Christmas Gift Ideas?????

[keelec]

I am trying to decide what to get Irina for Christmas.....

 

I wish I could give her a visa and a plane ticket (actually, she already has the plane ticket), but that isn't my choice. As I have been hoping for the visa to come soon (for the last year), I have been reluctant to send anything BIG that she would want to bring back to the USA.

 

When she leaves Russia, she will give her computer to either her brother or her sister.

 

I am thinking of getting her a DVD+/-RW drive for her computer (assuming she can find one along with the disks in her city). That way she can back up some of her movies and other files.

 

Is it best to send her the money to purchase the drive herself (so she could get it professionally installed if she wants, and would get programs and documentation in Russian), or to send her the drive with all of the "American" software?

 

If I send her the money, I will try to find something else that is small which I will send with a few forms and documents for her eventual interview.

 

Thanks for your advice,

Clifford

[warpedbored]

Hmmm now this is an area where cultural differences apply. If she were Chinese I would say definitely money. They love to get money as gifts. My ex wife though who is Japanese would have thought it was because I was too lazy to put effort into finding her an appropriate gift. I have no idea what Russian women are like. The software idea would probably be much easier for her in Russian though.

[Guest blsqueaky]

Cliff, that is an interesting. This day and age, I would have to go along with sending the monry so that she can buy the right one for her computer, and not take the chance of it not showing up in the mail. I know that when my wife needs something electronic for computer, I just tell her use Credit Card.

 

Now warped, I have found in China, different regions, different feeling. I know that my wife and family love to receive gifts from me here in the states, from different areas that I travel. To this it shows them that I really care about their daughter, and that I will take care her. They can not wait to see what I am bringing for XMAS.

[Bobby]

Just a quick note about mailing overseas.. various countries have restrictions on what you can and cannot send.. I have never seen these restrictions/prohibitions enforced, but I have had the post office whip out this book on me before they would let me mail something.. here are the restrictions for china:

Arms, ammunition, weapons.Articles in hermetically sealed, nontransparent containers.Chinese currency.Coins; banknotes; securities payable to bearer; traveler's checks; gold, silver, platinum, manufactured or not; precious stones; jewelry; and other valuable articles, unless sent in insured parcel post.Manuscripts, printed matter, photographic negatives, gramophone records, films, magnetic tapes, video tapes, etc., which could do political, economical, cultural, or moral harm to the People's Republic of China.Meat and meat products.Perishable infectious biological substances.Radioactive materials.Radio receivers, transmitters or receivers of all kinds, walkie-talkies and parts thereof; valves, antennae, etc.Used clothing and bedding.Wrist-watches, cameras, television sets, radio sets, tape records, bicycles, sewing machines, and ventilators

 

And here is Russia:

Radioactive materials.Firearms of all kinds, ammunition, swords, cutlasses, bayonets, lances, and similar arms.Transmitters and transceivers of any power, except Panasonic radiotelephones, models KX-T 7980, KX-T9000, KT-T 9050,and KX-T90890.Color copiers.Undeveloped photosensitive products.Honey, pollen, wax, and honeycombs.Explosives, pyrotechnic products, matches, pyrophoric alloys, combustible preparations.Chemical substance dangerous to human life, animals, and birds and designed to combat microbes, diseases, and plants.Printed books, newspapers, pictures and other products of the printing industry, manuscripts, and miscellaneous documents containing information that could be detrimental to State security, social order, public morals, property rights, including intellectual property and other interests of natural and legal persons.Currency of the Russian Federation; checks and other currencies for the Bank of External Trade and of the Bank for External Economic Affairs of the Russian Federation; securities payable to bearer; State bonds; and lottery tickets of the Russian Federation.

 

Here's the web page where you can look up this information: Shipping Restrictions

 

I don't know about Russia or Japan, but I don't mail anything via USPS to China that I wouldn't mind drifting by "other" eyes, anything that I can't afford to get "lost" on the way there, or anything that I think might get her in "trouble." (ie. I have her engagement ring, and I absolutely refuse to mail that - both on a personal and practical level. Also, there are some movies I like which are banned in certain areas of China, I don't plan on sending those to her).

[keelec]

Thanks for the suggestions:

 

Ok, it would be illegal for me to send my love a cell phone, but she can go down to the corner store and buy one???

 

And the watch I gave her a year ago, I guess it was ok to give her because she is Russian, but if she was Chinese it would be contraband? Actually, a watch can be a most cherished gift.

 

Bicycles?

 

Ok, who thinks this stuff up?

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I will give her some suggestions of what to purchase, and send her some money. I will also try to get something small in the mail.

 

------ Clifford -----

[Bobby]

Yeah, the whole restrictions list is crazy..

 

One trick that I just thought of that you might be able to pull (I've done this with flowers and a book): See if you can find a website based in the country that sells what you want to give her (or a website here that offers shipping to that country). For the flowers, I found a chinese website where they spoke English and managed to send a nice set of flowers for around $20.. I had done that once before with a company based in the US but they changed me over $80 to have flowers delivered in China.. I had a book sent from http://www.bn.com .. I figured that if they advertise shipping to China, then at least a few people have sent something from there to China, so there shouldn't be a problem. It is too bad I don't read much Chinese, or I'd do all my holiday shopping in China from my livingroom

[tywy_99]

My wife is Chinese. Christmas means nothing to her. She has some knowledge of my Christian God but none of Jesus Christ. She is curious of it because she has asked me to explain some to her. I have told her a few of my favorite biblical stories, however, a church-going man I am not. I do believe in God. It's people I find hard to believe. I am a Christian and I do believe in Christianity because I was born a Christian and raised to believe in God. My wife was born Chinese and was raised to believe in Mao Tse Tung.

Do I give my wife gifts for Christmas? Of course I do because she knows it is my faith to do so and she respects that. My wife and her family went through hard times during the Cultural Revolution as many Chinese did. I won't pretend to understand those times because I am not Chinese and there is no way I can understand it except what I have read and what my wife has told me. But reading about it and living it are definitely not the same thing, to say the least. I respect my wife for the kind-hearted woman she is and the times she has lived and I won't force any of my Christian beliefs on her.

[Guest blsqueaky]

tywy, you know that there are changes going on over there. With my travels to Shanghai and Beijiing over the XMAs holidays, I could not believe all of the lights and decorations that where being put up.

 

Even GZ now from photos that I have seen, and the ones that my wife has sent me over the times, standing in front of XMAS trees. Even her family has a small artificial tree that they put up now. Now whether this is because of me, or they have done this in the past, I do not know.

 

I have the same feelings as you do here, and I also will not force any type of relegion on my wife, since I also am not a church- going man now.

[Mick]

One gift that always went over well in China was a nice picture book of scenic spots in America. They have quite a selection at most large bookstores. Of course, mailing it can be a bit pricey due to weight.

[Guest blsqueaky]

Well for now instead of a pic book, just been buying lots of post cards, and taking lots of photos my self. So far can not believe all of the scenery, and pics of sunsets and sunrises in the mountains.

[keelec]

One gift that always went over well in China was a nice picture book of scenic spots in America. They have quite a selection at most large bookstores. Of course, mailing it can be a bit pricey due to weight.

I already did that.

For our first date, I tracked down some good Oregon books, as well as a couple of Missouri..... My suitcase was packed with books, and much lighter when I transfered them to her suitcase.

 

Sorry if I offended anybody about Christmas....

In Russia, they actually calculated the birth of Christ being sometime around January 5 (based on inaccuracies in older calendars based on the moon cycle). Thus, they now celebrate Christmas on both December 25 and January 5.

 

Of course, there isn't a Russian Valentine's day either.... But I wouldn't recommend missing that one

 

----- Clifford ------