T-18hours and counting

Today was a blur. 19 trips to the store for last minute items, 3 hours of packing..repacking...and packing again, has left us both exhausted. However the excitment has us running about the house at midnight and there still seems no end to the preparation. We'll be relieved when it is over and we are on our way tomorrow.

We have about 200 DVD's packed because we can only spend about 2 hours a day at the orphanage and ther rest of the time you have to find things to do. In that winter has alrady arrived in KAZ we expect to spend alot of time at the hotel or indoors doing something. I however (the inquisitive wanderer) will no doubt tire of that rather soon and will venture into the tundra to see what I can find. I was told there is a spectacular mountian range there by my friend Bob...excuse me, Robert.

It a good thing we got our shots. I have every innoculation under the sun from the military but Bon had to go and at least get a tetnus booster yesterday. She put up quite a fight but that is not something you want to screw around with and if...if she got it, it would be the end of the trip. Her arm is quite sore and swollen tonight. Better than getting lock jaw however.

I picked up some Russian language books today. I always like to try and learn the native tongue where ever I go. It looks alot easier than Arabic thank goodness. It is also pretty similar to Serbo Croatian which I picked up quite a bit of in Bosnia. I will have plenty of time on the trip to bone up. Our first leg will take us from Phila to Franfurt over night (8 hours), we will spend the day in Frankfurt (15 hours) and the second leg will take us direct to Kostani (6 hours), so we should be basket cases by the time we arrive.

Luckily there is a USO station in the airport in Frankfurt. They usually have lounge chairs and even cots in some locations to affors soldiers rest on their travels. I think we can use it because I am still in the Military. Hopefully we'll be able to catch a few Z's there. If we have time we might try and get out of the airport and check out a sight or two.

I will try and make an entry each day here so you can keep up with what's happening on the trip and with the adoption. Our first visit to the orphange is Saturday morning so I may have pix of "Losh" (short for Alexei in Russian) by then.

Lots to do before bed so that's all for today.