Back to Kazan

Wow, it was a long trip back. The taxi picked me up at 4:30 a.m. and I was at the airport at 4:45 a.m. I dropped off my bag and got my boarding pass from Madrid to Frankfurt but they wouldn’t issue the boarding pass from Frankfurt to Kazan although they sent my luggage all the way through. I was surprised, because they did when I flew TO Madrid. In any case, I found my gate and had tie for one more good Spanish breakfast with Valencia orange juice. Great stuff. The flight to Frankfurt was uneventful but they had to de-ice the plane before we left. We got there a little before 11. My next flight wasn’t supposed to leave until 2, but I wasn’t going to mess around and went immediately to find the Aeroflot counter. I was glad I did, because there was already a substantial line. In Frankfurt I found the language thing very weird. I had just struggled for 10 days to mak3 myself understood in Spanish. In Frankfurt I spoke German, and standing in line a the Aeroflot counter, I was surrounded by Russian speakers. I really had to struggle to readjust my thinking patterns. After I got my boarding pass, I sinned and went to MacDonald’s for a Big Mac meal. (Take THAT, Sandra!😁) by this time it’s 12. I look at my boarding pass and noticed that I had to be at my gate at 12:55 so I didn’t take too long. And I was glad for that because I had to go through security again. But all went well and it was a relatively quiet flight. I just had to laugh about the meal that was served. It seemed so typically Russian to me with a cabbage salad, potatoes and an undefinable piece of meat. We landed on a runway covered with snow! I was r2ally back in Kazan. it took me awhile to get through immigration because the official had to writ3 m3 a new immigration card. He spoke no English and was trying to get someone on The phone to help him, but apparently there was nobody else available. So while everyone behind me in line is moving to other lines, he filled out all the forms I needed and took my telephon3 number in case he had to get in touch with me later. My good buddy Sonia had ordered a taxi for me to get a cab from the airport to the city. The companies that have the monopoly at the airport charge twice as much. The cold weather actually felt refreshing. It’s not a wet cold like we had in Spain, but really brisk. Afte4 I go5 back to the apartment I put in a wash and ran to the grocery store for basics. Then came back and hung up the wash befor3 going over to Sonia’s for pizza. We looked at pictures of the trip and exchanged our holiday experiences. I came on back, put a few things away, and then just went to bed. I slept for 12 hours. Today it’s just been putting things away, cleaning up and lesson plans for this week. The guy from score came by for m6 passport because he has to re-register me in Kazan every time I leave the area. I still have 3 more days off. One I’m going to use at the end of January if the trip to Nizhny Novgorod every happens, and two I’m going to use in February because I’ve registered to attend the winter cycling conference in Moscow. I’m looking forward to that. OK, time to get some more housework done.