En Route Home: Delays, Stanley and the Artic Tundra 121905

Greetings from about 35,000 feet about the Arctic Tundra of Canada! There is ice and snow for as far as the eye can see.
Many of you on this list may know John Moody, my former colleague from MBNA. Well, John asked me to do a Flat Stanley for his son's school project. Some of you may know of this project. It is based off of a book about a boy who is flattened by a billboard and then mails himself to a friend for an adventure. Now, Stanley is sent all over with different people for adventures. I will attach some Stanley pictures. They are funny.
So, this morning before my flight I went around Moscow (as much as possible at 8 a.m.) and took some pictures of Stanley. People were looking at me like I was crazy! They are right.
One of the exciting parts of this flight has been Greenland. There is nothing even remotely green about Greenland. In fact, I think it might just be a huge joke. Greenland looks like a big, snowy iceberg! I looked for polar bears, but they are hard to spot at 30K feet. In fact, I could not see any flora or fauna. It is very odd!
I saw a bunch of people that I flew in with in the hotel lobby this morning. They were all coming here to adopt, and they had their new additions with them. It is so heart warming! I love to talk to the kids (the ones that are old enough). They are always so excited to go to America and so proud and thankful to have their new parents. I also think they are often very thankful to speak to someone who understands them and can communicate with them and their parents. The parents often have translators with them, but the translators don't really take the time to just talk to the kids unless the kids want something. I think it is a cultural thing. Also, the translators are only with them when they go to the orphanage, so when they are at the hotel, the communication is limited.
My Russian has been improving dramatically. With each trip to Russia, my fluency is getting better and better. I think the biggest improvement has been with the speed of my reading. Before, I had a hard time reading signs, especially on the highway, but now, I am doing so with ease. This has been very helpful with my work, as some of the tests that I have to do involve reading parts of contracts in Russian.
I'm thinking of making a web site to post travel reports and pictures. Let me know if anyone has any suggestions.
So, the first flight that I was on left the gate about 20 minutes late. When we got into the air, I saw that we had 170 mph headwinds, so I knew that we were not going to make up time. We ended up landing 45 minutes late. It gets worse though! When we landed, we didn't have a gate, so we sat on the tarmac another 30 minutes. Mind you, as this was my "first port of entry" into the US, I was required to go through immigration, retrieve my luggage, go through customs, re-check my luggage, go through security, then go to the gate for my connection to LA. So, finally we get a gate, most of the plane has already missed their connections. I was supposed to have a 1 hr 55 min layover. By the time, I was waiting for my luggage, I had 30 minutes left. My luggage was one of the last to come off the conveyor. I got through customs amazingly fast. Of course, in security, I am behind this lady who just adopted a Russian baby and has about a million things to put through the conveyor. Thankfully, the security guard waved me ahead of her. So, I sprinted through the airport to my gate. I didn't take time to put my shoes on or put my laptop in my bag. My plane was set to leave at 5:55 p.m. EST. I arrived completely out of breath at the gate at 5:54 p.m. to be told that my flight was delayed until 7:00 p.m. I was so happy. So, I put my shoes on and hauled over to the other terminal. By the time I arrived there, everyone was in line for seat reassignment. Well, another hour later (7:40 p.m.), my flight had still not boarded. We finally boarded, just to be told that the first officer had not yet arrived. We sat on the ground for at least another hour. Finally, I arrived back in LA. My luggage was found. Yea! Claron and I arrived home at approximately 2 a.m. PST in Santa Barbara.
I have adjusted to the time well. Claron and I attempted some Christmas shopping yesterday. What madness! I did get a lot of it done abroad thankfully. Today, I am working from home. Tim, Claron's brother is set to come in this weekend for Christmas. We are very excited to see him.
Anyway, I'm happy to be home. Today is my mom's birthday! So, happy birthday, Mom! We love you!
Hope everyone has a great holiday.
Cheers!
Amanda