The evening proved to be a very interesting experience. We had a meeting with Tanya, Irina, Vera, Dr. Orehov, Greg, Dustin and I. The group gathered at about 7 PM and after our Russian friends were sure that we were comfortable in our hotel accommodations we progressed to the organizing of the next few days.
With a review of who was arriving at the airport and on what days, we realized that there would need to be several trips to the airport at various times of the day. Then logistics began to be planned out. I believe at this point was when I actually hit the wall on jet lag. Russian conversation poured into the air and each time a question was asked by Greg there would proceed a long conversation between our Russian friends that I could not understand and then would arrive an answer that Greg would write down. This continued for almost 2 hours. I was fighting sleep and my head was swimming both from my lack of understanding and from my lack of rest.
Once the meeting was over, Irina recognized that the three Americans were exhausted and suggested we get some rest. I was grateful and with the end of our meeting I prepared for bed. My roommate arrived and we met for the first time. I explained that I did not understand Russian, and quite frankly I was so tired I barely understood English at this point. We smiled and she was very nice to me, trying several times to speak with me, we both realized it was ridiculous, had a good laugh and went to sleep. Even in this foreign place with nothing familiar, I had no trouble falling off to much needed sleep.
I awoke early, 5:15 and laid there for a while just thinking about how far I had come in just five days. A nice warm shower and some fresh clothes and I am ready for the day. Greg and Dustin are still sleeping, I’m sure. I am in the room where we met last night. It is a common room on the hotel floor that we are staying. The room is lined on three walls with red couches like you would find a college dormitory lounge and there is a brown floral carpet. The foggy morning drifts in through the lace curtains and last night seems very far away.
Dustin and I plan to run some errands this morning while Greg goes to the airport to get another team member Florin. He is flying in on two 9-hour flights from Montreal, Canada. I think I have some idea how he will feel when he gets here.
Downtown Petropovlovsk-Kamchatsky is a bustling city set beneath beautiful volcanoes.
The Scenic Route
Once Greg arrives with Florin we set out to run some errands. Florin stays back at the hotel because there is only room for five in the compact car. Irina and Greg have a very specific list of what we need to accomplish. Our driver has a terrific command of the area and Dustin and I are there to help in any way we can. That said it was a series of errands unlike any I have ever experienced before. We started out with some idea, at least on paper, of where we needed to go and what we needed to buy. However, it quickly became apparent that luck was not with us. At the post office they were closed for lunch, at the bank the wrong name was on the account, at the next post office an hour later they were closed for lunch and so on and so forth. But the most comical part of this three-hour tour was our off-road style trek through the local bazaar. The roads were basically a series of potholes strung together with small strips of asphalt. The bazaar consisted of rows and rows of metal garages each with it’s specific set of wares for sale outside. We bounced around the backseat for approximately an hour searching for a garage that would sell us propane for the tank that rolled from side to side in the trunk, clunking it’s way in every direction. After three hours of visiting what seemed like very corner of the town we had accomplished exactly one task on Greg’s list. I could see the frustration building on everyone’s faces, however I could not help but be completely amused at the whole process. I just kept thinking that we need to find the humor in this or we’ll go completely nuts.
The hilly roads of the bazaar are a challenging off-road experience.
Our big success on the excursion was the hardware store. We purchased some supplies for making the screens to be used in the field and as a bonus we bought a ladder. It was just long enough to fit from the front seat to the rear window and we wedged ourselves between it so that we could still fit three of us in the back seat. The ladder as it turned out was just another comical obstacle on our escapade. It caused Greg to be so contorted that I switched seat with him on the off chance that my smaller stature would allow me to ride with the ladder more comfortably. Which was not the case but, at least Greg could concentrate on the work without being beat in the head with a metal ladder, which was progress.
The afternoon had Florin and I shopping for food, Greg, Dustin and Tanya shopping for a sat phone and gathering various gear and Irina shopping for tanks of propane and stoves. All three of those trips were successful and at least we felt we had accomplished something by day’s end.
With much left to do before we leave for the field, tomorrow promises to be full of adventure, hopefully we will replenish our sense of humor since that will probably be our most valuable resource.