long overdue!

As the title suggests, there is a long overdue rant that I've never had the patience to write out in full for the sheer monstrosity of the rage and smoldering discontent it evokes in me. At this moment, I encourage you to take a closer look at the two photos. The first I took near my base, walking to the bus stop (the blurriness, btw is snow/ice flying about and right in your face). The second photo is of my apartment from the outside. (and again, the blurryness is snow/ice/wind/eeew) There's a car in the picture, I wonder if you can find it. It's red. I would also like to note that those heaps are actually about 2 meters high and that those half covered windows are not the basement, but the first floor. I happen to live on the first floor. These photos were taken on the same day. Guess the date....

If you were thinking December or January. You were wrong (there was less snow then, and more cold). If you know a bit of the Russian climate, you might even think November or even October or February  because winter sets in early and leaves late. But again you would be wrong. These photos I took on Monday, March 25th, 2013. Yesterday. I do wonder if March is aware of the fact that it's a spring month... in any case March is pretty much over, and it's finally getting warmer. It is now only 10 below freezing (in Celsius). Luckily, it actually does feel a bit like spring, you see, it doesn't get dark at 5 PM anymore, which is a nice change, and there is the odd day when  the sun actually shines. And when it does it's blinding. Literally. A bright sun, and all that brightness bounces off the whiteness all around you. There's no escaping it. However, the weather is a force that I can do nothing about, much like I can do absolutely nothing about the complete absence of computer sense that my bachelor diploma adviser has. It is indeed startling. He can't even access his email from home, because someone set up an ancient version of outlook for him at work, and he can't do the same at home. I even had to print out a pdf for him because he didn't get how do download it onto the computer from his email... well he's rather on the elderly side, so I guess he deserves a break, but still, he could make an effort. 

In other news I might be going to Ukraine in April for this conference type thing. Mostly because I miss being warm outside. I hope that goes well enough, and that both me and the bf will get green lights for that one. It'd be nice to have a little vacation. So, I'm tired, and I don't really feel like writing much more, so I guess this is it for the time being. 

From Russia with Love.

dogs are f-ing scary

So recently, I went to the store complex Rio not far from here (namely one train station away) to get a present for the bf for febuary 23rd  (big holiday, called day of the protector of the homeland, and all the girls are supposed to congratulate all the guys for bring guys. it's like march 8th only backwards.)
So, I ended up getting him a bunch of fancy teas, a little bit of 6 odd mixes, so if he doesn't like one of them he needn't torture himself through a whole 50 grams.
I ended up going during the day, and during an unfortunate one and a half hour break in the trains, so instead of waiting for the miserable thing, I decided that it would be a good idea to just walk back along the rails, as I occasionally do during the warmer months. The going was surprisingly easy, because the know made the way nice and even, But because of the flat landscape, it was a bit chilly from the wind.
All was well about two thirds of the way through, when I noticed some dogs up ahead, there were only two, so I thought nothing of it, and kept on trudging. One crossed the rails to the right, and the second one, a female (which I knew from her relieving herself right in the middle of the path), followed after she was done with her business. I noted only that the first dog was clearly the dominant one. As I approached the place they crossed my path, the dominant one started barking, I gave it little heed because that's what dogs do. They bark.
As I passed the clamor grew louder and diversified, and I came to realize that a pack of wild dogs were following me. And if I'd have kept walking they would attack. See dogs are odd creatures. I understand their psychology only a little, but enough to know that if a dog realizes you're afraid of it, or that you're fleeing, then you're totally screwed, because then you become prey, and prey is made to be killed and eaten. I stopped abruptly and turned. There were about 5 or 6 of them (all of a good golden retriever type size, and one had a face hideously similar to a bulldog, and was standing at the apex of a rough delta formation consisting of 4 dogs right in front of me, and was clearly the most fearsome of the pack.) I stared at them for a while. Taking in the sight, and the noise. They only grew louder, and inched closer.
To tell you the truth, I'm glad that I'm good at faking nerves of steel, I was getting quite antsy, and I felt an urge to run away from them as fast as I could, but cold and tired as I was, and with the sleek ice under my feet, I knew that that would mean blood, and probably mine. I wouldn't be able to fend off all of them on my own. Their advance reminded me of the situation I was in, and I made an inadvertent step back. They immediately closed the distance to but an arms length. My theory was confirmed. Running was not an option. 
I wreaked my brain in search of a solution. Luckily, I had a bag of groceries hanging on my arm, and I let it slip to my hand abruptly, by straightening my arm. The motion intimidated the wretches, and they jumped back a bit. I capitalized on my momentary gain, and took a few steps forward. They retreated. Still barking. I stamped my foot. They stared to quiet. another glare, and a few more hisses and stamps of feet from my end drove them away a good distance, still glaring at them over my shoulder, I turned slowly, and then proceeded to walk on at a steady pace.
As I walked, the adrenalin wore off. My knees became weaker, and I felt shaky, and drained. dogs are f-ing scary.

i yet live! muahahahahahahahahaha

Hello my dears!
again I am guilty of neglecting you all, but that was most;y because first I was way too busy with work, then way to busy with fun, and then there was to much busyness with sadness and lazing about, and now I finally am writing. In lieu of an apology there are pictures! Which I will explain. if you don't care, feel free to skip ahead to [***] The shiny wood things on the weird piece of paper (the one to the immediate right ----------------------------------------->), are, as you can probably guess, the wood carvings I did. A celtic knot type thing, and a fox type thing, just in case they confuse you, which I'm sure they do. The earrings (yes, those are earrings. and they're on a giant pile of real fir tree needles that I had made into a wreath, which turned into a pathetic tangle with a pile of needles underneath. and the snowflake is on that pathetic pile too.)  as well as the rose up top are presents I got. the roses are now happily dried and adorn my bookshelf. the snowflake was inspired by a VK post. I though it was cool and decided to try it out. I like how it turned out. this beauty --------------> is one of the multitudes of corsets that I am now a proud owner of. *yays* I'll spare you the glorious details because... well actually partially because over half of them are still in the US and it's probably be about a month before I get them, and I must content myself with but three pieces.

[***]

well, and now to the last unexplained picture. the one on the top right! I bet you can guess what it is! you got it! homework! theoretical physics to be exact. the thing that I am again procrastinating on. only this time I'm not studying for the exam >.< but I still have all day tomorrow, so I think I'll be good. I have printed out a mini version of the lectures for the material, and all that's left to do is find it in there, and look up any stuff that's not in the lectures and write it onto tiny pieces of paper that I will stick into a pocket, or a belt, or a boot. I haven't decided on that one yet. On the up side, this semester has been the best one grade wise ever. Aside from some random alternate course which I got a 3 on, because I hadn't been to a single lecture, all my grades have been 6 or higher, though I think this will change as soon as I am done with the theoretical physics exam, where 6 is probably the highest I could possibly get, because that's my rating for the seminars.  (holy shit, that's a long sentence!) But on the up side that also means that there's a 90% chance that a 4 is the lowest grade that they might give me. So school is going pretty well, I'd say. I'll just go ahead and blame that on "quality relaxation time."

Now about some more fun things!
Before D left for new years to talk to this dude at home about a pet project of his (which in the mean time has failed miserably since the guy never showed up, meaning the trip was kind of pointless, unless you count that I got to have a bit of a new years adventure as a positive outcome of said trip, which I will tell you about shortly.) we went to see the Hobbit! And we even ended up going on a bit of an unexpected journey of our own. Basically, I told him that either we'd need to see the movie before He left, or I'd simply go see it myself, because I've been waiting for it for... round about 10 years O_o (damn, I'm old!). But unfortunately it seemed like we wouldn't be able to do so, since neither of us had time with all the final projects and final tests that were happening at the time. But luckily one of my things got pushed back to the afternoon on a wednesday, which I, of course forgot. and managed to remember only on tuesday (the day before). Well, luckily, he found a movie theater that had it in the morning, and had tickets. But the location of that theater... oh my. Well... train, of course, then metro from one end of one line to the end of another line. and then a loooooooooong walk. That was something. When we went out of the metro we started heading towards a direction we thought was right. Then we asked random lady if we were going towards the MKAD (Moscow Circular Automobile Road - this huge circular highway around moscow where the cars move at snail's pace because of traffic jams.) and she told us it was the other way... well, turned out she was wrong... So after a long time of walking in weird circles and some unorthodox crossing of roads we ended up walking the same way we started, only we had lost about a half hour of time. Well, now at a quicker pace we walked... soon enough I felt that it was too hot, and ended up stuffing scarf, hat, and gloves into my bag. When we finally got to the MKAD (about 40 mins later), we walked along it, and soon enough came to the intersection one of those bridge types of the MKAD and some other large road. Note that by large road I mean 5 lanes in each direction. The MKAD had about 4 or 5 as well, though I didn't count. And we had to cross this monstrosity. We were so close to the theater, and yet so far. We ended up having to cross the road via bridge, descend from that via exit, then there was this little river that we had to cross. luckily there was a bridge there. A wooden path with concrete around it. Then up the steep bank, and along a snaky slippery path (remember this is winter and Russia, snow and ice everywhere.) with the road on one side and a steep fall towards the river on the other. And only then were you able to come to the mall, and there searching for an entrance, which took the aid of some random dudes in neon orange jackets, and then and only then we finally made it to that movie theater. We were quite happily tired when we finally arrived, though we did end up missing the first 10 or so minutes of the film. The movie itself was, of course, amazing. And aside from the bit about Azog, who according to Tolkien, is actually long since dead, I loved it all. All the addition wonderfully compliment the film and gave it a form that is so much more than the fairy tale version of Tolkien, and puts it into context with the great changes that would be triggered in that world. I'm already very excited for the continuation! After the movie, we ate, and then made the journey back. Only we were both very late to our respective thingies since the food in our stomachs sapped our strength, and the way back took us much longer. Through the woods and over the bridge to our base institutes we go! >.<

An now, the promised new years celebration! As I mentioned before D was away, so I ended up celebrating with my friend Lera. As always, we first planned to have just us two, but as things go here every year, three more girls ended up joining us. around 11pm we finally all assembled, and 15 minutes to midnight we had our heaps of food ready, which we left on the table to go see the fireworks and Putin talk, because that's what Russians do on new years. They listen to the president wishing them a happy new year. We grabbed our bottle of champagne (and to my delight I found that it didn't make me want to puke, as champagne always had done ever since halloween during first year, but rather it was quite good.) After the address, and the fireworks (which were organized by this, my tiny little, institute and lasted a whopping 15 minutes) we went back to the room to gorge ourselves on food and alcohol, which included salads, apples, pickles, tuna sandwiches, chocolate, red wine and vodka with some sort of berry juice. Once we were all well buzzed, and dancing around the room to crap music, we decided it was time to go dancing. Thus, we left for the dance party in one of the dorms. and we danced for a while, punching random dudes in the stomach with our elbows when they got to close. All was well, until this old guy crashed the party and broke it up because apparently someone was firing some sort of explosive device inside, and that was apparently a bad idea (I hadn't noticed it at all.) So we waited for the crowds to disperse as we sat on a couch, and disappointed that the evening should end so soon. Luckily, one of the girls had a way out of this dilemma. And after a while we went to another dorm, this time some room, and not the dorm club, and continued the partying. This time including free drinks! (mostly because we're girls and we're awesome.) So we drank and danced and danced until we were tired, at which point we moved to the kitchen, and ended up chatting with some of the locals. It turned out that one of the guys from my former German class lived in that apartment, and we had a good chat about all sorts of things, beginning with the language, and ending with life in general. At some point we sat and Lera joined us with some other guy I have no clear memory of, and we kept talking, at some point they all just went to bed, and Lera and I kept talking, and had a bit of a hear to heart, until about 5 30, and then went home because we were tired. I made it back to my room fine, but she, apparently, wandered around the dorm for several hours trying to find her room. And apparently she was so trashed, that she remembered little of the previous night. >.< for once, it wasn't I who had the memory gaps, and I got to tell her what had happened the next day.

So, friends, I think this is enough for one post. I haven't written a monster such as this in quite some time. But there you go. There was something to tell of this time around =) yays!

Happy New Year! Merry Christmases! Hanukkah! Kwanza! Whatever!  (insert any random holiday that gives you an excuse to have fun and/or drink!)

  

i'm alive!

The time for a new post has come and passed without me actually writing one, so now, instead of doing theoretical physics homework, which I won't be able to focus on anyways, I'm doing this. So first things first. The bf limbo is finally coming to an end. He's returning on Saturday  and all that business on his hospital end seems to be going well. So, yeah...
Otherwise, I've been feeling quite swamped with all my studies. Too much stuff to do, I guess. But I'll start with something positive. The saturday before last there was the annual open student's ball in honor of MIPT's birthday. I had been doubtful as to whether I wanted to go, but I ended up going, and I hadn't had so much fun since D and I spent a cold rainy night in a tent in the woods, which was at the very beginning of summer. There was lots of awesome dancing, and I mean REALLY awesome, both with guys and girls, because the organizers of this dance, are not homophobic, and appreciate a great lead, even when that person happens to be a girl. I danced almost continuously, got asked quite a number of times, which is always very pleasant, and have some photos to show for it. I also found out that waltzing when your calves are cramping is terribly uncomfortable and painful, and I couldn't walk without muscle pain for two days afterwards, but it was totally worth it. Last Saturday there was the small matter of my birthday. I didn't really celebrate, but my mom surprised me with a flower delivery which included an obnoxious balloon, singing happy birthday. But as cliche and kitchy it was it was nice. that day I also had a bit of a big presentation of my semester project. For some reason, I got a pretty good 'potential' grade on it. And here I say potential, because it's more of a trial run. the actual presentation is going to be two weeks from next saturday, and by next week I need to not only finish the project, but also have a paper ready to turn in for review. Also labs, and oh god theoretical physics. that's going to be my one big worry this year. the work at the base has been relaxed up till now, but is probably going to pick up soon, since half the allotted time is passing, and I have to have a literature review on the topic done by the 10th of December, which is a bit of a complicated matter, mostly because I still don't really know what I'll be doing. Well, enough of this. You get the gist of it. tons of work. And this, of course is the time that D has to come back. The busiest freaking time of the year. Well, he has reinstatement exams coming up too, so we'll both have stuff to do, but at least we'll be able to see each other now and then. Well, surprisingly this is really all that is happening, at the moment. lots of work, little else.
Oh, actually I've had two little wood carving projects, one I've made in the likeness of a fox, and the other is a very simplistic Celtic knot thing (a surprisingly thing to carve, actually. much more difficult than the fox - mostly because of the intersections and all the curves, etc.) The wood was obscenely hard, so I kind of killed my fingers a bit when I just started, but after spending 12 or so hours on it, the skin on the fingers becomes a bit tougher, and the pressure hurts much less, so I didn't even need band aids to save fingers from friction for the second piece. So yeah, all out of things to say for now, so cheers!
 I've now doused both in bergamot oil (mostly because it's the only type I have, but it has the plus of making them smell heavenly.) The idea that inspired this was, of course the upcoming holidays. so, as you can guess, these will be presents.)

------

My cat died yesterday evening. It wasn't a natural death. I couldn't sleep last night. Don't ever ask me about her.  

first snow and other calamities

So, as the title suggests, we got our first snow. I know, what you're thinking. It's not even November for ****s sake, but this is Russia, and that's just how we roll. Or rather, that's just how mother nature likes to eat it's humans, either fried or in popsicles. And as you know, (or maybe not) the first snow, though it's a bit early this year, it always herald to the lazy people like myself, and many others, that it is high time to start doing all the coursework that you've been baling on for the last two months. (There's an analogous rule for the spring, where it's time to work, when the snow thaws) Well, aside from this sudden, downturn in weather, there's not all that much going on otherwise. aside from the usual programming for one class, reading for another class, more reading for both this class, and multitudes of others as well. Lots of busywork...

Today, however, there will be a lecture (in English) on exoplanets. I've no idea what they are, but I'm planning on going just for the sake of listening to some good English. And after that i get to stay up all night programming for my physical methods of investigation project, which i'm actually going to have to have half done by the end of November. and then there's the base labs, and, and, and, and, and... *sigh* so much work...
on the up side D might actually be returning earlier than I though. Here was thinking he'd be here only towards the end of November, but it turns out, that he'll have his last (or pre-last) rounds of tests around the 1st, and if the rest doesn't take too long, then maybe he'll be back by the 17th (which would be lovely, since I could drag him to the ball with me, and that would be quite fun.) well, soon enough, we'll see how it all will work out. all that's left to hope is that the whole hospital crap will actually work. That's my one big worry at the moment, aside from all the other crap.

On the up side, my nails are long now, and I bought decorative stickers for them, and they improve my mood every time I see them, which is kind of awesome I guess. *yay! for pretty nails*
well, folks, that's all for now. Got to run!

the magic of hugs

I may or may not have mentioned that I haven't been sleeping well since I moved into the dorms. I thought it was because I wasn't used to the new bed, and it seems I was very wrong. Turns out, that all a girl needs to be able to sleep like a baby is something to hug at night. Preferably, a soft fuzzy red pillow.