stuff about the trip:

left the house about noon on friday, to head to the airport to make my afternoon flight to amsterdam. got to the airport, checked in and got my boarding pass and found out that nathan was not allowed past the security checkpoint to go to the gate with me. so we spent some time snuggling and talking in the chairs right out front (and spent some time ogling our fair gov., who was at the airport at the same time we were) and then i got all needing to have things in motion right now, and went through the security checkpoint and sent nathan home.

i stopped in at the food court, and had burger king for lunch. i figured it would be the last time i got to have a proper hamburger for a while, and i was right. the flight lifted off on time, with me on it, and i ended up sitting next to a woman who was working as a summer counselor at a camp in northern minnesota, who was originally from tennessee, who was going to a conference on deaf education in sweden. we compared notes on how much further we had to go after we got off of this plane. (a lot longer for each of us, was the consensus.)

on the plane, we watched _snow dogs_ which was appalling, and _high crimes_ which was pretty good except for the fact that the soundtrack for _snow dogs_ was superimposed over it.

then the plane finally landed in amsterdam. i got off the plane, was reassured that my bags were checked through until moscow, and stumbled off to go find my gate. i found it almost immediately, but it was behind closed and locked glass doors. hmmm. i talked to someone at a transfer desk, and they assured me that eventually, the door would open and i would be let on to my next plane. eventually, this did happen. in the mean time, i found an internet kiosk sort of thing, checked in on l-space, checked my email quickly, and called nathan to fret at him about the gate door not being open.

the door opened, and i was able to get onto the klm flight to moscow. it was a much shorter flight; about 4 hours instead of about 8 hours. slightly less crowded, but also a slightly less comfortable plane. i got a cheese and vegetable relish sandwich, which is apparently something that the dutch consider to be great fun. i was not convinced. then the flight landed in moscow, and i got off, went through customs (very quick, very easy; i don't think they even read my form...) and was assaulted, i tell you, by hordes upon hordes of taxi drivers, all of whom wanted to drive me to sheremetyevo one. i had been told that svo one was no fun at all and that i should wait for much of the seven hour layover at svo 2, but i gave in to approximately the thirtyseventh person who asked me if i needed a taxi, and said, yes, please, i needed to get to svo1. he pointed at a $43 (yes, american dollars) price on his price list and said that for me, it'd be only forty dollars. (i did try to explain to him that yes, i needed to go to svo1, but not just yet, but that was too intricate to get across, apparently.) so, he took me outside, tucked me into a cab, explained to the driver that it would be forty dollars because i was special, and off we went to svo1. zoooom! zooooom! i gave the driver a ten dollar tip (because this was going to be the hard part, you see, and now it was over) and then he asked for three more dollars to take care of parking. i was unable to oblige. (seriously! i didn't have the money!) i went in, and figured out how long i would have to wait for my flight, and found a little cafe where i bought a slice of bread with some salmon and some caviar on it to eat. (i was going to say for lunch, but i have no idea what time my internal clock thought it was or what time it was in moscow at the time, either..) then i sat and read, and sat and read, and bought shoryl some stamps, and sat and read and sat and read... you get the idea. a seven hour layover at nearly the end of the thirty hour plane flight odyssey is not perhaps the ideal way to plan these things, but ah, well.

(to be continued...)