Moscow has been cold, obviously. I don’t think its made it above freezing yet, but I’ve been told it can be and was mush worse (-40C) already this winter. We have managed to get out some and walk around Red Square and the Kremlin. This is the first time to Moscow for the two others with me, Eric and Mohanad. I’ll have to admit that the Kremlin and Red Square are just a pretty in the snow as in summer. But I’ll take summer. There is probably a foot of snow on the ground in other places. It’s difficult to get an accurate measure because cleanup is almost a constant here. The streets and sidewalks are fairly well cleaned each morning. Of course they are usually coated with a �" slush or more. You can also see people up on roof tops shoving off the snow. Doesn’t look like a safe job to me but labor is cheap.

Even though the ruble and economy have gone to hell, things seem pretty stable here in Moscow. I have noticed a lot more people begging for money than last time. But last time we were here right at the beginning of a large Moscow 860 year celebration and they were busting a gut to get the city cleaned up and I think this meant beggars too. Despite the rubles devaluation most things here seem to be the same price. Everything before was quoted in US dollars and now it is called currency unit. I guess that way they can pick which currency they want to base it on, the dollar or Euro these days. Food and anything produced in Russia seems a bit less expensive than I remember, although eating at a restaurant is still expensive.

Most of our work (mine and Mo’s) was completed this weekend and we should only be coasting downhill from here. We are in the office for two more days to finalize things. I’ve put in a great deal of hours over here working. Every work day has been at least 12 hours + having to come in for a few hours on the weekend. It really doesn’t leave much time for site seeing. Especially here in the frozen tundra. Eric is here doing training and will be staying an extra day in Moscow, he still has plenty of work to do before leaving.

So far the health has been holding up throughout the trip despite all the exotic foods. Moscow is particularly troublesome since I don’t think food standards here are always checked. They have a cook in the Moscow office that provides the staff with lunch. He has been out the last two days but the first day there we managed to get in a soup and crepes with caviar piled on top. The cheaper red caviar so I’m told. Either way I can’t say I’m a big fan of caviar and had to eventually choke down the remainder of the meal to be a good guest. The other two days we were served McDonalds when the cook was out. Basically the same anywhere you go except you can usually get a local version of the burger. I managed to keep awake the whole flight from Tokyo to Moscow and stay up late that night. This seemed to help me avoid any jet lag. The flights in general have been pretty good. I’ve been on United and JAL. United wins on the food served, but JAL has better seats and personal video. Guess it depends on the plane too. I think I’m riding on every Boeing 747 variation and one 757. Three out of the 4 flights have featured Practical Magic with Sandra Bullock as the main movie, so I can now recite it by memory (English and Japanese). Most flights have been around 8 hours so I have a tiny little flight going over to jolly old England this week.