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Friday, September 26, 2003 |
TIP: If we decide to bring a stroller along on Trip #2, leave it unassembled. The box can be checked as a piece of luggage more easily than the stroller itself.
posted by AnnMarie at 1:06 PM |
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Wednesday, September 24, 2003 |
TIP: Handy-dandy reference for figuring out our daughter's shoe size. (No need to print it out--just measure!)
posted by AnnMarie at 12:21 PM |
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Last week, I read Siberian Dawn: A Journey Across New Russia by Jeffrey Tayler. It's a fascinating account of a trip in 1993 from one side of Russia to the other. The jury's out as to whether it's a good book or not. It gives a very depressing view of most of the country. I'm very curious to see how it has changed in ten years.
posted by AnnMarie at 6:18 AM |
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Tuesday, September 23, 2003 |
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Monday, September 22, 2003 |
TIP: Bring ketchup packets. (This is a tip for Eric. Those who know me, know I detest ketchup. icky, nasty, horrid stuff.) Someone who traveled recently to Tomsk said they couldn't find it anywhere, and wished they had some of their own. You can, however, find mayonaise.
posted by AnnMarie at 9:37 AM |
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Thursday, September 18, 2003 |
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In Moscow, we will stay at the Hotel Katerina (Someone mentioned an official hotel website, but I haven't found it yet.) Someone said at FRUA: "We liked the Katerina a lot. The room was small but nice enough and very clean. The staff were exceptionally nice. We were allowed to use the internet connection for free (for 5 minutes at a time, though we often went late at night and they didn't mind us being there longer). They have a nice hot tub."
posted by AnnMarie at 9:30 AM |
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CHI has a photo up right now of their Russian staff. Our regional coordinator, Ludmila Kudashkina, is second from the left.
posted by AnnMarie at 7:41 AM |
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Tuesday, September 16, 2003 |
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Got our "welcome to the waiting/traveling" packet from CHI yesterday. It included the book The First 1000 Words in Russian which I've seen recommended all over the place. :) Raced through the book, picking up just a few things here and there. Two cool things: We are not allowed to give gifts (money or otherwise) to the CHI staff in Russia. CHI does not allow this, per their employment contract. CHI says their salaries are commesurately higher, however. Then, as of January 2003, gifts for the orphanage staff and others are covered by our CHI fees. WOOHOO!!!! This has been something I've really worried about. What's the right thing to bring? How many? What if I don't get it right? Etc. No need to worry. We are encouraged to bring gifts for the children in the orphanage, but we're hoping to buy some fresh fruit! (I also have a dozen or so Oshkosh B'Gosh kerchiefs.)
CHI also recommends against bringing formula and diapers. They stressed that these items (and most other baby items) are readily available, and much cheaper. They will take time to take us to a baby store to buy what we need. So many others have said to bring as much as possible because there's NO TIME to stop and buy things. I like that CHI says they will do so up front.
Need to look into the travel plans more. They will do that for us, but it appears only the international flight--we're responsible for domestic. Besides wanting to use Northwest as much as possible (have frequent flyer miles with them), I don't want to have to plan a flight from here to NY or whereever, that will meet up with the flight they book for us. I want it straight through. The drawback: If plans change and we use them, they take care of rebooking. If we take care of our plans, we take care of any changes. Need to weigh both sides.
posted by AnnMarie at 8:04 AM |
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Sunday, September 14, 2003 |
Tomsk (from various sources)
- 70% of its population works in academe.
- region population: 1.078 million (1995); city: 700,000
- "Tomsk is an extremely beautiful city. It has a lot of wooden carved houses surrounded by a lot of green, beautiful birch trees and parks."
- "[They] were pleasantly surprised by Tomsk. Expecting to be in the middle of nowhere in Siberia, they found a quaint, charming, 'old-world' town with lots of history. They felt very comfortable walking by themselves down the cobblestone sidewalks and visiting the many shops. They admitted it was a nice surprise and really 'took them back' to the older days in American history." (From a CHI story about an adoptive family.)
- "In 1604 the Russian tsar Boris Godunov ordered Cossack leader Gavril Pisemsky and boyar son Tyrkov to found a fort on the River Tom, on Tatar land, to protect the river crossing. It became important as a military center for pacifying the native people and evolved into a regional administrative center. Beginning in the late 1830s, its population grew quickly thanks to the intensifying gold-mining activity in Siberia."
- Rich in natural resources, particularly oil, natural gas, metals, peat, and underground waters. Forests are also among the most significant assets of the oblast: about 20% of the West Siberian forest resources are located in Tomsk Oblast. Industry makes up about half of the regional GDP, while agriculture contributes 19% and construction 13%. Chemical and oil industries are the most developed in the region, followed by machine construction. The oblast's major export items are: oil (62.1%), methanol (30.2%), and machines and equipment (4.8%).
- Home to 6 state higher education institutions and 47 research institutes.
- average temperature in January is -25C which is -13F
- region is about 2x the size of Germany.
posted by AnnMarie at 6:02 PM |
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Tomsk's geography is the taiga: "A subarctic, evergreen coniferous forest of northern Eurasia located just south of the tundra and dominated by firs and spruces." ( From Dictionary.com) What does the taiga look like? Most of the region is inaccessible because it is covered with taiga woods.
posted by AnnMarie at 5:56 PM |
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Friday, September 12, 2003 |
We're going to Tomsk!
Learned yesterday that our dossier is being mailed today. The selected region is Tomsk!
CHI's page
RIN's info
weather The time is noted on this page, as well. Tomsk is 13 hours ahead of us.
posted by AnnMarie at 5:12 AM |
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Thursday, September 11, 2003 |
The HS page was received yesterday! P. will be calling on Friday to discuss the region to which our dossier is being sent!!!!! We'll be going out to dinner to celebrate!!!! We're so excited!!!!! (In case you couldn't tell by the !!!!!)
posted by AnnMarie at 5:45 AM |
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Tuesday, September 09, 2003 |
On Friday, we returned home after 5 pm to a message from CHI. There were problems in our dossier; we could call before 4:30 or on Monday. AAAARRRRRGGGHHHHH! We were in agony all weekend. Whenever I started thinking about it, I would get anxious and stressed out. I tried to not think about it, but it would creep up. I'd planned some related activities (buying and making things for the kiddo) with my Mom, but really didn't feel like it. However, we did purchase items for the trip (based on earlier lists in this blog).
Monday, I got a hold of P., our agency person. I shouldn't have stressed out! There were two minor issues: the license date (which they gave me) was off by a year and my birthdate was wrong on page 3 of the homestudy. CAC will send them an updated page 3--no need to recertify it all. And I corrected the incorrect date and we got those pages notarized. P. said that our dossier was very well done!
Maybe by the end of the week, the dossier will be complete!
posted by AnnMarie at 12:31 PM |
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Wednesday, September 03, 2003 |
No news on our dossier. :(
posted by AnnMarie at 8:24 AM |
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archives |
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my
Tomsk guide
support groups
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