Ladies and gentlemen…the moment you’ve been waiting for…Bonnie’s Journal as written, while in Moscow. If you think it sounds neat then give ‘er a click
24 March 2005-25 March 2005 (Happy 6 month Anniversary to Justin and Bonnie)
The alarm sounded at about 6:45 this morning. After a few snoozes we crawled out of bed to get dressed and ready to leave for Russia. We packed last minute things and took the trash out. We met Justin’s mom, Maw Maw, and Stacey at the Pancake House in Shelby for breakfast. Then we proceeded to Crestview to load up and head to the Charlotte airport. Before leaving we all gathered around in circles. In the middle was a circle of team members and the outer circle was made of friends and family. We said a final prayer and were off to Charlotte.
Once at Charlotte, we checked in and grabbed something to eat and then headed to our gate waiting area. Our flight was delayed for a bit but we finally boarded only to have to wait for an additional inspection due to a small problem (what every person wants to hear before take off). We were on a tiny plane with 2 seats on either side of the aisle, like a greyhound bus. Surprisingly it wasn’t too rough of a fly. Jimmy B. and Phillip kept us entertained.
By the time we got to JFK we went straight onto the 767. Then there was another delay but finally we took off. The seats were very close together but everyone made the best of it. Around 11:30ish(am) we were in Russia with snow everywhere! It was definitely a weird feeling getting off the plane being somewhere totally new and not our native language. It turns out that Justin and I were the lucky ones that got their bag lost. Hopefully it will come up soon. Then I got separated from the group for a brief time but was finally reunited with everyone and we headed to our hotel. It is very nice on the 12th floor and we have the “suite” which I’m sure will be the “hangout”. Justin didn’t get his tickets back when filing a lost and found claim at the airport. Talk about luck for us. Then we headed to our first Metro trip. Wow! People are always in a rush it seems. we went to Sbarro for lunch/dinner and met some other interpreters and some Russian students learning English. We saw the Kremlin and Red Square and headed back finally to our hotel. Jeremy, Lucas, Justin and I are the only ones here tonight. The others are staying with missionaries. Now we must stay up til 9:30pm or so tonight and then finally we can end this extremely long over 24 hour day. It is now 3/25 7:45pm Russia time and we’ve been up since 7:00am 3/24 US time.
