Day 2: arrival in Almaty, Kazakhsta

I am able to nod off for a little while, listening to LUthansa's in flight entertainment - a relaxation station. I awake, and get a dinner of mac and cheese (all that remained available). After eating, I try again to get some rest thru this six hour flight.
An hour before landing, the cabin lights come on and a meat and cheese sandwich is served. It is just after midnight at our destination (noon in MSP). We land to silence ... rather strange, for the Russian trips were always finished with a raucous round of applause. We are greeted in the arrival lounge by tournament volunteers dressed in their red parkas and pants. The wrangle the luggage for us. Our referee team must now separate ourselves from the players for the week, and we are driven in a small mini-bus to our hotel. We finally arrive at our hotel at 02:15.

I unpack and organize my gear in the room until about 04:00 and finally hit the hay. Tomorrow we have classroom study, meetings and testing from 13:00 thru the day until we finally have our skating fitness testing at 21:30.