Popping in to say hello, I'm new here.

[johnj 0]

VVO must be cool my wife is from Irkutsk which is just a few more hours west of VVO or just a few hours east of Moscow.

Say what, Irkutsk is as far from VVO as Key West is from Los Angeles. Oh, speaking of that, Irkutsk is as far from Moscow as Key West is from Los Angeles.

Did I just repeat myself, no, not me.

[slim 1,530]

My wife is from VVO area also. We've been exploring the possibility of a trip there next year sometime. Talk about a logistical nightmare. When I met her in Russia to fulfill our two year meeting requirement (we hadn't seen each other in over five years) I flew to Moscow and then she flew to Moscow. Trying to line up a VVO trip was outrageously expensive compared to the "discount" Moscow trip. If you have any cost-saving advice for Far East travel, by all means, share it here!

Whenever I finally do head over there, I'll route through Korea, no doubt. I lived there for two years and I absolutley LOVE that country. I'm going to make sure I have at least a two day layover there before heading home. Wifey's talking about staying in the Far East for an extra month or two, and if I'm rolling solo on the way home, you better believe the layover's going to be, as they say in Korea, "Kraygeeeeee!"

[Jonathan Matthies 1]

My wife is from VVO area also. We've been exploring the possibility of a trip there next year sometime. Talk about a logistical nightmare. When I met her in Russia to fulfill our two year meeting requirement (we hadn't seen each other in over five years) I flew to Moscow and then she flew to Moscow. Trying to line up a VVO trip was outrageously expensive compared to the "discount" Moscow trip. If you have any cost-saving advice for Far East travel, by all means, share it here!

Whenever I finally do head over there, I'll route through Korea, no doubt. I lived there for two years and I absolutley LOVE that country. I'm going to make sure I have at least a two day layover there before heading home. Wifey's talking about staying in the Far East for an extra month or two, and if I'm rolling solo on the way home, you better believe the layover's going to be, as they say in Korea, "Kraygeeeeee!"

I wish I had some magical cost saving magic. A friend from Texas said Aeroflot used to fly direct from Seattle to VVO; which isn't the case anymore;as best I could tell. I found nothing. I tried a gaggle of online and offline sites, AAA, orbitz, vlad-travel.com, brick and mortar travel agencies etc. and they all ended up being $1900-2100 depending on the time frame involved. I looked for 3 months and nothing cheap came up that didn't involve going to Moscow.

In a few months I (hopefully) get to coordinate a one way trip for 2 from VVO->Moscow as well as Moscow->Denver a few days later. I'm already in savings mode for when the day comes.

Katya and I both plan on returning to VVO as soon as possible. She has friends who constantly give her grief for not introducing us while I was there; but I was only there for a week. She has a solid support structure of friends and family in VVO; so I definitely wish to return to see all of them again.

Katya has never been to Moscow/St Pete, nor have I; so that is something we both want to do. Perhaps Fly to VVO and take the Trans Siberian Railway from VVO to Moscow. I read where it takes an entire week to make that journey by train.

Oh and patience is one thing I am not blessed with. "Hurry up and wait" both sucks and blows. Hurr up and gather forms and fill out paperwork, then wait for it to be mailed to me; then rush deliver it to the gov't, then wait for them to process it, blah blah blah. It's going to drive me batty. But it will be worth it.

[LvivLovers 39]

Welcome to the most interesting forum on VJ! =)

[slim 1,530]

Katya has never been to Moscow/St Pete, nor have I; so that is something we both want to do. Perhaps Fly to VVO and take the Trans Siberian Railway from VVO to Moscow. I read where it takes an entire week to make that journey by train.

That's not cheap either, but I've heard it's a good ride. (If you don't get beat up by local mafia or thrown from the train by security after not paying bribes, etc.)

One must consider the total expense of flying to VVO (several thousand $$$$$) then taking the train all the way to Moscow (pretty close to $1,000 last time I checked) and then the flight to the U.S. (Also close to $1,000) and then there's the whole time issue. To fly to VVO takes one whole day, the journey to Moscow about a week, then the trip home for another day or two. All told, that's the better part of two weeks so that could be you're whole vacation or a significant part of it.

I've been trying to relate to my wife that you can't just skip work to travel. If you do, you have to save money for several months, if not years before, in order to overcome not only what you'd spend while traveling, but what you're "not earning" while away. She's talked about going back for a few months and I'm doing my best to illustrate how her car sits in the driveway while she's gone with no one making payments on it because no one is working or sending money back from Russia. Once we figure out a way to send money back or have enough money here first, then we'll make that trip. Til then.... time to pay some bills.

[Satellite 1]

I've been trying to relate to my wife that you can't just skip work to travel. If you do, you have to save money for several months, if not years before, in order to overcome not only what you'd spend while traveling, but what you're "not earning" while away. She's talked about going back for a few months and I'm doing my best to illustrate how her car sits in the driveway while she's gone with no one making payments on it because no one is working or sending money back from Russia. Once we figure out a way to send money back or have enough money here first, then we'll make that trip. Til then.... time to pay some bills.

Remember I had and still have this problem every time a trip to Russia comes up. The loss of three months of wages when not working was enough to make me scream don't come back because this is not fair. The total cost of a 3 months trip when considering the non-earning months makes the trip prohibitively expensive for a household that relies on that 2nd income.

[mox 298]

Late to the party, but welcome and congratulations on your imminent filing! Lots of good advice regarding your situation, so I'll spare you my advice, but needless to say Slim is correct--this is the ONLY forum you need to visit here on VJ. Also, if you can at all drag the lurkers from MENA and UK forums into screaming at us bride-shopping, woman-hating neanderthals, you get many MANY extra points!

One thing I want to say about your earlier post: Rosetta Stone bad, Penguin course good. Stay away from Rosetta, it's a completely flawed course and you'll wind up speaking like a dork, if you can get through it at all. Get a personal tutor if you can at all afford it (you should be able to get one for $15-$20/hour). Speaking and interacting with someone else will help you immensely, especially if your tutor is a native from the FSU.

[slim 1,530]

Remember I had and still have this problem every time a trip to Russia comes up. The loss of three months of wages when not working was enough to make me scream don't come back because this is not fair. The total cost of a 3 months trip when considering the non-earning months makes the trip prohibitively expensive for a household that relies on that 2nd income.

She hasn't gone yet, so obviously something you're doing is working. Or, maybe she's just waiting on those big lawyer dollars to stack high enough that she can take 50% and run!

My wife's 10yr card is set to arrive any day. With the current situation, I'd almost be happy if she finally "will be find rich husband." And since I'm not an attorney, the only thing she'd be leaving with is 50% of our bills.

Rosetta Stone bad, Penguin course good. Stay away from Rosetta, it's a completely flawed course and you'll wind up speaking like a dork, if you can get through it at all. Get a personal tutor if you can at all afford it (you should be able to get one for $15-$20/hour). Speaking and interacting with someone else will help you immensely, especially if your tutor is a native from the FSU.

My money's on Pimsleur. If you can't find or afford a tutor, Pimsleur will at least get you sounding like a native. The accent is close enough and practicing saying that ####### over and over will help you once you start trying to say words like "dostoprimovatsawhathaveyou." I remember speaking to a group of young folks in Moscow in English and when I bummed a smoke from one of them in PYCCKNN one of the girls caught the vapors. "Whoa. You have NO accent. Say that again. Come on speak more Russian language to me."

Just a small side story from that one, and I guess it's kind of related (because the girl was one of the group) but on two separate occasions while I was in Moscow there were groups of young guys who literally dropped hot chicks by the side of the road just so we (meaning the guys) could hang out and get more drunk. That says a lot about the quality (and quantity) of women in a city. I didn't see anyone fighting over the fat chicks at closing time either. Come to think of it, I didn't really see any fat chicks at all.

However, I did see one chick in a subway station, had a beer with her and her friends, and then two or three days later, happened to see her again in a completely different part of the city. Coincidence?