a rocky start

We made it to Russia, but it wasn't easy. Our flight was an hour late getting out of Los Angeles which meant that we missed our connecting flight to St. Petersburg and had to be put on a later flight. After hauling our four 50 pound suitcases plus 5 carry-ons through the airport in Moscow (after our 12 hour flight), taking a free shuttle, going through security a few more times, we got on the plane to St. Petersburg in the last seats, the last row. Dusk had almost turned to night when we took off at 11:30 p.m. It was amazing to see the sky become lighter as we flew north and west to St. Petersburg. Since Tanya's brother, Sasha, didn't know about the flight delay, he was not at the airport when we arrived. We were able to borrow somebody's cell phone (they call them "mobilny") and call her son who called her brother. It was about 1:30 a.m. when Sasha showed up with his car, a Honda sedan with the steering wheel on the right side. We barely stuffed all our luggage and ourselves into his car and he drove us to Svyataslov's apartment. Tanya's mother, Anastasia, who had arrived earlier in the day greeted us there. We were all happy to be together again. We finally got to bed about 2:45 a.m. I slept until noon.
Svyataslov and I went out this afternoon. I went to get some money from the ATM which I had done many times in the past. It didn't work. Later I tried to phone my Eagle Community Credit Union. No answer. I e-mailed the credit union and received a reply that my card had been temporarily blocked and that I could call a number to unblock it. I called the number and learned that the cridit union has decided to not let their cards be used in Russia at all. I have had no communication from the cridit union about this. I will have a critical conversation with them about this when I return home.
Since I counted on using my credit union card, I didn't bring enough money for our stay. So I called my dad and he was gracious enough to wire us money. Tomorrow I will see if it arrived.
Another misadventure was going to the office I have gone to in the past to register my visa only to find out that I have to go to another office now. So that will be another adventure for tomorrow.
I did change some money and we bought groceries. I spotted a stall that sells seeds and I asked the woman attendant if she had tomato seeds. She said, "What kind?' I said, "Exotica". She brought out a box and found 23 packets of different seeds (some were exotic like Japanese black tomatoes). The owner showed up and gave us a 40% discount for this big purchase (about $8) and also had us talk to his daughter on his mobilny who have us her e-mail address.
One new thing we noticed on the main street of St. Petersburg was pairs of young people dressed in red outfits with jackets that said, "I can help." I spoke to one pair. They are paid by the city to help tourists who speak English or German. I asked them if they thought that the majority of Russians were against America. They said diplomatically that many people are against the politics of America now, but not the people.
Another disappointment today was learning that all of the Paschkin family except Katya have gone to Borovichi. But Katya, a 20-year old I have known since she was nine, invited us for dinner tomorrow. She speaks English rather well now. She will be married July 14th. We hope to attend the wedding.
So our trip to Russia is off to a rocky start. I hope things soon get better. I'll try to add some photos.
Travel guru Rick Steves advises travelers to "Be fanatically positive and militantly optimistic." Well, I am trying.