This is very zen. Apparently, all I had to do was give up. I got a reply a few hours later.

Dear Bonnie,

Alas, alas…
This is our reality…
I guess, the main problem is money. You must be very rich to travel a lot! :-))
As for the flight and visa, you could try to come through Seoul. The border with China is closed but SARS situation is better now and Seoul-Vladivostok shoulder will work in July-August.

Anyway, I hope to see you in Vldivostok one day…one year… 🙂

Yours,

Olga

And of course, Aeroflot called me this morning to say they’d been able to confirm my flight, and I have about a day to give them a fax number so they can fax me some sort of credit card form. I asked them how much it would cost, and thanked them very much. Then I called Korean Air, where I was on hold for all of thirty seconds, and heard the familiar recording as on all usual 800 numbers, your call may be recorded or monitored for quality purposes, or whatever it is exactly. The woman there sounded a little put out when I asked if they would be flying to Vladivostok. Of course they would. Probably wondering why the hell anyone would want to. Anyway, flying midweek with Korean from Anchorage is slightly cheaper than flying from JFK, and flying on the weekend is slightly more expensive than the Aeroflot fare. And by slightly I mean $20.

So zen. And by zen I mean, let go of desire for material goods (plane tickets), and everything you need will come to you. However, it is still expensive. There’s still that $1000 more that I don’t have. But how much time do I have to sit around and consider this? Time to get a visa is still ticking away. Also, my two best friends are one at work and two on a plane somewhere.

Oh yes, and if I didn’t get up hella early, I’m sure I never would have heard the phone ringing at 7 am, when Aeroflot called…