june, june, june . . . . .
Posted on June 5, 2011 with 0 commentswell, here it is the fourth of june and it has been a long time since reaching out to you, my friends. and of course i know you all missed my musings . . . . 
so, since march, where have i been, what have i done? i had the entire month of march and half of april to spend time in the ural area of russia as well as western siberia. what an experience. living out of a suitcase for five and a half weeks staying in hotels, some modern, some out of the '40's. nothing like working all day, catching a train at 8 pm, 11 pm, or even 1 am for another journey through parts unknown to arrive in another city previously unknown to me. take a quick nap and or shower, then off to work. as i said in my last message, i visited ekaterinburg, nizhni tagil, magnitogorsk, chelyabinsk, kurgan, surgut, tyumen, perm, nizhnivartosk, and some other towns and villages. once again, i believe i have seen in the past year more of russia than most americans (or russians for that matter) can hope to see in a lifetime. it was ironic that i finished that part of my travels on april 13th which just happened to be my one year anniversary in the russian federation. and what a year it has been. at some point in time i will regale you with stories of some of the more interesting experiences i have had in the past year that shall go unmentioned here for reasons which will also go unmentioned, suffice it to say though, "what a long strange trip it's been"!
currently in the process of getting my three year "highly qualified specialist" visa. yeah, see, a country thinks i am highly qualified. how cool is that?! since this one is taking a little longer than usual i will end up having been home for three weeks or so. my passport only had six months or so left until it expired, so i went to the regional passport office in denver with my russian visa invitation and the itinerary for my return flight, my old falling apart passport and, lo and behold, i had a brand new chip embedded passport in just over 2 hours. didn't think that was possible without congressional action. of course if i waited for congressional action i think i would be waiting for years.
nice to be home for so long but that means my next trip back to the states may not be until christmas - a long, long time away. so far when speaking about going back to the russian federation i haven't referred to it as "going home" which when said on a previous visit to colorado was not taken too well. it's amazing though, the first 4 days of my visit were taken up with doctor visits, one or two per day. not that i haven't had good experiences with the russian medical services it's just nice to stop in and see you "regular" doctor even if to say hello and hear "lose weight, quit smoking, lose weight, quit smoking, and oh yeah, quit smoking"! but doc, probably the hardest place in the world to quit smoking is in russia. as i have always said, smoking is my only bad habit . . . . . other than lying about my bad habits.
was able to see my daughter off for her senior prom, saw her graduate high school, went with my son to his campus to get text books for the summer session, hot rodded his mac book, went for a quiet dinner with my wife. little things, but little things you take for granted here . . . . but not there.
when i do get back i hope to play out a lot more. the cool thing about small russian bars or pubs in the town i live is that they have "bar guitars". just ask for the bar guitar, they turn off the music, and you end up playing to the room for a while. someone else asks if they can have a go at it, next thing you know it has turned into an evening of americana, european and russian folk music. much like what i think it must have been like in the early sixties in greenwich village in new york when dylan, et al were putting on impromptu concerts. not that any of us would be mistaken for dylan or the et als but you get my point. one of our newest ex-pats is from holland. i loaned him my taylor while i came to the states, so maybe we can work up a guitar duo. hope you are practicing marc! bas, my drummer friend, ironically also from holland, is now living in moscow, but we have skyped about having a reunion tour. :)
skype . . . . . first of all, what a very, very cool innovation. but, among those of us ex-pats living away from their families it has become somewhat of an obscene verb. "so man, want to grab a beer? give me fifteen minutes, i have to skype the wife!" "hey buddy, what did you do last night? well, i skyped the wife three or four times in like two hours!". it doesn't take much to make crazy ex-pats laugh.
you would think that i would have more to tell you after not having done this in a while. believe me, there is so much to tell, problem is, i just can't tell it right now. but someday my friends, someday. let's just say it has been an experience. anyway . . . . .
as always, enjoy life, practice random acts of kindness, hug your loved ones, pet a dog, donate to your favorite charity, think good thoughts about the world maybe starting to get along with each other, protect the right of free speech, enjoy religious freedom, be tolerant of opposing positions, vote, play a favorite record you haven't heard in ages, re-read your favorite book or poem, go see live music, and don't forget to tip your server. . . . and know there is always something good just around the bend . . .
be well friends!
roger
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