Preparing for the Trip - After Math

I got the internship position a bit later patch and as I had to renew my passport, the schedule was a tight one; especially to get visa to Russia on time. It was mixture of luck, excitement and "yea, this I will sort out at some point later..."


So starting from last week of July, all the way to 5th of September: I was good to go. I actually had common friend with the earlier intern from Finland to that same university. So I was able to ask some advice from her. Here are my few notions if you decide to move to Russia:


* make sure you got all documents needed ready before you actually need them. I lost few days as I thought all was ready. There was few hiccups, such as, my insurance policy information request had been lost somewhere and it wasn't ready.

* When applying for visa, make sure you have also your purse with you. It would have cost me 2 weeks of delay. Luckily, I had my neighbour visiting the consulate at the same time and she lend me the money for visa payment.(Talking about LUCK!)

* I also had to inform (fast) my route to Ukhta in my visa application and end up going via Moscow, (might have preferred Saint Petersburg). Additionally, I booked in a hurry my ticket through E-Dream and thus end up spending 11 hours in an airport near Moscow (Oblast), Vnukovo international airport, and I happen to land to a different airport. So I had to order a taxi service to pick me up, as the airports are 55 km away from each.

*I will let you know how the taxi service was. Probably paid too much for the fair, but anyway, alone in the middle of the night in Moscow - Yea. Lingontaxi, paid via PayPal.


All and all, the reception has been amazingly wonderful by the University. Everything has been planned beforehand. I was also asked, what I want to learn/do while I am there. So I will have now one of my dream fulfilled: Lots of Russian language lectures. If I finally manage to get the grasp of it! As I went through my schedule, I noticed they had arrange a knitting workshop in the center of Komi Culture, that will be an exciting addition. Rest, I will let you guys to follow here in my blog.


I hope you will find this blog helpful if considering Russia as internship or exchange location. Enjoy the time with me and lets see what we learn while visiting Komi Republic in Russian Federation.