An American in Moscow 09-29-09

An American in Moscow
The last step in our long trip happened today. The American Embassy to pay for our children to become American citizens. It’s the American way. The Russians want paperwork on top of paperwork, the Americans want cold hard cash. God bless America, I can’t wait to get back!
We started the day getting breakfast at the cafe in the lobby. This time Elena didn’t want to eat and she was angry. Yesterday or today we gave those Nintendo DS systems and we have been telling them we would take them away if they were not good. At breakfast Elena was mad and made what looked like a stabbing motion with her fork toward Teri. We both say it and interpreted it that way, Elena said she it was a throwing motion not a stabbing one, and we talked it over and left it on hold for the time being.
We had decided to go take a trip on the metro today to the zoo and red square and the hard rock café. Last night we had decided to do just the Hard Rock Café and see what time we had left after that. We walked past the crap dog café and went down into the metro. It took a few minutes to get our barring and off we went on the next train. We had seven stops to our location and we also got a newer train that showed the stops and what stop we were at, life was good. At our stop we get off and head up to the surface. This is where the trouble started. We had neglected to get more specific data and a better map to help us out. I went to the street and tried to find a street on my map while Teri held on to the girls. I neglected to mention that it is a windy and occasionally showery day and the girl’s jackets and sweaters are a little light for the weather. Bad Parents, Bad! I take our little party to the left and we get to New Arbot st. We wanted Old Arbot st. so I look at the map, ask a person, with my wife’s kindly encouragement and he say we are going in the wrong direction and need to go back the way we came. In reality he said “Hard Rock Café” and pointed in the direction we’d just came. We walk past Old Arbot st. and again with my wife’s quiet encouragement I ask another man and he again says we have passed the location we are looking for and must go back to the corner we have just passed and it is just down the street. And yes, all he did was point and said soon, soon.
We got to the Hard Rock and had lunch, we gave the girls French fries, Teri had a Cobb salad and I had a burger. It was expensive, but it was nice to again eat something you could relate to.
Anatoly picked us up at the Hard Rock and a few minutes later we were at the Embassy. They ask you to get on a line separate from other people; I guess it is the line for Americans. We showed the guard our invitation and we then went to the desk and gave up anything that was not allowed inside, camera, cell phones, and the like. We then went to window four A and we gave the government 800.00 and I didn’t mind, it’s the end of the road and there is no line and my instructions say to go to window one and hand in my instructions, which we do. We are asked to sit down and wait until we are called. Within a few minutes several other families come in with the same business. They are from Texas, California, Chicago and one was from St Petersburg and she was adopting a girl and had plans stay in Russia for about a year and a half to teach Foreign Service worker’s children.
We were out in about an hour or so and we imposed on Anatoly to take us to Red Square, I guess I did. No one else wanted to really go. We were close to it so the trip was short. I have seen Red Square and some of the other building on TV for years and to finally see it in person was nothing short of amazing. I saw where leaders of the USSR would stand during parades, I stood where soldiers marched by and where Czars of Russia had walked. It was truly a great experience.
We got back to the Hotel and had dinner in another buffet in our hotel and went to our rooms.