- HIV test with Russian translation
- Applying the visa (need the invitation from GSOM before doing that)
- Getting a second shot of hepatitis vaccination
I am most worried about the visa situation, because it just came up to me that they require my passport for that. Normally giving away my passport for a while would not be a problem, but because I am having a holiday in Cyprus just a week before going to Russia, giving my passport away is not that easy. I will need it to get to Cyprus also. There are some options like getting a short-term passport for my holiday and the alternatives need to be investigated in the coming days. I will try to get myself tested for the HIV in the beginning of next week latest.
I have been trying to learn some basic Russian during this summer. Really, really basic stuff like the letters and some common phrases. During the next weeks I will step up my learning efforts a notch or two so that I will have a bit better competence when I go to St.Petersburg. In any case, I will be starting with the basics in there also - I just want to be somehow prepared before going there.
Note to self: learn to type cyrillic alphabets with western keyboard...
