Dave is my hero. He managed to fix my camera/laptop for me long distance. So now I am able to take pictures and get them off of the camera to share. This means I can share the elevator instructions for you all, just in case you’re ever in a similar situation.

Here you go!

Not much help in Russian (Cryllic) is it? They do have the English instructions on the opposite page, but they aren’t as fun to look at.

It’s weird because I just got up for work, and he’s getting ready for bed. So it’s Wednesday here, and Tuesday there. I’m writing this from the future…woooOOOoooo. Okay, maybe not.

It turns out the unlocked cell phone I bought on eBay, specifically so I could use it here, does not work overseas. One of the gentlemen we’re working with took me to a phone store during lunch yesterday (today for you, remember I’m in the future). It was really fantastic of him to do so – since even if I had been able to find it alone, the employees did not speak much English. Pair that with the amount of Russian I speak (none) and I would have been completely lost. I did get a calling card that will help lessen the cost of international calls. Without the card I think it’s $6 per minute to call home – yikes! Now I just need someone to translate the calling card for me so I can figure out how to use it and I’ll be all set.

I’m here! I was really dreading the flight over, but it turned out to be one of the best flights I’ve had. I lucked out and was in economy plus, instead of normal economy/coach, and that made a huge difference. Plus, no one sat next to me on either flight so I was able to stretch out a little. Not having to share the armrest is fantastic!

Each seat had individual TV screens built in to the back of the seat in front of it. I don’t normally watch movies on the plane, I like to read and watch the map that shows the flight’s progress. However they were showing three movies I wanted to see (“Definitely, Maybe”, “The Other Boleyn Girl”, and “Horton Hears a Who” for those that are interested) and since the seat next to me was empty I could use that TV for my map. The movies were on demand too, which means I was able to decide when I wanted to watch them and in what order. I could also pause, rewind, and fast forward (do I sound like a commercial?). I was definitely not roughing it by any means. Oh, and something else cool about the map display – they had an option to view one of two cameras on the plane. So we could see the pilots’ view or the view down, of what we were flying over – pretty cool. I’m keeping my fingers cross that the flight home is half as good, especially since it’s almost 3 hours longer.

It was about a 45 minute drive from the airport to the hotel, and the hotel is really nice. The elevators had me totally confused though. I got in to the elevator, pressed the button for my floor, and waited. The doors closed, but nothing happened. So I opened the door crossed the lobby and tried a different elevator. The door closed, I pressed the button for my floor, and again nothing happened. At this point I gave up and asked the bellboy how to work the elevator. It turns out you have to insert your room key in to a slot in the elevator in order to make it work.

I just took a picture of the instructions for using the elevator that were on the desk in my room. Not that they helped because using them would have meant I got to the room prior to the incident, and I certainly wasn’t about to walk up 15 flights of stairs. Anyway, when trying to post them I realized I don’t have the software I need to remove the photos from my camera. I’m in the process of trying to find it online now. For your sakes I hope I do, or else this is going to be a pretty boring, photoless trip, and the photos were the whole reason for setting this up after all. Grrr.