Gone American…

Oh, the joys of sleeping on a real mattress, with soft sheets, soft & comfortable pillows and a quiet room. Brian said his back actually did better on the other bed but not mine…it's feeling good!

Genya had fallen asleep about 7pm and Brian and I stayed up till around 9pm. I didn't sleep real soundly all night but did at stretches. (I never sleep well the first night in a different place and had some things on my mind too!) Genya woke up the first time about 3am to go to the bathroom but then went back to sleep. He is enjoying having the queen sized bed to himself after the little cot he had at the apartment and probably his little bed at the orphanage too – he slept every which way on the bed during the night! He then woke again a little before 5am and said "dobre ootra" (good morning) but I showed him it was still dark outside and had him lay back down. Wasn't sure at that point if he'd go back to sleep but he did until just after 6:30am – he then went to look out the window and it was a little lighter so he came by me and said "dobre ootra, mama"! I said now it's morning? He said "da" and so we all got up. He wanted some juice – not surprising as the room is a little warm and he hasn't drank much since lunch yesterday! I think I'm going to have to have someone come show us how to run the ac in this room – I thought I lowered it but it didn't help much. We're used to the Siberian climate now and need it a little cooler to sleep! They have great down comforters on the beds too so it's better to snuggle under when it's cooler!

I'm not usually a fan of watching CNN but we pretty much have that on when the TV is on here – it's English! We watched skynews also and saw the CBS evening news from last night. Seems we didn't miss much these last weeks! I gave Genya the portable DVD player as he wanted to watch his Spiderman DVD and he's happy pressing the pause/play buttons which usually drives me nuts but figure if that's how he wants to watch it…! He also keeps touching the screen thinking it will react to his touch like the DS – that's on the list of things to have Elena explain to him once we're home!

We got an English newspaper delivered to our door this morning. "The Moscow Times" which is 16-pages long but is 16-pages more than I've read in weeks and weeks. For those of you who don't know I'm a reading junky and get the paper delivered every Friday, Saturday and especially Sunday and also got for a Christmas present the local daily paper so this little paper is a welcome sight – I'll read every word!! They also had complimentary coffee in the lobby so Brian went to get me some – it tastes like hotel coffee but better than the Maxwell House instant! Sometime in the next few days we'll find the Starbucks or even will buy a McDonald's coffee (normally I'm not overly fond of McD's but hey, it's a taste of home). Genya ate the last banana I had brought from IRK and the last apple but since we're only a few minutes from the 24-hour supermarket we'll restock as needed. There is a very, very small refrigerator in the room so we'll just keep Genya's juice and a yogurt or two in there! Brian went to check the emails and then was going for a walk outside and will bring us some some baked goods from the grocery store for breakfast.

I did get email from our travel agent and she has us booked out of here on Sunday – there were no seats available Saturday – but until I know for sure we're leaving I won't post any details!

The thing with the passport is that the Russian names matches the birth and adoption certificates – so there really should be no reason the English middle name missing is a concern. We can prove who he is! And the English on the passport is spelled wrong anyways - he's Neytan Ninman - so how can something not being there make any difference??? This all has me vexed.

Brian brought back some donuts – yumm! Philip called around 10:30a and said he got the embassy to accept Nathan's passport – he said they didn't know what to make of it! So tomorrow really (Thurs) we go at 1pm to get his passport with his entry visa. After we got this great news (I cried a little when hearing it) we headed out for the afternoon. We walked to Arbat St – a LONG walk! We had the 'cultural map' that really isn't to scale but somewhat helpful. I thought we were getting close to our destination when Genya said he had to go toilet – so we looked for either the restaurant or a public toilet… finally spotted a pay toilet so he was better. Then I figured out I had looked at the map wrong and we were on the wrong side of the street! To cross the busy streets here you go underground and walk under the streets, but there isn't one on every intersection. We made it across and found (eventually) where we wanted to go… Hard Rock Café! Longtime blog readers will remember me posting last year that I was 21 before my first Hard Rock – JJ got to his first (Indy) at 7 – Genya his at 5! We had a nice lunch and it was smoke free in the roomuntil just when we were leaving – unbelievable! Brian had a hamburger w/fries, I had a salad with chicken and fruit and Genya had Mac n'cheese, fries with ketchup and even put his m&c into the ketchup also – said that will impress JJ! Genya also did some air guitaring with the music – cute! We then headed to look for a few souvenirs we had been asked to look for and found a few more things we thought were cute. I also found a traditional Russian shirt for Genya (or so they say anyways! LOL) they gave Genya a gift of a toy car but it has a missing headlight so probably couldn't sell it! Ah, it's the thought that counts – he likes it!! We then walked the rest of the street for awhile and found "two" Starbucks so I got a latte and Brian got an almond steamer – Genya liked the steamer also. When I came out with the drinks there was a street vendor drawing Genya's pix. We had already decided NOT to do it but they're somewhat aggressive and just did it. The pix of Genya is ok but he was quite happy about it getting done so we splurged and bought it (after getting a little discount anyway!) and then another guy came up and was doing mine "gift to you – nice eyes". That one actually looked quite a bit like me but I kept saying "no, not buying!" – but finally gave him what really is a token amount so between the two drawings we paid a fair price – and a unique remembrance. There was a McDonalds on the street so we were sure to stop at the "free public toilets" before departing the street. The walk back to the hotel didn't seem too bad even tho it was quite a ways… we stayed on the main streets so probably that made it seem shorter. We made a quick stop at the grocery store and then to the room. We had been gone for over 5-hours!

It was dinnertime then and we were getting hungry so headed for the Russian Chicken Restaurant owned by KFC (lists both names). We got some chicken pieces, fries and a chicken sandwich for Brian. Took it back to eat in the hotel room as it was quite busy there and Genya was a little ornery. That not eating on schedule affects him so much! He enjyed the chicken drumsticks – ate one complete and part of another and also some fries. Then part of one of the expensive apples we had purchased earlier… He didn't get a bath tonight but got his pajamas on after I put mine on also. By 8:30pm he had fallen asleep. I was reading some of the English tourism literature in the room and trying to stay awake until 10pm. Brian dozed some, checked email, took care of getting our travel arrangements paid for as the c/card the travel agent has expired end of February and then we watched an episode of "House" on the Hallmark channel – one Brian hadn't even seen believe it or not!

So yes, today we did Hard Rock Café, Starbucks, McDonalds (somewhat) and KFC… Also were asked a few times if we "lived here".

At 1:15am JJ and mom called from home – think they got the time difference messed up! We're "eight" hours, not nine different – the USA daylight savings time change is messing me up! I also posted the wrong phone number for here – listed central reservations so mom had to track us down! Genya slept through the whole call and Brian and I fell back asleep easily.