Samara, Trains, Restaurant Cars, and Escalators

So between leaving Novgorod and arriving back in Moscow this morning Not much was missed, and that was mostly covered in the quick posts to let you know we were safe and where we were going. However I will post pictures of the conditions on the train when we get back to the US and I upload the rest of the pictures. There really is not much to say about Samara except to pray for the people who live there, its pretty... ugly. Samara is a new city kind of it was formed as a hidden factory town when the Germans had taken over the western parts of Russia so it has a lot of world war 2 and Cold war era structures that make the projects in New York look fancy. The part of the city that they brag about is the river side and the beach where you will find wonderful views of crumbling concrete litter and broken glass mixed with a few sand volleyball courts and a beach soccer stadium (okay that was kinda cool)

I just want to tell two quick stories. The first story comes on the train back to Moscow from Samara. We had stopped to get food for the train at McDonald's but figured we would go to the restaurant car to have some thing to drink with it and a more comfortable place to sit for a few hours. Anastasia didn't come to the restaurant car right away and it was Alex, Bradley, Michael and I. The waitress was not happy that we couldn't speak Russian, so while trying to say not to worry we have a translator and she will be here in a few minutes she thought we were asking for chicken. She got frustrated and handed us off to another much nicer waitress. We knew the word for Tea(Chai) and Pepsi so we ordered that and began eating our McDonald's After a few hours of us sitting and drinking tea and talking this waitress had begun drinking, she had not been happy with us the whole time and we could tell. She began yelling at us that we were sitting there and had not ordered anything when in fact we had, so from that point on every little thing became a big deal. Alex went to use the restroom and she yelled "that restroom is for staff only" Anastasia got up and checked and there was nothing that implied that anywhere and we had seen many people use that restroom. Michael guessed that they just wanted to have a staff party and get rid of us and turned out to be right. Most of the staff on the train began showing up and started drinking, so we continued to sit and talk.

The second story is one of playing on escalators, now apparently escalators are serious business and fun is not to be had on them. So Friday the 24th as we were headed back the the hotel for the night after a fun day back in Moscow the group of us are in high spirits laughing and giggling Alex and Anastasia were holding hands from one escalator to the other and I made a gesture as if I were going to sit on the rail. There was an attendant lady at the bottom, and she saw me. Russians in general are pessimistic, you get bonus points if you can get a picture of one smiling. So instead of just saying, "Stop that" or "No" or something brief and to the point she proceeds to yell over the intercom while looking right at me all sorts of things in Russian as if I can understand her, luckily I knew how to say sorry in Russian which I did as I walked by while she was still yelling at me. Nastia explained to me that she was being very elaborate and trying to guilt me about playing on the escalator going as far as saying that I was going to cause the whole escalator to stop and that everyone would fall down and die not to mention the backup that it would cause in the flow of the people getting to the trains. Nastia then assured me while laughing at me that most of these women are very angry people anyways and it really is not as big of a deal as she made it to be. None of the Russians even turned their head to see what this lady was yelling about, no one seems to pay attention to the PA system or the Metro staff.

I promised Bradley I would include that last story in the blog so I wanted to do that before I fell asleep and forgot.

I hope you have enjoyed reading the blog so far, we leave for the airport to come home at 6:30 in the morning. I pray that we are not delayed and that we make our flight, Every time I have flown back across the Atlantic I have had to spend an overnight in the airport including 25 hours in Charles De Gal airport in France. So hopefully that does not happen this time. We should be back in Dallas by 8PM Saturday!!! I will post pictures to the blogs early next week.

ADDED:

I think Michael was the least happy about all the train rides on the shelf, poor guy was so tall it doesn't look like he fit.

 Yes they managed to squeeze 56 beds into each train car and there was little to no air conditioning so it kinda smelled by the time we fell asleep.

 Alex is sitting on her shelf and offering me a puff pastry with chocolate inside, it was delicious.

 Bradley fell asleep very quickly... sometimes.

As Always thanks for your time and giving this a read. If you enjoyed it share it with friends, you can do so easily with one of the buttons below. I pray that you will embrace life in the Love and Grace offered to you through Jesus Christ, and that you will always remember Jeremiah 29:11.  – For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, Plans to Proper You and not for harm, Plans with Hope for the Future.

Back In Moscow

We have survived two 18 hour train rides and two 8 hour train rides and one 12 hour flight. That means all we have left is another 12 hour flight and a 4 hour car ride and we will be home. It surely has been an amazing experience. We have just arrived back at the Hotel Bega in Moscow and we are showering and eating then we will head to the Ismaliva Flea Market. The kids are very excited and tonight when we get back to the hotel we will post the story of some of our adventures. Val greeted us at the train station. It is very odd to see her in her natural setting, she is trying to act like she doesn't speak Russian.

As Always thanks for your time and giving this a read. If you enjoyed it share it with friends, you can do so easily with one of the buttons below. I pray that you will embrace life in the Love and Grace offered to you through Jesus Christ, and that you will always remember Jeremiah 29:11.  – For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, Plans to Proper You and not for harm, Plans with Hope for the Future.

Russia Update - Arriving In Moscow

So the flight was wonderful, we were well fed and taken care of. There was so much available in the in flight entertainment module for each seat that most of us watched at least two movies and a myriad of other entertainment options including music and games. I read up on the culture of the people and tried to study some Russian... I do not think it worked, it is still as if they are speaking a foreign language. Needles to say that there was so much in flight entertainment that not much sleep was had, except for by Bruce and Michael. Bradley, Alex and myself got the least amount of sleep. We collected our bags and got through customs no problem and met our translator Anistasia. We sent our luggage with a driver to the hotel and took a series of train and taxi to get there ourselves. Now, the thing is that there are 6 of us when you include the translator, and vehicles in Russia aren't like the SUVs we are used to in the states, most of the cars are what we would consider compact. So 6 of us plus a taxi driver piled in to a single taxi. Let me tell you, it was amazingly comfortable and we have pictures to prove it. I will try to get those posted later tonight. Tonight for us that is, It is already 7:09PM here and its only 10:09AM back home. We are freshening up right now in the Hotel Rooms, then we will be hitting the town for dinner and some tourism. We might even have dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe tonight.

All that being said, what really matters is that we are here and we are safe, and so thankful to have a translator with us. Pray that god would continue to take care of us and teach us something new each and every day.

This is a picture of the the Youth excitedly on their way to the airport in Houston.

 This is a picture just after getting off the plane and through customs. We have met our translator, Anistasia( the one in pink) talking to Bruce (the one in grey) and we are waiting on the driver who will take our luggage to the hotel.

 You can see how awake they are, this is the WE ARE IN RUSSIA AND I'M EXCITED picture

 This is in line for the train tickets where the Youth's level of fatigue was probably at its worst... it probably didn't help that they couldn't understand what anyone was saying Bruce and I was acting like we were going to sell them to the Russians.

 This last photo is after the adventure in taking 7 people in a very small Russian Taxi - That picture is on Alex's camera I will load it as soon as I get a chance. We are in the lobby at the Hotel Bega and there is a visible difference in their body language I think they are relieved to finally be at the hotel.