Home!!!

Well we are finally about to come home. You do not realize how good you have it until you are gone from home for a while. Not being able to talk to anyone except the few that know English make things really tough. Brad and I got along great with only a couple of disagreements. That is great considering you are together 24/7 for 9 days straight.

The region that Alex is in is very boring. You are a prisoner in the hotel b/c it is too cold to go outside and there isn't anything to do outside anyway. On top of that there is nothing to do in the hotel (no gym, only 2 tv channels in English, pay by the minute for Internet, etc.) Before traveling, we were thinking about staying the 10 day waiting period which would mean that you take 2 trips instead of three. Our second trip would be about 25 days instead of making about a week stay for the second trip and then another week stay for the third trip. We would have to stay in Alex's region for about 20 of the 25 days and about 15 of those days will be without Alex. That means that we will be very bored. We are going to have to figure out the price differences in staying or going home for that 10 day wait. Most people that we have met have been going home.

On a better note, this has been a wonderful trip b/c we got to meet Alex and I look forward to coming back so that we can bring him home. I sure hope he likes the beach b/c I want to go there for the next 20 vacations...just to thaw out from Russia.

See you soon!
DD