We had a bit of a frustrating day today. When we left the orphanage yesterday, the head doctor had told Anna to call this morning about coming for a visit. Anna called all morning only to be told that the doctor hadn't arrived yet, she was at a conference, and to try calling later. By the end of the day she was told that the doctor didn't come in at all. Nobody is allowed to let us come visit without the head doctor's permission, so we did not get to see Tashmina. We were disappointed, but there was nothing more we could do.
It was a snowy gray day in Moscow and we spent our day walking around killing time. We walked up to Red Square and saw they had put up an outdoor skating rink in front of the GUM department store. Many children were there as they have no school.
We also took a walk up Tverskaya Street and stopped in the Yeliseyev grocery store. It was an interesting blend of palatial decoration and architecture with cold cuts and vodka. For dinner we chickened out and decided to go for TGI Friday's. We were a bit scared it would be filled with tourists, etc., but found that we were quite the minority. Our waiter was only too happy to speak English for practice and asked me to keep to English when I tried to work through the menu in Russian. He said that he had some customers from England a few weeks ago, but no Americans for some time. So, a burger and ribs with a few beers was a nice change of pace along with interesting conversation with the waiter (he wanted to know how Americans truly viewed the Russian people vs the propaganda told by the government here).
Tomorrow morning is our court hearing at 10:30am. We were told that once the hearing is over we will be able to take Tashmina to get pictures for her passport. That will be an adventure as a nurse will go with us as well. Five adults and Tasha in a car smaller than Vitali's BMW. Maybe we will be lucky and he will get it fixed by tomorrow. We can only hope.
It was a snowy gray day in Moscow and we spent our day walking around killing time. We walked up to Red Square and saw they had put up an outdoor skating rink in front of the GUM department store. Many children were there as they have no school.
We also took a walk up Tverskaya Street and stopped in the Yeliseyev grocery store. It was an interesting blend of palatial decoration and architecture with cold cuts and vodka. For dinner we chickened out and decided to go for TGI Friday's. We were a bit scared it would be filled with tourists, etc., but found that we were quite the minority. Our waiter was only too happy to speak English for practice and asked me to keep to English when I tried to work through the menu in Russian. He said that he had some customers from England a few weeks ago, but no Americans for some time. So, a burger and ribs with a few beers was a nice change of pace along with interesting conversation with the waiter (he wanted to know how Americans truly viewed the Russian people vs the propaganda told by the government here).
Tomorrow morning is our court hearing at 10:30am. We were told that once the hearing is over we will be able to take Tashmina to get pictures for her passport. That will be an adventure as a nurse will go with us as well. Five adults and Tasha in a car smaller than Vitali's BMW. Maybe we will be lucky and he will get it fixed by tomorrow. We can only hope.
No comments:
Post a Comment