vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #546 / Vladivostok by Braille / Reading article...

In the ‘obshchezhite’ I live in, the Russian and international students do not live together. The second, third and sixth floors accommodate foreign students, the rest are inhabited by Russian students. Let me tell you this week about a guy in my dormitory named Raymond whose name was always around, but whom no one had ever seen.

As I mentioned, Russian and international students do not live together in my dormitory. I can not think of any good reason for this. I would say living in an ‘obshchezhite’ is a nice way for international and Russian students to mingle, but I suppose that is not what we are supposed to do. I, however, live on the eighth floor, because the international floors were all occupied when I arrived.

On the second floor, that I frequently visit, one door has a piece of paper on it saying ‘Remont’. Since I know that foreign names look a bit funny when you write them down in Russian (think Dzheyms), I figured an American guy named Raymond lived in that room. After all, this is an international floor…

Meanwhile, I found out that Raymond is a rather popular name in Vladivostok. Everywhere I turned, this name kept turning up. People called Raymond seemed to be quite busy guys, as they are always advertising on big billboards. Their main businesses seemed to be telephones and construction. Apparently, they are also important fellows, because everywhere around town hang banners and posters attracting your attention to Raymond.

Well, I was mistaken. There is no American living in that specific room on the second floor and there is not anyone in Vladivostok that I know of that is called Raymond, let alone that they are busy or important.

As it turns out, the word ‘remont’ means ‘repairs’ or ‘maintenance’. The dormitory officials did not make an effort to let the non-Russian speaking students living on the second floor know that their common room is being closed for maintenance. After all, it is important for repair services of any kind to let their possible customers know where they are situated. There you go, Raymond might never have been in Vladivostok, but there is a whole lot of repairing going on!

In many Vladivostok streets one may notice people working on buildings. A new building arises or an old one is restored. All this work is not a particularly pretty sight. While it has been said that Vladivostok is supposed to be the Russian San Francisco, my American friends were quick to assure me that the resemblance ends with the trams, the hills and the nearby sea.

I have never been to San Francisco, but I have a picture of it in my head that does not involve neglected buildings and neck-breaking holes in the ground. Luckily Raymond is right on top of things and within the near future Vladivostok might be a very good looking city indeed.