I have been able to make some progress getting some of my personal library on the way to Saratov. This has involved some grueling steps, starting at my own home college, Northern Virginia Community College-Loudoun.
The Fulbright Program will ship your textbooks from the US Embassy in Washington DC to the US Embassy in Moscow(for free) through something called the diplomatic pouch. Nice-but there are a couple of catches. First, you cannot drop the books off at the Embassy in DC. They must be shipped by UPS, FEDEX, or USMail. Pixie Calderwood in the Loudoun Science division office was instrumental in helping me get this done and handled the logistics of this flawlessly---my Dean, Joe Agnich was extraordiarily helpful as well. I was advised that the diplomatic pouch could then take weeks or even months.
Monday FEB 1, I got a relatively surprising email from Marina Bezrukova the Fulbright Program Officer at IIE in Moscow. My books had arrived! Hooray!
Next catch---the Fulbright Scholar is responsible financially and/or physically for getting those books to whereever in Russia those who did not choose the popular Moscow/St. Petersburg postings. I wanted to teach in Russia and so requested that it be somewhere other than those places. So, how to get the books to Saratov. I could have somehow lugged 50 Kilos of books on the train from Moscow to Saratov(after picking them up in Moscow myself)---along with the 2 huge duffel bags I was already wrestling around. This would have been impossible. My poor carriage neighbor(remember Director Viktor L. Cheplyaev) would have been completely inconvienced---I was already hogging more than my share of space. I would have also required some sort of porter and I would prefer not to travel in Russia like an Englishman(no offense).
Thus I needed to find a way to ship them here to Saratov. Fedex---no. After 20 minutes filling out a quote on their website, I was informed that inracountry shipments in Russia "are not happening at this time".
DHL? I had had some good communication with a nice fellow, Vasily Papenko, earlier in December about this and so thought that for a substantial sum, I could see them in Saratov a few days later if and when they got to Moscow. After I receieved notice from Marina in Moscow, I tried to contact Vasiliy--who i think was the after-hours guy in DHL Moscow. No response from him---I think he may have moved to another job, so I filled out the online form for a quote and pick-up. This morning I got an email from DHL---they could do it, but I would need to personally go to their office here in Saratov, pay CASH(no credit cards), and that when they arrived here I would need to go back to that office to retrieve them.
I asked about the possibility of getting some assistance with this this morning in my office. Cue the problem solvers at The International Office at Stolypin Volga Region Institute of Administration. These women get things done. I shall describe this process in my next post.
The Fulbright Program will ship your textbooks from the US Embassy in Washington DC to the US Embassy in Moscow(for free) through something called the diplomatic pouch. Nice-but there are a couple of catches. First, you cannot drop the books off at the Embassy in DC. They must be shipped by UPS, FEDEX, or USMail. Pixie Calderwood in the Loudoun Science division office was instrumental in helping me get this done and handled the logistics of this flawlessly---my Dean, Joe Agnich was extraordiarily helpful as well. I was advised that the diplomatic pouch could then take weeks or even months.
Monday FEB 1, I got a relatively surprising email from Marina Bezrukova the Fulbright Program Officer at IIE in Moscow. My books had arrived! Hooray!
Next catch---the Fulbright Scholar is responsible financially and/or physically for getting those books to whereever in Russia those who did not choose the popular Moscow/St. Petersburg postings. I wanted to teach in Russia and so requested that it be somewhere other than those places. So, how to get the books to Saratov. I could have somehow lugged 50 Kilos of books on the train from Moscow to Saratov(after picking them up in Moscow myself)---along with the 2 huge duffel bags I was already wrestling around. This would have been impossible. My poor carriage neighbor(remember Director Viktor L. Cheplyaev) would have been completely inconvienced---I was already hogging more than my share of space. I would have also required some sort of porter and I would prefer not to travel in Russia like an Englishman(no offense).
Thus I needed to find a way to ship them here to Saratov. Fedex---no. After 20 minutes filling out a quote on their website, I was informed that inracountry shipments in Russia "are not happening at this time".
DHL? I had had some good communication with a nice fellow, Vasily Papenko, earlier in December about this and so thought that for a substantial sum, I could see them in Saratov a few days later if and when they got to Moscow. After I receieved notice from Marina in Moscow, I tried to contact Vasiliy--who i think was the after-hours guy in DHL Moscow. No response from him---I think he may have moved to another job, so I filled out the online form for a quote and pick-up. This morning I got an email from DHL---they could do it, but I would need to personally go to their office here in Saratov, pay CASH(no credit cards), and that when they arrived here I would need to go back to that office to retrieve them.
I asked about the possibility of getting some assistance with this this morning in my office. Cue the problem solvers at The International Office at Stolypin Volga Region Institute of Administration. These women get things done. I shall describe this process in my next post.
