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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. 

this and that

It occurred to me that I haven't actually written about my life for a while, so I'll correct that. There's a reason for it, I'd think. Mostly, it's because there's a lot of uncertainly in some aspects in life, while there's too much certainty in others, and a bizarre mix of both in other's still.

Well, this September has kind of been making me think about the future a lot. Like my whole life is pretty much being decided now. I got to my base institute, I chose the area I'm going to be working in. The base is potentially the place I'll be building my career at, and that's somewhat of a scary thought to me. Permanence is something I'm not used to. I'll either be working in molecular dynamics or quantum chemistry. At the moment, I'm thinking I might try my bachelor on dynamics, and if I don't like it, I'll switch. My base is pretty awesome in that aspect. They pretty much let you do what you want, which you really don't find all that often. You generally are a work slave of your boss, and they don't seem to have it be as extreme here as it is in other places. So that's going pretty well for me.

In other news my bf got himself kicked out of the institute for various reasons. So he's been jumping hospitals all month back home to escape the army (there is a mandatory draft for all who aren't currently at school.) So there's been lots of vk (read fb) chatting, and little else, which is less than optimal, as you can imagine. He should be back before November, so 'till then...

Oh, snap!

So, I was walking to my base institute today, when I walked past car crash. like a real legit car accident, with somewhat shmushed cars, airbags, police and, of course, a big ol' traffic jam! I didn't see any injured people, but I'm tihinking that there were some, because just as I was walking past, a freaking helicopter flew by above me. There it is on the picture. but what entertained me far more is that I actually was able to watch it land ( That was the first time I ever saw a helicopter land in real life, which was somewhat exciting.) Funnily enough right next to my base is a birthing hospital, which apparently didn't have a helipad, so the helicopter landed in the parking lot of the hospital, as weird as it was. but the most entertaining part was when i thought everything was done, I crossed the street, and just as I was approaching the fence (it's like 3 meters high) around the hospital, Two dudes in blue with backpacks were climbing over it.
I saw how two grown, intelligent men, in their 30s to 40s clamber across a freaking fence and then proceed to run towards that selfsame car crash, where they would probably be stopping a nosebleed. (The cars were in pretty decent shape, and there was much calmness so I'm assuming that it was not a serious accident as much as some serious person. and by that i mean someone with a lot of money.)  

parallel worlds

Recently, I've been having trouble differentiating between dreams and reality. It's a really weird sensation. I'll be walking down the hallway, thinking about how I have to put money on my internet account, and then I'll remember that I spent all my money (which is like 15 000 at the moment) on buying some expensive thing that meant life or death, and then It hits me that that's a bit odd, and I realize that that had been a dream. Or, I'll be thinking about how my toe hurts, and how I was peeling off layers of nail and showing it to my mom, that once you get all the bad layers off, it becomes normal again (which it does, only problem is that toe nails don't really work like shark teeth, and they actually have to grow out.) It's an odd sensation, when dreams and reality start to mix. usually my dreams were always so totally alien and weird that I had no problems telling them apart from real life. As odd as it may seem; some episodes from life are  merging into dream, and sometimes I'm not sure if said thing really happened. But it straightens out after a while of thinking about the plausibility of the situation. 

free stuff!

A few days ago, we had a visit from the gas guy. The gas guy is this random maintenance person sent from whoever gives us our gas for the stove, and completely unsurprisingly, our 40 year old stove leaked, which is really not good, if you know aught of gas stoves. Happily, a bit of the old system still survives, and according to it, people on pension have the right to be given one from the government. As, you know we live with my grandma, so yesterday two men came and installed a new stove. For free. Just like that. I think that's pretty awesome. There used to be more programs like this one, but they kind of died in the 90s for various reasons. So you can say socialism sucks all you want, but there really can be no complaints about getting free stuff.