SHE'S LEAVING ON A JET PLANE

Megan's bags are packed and she was ready to go as we walked out the door at 3:00 a.m. this morning. She had pulled an all nighter trying Sean's method of staying awake and attempting to acclimatize to the time zone of where you will be going.  She is going to try to sleep on the plane from DC to Moscow.   I asked her how long she has been planning this adventure and she told me it has been for the last 6 years. Megan has watched both Melissa and Sean leave for their time living abroad and both times she drove back home in the car safe and sound in the back seat.  This time it was just Tim and I driving back home without Megan.

Megan will be teaching English at the Captain school in Moscow, Russia.  She will be with Aubree Jones and one other girl at the school.  They will be teaching the youngest children at the school.  Their students will range from  3 - 6 years old.  They will teach every week day for about 3 hours and then have the rest of the day to explore Moscow.  They will also travel to  Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Sweden  and Ukraine. They will have long weekends to travel as well.  I know they will also be going to St. Petersberg, but I don't know when all of this will take place.  ILP has coordinated with a native Russian that will help make all of their travel arrangements and plans.  It is the same coordinated that helped when Melissa was there and she is fantastic!!! She will also be guarded at the place she will be living.   There will also be other teachers that will be part of the International Language Program living in Moscow at two other schools.  We meet some of the other teachers today at the airport.  They all looked like really cute girls...NO BOYS are in the group.  The other teachers will meet up with them in Washington DC and are scheduled to arrive in Moscow at about 1:50 a.m. Utah time and 11:50 a.m. Moscow time on Friday morning.  They will be met by Gulia (the Native Coordinator) who will take them to a van that will deliver them to their school. I was so thankful to Melissa as she gave Megan a travel book all about Moscow and then took the time to put tons of post it notes throughout the book marking her favorite museums, and must see places.  It will make it really nice for Megan and Aubree to have that valuable information. 

According to the weather report for Moscow this week, she will arrive on Friday with a high of 7 degrees and the low is predicted to be -6.  It doesn't look much better the rest of the week.  The warmest it is showing is 12 degrees and coldest is reported to be -13.  Burrrrrrrr!!!  However, Megan is prepared and has boots that are reported to keep feet warm up to -20.  We shall see!!  She has packed thermals, socks, gloves, scarves, hand warmers, hats, two coats and layers and layers of clothes.  She was allowed to pack two bags (she had to pay ($70.00) for one of them...arrrh...airlines these days) and was limited to 50 lbs each.  One of her bags weighed in today at 50 lbs and the other weighed in at 49!!   Along with all her clothes she was required to bring some teaching supplies and prizes for the students.  She also packed some shorts for when the warm weather hits the last part of her trip and two bottles of green Tabasco and some lemon and pepper to help favor the bland Russia food :)  She is prepared!!

I was so happy to see Megan with an appetite this morning.  She was eating at 2:30 a.m. and she also ate some food one the girls brought to the airport.  This is a good sign.  Ever since Megan was a little girl she could never eat if she felt anxious or nervous about something. I have always been amazed by this quality because I can pretty much eat at any given time.  The other thought I had as we drove to the airport was when Megan learned to ride a bike.  She wasn't like many children that you could sneakily let go of the back of the bike and they would be peddling without even realizing you had let go.  You could never trick Megan like this.  After both Tim and Melissa tried this trick on Megan, she would never let them help her again.  I spent what seemed like hours running behind Megan holding on to the seat of the bike.  When she was finally ready she gave me the go that I could let go.  And off she went confident in her ability to ride.  I knew today that she was ready for me to let go.  She has all the skills she needs to be able to peddle on her own.  I am proud of her and I wish her all the best!!  I send all of my love to my baby girl in Russia!!  I LOVE YOU MEGS!!  HAVE A BLAST!!!

January 26th 2012!!  The Adventure begins :) Do Svidaniya