Kirov, for the last time.

temperature today: Kirov -23 C, -10 F

We arrive in Kirov early, but it's not bright. It's 7:30am & completely dark outside. There's hustle & bustle on the streets, buses, people & cars everywhere. The shop owners shovel the sidewalks, kids walk to school & ladies walk arm in arm, locked at the elbows. Fur is everywhere! Both men & women wear big, fashionable fur hats & fur-trimmed coats. There is dirty slush covering the streets, although the sidewalks are clear.

Today is for paperwork. Our translator meets us at the train & we arrive at some type of government building. We are told to wait on the small wooden bench in the waiting area. Our translator is talking in a back office. A grandmother-type woman enters & starts up a conversation in Russian. We smile & remain silent. She speaks with the woman behind the desk who is busy making Christmas ornaments out of paper & shows her paperwork from her purse. A woman from the back appears & tells the grandmother something that is not pleasing. The grandmother continues on w/ our conversation while putting her paper away & zips up her coat. I can still hear her speaking as the office door shuts behind her. The woman behind the desk just grins & shrugs her shoulders at us.

A little while later, the woman from the back reappears w/ a long string of paper Christmas ornaments. The woman behind the desk comes over & they debate for awhile where they should be hung. Here? No, here! Maybe there? Maybe here? Finally they decide to hang them down the side of the doorway. I'm stumped. Really? That's the best spot? I decide to keep my opinions to myself since I didn't come all the way to Russia to hang Christmas ornaments. The two small Russian women struggle trying to tape the ornaments up high. It is an awkward moment as I sit beside my tall husband. Should he try to help? We quietly mumble back & forth. We decide that it's just too complicated to try to offer assistance. We sit & watch painfully for a moment. Luckily, we are called back to the office. After a bunch of sign here, sign here, we now have official paperwork which lists us as the parents. Yay!

We exit the building about 10:30am & the sun is beginning to rise. Our next stop is the electronics store. It is customary to bring a gift to the orphanage for the children who are left behind. Our translator tells us that they would like a tv. She helps us buy it & then we arrive at the hotel. It is cold...very, very cold!

We are free for the rest of the day. We make a quick stop at a sourveniour shop & then stop at the market for train ride snacks for tomorrow night. Last trip we thought we might go eat in the train restaurant- it didn't turn out well. :) This time, we are planning ahead. For lunch we decide to go back to a cafe we ate at last visit. They had a good chocolate milkshake, which is really more like frothy milk slightly chocolate...but it is good. We walk a bit afterwards just to be outside, but it is so cold! We head back to the hotel for a nap & accidentally sleep until 9pm! Oh well. I hate when we miss dinner. We snack a little, watch Bollywood movies in Russian & finally go to bed at midnight. So excited for tomorrow!