Russia Won't Invite Me to Their Party

I'm still sitting around Canada, trying to guess how long I have to budget my savings for. Russia haven't invited me in yet!

The Visa works something like this: I send the company I'm going to work for copies of things via email, they apply with government or whatever, immigration sends them an invitation some time later, the company mails me the invitation, I go to the consulate with the invitation, and the consulate finally gives me my fucking Visa. Somewhere in the middle of all of that, I also have to prove that I don't have HIV. Thankfully I do not.

It seems less complicated than the Korean Visa was, if only because they don't require my weight and inseam, but is taking much longer. I'm not thrilled about this, because my plan to leave enough money in my bank account to pay my student loans for the rest of the year has officially been dashed, due to the extra 6 weeks that I wasn't planning on being unemployed. That said, if having too long of a vacation and being a little bit bored are the worst of my problems at this exact moment in time, then things could be a lot worse.

It's not the company's fault that this is taking so long, they tell me, it's just how their government likes to do things. One of these days, somebody in the office will wake up and find a $50 bill has been slipped on their desk with my file, and shit will finally get done. Probably next week.

(That's probably not how it really works).

Now, if the company had told me outright that it could take three months, I probably would have taken the job still but at least would have gotten a job here in the meantime. Instead, they were totally vague about the time line, which is awesome. To be fair, it's entirely possible that they didn't really know either. I have no reason to assume otherwise right now, other than I've hit that point at which I'm just bored enough to start making absolutely everything up

On the bright side, I've had time to learn some Russian! I can say two different hellos, one goodbye, count to 20, say thank you, ask "what is this?", "is this a...?", and answer with "It's a...."! I also know the words for book, pen, table, and chair. Also, the alphabet, except that I'm terrible with their vowels and some of their consonant clusters. In other words, I'm practically fluent now and will probably be teaching Russian within a month of my arrival. Because that's what they need in Russia: Russian teachers.

I'm very talented.