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Adoption Adventure

The Adventure Continues: On to Moscow and Eastward - A Long Day!

When we arrived in New York for a two-hour layover, I indulged myself in a personal challenge - to find an unattended luggage cart. I know you can pay a dollar and get one, but there is nothing like the feeling of strolling down the terminal toward your gate pushing a luggage cart you didn't pay for, enjoying the luxury of free transportation! It's one of those little things that makes life more enjoyable!

You may ask why we were traveling east, going twice as far as traveling west to Khabarovsk? One reason: the only flight to Khabarovsk from San Francisco is on Wednesdays and our court date in Khabarovsk was on Wednesday. We would have needed to fly a week early in order to take the shorter route. The redeeming element was that the flights to and from Moscow were free, thanks to my accumulated Delta Frequent Flyer miles. The segment from New York to Moscow got us there at about 11 a.m. on Sunday, but midnight body-time. We passed through Russian customs in a few minutes, collected our luggage and were immediately greeted by a familiar face, Natasha, the Cradle of Hope adoption agency coordinator. We were driven to our layover destination and I quickly realized something different on this trip - things didn't seem so strange! The buildings, signs, cars, and scenery had all been so unfamiliar on our first trip. We arrived at the apartment where we would spend the next six hours and got settled for an extended nap. Then we were up, re-packed, re-loaded, and back to the airport like clockwork.

If you have a good picture on your passport, you are in luck when you travel in Russia - you get to show it to everybody! The ticket clerk, the security clerk, the boarding-pass-checking clerk all want to see that great picture! The funny thing at the Moscow airport was that one very bright red-haired lady seemed to be in three places at once - she was at the ticket counter, the boarding-pass checkpoint, and I saw her again at the bottom of the stairs to the airplane, checking tickets. Either they operate short-staffed, or she has a twin sister.

Our flights eastward took us into increasingly "foreign" surroundings. Moscow is really very cosmopolitan and modern. We learned that one-third of the Russian Gross Domestic Product comes from the Moscow area - the remaining two-thirds comes from a huge area covering eight time zones. The Aeroflot flight from Moscow east to Khabarovsk submerged us into the Russian experience. We were the only Americans on the flight. Everyone had heavy jackets or fur coats - and bed hair! Because everyone there wears hats to keep warm, they all use it as an excuse to look like they just got out of bed! This strategy saves huge amounts of the nation's money on shampoo and conserves heating and water resources, too. Just imagine if Americans stopped "doing their hair" everyday. No one would feel self-conscious if they were having a "bad hair day" because nobody would be able to tell! Maybe the Russians are onto something…

Something else I found very amusing was the way that passengers store their carry-on luggage. In American planes, carry-on luggage is limited in size and stored in overhead bins. But on Aeroflot planes, there is a large coatroom at the rear of the plane that can hold a lot of luggage. So what happens at boarding time is a mad scramble as people drag huge suitcases to the back of the plane, then return up the aisle against the oncoming boarding passengers to get back to their seats - you don't want to be sitting in an aisle seat while this is going on. The passengers get to know each other intimately during this exercise… The seats were amazingly comfortable and Kerry and I both dozed off for a while after the meal.

The landing approach was a testimony to why Aeroflot pilots have more fun than their American counterparts. In America, the flight approach is smooth, straight, and calculated. In Russia, the pilots get to swing the plane from side to side in broad sweeping maneuvers. They also get to play with the throttle, raising and lowering it - you really can't tell when the plane will land. Well, the American pilots know they are missing out on a lot of fun, so they formed into unions so they could get more money for having their fun spoiled. Ultimately, we passengers pay higher ticket prices - plus we miss out on the fun, too!

We landed about 11:30 a.m., hauled our stuff out of the plane, down the steps, and then stood on the flight deck for about ten minutes in sub-zero weather with a slight breeze - didn't the shuttlebus driver know the plane was landing? - Brrrr! We tramped into the terminal and were greeted with smiles and hugs by five of our friends - whipped out the photo album and shared pictures while we waited for our luggage. We bustled back to our host's flat, the same place we had stayed two years ago, ansd the familiar surroundings were very comforting after our long trip. I noticed a few new items - new sofa-bed in the front room and a spanky new clothes washer in the bathroom. Thirteen-year old Sergei had grown a couple inches. And they had a new dog; a four-month old Cocker Spaniel puppy named Rem. Kerry cleverly expanded the name to Remsky Korsakoff. I added my own variation: Remsky OfCourse-a-Dog. We were off to a jolly start. The entire party feasted on a sumptuous dinner and we turned out the light about 9:30 p.m. Tomorrow - big reunion with the girls!

Click here for the next episode - Monday, March 8 - The Big Reunion, A Kodak Moment?

The Adventure of a Lifetime with consequences for eternity starts with one step for your family, too!...


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