June 8

Is it already the 8th? Only about a week left here in Elektrostal with the fam. I must say I feel blessed every day that I'm here. I know the sacrifice that Patrick & Christy have given to have me & Madeleine invade their private domain for 3 whole weeks, but I've had a perfect time & look forward to more adventures before I fly back home to my own life & family.

Today was another day home in Elektrostal, but it was just right. With all our lolling around yesterday, we neglected to get our grocery shopping done that was needed. In fact last night when she should've been counting sheep, Madeleine came in to tell me she'd been thinking about chocolate chip cookies. We were basically out of butter, flour, & sugar so she had to put off her midnight craving 'til the next day, but the wait was well worth it.

After paying the landlady the monthly rent, we ventured out by foot to the hardware store to gather what we may to mend the castle--a new lock for the bathroom & potting soil for the plants. I found some garden clogs there that I had to have & it was off to the grocery store. Of course, along the way we went to the local McDonald's for lunch & sent Patrick with our initial purchases & the car while we walked right next door to the grocery center. Madeleine & I found our laundry soap & yogurt & basically drooled over the immense chocolate section. That's one thing I definitely could become Russian about--their love of good chocolate. We found a few more flavors & brands to sample before leaving & then had the pleasant task of driving to the parking compound--about a 15 minute walk from their apt. In the meantime, the clouds & thunder had rolled slowly in. We were afraid we'd have to run for it, but the clouds only let a light sprinkling down upon us before we made it to home base. Madeleine peered out the landing window outside the elevator hall & told Uncle Patrick that Alex was there--he's the bully boy that some of you may know about. He was Ethan's first friend here & they were great pals & then after he returned from an extended trip, Alex has basically been turning on Ethan ever since & that's where all the hallway grafitti is coming from. To make a long story short, we all snuck quietly in the house while Patrick waited outside the door to have a visit with Alex. He scared him with a good-humored "Boo!" and then proceeded to ask Alex what they'd done to have him start behaving toward their family in this way. He didn't apologize for the writing/drawing he'd been leaving on the walls or any of the other light damage done, but he did say he wouldn't be doing it anymore. They talked a bit more & so now time will tell whether it had an impact upon Alex.

With groceries put away, we whipped Madeleine into shape with her cookie baking--they were yummy with milk, too. This led us to our 5:30 rendezvous with Natasha--the head of the school where Patrick & Christy taught this past year. We were led on a private tour since school is not in session right now. It was a nice thing to see where they work & I sent Madeleine with Ethan & Megan to capture the rooms on camera while Patrick & Christy showed me "their rooms." I really like Natasha, but probably will not see her again before leaving next week.

After arriving back home, the kids played some more surivival games (basic boy scout activities from Ethan's manual), Wii, & then whipped out a light supper of bread, meats, cheese, veggies & mini store-bought pizzas for the kids. It was decided that we'd watch the movie "Bridge to Terabithia," which turned out to be a great flick. Madeleine had already seen it 4 times before & had bet us we'd cry. We all shed a few tears.

Then it was off to the bedtime routine for the kids, which has been ending with Madeleine reading aloud to the kids for several minutes before lights out. They extended that privililege as we adults did adult things in the living room--internet, laughing, planning our next 2 days, etc. I watched an episode of Extreme Home Makeover--courtesy of TV copies from American friends
. . .so now it's lights out for me, too. We have a day of going back to Ismailova--the open market for me to buy more souvenirs. The first trip there a few days ago just wasn't all it was cracked up to be, & Christy is mortified that all I could come up with that I liked from that trip was a couple of Santa matrushka dolls. Sheesh! Off to spend some good money to show for my trip!

June 7

A welcome relief to have nothing planned today--except the weekly 9 a.m. team conference call that Patrick & Christy get from their "superiors" in Oregon. These calls are meant to be an encouragement & a way to stay in communication on a very regular basis. The Northwest Yearly Meeting is trying a new thing for their missionaries--an assigned team coach. Actually, Patrick & Christy's team coach & another couple who will stay on here in Elektrostal as members of their team, will be here the day Mad & I fly back home. They will stay for a week to see each other face & face, offer encouragement, & get some touristy things done.

Patrick was in charge of spaghetti for lunch--which we all needed having such a lazy morning to burn off energy, etc. It did feel good to have a free day to do nothing in again. And. . .I just heard form the big boss that tomorrow promises the same thing. Yay! I love all the sights, but I need the recuperation days in between, too. I am still in my jammies at 9:03 p.m.--don't tell my dad--he never woulda let me get away with that trick. Christy & I have been reading much of the day away--I'm reading "The Children of Hurin" by J.R.R. Tolkein. I'm enjoying it & will probably finish it in a few minutes. I played some Wii with Patrick, not doing so well, but having fun in the process. The kids set up "Megan's Kiosk" to try to sell us stuff all day--to no avail. They just didn't have for sale anything we were dying for. They also played a lot in their room behind closed doors being very creative & not even coming out for Wii 'til late afternoon. They played Scrabble, too. I spent a bit of time organizing & filing all our pictures so far so that they will be labeled & easy to go through once we get home.

That leads me to right now--9:06 p.m. with vigorous plans to continue doing nothing & enjoying it guilt-free. Tomorrow we will walk to the store for a few grocery items & will hope to meet Natasha to see the school that both Patrick & Christy taught English & Bible classes in this past year. I really like Natasha, so I am looking forward to that short outing in the evening. Enough of the preview for tomorrow & on to the rest of my super productive day. I need to finish it with the same amount of enthusiasm as I started it.

June 6

Movin', movin', movin'-----------to Moscow we go again! I'm pretty sure this is not a normal thing to be going to Moscow so much, but it sure is nice for my brother's fam to show me all the sights and experiences we can squeeze in. Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad Neifert! We'll celebrate by going to the circus tonight--on hold from Mad's b-day on Monday.

We hurry-skurried throughout our morning & our first stop was a gas station to up the status of our not-so-useful map we bought from a vendor in the streets of Moscow on our first excursion there many days ago. This new map is super--showing every building & house of Moscow--of course it's a thick book, but if you know the area you're in or going to (& can also read & understand Russian), you can navigate anywhere you want to go. I also used the facilities here since there aren't very many free, public toilets anywhere. We often have to pay 10-15 rubles to use a porta potty that may or may not be clean or even have toilet paper available. Yee Haw! We brought "The Emporer's New Groove" as the kids entertainment for our long trip.

Our main reason for going to Moscow today is the circus, but it's always nice to fit in a couple other sites since it's a trip there & back. So. . .we started at the famous Ismailova open market to hunt for souvenirs. But before our shop-fest, we had the traditional Russian shoshleek (another name for cooked meat that is often shish-ke-bobbed. The men there cooking in the first stall were very jolly & spoke a bit of English--for the tourists. One was a bit too friendly & I warned Patrick he was trying to get me to his lair--up the stairs. Since I've been apprehended more than once by men on this trip, my guard is up a bit & I become highly suspicious of most everyone--not to the point of paranoia, but for safety's sake. Patrick laughed at me when I told him about the guy's lair. He was just pointing for me to go upstairs to the dining area & he'd bring my food when it was cooked. Tee hee! Out of pork, chicken, salmon, & lamb, I opted for the less-common-to-find-in-Kingman, KS lamb. It was out of this world, I must say--even in the happy man's lair!

From here with our full tummies, we were armed with our rubles & big eyes as we passed booths of Russian ware; however, Patrick & Christy said it wasn't as crowded or as full of vendors as on a weekend & thought we should go back when there were more people, even though it's more work to make your way through the throngs. Things are over-priced & meant to be bargained for, but I wasn't so great at it since my mind was working so hard just to convert their stated prices to my dollar mindset. Patrick helped me with the bargaining process & many of them speak enough English to get through to us. After walking through to get a feel of the goods, many were closing down for the day--not enough business for their taste, I guess. Both Patrick & Christy got items for free here without evening buying anything at the booth. I guess they looked cute. I guess I need to perfect my Puss-in-Boots (think Shrek), whoa-is-me look a little more. There are plenty of hand-painted, or intricately-carved pretties, but it took a while for me to find something that was out-of-the ordinary enough for my liking. I finally settled on a couple of santa matrushka sets & some wooden puppet toys for a couple of my friends. I did find out that Christy doesn't like orange on this outing--she kept laughing at me when I was buying my Santas cuz one of them was not a true red color, but "orange" in her warped eyes. I took the jeering from her, but I've been taking every opportunity since then to point out the many things I see that are orange. She's a funny duck. It may be a tinge of orange, but a very bright red-orange at that. Madeleine took a long time & went to several booths with beautiful jewelry to finally decide on a pretty necklace. It's hard to describe, so I won't, but it would use up most of all her personal spending money--that's what made it hard for her. In the end, I helped her some & she still walked away with a beautiful souvenir of her stay in Russia.

In order to meet our circus friends by 5 for supper at Rostiks (KFC, basically), we left the market with very little to show for it at 4 p.m.-ish. We got to the circus with 20 minutes to spare & I laid down in the backseat of the van for a snooze-a-gram while Christy read & the kids stretched their playful limbs in the huge parking plaza area outside the circus dome. By our 5 p.m. meeting time, we found Eric, Gwyn, Hannah, & Daniel Jones lolling at the fountain/pool area & mosied on the jaunt to supper. I haven't been that impressed with Russian fast food so far (McDonald's & Rostiks) & thought the food here was okay, but not spectacular. It did get the job done of nurturing us for the rest of the evening, though. It was fun to talk to the Jones' as they are only a few days away from moving their entire life back to the states after 17? years in Russia. I talked a bit to Hannah about school (she'll be a sophomore in high school & this will be her 1st experience with public school since 2nd grade I think she said). Daniel is more Ethan's age, so they had good, rambunctious boy fun running amuck on the walk back to the circus for the evening's show.

Other than the phenomenal "Cirque du Soleil" performance that Seth gave me this year for my b-day, this was the first circus I've ever been to. The show was amazing & had me smiling, oohing & ahhing all night long. Thanks, Neiferts, for this gift in honor of Mad's 12th b-day celebrated in Russia. My favorite acts were the opening trapeze troupe, the goofball clowns that did silly acts between things, the aierial/gymnast troupe, the trampoline artists from norther Siberia, & the clown who had trained hedgehogs & a skunk in his mini-show. It was a hoot & very energetic in the stadium.

After our 7 p.m. circus show ended a few hours later, Patrick had wanted to take us to see a great panoramic view of the city at night. Since Russia doesn't get dark 'til 10:30--at the earliest in the summertime, we lolligagged our way there, fitting all 12 of us (Roes, Nefierts, & Jones') into the Nissan Quest. The street to cross was treacherous, but by the time we got there, we could watch the sun going down a bit & I took several pics to help me remember the skyline of the city; it never ends. There were plenty of maker-outers there for the view & a band of motorcycles parked at the end, so I took some pictures of the marauders there, too. Then we all braved the street again because right across the way was the magnificence of the University of Moscow--Wow! It was beautiful, even though Eric thinks it's staunch & industrial. I was mezmorized by it's strength & magnificence. And the darkness set in while we were there, so I got a couple pics with the lights twinkling in the windows. We also staged several family vignettes for prayer cards, etc. with the university as the background. Madeleine & I had our picture taken, too, & will send out prayer cards later--not really, but we joined the fun in the picture-taking extravaganza.

With darkness & lateness already set in full motion, we drove the Jones' to their apartment (very empty because they leave for the states on June 10) to say our final farewells & use their "free" toilet facilities before heading home. We hadn't been out this late before in our trips to Moscow to date, so it was interesting to see how many people are still out late at night. And . . . this is the time when all the street cleaning machines & road construction crews are in full force because the traffic is much less at night. But the drivers out are still just as kamikaze as during the day, so Patrick's guard can never be let down.

Whew! Home by midnight & willingly to bed.

June 5

I love the lazy days almost as much as the days where we have major Moscow plans. Today started at 10-ish for me & most of the rest of the household. The a.m. starts on our own with fetching our own breakfast, showering, etc. The kids often use their 1 hour each of Wii time first thing in the day, so by early afternoon, they're all used up & have to get creative in their play the rest of the day.

After our mid-day meal--meatloaf made in muffin cups (the kids loved this touch), mashed potatoes, & veggies, we sat down around the family table & tried to start a schedule of the rest of our stay here so we don't miss anything we really wanted to do. It was fun; we have a list, but haven't nailed down dates or actually prioritized--in case the days get away from us. Then their other team member of the mission here came over for a sit-down meeting to nail down things for the youth team that will come to work & play for a month in July. So I met her & she got a small taste of Wii before she had to leave. The kids played outside after this & Madeleine met a young girl her age named Yanna, who she really liked.

I've been working on cropping & deleting some of our not-so-great pictures of the trip, so that was super productive. Then we decided to give Christy some peaceful time while the rest of us walked to a local chocolate shop about a 20 minute walk from here. I love walking everywhere, though it takes a lot more planning ahead on things. The walk was great & was accompanied there & back by 2 young boys--12 or so--who Ethan met yesterday & have been very friendly. Patrick enjoyed visiting with them the whole way there & it helps him learn Russian better because kids are more patient & can explain things slower & with easier words, so it was nice. They were very willing to try talking with all of us even though the language barrier was obvious. The more outspoken of the 2 just smiles with huge dimples every time we look at him & don't know what he's talking about. They went into the chocolate shop with us & helped us figure out somewhat was inside all the different flavors. We did a sampling pot--as Patrick would call it: choosing 5 or 6 of different kinds to take home & sample. When we find the ones we're really fond of, then we go back at a later time to buy bigger quantities & try others again. We found a creme brulee one that I will definitely get to bring home to the librarian I work with during the year--her favorite desser is creme brulee. And we found the kind that Madeleine wanted to find that Uncle Patrick has brought to the states before. We found a few that are horrendous, but I guess that's how you learn what you like & what you don't like. It was a fun trip for me cuz I'm a super sucker for anything chocolate. The boys on their bikes accompanied us all the way home, too, & had seen the kids flying their kites earlier so asked if they could fly kites again with them. They played together for several more minutes before coming in for the night. Patrick is thrilled with these new boys & hopes they will be a better match for friendship for Ethan than the first friend he met--Alex. I took a few pictures of the boys as they were with us for at least an hour--this will help me to pray for that friendship when I return home. I'm a sucker for the one kids' dimples--his name was Leon & the other was named Simon (actually Sergei, but that is such a common name here so his friends call him Simon while his parents call him Sergei). Friendships make a huge difference in a child's life & helps fill their days with more fun. It will also help them as they learn Russian & can teach their new friends a bit of English, too.

I got Skyped from my homefront in Kingman & we talked for quite some time; it was nice to catch up. Thanks, guys. Welcome home from camp, Connick, today. Hope you had a great time with new friends & old!

Popcorn for our late evening meal--yummmmmmmmmmmmm! That's my kind-a-cookin'.

June 4

Amazing, but true: Madeleine turned 12 today, and even though our original plans had to be postponed, she celebrated in style. Later on postponed plans!

As all our other days, we lazed around all a.m. & didn't get gone to Moscow 'til 11:45-ish. I made veggie pizzas for breakfast for Megan & me; she announced them to her parents as Aunt Pam's invention. Poor Madeleine had to wait 'til Christy--the last one up & at 'em--was ready to open her presents. She got a cool glass prizm with lazer etched St. Basil's inside from Megan & Ethan & a few extra cool presents from me that I was able to sneak into our suitcase before leaving the state of KS. She also was told by Uncle Patrick that their gift was the circus that we would go to tonight.

After that formality was out of the way, we left in our trusty Nissan Quest, armed with a map (that's proving to not be helpful at all) & a DVD, to brave the metropolis of Moscow. We figured out that the DVD system was a bonus, but that it's not wired well & is more of a pain than we'd like to admit. I must say that I'm sure the circle system of streets is something the Russians are used to but the jungle that Moscow appears to me is not so easy for me to figure out. I'm just along for the ride. However, it took us close to 2 hours to get to the first place we needed to get to because we couldn't find anyplace to make a left turn. We saw the street we needed, but miles later was the first time we could get pointed back in the right direction. Needless to say, we helped chart new territory for everyone--even the driver. A lot of the Moscow ride was stop-n-go & basically it's a dog eat dog, drive-at-your-own-risk driving adventure. I think I told you earlier that the Russians use their blinkers. I take that back--at least in the bustle of the city. And. . .they are so crazy, making u-turns helter skelter, pushing their noses where they want to go whether there's room or not, squeezing in as close as they can get to the next vehicle, etc. And even in the middle of the city, it's about 10 lanes wide. Wee haw!

Finally we arrived near to where Patrick needed to still pick up my visa registration--I've been so illegal for several days now. He metro'd to do that while the rest of us ventured into Gorky Park--an amusement/carnival park that we learned is not worth going to again. It's a small price to enter, but all the rides are outrageously priced & don't work quite like the American rides. We browsed the whole park first to see what there was & then opted for bumper cars to start our fun. Little did I know that bumper cars aren't to be bumped; Madeleine & I got kicked out. Oops! They look like bumper cars, but it's just a little ride for people to drive all over in & not touch any other cars. It was fun while it lasted! Then we moved on to bigger rides & finally opted for a tiny roller coaster called the Twister Coaster. Madeleine's a bit intimidated by roller coasters & this one was the biggest one she's been on. It was a funner ride than it looked like & I got some good shots of the park from above & also of the kids' in-action faces as they experienced the coaster. I was the designated adult that had to ride with them--the sacrifices we make in the name of fun.

We then headed out & grabbed ice-cream to get us through 'til supper that night, which was to be Rostiks (the KFC chain here) pre-circus. We traipsed across town & found the circus no problemo, arriving 30 minutes prior to when we were to meet friends who would join our forces for the evening. Patrick & Christy entered the ticket place & found out that there was no show tonight. Argh & Oops! The kids enjoyed rock climing on the wall while all this was happening but were a bit disappointed to find out we'd have to postpone our Happy Birthday plans 'til Wednesday. I guess we'll use it to celebrate Mom & Dad Neifert's anniversary instead of Mad's birthday. We caught the friends before they left to meet us & made alternate plans to meet at the same time & place on Wednesday instead. These friends are moving back to the states (missionaries with Wycliffe) on June 10 & had wanted to hit the circus one last time before moving away from their beloved Moscow. This really bummed Ethan out (cuz the young boy of the fam is a good friend & will be gone soon). We drove to their apartment anyway to pick up a few things that they were "selling" to Patrick & fam, so that helped ease Ethan's frustration in having to put off seeing his friend Daniel 'til Wednesday. During all of this, Grandma Carla called to wish Madeleine a Happy Birthday.

Plan B became going to a different IKEA/Mega Mall since the last one we tried was practically closed when we got there a few days earlier. This mall was complete with an ice-skating rink, but that part was closed for the night when we mosied on over. Here we ate salmon & meatballs at the IKEA cafeteria--Christy had been bragging on the food here & it was delicioso--all it was cracked up to be. Then we took the entire IKEA tour, taking billions of pictures of everyone jumping on beds, chairs, etc. in the showroom. Madeleine & I loved this store--I think the closest one in our area is Dallas, TX. We bought Mad a souvenir, prince charming frog air chair, that she just adores & will pack easily going home. We are still searching out the cool hair bands (Loretta, the kind they bought for Megan in your neck of the woods) so I can buy some for my little Sydney before coming home. It was decided that we'll bring one of Megan's home & buy some material for Grandma Carla to make a few & then Christy will pick Megan's up when she comes to their house in a month or so. Okay, Mom? We're infringing upon your creative genius to re-create these hairbands that are oh-so-neato (they'll be easy to make, I promise; I could even figure it out)! Even though they didn't have any of our hair bands, they did have a Baskin-Robbins, something that I had told Patrick I had to do while in Moscow since I don't have it anywhere near me in Kingman, KS. It was my favorite ice-cream growing up. And they had one of my prized flavors--red raspberry sorbet. It was an outrageous price but definitely worth all my rubles. We went to McDonald's for another of Madeleine's favorite cherry pies & then headed home for a shorter trip than we had on the way to Moscow earlier. Once again there was pictoral grafiti in our hallway to greet us. So annoying, but it washes off easily. Back to earlier in the day, the lady who repaints the walls, rang our flat to ask if Alex lived there (since the griffiti artist signs his name). Alex is Ethan's first friend who began turning on him earlier this year. We were thrilled that at least one apartment official is trying to get to the bottom of this, but were disappointed to find more when we arrived home after a super full Moscow day.

We got a Happy Birthday Skype call from the Argonia, KS Neiferts before heading to bed at midnight. Thanks, Krista, Shannon, & friend Allison.

Later, comrades.

June 3

Another day--Sunday. We got to lazily sleep in again. Sundays here involve the home Bible study that Patrick & Christy host each week. We stayed in our jammies much of the day while I made zuchinni & banana bread for the Bible study--to be served with tea. Patrick & Christy have to register their car with a current Elektrostal resident, so the person they used was dying to see "his" new car. They met at McDonald's & drove them around town--learning along the way where a nice bakery was. Here they bought us each a pastry to enjoy when they returned home. Christy has learned my love of mushrooms, so she got me a potato/mushroom pastry, herself a ham/cheese pastry, & the rest of the fam cherry & strawberry pastries. The pastry part was good, but the filling of the savory ones wasn't all that great. Christy has another bakery she likes better, but it's always good to try the different options of your home town.

I learned how to do my first load of European laundry & hopefully we found a detergent that Mad won't be allergic to. We'll see when she wears the clean clothes for the first time. Speaking of. . .I need to go hang all our laundry out to start the drying process.

Patrick just took off to pick up the one person who attends their Bible study. Up to now, Natasha has used public trans to get here. And what should be about a 20 minute car trip turns into a 2-hour trip full of transfers, stops, etc. This new car shuttle service will be a nice ministry to offer her on a regular basis.

The kids have already used up their daily Wii allotment, so are now doing things like wrestling & acting like wild banshees--I'm sure in preparation for calming down for Bible study. Later we will do the cake celebration part of Mad's b-day a day early since on her actual day tomorrow we will be going into Moscow to eat supper & go to the circus in honor of her special day. The phone number I've given any of you to contact is a cell phone so you should be able to talk to Mad on her day if you choose to cuz we'll have the cell phone. We'll probably make a whole day of it since going to Moscow can always include plenty of new touristy sights that Patrick & Christy want us to fit in on our extended visit with them. I can't believe we're already 1/3 of the way done.

Bible Study was on a few verses from James & it's so nice for church to be informal & more relational than the "traditional" service. I enjoyed it & even the kids get to be included in this (though they think their dad is too long-winded!). Madeleine stayed in for the prayer time while the others left to play in their room. We took Natasha home in the car afterwards & drove a few blocks to a local lake where many people spend their Sunday afternoons. It was too cold for me to get into the water, but many were wearing barely anything & were in the lake water. It was too dirty for me, too--many broken bottles, trash, fishing gear, etc. all over, so you have to be pretty brave to get wet. The kids really wanted us to rent a boat to row, but there were none available. They had fun, once again, using their imaginations & creating their own world with all the running they could do here. They even named the big hill: Megethan.

We stopped for eggs & fresh veggies on the way home so Patrick could make us custom omelettes made to order. Yum! We ate those while our chocolate lava b-day cake baked. Because I forgot to push start on the timer, we overcooked the cakes to the point that the lava didn't flow. Shucks! They weren'b burnt by any means, but if you overbake lava cake, it doesn't ooze as we call it. We lit candles & sang the appropriate song & Madeleine was thrilled. Then we kicked the kids outside--the went willingly, actually, & started the movie "Bourne Supremacy," which much of it takes place in Moscow--some of the places I've seen since getting here. The kids had the walkie talkies to let us know of anything happening, but the biggest news was that Ethan may have made a couple new friends & Madeleine says they seemed nice so that's a plus. We'll see if they show up again on another day when they're outside. When they went outside, Patrick told them to come back in at 10; that's still so funny for me to hear since the darkness comes so much later here. They tried to beg their way into staying out longer, but we've all seen what people do here even in broad daylight, so we insisted on 10 with darkness setting in soon after.

Madeleine's been reading a book out loud to everyone each night at bedtime, so they came in for that ritual & we turned lights out 30 minutes later. The girls fell asleep quickly but Ethan has been having major allergy issues & was up sneezing & emptying his head cavity of crud, so I don't know how long he was up with his parents taking care of that cuz once my lights went out, I was gone quickly, too.

'Til tomorrow.

June 2

Today was another adventure into Moscow--we haven't rushed into our days there yet. Once again is was 11-ish before we even left the house. (It might have been even later, but summers are meant for lazy days, huh?) There was excitement as we left the apartment knowing that today was the day for my brother's family to pick up their first car in their 3 years in Russia. They will still use public transportation, taxis, buses, etc. because that's how the city works, but now their trips to Moscow will be more productive & less "threatening," hopefully. We took a taxi to the train station & it was not too busy there--more people were coming back from Moscow than were going to. Mad taught Megan & super-graceful Ethan to do a ballet jump. I'm not sure they have it mastered yet. We hopped on & got a better picture of a real train ride to Moscow. The other night when we took our first train ride there were no vendors on board--probably cuz it was too late in the day. But today we got musicians, toy vendors, misc. vendors with a pack full of goods you could buy, etc. selling their wares through the train aisles. We bought some fun balloons & a couple of Chinese fans. Along with the fun of watching the sales people, we also were bothered by a man sitting across the aisle from Patrick. We're glad he was the one on the outside, but. . .this man was in-your-face trying to ask Patrick why he didn't give money to one of the musicians. There was quite a heated dialogue between the 2 & he even tried to bother Megan a bit, but she's learned the rules of the train & did very well ignoring his banter enough that he finally left us alone. However, a lady sitting across from him started chewing on him to leave us alone & we were a bit afraid that he would try to hurt her. We hope this was not the case but they both got off at the same train stop. The reality of Russia is that corruption is the norm, so hollering for help & expecting anyone--even the authorities--to do anything is not necessarily the way things work. After he left, we could breathe easily the rest of the ride into Moscow. A couple of stops on the metro got us to . . .

Our first stop was to get our ballet tickets picked up form the ticket booth. Patrick did this on his own while we played at a nearby playground, capturing quite a funny "show" of Megan finding Ethan in a smart game of hide-n-seek. It's a bit hard to describe it, but we got it on video & had quite the laugh about it. Then on to see the breathtaking splendor of Christ the Savior Cathedral. We got pictures of the outside & everything leading up to it, but picture-taking is forbidden inside the building--right, MOM? (shhhhh! She got kicked out of this cathedral when she visited it the first time cuz she tried to snap some photos not knowing it was forbidden) This was a reverant but awesome experience for Madeleine & I to see since we don't have churches like that in Kingman, KS--or anywhere close to us. It's a relatively new structure--within the past 3 years, I think.

Then it was on to the walking bridge where we got another spectacular view of the Kremlin area & took some more pictures. We caught a couple of bridal parties getting pictures taken in the historical section of this architecturally beautiful city. We took pictures, too. I guess weddings are quite the spectacle here. This brought us to paying to use the toilet--not the first time we've had to do this on our excursions. There just aren't very many public, free restrooms; most of them you have to pay 50 cents-ish to use them. Ice-cream was the next stop. Today it was jacket/sweater weather so the ice-cream didn't melt all over our arms & elbows. There are vendors selling everything everywhere so it's not hard to take care of yourself throughout an entire day outing.

Our next stop was to ride the metro across town to get to the car dealership. Wow! This was a 5-story glass complex housing thousands of used vehicles. We took lots of pics of their new car, but as sales works, the DVD was not working through the car's sound system so after a 2 1/2 hours wait to get it serviced, etc., we were finally on our way with Patrick taking his first real-live drive into the streets & highways of Moscow. Drivers here are a little more kamikaze & fast in their skills; but the up-side is that most of them use their blinkers, unlike Americans. Christy, the kids, & I spent most of the waiting time exploring the adjoining 7-story new car complex seeing what's new. The building had quite the wow factor. Woo hoo! On each floor there was a little cafe so we got drinks during our wait.

Good news is that the car's wiring finally got taken care of & then there was about 45 minutes worth of paperwork for Patrick to take care of. Megan entertained us with her spastic mood & became the monster teacher from down under. She was a tough one & couldn't pull herself out of this crazy mood.

By the time we left the car dealership (the service station had already locked its doors on us & turned off all our doors), it was after 9. We got our first tank of gas--Patrick knows how that system works now. Our original plan was to get the car & go to the Mega Mall that houses one of their favorite stores--IKEA--to eat salmon for supper in the IKEA cafeteria. By the time we got there, the mall was still open, but the cafe was closed. Food court to the rescue: we ate McDonald's & KFC--Rostiks as it's called here. I guess that means we'll have to come back to Mega Mall again so they can really show me the IKEA.

Our trip home was uneventful & took way less time than renting a taxi or riding the train or bus home. It probably cuts the trip in half, easily--so only 45 minutes as opposed to the hour & some odd minutes is usually takes. We were home by 11 p.m. & hit the hay very quickly, resting for another day in our Russian adventure.