We Are in Moscow!

We had a very good flight to Moscow during the overnight hours. Since our landing in Moscow we have managed to get some money exchanged, some groceries bought, made a quick stop at Red Square, and now we are settled into our apartment.

Delta airlines will be angry to know we managed to have a stowaway onboard our flight. Jason Alexei's little friend Charlie Brown managed to hide in our luggage when we weren't looking. Here's a picture of Charlie looking out the window of our plane. We are somewhere above Russia, between St. Petersburg and Moscow. Charlie's reaction to seeing the ground for the first time was, "I can see the sun! I can see the clouds! I can see the land and I can see the water!". Charlie is going to really enjoy telling his friend Jason Alexei all about his trip to Russia.

We are managing to get settled into our apartment. It is just the right size for this kind of trip, and would even work for trip #3. It's not quite as big as the Junior Suite we had at the Ukraina for trip #3 last year, but is still pretty good. We had our laptop and cell-phone delivered. I doubt we will use the cell phone much, but it is a nice to have. We have free international long-distance so if you put everything together, this place is a pretty good deal.

For those who have been on these trips with CSS (our agency) -- Sonya is our translater. A fellow named "Geeda" is our driver. This will be our first time working with these folks. Sonya has managed to continue our streak of not getting the same translator twice. I guess we must be high-maintenance and no one wants anything to do with us after one trip.

At any rate, Sonya recognized us. She was Ann's translater during our trips last year. She remembered us from the day all of us were at Putin's Polyclinic for the 8 Doctor Medical. We remembered her, too, but couldn't remember that she was Ann's guide. Ann, if you read this, Sonya was very happy to hear about Masha doing so well!

As part of the time killing process, we went to Red Square. Lenin's tomb closes at 1:00 PM on Sunday, so we attempted to go there. This is our fourth trip to Russia and I have yet to make it through the Mosoleum to get into the area where you can visit Yuri Gagarin's grave. Today was no different, the guards began to close the area off at 12:30, 30 minutes early, which set off a rather comical scene of complaining Russians and anxious gun-for-hire tour guides who get special treatment. Wendy was singled out and asked about a half dozen times, "You speak English?" We elected not to pay for a special guide and instead wait for another day. Sonya was rather fiesty about the situation, and really tried to get us through. In the end, she was unsuccessful. Perhaps another day, perhaps another trip.

We had to wait until 2:00 PM local time to get into the apartment, which are the rules. I don't think Geeda and Sonya were crazy about that. I think they were hoping to do a dump and run to get rid of us, but they ended up having to baby sit us more than they planned. It was quite a simultaneous rendezvous here with a gentleman from Peace Travel dropping off our laptop & cell phone, our apartment manager and a young associate here to meet us, and us being dropped off. I think this is the first time I have seen three separate sets of Russians all arrive at the planned time.

The walk through Red Square was great for helping stave off some jet lag. The weather is GREAT totday. Unfortunately, the lag is beginning to kick in. We have a ways to go before we can go to bed!

Tomorrow we go to Svetlana's office to meet with our Russian facilitator. Then we go to the Ministry of Education to get a referral. Anyone who has been through either experience, knows what a treat it can be. They said we may get to the orphanage tomorrow, but I have learned to not trust Russian scheduling. I expect all that will happen are the meetings with Svetlana and the MoE.

Anyway, thanks for following along. We should have more tomorrow, but might not get around to posting until Tuesday depending how busy things are tomorrow.

Love,

Jason, Wendy, and Charlie