Friday, December 16, 2011

strong and weak forces


I'm in one of those strange places in my head. This particular one is telling me that the only people worth talking to are gays and possibly also androgynous beings, but since the probability of their existence is a wee bit low, well you get the idea.
This probably mainly arises out of the fact that recently girls annoy the hell out of me. I’m not sure why… too much drama maybe. Being all nice when in fact all you want to do is do your fricking homework, and you can hardly throw them out or else risk many many problems in the near or distant future.
And guys just suck away too much energy, either through too much attention, or too little, or the wrong kind.
This state of mind has achieved in me something unusual. After dance class today, after DANCE class today (this is usually the one thing I look forward to all week) made me want to flee. I swear I'll never wear a necklace there again. They ALL stare. it's highly irritating, when every guy you dance with just stares at your neck whenever he gets the chance. As for the girls, the few (one) I actually speak with there is one of those girls that even I am uncomfortable with because they're too touchy-feely. It seems that type is somewhat common here. One of the girls in my group is like that. It's quite amazing that those occasional interactions makes me understand why sometimes guys say that girls are scary...
Well, in the end I once again come to the conclusion that I really don't like people much at all. And the ones I can actually tolerate on a daily basis and maybe even get some enjoyment out of the interactions I can count on one hand. Is that how everyone feels like? I certainly hope not. It'd be a very sad comment on human nature. 
I guess, in this sense, the Americans have a grain of truth in their philosophy of capitalistic interactions; bother only with those people who can be used or profited from somehow, and sue the shit out of everyone else.


Tuesday, November 29, 2011

so much to say..


... and so little time. I hardly know where to begin. Probably chronologically, as always.
I’m honestly of the opinion that I somehow jinxed people, when I last wrote. You see over the course of 2 weeks (this was already 3-4 weeks ago) 6 people got sent to a psychiatric facility. One of them a guy I knew personally. One for jumping and surviving, one for extreme anti-socialness, one for eating a crap-load of pills and surviving, and one for having potato salad for a brain for all it was worth, the rest I have no idea (not even sure they exist). The fact that a bunch of people went nuts isn’t exactly surprising, but the fact that they all did it a t the same time, and during a relatively short interval (and not one of the stress filled ones at that), makes you thinks something was up besides just normal insanity. Some people speculate that a bad batch of psychoactive drugs may have been involved, on top of slight personal issues, and that sent them over the edge. But really, who knows…
Well, on a brighter note, I’ll tell you about the ball! October 19th was probably the craziest day ever. Theory of complex value functions test (huge one at that) at 2pm, ball at 5pm right after the end of the exam, then dance night right after that. I studied a bit for the test the day before, but what probably really saved me was that it was so late in the day, although I did end up complaining about that later, but anyways… I ended up doing most of my studying in the morning, equipped with cheat sheet, and all that. The test was supposed to last 3 hours, but (I have no idea how or why, I finished in only 2, and it seems that a lot of people finished very early, my group mate finished in an hour… but everyone stayed for the whole 3 hours anyways.) I would have stayed too, but no thanks to some idiots who decided to hold a concert the same day of the ball (and they reserved the adjacent place much later than the ball people) ad so the ball had to be moved ahead 2 hours. Right into the middle of my exam… assholes. So as soon as I finished the test, I left the testing chambers, and ran over to the ball. (I seriously hope that I actually passed that exam, since I’d be quite pathetic if I didn’t. the passing mark is like 5/25, but I wouldn’t put it mast me to be a complete idiot.) anyways, I got to the ball, and everything was already in full throttle. I’d missed about 14 or so songs, which wasn’t all that bad. The evening proceeded splendidly. I danced with a lot of people, some of them awesome, and two absolutely dreadful (they didn’t even know the basic steps, the morons. You don’t go to a ball without even knowing the basic steps of the walz. And even if you do go, the you better not ask someone who can actually dance as good as I do to then have me be a crash test dummy and collide with very single couple on the floor.) but anyways. In other news, during the preparatory master classes I convinced an acquaintance of mine, who could only dance ballroom, to learn hustle (which is a horrid mix of swing, and latin dances. So it’s like swing, except no bouncing, and lots of inappropriate-like dips and whatnot (though the dips are a bit different in the fact that the follow has to hold herself in most of them, without leaning or hanging on the lead. Which is a very difficult habit to break, I might add.))but the amount of inappropriateness really depends heavily on the lead, and this particular guy is very notinapropriate, and he’s an excellent lead (I actually noticed that in hustle the better the lead, the less ew-gross the whole thing is, because they have realized that dancing isn’t actually about doing inappropriate things, it’s just about having fun. mediocre leads seem to be still a bit too hung up on the fact that they het to touch a girl, and make her do what they want.) so yeah. I had a lot of fun there. After the ball, there was a club night I honor of some other faculty’s freshmen, I forget which one. I went, it was ok, but a bit too crowded, for my taste, and I was rather tired, so I ended up leaving early. I was never so tired than on the way to the dorm. Those 10 minutes seemed to last an hour. (and I had to sit down twice on my way up the stairs to the 5th floor, to catch my breath.) The whole next day, I was pretty much unable to do anything. When I went downstairs to shower, I had a lot of trouble making it back, so I refrained from descending during the rest of the day.
Well, as you may or may not know I had my birthday recently, and I was very unexpectedly surprised by two boys from a parallel group. (I think the two are in different groups actually) as you might guess from the previous statement, I don’t actually interact with them very much. However I do know them to be of the kinder half of my year. In the evening, they came into my room and presented me with a box of chocolates (108 grams, this is significant) and a poem which wished me to have 100 grams of luck. As for the 8 that they couldn't fit into the poem, they gifted me 8 chocolate bars, each of them bearing a well-wishing. =)  
Aside from that the end of semester madness is now upon me. And the only reason I’m actually able to write this is because it’s 1:30am and I’m waiting for my group mates to finish learning computational mathematics, so they can explain it to me, so I don’t fail the test tomorrow. Oh yes I’ll explain what I mean by end of semester madness: 
tomorrow: computational mathematics exam, English presentation, turning in 35 hw problems for theory of complex value functions, and turning in 6 incomprehensible problems for chemical physics as well as two variants of a test (3 problems each, and slightly less incomprehensible.)
the day after tomorrow: shitload physics problems, and a shitload of theoretical physics problemsthe day after that: 3 physics labs to learn theory for and pass off
so yeah. And December 28th is the first final. Chemical physics. I am SO screwed!

In other news: I went on a date last Sunday! =)
We went to this modern art exhibition where a lot of Marina Abramovic’s work was shown, both documentation, and recreations. (On two instances the doorway you had to walk through were guarded by a naked man and woman facing each other, and you have to step through between them (I’m glad I’m not fat, I wouldn’t want to squeeze between them.)) but yeah. It was a bit weird when there, but I’m actually liking it more and more now that I had time to think about it without distractions. Some of the topics addressed are quite fascinating. They also had quite a lot of work of a man who caricatured various political situations, namely the end of the apartheid period in South Africa. Overall it was very interesting, but I think that I’m more on the side of Oscar Wilde in the opinion that art should exist purely for its own sake. Art is something utterly useless, valued only for its beauty. What was in the museum was more of a call to awareness to politics, and an exploration of human nature and it’s limits. So much for the art. Now about the guy. He’s a 4th year, so about my age and he has the most amazing smile in the universe (I always thought that people just say that because there is nothing else to say about someone, but it actually exists: the perfect smile). Lucky for me, he smiles a lot, which is as aforementioned very distracting. The only downside is that he’d have been maybe almost shorter than me if I had worn heels. But in his case I’m very willing to overlook that. I’ll not annoy you with further details at this point, since I’m hoping he’ll call me sometime. Hopefully sooner than later… 

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

JINX ALERT!

No sooner have said that I'll be on the lookout, that some ass beat a girl walking home so badly that she had to be taken to the hospital. The jerk made sure to aim for her face, of all things. The poor thing barely made it too the dorm. Dang... 

Monday, October 31, 2011

heya!

Well everyone, I figure it's time for a new post! First I need to clarify something. A little while ago, my mom told me something really odd. She said that she heard that I went driving around Moscow whilst being totally drunk. I have no idea who she heard it from, but I assure you there had been no such thing. Whilst it IS true that I drink on occasion, I have yet to enjoy russian cars. also please keep in mind that more often than not I tell only the 5 minutes of awesome that happened during a like 5 hour get together. (Also I only blog when stuff is happening, so when you don't hear from me for a month that's not because I'm too busy having fun to write it's the sad reality that the most exiting thing that happens to mee all week is the new episode of House MD.) Also please keep in mind that the people here are mostly extremely dull, and I tend to chose the more crazy ones for friends which makes me have a much more active life than a good part of the local population, although there is that bunch of people who have absolutely no shame and are socially retarded. on a side note actually, there is this one girl...
Well she's not exactly one of the smart ones, in any region, really, aside from being a manipulative b****. Well she not only slept with the security guy (and I'm telling you that's not something anyone would want to do. Think mall security and old lechers.) But she also had the brilliant idea to go out at night in front of the new building (that's where people usually gather to drink and yell horrid songs to an untuned guitar.) and sell herself to anyone who would have her. This really happened. Seriously! She also dragged another girl with her, who is much more innocent in the soul department. And that just makes her that much worse.  anyways where was I...
Ah, yes! Basically that drunk joyriding is what she would do not I, so don't make my mom scared please!

Now on to better things: First of all, I survived half-way week (the one before last)! I'll tell you why that's so special. Four tests and three homeworks in 3 days. Meaning 4 hours of sleep a night if I'was lucky, but it so turned out that everything went better than expected. And I got around 5 hours a night, which is really good. Which means hat last week was the week of shame. you get all your horrible tests back. Well, It just so happened that i'm a genius at computational mathematics, and got a 10/10 and thus don't have to actually do the hw! Furthermore, last Friday was the day of the official acceptance into studenthood. Which for me means lots of running around preparing the festivities, which this year, same as last, amounted to: decorations. I have also reclaimed my hatred of the horrid yellow ballon-hating wall in the foyer of our concert hall. The wall is PURE balloon popping EVIL! As soon as a balloon touches that wall it spontaneously decides that it must commit suicide! There are no nails, or sharp objects on it. nothing. only a thick layer of EVIL! But that was not the only thing. We spent many hours making garlands (we had like a full factory of indonesian child laborers going! ... except that instead of indonesian children we had russian college students.) Then those hundreds or garlands had to be hung on the ceiling in the club, which we did. And then it was done!
Oh, and did I mention that I gave blood that day? It so happened that the blood drive coincided with the event. needless to say, it did not make me a happy panda. But I digress...  
All that was left was to enjoy the rest of the show, and dance till the feet fall off, which we did. And since I really didn't want to clean up all that crap, and the accursed garlands, I hastily made my exit.
The next day, a friend of mine dragged me to the disco of an analogous event only for a different subdivision of my college (I think it was the applied physics one, but no matter.) Well we danced for a good while there, but left an hour early because our dorm closes at 1 am and climbing though a window in short skirt and heels is not really something one should do, So we just used the door like civilized people.
well, that's pretty much everything for now. I'll keep you posted on anything interesting happening, though it rarely does.
<.<
>.>
<.<
(we still haven't had our yearly fatality, so I'll keep my eyes peeled for that)
cheeriOs!    =)

Friday, September 30, 2011

recovery

I'm starting to enjoy brutal murder again. [I'm watching Bones] =)
Recently, I've been a bit depressive an cynical, to the point that I'm actually not happy about it. Which really isn't very good. To give you a taste, here is something I wrote a few days ago:


[...] It was of course the ass-holes that left the most offspring. The farmer that secretly stole from his neighbor. The drunk in the bar who would go from town to town impregnating women. And the slanty eyed b****** who squeezed every last penny from his subordinates. And although they say genetics plays little role in behavioral patters, I think that thousands of years of wildly reproducing jerks, would tip the balance at least somewhat towards a more 'cruel' society [...]
 So still being in my right mind, I decided to spare you my mad ravings. Now that I have spent two days sleeping and not doing anything, because I got sick (again), and for the first time in my life it actually is affecting  my brain. Well in other news we got the little first years though their little trials, it was pretty fun and I got a bunch of money on my phone out of it =) This year was pretty ok, the only problem, was that two fat guys on a truck came and said that we couldn't make a fire on the ground. So what do a bunch of smart people do? Well, we got a bunch of metal and made this platform thing 30 cm above the ground and tried to have some semblance of a fire on it. It ended up being small, and we had to hold an umbrella over it at one point (the only umbrella we had, btw...) but it served its purpose.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

night time

So once again, I choose to blog instead of going to bed. Once again, it is a bad decision, but I just really feel like ranting at a page, which can do nothing to avoid the verbal abuse I'm about to do to it.
Aside from the usual "ugh" there is this new/old annoyance present. Sadly, I'm getting surer and surer by the day, that people suck, and that men are pretty much useless, and women rather annoying. I don't know what has motivated me to this new world view, if you might call it that. probably a mixture of things:

1) communication unit in English class.
we talked about how the genders communicate for the past two lessons, and I find myself disagreeing with many people quite a bit
2) deadwood
a nice little HBO serial that really is about how evil people are. Lots of killing of whores, men, indians, kids, etc. And of course no one gets punished, and no one ever really talks about it.
3) Wuthering Heights
I bought the book recently, and I'm quite enjoying it, however, it isn't exactly a testament to how nice and pretty people are. One of the main characters, Heathcliff, is more or less a creature without mercy or empathy, which makes him very harsh, even by my standards.
4) Gossip
recently I got confirmation, on something I'd been suspecting for a while, namely that one of my good acquaintances hails from the land of rainbows. And recently he's told me some of the harassing he's had to submit to here. I was very surprised, to find out the extent to which seemingly intelligent people would go just to make someone's life more difficult because of something that's really none of their business.
5) owie
this past I managed to get a really weird cold, that includes a runny nose and not being able to breathe properly (after 200m walking I was out of breath). But ignoring my obviously non-ideal condition I went dancing this weekend anyways, and barely managed to get home (although it's a 2 minute walk normally), because point one; air. And point two; my knee started hurting from the strain of me wildly flailing my limbs about in a rhythmic and aesthetically pleasing fashion. And now, instead of going to PE like normal people, I get there, say "I'm here" and dash as fast as I can away from there, because I can't run, and missing PE is a pain in the behind.
6) just life in general
yeah...

In accordance to this general mood I've been having, I remembered a really nice quote from "Dune":
[...] mercy was the ability to stop, if only for a moment. There was no mercy where there could be no stopping.
It struck me then, as a very true saying. Now I'm also realizing that the world we live in is quite merciless and unforgiving. Also people are bastards, only they choose to be slightly less bastardy in general, some more than others.
Well I'll stop being all pessimistic (I'm sure you're already tired of it), and get to sleep. Tomorrow is another day...

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

ladi dadi da

So everything's fine. I passed, I even already moved into the dorms (which is hellishly early for a third year Moscow resident, usually they don't let people like me in until after the 15th, so I'm pretty lucky =)), and better yet there are already plans for mischief forming. One involves paint and a photo camera, and the other well... I think you an guess what it involves =З
my 3 neighbors turned out to be more or less decent. One of them is never here (Lisa), one (Vera) is a quiet and unproblematic girl, who, I feel, is just a tiny bit too boring and a bit too social, making her borderline tolerable sometimes. The last (Zhenia, yes, another one not the plate throwing one, she went and took academic leave, based on "illness," because she didn't feel like "studying" anymore.) is plain odd... a bit like me I guess in that aspect, but that's about it. She likes going to bed early (like 10pm), and get up early (like 6 am) to do morning gymnastics =|. Also I get the feeling that if she were to be replaced by a robot wearing her skin, the only way we would notice is that she'd make hollow thunk noises if she bumped into something hard. She has a rather robotic air about her. I dunno. But all in all, methinks it'll be pretty ok here. My main problem right now will be getting sufficient sleep, which I'm not doing a very good job at, since I'm writing this instead of doing hw and going to bed, but I'll get there eventually.
That aside in the academic sphere the only big thing really was that I was apparently quite mistaken when I believed that I was rid of Comp Sci for the time being. It's called "computational mathematics" now. Sounds like SO much fun, like totally... uuuugh!
Instead of programming silly little games we get to compute all sorts of errors based on the way the machine saves the number in it's memory. I really could't think of anything that I'd like to do less. But I should't jump to conclusions, economics, for example, might turn out to be worse.
Anywhoos. I feel like all I did was complain, so I'll tell you something more productive now, that won't make you want to tear my throat out: I might actually get to finishing this one short story I've been writing since last summer. (it's not long, it's just really difficult to wrote somehow.) It's based on this weird dream I had, which to my recent sad realization was a rip off from bleach mashed together with the real world. I was actually quite sad when I realized that, because some of the ideas and concepts that arose I genuinely liked. But no matter, even if it was a rip off, it was a sub conscious one, so we'll write it off as "influence." =)
That's about all the time I have for you today, I'll try posting a bit more frequently now =)
toodles

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

so much to say...

So it's beeen quite a while since I last wrote. And there is kinda a reason for that.Mainly I had way too many other things on my mind. But to start off I have a request:
If any of you happen to meet my parents, or have parents who are friends with mine, know that I don't tell them the more "stupid things," I tend to do. So please don't tell them, or i'll never hear the end of it.
(You see my mom’s the type who if I tell her that a boy poked fun at me on the first day of class will be asking about him for a whole year, and it just drives me nuts.)

Anyways. I left off with the unfortunate end of my theoretical mechanics exam, and the rest of them didn’t go too well either. I scraped by in Math Analysis (although I’m very happy that I’m rid of it and I’ll never have to see it again.) Physics I somehow survived. This one is actually an interesting story. I'll elaborate.
The written exam was something I dreaded, since obviously not having actually done any of the homeworks, and not having opened the book; I obviously couldn’t solve any problems. But luckily a very nice first year girl lived next door. And I exploited her shamelessly. I had her copy the answers to the exam that would be posted on a super-secret facebook site (ssfs).[the process works this way: everyone gathers, then the test begins, someone photographs the variants and posts the pics on the ssfs. Then the smart people sharpen their brains and turn on their pencils and solve them really quick. The answers are checked by other smart people and posted back on the site. From then on people either use their phones or have same sex accomplices copy the answers and put them in the nearest bathroom.] So that’s what I did. And I SURVIVED muahahahahaha. I know. It’s bad, but there was nothing else I could have done at that point. The oral exam was sad. I had allthe answers strapped to my leg (litterally) but I had no chance to pull them out (litterally), since I was sitting in the very front right by about 4 teachers. So overall that didn’t go all that great.

And then came the monster - the thing that is actually so easy, but of course the one thing that I actually failed: Differential analysis. I failed the written test, so I wasn’t able to even try the oral one, and now I’m starting to enter a state of very mild “holy crap” since the exam is in just a little over a week. And if I don’t pass this time, it’ll be all over…

Well, in other news.
I got a new phone, and I've been abusing it quite harshly. You see it has a touch screen and that's pretty much the funest thing ever. And as you can guess, the "somewhat obsessive" personality I have the fortune to possess, is making it pretty much impossible to keep my fingers off it. (As a matter of fact I'm actually writing this on my phone just ‘cause I can. (also partially because at night in my bed is theonly time I can actually concentrate on writing something productive.But this toy was bought not just so I could play cute little games with my fingers after I've gone to bed. NO! It actually serves a purpose. Well, point one is that cheating on exams will be much simplified. I shan't have to resort to the measures I resorted to to pass my written physics exam. (Although it was actually quite convenient and nice) I didn't have to worry about being caught with a phone.But if I had it, then I would have had the possibility of getting more answers than I did. But anyways... Those were the main ulterior motives when requesting that my new phone should have a touch screen. Back then I had no idea how fun it would be...
But recently it actually came in quite handy in a way that I had not expected.
Several weeks ago, I had decided to go to an art store to buy paper and replenish my supply if paints. And seeing as I had no idea where to find such a place I Googled it and quickly found a couple hundred shops. After deciding on a metro station that had five of them in its nearest vicinity I went to look for them. That turned out really well...
When I got out of the metro I started looking for a map. You know those things with the obnoxious red YOU ARE HERE dots that make you feel like you're thought to have the intelligence of a three year old, but are secretly thankful for. Well this was one of the rare examples that did not have that unholy flecked. As a result I ended up picking a direction and looking for street signs, which Russia are surprisingly well hidden or altogether absent. The direction I picked seemed to be kind of right, after a while I was certain of my correctness since the name of the street was right. What I didn't now then was that I was going in the exact opposite direction. But I went on.Over half an hour later I was getting suspicious. It wasn't supposed to be this far away. I had come to a huge street, which was right, (and I was approached by a guy with a kiddie backpack who made no attempt at hiding that he wasn't
actually looking in my eyes when I asked for directions.) However, I had failed to notice the lack of river. So I just kept looking for that store. After a while I got fed up with the ordeal and made my way back to my metro station, and went then in a perpendicular direction to look for the other four stores. I walked for a while, but then I came upon a river where there should be none. This is when I finally understood that I had no idea where I was... Luckily modern phones, to simplify the life of the various secret service agencies all over the world, are equipped with gps! It so turned out that I had gone south instead of north and east instead of west... Super... Well, in the end I finally found that art store after I walked past it about 3 times, as it was skillfully hidden in a basement in a courtyard which you could get to by going under a little bridge connecting two buildings. But I got my paper and my paints so all's well that ends well I guess. And seeing as it is now 3 am I shall continue this another day! tee hee

Moving on to the culinary culture section of today's newscast.
Yes! I did IT. I cooked. Thrice this summer the first time it was pancakes. That was actually quite fun, although I had a lot of trouble with adjusting the heat. You see, we have one of those pesky gas stoves that are really nice if they aren't from pr-soviet times. Meaning: touch it too little the flame doesn't change, use too much pressure - even one pascal too much ( for those if you who don't know, it's the pressure exerted by a milk chocolate bar (100g or 0.0454lbs) that has been spread out uniformly on a 1mx1m (40in x40in) surface.) - you get a flame that will burn off your eyebrows, or one that will need 24 hrs to boil a glass of water. And unfortunately the flame size I needed was right between "oops, I pushed too much" and "darn, why isn't it changing." So I had to switch between too much and too little all the time, so as to attempt to keep the frying pan at the right temperature. The other issue with pancakes is that no matter what I did, it was absolutely impossible to make them round. Here are some of the shapes that I got: a mutant deep sea fish, a freshly ripped out heart, and an upside-down alien glob.
But that's not all! For my dad's birthday and my own enjoyment I made what's so wonderfully called
Russian salad. It's my favorite dish, and one of the mist time consuming things that you can do in the kitchen.Equal quantities of boiled potatoes(exc
ept you want about twice as much potato than everything else) and carrots, harboiled eggs, pickles, meat, peas. Topped off with plenty mayo. Cut everything Into 5mm x 5mm x 5mm cubes (except the peas, which would be ridiculous to cut, and egg folks which dissolve in the general mass of ring cubes anyway are therefore pointless to cut.) If you've ever cooked, you might guess how long all that takes. About 2 hours... And after doing that twice in the span of 3 days and successfuly flattening my poor behind while I wad at it I got sick of cooking and haven't done it .

On a Side note
I have returned to my one great my anti-drug. One big thing, that be irreversibly changed my life: I've been reading manga again, and it's so wonderful that it makes me sad that I ever stopped. In this past month, I've read quite a number of series that deserve a spot on my absolute favorites list. But i'll not bore you with it, since I'm aware that few of you are fellow manga nerds. (i'll gladly give recommendations if you want them though!)

Now, the time has cone to tell you sad news.
However unlikely it may week, I have become one of those insufferable girls who cry during sappy moves. I know, I'm probably the last person such things are to e expected if under normal circumstances, but they're just so sad sometimes. For all of you who have read rave master, I think Sieg's fate was the suckiest that could possibly be imagined. I guess I've become like the Grinch/b>... I grew feelings towards sappy crap... Boo...


I actually completely forgot this incident until now.
It happened quite a while ago, sometime during session I think, but I'm not quite sure. But someone got wind of how to get free tickets to this random concert that would be happening on the red square in honor of Russia day. Well, since we're moderately active people, we decided to go get tickets and see that concert. Well it all started out fine enough we got our flyers and went into the city center to meet with the group/organization thing that would give us our tickets. They said they'd have them at 4 so we naturally wanted to get there at 3 (but that didn't quite work out because one if the guys we went with jumped over the barriers to get into the metro, but got held up by the police, just cause they recited to be a pain in the ass that day, so we had to wait for him for the good part if an hour.) But in the end we got there around half past 4, which, as it turned out, was not a big real at all, since the tickets didn't arrive until much much later. Obtaining that piece of paper involved much walking to and fro, much waiting in the heat, much shoving, and one really awesome old guy in a silly hat who danced really well to really crappy techno music while waving a Russian flag about, and being cheered on by a crapload of people because there really was NOTHING better to do. But when the tickets finally drive everyone naturally ran to the guys handing them out and much compression of people and shoving ensued at the hotspots of high ticket concentration. And if you have ever read manga or watched any anime or just have a very 'active' imagination, you know exactly what must be present in a fluster cluck like this: you got it! An ass who tries to grope girls! All I can say: not pleasant. I regret that I didn't get,a good look at his face so I could rip his nostrils and break his fingers. But we got our tickets and after more walking, and 3 police check points we were in. And then there was more shoving, more really drunk really tall guys flailing about, more near fatal compression of the lungs, more killing of your feet and subsequent revenge for the poor dead chunks of flesh attached to your ankles. And another half hour later we were pretty close to the front, could not move a millimeter, had trouble breathing, and could neither see nor hear anything that was happening on the stage. So we decided to screw the whole affair eat some french fries and go home. The getting out part took about another hour. The fast food part... Well, that took ages. Probably another 2 or so hours of walking, before we found a McDonald's. But we got there and we ate, and then we went home, completely disappointed at the concert, but agreeing that the best part of the day was the feeling of accomplishment when we had obtained our tickets. (I kept mine of course) =)

Now that I've sufficiently bored you with all the other stuff,
it's probably time to explain the thing you are probably most eager to hear about. That one... Let's call it 'unusual' status I had up on Facebook a while ago.
(here I give fair warning to any and all of you to continue reading at your own discretion. )
Well me and the guy I'd mentioned earlier had been seeing more of each other. Although after a while there was progressively less and less "seeing," per se, involved, but that's another matter. I was really just highly surprised by the fact that the dear child gave me his girl's notes. And the way I found out was by way of a casual friend request from her on the Russian equivalent of Facebook with the message: "hi! you have my notes, can you please return them to me? (Insert smiley face here)." Naturally, I returned them to her, we even chatted for quite a while. And as soon as I turned my back I had to fight the urge of laughing out loud at the boy's nerve, and the situation in general.
But that was a while ago. Now I'm growing tired of the internet serenades and the fact that movies and YouTube videos seem to be his only area of interest. So when (hopefully not if) I return to the institute I will end the charade, but not before thoroughly enjoying it :P

Sunday, May 29, 2011

from the frying pan into the fire

Ever had a day that started out bad, and then just kept getting worse and worse? I recently had one of those.

It started innocently enough with an altercation with a friend. one of the rather unpleasant kind. Then continued with a near-sleepless night. studying until 5 am, hoping that some of the information might stick in my brain come dawn, since, you guessed it I had an exam the following morning. Theoretical Mechanics. a nice subject really, but somewhat difficult as well. During the exam itself, I ended up getting a rather unpleasant theoretical question, but that wasn't half the problem. after about 2 hours of just sitting and waiting to be called, I was getting a bit jumpy. In the end the exam went horribly. I felt like a complete idiot because very little information decided to stay behind after my short sleep. But that was not all. after getting my measly 4/10 (which is a 3/5) I wanted at least a 5/10, which is already a 4/5. And the sad part is that this one goes into the diploma, so I'm really not happy about that. Feeling stupid is the worst feeling in the world.

anyways, when I got back to the dorm, I realized that i must have forgotten my key. It then turned out that I was wrong I hadn't forgotten it. I've lost it, and my favorite key chain that was attached to it.

but that's not all. I went to my friend, Катя's birthday party in the woods. there were lots of people I knew very little there, and a few that I don't particularly like, so I took my sweet time looking for firewood. I did find quite a lot of wood, and a splendid piece of tree trunk. it was very dry and therefore light, so I decided to bring that. Light however, is always a relative term, and it was sufficiently heavy to make progress difficult, and it completely obscure the path in front of me. But no worries, I mean what could happen to a girl in the middle of the woods carrying a tree tunk. Well I sprained my ankle, and as it turned out that evening, pretty badly. So having mutilated myself a little I decided to leave the stump for now, and come back for it later. And on the way back to the campsite, naturally I skewer my hand on a 1.5 inch thorn. Yay me! At the ind of the party, the only alcohol I had consumed was the little bit i dumped on my hand to disinfect the little stab wound that was starting to swell my hand, and I was two injuries richer.

so yeah. not fun.

But, hey, let's look on the bright side. I passed my russian history exam with an 8/10 by some miracle, and I bought coconut scented shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

a conclusion or two

You know what? I just got the thought that my life is actually pretty awesome. I mean aside from a few obvious glitches, it's really not all that bad. First of all, let me update you on what has been happening in the past slightly over a month.

First of all, the situation with our dear number two has been cleared up, in a somewhat sad but I think overall satisfactory way. Basically, he has a girlfriend. Period. (So, stop bugging me about it Klizija!!! I will not EVER discuss my relationships, or lack thereof with you!) So we're friends now, and I'm kind of enjoying it. I've taken up my old habit of nightly walks, and it's nice to have male company, because that way I don't have to worry about any creepy/potentially dangerous men lurking about in the shadows.

Then, to celebrate May 9th (for those of you who don't know it it's the day that the peace treaty was signed by Russia after WWII. And, yes, I know "huh, isn't that on May, 8th?" Yes, yes it is for the rest of the world, but SOMEONE was trying to be tricksy, so Russia ended up signing the thing a day later...) me and my friend Катя, (Katia, yes we share the same first name. it's a really common name here actually. As a matter of fact, there are maybe 20 commonly used names for each gender, and there are only a few very rare exceptions. so people end up calling each other by nicknames and last names a lot. Geez... I digress...) So the two of us went drinking. For womens day we wanted to get some tequila, but they wouldn't sell it to us, since apparently you have to be 21 for vodka and tequila, so we ended up not buying it, but we finally got to kill that lemon, we bought so long ago. And as you may guess, two girls, a 0.7 liter bottle of Tequila, and a forest is in truth not too good an idea. The most interesting part was trying to talk to my mom on the phone coherently, around 8pm, while being considerably inebriated, but still lucid (luckily). Needless to say, I got completely trashed, and her boyfriend had to come up and with combined efforts they dragged me back to the dorm. Well, I regained my temporal and spacial awareness sometime around 2 am in the bathroom, changed and went to sleep. I woke up at 7, drank some water, which Then decided that it liked the light of day better while I was in the community shower, which was slightly awkward, as there was another girl in there...

In other news, session is coming up. And I still have to turn in most of my homework, which is not very good to say at the least, but somehow I have trouble worrying about it. I think that somehow I'll manage, and I'll live to see another semester at this god forsaken institute.

So I think that would make you all caught up with the latest events. More or less. ^^
I also recently found this awesome song by one of my absolute favorite bands that they released a year or two ago. (See the link at the bottom.) It's basically about ignoring other people, and doing what you do, and feeling good about it. (The remade version is about a guy trying to persuade his friend to not kill people, because they'll die by themselves anyway. Well, needless to say that there was killing in the end, but yeah.)

Oh, and another thing: I've started shooting. I've been agitating this one guy to go shoot with me in the forest. It's actually quite a silly story about how I know him. I've known him from the first semester. maybe you remember the thing where all first years are gathered up in the forest and play various games. Well, I remembered seeing him there, and ever since then, he was always saying hi to me, with a smile as if he was a talking sunflower (and I mean hat in the best way). And ever since we got into the same English group, we actually started talking, and turns out personality wise he's just as much a renfaire geek as I am. (If he were in high school he'd be in marching band and renfaire) Basically, just my type of person. He also makes me think of baby animals... He's like a giant baby animal... like a little anime bunny with a bib and a bottle. But yeah, my point is, I've taken up archery, and it's pretty fun. It turns out I'm a bit more accurate than him (either that, or he intentionally let me win when we competed as to who'd get 100 hits first. I won 100-88.5 ^^) I also shot at him. Don't blame me, he volunteered. Turns out I have a knack for shooting someone directly in the eye... I scared him just a bit :p I also shot blindfolded. (one seeing person shoots at the target, then the blindfolded one tries to do the same by orienting themselves by the sound of the impact.) I even hit the target once (out of 16). I also got myself a few bruises, and scrapes from this, but it's totally worth it. ^^

So... seeing as I'm having trouble thinking of much else to say, I think I'll say good bye for now. Hope you guys are in just a good mood as I am =)

aaah! I just though of something. I don't remember whether I wrote about this or not, but one of my roommates got a cat. A kitten, like 7 months old now or so. And that kitten is having kittens. She's going to be having them sometime in the next few weeks. Session is going to be fun. ^^
So yeah., toodles =)

awesomeness =)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVlDiNmsL3E&feature=related

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

spring air

Finally! The snow has melted as of this week. now everything is dirty and muddy, but it's warmer, you can already wear skirts though not sandals yeat. I moved a large part of my winter wardrobe back to moscow, and moved skirts over here. I'm really glad it's finally NOT cold! And spring is already making itself known in the sense of budding relationships. I've had the pkeasure of seeing a very adorable development happening right here on my floor. Every time I see those two I want to pinch their cheeks, pat their heads and tell them to be good kids. They're very adorable =D
There was also a club evening on the 15th in honor of the 50 year aniversary of Gagarin's flight into space. (and guess who was there ;] and guess what we did? No! ... Jeez! Not that! We danced, of course! You seriously have to do something about that dirty mind of yours... ). And yeaterday we took a long (like 2 hrs) walk around the area, and the only reason that it got cut short was that I had my dance classes to go to. =D
But yeah, also this seriously creepy guy tried to ask me out. Everytime he has a clear view of me he stares as if he's about to kill/rape rape/kill me(can't decide which is worse) or throw me in some sort of dungeon with his collection of dead prostitutes. He actually scares me... anyways. think happy thoughts happy thoughts =D
In other news I'm starting to feel the pressure of "omfg session is almost here! I have to hurry the heck up and start studying EVERYTHING! "
Oh. And I also got a new haircut, which im very happy about. I'll update my fb profile pic sometime soon, so prepare to be awed. jk.

I fell like all I did was ramble, I guess this will have to do for this time.
Thank you for reading!!!!! <3

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

everything

Oh gosh. So much has happened since I last wrote I’m having trouble deciding where to begin. I guess I’ll begin with a warning to a certain person who somehow managed to find this:

Do not, under any circumstances, talk to me about this post, Klezovich! (I’d rather you wouldn’t read it at all, but it’s not like I could actually stop you from this.)

Now, that being said, I’ll continue.
Well I guess it all really began in the beginning of March. Just a few days before March 8th actually, which is a really big deal here as you may or may not know. It is international women’s day, and the day when all the men say thank you to all the women for being awesome. (The same thing in the other direction happens February 23rd.) Well let’s just say that a certain someone, who for all intents and purposes shall be called number one, and I shared a very endearing moment the details of which I’ll be withholding from the general public. After this said person disappeared from all radars, but as that was the usual pattern with him, I ignored it. A few days later there was a party in honor of said holiday, to which I naturally went with one of my friends. We had a blast! We stopped dancing only once. The very first slow dance, when there were still way too few people around. But that changed soon. Soon enough the space got filled up, and I met an acquaintance of mine and his friend and we danced for a while, and then shared quite the exciting slow dance, which ended in him picking me up and spinning me around. After that, of course, he disappeared, and I put that instance into the [awesome dance] folder. But, unexpectedly, he returned after about an hour. And again some silly dancing, then another slow dance, and then we spent the rest of the evening together. When the party was over I detached myself from his grasp, and ran off back to the dorm without saying goodbye. When I got back, there was a message in my inbox. We messaged each other until 4am. And he sent me quite a lot of songs. I guess you could kind of call it web-serenading. We’ve kept at it since then. But that is all it is. (And it seems he has a gf… :[ ) As for number one… well, he’s been ignoring me, which I’m not happy about to say at the least. So, as always… life does its thing.

In other news: I have successfully reestablished my reign of terror. How, you ask?

As you may or may not know/guess , I’m friends with the local druggies. And they have been bugging me all semester about etc etc etc you get the idea. Well the day before yesterday they finally killed my nerves completely, and combined with the above mentioned I decided to give it a go. However it backfired a bit in their face. Every normal person is happy happy happy. I was the most furious I have ever been in my entire life. It was like someone took all the things that annoy me, and make me angry, and let them roam freely in my brain. I couldn’t sit still for very long because I felt that all that if I did, the second someone did even the slightest thing to annoy me, I would… I don’t even know what I would do. I was furious at everything. Everything made me angry. Absolutely everything.
When looked at objectively, really, it was a very interesting sensation. All inner barriers that usually hold me back from yelling at people and doing them physical injury and torture them slowly and drink their blood from a black chalice were gone. All that was left was logic. One of the guys was so frightened that he expressed the wish to shut himself in his room with a knife. At that moment if I serious decided to do him harm, that wouldn’t have saved him. It would actually have made it worse probably (you know there’s nothing to excite a maniac than a shiny sharp pointy object and some blood), I felt like I could have done the deed bare handed and successfully if the need arose. It was very strange. There was also the issue that I had trouble understanding words. I could hear sounds, but they made no sense to me. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even expect them to hold any meaning. They were just sounds. I saw him last night. He was still terrified. Hehe. When I just stopped being angry, it was interesting how one of my druggie friends acted when I walked up to him. It was just like the behavior of a lower ranked dog before the alpha male. Avoiding eye contact, he ceased talking, sat quietly, attentively. Then I let him know that I was nice again and he relaxed.
The only aftereffect that is left of that incident is that the cap on my bottle of anger seems to be looser than usual. People who usually just annoy me slightly I find hardly tolerable. In the sense that I want to punch them in the face, and make them bleed tears. So yeah. That’s all for now folks. ;]

Ah, I just remembered. the drama queen who threw plates about that I'm sure you remember, put an egg in the microwave, and almost killed her roommate, who had her mooved out. She now lives with a couple of first years. =D
I’ll keep you posted on any new developments. =D

Monday, February 14, 2011

Murder at the Institute

So, Febuary th 14th is apparently a day of red things: love, Lind chocolate, and also bloody murder. This evening in one of the buildings of the institute (the highest one with 9 stories, and also the one where most of the computer labs are along with a few lecture halls etc.) A second year stabbed his roommate 40 times with fatal result. After that, he jumped of the roof of that building crashed into the passage leading between that building and te adjacent one (located at second floor level) and crashed to the ground with a broken spine and various other fractures. The boy survived, and will live. The murderer's name was Ilya Zhuk. The victim was Andrei Gusev. Both - very smart, very diligent students. The victim seemed a very nice person, incapable of aggravating someone to such an extent. The murderer likewise, was equally pleasant. No one could have ever even immagined such a scene to become truth. So many other people are much more likely. How do I know all these facts? Well, my roommate's old classmate was a friend of theirs. (I know it sounds really far, but it doesn't feel like it.)

The death rate at this institute, and particularly at the department of general and applied physics (not my department, luckily) is a bit alarming for an institute as small as it is.
8 departments, 80 students per year per department and 3 years living here, plus the odd grad student and people who decided that they'd rather live outside of Moscow (about 80 per dept.) makes for a total of roughly 2560 students at the dorms here. And judging by the experience of many people who have already graduated (various parents including my own dad). a 1/year death rate is 'normal'.
The first case was at the end of the first semester just before the winter session. A second year boy from the notorious dept of General and Applied Physics jumped off the fifth floor and died, leaving a lonely grieving mother behind.
The second case was at the begining of my third semester. A first year girl wanted (probably) to commit siucide by jumping off the 8th floor of my dorm (I knew her and talked to her quite a few times, as we lived on the same floor.) However, luckily a 5th year fished her off te railings of the balcony. They locked many of the balcony doors after this incident.
And now this. Again, the general physics people. about them actually. there is an age old tale about them, it's so old that even my father heard the tale when he was at the institute:
Some time ago, an incident happened. It concerned two roommates from the General and Applied Physic Department. One was a rather quiet and calm boy. The other somewhat more social. There are multiple versions as to the cause. Some say that it was because they were fighting over a girl. Others that one interferred with the other's studying by being noisy. Others again say, that he simply snapped from the pressure. But it always ends the same. The quiet one took an axe and hacked his roommate into pieces either in the bathroom or in the room itself.

damn...

Friday, February 4, 2011

never enough of a good thing...

Exam session is well over and done, and has been the most successful one so far. It turned out that the teachers made a mistake when grading my chemical physics paper and I ended up getting a 5/10 instead of a 4/10 (which is like going from a C+ to a B-). Theoretical mechanics ended up being a lot less scary than I (and everyone else) had feared. It seems more physics-y subjects are friendlier to my brain, so I actually managed to study productively. Also a huge plus point was that we were allowed to use any and all books/notes to solve the problem and prepare the theoretical question before you went up to your examinator (the word sounds just a bit too much like terminator, for my liking, but I don’t know what to call them otherwise.) and explain everything and answer any and all oral questions he or she might be wanting to ask you. As a pleasant surprise came that anyone who had 4 or more points accumulated from seminars (out of a maximum of 7--- you could get 3 max for each of the homeworks and another extra point if you participated in the Olympiad.) and thanks to the mercy of my seminarist he had given me 2/3 for each of the hws, and thus I was spared from solving a problem I wouldn’t have been able to solve anyways during the exam. I was also very lucky with the question that they gave me to answer. It was the first question. The very easiest, one that I could have answered even without the book laying open beside me, but since exams turn me into a jittering pile of gah, I opened it anyways and copied what I needed. That was done in 20 minutes (10 if I hadn’t spent the first half pointlessly pawing ALL my books.) after that all that was left to do was to wait until I was called up and assigned to an examinator. The first half hour I spent looking over notes, and scanning through books. Then I got tired of it, and started drawing. In the end I sat there for about one and a half hours before I was called, idly watching the happenings around me, and occasionally sending a questioning glance so as to inquire about the success of various people who had already faced the monster and beaten it and smiling a congratulatory or apologetic smile in reply as was appropriate. Then finally I was called, and by the woman who was the head assigner. I walked up to her and sat at a free desk. Of course, I was ready to answer, as I had been doing nothing for the past half hour, and state explaining what I had written. I didn’t get very far before we were interrupted. An examinator had walked up to the desk in search of fresh blood. She sprang from her chair and satisfied his hunger by handing him two fresh students eager to be violently separated from their self-confidence so that they can finally go back to their room, lick the wound and prepare to be mentally abused in the most heinous fashion once again. Once she was finished sending others to their doom, she returned to casting mine upon me. I continued explaining, and then she gave me a problem to solve; a simple one, more or less. Yet I had trouble concentrating on it for the following reason: the lady whose victims were sitting just to my right were being thrashed with iron whips and the remaining shreds of their maimed bodies were tossed into the mud before the marching army of her minions. (In other words she was making fun of them while being a smartass, without explaining their mistakes, however small they were. She wouldn’t let the torture end and topped the whole procedure with the cherry of: “well, I think you aren’t quite ready today. You are telling me stupid things. Why don’t you come back another day.” <- she actually said that to one poor boy who had the misfortune of meeting her that day.) so yeah. No surprise I made a small mistake, and when she noticed, I make another similar one. In the end she actually gave me 2/3 points for the oral exam (which is like B or a 4 on the old scale) which was absolutely awesome!!! And in the end I have a 6/10 – a solid B / 4 overall for theoretical mechanics. :D
Mathematical analysis, however was a lot less fun. And a lot more scary for me personally (thus I’ll keep it shorter). The THING that happened was that I happened to end up with the most evil hearted, kitten slaying, Santa sniping, flower stomping, brain degrading, tear inducing, fear inspiring, gloating, 50 year old virgin dressed in old rugs, that the department of mathematics has. And her name is Ivanova. Luckily, she was in a good mood that day and held back a little in her gloating (meaning she only giggled slightly at the inability to answer questions, that aren’t talked about in any book, or any lecture, and that one could only answer of you know everything by heart and think for a few minutes.) anyways. I answered the theory (which she has a very disorienting way of asking. You’ll be telling her something, and then she’ll randomly say a word that remotely relates to your topic and you’re supposed to interpret that as a question…) anyways. I got through the theory somehow, and then she went on to ask me about the two problems we had to solve. One I solved correctly, but she wanted me to give her a definition that hadn’t been given to us (I tried to suck it out of my finger with extremely mild success.) and the other I solved completely incorrectly, since I really didn’t know how to really solve them, because I had solved only 10 math problems all semester, because that’s all my seminarist wanted. No one in our group actually ever did the homework. Which I guess, didn’t really help. And I didn’t have enough time to look at the problems, and the ways to solve them the night before. When she asked me to redo my second problem, I asked her if she would give me a positive grade if I didn’t (I asked because I had no idea how to actually solve the thing. Although it turned out to be very simple as I found out afterwards.) And so I left her with my measly 3/10. Extremely glad that she didn’t send me to the retakes, as she usually does with everyone….
Now to happier things:
One of the girls who lives on my floor was given a rat for her birthday, and since to go home she has to undertake an 18 hour train ride, she asked me to take care of her little critter. Me, being a fan of all rodent kind, happily agreed. What I didn’t expect that the one rat that I took home would split into 9 the next morning. Yes. I have RATLETTS! They were born January 25th which makes them 11 days old today. They are the most adorable things, and their mommy is just as fun. It turned out that the owner didn’t feed her any meat, and rats need meat. Now every time she smells it she pushes her little nose out if the cage, and tries to grab the piece with her little hands. It’s so very cute. And the little squirmers have begun to grow hair. They’re the softest things I’ve ever touched. They’re softer than my 100% cashmere sweater! And they’re absolutely adorable! This is the babies a few days ago. they're less soft then than today, and they're also much much cuter in person. Don't they look litle itty bitty saussages?) -------->
I’m sad that I’ll have to give them back once I return to the dorm :( which I’ll be doing very soon. The new semester starts February 7th. (we only get a 2 week break. Aren’t they cruel.) And I’m hoping to see everyone who had retakes back in the dorm and smiling.
During the break I also decided that I want to learn another piece on the piano, since we have one in our dorm, and I go there sometimes to kill time. How I picked, you ask? Well I was watching this German movie a few days ago: Good bye, Lenin!, and I heard this piece of music that I really like, but I’d no idea what it was called. Turns out it’s called Comptine d'un autre ete : L'apres midi (I know, a rather obnoxiously long title, but what else to expect from the French?) but it sounds really awesome, and it so happens is actually really easy to play. You probably know it too (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFLF-gh4C2M) so I’m also making pretty good progress on that. I know the left hand and the right hand now, and I can kinda play both at the same time. But it’s still slow, out of rhythm, and mistakes aren’t a rarity. Basically, I just have to play it about 15-40 more times and I’ll be good :D.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

$#@!

So I'll start with my tale of the recent ball. It was absolutely AWESOME!!! Dancing all night – who could have anything against that. The first half of the evening was dedicated to more historical dances. Basically, over half of them were various permutations of the Waltz, which is nice, but after 3 minutes of nonstop spinning it gets difficult to walk straight after it’s over. The rest were various historical dances, which in essence are a short piece of choreography repeated over and over again, basically you can’t really call that actual dancing, in my opinion (no creativity, you see). However there was one rather entertaining instance: the Waltz with a flower. We ran into a small obstacle there. You see: we had no flower. (The flower is used to pick partners. Girls stand in one line facing the line of the leads. In each line –people stand in twos. The one holding the flower picks who he/she wants to dance (usually one or two rounds around the dance floor) with from the two from the line facing her. The person not picked gets the flower and gets to choose themselves following the same algorithm.) But, as I already said we had no flower. What to do? A couple guys really into rpg, brought their rpg costumes along, and there were a few instances of what looked like soldiers chasing a prisoner around the dance floor. Well part of the costuming was a rather large and real looking gun. And we said, heck, why not use the gun instead of the flower. Hilarity ensued as people were fake-shot.
Now, moving on to the more interesting part of the evening: the informal dances. Half hustle, half various fun fun fun folk dances. For those of you who don’t know hustle, essentially is like swing dancing plus Latino charm (read: sexy sexy swing ;) ). For the first few I danced as lead with Katia (is from a parallel group, and I taught her some basic following, so we get by.) this, of course, acted like some wonderful advertising, and soon enough a bunch of absolutely amazing dancers started asking me to dance (hehehehehe). Epicness ensued. One of the guys I danced with was particularly awesome, quite tall, rather imaginative, and a really good lead (also quite cross-eyed and with a dark sense of humor as I later found out ;) ). And his girlfriend was my absolutely favorite person there. It seems she went to a dance school, and her movements are incredibly beautiful. She is just what I imagine elves to dace like (or at least the nearest human approximation thereof.) Random: Btw, I also realized that dancing swing with a short lead can be quite great, but waltzing with a short lead is highly uncomfortable.
In the end I had tons of fun, and I even got to take home some free food (sausage :D ).
So much for that.
Now to something more disquieting: Today I got a russian-fb message from my dance partner for ballroom dancing. In it he asked me to meet him 15-ish minutes earlier than the class would start. My first reaction: wtf, mate? (Hence the title). First of all I’m busy on Thursdays, since I’ve another dance class before the ballroom one (which sadly today did't happen...), so he said he’d meet me just before that one as I leave the dorm. Obviously, he needed to tell me something important… my second reaction: wtF? So as I left the dorm, he was there, and got straight to the point: he’s in love with a girl from dance classes, and can’t stand seeing her dance with someone else, so he talked to her partner and now to me about doing the old switcheroo. I agreed. I regret having to lose a good dance partner, but I shan’t hold him against his will. It would be cruel, and everyone would be unhappy. Well, the guy turned out to be halfway decent. Very uncertain in his leading, for now, but the basics aren’t half bad. (of course, he doesn’t compare to my previous guy. So sad). On the other hand, it’s quite obvious that he had quite a lot of fun today, and my boy progressed quite a lot too. I shall make a dancer of him yet. Sadly, no one does such things for me yet though.

btw: physics went well: I got a 5/10 that's like a B (or a 4 on the 2-5 scale)
I also passed my chemical physics exam with a 4/10 (which is a 3 in the old system) or like a C. not so happy about that one. Now I must study for theoretical mechanics on the 17th. :/

Saturday, January 1, 2011

so this is the new year

So... quite a bit has happened since last I wrote. Basically after the ball I started studying. Doing homeworks en masse, hardly having time to sleep etc etc. the usual basically. Nonetheless, class finals came to a highly intense conclusion. Somehow I managed to complete and (for lack of a better word ) "turn in" a semester's worth of homework in 3 weeks time, which is pretty much a hell of a task, cause you see turning in a homework always involves questioning by the teacher. For differential analysis you have to perfectly solve a set of practice problems from finals of previous years. For math analysis I just have to bring perfectly solved problems that the seminarist has made up, for physics it's trying not to fail the test that goes with the homework but you're not allowed to use anything, which is terrible, as for the written final you may use whichever books or notes you wish. Needless to say I pretty much failed (also the physics man thinks that I’m pretty much the very last idiot there is). But anyhow, I made it through class finals, and now I’ve final exams. Written physics is already behind me. And I actually managed to solve 4 problems out of five, which is pretty much epic awesomeness on my part. On the other hand, I think that my dear seminarist will only count maybe one of them as solved correctly, which is very very sad. But mo matter. He’s promised to give everyone a passing grade, and that’s all I want from him at the moment.
Now towards more interesting things: New years!
What a feast it was! I had sooooo much fun. Two of my roommates went home for newyears, so Lera and I were alone in the room. We bought a Christmas tree (which is called a new years fir tree here) decorated it, bought shiny shiny tinsel, hung it on the tree and from the ceiling, cut out snowflakes, hung those from the ceiling also. Made lots of food, bought wine and champagne, and had a few guys help us a bit, dressed, invited one guy who turned out not to be celebrating because of lame roommates, and sat down to enjoy our labor. Lera insisted on watching the president’s address, which failed epically, since everyone was doing that and thus the net was completely inoperative, well around twelve the invited guy opened the champagne, and spilled it all over the floor and table (I ended up almost not getting any, but luckily we had but luckily we also had wine :P ) so we ate and drank, and the decided to find out whether there would be a nightclub event or no, so we went outside and, lo and behold, heard very loud music. The obvious conclusion: yes, there would be dancing. And because the good always comes with the bad, we met a certain acquaintance of my roommate’s former roommate Ilmir (which by extension I also happen to know and loathe, who with his quiet friend demanded a New Years hug… well we were in a good mood, and it was new years after all… we tolerated it. Quickly said our goodbyes and went on our way.
Once inside the club, dancing commenced and obviously because we were waaaay too awesome at what we do, (read: too noisy) they shut us down about 3 hours early. So there we were a bunch of people in sandals and skirts in the snow at 4 am and the doors to the dorms had already been locked. Luckily, there were about 15 of us, and the night guard was nice and let us in :) once back in the dorm, obviously no one wanted to stop having fun, so we didn’t :)
The fun we had amounted to this: going to the 7th floor, eating and drinking (mostly drinking for me they had this really tasty wine made from plums. It was really really yummy, to my surprise. I didn’t know alcohol could taste so good. )While we were sitting there, getting merrier and merrier by the cup, we heard loud guitar music, and went to investigate. We stumbled upon quite a large company having quite a bit of fun. Unfortunately, a drunk Ilmir was there as well and wouldn’t stop pestering me about English swear words and phrases. Soon enough he left, and I stayed where I was with a bunch of random people I don’t know, a guy from my group and one from a parallel group, who had/has a crush on me (considering the way he acted I’m leaning towards has…). And this is where the odd part of the evening began.
It started when this drunk guy from 6th year came up to me, asking me my name. I answered. He then started drawing what was to become a very sorry attempt at a portrait on an empty pizza box, and gifted the creation to me all the while showering me with complements. I was amused by the whole thing, and thus always smiling… amusedly. This led the guy, whose name turned out to be Nicolai, to believe I was insulted by his portrait and to apologize threw it out of the window on the 6th floor into the snow. The poor box. He then became depressed which, in retrospect, was a bit unfortunate for me since from that moment on, all he did was hug me, I’d get him to stop, he’d smile and hug again. After about 15 minutes it began to strain the nerves. In the end I got him to leave, but only after I promised to keep a pen he gave me as a memento. After I’d gotten rid of that one, I rejoined the general crowd in some room, where as it turned out they had a water pipe, weed, and two half naked guys dancing to “sex bomb” on a table with a broom held by one of them but located between the legs of the other. (Yes dear friends, this is the future of Russian science. I think we’re all going to die.) Oh, and I hadn’t mentioned the weird guy in the cowboy hat who was enjoying the music way too much (he actually sang a few lines whilst looking at me… hugh… creeper…). It seems he was a friend of Nicolai’s and for those of you who know him, is very much like Jim Woodward, for those of you who don’t know him… well let’s just say that no other person can be that much of a creeper by just raising his eyebrow. In the end all they did was open buttons of pants and nothing more, which I personally was glad of.
After that fun little episode, I decided to go back to my room, only to find my roommate sitting on the windowsill on our floor with none other than Ilmir and his silent friend. I joined them, since she had my key and another bout of slight altercation ensued between the Bashkir and myself. Soon enough an oh so high (meaning on drugs) Arthur came along (with this one I talk quite a bit always about random crap and it’s always rather interesting, although he’s probably the most inadequate person I know.) And in the end my pen was taken from me by Ilmir (with a freaking proclamation to stop by tomorrow and return it. (never bothering to ask whether I was busy or not, the bastard)). And that, pretty much, was the end of it.
Now I must study for my oral physics exam… damn