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

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.

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

zombie variant =)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPoblHSA_FM&feature=related

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

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

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.