Let's back up a bit...

So I set this up the Thursday night before we were due to fly out with the full intentions to either have the time or make the time to write my first post Friday morning before we left my mom's house.  Well, we all know what road is paved with good intentions, don't we???  Needless to say, that didn't happen.  So, I figured I would just do it while I was waiting for the plane at the airport.  Wrong again.  Yeah, judging by this so far you would think that I had no idea that plans are nothing more than God's way of laughing at us...but I am full on aware of his little inside joke and yet I somehow still let him keep making them.  Anyway...back to me...

So here comes Friday in all of it's glory.  There are days in my life that I can say rank right up at the top as big or great days in my life.  I have to say that Friday, September 23, 2011 rates right up there with the best of them.  I've had plenty of time to process and get used to the idea that the day was coming but even that didn't really prepare me for the emotions that would come along with it.  I thought that I would be an emotional wreck but aside from a few tearful moments I really wasn't.  The emotions I felt were a little different than what I expected.  I expected the anxiety and nervousness but I really didn't expect the amount of excitement and at the same time calm that I felt.  Kind of weird, huh?  I mean, here I am about to move half way around the world to a country I never even imagined visiting and I have a sense of calm???  Crazy!!!

So we are at the airport and we get our luggage checked in with no issues.  This gives us plenty of time to hang out with the moms and say some final (tearful) goodbyes.  Then we start the security check process and the long walk to our gate.  The wait wasn't so bad since we had a visit from a great friend that works at the airport.  Then we got on the plane and reality sunk in a little more which caused a few more tears to fall.  All in all the flights were uneventful and went amazingly well considering we were in airports that were completely unknown to us and had little time to transfer.  Luckily most of the signs were written in the native language with the English translation shown under it.  The Russian alphabet looks really difficult...

Then there was this really cool plane we saw that didn't have the translation...any guesses???





So here is my shameless free advertising plug...Singapore Air was a fantastic experience!  We will not have any problems flying with them again.  Even flying the economy class was enjoyable...as much as the economy class can be.

Anyway...to make this long story short...our flights arrived on time and we made it through customs with no incidents.  Our luggage locks were even still in tact.  After we claimed our baggage we were greeted by our driver with this...



So how cool is that???  This is movie and TV stuff!!!  So from here we were taken to the car that brought us to our temporary housing...the corporate apartment.  Which leads me into day one of my new life.  That will also take us into the next post...

See you soon!!!