We just had an interesting occurrence. We have seats just behind the bulkhead that separates the economy section into 2 parts. I was sitting in the window seat, rain in the middle seat. All of a sudden a guy comes through the curtain with a girl in tow by a hand full of hair. Something caused a fight up front, not sure what. It took a few seconds for people to realize what was happening. The couple with the baby were definitely in danger since the baby was in a basinet. The guy hit the basinet already. The father, on the aisle was getting up, the guy on our side was about to get involved, I unbuckled my seatbelt, and basically shoved Rain behind me and was about to get involved. The guy was big, and out of control. One of the flight crew, possibly a pilot, and a passenger arranged to bring him down and stop anything further. One of the guy's friends ( I assume) got involved in calming him down and they took him up front. That was definitely scary. It's amazing what adrenaline can do in a situation like that.



Leaving Khabarovsk was difficult. The idea of leaving Katya in such a place is unthinkable but as Joe keeps reminding me, at this time a necessity. I still hate to think about it. When we got to the airport it was time to go, with only time for a few more forms, then it was time to board the shuttle with a few other passengers and be cattled out to the plane. Of course no-one at the boarding station so we (and 2 Chinese passengers) didn't know the other passengers had already gone on out to the plane, nice huh. When they realized some people had checked in but were missing they came back to the terminal to do a quick double check. Glad they did. They also double booked one of our seats. Since everything is done by hand with 2 women assigning seats as you check in, it was bound to happen. So we got to sit by the bulkhead. It gave us a little more leg room, the man who sat beside me had yet to discover deodorant this week. And of course the plane was hot and crowded. About 2/3 through the flight some guy further behind us freaked out and grabbed a woman by the hair and was trying to grab her bag and was really whacked out. The smelly man and the man across the aisle both tried to contain him. We tried to head butt one guy. The stewardesses were trying to calm him down, nothing was working I was beginning to get scared. For the first time I was glad we didn't have Katya with us. Finally 2 GI's (Russian GI's) got involved. They babysat the guy in business class the remainder of the flight. The guy beat and kicked on the bathroom door the whole time. A member of the cockpit crew helped with serving dinner and we noticed he had a bandage around his upper arm and blood on his shirt. We wondered if the guy bit him or something. When we landed the police met our plane and everyone got off while the cops babysat the guy. It truly made the flight memorable. Olga didn't meet us the same girl who met us coming in did. She was nice. We went back to the Arbat for the night. We had a much nicer room this time, a real bed! with a real mattress! And an English speaking channel on TV! We walked on Arbat street and finished our souvenir shopping. We ate dinner at the "Italia Restaurant" they serve "American" food. Pizza, beer, spaghetti, "Calsones" you know "American" food. I had a Greek salad, (that fit into a cereal bowl) and a Coke, real Coke! Not a flat, warm one either! Joe got spaghetti with tomato sauce. It was like chunky tomato puree but it worked. I got careless though and ordered "American" coffee, OK slap me hard. It was worse than Sanka, instant coffee. It was very bitter. I don't put sugar in my coffee, but I put 2 sugars in this coffee trying to save it. No such luck. I was so tired I fell asleep sitting up reading. Hopefully I'll sleep the night through.