Wow! Today was totally unbelievable. We finally got to meet the famous Ron and Dinia. They picked us up around 10 and we went out to an open air market. We got such great deals. 1/2 to 1/3 of the cost of Arabat Street. Then we got a lesson on riding the subway. Such freedom! Now we feel like we can go anywhere and do anything!! We went down to the Arabat area and stopped at not 1 Starbucks, but 2!!! Yes, 2! We have photos to prove it. And finally, we have the Mug we have been longing for!! Check it out in today's slide show! Wahoooooooo! We also stopped and got some post cards and checked out prices on what we got at the market. The dolls I got for 4000, were 1600!! How awesome is that?!? I will spare Ian the story of his strength test... let's just say, it must have been all the bags he was lugging around that just took it out of him.. Dinia and Ron invited us to their apartment. Now, that was a treat in itself. Dinia has quite the collection of Russian artwork of various kinds. Lots of amazing Santas, furnature... it was all just so beautiful. You are really robbing yourself of a great opportunity if you don't call them. It saddens me that so many families skip this opportunity.
Then came the rain and a run to the Metro. TIP: ALWAYS TAKE YOUR UMBRELLA. Actually, always take your Passport, the police are aloud to ask for it at anytime. What surprised me? The lack of spike high heal shoes. Most people don't wear them. Most people wore flat shoes. NO SHORTS. Not one pair. But plenty of flat shoes. Ballet style, flip flops, tennis shoes.... Many of the heals were wedges not spikes. Now, once the work week starts that could change, but on the weekend they looked just like Americans. I didn't see a single pair of pointy toe shoes until I got to the hotel and saw airline attendants checking in.
We are back at the hotel and very grateful we can visit the club level for free drinks of any nature and free dinner/breakfast/snacks. We are worn out and barely made it upstairs to feed ourselves. Now, we are going over our notebook. We have tons of questions we hope to ask and documents we would like to see. We are charging up the camera and emptying it of any photos so it has lots of room. Ian is going to iron his shirt and I am taking a LONG HOT bath to relax.
We get picked up at 9:15 for a nice long sit in traffic to Svetlana's office. Jealous? (OK, Nic and Karen are-but the rest of you aren't!)
Time to start filling my tub!
Paka,
Michelle
4 comments:
Michelle,
You flatter us! I hope everyone realizes how much fun Ron and I have when we get to meet adoptive families. Just think if we had not made contact we would have missed the gong experience and it was even funnier the second time around thru the pictures LOL
Ya'll have a great week and know we are praying for you!
Hugs!
Dinia
You are doing a great job of documenting your trip. Unfortunately for us Ron and Dinia were out of the country when we were there for trip 1 and 3, trip 2 was only 4 days long including travel days. Randy and my mother in law went to the market with Pasha but I stayed back with Artem since it was snowing and very cold. You are lucky to be in Moscow this time of year. Our first trip was the first week of Feb and everything was covered with snow and highs were in the 20's, not exactly sight-seeing weather.
Good luck tomorrow at the MoE and hopefully you'll have a close baby home so you won't have a long drive. We were at Fryazino which is 2.5 hours away...pure torture when you want to hurry up and see your referral.
Glad you are having a great start to your trip! Can't wait to hear all about your trip to the MOE tomorrow!
Im praying for you now that you had a great day with your referral! Its 7 Am in Iowa so Im looking forward to reading all about it later tonight. Blessings to you!
Post a Comment