March 14, 2012

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!

Posted by Mara Jevera Fulmer under Travel, Uncategorized
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Image

Okay… Four shots later – two in each arm – my vaccinations are now up to date. I still have to go back for the second doses of HepA and HepB next month. But at least I’ve made some headway!

After going round and round and round and round… I literally ended up where I started, back at my primary physician’s office. I’ll tell you the secret!

It turns out that they DO vaccinations! But they would not even discuss it until I mentioned that I needed them NOT for travel, but because I really hadn’t had any of these!

Look, let’s face it. Folks of my age bracket – 50-ish – likely never had any Hepatitis vaccinations. It just wasn’t done. And the former Tetanus-Pertussis-Diptheria has a shortened life effectiveness with a new Tdap (as it’s called in the office) recommended every 10-15 years or so. I know it’s been a long time. I kind of recall a Tetanus shot some time in the last 25 years. But, well, it’s definitely passed the recommended “use-by” date!

And as for polio, back in the day, they gave it to you as an oral vaccine. Nowadays, the intravenous version is considered more effective. Great! Re-do!

So, then the last part is that – according to my health insurance company – if I do actually need these (confirmed to be a “yes” answer), then these are all covered under “preventive care”.

Done!

But boy do my arms ache…

At least I won’t be bringing home the plague any time soon.

– mjf

 

February 25, 2012

Ekaterinburg where?

Posted by Mara Jevera Fulmer under Uncategorized | Tags: , , , |
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View from the Ural Mountains, about 60 miles from Ekaterinburg.

Ekaterinburg, where art thou?

Been exploring a lot of websites. That can be dangerous, since there is an abundance of not so tasteful websites offering Russian brides… oh dear.

But I have come across a few that are actually helpful. This one looks pretty interesting and features lots of good photos … but of course it’s a travel website. I HOPE they make it look good, even though it is known as one of the more industrialized cities (with a rather checkered past) in Russia.

http://www.ekaterinburg-ural.com/ekaterinburg-ural-mountains

Russia is such a BIG place!

I was thinking… Russia is such a HUGE country! Seven time zones, stretching geographically from eastern Europe to the Bering Straits, facing, yes, Sarah Palin’s home state of Alaska. The country is so big it sits north of Turkey, the Middle East, Afghanistan, India, China, and all of Southeast Asia. The International Dateline, which technically ran through (but politically wrapped around) the Fiji Islands, actually also wraps around the north east end of Russia, again right through the Bering Straits. According to the CIA World Factbook, it is the largest country geographically in the world, with over 6.6 million square miles (compared to the USA coming it at #3 at a bit over 3.8 million square miles, behind Canada).

The map here shows the timezones of the Russian Federation and the rest of the world.

Ekaterinburg is north of Kazakhstan and on the east side of the Ural Mountains. Here’s a closer map of the area that you can compare with the timezone map.

According to weatherspark.com, I can expect temperatures in May as follows:
“The month of May is characterized by rapidly rising daily high temperatures, with daily highs increasing from 56°F to 67°F over the course of the month, exceeding 80°F or dropping below 42°F only one day in ten. Daily low temperatures range from 36°F to 46°F, falling below 26°F or exceeding 55°F only one day in ten.”

Apparently it is a very short summer there. So May comes in with the first real warmth but then it apparently doesn’t last very long since by August things are starting to chill down again. Maybe it’s more like Michigan than I thought?

Getting There…

So far, travel from Flint to Ekaterinberg, Russia’s 4th largest city and located at the southern and east side of the Ural Mountains, will take at least 20 hours at the shortest, but more like 25-30 depending on how the flights work out. One issue that comes up is that because this is a grant from Fulbright and therefore must be approved by the US Department of State, my travel must comply with the FlyAmerica Act. This means that I must travel on US Carriers or codeshares (if the airline is not a US Carrier). Well, you’d think this wouldn’t be that hard. And really, it isn’t that hard. Delta is the only carrier I can find that flies almost all the way there, combined with a codeshare for the last leg into Russia on Aeroflot Airlines. The challenge came when I needed to also come up with quotes for the cost of cancelling the flight or changing it. It seemed each of the travel sites referred the costs back to the specific airline. But when I looked on Delta’s website, it indicated their rules applied only to tickets bought directly from their website.

No problem, you say! Just buy the tickets directly from Delta. Ah yes, but there’s the rub. Delta’s website would only deal with their flights, not the codeshare. I couldn’t even book the codeshare on their site. I eventually gave up and just called Delta to ask why I was getting a message that, in essence, said I couldn’t get there from here. And that’s when they explained that Delta wouldn’t book the codeshare through their website.

Okay. Not to worry. Fulbright has been very nice so far and said I could just put in something to the effect of a “best guess”. After all, they were going to get their own quotes for the flights to compare to what I came up with.

Now for the next challenge, nailing down approval for the grant dates. But I’ll leave that for another day’s post.

 

February 21, 2012

Figuring out the immunization system

Posted by Mara Jevera Fulmer under Travel
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Which way to go...

Which way to go...

I lived overseas from 1991-1997 in Fiji where I worked for the University of the South Pacific as Art Director of their media centre. In order to arrange for a residency permit back in 1991, I had to make sure my vaccinations were up-to-date, especially measles, and also obtain a chest x-ray to prove I did not have signs of tuberculosis. Over the years, I’ve traveled to Fiji, around the US, UK, Mexico and Canada. But since I wasn’t migrating anymore, I did not worry about pulling out my record of immunizations.

So here it is more than 20 years later, and I’m preparing to visit Russia in May 2012 as part of my Fulbright. Checking the CDC website, they recommend making sure your immunizations are up-to-date. Since I know everything was up-to-date in 1991, I guess the only ones I would need are some newer vaccinations such as the Hepatitis B shots. CDC also strongly recommends a booster of the IPV polio vaccine prior to departure. Problem is, I can’t find my immunization records. Maybe it isn’t a big deal and I guess the good news is that I am not finding any specific requirement from Russia for proof of immunizations. But I hate to be surprised!

Thinking that I could take care of the HpB and IPV that I need, I called my insurance company. No problem, they said. Since these are normally required, they can be covered under “preventive” care. The only hitch – they will only be covered if administered by an in-network provider.

Ah, but there is the challenge! I have called a half-dozen “in-network” doctors, including my own family physician and none of them perform vaccinations, and especially not for adults. Many referred me to the county health department.

So I called the County Health Department and left a message since they do not answer the phone; there is only a recording saying that you can leave a message and they’ll call back. Surprise, surprise, the next morning they actually DID call me back, only to tell me that “no”, they did not do adult vaccinations. Their suggestion – Walgreens or Rite-Aid drugstores, start calling them to see which one of those stores would do adult vaccinations. If I figure that out if one of these stores WILL do it, I’ll be calling my health insurance company for the fourth time in about a week to find out if doing it THAT way would be covered.

How ironic is this that here I am, one of those lucky people with a “cadillac” health insurance policy that says they’ll actually cover something. But I can’t find anyone to deliver the service!

oh dear…

 

February 20, 2012

Hello world! From Mara

Posted by Mara Jevera Fulmer under Uncategorized
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Forest rocks
Came across this small monument in the forest around the Sanilac Petroglyphs in mid-Michigan

I’m starting a new adventure soon. So I wanted to create a new blog to capture some of the happenings along the way.

In May, I’ll be traveling to Ekaterinburg, Russia, on a Fulbright Specialist grant to teach a a short course on cultural journalism titled “Art/Design intersections for society and politics.”

Just the preparations alone could be a full-time effort. But more on that in the next post. A short list, however, involves some of the following:

  • Just settling on dates!
  • Getting approval from Fulbright
  • Obtaining Visas
  • Writing the course syllabus & associated research
  • Obtaining vaccinations (uggghhh, ouch)
  • Getting travel quotes (while sticking to the Fly America Act!)

Return soon for more on any of the above and more!

Thanks!

Mara

 

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