Productive Day

We had a long, but nice day loaded with a ton of useful information. We stared out meeting with a pediatrician at the European Mdical clinic. She is not only and Endocrinologist, but an adoption/ post adoption specialist. It was absolutely wonderful to meet her! She was extremely knowledgable and willing to work with our Endocrinologist in the States. In addition, not only can we take Munchkin One there for his Growth Hormone needs, we can take Munchkin Two for regular checkups is we want/ need too! I left excited and assured. We then went to visit the Atlantic International School. It is a very brightly colored building surrounded by a gate with an entrance near a guard. I attempted to include a link. Please pardon if it does not work. I am still learning my iPad. The school is quite small. There are a few campuses hosting multiple grade levels. Each class has an English native speaker, a bilingual English/Russian assistant and a Russian nanny. A hot lunch is served and included for all students, prepared on site. The concept of this school is teach through play. This curriculum is based on the University of Cambridge curriculum. Next we went to grab a bite of lunch and continue on the the Anglo American International School. this school is a large complex housing multiple gyms, multiple pools and multiple grades. This school is per school through grade 12. There are over 1300 students at this school, Americans making up the majority. The school curriculum is based on the American, Canadian and British school systems. School lunch can be brought or bought. Lastly, we visited a compound ( gated community) of Pokrovsky Hills. this compound is located right next to the Anglo American School. It is home to many expats from all over the world. This concluded our day. Tomorrow we will see another school, possibly two. In addition, we shall see more housing options. We have been so busy and this has left us little room for sight seeing. I imagine Saturday will be our day to do this. Overall, another great day!

We Arrived

The flight was fairly uneventful. I have never seen so many Russian women so happy, laughing and talking. In some ways this was very assuring to me. I think they were part of a tour group and fully enjoyed their New York City experience. There was not much peace and quiet on the flight for sleeping which left us more tired than we wanted to be. We arrived in Sheremetyevo airport. Years ago the landscape was under construction forcing us to walk through gravel and dirt, around barricades to enter. The project is now complete. A driver promptly met us to take us to our hotel. The car ride was about 45 minutes. Due to lack of sleep, no food and lots of stopping and going mixed with weaving left me feeling car sick. Upon arrival to our hotel we learned our room was not ready. We grabbed a bite in the restaurant. A brief email to the Company HR representative proved to be very helpful and magically our room was ready! Tony showered and I took a cat nap before we headed over the Endocrine Center of Moscow. We had a consultation with a doctor there with regard to one of the Munchkins. Blue booties were required to go on over our shoes. This practice always humors me! It was a fruitful meeting with the exception the doctor did not speak English and we not Russian. The Mr.had a meeting at the office after our doctor appointment extending our long day even longer. I was able to shower and freshen up before an easy dinner of Subway in the room before we called it a night. Lights were turned off at 9 pm although the sun was still shining and workers still on the construction sight next door. The first jack hammer sounded at 5:30am. My first impressions of the city are what I remember. It smells exactly as I remember, an odor I had forgotten and not one that can described. Overall, a good first day!