It's partly our dumb luck. We're magnets for it, in case you haven't noticed. And luckily for us, we think it's all pretty hilarious. But, you can't help but wonder what the universe is thinking when every...single...deadline falls on a holiday.
It started when Hubs went to Russia for the first time to do the medical testing for his work permit. The company had to schedule his flight literally the night before because Christmas was coming up, and after that, Russia has the month of January off. Technically, it's only the first ten days, but we have confirmation from office staff that since January boozefest is so crazy, they don't get anything done while they're out of the office or the first week they're back. I've named this week "recovery week" and its an in-office holiday. I'm certain its celebrated by making the rounds to cubicles throughout the office, swapping stories and hangover cures. I wouldn't be surprised if they had vodka hour in the break room that week.
So, applying for our first visa over a month-long holiday pushed our time back a bit.
Then, we're so close to getting our visa, we have collected all of our paperwork, filled out the application and the day we go to send everything to the consulate is a holiday. International Women's Day. This is a predominately Communist holiday, apparently (I looked it up on Google...) but I'm not sure what happens except no work. Of course, this year it fell on a Thursday, which means they also took Friday off. And we were left waiting again.
We made it to Russia in March and we lucked out with the holidays for awhile. March and April, when we really didn't need anything done in a hurry, didn't have any non-working holidays. (Not even Easter...)
And then May. May 1st is International Workers Day and no one works, but they take to the streets and protest work. Putin even joined them out there this year. Which is crazy, because if he's protesting his job, he should probably just step down. It doesn't seem like people like him much right now around here. This holiday landed on a Tuesday this year, so Monday was also listed as a non-working holiday.
Then came May 9th, Victory Day! Everyone loves Victory Day here. They pass out ribbons in the street for weeks before, the whole city cleans up and repaints everything to look nice and every other day, they take the tanks out for a practice run before the big parade down the main highway leading to the Kremlin. It really is a pretty cool experience. We missed the actual day because we were in Dubai, but we caught a practice run and watched some videos on YouTube. Victory Day is celebrated in many countries in Europe, but on May 8th. It's the day Nazi Germany surrendered, ending the Second World War. People remember and recognize WWII vets, expressing their thanks with flowers, wreaths, marches, and fireworks galore. Victory Day fell on a Tuesday this year and, you guessed it, Monday was also listed as a non-working holiday.
The fact that these holidays are so close together made it impossible to get anything done that entire week and a half. (Always factor in the in-office recovery time...) And where it became a problem for us was that we had to get paperwork and medical testing done before leaving Dubai since our visas expired June 30th. Important emails weren't forwarded to us and people couldn't be reached by phone. On top of that, we were being kicked out of our temporary apartment on the 2nd (you remember that story...) and roads were closed on major roads to get to our new apartment because of street cleaning and practice runs. 
This week was Russia Day. A day that celebrates Russia claiming independence from the USSR. It's kind of like their Fourth of July. I found out that it was originally called the Day of the Adoption of the Declaration of Sovereignty of the Russian Federation. But they renamed it. It fell on a Tuesday this year. I'll give you one guess as to what people here did on Monday...
The timing on this one was bad for us because we're waiting to hear back on the apartment that we chose three weeks ago. The paperwork has been sent to the legal department awaiting approval for a week prior to holiday. Then holiday. Definitely makes from some anxiety since this is our second attempt at permanent housing, and our experience with Russian holidays has taught us that for every one day off, there is anywhere between one day to two weeks of in-office recovery time. Don't they know that my mother asks me about the apartment every day? I swear, if we lose this one, I'm giving her the phone number so she can just call them for a daily check-in. We Americans work through hangovers, you can too. Cheers to holiday. And the day sometime in the future when we will be able to appreciate them.
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