Undocking Celebration

Endeavor succesfully undocked yesterday, a day early than originally planned, due to the questionable track of Hurricane Dean. Per tradition, we celebrated with our Russian counterparts.

Wow! Look at that spread! MMC and SUDN definitely spoil us.

Alexander, Natasha, me, and Kevin (Grigory showed up right after the picture...I think he planned it that way ;-) )

Natasha in the middle of telling a funny story. We ended up chatting for an hour and half! Our interpreter was gracious to hang in there for that long, although we were definitely using our Russian!

Shopping time!

So I woke up early so I could head to Izmalova for some shopping. Izmalova is a huge, well, crafts fair, swap meet (flea market for you non-Arizonans), souvenir extravaganza. I actually got everything I was looking for, plus this awesome piece of artwork. It's made out of different pieces of birch bark. Birch bark has been used in Russia for centuries (if not longer!) for decorations, household items, gifts, and there are even Russian documents from the Middle Ages that were written on birch bark.

I can't post pics of the rest of my loot, 'cause most of it is gifts and that would just ruin the surprise! Oh and I bought the cheapest popsicle ever, 8 roubles! That's about 35 cents.

Just What the Doctor Ordered...

Chicken noodle soup, toast, tea, and Powerade...yep that would be a recipe for sickness recuperation. (oh and blue Powerade is really really disgusting...really)

I had to leave work early yesterday due to a sudden onset of some strange bug that the doctors (yes plural, Dr. Flores was baffled- pulled in another doc) still can't figure out. So normal WBC count is 4-10, mine was 20 yesterday! Lauri, I'd gladly donate my WBCs to you!

So after some fluid loading and a round of antibiotics, my WBC count was 7 today, much better, but still pretty high for me (mine's usually in the 2 range, due to some meds I take for other reasons). But, I am feeling much better than I was yesterday.

My diagnosis- high WBC count and sore throat... yet another chalk mark on the board of "Melissa baffles doctors". Oh well.

Tibet Kitchen

Okay, it really isn't called 'Tibet Kitchen' anymore, it's just "Tibet' with 'restaurant' written really small underneath. But, it is one of my favorite places to eat. They have this amazing vegetable dish with almonds that I have gotten every time. And really good "dangzhi' chicken. Yummy! Here are some of my fellow HSRers (Karen and Michael). I convinced them to take a picture (although not everyone was thrilled with the idea :) ).

Christina, Karen said she would take me to the cheap sandwich shop! I'm excited! Except she said the smoothies can be warm...that sounds kinda icky...

Houston Support Room

The Houston Support room is where NASA folks sit to support ISS. There are some people over here (HSG-Houston Support Group) who support on 3-6 month rotations, acting as liasions between US and Russia (and they do a lot of other stuff...they always seem really busy!).

Me at the designated ADCO console

Ops Planners (they are the scheduling gurus for shuttle and station), a Russian Systems Specialist, and the ever busy HSG

For those of you who have been in Mission Control, you'll recognize the plaques. They also hang one out here in the HSR.

Kolomenskoe or bust

The good thing about Moscow, is that you are never lost as long as you know where the nearest Metro (subway) station is.

Since today was my day off, I slept in way later than I planned and then headed out to Kolomenskoe, which is a massive park (it used to be the Imeperial estate) with a lot of old churches. I've never been there and it was the one place I really wanted to see this trip.

So I made it to Kolomenskaya metro stop. The directions said you walk up a hill for about ten minutes. I started going straight, then looked around and saw that to my right was a big hill. Score! So I walk, and walk, and walk...and about an hour later, I start thinking, maybe this is the wrong hill. So I stopped and asked this lady... I think I scared her. Another lady was very helpful. When I asked where Kolomenskoe was, she asked "Metro?". I said, "no, park". Then she nodded and said "jdkdncvnvioaowiaannglfgaojfodigah". Yeah, that's pretty much what I heard too. I caught "tramvay (trolley-bus" and "turn" (or what I thought was turn), and then she pointed, so I headed back to the last trolley bus stop and turned. I saw a couple that looked like they might be venturing to the park, so I decided to follow them. Turns out they weren't going to the park, but a household goods store. Although they led me on a wonderful tour of the hilltop mechanics garage mini-city. So now high on gasoline, oil, and paint fumes, somehow I logically decided to head back to the metro. Upon reaching the metro, lo and behold I see a sign for "Kolmenskoe". Yeah you guessed it. If I had just kept walking straight, I would have found it. So ten minutes later at the top of the hill, I found it...2.5 hours after I started looking for it. Oh well. It was worth it.

I think a large portion of the park is an old apple orchard because there a ton of apples on every tree and there were lots of people picking them...

After walking around for bit, promising myself to come back again, I headed to Red Square.

St. Basil's Cathedral

Lenin's Tomb

Red Square (Kremlin on the left, St. Basil's behind me)

Kremlin

Kremlin and part of a wall that is supposed to be the original, but I have heard that it isn't.

Nephew pictures

Here are some recent picutures my sis sent me. I can't wait to see the little guy in person at the end of the month!