Why Moscow?

Yes, all of you 007 purists- I know the real title is From Russia With Love.  But I am not ready to love Russia just yet.  I like it.  I hope to love it in the near future since this will be our home for the next three years, but for now I am in "like".  I will let you know when it changes.
Tuesday will mark 3 weeks in our new country, and the time has gone by very quickly.  A little background on why we chose this assignment.  Last September, Jesy's company (John Deere) came to us and offered Jesy a position in Russia.  We talked about it and politely said no.  I really just was not up for it.  But we started talking it over the next few months and decided "why not?"  You only live once and we figured this would be a great adventure.  So when Deere came back to Jesy in January, we said ok, let's have a look at this place.  Jesy and I ventured to Moscow in March, and the rest is history.  And to add to the excitement of moving to another country, we said let's make sure we are pregnant when we go, and let's have the baby in Moscow.  (Not really how it happened, but Jesy and I like to make life really interesting).  So now Jesy and I, the kids (Colin-8, Amalie-4, and Kathleen-3), our very sweet cat Bilbo, and the soon to be born 6th Yeates family member have arrived in Russia.
If you have never been to Russia, let me quickly explain the driving situation.  Don't do it- very simple.  The traffic is horrible, and if you do not read Russian you will have no idea where you are going.  They use a different alphabet than us (cyrillic) and it makes my head hurt a bit.  So, we have two drivers that switch on and off.  Valeri is very nice and speaks very good English.  He reminds me a bit of my dad.  He drives us around the city and is always pointing out different landmarks and telling funny stories. Kind of like my dad in New York, though you know my dad would never drive you around.  He would make you walk.  Sergei speaks almost no English, but is very nice just the same and puts my groceries in the car and then brings them into the house.  What more could you ask for? 
We have also hired two nannies.  Don't worry- Jesy and I have not gone all fancy since moving here.  The nannies are very good friends and they are going to switch every two months.  They are from Moldovo (near the Ukraine) and have husbands and children to go be with.  And to be honest with you it makes me feel a little better that they have time with the family.  I was feeling quite guilty about that.
Some funny things I have noticed here in Russia- the hot dogs have casings on them that you have to peel off before you cook them.  The construction workers wear sandals while they work.  And on Monday I bought some orange toilet paper at the store.  It looked interesting and I thought orange might be kind of cheery in the white bathrooms.  It smells citrusy- very surprising.  But pleasant.  I have never used scented tp before. Every day is an adventure in this country!