Greetings from Moscow!

Todd's plane was brought down in an ice storm just outside of Belgorod, a city on the Russia/Ukraine border. This is all for the best as Belgorod is hundreds of miles past our destination of Moscow, and far, far past my final stop of Ekaterinburg (or Yekaterinburg). My phrasebook has been all I've needed so far to find a hot cup of tea, a meat pie, and this Internet café. Really lovely people, if you try to speak a bit of the language. One fellow shook my hand a good six times, and cried twice. I say, if this hospitable spirit truly pervades the Russian landscape, then I shall quite enjoy my trip eastwards.