Novosibirsk Here We Are!
We made it! We are back in Siberia and loving it because we are that much closer to our girls. We have checked in to the Sibir Hotel, walked up to our favorite cafe to have dinner, shopped at our local grocery store, and met our friends Stacy and Doug who are picking up their 4 year old son. Wow, it seems like home turf again.
To backtrack, we had a nice stay at the Ukraine Hotel. We got up at 6:00 am, got ready to go and went down to have their amazing buffet breakfast. There seemed to be many Americans around. We were picked up by Yanna and Vitaly to take us to the airport. Yanna was worried about our baggage since we had so much and our one suitcase is very large. She was not able to go through security with us, but from the glass window she could see us and we were to wave if we had trouble checking our bags. It took quite a while for the line to move until they finally got to us. She asked us to put all our bags on the scale and we were 6 kilos over. Of course you have to pay when you are over weight. They write the weight down on a piece of paper and send you over to another window to pay. I got to the window to pay and it was closed with a sign on it saying "Technology Break". There were two women behind the glass, one standing in the doorway smoking, the other moving some paperwork around and glancing at the computer from time to time. I stood there for several minutes watching them hoping they would open up for me. Finally I said "pa-shal-sta:please". The woman looked up from the papers she was shuffling and pointed to the sign Technology Break. I pointed to my watch. Finally after 3 more minutes the woman got up, picked up her purse, got out her cell phone and a cigarette and traded places with the woman who was standing in the doorway finishing her cigarette. They moved very slowly and had a running conversation going on between them. Finally they opened the window and allowed me to pay my over weight fee. When I told John what was holding me up he just roared. I think they had the wrong sign up, unless a cigarette counts as technology.
The flight to Novosibirsk was uneventful and I got some reading done. Tomorrow we go to the baby home in Cherepanovo to see the girls. We are so excited and tired. Stacy and Doug met their son today for the first time and they said the reunion was great. After a few moments of confusion on the child's part he embraced his new mama and papa and did not want to let them go!
To backtrack, we had a nice stay at the Ukraine Hotel. We got up at 6:00 am, got ready to go and went down to have their amazing buffet breakfast. There seemed to be many Americans around. We were picked up by Yanna and Vitaly to take us to the airport. Yanna was worried about our baggage since we had so much and our one suitcase is very large. She was not able to go through security with us, but from the glass window she could see us and we were to wave if we had trouble checking our bags. It took quite a while for the line to move until they finally got to us. She asked us to put all our bags on the scale and we were 6 kilos over. Of course you have to pay when you are over weight. They write the weight down on a piece of paper and send you over to another window to pay. I got to the window to pay and it was closed with a sign on it saying "Technology Break". There were two women behind the glass, one standing in the doorway smoking, the other moving some paperwork around and glancing at the computer from time to time. I stood there for several minutes watching them hoping they would open up for me. Finally I said "pa-shal-sta:please". The woman looked up from the papers she was shuffling and pointed to the sign Technology Break. I pointed to my watch. Finally after 3 more minutes the woman got up, picked up her purse, got out her cell phone and a cigarette and traded places with the woman who was standing in the doorway finishing her cigarette. They moved very slowly and had a running conversation going on between them. Finally they opened the window and allowed me to pay my over weight fee. When I told John what was holding me up he just roared. I think they had the wrong sign up, unless a cigarette counts as technology.
The flight to Novosibirsk was uneventful and I got some reading done. Tomorrow we go to the baby home in Cherepanovo to see the girls. We are so excited and tired. Stacy and Doug met their son today for the first time and they said the reunion was great. After a few moments of confusion on the child's part he embraced his new mama and papa and did not want to let them go!
posted by Isabel Farquhar at
7:25 AM
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