We're here!

Editor’s Preface: I am writing this in our room at the Hotel Ukraina in Moscow. The last ?? hours (question marks indicate that I’m not really sure how long it has been) have been very tiring. In spite of the airport layovers, long flights, massive time zone changes, stress of experiencing a different country/language/culture and lack of sleep, I am posting this update. I want to apologize in advance for spelling and grammatical errors as well as other signs of brain fog. <>===================================================

Ok, here we go. We decided to start our trip half way around the world by enjoying what will be our last good ol’ American fast food meal. From the Subway in Seekonk late Monday morning, we’re off to Logan Airport for the first leg of our trip.

While waiting at Logan Airport for our first flight, Brian is busy working on one of his software projects. The goal is to work as many hours as possible in order to efficiently use the large amounts of travel and down time we will have.

Here is a different angle on Brian’s work.

Holly is preparing to board the Delta flight to Moscow from JFK. The flight from Boston to NY was mercifully short, but the flight to Moscow will be of a different sort. While on the flight to Moscow, we met a lovely couple from California traveling to Kallingrad (spelling?) on their second adoption trip to pick up their daughter. It was a real blessing to be able to share stories with them on what would otherwise have been a torturous flight.

We arrived at the SVD airport in Moscow on Tuesday morning around 11:00 AM Moscow time. We sailed through immigration, baggage pickup, and customs. Although stern looks were standard operating procedure for the officials, there were no hassles of any kind. We quickly met our contact from Gift of Life and were on our way from SVD to Moscow. I want to thank her for helping me to finally be able to properly pronounce the name of the city we are traveling to. It is the city of Novokuznetsk and is pronounced as “novo-kooze-nyet-sk.”

I’ve heard that the driving experience in this part of the world can be unduly stressful, but it was “hats off” to our driver who calmly negotiated the continuously charging and lane-swerving Muscovite drivers to get us safely to our destination. As can be seen from the picture, the day was gray with intermittent rain and snow with temperatures hovering around the freezing mark. In my opinion, what this city needs is a few more car washes. Hey, there’s a business idea for all you internationally minded entrepreneurs.

On the way to Moscow, we drove past this stark reminder of what the Russian people have had to endure in their history. I was told by our driver that this monument marks a location where Russian forces took a stand against Hitler’s tanks during WWII.

After meeting with Vladimir, the Gift of Life facilitator, for a briefing on the who, what, why, where and when’s of our visit we proceeded to a currency exchange counter.

Now, how many roubles was that?

And what did Holly buy with her first rouble? Chocolate of course.

The hotel we are staying at is the Hotel Ukraina and is in the heart of Moscow, just blocks from Red Square and The Kremlin. It is a beautiful old hotel that while lacking some of the more modern amenities, has so much architectural beauty that one can overlook the lack of in-room broadband access.

Moscow seems to be in love with Christmas trees. I have never seen so many large and ornate trees in one place. My girls would really love seeing them because they are really so unusual in their striking appearance.

This last picture is of a Government building directly across from our hotel. Our driver indicated to us that this building is the Russian equivalent of our Capitol Building in DC. By the way, I want to thank Joe for the use of such an excellent camera!

Tomorrow we will be mostly tourists in Moscow. In the evening, we will travel to the airport to fly to Novokuznetsk. The next time that we will have an opportunity to post will be after we have arrived in Novokuznetsk and have had our first day of visiting the orphanage. Until then, God bless and thank you for your prayers.