Almost time to come home....

Ugh.  We are all tired of being here.  This hotel room is like a shoebox and they are adamant about not letting us upgrade to a bigger room.  We can't understand that one at all.  Food is mediocre, but not much choice otherwise since it's a land of snow and ice.  Thank goodness they have ice cream though.  Dale and Gabe make midnight runs down to the restaurant for ice cream and Coca-Cola (see Gabe below).  I'm getting some reading/writing done for my dissertation.....so I guess that's a plus.  Jake has a fever and has been sleeping most of the day (teething?).
This trip has been sooooooo draining.  Nobody in Russia knows how to smile.  Or be pleasant.  Although the doctor that examined Jake the other day was really jovial and made a few jokes.  It was really nice.  We get to go to the American Embassy tomorrow......YAY!!!!!  After that, we'll probably go out to eat one last time with Ilya. Yes, I'm sure it will be American cuisine!!!  (We tried the Friday's here and it was actually good.  We despise the one in College Station.  Ilya told us that Friday's is THE place to go for really good American food.....hahaha)  We've had more than our fill of Russian cuisine.