it finally happened!

So spring has finally, after so many seemingly endless days, reared its ugly head. This I know by two sure fire signs. First of all, my dad has begun sneezing. That means a southerly wind, from places over yonder where the trees have already begun to reproduce and make many baby trees via awkward long distance tree sex, as they are wont to do. And the second sign is first better illustrated and then elaborated upon.

These strange men are painting the curb. Alternating - black stone, white stone. And this is not the only thing they paint. All the fences are painted green and yellow, or blue and red, and all the trees are painted white (you can actually see one in the background.) and as if it wasn't eough, all the benches are painted, and (Oh, dear God, why?) the trashcans. Let it sink in. They are paid to paint trashcans... 
Why they do this seemingly pointless thing? My best guess is that there are so many of them, and they are paid to do something, so they use their immaginative powers to the fullest to come up with just one more poinltess task for to do so they can pretend that they are highly useful and none of them are dispenseable. I cannot, for the life of me, think of any other reason for this yearly invasion of the painting squads.

Well, that aside, on Tuesday I'll be going to the Ukraine. officially for some sort of seminar/school thing. But I'm really going just to see Kiev and have a bit of a vacation with the boyfriend, which I think will be a most welcome diversion beore the carnage begins at semester's end. I'm hoping to take some good photos, if not many, and I might even get around to posting them to fb. We shall see. But before I get to go play, I have so much work to do. I have an exam on Monday (read tomorrow, as it's almost 23:54 on Saturday). If that weren't enough, Tuesday morning, just before I leave I have to do a mini presentation on my bachelors thesis, which is totally, completely, and unfortunately lacking in actual original content. And the cherry on top of this miraculous banana split, is that the bf's birthday is on Monday, and since I'll be home then, passing exams, and feverishly trying to finish up my presentation, I shan't be able to see him. (On the other hand, he didn't come to me for my birthday, why should I make it so hard on myself? Of course, he was also in another town trying to get the army of his back. But same difference.)

So since I have some more time before the bf comes back from his weekly DnD session (yeah, he plays dungeons and dragons. Story of my life... no matter wher, you always end up with the same kind of people) I'll continue my ramblings. For lack of a better thing to talk about, I'll just tell you about my thesis. Here I give a heads up to any and all of you who hav no wish to know anything about Theoretical Physics as it's not really needed for anything except to predict whether thing A worts this way or that way, or some other unknown way.
So anyways. Like I said, theoretical physics. The group (2 people) I'm working with, are currently trying to advance the theory of charge transfer in condensed media. Sounds, fascinating, I know. Right now this is being done within the scope of some trans-russian OLED project. The main idea is that using the Fermi golden rule an equasion giving the reaction rate constant can be derived as a function of the density of states by energy. Similar theories have already been developed, however, the spin-boson theory, looks at a model consisting only of the initial and final states, and it does not take into account the local modes (the other energy levels). The generalized spin-boson does take into accound the local mondes, and better yet has the Marcus Theory as the high temperature limit, but the medium there is the same for all possible transitions, which is obviously not quite how it is in life. Therefore this new approach is being developed. It has the electron interacting with the local mode, and the local modes affected by the medium, and all should turn out just wonderfully. And it does. With the one exception, that we are trying to see what is happening at the low temperature limit. It is an experimental fact that reactions still occur at near 0K temperatures, though all models state that the limit of the rate constant as a function of temperature, as the teperature aproaches zero is zero. And we're hoping to kind of squeeze a sort of plateau out of our formulas. Except, that hasn't properly happened yet. So I'm a bit screwed for that presentation...

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!)

  

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.

фффффффффф

So, I went to the Pushkin museum on Sunday and Tuesday (bought a two day ticket to the two buildings, and they don't work on Mondays.). It's delightfully cheap for college students 200 Rubles to both buildings, which is something like 6 or 7 dollars. I want to the main building today which has lots of Greek sculptures (including a ginormous David, which I found to be slightly disproportional) but the thing that surprised me most was in one of the rooms with paintings there. These were some of the really old masters, and I don't even remember who made it, but it caught my eye because it was rather large, and also It was a city scene with carriages and beautiful old buildings in a room full of portraits, and most of all I though it looked a terribly German kind of town, so I went up to it to see if my guess was right. And I was. It was a scene of the old market in Dresden, and at that moment I recognized the church towers at the edges and almost started to cry. I guess it was just a bit of a shock to have been confronted with a place that I've been really missing during the past few days so completely out of the blue. *sigh* stupid mood swings...

Was stressed

Ok. Well idk if I even want to tell you about the ever constant homework serenades. You've all already heard them multiple times, and aside from minor deviations, they're always the same. Therefore, I'll keep it short. The most noteworthy instance was that I ended up turning in the last of my math hw in front of the new building at about midnight when there were a number of drunk students on all the other benches. Makes you kinda feel hardcore. Everyone's partying, and you're studying equations of mathematical physics. We totally rock. NOT!
Well so that was over and exams went as usual. Got a 5/10 on economy, which wasn't hard. Then barely passed those equation thingumses. And gave the final blow with the state exam on mathematics. So, aside from the exam I'll have to take to get into the masters program, I'm finally done with math!
Another interesting instance was how I passed my elective course. Here elective is meant in such a way: we got to pic between molecular biology, or 2 weird craps, that are not only boring as hell, but also a pain in the behind. So, needless to say I picked molecular biology, which as so many things not math or physics were a simple repetition of the SCAHS curriculum. I think went to 5-6 lectures of like 16, so I slept though almost half of them on location, which is quite the accomplishment. But the fun was how the final happened. The teachers gave us the option of doing a 5 minute presentation on a virus instead of actually having to answer questions pertaining to the material. Everyone, including myself jumped at the opportunity, of course. Now, for the epic story:
The night before the due date. I'm of course making the presentation. Once done at around 1 am, I find it's twice as long as it should be. Must. Not. Sleep. Must. Sift. Through. Hep. A. Virus. Info. Shorten. Pres.... well, you get the idea. I went to bed around 5 probably, and at 8 I had to get up. Lucky fro me, the window was open, and some workers decided that 10 am was a great time to make a hellish noise dragging metal stuff over asphalt. that woke me up. My first thought. @#!$##$%#!$#$%!#@#~#@$%&*&**%$##$%^(*&^%$##@~~#$%!!! My second thought: action! I got dressed in record time, and almost rand to the lecture hall, where I arrived at the very very end of my group. a minute later, and I'd have had to learn stuff! Think of the peril! I rattled off the presentation extremely quickly, (I made the 5 min limit although I had more like 7 mins of material) and even better got a full mark on it, and the whole course. Basically this was an exercise in awesome. For once in my life!


Now to bigger and better things. but first, I'll tell you the sad sad story of failure and idiotism, that killed much fun-ness. 'T was before the computational mathematics test. As you may or may not guess, I know nothing of computational mathematics, and thought that it would be good not to fail the test. To do that I supposedly need to study. (note the conditional clauses.) Unfortunately, just before the test there was this field trip thing. kind of like a sports/competition festival sort of deal. And, if you know me, then you know that I'm a sucker for these things. I love them to death! but, being the studious, good girl I am, I decided not to go in favor of cramming some more. Well, how do you think that turned out for me? Well, like 80% of the people who bothered showing up, i also totally failed it. Ergo: not only did I miss something I would have remembered for the rest of my life, but also totally f***ed up the test. yay me...

NOW, on to bigger and better things. Namely, the circus!!! I'm sure I haven't written about this yet! Winter (it was March 14th, but I say winter because it was still cold as f***.) Well, as you can see on the picture, I went to see Cirque Du Soleil. I went with my mom and dad. Dad didn't like it of course, because he's way to conservative to appreciate showmanship, but my mom and I liked it a lot. Very spectacular, to say the least! The music was interesting, and the costumes were the very best part. They had these weird white people in the most bizarre guises running around everywhere all the time. Their clothes were often wildly exaggerated, and each one was completely different and totally silly.


I'll stop here for today, since I'm tired of writing. (And I haven't even gotten to the most interesting part yet!!!) but more is soon to follow!! 

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 4^th 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… 

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!    =)

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

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

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...

$#@!

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. :/

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…

In the olden days

Yesterday I went to a ball. It was quite entertaining really, aside from the part where my big toes got slaughtered and getting thrown into a pole and several people. It was mostly a historyc ball, if you could call it that. half the songs were Walz (the dance that killed my toes and caused collisions), and the other half were Hustle (some bizare mixture of swing, discofox, and latin overall quite fun if not danced with some creep.) In prep for the ball we had mastercalsses whcih lasted about 3 hours, so I eneded up dancing severall hours each day aside from the normal ballroom dancing I go to twice a week. And this coupled with going to the club on friday killed my knee.
What I learned from the ball: 1. walzing with a hurt knee is horrible. 2. Tylenol is awesome. 3. somewhat creepy guys tend to be really good dancers.
But in any case. Being at the ball(and binge watching star trek), brought one speciffic though to my mind. People back in the day may have had (atleast partially) the right idea. Maybe I'm just tired, but I do find myself frequently wishing myself back in the 19th century where all a girl had to do was do housework and look pretty (the second not even being so mandatory). Arragnged marriages, and simple art and housework classes. Think of how easy it would be. No worries about anything. I'd have all the time in the world to do what I want to instead of studying all the time. But unluckily that's not the world we live in today, and that's what must be done to have a decent life in the future. (meh. it's probably just the looming 20 talking... hrhrhr.) oh, well. now I have to worry about not getting thrown out of college once again... If i could only care more about this stuff it would be so much easier... *sigh*

So it Goes

First of all, I make no excuses for the tardines sof this post, as there can be none with me writing so terribly late.
I started writing this post at the end of last semester, so I'll leave you to read. I wasn't exactly happy at the time, and I’ve little desire to rewrite the account of those experiences... so here it is:

So, basically the most stressful few weeks of my life have finally come to a close. And it couldn't have been soon enough. You see everything started out just peachy, but then I failed the written math analysis exam, which isn't too great. However I studied, and somehow managed to convince the man who corrected my test to give me those two miserable points I needed to be allowed to take the oral exam, which I promptly failed. So basically epic failure right there; but that was just the beginning... the analytic geometry and linear algebra exam was next. Where, with my incredible luck I ended up with the same guy, my math lector, who failed me on my written exam. And the only reason that he ended up not failing me on this one, was because he thought that with two fails you are immediately kicked out, well lucky for me he found that out afterwards. "Oh. So I could have failed you," he said... peachy, just peachy. Well that all was great, and next was something that I thought that I actually knew: Chemistry. Well, it seems I was under an illusion there as well. I ended up with my seminar lady from the first semester, who, as soon as she walked into the door, caught me looking in a book (fyi: EVERYONE was cheating anyways, and I didn't even have enough time to look up what I needed, so another fail right there.) Well, after sitting around (and I mean that quite literally) for 2 whole hours she finally had mercy on me and began her torture procedures. And very rapidly my illusion that I knew Chemistry was quickly blown away as an unsuspecting lawn chair would be by a hurricane. In the end I managed to get my measly 3 (the not-quite-fail-grade) and I was off. But now the real tests began. The retakes, for us idiots who didn't manage to pass the first time around. But first of all let me explain how these finals work. You must pass every test. And you have a maximum of 3 retakes total (and theoretically no more than 2 in any one subject). If you fail more than that, well... you get kicked out. And that does not make for happy students. So woe
me, one of my not-so-dear-friends managed to persuade me to go try to pass in the first round. As I expected: I, again, failed miserably (later I found out that I actually got to an evil lady who hates all human kind and especially poor stupid students). Thus I went "slightly" deflated to my next retake. And curse my luck! I AGAIN got to my lector. Well... although he didn't want to... he gave me my thrice accursed three... and I was finished- mentally, emotionally, scholastically, and in every other possible way that one
can possibly imagine.

Thus ends the more depressing part of my tale. Now for some more fun stuff:

First of the summer: Soccer world cup. Drat the Spaniards! Curse their excellent trainer, and curse the German’s utter inability to play closed soccer. Their victories were splendid (loved the England game.) and their loss was tragic, though I must confess inevitable(no like we had the misfortune to see in 2006 with the Italians, the spaghetti-eaters). The Spaniards were far better. Though that does depress me somewhat…
Anywhoos. Some of you may have heard of the horrid smog (and unbearable heat) that we had in Moscow this summer. It was quite extraordinary. It seemed quite unnatural: Absolutely uniform. No wind at all, and everything was in a haze. You couldn’t even see, as one usually can, the speck of light that marks the position of the sun. you could hardly make out anything 100 meters ahead of you, only dim figures cloaked in shadows, hinting at the fact that if you keep walking straight ahead, you will walk into a wall. However, because of the heat (, and the fact that I’m not a fan of hot weather and sweating,) I went outside about 10-15 times all summer. And all (excluding two trips) were to get food at the market next door.
Now that I’ve made you interested in what those two trips were I’ll not tell you. Nah, I’m joking. The first is absolutely uninteresting: a haircut, which I’m quite happy with actually. I think I’ve taken a liking to professional hairdressers. And the second trip was a trip around the metro in Moscow. Now THAT is a sight one must see. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any place so richly decorated as the central stations. It absolutely dwarfs any of the castles I’ve seen in Germany, and exceeds any of the riches that I might have even imagined. And that is only what is left over from an underground station. This prompts the obvious question: how splendid and magnificent must the palaces have been. How Russia must have diminished the shine of Europe, had it not as always stuck up its high nose and pretended to see barbarians where honorable people stood. So yeah... that was a true eye-opener.

I’ll speak now of something more merry, namely merry making, aka: drinking. Let’s proceed in chronological order.

• Two nights before the chem exam was the first one. And excitingly I found alcohol to be quite a good solvent ;P of certain types of problems that is. I have an acquaintance who is not quite ‘indifferent’ towards me. And, who can resist a drunken girl, really. Well one of my other acquaintances obviously could not. Luckily he’s of the shy type, and I was not so drunk as to not be reasonable, though drunk enough to be all happy-like (turns out I’m a happy/quiet drunk, if I hadn’t mentioned it before). So basically: walking about with another guy quite disturbed the first one; Even so much that the next day he confronted me about whether I remembered anything, and upon my positive answer, grew quite furious with his friend temporarily, and quite cool towards me, which was a welcome change. And before the retakes the two of them had quite a bit of fun drawing on my legs, and seemed the best of friends. Hehe. On a side note: that day I learned that beer is perfectly dreadful even compared to vodka, and that Vermouth is quite yummy. The next morning, I felt perfectly fine.
• The next time, of course was when I’d already gotten back from the summer break. We decided to get our group together and finally try to socialize. To my greatest delight, the two boys who had up till then not ever said hello to me, came to the event. And I did enjoy myself. Since the two are great soccer fans, we brought a ball and played volleyball a great deal of the time, during which time the fire almost died several times. (and my legs were quite sore the net day) We made sausages on sticks, and when the sweet little boys left, we called our group’s alcoholic, who didn’t fail us. And I tried Gin for the first time - turns out its quite tasty, especially after the 4th cup, at which I lost count. I just continued drinking until all that was left was beer… in the end I was quite drunk, mumbled quite a lot, probably made many errors in my speech, but happily they did not laugh, and tolerated me. When we got back to the room, I lay down, saying that I’m not tired, and that I won’t sleep, and then I promptly fell asleep, waking up 4 hours later to change, and go back to sleep. When I woke up, I felt perfectly horrid. Worse than when I woke up in the bathroom on Halloween last year, and I still felt that I had alcohol in my system. After sitting around and breathing for n hour I finally was sick, after which I felt infinitely better and went to class. Now they say hello to me :)
• The next time was but two weeks after that. (Yes, it did make me feel like I was an alcoholic.) It was the consecration of the graduates into the brotherhood of university students (you may remember me speaking of the various fun group activities in the woods last year, with pushing people through the spider web and falling off a tree stump.) well this time I was one of the organizers. In the logistics department actually, we had a schedule for 5 groups, but we planned to split them into 6. So I had an hour to make a new schedule. However when I got there, the horrid idiots decided that they’d like to split into 7 groups after all, and I had to redo the schedule last minute. In the end the only problem was that we had to magically conjure up 4 extra places for the groups to have lunch but after that, all went well, and everyone was happy. Soon enough we again called our main alcoholic group mate and he brought alcohol. That day I learned that Vermouth tastes good only when you’re already drunk. The way back to the dorm was quite funny. The shy boy, I talked of earlier, lead drunk me, who led another even more drastically drunk acquaintance of mine (surprise surprise it turned out that he’s also a crush on me. I think there are very few other ways one might interpret the following actions: *kisses hand* “you are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen.”) Anyways… Later that evening the organizers were to get together and celebrate ourselves, and that we did well. That, naturally, cannot possibly be done without alcohol. And I tried wine for the first time. To my surprise, it was quite tasty, but that might be due to the fact that (out of my observations) alcohol seems to taste drastically better when you have reached a state of not being able to walk straight. Well, I quite enjoyed the wine as you might guess, and got quite more drunk than I already was. The evening ended rather quietly, and the next morning I felt absolutely fine.
• About a week ago, I smoked my first cigarette. I’ll say it’s not exactly something pleasant. The smoke tastes horribly (although they were supposedly cherry flavored.) and they do quite make my head spin so much that I lose the will to do anything, even stand up. None the less, yesterday I bought a pack, and I smoked my second one. I felt absolutely dreadful afterwards. As if I had pulled the spine out of a living kitten, and thrown its brilliant blue eyes into the mud and trampled on them. I intend to make use of them during my self-destructive moods. And I’ll limit myself to less than one a week a most. I’d hate to become an addict. I’d hate it so very much.
• And today I gave blood. It was actually quite a funny story. Turns out I’m AB+, but that’s not what I want to write about. I was sitting there, giving blood, trying not to cough, as I’m still a bit sick. And I see the giant guy to my right starting to nod, and his head slowly falling on my arm. He’d fainted. About a minute later the guy to my left was asked to count, soon started mumbling, and also fainted. Another few minutes a guy sitting at the far table fainted. Then I felt the plastic tube that was sticking out of my arm touch my hand. It was so warm. So very very warm - the perfect temperature. From then on I started feeling bit by bit sicker and sicker, and I felt the noises mute, and my head starting to spin. But at that moment I was finally done. The whole day my head’s been spinning, and I didn’t go to any of my classes. I’ll go to the first three tomorrow though; A lecture, then English and finally informatics (though I may skip that, if I feel too unwell.) I’m going home to Moscow tomorrow, and then returning the day after laden with food and other good and useful things.

So I’ll write to you soon (I expect after the next time I drink, which I expect to be not much later than Halloween. One of my group mates expressed the desire to drink ;))