I Made It!

It's 9:37pm here in Moscow, and I am about to pass out from fatigue, but I'm trying to get on local time ASAP as our stay isn't long.  

The trip here, however, was.  Let me re-cap for you.

5:00AM Friday:  Leave Rosemount.  3" of snow on the ground, more falling as we leave.

2:00PM:  Arrive in Chicago.  Yeah, that's right.  9 hours of driving to get to Chicago.  9 hours of white-knuckle, can't see the car in front of you at times driving.  Yikes.

3:30:  Board plane for London.

5:00:  Plane leaves Chicago after sitting on the tarmac for 90 minutes for de-icing and other assorted delays.

8:00AM Friday, GMT:  Arrive in London.  Miss connected flight to Moscow.  Luckily, they already booked us on the next flight.  Slept a total of 30 minutes on the plane.  American Airlines gives us free lunch (breakfast)!

12:20pm:  Board plane for Moscow.

7:00pm (Moscow time, 3 hrs. ahead of London): Arrive in Moscow.  Can't read or understand anything anyone is saying.

7:30 Make it through customs with no questions.  Mispronounce the Russian word for "thank you."

8:00:  Realize Alison's suitcase did not come to Moscow with us.  Go to speak with lost and found people.

8:45:  Leave airport for Tom and Kathleen's apartment.

9:45:  Arrive in downtown Moscow.  Eat snacks.

11:00pm:  Go to sleep.  For the first time (really) since 4:15 the previous morning.

Exhausting, but worth it.  I don't know if I'll have time to regale you all with stories from our first full day here, but we saw a lot of churches and monasteries today.  At the big one, the head of the Russian Orthodox church was leading the service...he's kinda like the pope of Russia (big deal).  Pretty sweet!  Tomorrow:  The Kremlin and the graveyard where Russian notables like Tolstoy, Rimsky-Korsakov, Scriabin, and Shostakovich are buried.  I'll take pictures!