Gaye's message should be read first...

So, I partially blame McLean for this one, as I am reading a book he recommened a long time ago... I do apologize for the delay McLean, but now was a great time, especially heading to Ayn's home country. For all those counting, I'm reading "The Fountainhead". And in the spirit, I'll start with the architecture (I'll get to Roman, but I can't possible cover it as Gaye has). There are two things that Russian do well, feed and build building that can withstand a small nuclear warhead. The walls of the homes all all concrete, at least a foot thick. And simple. The house we were in, a box, long wide "hallways" in the middle, rooms on either side. The stairs? outside - a half cylinder on the outside of the house with the stairs running up it. All rooms were square, (almost) all hallways and rooms had doors, top of the stairs, bottom, closets. Very functional, very elgant in it's simplicity.

Streets? dirty, but a clean dirty. The snow was black, but there was no trash. The roads had holes the size of me. Driving was an exercise in polite rudeness. Everone cut everyone else off, but no one minded. I can image that there is little crime there. They all have the same goal; to survive. Do what you need to do, not the attitude of Americans, didn't see much of a social inequality. I guess the communist mentality not only lives, but thrives. Very enjoyable to see in practice, but shoveling coal as a result, not for everybody.

Speaking of, Gaye got a lecture on that, Sergei had to shovel a few times because a certain wife of mine went crazy in the shower. After that, between the two of us, we probably spent a total of 10 minutes in the whower over a 4 days period.

Wow, almost forgot about the food, what a terrific experience. Vasilika (sp?) can really cook. But wow, I think she believes that Americans want to be fat. She expected us to eat for an army. Three meals a day, 3/4 courses each. Each course would have filled me up. The most amazing point, was when she gave us a huge casserole of meat, potatoes, and cheese (they aren't eating meat right now, so it was all ours), and then, I made it down to about 20% left (because she was urging me to eat more), so she made me a cheeseburger! For breakfast! Of course, we had Mango Coconut and snicker ice cream for dinner one night. Oh, and Apple cake. Unbelievable.

On to the pressing matter, Roman. What a great kid. He's wonderful and I'm so happy he will be growing up with us. I couldn't imagine a more perfect child. We were meant to be his parents. I'd go into details, but my time's about up, and Gaye got the general idea covered. We're so lucky to be his future parents.

BTW, thanks Alonzo and John for the European prep, it's certainly enlightening and was most useful.