Moscow- day 3

Last night I was up again at midnight. Chad continues to sleep well. At least I had downloaded Tina Fey's autobiography to pass the time. She is wicked funny with lots of sarcasm dripping from every page. I quickly realized as I finished her book on day three of our trip that I had not brought enough to do while we wait to pick up the boys. I didn't want to pack and carry my heavy textbooks cause we were pushing it on weight in our luggage as it was. Maybe I didn't need to bring quite so many socks.... or my hair straightener.... oh well. At 4am I got up and skyped with the girls and my parents. Callie kept saying, Mommy? I would answer yes? and she would say I love you! This happened at least five times during our fifteen minute conversation. She was a bit concerned we have to get onto a SECOND airplane to go to Siberia. When I explained we had to do that to get the boys she asked if we could just fly there, get the boys, and fly right home. I told her we really wished we could but that we had to get the papers that show the boys are official a Gipson. Samantha didn't say much during the call even when I asked her open ended questions (for my CSD students this IS the way to attempt to increase topic maintenance right?). I am hoping it wasn't because she was upset but more that she didn't have much to say. After I finished the call, I crawled back into bed and finally fell into a deep sleep until about 9am. We got up, showered, and dressed as housekeeping was coming at 10 and we were set to meet the other family we are traveling with at the US Embassy at 10:30. Chad and I sat outside of the Embassy for a while, which was an interesting site for people watching. There was a long line of Russians waiting with papers in hand. I am assuming they were waiting to be let into the Embassy to request a travel visa or something. There was a separate door that was marked "US citizens" that wasn't busy at all. We thought this was a good sign since we really didn't think waiting around in a long line with the boys would be a fun exercise. We acted as "tour guides" for the other couple as they hadn't walked in our neighborhood. We went over to the old arbat area and found much going on. People were constructing outdoor patios for the restaurants. I am not sure if part of the preparations were for the celebration on Sunday. I believe there may be a parade Sunday which will be nice to see. Our driver offered to take us on a tour tomorrow with the other family but Chad and I decided to wait until we returned with the boys as we would like for them to be able to see such important landmarks in their native country. I am excited to get pictures of them in Red Square. We found an open air market with lots of fresh produce, vegetables, and breads too. We bought a couple of potatoes for our dinner and some more fresh bread. Tonight we are cooking baked pork chops with baked potatoes to make us feel at home. Luckily the internet has been working (it wasn't the first few hours we had arrived) and there are a few channels that are English speaking; thank God for the Discovery Channel! I just got back from a little outing by myself. Mom, don't get too excited I only went a half block away. Anyhow, I wanted to go down to the bookstore we had visited earlier today. I found a decent English fiction books and bought two by an author I have enjoyed in the past. The prices weren't too bad, but definitely not Walmart! They had a book discount card program like Barnes and Noble they wanted me to join; I confidently said "nyet" while shaking my head, signed my receipt and placed my purchases in my book bag. Everywhere I go I try to not stick out as an American but Chad kinda sticks out. First off, he is taller than most Russians. Secondly, he usually wears an Iowa Hawkeyes shirt or some other tshirt with writing on it. Don't get me wrong, some younger Russians have clothing from Abercrombie and such but it isn't the same. The kid sitting next to us at Sbarro (yep, $1 slices of cheese pizza again) had a Megadeath tshirt on. Apparently death metal is popular here. Iron Maiden's huge plane was here during our first trip in Kemerovo. Overall, American popular music is significant here as we hear it coming from passing cars. There are lots of Russians who drive Toyotas and Fords. Although I haven't seen any Russian dometic cars, our driver said there are several models that are made (then he stated they don't run very well : ). So, not much going on today or tomorrow just more relaxing and reading my books. Oh, and doing some work for school as well; I don't think I will have much time once we have the boys! More tomorrow...