Have ketchup, Will travel

Our layover in Istanbul was about 18 hours, but somehow we managed to squeeze in two meals at McDonald’s. These kids are going to have to experiment with unfamiliar food eventually, but for now that will have to wait. I guess we may be ok as long as they can douse everything with ketchup. 

There was no special sauce to make the multitudes of other passengers who don’t believe in lines or general queue rules more palpable. There is no subtlety; these people will just blatantly ignore everyone else who is waiting, and step in front of the line. 

Once on the plane it was a relatively smooth flight. I picked up on the fact that the woman behind me was speaking English, which sounded familiar, and surprising. While disembarking, she asked where we are from and then explained she was on her way to Siberia, her birth place. How very interesting that the only English speaker on the plane was seated directly behind us. Hmmm...

The passport control line was over 2.5 hours. It was stuffy and people were getting cranky. As the minutes and hours creaked by, the voices got louder and grumpier. Despite a few instances of shouting, we got through without any real issues. Then the real fun began. We ordered a van through the Russian version of Uber - Yandex, but the first two vehicles that showed up were no where near large enough to transport the four of us and our 11 suitcases. That is not a misprint,...we literally had 11 suitcases (as we were told we need to pack everything we could possibly need for potentially up to 3 months. Now, in the US, that would only mean summer clothes and we could have easily gotten away with 1 suitcase each. But in Moscow, winter can come early, and there is always the possibility of harsh weather in September. Additionally, we are unable to ship any liquids into the country. That is not just things like shampoo and dish soap,...but includes all creams, gels, and pastes as well. So we needed to load up on anything that we may need until the winter holidays when we may head back to the states.

So back to the car situation. Once we gave up on calling a Yandex, Earl had to go back into the airport and back through security to get to the taxi stand. How bizarre is that? He made some new friends and negotiated 4 separate drivers to take us and all of our stuff to the embassy. To be honest, my confidence level that we would all get there, with all of our stuff, was quite low. They also made Quincy sit in a booster so that added fuel to the 'I'm bored, I'm tired, I'm hungry', fire. By some miracle, all 4 taxis drove in motorcade formation and everyone and everything arrived intact. 

We then explored the residence and the post. The kids are really excited about the gym and pool which is open 24-7. But nothing was more exciting than the game room which included a pool table, ping-pong, air hockey, and the most important big screen tv set to Minecraft. I perused the various flyers advertising language lessons, different sports nights, and clubs, outings and more. I want to make the most out of our 18 months here. 

OK - fast forward 5 days. Its been a whirlwind. I'm learning the area around the embassy, including the closest and best grocery stores and some cool attractions. I love city living. We walk everywhere and it is amazing. The kids are not so thrilled. They are tired and sore and miss getting in a car for everything,...even trips less than a mile. I'm hoping they quickly adapt. I'm trying to motivate them by stating how strong they are getting and how this will be so easy soon. I think both are true.

So far we walked to the Red Square which houses both St Basil's cathedral, the Kremlin, and Lenin's tomb. The kids were a little freaked out by the idea of the tomb so Earl just kind of nodded and whispered to me. I'll check it out in more detail later (sans children). On the way to the Red Square we passed the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and witnessed the changing of the guard. It has a very similar, austere tone to the routine of the marines guarding the US version at Arlington Cemetery. Of course the kids got hungry during the 4 mile round trip, so we had to stop for a snack at Vkusno & Tochka (Russian McDonald's). Once again, a little ketchup goes a long way.

That brings us to today,...we got a late start since we are still not adjusted to the time zone. As an aside, the daylight hours here are crazy! It stays light until 10-11 pm so we get tricked into staying up WAY too late. Then the jet lag and general fatigue from walking 20k+ steps a day kicks in and we are all sleeping super late. I need to force myself to get up earlier each day and get into the routine. During the week since Earl had to return work, we did a good job of getting up and working out. But the weekend hit and we just caught up on sleep. Earl and Oscar went over to the gym to play basketball while Quincy folded origami things and I started working on setting up / organizing the house. Around 3 pm we decided to get out and take a walk to the Patriarch Ponds, where Mikhail Bulgakov's Master and Margarita begins. It is a lovely park about 1 mile away with a duck pond, an outdoor theatre, a little library, and a children's park. It was a nice stroll and now I will add this book to my growing reading list. We were hoping to find a strawberry stand but no luck. We did walk past the Moscow children's zoo and the Planetarium, so we are planning to hit those this week.