Foolish but Generally Pleasant

If you want to just see a cute video of Vi, feel free to skip to the end.

Or skip to the end, watch the video, and then come back for my story.

A story of "two rather foolish but generally pleasant women." As we've been known to be called at least once on Facebook.

My new, dear, sweet, british friend Jane has gotten on a train for the second part of her adventure. (Music and Art for Bobby! Click HERE if you don't know about Jane's second adventure!)

I was very sorry to see her go because....well, we've had a BLAST!

Over the weekend we took the opportunity to see more of the city....

(Look! Me in a creepy tunnel!)

(Look! A Famous Opera House!)

(Look! Jane Jumps In Front of the Opera House!)

(See Jane Jump! Jump, Jane, jump!)

And on more than one occasion probably acted like obnoxious tourists.

It was really really fun though! Even if we got some looks.....just watch the guy in the background.

(In my defense, I was acting like an idiot to try and make it look like Jane was taking my picture instead of the beautiful bride also in the background. Little did I know....she was ACTUALLY taking my picture. The American and the Brit were amused, even if the local population was less so.)

We had delicious food. Lots of chocolate and lots of cake and lots of varyenki and lots of different kinds of pickled side salads (only some of which contained fish, and all of which we generally were not certain what we were eating.)

(Look! It's us in a mirror taking illegal photos at a museum!)

(There are more illegal museum photos, but you will have to wait for Jane's blogposts to see those!)

(We only got in a very little bit of trouble.)

(Very. Very little)

(Look! It's a tree wearing a sweater! And Jane too!)

(Look! It's a cat who is smarter than we are and stayed inside and took a nap on a heater!)

(Look! We made it back to our apartment and didn't slip on the ice, get mugged, or die in a ditch! Our Mom's will be so proud!)

All in all, a super awesome, very memorable weekend. We spent a ton of time just sitting up late talking as well. We even had the time to come up with new t-shirt designs including slogans like "Get Your Elbow Out Of My Empire!"(you know you want one!). There is nothing quite like getting to know a fellow internet blogger while visiting a foreign country and sharing an apartment, meals, dishes, one bathroom and smelly socks to move you from "stranger" to "old friends" in record time. 

Unfortunately, we were so busy having incredible amounts of fun, we didn't realize until about 5 p.m. yesterday that we had better sort out Jane's train tickets or she may not get her grand 2nd adventure after all.

We pulled up the site where she had purchased her tickets, trying to figure out where the electronic version of the tickets might be. My computer was almost instantly hit with viruses attempting to invade it, and immediately after that we realized this "travel site" was really an opportunity to meet "Hot European Women to Marry! Please book your travel plans HERE to visit all our HOT WOMEN in ***** City!"

Very. Not. Good.

I called my facilitator, who is probably an actual saint, and she told us our driver Lida (also an actual saint) would pick us up and get the tickets sorted with us at the train station Monday.....but she agreed that this did not sound like a good way to secure train tickets.

No. No, it did not.

We couldn't do anything but wait and see if they were legitimate tickets in the morning, so naturally we ran out to the store and bought chocolate, soda and chips for dinner to make ourselves feel better.

Yes. Jane IS the only person I know cool enough to wear footie-pajamas. Do Not Try This At Home.

We visited Vi one more time this morning, before saying goodbye. The most memorable moment was when Jane tried to say "I love you" in Russian to Vi, and Vi just looked at her....and then pointed to me, then herself, then me again as if to say "Uhm....WE love each other, cause thats my Mama." A VERY awesome sign as far as appropriate bonding is concerned!

At the very end of the visit we could not find anyone to take Vi back to her groupa, and ended up being told instead that Vi could show us the music room (Ahh! The language barrier at work!)

But, my sweet girl was happy to entertain us with a bit of music. Even if it made us late, I think it was completely worth it :)

After this, Lida ran us around and figured out the "e-ticket issue". Seriously, we would have been out of luck with out her help!

We stood on the platform for a bit.....

Then when the train opened up, Lida helped her find her spot on the train, and we waved goodbye.

(Don't worry, Joe, she wasn't really THAT scared. *Maybe just a little bit scared???*)

Thanks for coming out to play, Jane! I had so much fun getting to know you, and it was a wonderful opportunity for Vi to meet someone who had prayed for her, fundraised for her, and done everything possible to bring a family to her. I know she didn't understand any of that this visit, but I am certain that over time her "Auntie Jane" will become near and dear to her heart, as you have to mine!