I guess I should take time to write up the rest of my trip report. I'm busy and already starting to forget things that happened. This trip I never kept any notes. I never had time or energy when I was alone.
Anyhow, on with the story. Monday May 27th. As anybody who's travelled to Russia knows you need to register your visa within 3 working days of your arrival. So Alla the lady that I rented my apartment from said that she would help me. It was a mess. I have always used a company from ST. Petersburg to get my travel voucher for my visa. Then I either lived in a hotel for a day or more often just paid a few dollars for the hotel to register me. But in Vladivostok nobody wanted to register me because my travel agency wasn't located in the Primorsky Krai. I went to several hotels, OVIR and finally the university for help. The director of the international department thought that he could help me. I e-mailed my company about my problems and the director said that he would make some inquiries.
That afternoon I made a phone call and set up a date with one of the girls that I was writing to. It was difficult because I was using a payphone outside of my building. I actually talked on that phone for almost 2 hours the first 2 weeks that I was in Vlad. Almost everytime I used it there was traffic and people going by and it was almost impossible for me to hear the person I was talking to. The fact that I don't speak Russian all that well also slowed down my conversations. But it was better than nothing. Then because I still had lots of daylight left I called the girl I had met the day before. She was happy to met with me again and we went for a walk around the central area of the city. This was the beginning of many hours of walks that I would take in Vladivostok.
Tuesday the director of the university was supposed to meet me at my apartment and give me a quick tour of how to get from my place to the university. He never showed up. So after waiting for a couple of hours I decided to go wandering. I had maps of the city that RW's dad and Natalya(my tour guide) had given me. But I didn't bother to read them closely until later. So I wandered around for several hours orienting myself with my neighbourhood. Then I tried to figure out where the university was located. I didn't have a phone number for Mr. Romanov(the director) so I called Alla. She had taken me to the university the day before but didn't know which street it was on and didn't have time to show me again. I found it on my own. It was actually only a 15 minute walk from my apartment straight down Okeansky Prospect, one of the main street in Vlad. After my girlfriend got of work I called her and we went for another long walk around the center of the city.
Wednesday I walked to the university and met with Mr Romanov. He was a little angry with me because he couldn't enter my building because of the code locked security doors. He waited for an hour for me to come out and let him in. My building didn't have security doors! He had stood around outside the wrong building waiting for me. He told me that he had talked with the customs people and they said it wouldn't be a major problem if my visa wasn't registered. I just had to explain what had happened when I left. Then we settled on a price for me to take lessons at the university. I took a 2 hour long test to determine my level of proficiency with Russian so that they would know which group to place me in. Then I met a young woman who would help me learn about the city. Irina was actually one of the teachers and ended up being one of the two that taught my group. She took me on a 2 hour long walking tour of the city. She would teach me new words and correct my grammar as we walked.
So now the pattern for my first 2 weeks was set. Everyday I would get up at 7:00 am, eat breakfast and stare at my bathtub until I worked up courage enough to have an ice cold shower. There was no hot water in Vladivostok for the first 2 weeks I was there. I couldn't even complain about it because almost everyone in the city was in the same situation.
9:00-12:30 I studied Russian at the university. My group was composed of 2 Korean girls, 2 Vietnamese guys, 1 chinese lady and me. The lessons were taught totally in Russian. It was difficult but very interesting. It was very difficult for me to understand the other students. Most of the time I was able to understand the teachers. I think think the university did an excellent job of choosing which group to put me in. They were more advanced than me in using proper grammar but I had a larger vocabulary.
About 2:00 Irina wiould take me on a 2 hour tour of the city, always in a slightly different area but usually still in the center. After 4:00 or whenever I made it home I would call my girlfriend and she would walk me around the city some more. I spent an average of 5-6 hours a day walking around the city. Oh, how my feet hurt. But I never blistered them and my legs hardened in quickly. Then I would have supper with my girlfriend and her mother. After that I would return home around 10:00 pm. The next day it would start all over again.
Thursday morning and afternoon was the same as the other days. School and Irina's walking tour. But that night I was supposed to meet my second lady. I stood in the rain for over an hour waiting for her. She never showed up. I tried calling her at work and home. No answer. So I thought,"the h3ll with you." She never really seemed that interested in writing to me, but she was cute and I was going to be in the city anyway so I tried. But after that I never tried to arrange anything with her again.
Friday followed my usual schedule except that now I knew where the internet cafes were and I was able to send and recieve e-mail when I felt like it. I used e-mail to set up a meeting with my third lady for late the next week.
Saturday I had a tour of several museums with Natalya. The Arseniev was very interesting with exhibits ranging from geology, prehistory, ancient people's of that area on up to modern days and many displays of the local wildlife. another museum was an old navy fort overlooking the city. It had all sorts of weapons from small arms to heavy artillery and coastal defense batteries. It also had scale model displays of different forts from different time periods in that region. I'm a gunsmith and interested in military history so I enjoyed it a lot. The last museum was a WW2 era sub. It was small but interesting. My favourite part was the hordes of chinese tourists. They would grab any RW who walked by so that they could take pictures with them. The chinese guys were like little kids around the RWs. It was hilarious to watch. I was at that museum with 3 differnt people and they always avoided the large groups of chinese because they didn't want to be groped and photographed by the whole busload.
That's enough for now. I'll try to write up some more soon.
