The trip over was relatively uneventful. We left Birmingham yesterday morning around 9:30 and arrived in Moscow today (Monday) around 10 AM local time. Moscow is 9 hours ahead of Birmingham. Neither Shannon nor I slept much on the plane. Other than the lack of sleep, the 10 hour flight from JFK to Moscow didn't really bother me too much. I did nothing really productive, but I did watch "PJ 20", which is the documentary chronicling Pearl Jam's first 20 years (directed and produced by Cameron Crowe, who directed "Almost Famous" and worked on "Say Anything"). I highly recommend it. Shannon watched a couple of dramadies, and read Vanity Fair (her new favorite magazine).
Moscow Sheremet Airport was (a) more modern, (b) less smokey, and (c) more organized than I expected. Our adoption agency in the U.S. had warned us that once we cleared customs, it "will be a zoo", with people aggressively offering us rides and other services. I envisioned a street bazaar from an Indiana Jones movie. It was nothing like that. In fact, it was very efficient . . . and quiet.
Our driver/translator/adoption agency contact, Vlad, met us at the airport just as we came through "Migration"/customs. He speaks very good English, and has been working with U.S. families adopting Russian children since 1994 (a year after Russia opened its borders to international adoptions). Vlad drove us to our hotel, playing tour guide along the way, mainly by pointing out the architecture of buildings constructed during Stalin's reign, and buildings that support various military functions, including missile defense! I was going to comment that "we had one of those, too; it was called Star Wars," but decided he and I weren't that close yet to joke about the Cold War.
We're staying at the City Center Marriott Courtyard, which was billed as being "on Red Square." It's a perfectly nice hotel, but it's several blocks from Red Square. It's kind of like hotels in New York claiming that they're located in "Times Square", when they are actually blocks away from Times Square. I'm certainly not complaining, though. It really is a nice hotel, with two Americanized restaurants. In fact, one of them has a Western theme, with hokey slogans and pictures on the wall (think understated Cracker Barrel decor). There's even an old Alabama license tag hanging on the wall!
After we took a short nap, we walked around Red Square and surrounding areas. We took lots of pictures, some of which are posted below. Other than St. Basil's Cathedral, we really didn't know what we were looking at. Other than signs for American companies like KFC, McDonalds, the Gap, etc. there is very little written English. So, we basically wandered around and took pictures of things other people were taking pictures of.
Vlad is picking us up at 10 AM local time tomorrow (Tues) and driving us to the Department of Education where we hope to officially receive our referral for the baby. Vlad mentioned in the car today, though, that there's a chance we actually won't receive the referral until Thursday. This made Shannon and me both nervous. We've e-mailed our adoption agency contact in the U.S. to get a higher level of comfort that things are going to go as planned tomorrow. Please say a prayer that they do.
We'll check in tomorrow. For now, here are some of our pictures.
Yes, it is cold - about 50 degrees - but supposed to warm up while we are here.
Pretty amazing to see in person
St. Basil's Cathedral
the front of St. Basil's Cathedral
Ted on some old cannonballs outside of St. Basil's Cathedral
Statue in front of Red Sqaure
This the the Russia version of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
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