Ekaterinburg

We made it to Ekaterinburg from Frankfurt without any trouble. The flight seemed very short, only 4 hours. We are staying at the Park Inn, which is located in downtown Ekaterinburg. The hotel is very new and comfortable. They also have a great breakfast buffet. We have been unable to connect to the internet with our computer in the room, so we are at a nearby internet cafe. Unfortunately that means we won't be able to post any pictures for a while. The city is pretty gray, however I can't tell you how happy we are to be here. The young lady who picked us up from the airport Sunday morning offered to show us around the city today. She helped us to feel more comfortable with where things were so that we can go exploring on our own later.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we have our appointment with the Ministry of Education. Supposedly it's a brief appointment where we simply register for the referral. Then Thursday we return to the Ministry of Education to pick up the referral information and then we go to the orphanage to meet the little girl who will hopefully become our daughter. We can see her again on Friday, then Saturday we travel home.

So there will plenty of time for sightseeing and souvenir shopping, I hope. We slept most of Sunday and last night, so with a little espresso boost this afternoon I think we will be adjusted to the 13-hour time change.