The Internet Fiasco: At least we don't have dial-up!

Tuesday, September 20th was the beginning of our journey into the information supere highway, but there were many roadblocks before we met our destination. Was that painful for you to read? That morning, Yuri took us took us to the other side of the city by bus and marshrutka (a van taxi, kind of like a dolmush in Turkey). Then we hiked a bit looking for the office building before we found it. After deciding whose name went where with the paperwork, we went to another spot to pay (stretching out the work gives everyone a job!) and then headed back home hoping the guy who physically connects us would be able to come by that afternoon. While we waited, I fed Yuri and Jeremy lunch which these two skinny men devoured. Then I talked Jeremy into getting some cookies at the nearby supermarket. Yuri waited until 3:30, but no fix-it man came, so he said good-bye.

The next day a man came named Rishot. Do you know the English equivalent? That's, right- Richard! Anyway, lucky for us, he could speak English very well. He fiddled around for 3 hours but still couldn't get us hooked up. He promised to call us that night, so Jeremy and I went downtown crestfallen to meet the woman from the Ministry of Education in charge of getting us registered. Oksana, the aforementioned woman, has become my style idol. I think she's around the same age as Jeremy and myself which was a shocker for us. We imagined someone in this position carried a certain age. She also was very cute, but it was her outfit that made me realize some Russian women kick fashion ass! She had on a cute gray skirt with piping and a slit on one side, a collared shirt with a short fat tie, gray fishnet stockings with very small netting and white heals. It could not have been a more put together outfit for the office. Quite impressed was I!

The next day we expected to see Rishot by 2, but he never showed, so we went into town trying not too become too disappointed. After all, there was a time when we did without the internet, right? Yulia had pointed out a well stocked craft store the day before, so we went to check it out. After getting a new embroidery hoop and some yarn for a future Christmas project, we headed to La Cucaracha- a Mexican restaurant. We had read about it in our travel guide, so we really couldn't help ourselves. The guacamole wasn't as good as the guide claimed, but it was nice not to have to cook! After dinner, we met up with Yuri and his sister Anna, his buddy Misha, and his classmate Sveta for some classic jazz at the Philharmonic Hall. The group was great and we were in the third row! Yuri had seen them before; they are well known in the Russian jazz circuit. One interesting cultural fact- Russian women get a lot of flowers in this country including female singers. During the second part of the performance, the singer received flowers after almost every song she sang! Afterwards, Sveta left and the rest of us enjoyed a long walk around the city. We got to see a better view of the Volga from the Victory Park where there is a famous Samara landmark and a gorgeous Russian Orthodox church which was illuminated with night lights. There was also a portrait of Jesus looking rather bummed. Maybe he was sad because this church is only open on special holidays...

Friday was our day to celebrate. That morning two men came- oh before I go any further, this was this morning's phone dialogue (ring ring)

a: Hello
b: Hello, This is Sam Telecom
a: Hi, This is Jeremy.
b: No German, only English!


I hope it made you giggle. I think it's super funny! Anyway, low and behold the big problem wasn't that we had a Mac, Rishot's theory, it was an old cable wire to connect us. Once they put in a new one, we were up and running! Now I can call my loved ones for free!

And so ends our internet saga, but wait until the bill comes!