Is it just me, or was that a fast 5 weeks? I arrived back in Texas last night after a long day of travelling that began for all of us at 7:30am when we left our hotel for the Moscow airport by bus. After a couple of hours in traffic, we arrived at Sheremetevo-2 and stood in line for about another 45 minutes to get through security and ticketing, then had a little time on our hands before our 12:15pm flight to New York. The flight left a few minutes late, but we arrived at JFK a little early, at approximately 2pm-- no matter how you slice it, Moscow to the U.S. is a 10-hour flight.
At JFK, the customs entry point is probably the worst, in terms of "customer friendliness," I have experienced! (Washington Dulles is the best, in my opinion, and Dallas is okay.) The customs guy who was pointing folks into the citizen or non-citizen lines was stereotypically New York rude (and even told one visitor, not a U.S. citizen: "Ma'am, if you raise your voice one more time, you're gonna be here for 3 hours."-- nice, huh?) Besides the general feel of confusion (it was confusing to ME and I live here-- I helped one non-English-speaking Russian lady going to Seattle who couldn't figure out the bag-checking process for continued flights; I agreed that it was way too complicated of a process, a "cluster %$#@" as one of the Americans in our group remarked while we were in a line wondering what to do with our checked luggage, and added that it was worse than the Moscow airport to which she agreed). The part of this seemingly renaturalization ritual I REALLY don't understand is the full security check (shoes off, scans, etc.) before moving on to the next flight; I suppose it's because we can't be too sure about other countries' security measures...but, still, it was a drag after such a long flight. I feel sorry for foreigners whose first impression of America is JFK airport.
While we were in the luggage line trying to figure out what the procedure was, I noticed a 4:20pm flight to DFW a few gates away from our continued flight to Chicago O'Hare. Once we got out of the bowels of the reentry area, I hurried to the gate and asked if I could swap my Chicago ticket for a seat to Dallas. I got an even exchange, but had only minutes before boarding, so my suitcase went on to O'Hare and I didn't really get a chance to say goodbye to everyone... My wife met me at the airport at around 7:30pm and then after a quick stop by my mom's house for hello and a bite (I was tired as a dog, but my daughters, sister, dad, and aunt were there), I was home in bed by about 10:30pm. And, oddly enough, I slept pretty well-- no identifiable signs of jet lag just yet-- after the 20+ hour-long travel day that was yesterday.
So, if you're an "everyone" from the group, sorry to have disappeared so quickly! It was a great trip and you were a great bunch to travel with! I really, really enjoyed my time in Russia! And to Ron and Aleksei & Galya: Thank you SO much for everything!! I hope I haven't seen the last of you... And Katya (my hostess in Vladimir), if you're reading this: Вам огромное спасибо за то, что Вы открыли мне свою кавартиру (и жизнь) на две недели! Я очень хорошо провёл время... Передайте пожалуйста "Прощай" от меня Царю Стефану и его двоюродному брату Майку! And if you have been following my journey, I hope I was able to convey a sense of what we experienced as American teachers in Russia-- thanks for tagging along!
As soon as I can get all of my pictures uploaded to a webpage, I will post the link here.
So much Russia in so little time...
Удачи всем из Техаса!
E.B.
