This past week, my invitation was officially submitted. I’ve gotten a notice to expect processing to be complete on February 8th. After that I can submit the official visa request. One thing required for the visa is an “HIV certificate”. After calling around, it seems the Larimer County Health Department was place to get such a test. I dropped in at start of the week and was pleasantly surprised to find the Health Department also does travel medicine. So, I sat down for a consultation of what I might need and left with two shots. One was hepatitus B and I’ll stop in for a second in the series in a month. Better safe than sorry.

This evening I gave a talk at the Fort Collins cycle club. I showed my slides from the 2006 trip. It was fun and nice to present. I’ve scheduled a “last weekend in February” ride from the Loveland Public Library at 10am and used the talk as an opportunity to invite others to join me in a short ride on February 24th.

Posted by mev as preparations at 9:31 PM EST

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Hard to imagine that only six weeks until I start my leave. I’ve been learning some Russian this past year and a half and am even signed up to audit a class at Front Range this spring. While I am far from fluent, it does seem helpful to increase some vocabulary and pick up on basic reading and writing skills. We have three students in the class (two after I leave), so there is a lot of individual attention which helps.

I also signed up for a three week Russian class in St Petersburg. Hopefully help me pick up a few additional survival skills in the language as well as taking a short break from cycling Europe before setting off across all of Russia. Along the way, I’ve loaded Rosetta Stone Russian language software on my PC. Haven’t used it much, but seems useful in picking up some additional language.

A lot of attention on Russian so I’m not worrying as much about some of the countries I’ll stay in more briefly on the way to St Petersburg. Netherlands (fine, I speak Dutch), Germany (knowing Dutch and English helps me even with some German), Poland (nope), Lithania (nope), Latvia (nope), Estonia (nope). Will see how it all goes…

Posted by mev as preparations at 6:56 AM EST

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A few more preparations are coming in place. I have ordered my visa invitation for a 12 month business visa. Once the invitation comes, I’ll apply for a visa with it. I am signed up for a three week Russian language class in St Petersburg, so some more intense refresher on entering the country. I also am auditing a Russian language class at Front Range community college before I leave.

My bike is mostly ready to go, though the snow and cold has made riding more awkward. The plan is to leave Fort Collins and head down to Dallas at start of March. From there, I’ll do a mini-tour to ride to Texas Hell Week, ride some of that and then return back to fly from Dallas to Amsterdam at end of March.

Posted by mev as preparations at 12:41 PM EST

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