Countdown to Russia: Day 29 - the surname fiasco.

Day mostly spent shuttling boxes to the new house. Had to clean new house because the landlord 'forgot' to. None of us are very impressed. He's also left us a collection of absurd and impractical furniture, such as an antique desk and a double bed that doesn't fit into either of the smaller rooms.

Have the presence of mind to call the Russian consulate to find out the latin spelling of my surname in my new passport. Even though my mother's surname is identical to my old one, I figure that that's no guarantee that it'll be spelt the same in mine, and I'm absolutely right! I'm wising up to their illogical ways. The nice girl on the phone confirms that they've stuck an 'aya' at the end instead of an 'i'; she also informs me that my passport is not quite ready. Three and a half months ago they told me three months, but that's clearly a loose estimate. What I don't understand is whhy my sister's passport was ready before mine, even though she'd applied later.

Hang up, and it immeditately occurs to me that the 'aya' can cause me considerable problems, since the name that I had changed via deed poll ends in 'i'. Now I have three names! Call the Russian consulate again and ask them to change the ending of my surname; they tell me that it shouldn't be a problem. Call my sister as a harbinger of doom and tell her of what had transpired. She's already booked her flight to Moscow, so she now has to call both the airline and the consulate to verify whether the ending of her surname is the same as mine and to see if that's going to be a problem. She's not pleased.

Finish the day by doing several Peruvian maps and working out just how many pages/maps per days I'll have to do in order to finish on time. 7 Peruvian pages per day (though most of the maps are done) and 5 Chilean pages per day during the second half of this month. Discover that I'm missing a detailed map of the Colca Canyon and send a request to Mike, since he's more likely to find it in Peru than I am to find it here.