A Day in the Life of Me

I wake up as Kyle heads out the door. I prepare a quick cup of coffee with a dash of "still milk." It's the only kind of milk available here, has a shelf life of twelve months and never has to be refrigerated. Take the dogs in the elevator, down 15 stories for our daily walk on the Bulvar, a popular boardwalk along the Caspian Sea. We cross several major roads that have pedestrian crosswalks, which are never respected by motorists. We wait, not so patiently for a break in traffic and haul tail (literally) across four lanes of Lada traffic. Once on the Bulvar, we see many bizarre things: young lovers out for a stroll at 8 a.m. (are they still up from the night before?), men "jogging" in full track suits and sandals (it's 85 degrees outside), a man practicing his nunchuck skills (I'm not kidding) and a local wearing a walkman and singing, "I'm a Barbie Girl." I feel like I'm in the twilight zone.



(The Bulvar)

We get back to the apartment in time to meet Tamila, our housekeeper/dog sitter. Of course, we don't need a housekeeper for a 3 bedroom apartment. It's more of a retainer so that she's available to stay with the dogs while we travel. Tamila makes some killer potato pancakes (a fav local snack) and her lemon bars rival Nancy's. Tamila does not speak English and I do not speak Russian, so I use Google Translate to communicate. Not always a perfect system.

Tamila gets working on the floors, and I head out to the gym, via Hikmet, our driver. I specifically chose a gym that was near our apartment, thinking I could walk there. You can practically see it from our balcony, but with the way traffic flows and the lack of sidewalks along a major highway, Hikmet is my safest choice.

The state-of-the-art gym is in the Excelsior Hotel and is immaculate. Tons of cardio equipment, indoor/outdoor pools, brand new free weights and machines. Unfortunately, or fortunately for me, I am one of the few people who work out there. It is simply too costly for the locals, so my only other gym companions are the rare hotel guests. Within the 4,000 square feet, I've never seen more than 5 other people.

Hikmet picks me up and we stop at the biggest super market in town. It has 5 aisles of food plus a frozen foods section and toiletries. They are out of any type of sandwich bread again, but the peanut butter shipment has come in, so I stock up and buy 5 jars at $6 each.

Lunch back at the apartment and take the dogs down the elevator again. I start some laundry in the washer/dryer combo. Sounds efficient? Not if you want to do more than one load or more than three towels at a time. Most items I hang from a drying rack, discreetly placed in our third bedroom, which doubles as our garage of sorts.

The dogs join me on the balcony, where I sit to read and do e-mails. The sounds of the city are overwhelming: car horns, horns from tankers coming into port, traffic cops yelling at people on their megaphones, tires squealing as a driver accelerates way too quickly. It's not very relaxing but at least I'm sitting in the sunshine.

(View from our balcony)


(Zoey enjoying the balcony.)

Dinner prep can be quite the ordeal, as most of the ingredients in my cookbooks are unavailable here. Or if they are available, I do not know it, as most labels and directions are in Russian. Maybe just baked potatoes tonight. We figured out which carton was sour cream. It will be a special treat on top.

Kyle and I crash on the couch to watch the fifth season of "Bones." We bought it for cheap from the guy who sells pirated DVDs. Just before bed, we take the dogs down 15 stories, one more time. Sweet dreams.