Starbucks in Russia

I am a bit delinquent in posting so I thought I would do a quick update.  We don't have much to report right now in the adoption front, but there has been a lot going on.  I hope to be able to give more of an update tomorrow night.

I can fill you in on what it is like to be in Russia.  The longest days of the year are in June and in Russia that means really long days.  It is the season of 'white nights'.  Right now it is 10:00 and it is still daylight.  Really weird.  According to our translator, the Russians take advantage of this time and stay up late.  Not me.   My sleeping schedule is already too messed up.

We are having our passports registered with the Russian police today.  Even Russian citizens have to be registered in the city where they are staying.  Russians have an internal Passport that they have to have on them at all times.  They have to register their passport with the police and when they travel within the country, they must register in the cities where they are traveling.  So, we are being registered so if a police person stops us, we can be legal.

We are staying in a nice area of Moscow that is quite 'touristy'.  It is good to walk out of our apartment and be in an area where we can walk around.  Although if you eat at an American chain restaurant, it will be much more expensive.  For instance, at dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe last night, my 20 ounce diet coke was the equivalent of $8.00.  I will never complain about the price of sodas back home again.  Neither Vernon nor I are coffee drinkers, but we have frequented the Starbucks here for breakfast.  We get our hot chocolates and scones for breakfast, although we acknowledge that what we are spending is pretty ridiculous.  Tonight we ate at a restaurant named My-My, which translated sounds like Moo-Moo.  It is Russian so therefore more affordable, although I couldn't tell you what I ate.

I do hope to post more about the real reason for our trip soon.  Thanks for all of your support and prayers!

Christa