Hi All,

On Tuesday I'll be flying back to Russia to get Ira, and we'll return on the 5th. My question for you all is this: is there anything we'll need to bring back from Russia besides the sealed packet that the embassy provided? For those of you who made this journey already, is there anything you wish you'd brought that wasn't "necessary" but would have made certain things easier?

I'd appreciate any advice/wisdom you all have.

Thanks in advance,

Z

PS: I can't believe this part of the journey ends in just 10 days. Whew!

Lots of meds that aren't readily available here in the states, deodorant, toothpaste, Russian chocolate, Russian DVDs and music. A lot depends on the city you are in and the availability of these products in a Russian store. My wife has found many of the above on the internet (except meds and I suspect those are available from a Canadian on-line pharmacy if your state allows you to buy the same, might need a scrip from your doctor). good luck in Russia and God bless.

Make sure she gets any transcripts from any college/university she attended. It is much easier to get them when you are 'there'. The meds and stuff are a good idea. She will adapt (presumably) to our medicines/music/etc., but it is good to have for the first few months, which can be very diffucult.

She probably will not need as many clothes as she thinks. She should save the room for more important things (IMO). Good luck convincing her of that though.

You might want to grab a Russian/English keyboard...it made my wife's transition much easier.

or you can buy stickers from ebay for three dollars and save the room in her suitcase. better yet, she can go to any computer store in her city and buy them for 10-20 rubles before she leaves.

Bring that little fabric ring that goes on your toilet seat. I've never seen one here in the States but my wife almost held it in until we got one imported from her sister.

Also, bring a pilmenitsa, the little "turbo-pilmeny-maker-board" that looks like a big circle with holes in it and is used to pop out about 36 pilmeny in two minutes. It will save you some grief and some hand-strain. Trust me. (Actually, I think you were the guy that said your ol' lady and her mom never made pilmeny from scratch. Disregard this portion of the post.)

Any kind of herbal remedies that you don't see a lot of here in the States. My wife has herbal something-or-other for just about everything. This includes herbal oils as well. Ensure all of these are in original packages with English on them somewhere so the "high-speed" TSA and Customs inspectors will be able to "verify" the contents.

A good rice cooker and electric tea pot (with dual-voltage if possible) because they're quite pricey here and won't be as good as the ones available in Russia. (Which are made in Germany or China anyway.... )

And lastly, I'd have her bring a lot of pictures and a copy of her paystubs so when she's really angry at you for bringing her here to this horrible place you can point out that everything in her life is better now and have pictures/documentation to prove it. (She'll still be mad though. Go figure.)

Almost forgot.... if she has a favorite comb/brush, hair clip, nail file, something "girly" that she really likes, have her bring it as well. She will never be able to find something as good here. Everything here is cheap crap and not as good as what she could've had if she was back in Russia.

I'm sure there are a million more, but you'll get the "joy" of being reminded of what they are in about a month or so. (And then you'll get blamed for not telling her that she should've brought it.)




I'm beginning to think you sell these stickers on E-Bay. Power seller, eekee?

Nah, I'm just really anti-phonetic keyboard and i don't see the sense of lugging a keyboard all the way from russia when you have to pay for every kilo over.

OK...now I'm curious...don't know about a fabric ring for toilet seat. Tell m please.

I do remember my first Russian girlfriend did not have a toilet seat on her toilet. You just sat right on that cold unsanitary toilet bowl. I also encountered this situation at a few restaurants and cafes in Russia as well. Guess a toilet seat is optional over there.

a lot of toilet seats in public places just broke off because people stood on the seats instead of sitting down.

Now that was something I learned about quickly on my first trip to Russia. The toilet seats aren't there because Russians don't sit "on" toilets. They would never even consider sitting on a toilet seat in a public bathroom and probably not even in a private bathroom unless they were the only person using that bathroom......you might catch some dreadful disease or, at the very least, be sitting on something that is just not sanitary. At least that's what my ex told me.

I would recommend a Russian-English/English-Russian dictionary and books in Russian. It is somewhat hard to get this stuff here. Definitely documents--transcripts, birth certificates, etc. GOOD LUCK!

Wow. Thanks for the responses. Some of the stuff mentioned above, I'm worried about. I don't want to tip off the TSA by bring back a virtual pharmacy or a gold-mine of pirated DVDs/CDs. Unfortunately, it's really really hard to find the real deal in Russia.

Computer and keyboard I've already got covered. I configured her Macbook entirely in Russian, downloaded the Russian Firefox, Widgets, and etc. And I got several sets of keyboard stickers that will fit the Macbook directly, and the external full-sized keyboard.

Also covered on English/Russian materials.

Transcripts and birth certificates are good ideas. I also asked her to get a comprehensive family medical history -- but everybody in her family was concerned about having information compiled about them (even if not labeled by name).

I'll make sure she sees this thread -- even though, according to Slim, I'm doomed anyway for not telling her about something.



Z

The fabric toilet ring is just that. A piece of fabric that covers the toilet seat. It's the shape of a toilet seat and it slides on and then zips shut so you can take it off and launder it when needed.

Now, how the hell that's any more sanitary than keeping that hard plastic thing wiped down every-now-and-then is beyond me. For a people who are scared to death to sit on toilet seats (which still amazes me.... everyone around the world will use a public telephone, keyboard, open the door at the stoor, grab a handle on the bus, etc.... but we're all scared to sit down where someone else sat before....EEEWWW!) it doesn't make any sense that this is something considered to be "cleaner" than nothing at all. I guess it's really more for warmth and comfort than cleanliness, but laundering this little ring is supposed to keep it clean.

It's probably yet another example of how my wife is sometimes more parts Asian than Russian. (Russian Far East.. technically it's Asia but yet those round-eyed white girls aren't exactly "Asians." Then again, a lot of the Kyrgyz girls I met, who had dark hair and almond-eyes, they weren't exactly "Asian" either. But, then again, they weren't "European", and neither is my wife. Foreign. We'll go with that for now.)

Last time I saw a fabric toilet seat cover was neon green shag on my aunt's toilet in 1968 or so. Never saw one in Russia. I'd never want one and neither would Alla. A little wipe with bleach does the trick fine.

Yeah, the only time I've seen them in the States was at grandma's house, and she's ooooooold. She had the cushiony seat that when you sat down on it, it went, "pheeeeeeew." Several years later I went back, and it had a little tear in it so when you sat down it went, "ppppffffflph" and sounded just like what happens in the bathroom about 30 seconds after you sit down.

Being a young little whipper-snapper, I sat down and got up, sat down and got up, sat down and got up, and then finally, well, the rest of the story is private.

How do you say "stickers with Cyrillic characters" po rusky? Spasiva...

I have no idea how to stay stickers in po rusky. Here, we just said "steeekers for keyboard na parusky yazik." (Which is probably pretty technical because both stickers and keyboard are 'Russified' English words understood by Russians. Don't know if that's actually correct or not, but it works!)

Taking eekee's advice a few weeks ago, we ordered some off of E-Bay. $0.81 for the steekers and $1.78 for shipping and handling. They were coming all the way from Ontario, Canada, but I still didn't think they'd take too long. Boy was I wrong.

What a bad husband for ordering stickers from sh!tty steeker company. When I explained it was just some FSU Canadian dude that printed them out and sent them in an envelope she was a little more forgiving however I still should've bought the ones that would've been here faster. Like I knew which ones would ship the fastest! They ended up arriving earlier today - ordered on June 22, just arrived July 14..... dude replied, only after being threatened with negative feedback, that it could take up to 14 BUSINESS days to arrive and there were a couple holidays in there both U.S. and Canadian so the should arrive any day now. Finally did and for $2.50, what can I say?

They are pretty nice and add a more professional look than post-its or whatever else you want to use. I would recommend buying them, just make sure you allow up to (ALL THE WAY UP TO) 14 BUSINESS days (not Saturday, not Sunday, not on holidays!) to arrive at your house.

I've since received a nice, "thank you for buying my steekers" from my wife. Don't know where that came from. Ontario, maybe?

I would say "nakleyki dlya klaviatury c russkimi bukvami."

Spasiva