Trial Run for Russia
For all of you out there who think what we're doing is romantic and idealistic, let me take a moment to burst your bubble. Now that I am finally done with work (as of last Friday), we have spent every waking moment dealing with logistical hurdles. Melanie, who runs the JDC program out of New York insists that this is good practice for Russia.
On Monday, we tried to register our car in DC (which we have been remiss about doing for the last, um, let's say year or two). We need to do it now because our registration in Maryland expires while we'll be away. That "charming" crack in our front windshield wasn't so charming to the folks at the DC DMV Inspection line. Needless to say, we failed inspection. Then we tried to get our HIV tests (required for business visas in Russia), which took about two and a half hours. I spent Monday afternoon calling around to various auto glass shops while Matt ran errands. We also realized on Monday that we don't yet have our plane tickets or our invitation required to get a Russian visa. The plane tickets were never sent to us and the visa invitation was "lost in the mail." (In reality, it was mistakenly sent to Matt's old office.)
Yesterday, Matt sat home waiting for various people to show up. The auto glass people came four hours after they said they would and the cable guy who was supposed to come to uninstall the cable did so without telling us. Now we're left with the responsibility of having to return our cable modem to the cable company!
Fortunately, both our airline tickets and our visa invitation showed up as of today, so we can go pick up our Russian visa this afternoon, after three solid days of trying to acquire this elusive little document. And we successfully registered our car in the District this morning. Now if only you could imagine our house without Internet, cable and phone service -- it feels like we're in Russia already! So where am I now, writing this blog, you wonder? Yes, I'm sitting in the hallway pirating someone's wireless service. (Thank you, Bill Hicks, whoever you are!)
On Monday, we tried to register our car in DC (which we have been remiss about doing for the last, um, let's say year or two). We need to do it now because our registration in Maryland expires while we'll be away. That "charming" crack in our front windshield wasn't so charming to the folks at the DC DMV Inspection line. Needless to say, we failed inspection. Then we tried to get our HIV tests (required for business visas in Russia), which took about two and a half hours. I spent Monday afternoon calling around to various auto glass shops while Matt ran errands. We also realized on Monday that we don't yet have our plane tickets or our invitation required to get a Russian visa. The plane tickets were never sent to us and the visa invitation was "lost in the mail." (In reality, it was mistakenly sent to Matt's old office.)
Yesterday, Matt sat home waiting for various people to show up. The auto glass people came four hours after they said they would and the cable guy who was supposed to come to uninstall the cable did so without telling us. Now we're left with the responsibility of having to return our cable modem to the cable company!
Fortunately, both our airline tickets and our visa invitation showed up as of today, so we can go pick up our Russian visa this afternoon, after three solid days of trying to acquire this elusive little document. And we successfully registered our car in the District this morning. Now if only you could imagine our house without Internet, cable and phone service -- it feels like we're in Russia already! So where am I now, writing this blog, you wonder? Yes, I'm sitting in the hallway pirating someone's wireless service. (Thank you, Bill Hicks, whoever you are!)
posted by Alyson Fieldman at 9:01 PM
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