Grand-Nan and Grand-Dad's Visit

Bear with my novel! I just had a lot to write about my parent's visit- since that is what was happening here the past few weeks. We had a great visit with my parents. As it goes, we were pretty exhausted when they left (and I think they were too!). I've entered in a bit about their trip. Hope you enjoy!

ARRIVAL DAY

Kirt and Nancy left Lubbock Tuesday afternoon. They arrived in Moscow, having slept very little, on Wednesday morning, around 6am- Lubbock time. In Moscow, it was around 3pm. The airport, Sherymeteva, is actually about 15km north of Moscow. It took us about 100 minutes to get there, having taken both metro and marshrut (a small bus), to get there. We were excited for my parents to arrive. I knew they would be very tired, but I knew it would be easy to keep them awake until bedtime. They were very happy and in great spirits when they arrived. Everything seemed to go well for them; passing through customs was a breeze and all their luggage arrived on time with them! A perfect start! Once they got through to us, we just had to wait a few minutes before our taxi-van arrived to pick us up. We had arranged for a larger vehicle to pick us up, since it would be us four adults, Canaan, several large bags, and a stroller. Yes, we got our new stroller! It is great. We opened it up right away and put Canaan in it since he was getting tired and needed a place to be. After a two hour ride in the van, we all arrived at our apartment. Everyone was pretty tired after all the traveling and excitement, but we stayed up opening various gifts and surprises they had brought with them. It felt like Christmas in March!

CITY TOURS

Taking people to Red Square is awesome! I love to go there myself, and it seems to inspire much awe and reflection on those who visit. Not only is Red Square an awesome site, it also brings to mind much imagery we have of the once Soviet Union. How much has changed since then! My parents were taken in with Red Square. They talked again of how just a few years ago, they never would have imagined themselves being in Russia, in Red Square. We walked near the Kremlin Wall, looked on the outside of Lenin’s tomb (he is currently unavailable- as one newspaper put it- he is undergoing ‘mummy maintenance’). So, we did not have the option to take a peek at him, something I haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing yet. We walked around Saint Basils and actually got to go inside. That was a lot of fun, since I had never been inside it before. It is much different than the Catholic Churches I was accustomed to, having lived in Mexico. There were many paintings on the brick walls, not as much gold plastered everywhere. Then we walked to look over the Moscow River. It was cool that day; we all got a little chilly, but not too bad!

One of the days here, they were stuck with me, Lucy, as their guide. I didn’t know how much I really depended on Dougle until then. I had to read the metro signs by myself, figure out the best way to get from one place to another, and tell them what everything was. So, they got the 5 cent tour, as they called it. “Umm…this is probably an important building….Those monuments over there, they are dedicated to some cities in some war that did something….This statue is of some famous person- the date seems to indicate that maybe it was the founder of Moscow?!” Pretty pathetic. I did decide I need to brush up on some of my Moscow/Russian history and get to know the sites around here better. But, we had fun none-the-less.

Another day we went to a lookout point near the university. We got off the metro one stop early because it was actually a metro stop that was over the Moscow River. It is pretty cool. That did mean that we had to do some hiking and climbing up some stairs to get from the river bank to the lookout point. We all made it up. We were able to look over the city, admire one of the Seven Stalin buildings up-close, and do a bit of souvenir looking. We were getting pretty hungry and wanted to eat blini (a type of crepe with different fillings of meat, veggies or fruit). We went to the stand only to see two women sitting silently on the inside of the booth, staring out at us, with a sign in the window that read ‘technical break.’ We waited about 10 minutes, but since they weren’t going to open up for us, we decided to catch a bus to Victory Park and eat there. The bus, however, took a long time to come. We’d already been outside for at least 2 hours and we were only getting colder as we stood waiting for the bus. When we finally gave up on the bus and decided to look for a taxi, it came. The bus ride was a bit longer than we expected, but warm. It was a nice break from being outside and on our feet- since we actually all got seats! Yeah! However, the warmth didn’t stick with us very long once we stepped off the bus. Mom got to experience a Russian port-a-potty (it only cost 50 cents). We saw a monument built to commemorate the Russians stopping the advances of Napoleon into Moscow, as well as Victory Park. We took pictures in front of the main obelisk and dry fountains- that are a much prettier sight in the warm summer sunshine with the water running- and decided to head for the mall the eat. We took them down to the deepest metro in the world and rode two stops to the Kievskya mall, where we enjoyed a warm and delicious lunch of blini and hamburgers!

CULTURE SHOCK

So, Mom and Dad are doing great, but they are experiencing a bit of culture shock. Dougle and Dad ran to get some stain, sandpaper, and various other items. They left Mom at home with no knowledge of where the diapers were (oops); no worries though, Canaan loves to run around naked! When they arrived back home, Dougle exclaimed that it went so much easier and faster since they didn’t have Canaan with them (remember- Dougle is still getting used to the ‘baby factor’ of living in Moscow). Mom looked at her watch and wondered how being gone 5 hours could be described as either ‘quick’ or ‘easy!’

Dad is having a hard time not being able to communicate. He has resulted to crude signs and gestures to try to find things. This morning, however, as I was leaving for school, I noticed he was using babble fish (an online translator) to make out a grocery list. I found out that he went shopping on his own and was able to find almost everything he wanted. A very kind lady at the store took his list and helped him find everything that was on it. I think that made him feel a little better, but he continues to remark how difficult the language is!

Mom said she feels like she is looking at all the words backwards- like looking at the wrong side of a window on which words are written. What a great expression! It does feel like that at times, because there are a few letters that are written as backward English letters!

A GREAT TRIP

Canaan really enjoyed his grandparents being here. Dad was his reading buddy. Since Dad was waking up at 5am most mornings, he would take care of Canaan when he woke up, and let us sleep in. It was great! Mom played with his toys and puzzle with Canaan. She also helped me make him obey. It was so nice to have some helpful advice it training the boy. It is great to have a fresh take on things every-once-in-a-while. Dougle enjoyed all the help too, since Dad was his new shopping buddy. That meant he didn’t have to carry everything back to the house by himself. It was like someone was helping lift a weight off his shoulder for a few days! Mom was my gaming and talking buddy. We all were able to play some Mexican Train, Nine Card Golf, and LOTS of rounds of Boggle. It was great!

GOODBYE

While they were here, we spent a lot of time figuring out what to do when we had to leave the country in April to renew our visas. We priced and contemplated several options. We considered several European cities but decided to fly to Houston. Singapore Airlines just opened a non-stop flight from Moscow to Houston this week! It is at a low enough cost, coupled with the fact that being in the States to renew our visas is a third of the price as it would cost else-where, that it turns out to be the best (and most reliable) deal for us! So, knowing that we would see my parents again in less than a month (I can’t go to Houston without making the trip quick to Lubbock!) made goodbyes so much easier! What a wonderful way to end a wonderful visit! At four in the morning, we put my parents in a taxi and sent them off to catch their 7am flight to Lubbock! We love you Grand-dad and Gran-nan! Thank you for visiting us!