omelets, etc. So Sara and I split a pitcher of Harp... I had a bacon blue cheese burger... Sara had eggs (so technically Sara had kegs & eggs for breakfast... someone still thinks she's a college kid :). We've eaten at this diner several times before, but What was really neat about the diner this time was eating outside... and since it is not always hot here - they had blankets at every chair (and people were wrapped up in them!). See some of the pictures and look closely.

After breakfast, we did something I've wanted to do for a while... ride and tour some of the MOscow subway... the MOscow subway is amazing... beyond the fact that trains come about every 2 minutes... 95% of the stations are absolutely amazing... they are said to have been built as "museams for the common person". The ceilings are covered in tile mosaics... lots of status, excessive lights... marble... really a site to see. So we got on the Metro and toured several different stations... really a wonderful experience.

We headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner. I planned a nice excursion to a restaurant called "Goodman's Steakhouse". Goodman's is probably one of the nicest steak houses in MOscow (OK - so the bar is not set too high on this category - but it is very good none the less. It is definitely not like a Jeff Ruby's experience in Cincinnati - but it nice and very tasty). Anyway's - there is a Goodman's on Tverskya - (the main high end shopping street in Moscow) and they have a little enclosed outdoor area... it reminded us of the Blind Lemon in Mt Adams in Cincinnati... the way it was designed - you could not hear any street traffic at all. We were offered blankets to keep warm if we wanted...

The food was great... I, of course, had a steak... Sara went with Pasta. We had a few glasses of red wine, nice appetizers. It was a definitely a place I'll go back to... really really felt American. After dinner at Goodman's, we walked south down Tverskya towards the Kremlin. We had planned to meet my Moscow-based manager and his wife for drinks / deserts at a place called the Academia Cafe. We selected this because it also has a nice outdoor eating area (and blankets as well - can you see the trend?). Nicolas and Guniz showed up shortly after Sara and I... they had dinner as they had not eaten yet... Sara and I had drinks and then shared Tiramisu for desert. Nicolas and Guniz brought me a great birthday gift - a large wooden egg painted with scenes from St Petersburg. This was great as we had planned to spend my birthday in St Petersburg... but we could not get there since the train we wanted to take was completely sold out. So we went to Moscow instead.