Hi all,
Made the plunge once more;)...and here's the story:
After coming back from Volgograd this Summer, i started to chat in Russian on icq especially in order no to lose what i had learnt during those 2 weeks.
Met Elena, from Chelyabinsk, and soon we started to chat on msn with a microphone.
Lasted for 2 months, each week more, until we had to speak abt our feelings.
My economical situation was not allowing me to go to Russia so i had been avoiding the subject, but she took that for indifference so i had to explain that it wasn’t. After that i received unexpected money from the govt to help me in my studies and got a nicely paid job, all in 1 week!! So booked my ticket, visa and all.
Our conversations until my coming were tremendous, interesting , funny, and each day it seemed more and more we were made for each other. We spoke each day 4-5 hours or more, stimes the whole night.
So on the 27th i left from Switzerland, landed in Moscow, spent one night there in a hotel next to Domodedovo and took my plane to Chelyabinsk the next morning.
Airport transfer from Svo to Domo. is quite easy, but was too tired and took an overpriced taxi. Even with bargaining for 30 minutes, u’ll never get a good price. I’ll try to avoid Svo now, because compared to Domo, it’s really a pain in the *ss. Good tip : Even if the plane ticket is a bit more expensive, but ur plane lands in Dme, still take it : there is a taxi booth with normal prices, no need to bargain with the aggressive taxi drivers u can’t avoid in Sheremetevo, there’s an express train to the center for 75 rubles, so anyway u’ll spare money unless u take the boring buses or marshutkas outside svo.
For the travel to Chelyabinsk, i booked my ticket with
www.avantix.ru, with the company Enkor(Chel. Plane company). So for avantix, their website is bugged as hell, but it works fine if u do it by phone. Just book on the site and the confirm all with a phone call or 2. Delivery of the ticket with fedex if desired. The flight with Enkor was good, and the plane seemed less crappy than the one of Aeroflot i used to go to Volgograd this summer.
Arrived in Chelyabinsk, took another overpriced taxi, thinking he was really cheap. I ask him in russian to go to the street where my gf had booked a flat for me, and he tells me “cto rublei”, i just didn’t understand the “pro kilometr” part. So happy and all i get in and after he asks me for 4300 rubles, since it was 43 kilometers...Tried to argue but still had to pay 2000 because she was just getting out of the building and i didn’t want to waste this moment with arguing more with a taxi driver...
(btw i had decided it would be better if she would wait me in the flat, since it feels a lot more comfortable to meet than in a cold airport hall...)
So i took her in my arms, we hugged each other strongly, and everything felt right, the driver disappeared from my mind, along with the tension and worries that usually come before this kind of meeting. It just felt perfectly right and wonderful.
She was like a long time no see girlfriend, like a 2nd meeting. I was completely at ease with her, and this during the 7 days which passed like 7 hours, despite a few fights abt stupid stuff.
Like really, she didn’t like when i said “f** king”, but for me who has learnt english with american movies and serials sometimes it just goes out automatically. She was really into almost all of the russian customs too...Was really not good to whistle in the house, to leave the empty bottles on the table, and lots of many little things that i don’t remember now, but i can try to make a list later if someone’s interested. Oh she was very sensitive too to lost traditions with youth here : like light the cigarette of a woman before her, take her coat(which i do but not each time) and very attentive to the “It’s not polite to”...
Abt Chelyabinsk, i have not seen much i must say. The ice town was really nice, but it seems it’s in every Russian city in winter, we went to eat twice outside, good pizzeria in the center(Pomidor). Abt New Year. It was great, we stayed at home and made some tasty cooking. Funny thing, the Russian new year tv shows seem to last for 2-3 days without any stop...It seems it’s the custom to eat and drink with ur friends in front of those shows, this for one or 2 days. The 1st in the evening was a bit frightening...Like everyone VERY drunk and a lil sleepy, weird atmosphere on the streets. But it seems there is no interest to come here if u don't know someone already. Moreover much factories and dirty air. And Ekaterinburg seems way more interesting and only 200kms away.
On my last day i met her aunt, who is apparently the commander of the family(her parents live in a town in Siberia, so does her aunt but she comes to see her niece and friends once a month, and my gf lives in her flat). So apparently it was important “exam” because if the aunt didn’t like me nobody would, she would act for it. But she seemed to be nice and my Lena didn’t really understand why she was so nice with me, as she seemed so negative abt it before i came.
After i learnt that she really liked me, even told her niece she would be foolish to lose me;)...
So when Lena came back home(she just went with her aunt to pick up some pictures in her flat), we had a big chat(as usual) and i asked her if she wanted to marry me, and she answered with a very enthusiastic “sure!”..I just had no rings, since i had not planned to get engaged on this 1st trip to see her, but it just felt right, like the celebration of a perfect week.
So now we are working to make her come here in 2 months on a tourist visa, in the Summer i’ll go meet the whole family in Siberia, and once i get my diploma and job....”welcome to Switzerland Lena!”
For the trip back nothing really special, just a bit worried since i had no registration due to the OVIR closed during holidays, but the only ones who care are the militsia. I had to pay 300 rubles to the guy at Chelyabinsk airport, but in Svo when leaving, they didn’t even ask me any questions at the customs point.
So really unexpected success, and 4 months from now if someone had said me i would be back in Russia so soon and with such a positive outcome i’d say “you gotta be kidding me”...lol
Thx for reading until now
Patrick
