Tickets in hand and access to the new United Polaris lounge for us!
Cheers to new adventures!
No mom I am not sleeping they have movies!
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| Business class lounge in Tokyo- 14 hours of travel and they are starting to get tired |
Next flight - only 2.5 hours to go!
We made it to our house in Sakhalin - all the bags surprisingly made it too!
After a long day of travel and not arriving to our house until 9:30 PM we were tired and hungry. The sweet neighborhood left a bunch of cooked food, cookies, and staple items on the counter and in the fridge to help us get started. Super sweet gesture
Our new home - townhouse 32A its a duplex that is suprising nice and spacious
Exploring the neighborhood
Sakhalin is surprisingly an extremely safe city. We live in a gated expat only compound called Olympia which is just an ExxonMobil built and owned community. The only people that can live here are ExxonMobil expats. The community has a fitness center, a subsidized full service restaurant, a bar, a grocery store, tennis courts (inside and out), basketball courts (inside and out), soccer fields, a sauna, a number of indoor and outdoor playgrounds, a video game room, pool and ping pong tables, walking trails, a dog park and much more. We are not able to drive here so we have a company transport system, similar to Uber where we call and tell them where we want to go and they take us (at no charge to us). The language barrier is tough as most Russians do not speak English so most of the time we hang out at Olympia with the other expats. The summers can be a bit tough for the kids because a lot of the expat wives take the kids home so there are less friends to play with. Also because of the language barriers they cannot do much locally so they stay in Olympia most of the time. The company does a good job of trying to find stuff to entertain the kids like weekly art classes, and once a week they will take them out ton a field trip. Since Justin and I work we have a full time nanny that works for us to help with the kids. We need her help mostly during the off days and summer because there are no after school or camp options. I was very nervous about how the kids would adjust to having a nanny and me leaving them in a strange place but they did awesome! The school here does not start until September so the kids had a month to get adjusted to their new country.
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Back to school community party for the kids - complete with a bubble lady!
This is not even all the kids - but we are lucky - there are a number of friends for my crew to play with
Beach field trip - the water is cold but the weather was beautiful and the kids seemed to have a great time!
Fun in the compound
Carter learning to play pool - and teaching the ladies to play chess
One of our playgrounds
Trampolines and snow cones!
There are a number of local parks and they are really nice - the kids enjoyed may park trips in October. The weather here during the Sumer is wonderful so we are trying to get them as much outside time as we can!
The nanny Luda took them to the local mall - CityMall (which is nothing like a US mall) to play on a neat playground and obstacle course they have - the kids had fun!
Riley really enjoyed the weekly art classes
Justins office door - his name in English and Russian... crazy
Carter eating at the community restaurant. He has been really trying and enjoying lots of foods other than his standard PB&J!
There is a Catholic Church here on the Island we started attending - Saint James. They have one English mass and its on Sundays at 12:00. The little sisters of the poor are here and help here on the island with a number of local charities. They love the kids and are so welcoming to us each week!
One story - as you know Riley just made her first communion. In our new church they only give communion one way - its the body dipped in the blood and served on the tongue. The second mass we went to the priest went to give it to Riley and it fell. She was mortified. The priest was good about it and just handled it after communion with the water and washing the floor. Since there were others that didn't see and didn't know what was going on father explained why he was doing that - and that mortified Riley. She started hysterically crying. Of course all the nuns after mass want to come talk to her and talk about it and it just made it worse. This was a moment I think all the changes added up for Riley and she just lost it. Poor baby but once she got her good cry in, she was fine. I am proud of her resilience.
In town we found a local burger restaurant called Beef Burger that has close to American tasting burgers and French fries. The unique thing here is they serve them with gloves so you do not get messy. This has become a fun outing for us after mass!
The kids will attend the Sakhalin International School. This school is owned by the Shell oil company and is taught using a British Curriculum. I wanted to go to check out the school and meet the administration and the kids teachers. They were so welcoming and the school looks amazing. I am hopeful this will be a great move for my two!
The expat community is tight and very social. I guess because things to do are limited and nobody has any family around they hang out together. Its nice and takes the weirdness out of finding ways to meet new friends.
This was a community outdoor party at Olympia - called a "Darty" (a day party). It was one of the residents birthday so they threw an all day outdoor party. There is a local band that's really great called Chubby Cheeks that came to preform. Its funny because they speak no English but sing only in English. The kids had a blast and so did the adults!
Carter and Justin went and got their first haircut in Russia - the barbers have basically one standard cut - its Called "the Russian" - so here are my two boys with their first Russian
In typical Harrison family luck - during a neighborhood soccer game - my super athletic husband (sarcastic) heard a pop and had trouble walking. Doctors here said he tore his Achilles heel. First learning that doctors in Russia are not the best. He wore the boot for a week and then was medically evacuated to Japan to meet with an Orthopedic surgeon. Well turns out no torn Achilles just a pulled calf muscle!
Riley with one of the new babies here Georgia Jade
Riley at soccer camp Saturday morning here at Olympia. The coach is Russian and she doesn't know what he says and thinks he yells all the time. We will see how long she continues.
Justin and I waiting for the bus on the first day of work in Russia!
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