On the road to Yaroslavl!

Met up with my 10 fellow volunteers at the airport (after enduring another exhausting task of finding a taxi) and we boarded a non air-conditioned van for the 4 ½ hour trip to Yaroslavl. (There are five additional volunteers already at the home base) What a harrowing ride with the all the passing on the two lane road. The driver showed no concern for any on coming cars at 90 mile per hour! I am in a diverse group of travelers…a family from Santa Barbara, a father from Tampa and his daughter from Cleveland that left their spouses in Paris after visiting there prior to Russia to celebrate her 40th birthday. A college student from Asheville, NC, a brother and sister team from Wilmington, NC who are commended for being so young (he is a senior in HS an she is a sophomore in college) and a twenty eight year old teacher from New York City. We arrived at the Kotorosl hotel our home base for the next two weeks. After meeting the CCS staff and a group dinner off to bed I went to prepare for a very busy Monday. Feeling a bit of the culture shock and missing the comforts of home...air conditioning mostly and the privacy (and use) of a bathroom that I currently share with two Russian young men next door to me…