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First Diary as a Bachelor

Sunday, June 27, 1999

Hello out there,

It's just me - John. The better half (what DOES that mean anyway) is basking in the California sunshine, sunning on the beach, sipping Napa Valley wine, sampling the finest of California Cuisine - and I'm here in the capitol of the bread basket of the USSR.

Before she left, Marianne posed with two of her classes. First, with her "6th Graders" (they go by age here but I always forget - I think these are "11-year-olds"). The next picture is of the older ones. In this class there was just one boy left by the end of the year as ex patriot families tend to hurry off to home countries -- sometimes even before school is out. This poor guy doesn't look like he's enjoying it.

Of course Marianne had one more round of buying. Here she is negotiating for some tea-glass holders. Reasonably authentic but apparently not authentic enough to be stopped on the way out as antiques. They did x-ray Marianne's bag and saw them but not a big enough deal to stop her and throw her in jail. Now, if we could just smuggle out our nice old dining table and the samovar the same way. Fat chance.

Remember my friend Lief from the last diary? After the weekend, we unexpectedly got to see him again -- right after the bombing of the lobby of his hotel. He called and hinted he might not be very comfortable staying there that night so he came over here. (Lief, next time just ask, you don't have to plant a bomb to get invited back. Come any time!)

Speaking of friends and dramatic happenings, my office mate finally married his fiancée. They have spent the last six months getting permission from the German government but even German bureaucrats run out of extra paper to ask for so Peter and Laura are now happily man and wife. Nice people. When they got back we had a minor celebration in the office. It made me think we should always have afternoon champagne.

On Monday, Marianne went to the airport. She had to fly from here to Frankfurt and there to Chicago and there to San Francisco. Of course the flight out of here was 90 minutes late but she still made the connection in Germany. Her bags didn't. It was several days before she saw her bags but eventually they did get delivered to San Jose.

Other than that, I've been just trying to stay busy without my her. It's harder when it rains like it has been. These are real summer storms but they don't seem to last too long. Not nice to be out in but great to watch from the patio window. Last evening I did go downtown just to look around. I hadn't been there is quite awhile and the new summer season has weekend gatherings that are pretty lively - and pretty crowded. These crowds are OK but it's mostly the younger set parting well beyond my limits. And the music is so loud I can listen to it at our apartment a half mile away.

So that's what I did, grabbed a metro ride and went home. Later this summer I am going to do a survey of public art in the Metro system. It's still pretty Soviet. Like public art anywhere, I'm not sure anyone looks at it but it's a constant reminder that the "bad old days" were not very long ago. Then again, here's the gates into one of the nearby public offices. Nice work. I actually hope this art gets preserved, even if the political system needs to stay gone.

Take care everyone. Enjoy the Fourth of July. To show how good inter-country relations are, we even get it off here ... it's next Sunday.

Regards,

John T.

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