June 26, 2007

Two amazing flights over 36 hours have left me a bit worn out, but very happy to be here! We left on the bus at 3:30 in the morning, traveled to Bloomington Illinois to catch a 6:00 flight. FOG was our first enemy of the day. An hour and a half later we were airborn headed to Atlanta. We waited on the plane there for another 45 minutes making this short domestic flight longer than we bargained for! Atlanta is THE largest airport I have walked. It's BIG. After waithing around for 5 hours and eating airport food (not bad), our plane boarded on time only to find that we needed to wait in a large line of planes ready for take-off!

The eleven hour flight found me in one position (except for two bathroom breaks), middle row, middle seat, broken tray table, baby in front of me (well behaved and smiley most of the trip), movies I'd already seen, but great conversation with my Fulbright mates Audrey and Warner! The new iPOD helped to ease the pain of stillness that invaded my knees, hip, back and shoulders! I survived!

Those of you that have gone through Sheremetyvo 2 before know that it was a dreary place. Flat screens like you're at Disney are everywhere now, but the agent behind the glass for the passport control still has that evil eye! Bag retrieval was 100% successful. The Duct tape held and the rest of the roll has already been offered to Lori who found that her bag corners were starting to fail. We met Alexei and Galya, two delightful Russians who head the effort at the American Home. Alexei got us on the bus and on to Vladimir. We stopped for lunch (4:00) after a three hour ride throught Moscow traffic heading east. Lunch was fabulous: Chicken, mushroom, pineapple appetizers, cabbage soup, tried Kvass (sp?) - cold soup, bread, Chicken, potatoes (kartoshkas) and tea.

Alexei taught us a song to sing when we reached the American Home. It was the worst musical rendering I've heard recently, but we brought the house down! Each of us introduced ourselves (Menya zavoot Mark) and found our host/hostesses for the next two and a half weeks. Olyesa and Olga were there to meet me. They brought a friend, Andrei with a truck, to drive us to their flat. Vladimir is a wonderful city which is just smaller than Penza. Small city charm. I am staying at Building #1 in Apartment #60. Olyesa and Alexandr's flat is beautiful. The computer is Internet capable (that's why your getting this) and they have HOT water, something that many of us were worried about. I quizzed Olga on her basic English on the way here. After a fabulous dinner of Pork chops, potatoes, vegies, homemade strawberry juice, wine, tea, cookies, Olga showed me her command of the English alphabet and then we played a word association game with English flash cards.

To bed and try to beat that time zone change jet lag thing!