Mari Vanna

our recent dinner with friends at "mari vanna"in gramercy,  last monday made me and askhad somewhat nostalgic about russia. the atmosphere in the restaurant was great.  the interior is creative, with meticulous attention to details, and vintage- styled: peeled wallpapers, samovars, vintage pictures in old frames on the walls, valenki, newspapers from pre- and post soviet era, stacking dolls and russian books on shelves.  

i loved everything there from design to attentive personnel and i was really glad that menu offered vegan and vegetarian options.

we were so nostalgic that right after we came from mari vanna we watched  'moskva slesam ne verit' (moscow doesn't believe in tears), movie of 1979, that i surprisingly never saw before.
we both enjoyed...

be awesome today!

source

Who's birthday is it?

gorgeous weather outside and it felt like spring today! this winter we were so lucky regarding weather,  i remember only one day for the whole winter when it's snowed

and today is akina's birthday!!!

we got her magnolia bakery cupcake and handmade birthday hat.

she is turning one year!

we got her from the breeder from the upstate new york last spring when she was about 8 weeks old.  luckily we met up in new jersey instead of driving all the way up. breeder brought two little puppy-girls with her- so we could choose. akina ran toward us right away and we knew that we are not leaving without her!!!! she was a damn cute little bear-fox-wolf mix and we totally loved her from the first sight.

now we can't even imagine our lives without her. she is totally a family member.

In the vintage mood

saturday was leisurely spent wandering in the east village and soho in the search of a perfect vintage store.

we walked out of our building quite late and made our way downtown by foot.  walking apparently our favorite way of transportation...especially after hours of sitting next to the computer.

5th avenue was our road...

we took some pictures of the windows at bergdorf goodman

(burlesque-looking girls)

and saks fifth avenue... (i loved those ice-cream chairs) 

we passed madison square park 

 and festive shake shack 

i thought i could find some nice frames at the  artist supply store, but found only a cat

that was nice enough to let her pet.

we found really good stuff at gramercy furniture store (we will come back once moved to our new apartment in summer)

cute little couple in one of the vintage stores...

 a hidden bookstore

we checked several recommended vintage shops in the east village and our favorite became tokio 7 located on e. 7th street. that shop scored many amazing designers and boasted great selection of vintage dresses, shoes, shirts, sweaters, coats, vintage jewelry, bags and so on. askhad was trying on jackets and totally liked one from dior, which was a bit tight on his back. disappointment!

unfortunately i didn't make any pictures inside since was quite  busy myself looking through expansive racks of dresses and shelves full of shoes.  we came late and had only twenty-thirty minutes since the store was already closing
... surely we will come back again...


we stopped at a nearby coffee shop for some late evening cappuccino and were enjoying the music played there. shazam could not identify any of the songs... as we've  learned later -barista played his own  music. you can find  him on soundcloud.com if search for brightfuture. i really hope that his music future will be bright...

The week in recap...

this and previous week were somewhat busy for  us...

we had some fun time nevertheless.

we went to metropolitan opera to see faust in modern interpretation...

we went out to recently opened "upscale" russian restaurant/lounge in the west village, called "onegin"and saw a burlesque show

i ran a lot in central park, sometimes askhad joined me too

i did yoga at sonicyoga studio 

our review course for internal medicine boards  which called "awesome review" also started this week. me and my colleagues spend five hours twice a week listening to lectures. so far we got two sessions on hematology and rheumatology and have more to come. i can say i really like this course. 

we went to equinox sport club for a trial with askhad, i ran on a treadmill and did some yoga on my own- my usual routine.  running on the treadmill can be boring, especially long-distance, but the weather outside was pretty crappy-rain, wind, cold.

pigeon pose

 akina also was a lucky girl cause we took her to a dog run on several occasions

 she enjoys socializing with other dogs a lot...

Staying active!

i always loved exercising. physical education at school was o-kay  for the most part, but i  really hated running though.  instead i preferred something fancier like dancing.  in the end of secondary school  i ‘ve got this  videotaped  workout of cindy crawford  from my mom’s friend  and  could not get enough of it- i  liked everything from music, accompanying lunges  to revlon’s makeup commercials with gorgeous cindy, wearing red lipstick in between workout sets.

during my first two years of medical school i  didn't have much time to exercise but surely was dancing my butt off  at the nearby dancing club ( where my  girlfriends and sisters would go 2-3 or more times per week).  we stayed quite late and surprisingly went to school in the morning without much trouble.

where those times???

someday my mom decided that we need to have fun sundays aka waking up early in the morning (the only one day off from med school when I did not have to wake up after night spent in the night club on saturday) and go to far -located gym to play volleyball with some random people. mom lured me with the opportunity to play tennis there as well so i could not resist her pleas to join her. luckily on our third or fourth  visit we met a nicest person ever, she was a step-aerobic  trainer and invited us to join her class. i totally fell in love with her step class and was such a  dedicated student that after year and a half of those workouts decided to  become a step trainer myself and got some formal education. 

i was lucky again to meet another amazing girl who was leading “belly dance” class in  the former sport school  not far from my home and i  joined her to teach my own classes which were a mix of belly dance, aerobics, strength training and stretch, (yes, that was quite a mix!). it started slowly with 3-4 clients in the room expanding to the full house thanks to popularity wave of belly dancing in our city.

in the matter of a few month i was roaming around astrakhan after med school wards to teach my  signature aerobic/belly dance classes and  fulfilling my love for dance. at some point i was involved with 5 -6 different locations-  little aerobic studios were popping up like mushrooms after the rain.  i was getting great work outs myself and was getting paid very well,  double win!