Day One
The flurry of e-mails has died down, the shopping is done, and all that is left is to try to cram two weeks’ worth of clothing into one bag, total weight 22 kilograms (44 pounds). Many of us realized we had never even questioned how much our luggage weighed. By the time we all convened in New York City, however, we knew the exact weight of our bags, our clothes, and ten days’ worth of underwear! Some delegates’ trips began the night before, with an arrival at JFK to allow enough time to catch our 3:30 flight to Frankfurt. Others woke up in the dark and watched the sun rise from their airplane seats as they headed in to meet up at the Lufhansa check-in counter.
Our fellow delegates were easy to spot with their People to People lanyards. You could hear shouts across the ticket line as we spotted yet another traveler. Some old friends were reunited from our China trip; others were meeting for the first time. The energy was certainly running high as we embarked upon our journey to Russia.
Our first flight as a group was some seven hours, crossing the Atlantic, England and Germany on our way to Frankfurt. We were all pleasantly surprised by the luxurious service we received on Lufthansa! We joked we hadn’t eaten that much and been that entertained except on a cruise ship. We must say, the US airlines could take a lesson from their German counterpart. I hadn’t seen a real fork and knife on a plane in at least five years. Not only was the first glass of wine complementary – so were the refills and any other “adult” beverage of choice. Snacks, full dinner service, and full breakfast kept us entertained, along with several movie choices, music and television options on our private touch-screen monitors. All this activity and distractions made the time pass quickly – but nobody slept as much as they would have on a more boring, less pampering carrier.
Our first real challenge (other than packing) came in trying to read the German signs, find our way to the airtram, and switching terminals. It isn’t easy herding 49 type A personalities all with their own game plan. As we found our gate, we realized we’d be going through security again. Some of us made last-minute purchases of forgotten items inside security in New York, only to watch them go into the garbage can in Frankfurt when we had to go through the screening again.
Once aboard our second Lufhansa flight, we, of course, were provided with our second Lufhansa breakfast. At this rate, none of the clothes we so carefully packed would fit by the time we landed in Moscow! A relatively short flight, we watched a beautiful sunrise on our way into the airport. One bit of unexpected excitement occurred when our pilot was forced to abort his landing and “take another lap” while another plane removed itself from our designated runway. After landing, he called our attention to the aircraft – easily two times our size – and pointed out the necessity of his action.
Once we landed in Moscow, we collected our bags – 100% retention rate, which seems amazing in itself. We cleared customs quickly and efficiently and then went out into an unseasonably warm Moscow afternoon to await the arrival of our two buses. After just a few moments, Nicholai and Dimitri, our two bus drivers in Moscow, arrived to take us into the city. We were all extremely excited, but the adrenalin most of us had been running on for the last 24 to 36 hours began to finally give out and, regrettably, a few of us were horrified to find we slept through several chunks of the tour and narrative on our way to Russia’s largest city.
The first impression I had was it looked a lot like a large American city – agricultural-appearing suburbs with many new houses being constructed gradually gave way to more densely populated areas with hundreds of identical large apartment complexes, offices, and LOTS OF TRAFFIC. Moscovites love their cars – and we saw many familiar makes and models. Unfortunately their roads fill up quickly and interstates are an American concept that hasn’t been adopted here. Patience and perseverance seem to be prerequisites to driving in this amazing city of almost 10 million people.
The nearer we got to the Red Square center-city area, the more interesting and historical much of the architecture became. There were buildings from the various eras of Russia’s past intermingled with new, modern skyscrapers. The city was remarkably clean and many of the buildings were undergoing restoration. We got off our bus at the Moscow Marriott and checked in, excited to actually be in Moscow, but utterly exhausted and ready for a good night’s rest. But those visions of sugarplums would have to wait a few hours. We hit the ground running in Moscow and had our first professional meeting a mere three hours after we checked into the hotel.
Alexander Shibanov, Esquire, Ex-chief of Party, the Russian-American Judicial Partnership gave us an overview of the judicial structure of Russia. I was pleased to learn that Alexander went to law school in my home town of Laramie, Wyoming – talk abut a small world. We were a little disappointed to learn that there are no stenographic reporters in Russia, there is no discovery, and they don’t provide captioning on their televisions. They do have court reporters (often referred to as the court secretary), who must have a law degree to summarize the proceedings, which becomes the official record. We actually met an attorney from the Netherlands in the airport, who pointed out that the judicial system in the U.S., and particularly court reporting, is very different than his country and many others. We are beginning to feel a bit like the zebra rather than the horse. Day Two will give us a chance to visit the Moscow Arbitration Court firsthand, and we are all looking forward to seeing the practices Alexander described in action.