Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Moscow Journal -- December 30, 2010

Losing Tuesday


8:15 am



I was very grateful to have arrived safely in Vladivostok around 1:45 pm yesterday about 30 hours of travel time on four airplanes and layovers of at least three hours each in three airports (five hours in one of them). So from door to door, it was like this - I left my daughter's family's house in Marietta, Georgia, for the Altanta airport around 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time on December 27th. I have been blessed to have spent most of the last 17 months by helping out through being "Granny Nanny" for my sweet toddler grandson Jude, since a week or so before he was born and for his big brother, Seth, who will be five years old on January 24th. Then I arrived at my friend's house here in Vladivostok around 3 p.m. Even though I just napped a little bit while waiting for my friend to finish working, and went to bed about 10:30, I woke up about 4:30 a.m., jet-lagging. But that is to be expected!


It was good to get back here to Vladivostok and see everything with snow all over it. When we landed, the pilot said it was 3 above zero Fahrenheit, but it was sunny and not windy . . . the air was fresh, and I just had to get used to walking on ice again as we came down the gangway and walked over to a bus to take us to the terminal. Have some great ne VERY warm boots with good treads for traction . . . but I am a lot older than the last time I lived in the frozen north . . . in Alaska, so I need to hone my ice-walking skills. Or else! *grin* Don't want to fall.


Everything was fine going through customs and getting my luggage, and there was a taxi driver there waiting for me because my friend was working and she just had a cab sent to pick me up. There seem to be even more cars everywhere here than there was last May. The construction projects I saw in progress then have continued - especially along the highway from the airport which is quite a ways north of town - and some bridges that are being built in Vladivostok itself. Many of the new construction on apartment buildings in the city have been finished and all together things look good and prosperous.


Many of the billboards on the road sides and the banners over the roads were wishing everyone "Happy New Year!" So it was interesting to see them - some were from businesses and some were from the mayor of Vladivostok . . . maybe more of a campaign billboard. A lot of stores visible from the roads had banners with the New Year's greeting, too. Everything looks clean and shiny with the covering of snow, and the harbor downtown looked lovely from the main thoroughfare on a hillside above the downtown area.

When my friend got home from work it was great to see her again, and we had a lovely dinner with fresh bread prepared in her bread maker. Then we chatted a lot and got caught up some . . . watched an episode of "The Tudors" that she has on DVD, and then I pooped out and headed up to bed while she continued to watch T.V. until her bedtime.


This morning before she went to work for her last day before the two week New Year holiday here, we had some breakfast together and laid out the plans for the day. I have some errands to run and need to register . . . a requirement you need to get done within the first three days of being here.

Will write more later . . . oh! About losing Tuesday . . . of course because of flying all night over the Pacific, by the time I reached Seoul, it was pre-down on Wednesday, December 29th . . . even though of course it was only Monday the 27th when I left Atlanta. That pesky International Date Line! Brought back memories, though . . . the last time I crossed it going west was in 1985 when I went to an exercise in Korea with my friends, the F-15 fighter pilots with whom I worked in Alaska.


The layover in Las Vegas brought back a lot of memories of those pilots, too, since we deployed there twice for two Red Flag exercises. Also my son was married there in 1995 . . . and sometimes I end up going through there on Greyhound when I go from visiting my friends on the Western Slope of the Rockies to my son's in southern California. Anyway . . . I watched the sunset causing the Sunrise Ridge of mountains east of Vegas on Monday night - and last night saw the sunset over the hills of Vladivostok. Amazing how quickly you can get around, eh? Both sunsets were lovely as they all seem to be . . . and it's wonderful how much peace you can find watching them, don't you think?


Will write more later. Take care and have a safe and joy-filled New year's celebration!!


Blessings and Love -- Kathy


Kathleen Ware Harris  © 2012
kwharris777@gmail.com




Losing Tuesday

Losing Tuesday


8:15 am



I was very grateful to have arrived safely in Vladivostok around 1:45 pm yesterday about 30 hours of travel time on four airplanes and layovers of at least three hours each in three airports (five hours in one of them). So from door to door, it was like this - I left my daughter's family's house in Marietta, Georgia, for the Altanta airport around 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time on December 27th. I have been blessed to have spent most of the last 17 months by helping out through being "Granny Nanny" for my sweet toddler grandson Jude, since a week or so before he was born and for his big brother, Seth, who will be five years old on January 24th. Then I arrived at my friend's house here in Vladivostok around 3 p.m. Even though I just napped a little bit while waiting for my friend to finish working, and went to bed about 10:30, I woke up about 4:30 a.m., jet-lagging. But that is to be expected!


It was good to get back here to Vladivostok and see everything with snow all over it. When we landed, the pilot said it was 3 above zero Fahrenheit, but it was sunny and not windy . . . the air was fresh, and I just had to get used to walking on ice again as we came down the gangway and walked over to a bus to take us to the terminal. Have some great ne VERY warm boots with good treads for traction . . . but I am a lot older than the last time I lived in the frozen north . . . in Alaska, so I need to hone my ice-walking skills. Or else! *grin* Don't want to fall.


Everything was fine going through customs and getting my luggage, and there was a taxi driver there waiting for me because my friend was working and she just had a cab sent to pick me up. There seem to be even more cars everywhere here than there was last May. The construction projects I saw in progress then have continued - especially along the highway from the airport which is quite a ways north of town - and some bridges that are being built in Vladivostok itself. Many of the new construction on apartment buildings in the city have been finished and all together things look good and prosperous.


Many of the billboards on the road sides and the banners over the roads were wishing everyone "Happy New Year!" So it was interesting to see them - some were from businesses and some were from the mayor of Vladivostok . . . maybe more of a campaign billboard. A lot of stores visible from the roads had banners with the New Year's greeting, too. Everything looks clean and shiny with the covering of snow, and the harbor downtown looked lovely from the main thoroughfare on a hillside above the downtown area.

When my friend got home from work it was great to see her again, and we had a lovely dinner with fresh bread prepared in her bread maker. Then we chatted a lot and got caught up some . . . watched an episode of "The Tudors" that she has on DVD, and then I pooped out and headed up to bed while she continued to watch T.V. until her bedtime.


This morning before she went to work for her last day before the two week New Year holiday here, we had some breakfast together and laid out the plans for the day. I have some errands to run and need to register . . . a requirement you need to get done within the first three days of being here.

Will write more later . . . oh! About losing Tuesday . . . of course because of flying all night over the Pacific, by the time I reached Seoul, it was pre-down on Wednesday, December 29th . . . even though of course it was only Monday the 27th when I left Atlanta. That pesky International Date Line! Brought back memories, though . . . the last time I crossed it going west was in 1985 when I went to an exercise in Korea with my friends, the F-15 fighter pilots with whom I worked in Alaska.


The layover in Las Vegas brought back a lot of memories of those pilots, too, since we deployed there twice for two Red Flag exercises. Also my son was married there in 1995 . . . and sometimes I end up going through there on Greyhound when I go from visiting my friends on the Western Slope of the Rockies to my son's in southern California. Anyway . . . I watched the sunset causing the Sunrise Ridge of mountains east of Vegas on Monday night - and last night saw the sunset over the hills of Vladivostok. Amazing how quickly you can get around, eh? Both sunsets were lovely as they all seem to be . . . and it's wonderful how much peace you can find watching them, don't you think?


Will write more later. Take care and have a safe and joy-filled New year's celebration!!


Blessings and Love -- Kathy


Kathleen Ware Harris  © 2012
kwharris777@gmail.com