Archives for: "May 2010"
Kazan invitation and visa, part 1
May 18th, 2010I hope to be in Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia for the summer. To get to Russia you need both an invitation and a visa; the consulate won't process a visa until the invitation has been issued. I processed my paperwork through an expediter that I had been… more »
Safe computing in Russia
May 18th, 2010I'm taking a laptop on vacation this summer, and I've decided to be paranoid about data security and to operate in such a way that even if the laptop is stolen, my data should be secure unless someone uses a supercomputer to crack the passwords.… more »
Where is Tatarstan?
May 18th, 2010Nowadays Russia is properly called “The Russian Federation” «Российская Федерация», which is made up of 83 “federal subjects” «субъекты Российской Федерации». One of those federal subjects is… more »
Tatar language tidbit
May 18th, 2010The word for apple in Tatar is alma. The word for this/these is bu. Since they don't use “to be” in the present tense, Bu alma means “This is an apple.”
To make plurals, you add -lar or -ler to a word, so Bu almalar means “These are… more »
Visa has arrived!
May 21st, 2010My Russian visa has arrived. I'm very pleased because I was worried it wouldn't get here before my flight, but it turns out the expediters knew what they were doing.
The first time I went to Russia, the visa was a separate piece of paper in three… more »
