Follow-up to Wroclaw Update

Hey hey!

I never managed to write a follow-up email to the last one where I mentioned I wanted to fill you all in on what gradings are like for colourbelts in Poland... So I will do that shortly. Right after you know where we are now :)

We arrived in Moscow a few hours ago after a bit of a mission. It is currently 7.30pm local time. We caught the early flight (4am) out from Wroclaw this morning into Warsaw where we chilled for around four hours...

Flights were all ok, other than the pushy indian family sitting behind Trotts and I. He even got his hair pulled - they obviously weren't impressed with him reclining his set back.
Oh, and Aeroflot airways was once again very entertaining. Seats falling apart... Stitches and paint to cover things up... No kidding. Also windows that don't work. Wings that fall off... Ok not the last part but it was a bit of a laugh. I was just glad we only had to fly on that particular plane from Warsaw to Moscow which was around about 2 hours so all good. At least they have big seats to accomodate my lankiness...

SO! We are in Moscow now staying at a cool little Inn called the "Kita Inn".

Staff here are really friendly cool group. It kinda has the feeling of a hostel but more like a few seperate apartments divided into rooms for guests which is pretty sweet.
The only problem was that it took us about an hour and a half from when we left the airport to find the place. And when we did finally arrive our taxi driver took me out of the car alone to search for it but there was no sign and the door was locked... So I began to wonder whether the Kita Inn actually even existed... But we finally managed to get inside due to a friendly neighbour and found the place.
The only downside was that the taxi driver tried to have a go at us for only paying 3000 rubles when he had helped us to get inside and find the place... but the dude was driving around looking at his map for like half an hour and going round and round... It is very busy here so no wonder he got a bit irate. Nevertheless, I was glad that the boys were here with me so the angry russian was desuaded from trying to pull a fast one and rip me off.

We also had taxi issues at the airport.... First guy that came up to us took ages to quote a price and acted like he didn't know the address. I just reckon he was sizing us up for how much he could rip us off lol. Admittedly, we looked super fresh. We might as well tack big banners saying NON-RUSSIAN to our foreheads as it is.
We all kinda got the same feeling with the dodgy quote so walked off to buy some time (even though all these random taxi middle-men were trying to follow us) and then we found another cat who would do it for us for half-price...
We took it. Probably could've got it cheaper but by that time I think we all just wanted to get out of there!

Alright. Anyhow. It has been fun.
And unlike the other countries none of us have even the slightest idea on how to decipher Russian lettering... Ordering lunch today was, well, a bit of a task. I don't get the feeling that there are too many foreigners around.

Back to the grading - I know you've been waiting for it. Or maybe not at all.
Either way, all I really wanted to say was that the pass / fail ratio is in extreme contrast with our ratio back home. I think we were all pretty shocked to learn the pass rate for the group of blue and red belts we were watching was 25%!! Man...

And there were people in this group that I swear could've been blackbelts back home!

Master Jedut really is a straight shooter when it comes to gradings, he doesn't seem to beat around the bush at all. That must be why the Polish standards are so high. I guess when they get a blackbelt they must feel like they have really earnt it. Mind you, not to say our blackbelt gradings over two days are easy! By no means.
Master Jedut just shoots straight regarding feedback. If you are good enough he says so and if he thinks you can do better he says that too.
Perhaps Trott-box said it best when he commented "He's like the Simon Powell of Taekwon-Do" (you know, the nasty english judge from American idol).

Other than the mess that I've just delivered to you here nothing else much has happened... I think we're all gonna have a wee kip before heading out for dinner in Moscow central. We also have the day to spend adventuring around the city tomorrow and before moving directly onto Tokyo for the final leg of the saga!~

Until then.
Peace out.

Carl