Preparations

T Minus 1 Day and Counting…

Sasha and I got to sleep for several hours finally! I didn’t get much sleep on the train ride here. After we got up our host and team leader, Kostya, gave us several assignments. Then he disappeared for 6 or 7 hours.

We got our return trip tickets for the train – a huge relief – although we won’t be sitting together. We did score the last two seats on the train! We shopped as well for a bunch of the team supplies and sorted out the food into different packets.

Apparently Russians hike a LOT heavier than we do in the States, or at least Kostya does. Looks like I’ll be carrying an extra 8-10 Kilos (like 18 lbs) of group weight. I packed lightly on purpose – oh well. It looks like we’ll be eating hot cereal for breakfast and dinner everyday – cheese with breakfast and sausage/salami with dinner. Tea two times a day and no real food for lunch: 2 pieces of candy and a handful of peanuts and dried apricots.

I see no water purification filters or tablets!

Oh by the way, there’s a 15 hour overnight trip by van in my future. With 15 people & 6 of them are smokers.

Lesson today: expectations can be the enemy. Flexibility is your friend. And being patient is ALWAYS a good skill to practice.