Travel Day to Moscow

It's Sunday and we are in Moscow and (obviously) have internet again. It's nice to have the 100 Mbps connection that is included with the apartment... and even nicer that it appears to be stable. Posting from our own computer and not copying everything onto a memory stick makes this a lot easier.

We woke this morning at 4:45am, were picked-up from the hotel at 6:15, and we boarded the sahmalYOHT (airplane) for MAHskahvah (Moscow)at 7:40. This is the only flight to Moscow from Stavropol. There is a later flight from Mineral Water (about 2 hours away). Peter was extremely excited at lift-off. In the boarding area while we were waiting, he drew pictures of his flight... except that he seemed to have the impression that we were going to Moscow in a rocket and not a plane. As the plane started moving, he kept gesturing to his sister that we were about to lift-off like a rocketship would. I showed a more gradual take-off with my hands and he said he didn't want that, he wanted a blast-off. Sorry buddy... nothing I can do about that one.

The two hour flight was a little bumpy in our Russian made (around 1980?) aircraft. Neither Kim nor Peter had ever flown before. They both became airsick and we're glad we had grabbed air-sickness bags for everyone. Beth didn't look so good on the flight, but she made it through. Peter did not and Kim REALLY did not. We will be administering Dramamine or its Russian equivalent before our next flights.

We were picked up from Vnukovo airport a little bit after 10:00 and learned that we would not be able to check-in at our apartment until 2:00. The driver had another obligation, so we were dropped off at a cafe in front of our apartment building to wait... for over 3 hours... with 4 kids... 4kids who got up 2 hours too early, had a bumpy and nauseating flight and had not been able to expend any energy anywhere.... any guesses on how that turned out? I think they were glad when we left. We probably won't eat there again... not that we would be welcome at this point anyway... but the food was good. One of our Moscow representatives came there and went through a lot of paperwork with us... forms for the embassy, the children's medical exams, etc. It took me a good hour or more to do all the forms. During this time we also had lunch. Restaurants in Moscow are MUCH more expensive than those in Stavropol... around 70% more expensive in this case. We won't be eating out much here, even though this Uzbek restaurant was pretty good... again, the fresh bread was wonderful.

We finally checked into the apartment at 2:00 and the apartment representative went through everything with us, in English, answered our questions and did a nice job. It was a relief that this was done well. The materials in the apartment (for phone, internet, etc) are all in english and there is a 24 hour number you can call for questions or if there is a problem. We had to call because a lightbulb burned out... and because the door on our washing machine is missing. Yep... we (I mean Lisa) are still hand-washing clothes... now for six! I wring them and hang them on the drying rack... it's pretty big. The apartment includes free phonecalls to the U.S. if we can ever get them to work. No success so far... the apartment management is checking into it. The apartment is nice enough and has plenty of space. It has two bedrooms, one with a queen bed, one with a sofa bed and computer table. The living room has two sofa beds. This place could sleep 8 easily if needed... so we have plenty of sleeping space. The girls have the master bedroom, the boys the living room, and Lisa and I have the computer room (so I can blog when the kids go to bed). The apartment has a small but functional kitchen. No more having to eat out for every meal with kids who are either tired of eating out or don't have the social experiences to know how to behave at a restaurant. You can find apartments in moscow through Peace Travel Services at http://www.go-russia.com/. It took us three tries of booking apartments before we got one that was not rented, so try to get your apartment as soon as your dates are confirmed.

We walked to red square this afternoon and stopped by the supermarket on the way back. After dinner, the kids watched "Ice Age"... in Russian, with English sub-titles. It worked well for everyone. It was a very long and stressful day and it showed on the kids as the day wore on. We put them to bed early. Tomorrow, Kim and Peter have their medical exams. Tuesday we have our interview at the U.S. Embassy. Wednesday is at the Russian Consolate. Thursday we pick-up our paperwork from the Russian Consolate. Friday we could have flown home... but our agency said Saturday, so we are staying an extra day for no good reason. We have lots of comments about the info we have received from our agency, but we'll wait until we get home to organize those for the blog. We fly to Atlanta on Saturday around lunch time and we get home Saturday night around the kids' bedtime. We are going to be SOOOOOOOOOOO tired, but we are very excited (and very ready) to get home.