Friday, November 14, 2008

Welcome Moscow!

I boarded the flight (SU-536) to Moscow, Russia on Nov.5th at 5am Indian Time. This was my first international flight and I was obviously very excited about it. I was about to join the most coveted company in my campus for non-CS guys.

Last few weeks were quite dramatic (regarding the VISA and other document related process).

Starting with delay in Letter of Invitation by a couple of weeks followed by mismatch in Russian translation of my first name. In Letter of Invitation my first name was translated as: митаншю. However, the consulate in India, translated it as: митаншу on my VISA. This meant that I have to go a little early to Moscow to get correction in MFA in Russia. After another week, there was a problem in Date of Birth on my Insurance Letter (1978 instead of 1987). Fortunately, that was corrected quickly!

After all the above problems, and a few more, I finally managed to get a ticket and fly to Russia.

Welcome Moscow!

I got accommodation from my employer in Holiday Inn for my entire stay in Moscow.

Moscow is a nice city if you leave out a very high population density and high costs for foreigners. Also, "Russia is for Russians". You will find almost all sign boards in Russian only!

I went to Red Square and Kremlin on Saturday, 8th November with 2 other newbies in my company - Rachel from Northern Ireland and Tonette from Norway.


No comments: