home

we made it back home very late Saturday night, after a long days worth of travel. I knew by the start of the flight home from Korea that I was starting to get sick, and spent most of the 12 hrs alternating between shivering and burning up. we weren't allowed to bring any liquids onto the plane, and unfortunately due to turbulence there was no beverage service for the first 4 hrs of the flight. by the time we were finally offered water, it was too late. I was full on sick. boo.

the service on Delta was paled in comparison to the luxury we had on korean airlines. the plane was in poor repair, the food was inedible and the staff was flat out rude. Welcome to America :)

we landed about an hour early in Atlanta, which gave us a chance to unwind and have a bit of food. I had purchased a small digital camera while on the plane from Vlad to Seoul, without realizing that it would have 220v plugs for the charger instead of 110. a quick stop at brookstone (officially my favorite store) provided a step down so now i have a shiny new toy.

Managed an upgrade to first on the way from Atlanta to Detroit and I was asleep within minutes of boarding. Apparently there was a problem upon take off...the instrument panel went haywire, so the pilot had to brake hard which shook the plane quite a bit. Or so I was told. I slept through the whole ordeal.

so now its late monday night. I've managed to edit only a few of the 1000 photos I took during the week. I'm all doped up on cough meds and antibiotics, and really thankful to be home.

this will be my last update here for a while. i can't wait to read updates from our hotel mates. Good luck to you all!

friday part 2

writing this from dinner in the hopping Vlad Inn restaurant.

tonights entertainment is a three piece "band". We laughed at them (with them?) at first, but they're actually pretty good


Sarah and Steven left today, headed back to Lousiana, and we miss them already.. some updates for you Sarah..
Phyllis has cornered the market on coffee makers, hangers, and the last we heard she was planning on opening a pizzeria in
their hotel room. Ed was wondering where she could get a brick oven from. He seems a bit concerned, but I think he may
be used her her kind of crazy (KIDDING PHYLLIS!) hahaha

The people we have met here are the best ever. I wish them nothing but luck and good times with their new families.

we are mostly packed for the trip home. I didnt find some of the items I really hoped to purchase while I was here...
no old cameras, no fur hat. But, plenty of matroiska dolls and other goodies. and LOTS of candy. Sergei brought us
to the Vladivostok candy company, a lovely chocolatier, where we bought tons of sweets. I have no idea what they
are, but the wrappers are pretty. Add to it all of the kinder products that I picked up at the baby store and a can of paprika pringles (the best crisps ever), compliments of our translator Katerina, and we have snacks for everyone on the plane tomorrow.

friday night in vladivostok

sergei the great took us on a city tour that lasted most of the morning. Downtown Vladivostok is crowded, but gorgeous.
Around Amur bay, then to the train station. There is a beautiful monument here for the russian soldiers that lost their lives during world war II.

afterwards we went to a cafe for shopping and lunch. blinis and yummy desserts. Sergei has never had coca cola (or so he claims) but was willing to try a sip. He insisted on helping us shop for the proper vodkas and caviar, so we wouldnt be spending our rubles on poor quality goods. Amy's good eyes spotted the fairy I've been chasing for years, and I'm happy to say that I've finally caught her. Now, i'm just a couple of spoons away from magical dreams. Maybe the next time Flooz comes to town we'll celebrate properly.

after shopping we visited with Tatiana for about 30 minutes and then returned to the hotel. I can't believe how quickly this
week has gone by. I'm so not ready for the long flight home...

for you postie people... I have found NO POSTCARDS IN RUSSIA! maybe next trip I'll have better luck, but today was a complete wash.

also something to remember for next trip, to bring new cds for the restaurant at the hotel. I dont mind listening to AC/DC over breakfast, but the constant bruce springsteen/nelly furtado/kansasdustinthewind loop that has been playing every night at dinner HAS to go.

russia - day 4

spent a good afternoon with baby T. She was much calmer and welcoming of her visitors today.
Afterwards we took a ride downtown to the notary, and then on to a baby store. this has been the first opportunity to shop
while we've been here, but it was a pretty basic trip. I picked up a russian monopoly board, but what I was truly hoping to find
was a cyrillic scrabble board. unfortunately that was a big nyet.

still havent seen enough of Vladivostok to photograph it properly, but tomorrow morning our driver (my secret boyfriend) has an "excursion" planned for us. I'm not sure if that means shopping, or if it means the KGB is going to bury us in a shallow field....
Either way, I'm hoping we get to the Simpsons restaurant before we meet our demise.

more tomorrow

downtown vladivostok

russia - day 3

not too much to say tonight... its late and i'm sleepy.

had a good baby home visit. Amy played with baby T outside, while the rest of us hung back and watched them
get acquainted. She's a lovely child, just a bit unsure yet about the new people that keep looking at her and taking
a million pictures.

the baby home itself is a very old building, but its obvious that the staff put all of their heart into making it a good
place. there is a large playground with very simple toys. a swing, a couple of slides, an old metal train. all are very old, but
they are brightly painted. wild flowers grow along the walking paths and there are quite a few trees.

all of this is surrounded by old, drab apartment buildings. very eastern european looking.

baby home entrance

russia, day 2

up early today to go to the ministry of education department to get official permission to visit vladimir.
the MOE is in the city center, about 20 miles from the hotel, but due to the crazy amount of traffic, construction and
the fact that there is NO traffic control devices, it took about an hour to get there.

signed the paper work... then back through the traffic and then maybe another 40 minute drive to the country.
picked up a social worker, then drove to the baby hospital.

we spent about 30 minutes meeting the boy, then took a break. after some discussion we went back into the hospital for
another 30 minutes to discuss some other options. thats all I really feel comfortable saying about what happened today. I'll leave the rest for Amy to share. I will say, however, that everything happens for a reason, and you know when things are meant to be.

drove back to Vladivostok, where I opted to take a break here at the hotel. Amy has gone back downtown with our coordinators to fill out some paperwork. I know she's anxious to get back and update her people about today.

tonights plan is to chill at the hotel and catch up with the other families to see how their day went. Sarah and her husband were meeting their baby for the first time today too, so there will be a lot to talk about over dinner (and vodka!)

tomorrow if time allows we'll do a city tour. I havent had the opportunity to take any photos other than from the car window.
the buildings here are very old and in poor repair, but they are beautiful to see. I have been so comfortable and at ease the
whole time we've been in the country, its a good feeling.

more later
xo

Russia, day 1

its now about 8pm Monday night, vladi time. (almost 5am Monday - michigan time) and we are finally
in our hotel and ready for sleep. Well, Amy is... I'm still wide awake.

We arrived here about 2:30p. The airport is very small and old. in fact, it pretty much looks abandoned from the runway.
after a lot of hustle and bustle through customs and immigration we finally got our luggage and met with our driver and interpreter. They gave us a very brief tour of the town on our way to the hotel. The area we are in is very rural. Lots of trees.
Most of the houses that we passed on our way into town are in very poor condition. Pretty much an urban explorers dream town.

The hotel is decent. Unfortunately its about 30 minutes outside of the city center, so activities are limited.
The plan is to get to the downtown area on Wednesday for touring and shopping.

Tomorrow will be spent at the Ministry of education to sign some forms, then its off to the baby home.

We met two other families that Amy knows through blogging while at the airport, and a third family we met after we arrived at the hotel. They are all super nice. It will be nice to have other ppl to hang out with in the evenings while we are here.

I know there is a ton of stuff I wanted to share, but am too tired to think of the right words now.

some quick thoughts....

Sean Astin, the kid who played in some lord of the rings movies and in Rudy (?) and some other stuff was on our plane from Detroit to Los Angeles. I didnt know who he was...I thought he was a guy from Entourage.

LAX is the most effed up airport I've seen in a while.

Korean airlines is tha shit! super nice planes, polite, efficient staff and surprisingly good food. The only complaint with them has been the planes have been really really warm inside. uncomfortably warm. boo to that.

I'm loving my flip video camera, even if we look totally dorky in every video.

I've been awake for almost 48 hrs.


Dasvidania!

Welcome to Korea!

we FINALLY got to korea about 5:30a. not sure what that translates into, but it was a hella long ride from los angeles.

we leave here in about 2 hrs for a short (2 hr) flight to Vladivostok.
updating from there will be easier.

a - we can have internet in the hotel room
and
b - my macbook wont change to KOREAN ever third word. its been good for laughs, but its getting really stinking old now.

i'm really looking forward to getting a shower and a nap.

more later

xoxo

peace out

by this time tomorrow I'll be in Korea ( I think - the math is confusing)
not enough layover time for a city tour, unfortunately, but i'm going to see
if we can at least get a quicky cab trip. If not, its something to plan for the next visit.

I'm kinda almost packed. I have a bad habit of never fulling unpacking when I come home from trips, so repacking is always a bit of an adventure. There are always little surprises left over. today was no different... i found a super cute tshirt, about 100 BZE dollars and stupid DER. I thought I had finally managed to lose him, but he keeps reappearing.


k, so this is it. look for an update late tomorrow or sometime Monday.

xoxo

absolute detroit

some photos from the weekend. Andy from Absolutemichigan.com came to detroit for a conference, so a group
of us met up for dinner and a photo walk around campus martius and hart plaza.

rambling

a couple of years ago I got this crazy idea to travel from Moscow to Beijing on the Trans-siberian

railway.  I picked up a couple of guide books, because I love my books and have to read everything possible while waiting to travel.    I ended up not taking the trip, opting instead to return to Peru.  The guidebooks got lost in my bookshelves, and pretty much forgotten about.

Until today  :)

I'm not sure why I thought about these books today, but I did.  And I managed to find them 

without much trouble.   And, much to my delight,  both of the books have a dozen pages each on Vladivostok.   Vlad is the last Russian stop on the trans-sib, so these guides have tons more

information than what I found in the general LP Russia guide.    So yay, good news.

Visas came back today.  that should be the last bit of paperwork needed, so all that I have left to do now is to get through one more night of work, and try to conquer the packing.   

*****

my things to do/wish list 

buy a fur hat!

have yummy bowls of shchi

shop for russian cameras

vodka and caviar night -  or maybe just vodka night..  thats a bit more appealing.

sooz the flooz comes to town on thursday - can't wait.  she'll help make the rest of this 

week fly by.

xo

sunday

I've added SKYPE to my laptop as an additional way to keep in contact. For those not
familiar it is a free to use voice and video conferencing application. There will be times that
Amy will have to be in contact with US doctors, so this should help that process run smoother.

I think everything is now purchased, including a new uber cute pair of UGG boots.
Now the challenge is to get everything packed. I'll leave that worry to another day.

For those who have asked... I dont think its practical for us to take donations for the
baby homes on this trip. Once we get there and see whats needed (or wanted), I'll let
you all know how you can help. Thank you so much for the offers, you guys are the best.

off to enjoy the sunshine
xoxo

and it begins

me, blogging.    laughable.   but, i thought this was an easier way to keep in

touch with everyone while I'm traveling.    Same boring content in a flashier new form. 

woo.

I'm not going to rehash the hows and whys of this trip.   For that you can go back and read Amy's baby blog.   She's all chock full of happiness over there and will appreciate the visit.

So, here's the skinny

Depart Detroit on the 18th, arrive in Vladivostok, Russia on Monday the 20th. (Via LAX and Seoul, S. Korea)   Stay in Vlad for the week, then do the reverse route Friday the 24th arriving home very late on the 26th. 

Should be an interesting trip, to say the least.  :)

more later