It's been over five weeks since we first arrived in Vladivostok, bringing us near the halfway point of our journey. Everything has not gone exactly according to plan, but I guess that's to be expected considering that this is the first time that any of us have been involved in a project like this. The biggest frustration is that we have not been able to upload new material as often as we had hoped. We thought we could update the site every four or five days, but it's been taking about week to put together our transmissions.
On the positive side, we've had no major technical problems. Our hosts have been wonderful and Lisa and I haven't killed each other. The last point is a considerable accomplishment given that we've been together constantly battling the stresses of travel, deadlines and long days holed up in apartments staring at tiny computer screens.
In Irkutsk we are being put up by a young American woman, Lynda Park, who is here for four months doing research for her Ph.D. dissertation on Russian colonial history in Siberia. Her days are spent combing through the files in the Irkutsk state archives.
Staying with Lynda gives us a needed break from the overflowing hospitality we have been receiving from the Russian families. That may sound strange, but the constant attention and concern for our every need can be at times almost suffocating. It was a nice change to have someone simply show us the fridge and say, "help yourself". Linda is also an e-mail junkie and on-line literate, so our equipment and work doesn't faze her.
We're all a bit concerned that Lynda's phone mysteriously died this afternoon. It
can receive incoming calls, but has no dial tone and will not allow us to call
out. She says it's never happened before. Each of us took an unsuccessful turn
tinkering with the wires. We've since convinced ourselves that the line will
magically work when we wake up.