ONA

It's a big jar with a towel over the top of it. I don't know if it's "growing" inside that jar or what. I mean it's not refrigerated...and she drinks out of it. She showed me the jar last night and asked if I wanted some...and I was like; "I think I'l pass on this one."

The stuff I'm talking about does not need to be refrigerated.

Like many of the old world concoctions there are all manner of claimed cures for Kefir but it does work well on the digestive system. It is especially good if you have had a recent sickness in which you took a bunch of medication to kill what was ailing you. It restores the good bacteria you need and works really good at cleaning out the digestive track.

Yes. I'm used to consuming a lot of kefir and/or probiotic yogurt while taking antibiotics.

OK Kira's professor friends from St. Petes who live here during the school year teaching at the local university gave her some kind of fkd up mushrooms in a jar full of ...I'm guessing it's milk (?) and she keeps it in the cupboard under the sink...and drinks out of it. ####### is this stuff? I'm not going to try it myself...but I'm curious...is this a common food and does it have a name?

Sounds like "Молочный гриб" ("milk mushroom") - it's extremely good for you! Yes, it's possible to make kefir out of that.

There is also "чайный гриб" ("tea mushroom") - this thing is very good for your health too. My mom used to have a jar of "tea mushroom", I tried it.

Does it look like one of these jars:

My wife would have the same opinion of the US and be happy for that. He is here for you, if he were coming here for "the country" you would lose.

You should bring evidence of relationship and the Moscow consulate will not allow you inside, but he can bring your passport in to show you are there. Others here have done the CR-1 in Moscow and will give more details I am sure.

Good luck.

Good answer.

I'm not that big of a US fan either, but that's fine. He probably shouldn't try too hard to make the CO believe how uninterested he is in the US, but it's OK to come to the States just for the sake of being able to be with their significant other.

Congratulations!

I'll tell you guys something slightly funny.

A few weeks ago my wife and I took a road trip to Arizona from California.

I didn't want to take any chances so I took a copy of her I-485 NOA just in case seeing as Arizona has some border patrol issues.

So we were driving to Sedona. Then I saw a warning sign momentarily on the road.

It wasn't able to read the sign in its entirety but I made out ....WARNING....ICE....

Immediately I was thinking HOLY ####### what is ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) doing hell. I was about to tell my wife, get the NOA ready !!!!!!

Of course, the warning was regarding ice....ie frozen water.

My husband is very calm, I'm the one being paranoid all the time.

For the short trip to New Orleans (by plane) I took copies of NOA, biometrics appointment and marriage certificate with me. Nobody cared even a little bit about my status though.

Meanwhile we received a hard copy of the transfer notice - now I know for sure that the case has been transferred to California.

I give Olya credit here, she was all for trying all the new appliances. She loves the dish-washer, the clothes dryer, the vacuum and the carpet shampooing machine! She had no use for the Kitchenaid mixer but once she tried the bread-maker she was sold.

I don't have any problem using any of the machines we have. My mom likes them too, she doesn't have that many in Russia, but she would love to have them all. They make your life so much easier, I don't see the point in not using them.

The usual US Tourist Visa is 10 years multiple entry. Although the Consulate can issue for shorter periods/ single entry.

The cost etc is presumably about getting a Russian Visa, so it sounds more beneficial for those going to Russia than the US.

"The usual" US Tourist Visa is different for each country. It was 1 or 2 year multiple visa for Russia. In Ukraine it is 5 years multiple visa. I heard that for Israel it was 10 years visa, but it doesn't mean that the same rule applies to every country.

I have heard visitor visas are easier for older women. Who knows? If they do not even look at your documents what difference does it make? Good luck

They do look at ds-160 though... And the infotmation about age and marital status is on there. I believe it is easier for parents to obtain a visa. My parents didn't have any problem with it.

The problems with the businessmen put in jail is that they are thieves too. They just refused to share, that's it. If they weren't thieves, it would've been a lot harder to put them to jail.

As for teaching history - it is taught in the way that's good for the government. And it is valid for the USA as well. Maybe, killing Indians is not the case, but there is soooo much stuff that can be misinterpreted...

BTW, nobody tells Russian kids that what Stalin did was in any way OK. We're taught that he was killing Ukrainians, Caucasians etc. along with Russians, while in Ukraine they believe that Russian people hated Ukrainians and that's why they killed a bunch of them. NO. Everyone suffered.

I wish P&R would stay in P&R.

This forum is for guns and pie.

Don't worry, it will turn into guns and pie eventually

I've actually never had a problem with getting RUB men to do housework. I've even had guys that I am Just Friends with come over and tidy up my room and cook for me, but this may just be indicative of my own lack of domestic skills more than anything else. I can cook now, but only because a RUB ex of mine taught me how.

I couldn't really cook until a couple of months ago.

I'm bored at home, so sometimes I'll cook something. The weird thing is that I never ruined anything. My husband says: "Why did you lie to me? You said you couldn't cook and you can!"

What about RUB man folk?

My dad does all the "men work", cooks, does the ironing (he thinks that men do the ironing better than women... my husband does not agree with him ) and helps my mom to clean.

In answer to the original question, I get a lot of "The maid has left" (in various tones of voice, depending).

I say that too sometimes.

My husband says that while American women are tougher than me on the outside, they are actually more submissive, but... for some reason he likes me better. I guess, that's what they call love

Dasha went to her interview. They asked her two questions. What is the purpose of your vist? and Have you ever had a foreign visa before? They did not look at her documents.

Denied.

I'm sorry for Dasha. It is still hard to get a visa if you're a young single woman, but hopefully, she'll visit the States some time later.

If your application is to an employer who uses the E-Verify system, be prepared to be rejected if you haven't yet obtained your EAD.

I applied for a few (local government) jobs before I got my EAD and never even heard back. However, the minute I had my EAD everything changed and my applications were immediately much more successful.

And it wasn't anything to do with improvements to my applications - they were basically identical.

That's interesting! Thank you for the information!

They're racists just like those NASCAR fans that booed Mrs. Obama because everyone knows, if you boo a politician... you're racist.

:rofl:

Peope are getting more and more disatisfied and I am actually hearing from people I know that they are going to vote. Maybe not for a candidate, but to simply cross out all options on the ballot to show dissatisfaction. Before, I never really heard anyone outside of academic circles discuss politics and people were apathetic. Now people seem more pissed off.

Right. I actually have been doing that since my 1st elections, too bad I can't "vote" this time, since I'm in the US, but I'm not registered in the Embassy here.

I would say more - while Russian people disapprove of what happened in Lybia (thinking it happened cause of the Western plan, not because Lybian people wanted it so much), it can still happen in Russia.

There are more and more people, who dislike the regime. They can't organize civil protests, because you have to obtain a permission for that and the government will never let people organize a protest that might be dangerous for the government. That's why sometimes things happen the way it happened on Manezhnaya Square last year.

If you read Russian blogs, Russian forums etc. you'll understand that there is a possibility that big protests are going to happen. Not now, but in 10-15-maybe 20 years from now. Maybe 30 years from now. It's older generation, that likes Putin. My generation (and I'm Russian) does not. I don't think that future generations will like him or politicians like him.

I disagree that Russia will end up like Egypt or Libya - from what I understand about Russia and its History and People's Culture there is more in common with Europe and parts West than the Middle East or Northern Africa ...

How does that help to avoid a revolution?

There were the Decembrists, there was the year 1905 and then 1917, if nothing changes, there might be the year 20-something.

I think the really surprising part of that story is that Tsar Putin found out he is not beloved by all. I'm sure they are viewing the video of the event to find out who was there.

I don't think so. It's def. not a surprise, for a while now people have been posting negative opinions about Putin all over the internet, including vkontakte using their real names, which makes finding the posters really easy.

It is. But that doesn't mean it's a democracy. The other side of that coin is that the US is less of a democracy than most Americans want to acknowledge.

But the reality is that Putin will win and nobody really has a shot at changing that. Not because people aren't allowed to vote or because those votes aren't actually counted but because nobody who would actually provide serious opposition is allowed to compete (see Khodorkovsky, see Prokhorov, see Medvedev).

But how is that so very different from the US. We may not know who the next president will be, but there is a short list and in the end, the result of the election will not greatly affect the direction of the country. Even if someone with truly different ideas were elected (Ron Paul, for instance), bureaucracy, seniority, and corruption will make sure that nothing actually changes. Do you really think that anyone could shut down government departments or balance the budget? Democracy is an illusion, and not only in the FSU.

Well said. I agree completely.

Although, I think, some time in future, in Russia it might end like it did in Egypt or Libya.

When Vladimir Putin jumped into the ring to congratulate the winner of a bloody martial arts fight and was greeted with a cascade of boos from a large part of the 20,000-plus crowd, the experience seemed just this once to set him back on his heels, if only for a moment.

Throughout much of the world, politicians can expect to provoke the boo-birds when they show up at sports events, but Sunday evening’s bout — shown live on national television — was a first for Russia’s authoritarian prime minister. He recovered and managed to say his piece, but by Monday the Russian blogosphere was alight with arguments, put-downs, debunkings and catcalls.

Full story here:

Putin booed by Russian fight fans

I do most of housework right now, since I'm the one, who is not working. When I start working it's going to be 50/50 with laundry, ironing and doing the dishes - most def. my job

What you going to NO for? And when you get there make sure to check out Bourbon Street and eat some "dirty rice" with shrimp.

I'm not a big fan of rice, but I'll try it

I'm going with a friend of ours, she's a NY Giants fan and she had an extra ticket, so I'm coming with her for the game. We wanted my husband to go too and go for a "swamp tour" together, but he can't take off from work

I agree about the tickets, but she went and bought them. I think her other documentation is very good but who knows?

Thanks for the comment, I could not find any way to submit documents either except by mailing but they no longer accept applications by mailing, you MUST do the DS-160 online.

I think her documentation is good, I hope they'll have a look at it.

Oh, I guess with the new system they stopped accepting any documentation ahead of time? When I was working on my parents' visas, I was still supposed to mail their passports and copies of application confirmations through Pony Express. I mailed the invitations too. But I guess you don't have to do that anymore...

btw Lord of the Rings is going to be on this Friday on EATCN ...all three with no commercials.

I want to watch it! But this Friday I'm flying to New Orleans...

I never heard of anybody submitting documents online (unless they got a 221g during their interview for an immigrant or K1 visa). The only way I know to present the documents ahead of time is to try to sent them through Pony Express together with the visa application and the passport.

The tickets are very unlikely to help her, they don't care and they strongly recommend not to buy tickets until the visa is approved.