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...

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.