Moscow Photos

Moscow's Metro

This is a map of the Moscow Metro, the worlds 2nd most heavily used rapid transit system. On a given weekday it will move over 7 million people. To put the map into a little bit more context, Moscow is home to 10,382,754 inhabitants who live within 417.4 sq mi. The Metro system is almost entirely underground, and the different lines exist at different elevations crisscrossing each other on different planes underneath the city. Escalators carry the city's population deep into stations that are beautifully decorated, often with soviet era sculpture and mosaics in tile and stone.

The first day we arrived in Moscow, Craig took Shannon, Aurora and to Red Square. The system was overwhelming. Hundreds of people all speaking Russian, crisscrossing tunnels, stairs and escalators leading in every direction, and no sense of where we were going much less any reference for N,S,E,W. The largest contributor to the confusion was the Cyrillic alphabet. Foreign signs and symbols left us unable to pronounce much less decipher where we were going or more importantly where we had come from.

Day 2 on the metro. After a total sense of helplessness had sunk in I determined that figuring out how to navigate this system was essential to seeing the many galleries, museums, sights, and totally mundane parts of Moscow which made this city, the former capital of the Soviet Union, home to the largest number of billionaires in the world, and Russia’s country's political, economic, religious, financial, educational and transportation center.

The key to unlocking this labyrinth of colors and symbols, turned out to be a map containing both the Cyrillic and Romanized spellings of all of the stations. My first chance navigating the system require an hour of preplanning, consulting the guidebook, and familiarizing myself with the pronunciation of my destination and origin. That first trip, as well as each trip I've taken since then has each had it's moments of uncertainty but the Moscow metro has allowed us to see for the first time great art by: Picasso, Matisse, Kandinsky, Dega, Bounarrd, Monet, and many Russian artists. Shannon, Aurora, and I have seen, the Kremlin, Russian Markets, cathedrals, and museums, and a small part of the sights, sounds, smells, and feelings of Moscow.

Arrival in Moscow

Until recently I never imagined myself as a husband, father, and international traveler happening all at the same time. But here we are, in Russia…We arrived in Moscow on a Wednesday the 13th of August after 23 hours of traveling, an overnight flight from Seattle to London, 6 hours of layover (a quick trip into downtown), and then a 3 hour flight to Moscow. Aurora was of course our biggest concern and she was amazing, some small cries, no screams and a lot of eating and sleeping.

Shannon’s parents are here in Moscow as missionaries for our church. Craig is a physician who is the overseer of heath concerns for hundreds of missionaries across Russia, no small task. Lorna is a great support, hostess for sick missionaries, teaches English to the Russians and local culture to new missionaries. They have what is a very spacious apartment close to a metro line, therefore within about an hour of any site we would care to see in Moscow. We have and will be taking advantage of this incredible opportunity.

Oregon

After our week in Indiana with my family we flew back to seattle, spent the night with family and friends and took off for Oregon the next day. Shannon's extended family has a reunion every 2 years in Albany, we have been adoped into the clan throuh cousins, 2nd cousins, and adopted grandparents. Shannon knows the correct classification of all of this pedigree, I just call everyone family. Camping out we took advantage of our new family Mini-Van, the swing feature was not something Mercury had in mind but comes in quire handy.

Indiana

Aghh, Indiana. There is more than cornfields in this state. For the first week of August it was home to the entire Dickerson family. With my folks headed to Cambodia later this month for a church mission all of my siblings, their spouses, children, pre-fiane's, and girlfriends were all togeather. Which means we spent alot of time planning what our next move would be. However we managed to follow the essential family traditions: projects, pictures, ultimate frisbee, and rubber guns; and added some new ones as we shared slideshows, birthdays, meals, a baptism, and a baby blessing.

For Aurora it was an opportunity to bond with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents who she had never met. This reunion was unique for me having contriuted to the posterity and the mahem of the now 9 grandchildren I felt a renewed connection with siblings and parents. We had a great time, I somehow managed to not get the complete family portrait pics that ought to accompany this post But, we had a great time togeather.

Homeless

Homeless. After having worked for the last year in a homelss prevention capacity Shannon, Aurora, and I packed most of our possessions into storage, keeping the most essentials in our van and began a month of travels that will end in September, hopefully with a place to live, in Vancouver British Columbia. Between when we left on the 29th of July, now, and our eventual landing date we have and will be vistiting family in Indiana, Oregon, and Russia.