Here we are finally

Good morning, its about 7:30 your time at home, we don't have internet, but we are up. We slept for 8 hrs and then needed drinks and bathroom, by that time we were awake, so we are just up for a bit, may return to bed yet, will have to see how we feel. We did get a full 8 hrs of sleep though, so that was very positive. We could tell we were in Russia immediately in getting off the plane. Instant cigarette smoke, thats just the way the air here is. It wasn't as smoky as the airport in Moscow, but it was there. As usual, our driver wasn't there, we just must have that kind of luck. But since our driver was NEVER there for Brayden's trips either, we just stood there and watched for him. Finally after 20-25 min he came in. We used the bathroom and then headed out. He was driving a black van type vehicle, it has three bench seats in it and cargo space behind. Very large by Omsk standards. His name is Antone and his mother is our coordinator Ludmilla. He drove us back here to Pskov, they both live here, went to his mom's house and picked her up and then we headed to the motel. Took a very round about way, but I couldn't tell if that is for confusion or if that is just the way the roads go. Lots of potholes in these roads too. The driving here is much the same as Omsk, as fast as possible on either side of the road, just just missing other cars. And I do mean by scant space missing other cars. We were going about 100 km/hr to give you an idea of speed. THen a hard brake was applied when potholes were upcoming unless it was possible to just drive on the other side of the road. Whcheckpoint there. We waited in line for 25 to 30 min for that ckpoint and then they opened my suitcase and pawed through it, remember this same suitcase has now cleared US security in Denver too. In Denver we were lifted of our shower gel, my 4 oz body lotion and a body butter. THey have changed the rules to 3.7 oz bottles of liquid, in case no one else knew that!! Now in Frankfurt, the first security went fine, other than Roger en we were in the Frankfurt airport we walked about 2 miles of hallways to get to the terminal we needed, had to clear security again and then off to the gate, imagine our surprise to encounter another security wore his boots through instead of taking them off and he buzzed the personal scanner so they had him take his boots off, ran them through x-ray and then scanned his feet. Then we are down in the dungeon room for the next security, take our shoes off, walk through all is fine, until she x-rays my suitcase, they pulled our toothpaste of all things, it had at this point cleared two or three other security checkpoints, but this one they pulled it. "We don't make the rules mam, its too big". Went down to the gate to discover that our flight has been moved from that gate to a new gate. Ok, just for clarity, I am steamed to have lost my toothpaste, its mentadent that we can't even buy in walmart anymore, have to order it from walgreens online now. I asked for it back as we walked back out past the security, they said no you have another secuirty before the new gate too. Well we got up there and yes, there was a ckpoint there, but it was unmanned as yet, so we walked through. I went back downstairs to try to get that toothpaste back, but yup ya know the answer was just NO. Anyway, while we were waiting in the gate, we met another fam, single mom, son 15 yrs and grandma. They are from Savannah GA here to adopt in Pskov too. They are getting siblings a boy and a girl. They were staying in ST Pete last night though and doing a bit of touring. Don't know when they will come down here for sure, wonder if they will be here in our hotel too. Different agency and all, but cool to have run into them. We exchanged info in case we don't see each other anymore here, we can still keep in touch at home. I am going back to bed, Roger already went. It says on the computer 7:12 p.m. must be home time, but I don't think its very accurate. Think I could sleep a bit more though for an hour or two. Hope to get some calls back home done before all go to bed. Now actually we did go to bed for a while, just rested and talked though. Now the computer says 10:12 and what do ya know so does my watch so it is keeping perfect home time. Roger has set his watch to Pskov time, and mine is still on Riv time. We are waiting for the business center to open this morning. Things are a bit different this time around, the breakfast is served at 7 instead of 8 (Omsk) and goes till 11 a.m. and the business center opens at 9 not 8 (Omsk) and closes at 6 iinstead of 5 (Omsk). All this makes for a bit of difficulty in getting calls made to our little boy at home. Good thing he is rather versitile and able to adjust his sleep schedule to fit what we need. He may need longer naps during the day to work this all out, but I bet Granny will get that figured out too. :-) Our room is very different from Omsk, this isn't just one room its a mini apt without the kitchenette. We do have a frig though, so we went to the grocery store, there are two within easy walking distance, and bought bread, ham, turkey, cheese that smells a bit strong, mayo, cucumber, red pepper, carrots, chips, our favorite Rich brand grape juice and pineapple juice, a big jug of water and came back. We ate here in our room last night for supper, then ate in the hotel restaurant for breakfast this morning. Breakfast was very similar to Omsk, eggs, weird looking sausage links, breads, cuc slices, tomato slices, cheese, hot cereal if you want, then wild blueberries and some little dessert bars. We ate pretty good this morning, don't really know what we will do for lunch, we will go back to the store for a few things, but might find a little deli or something for lunch. We are trying to be a little cheap, but don't want to miss out on all the culture experience either. Have to find a happy medium. I am glad that we aren't trying to feed a 15 yr old boy like Lori is. She commented that if he continued to eat $30 worth of food at every meal (airports are spendy) she wouldn't have enough money to go around. One thing about Pskov, credit cards aren't nearly as useful here as they were in Omsk, more cash is needed here. These people seem to be a little better off, more overweight ones than Omsk had. The orphanage director is busy this morning, so we are to meet Ludmilla in the lobby at 2 p.m to sign a few documents and then we will go meet with the Inspector and then go to the orphanage. The orphanage is 55 kilometers from the hotel, no idea how far that is in miles. THings are weighed and measured so differently here that I am LOST. Anyway it looks like we will go once a day for up to two hours, they will dictate how long each day we are allowed to stay. Then it seems the rest of the day is ours to spend. There are some shops here not too far from the hotel to walk through too. I hope to find a kids store in that series of shops. The main road that our hotel is on is comopletely safe to walk on. Ludmilla said we could walk all up and down it and not worry. We walked a bit yest and just got back to the hotel and upstairs to our room on the 6th floor when it just started a downpour. It really rained hard. We wnet back out after it quit raining so hard and it was just sort of dripping and walked back to the internet cafe where we had to send our email to the fam that we were here and safe since the hotel center was already closed. We got a bit wet but not too bad. Then went grocery shopping, back to eat and shower and bed. Today we will get out and check things out a bit more. We want to go to the other gocery store to see if it has more selection and variety. We had to ask soem questions in the grocery yest, good thing people here know a bit of english cuz my Russian is really BAD this time too. In fact I have forgotten a lot of what I knew before. When buying fresh produce you have to put it on a scale and put in the correct number and push a button and it prints out the scanning code for the cashier. Not sure we did it right yest because they sure were cheap. Roger said the red pepper cost like 28 rubles and we think about 37 rubles is a dollar. So it was really cheap, which is good, but might not be right. Will let this do for now, and post a few pics of where we are and what it looks like.