drama 101

So…. I've had a piece of juicy gossip (local of course) that I've been wanting to tell peoples about: namely: THERE IS DRAMA!!! And lots of it, some of the elements of it include: plates attacking people, little girls running amok, large crocodile tears, and a divorce. [Madness? This is SPARTAAAAA!!!!!] <------ written by random acquaintance next to me ;P (tell you more later. Tee hee.) MUAHAHAHA…….

Anyways, after that little interruption I'll actually begin with the story. I forget whether I wrote about them before or not, so I'll just start from scratch:
We're 4 girls in our group, and the three others live together in a single room, since they met before the semester began, since they're all from Ukraine. (actually almost everyone in our group is from the ukraine with the exception of me 2 other guys from moscow, one from hell knows where in siberia with whom I've yet to speak a word, another one who I've no idea where he's from, and one more that we call biscuit from Tula (translated of course)). Anyways I digress. So basically from the very beginning I was cautious of one of the girls. She isn't precisely the most pleasant of people and has a habit of not only antagonizing everyone she meets, but also of making extremely poisonous indirect insults that just make you want to use a boa constrictor to lasso her. The second girl who lives in the room is a very timid, quiet girl upon first impression, and a very nice and helpful one at that, though a bit to insecure for my comfort (that and her tendency of looking at everyone like a drenched kitten kind of bring out my protective instincts, coupled with a mild feeling of disgust) anyways. Basically those are the two who are at most odds with each other. The third girl is probably as normal as anyone gets around here, other than the fact that she likes tying stuff around her neck (as of now I've seen various belts and the power chord of a water heater.) But she's very fun and also very helpful, and very nice. Basically the only decently tolerable girl I know here (other than my marvelous room mates of course, but I rarely ever talk with them, which makes them so awesome for an antisocial person like me :D .)

[for the purpose of convenience I'll call girl one CB(House MD reference here, for all those who are privileged enough to know what I'm talking about. And yes. She really is one!)
Girl two will be Kitty, and girl 3 can be Three (yes, I'm taking the easy way out, just like with thirteen)]

So yeah. There'd been drama before in that room, but it had never been anything too major, this time though CB, being what she is, freaked and loaded all the food and dirty dishes out onto Kitty's bed, where it spend a whole day and night. Well Kitty and Three didn't do much about it, other than let their opinion of CB worsen even beyond the limit of being bad. But a few days later she made another one of her vile little comments in the direction of whose bed she'll pile dirty dishes and food on next, and Three did not stay silent. An altercation ensued, and ended with three crying and running to Kitty for consolation, who being a predator went wet towel in hand to CB and gave her a very mild whooping (considering Kitty is about half the size of CB, it must have been a very entertaining sight) the electrics ho were working in the hallways all saw that, and who knows what went through their minds. Anyways. Later that night there was a little accident involving plates falling on CB's head wit some assistance of Kitty's (that was really an accident we're really not that insane as to throw glass objects at each other… at least for now… ;P)and CB now is rather intimidated by little Kitty. Monkey? Funny word…. I think, monkeys can't climb using their tails. They have some fingers on their paws. Hello!!! I'm mad girl))) bugaga….. And I find it highly amusing. A few days later they finally talked and decided to divorce each other as roommates (like you divorce a lab partner, you know the deal. It's a messy business as you might know.) now they don’t talk to each other anymore and it's a very funny situation whenever I go to visit them. As I have no quarrels with any of them I'll talk to them all, yet Kitty and Three refuse to communicate with CB and she with them. Though, surprisingly, I have marked that she's been trying to be nicer to me recently, which I'm attributing to the fact that she wants to have at least one person in the group who doesn’t hat her guts, which I'm willing to be. I've no intentions of wasting my time with these things. So yeah.

(donkeys are fun, too. They have 4 legs, one fuzzy tail, and they cry "eaaaw….". Donkey is a "oslek" in russian. Or "Ishak". They are used instead of horses and bulls. But they are so weak, and I'm very touched when I see them. They are so sweet….. )

Ok… now to explain the random animal things… THANT WAS NOT ME! There's a crazy dude next to me periodically taking over my computer, and writing random shit. So don’t blame me for it. (though I'd not mind as much if it was about llamas, but that's another matter.) anyways. Toodles!!

Love you all

silent joy

Furniture to be moved and failure to be dreaded. But that's not what I'll be talking about this time. It's something far smaller and yet far larger: Human emotions.
This happened on Friday:
I was in comp sci class, but I forgot my memory stick so I went back to the dorm to get it, which took me somewhere in the vicinity of 20 minutes. When I returned some more people from my group had shown up for class including Anton. (I'd call him a friend but it's far to early to go haphazardly declaring friendships with random (or not so random) people, but we're well under way in that direction., anyways...) when I entered the room his face lit up. though I'm not very pleased about the implications of such a reaction, it was a marvelous change. You often see this referenced in books, when someone beholds a long missed face. and I, personally, have never given much thought to it I imagined nothing major, a pleasant smile at most, a friendly exclamation. Yet it's so much more. It's a display of genuine gladness, stronger precisely because of its wordless nature. It's impossible not to respond in a like fashion to something like that and it's impossible to mistake it for anything other than what it is.

I wish all of you will see such a sight in your life. It's warm.

more party stories and then some

ok well before i get to the good part i want to say one thing: i'm sad. i'm sad that there haven't been any comments on the past few posts. i know you don't always feel like you have something to say about the topic, or you may feel like no one cares about your opinion. but that's NOT true. even if it's some incoherent rambling, something completely unrelated, a thought on the topic, a "hey, i take some time to bother reading this, and i want to let you know that i would enjoy reading about more crazy stories from you." or anything for that matter would do so much to keep me motivated about writing. at this point i'm starting to feel like i've an empty audience and it does get a bit frustrating if ou spent an hour typing up something you though was awesome, and then you get nothing in return. so please, guys. comment. it means a lot to me. i'f doing this to keep in touch with you people after all, and, i'd really like it if it wasn't just a one way conversation of me rambling on into the void of cyberspace deprived even of a hollow echo of the same words i shout out.

so. now on to happier and absurder things, though i'll try to keep it shorter than i otherwise would:

this is about what happened on november 6th: the official entering of me into studenthood.
it started with a lecture on something like biology and medicine and physics, which i really don't remember since the lector was really bad at giving presentations and all he did was sit there and read off his sheet. so i just slept through the whole things, much to the amusement of my group mates. than lecture concluded the official part of the evening. and thus we moved on to the semi-official part. which began with assembling in the up stairs foyer of the main building, and getting a very humorous presentation including video, music, sketches, and (oh dear god no!) cheerleaders on the horrors of what is to await us. it included several implications of improper conduct between professors and female students, the female staff and male students, and other fun fun fun things. of course crazy drunk professors, slackers, and video and photos from the other faculty event were included. but anyways. after that presentation it was time to hand out the main point of the whole drama: the booklet that would hold all final exam results from now on till i trade that in for for my diploma, which obviously is a pretty big deal. the ceremonious presentation of the documents was conducted thus: we were called up in your groups, and then individually. the dean (and i emphasize: the DEAN!) fed us bad champaigne from a ladle (YES!!!! and most people were underage even by russian standards.), then we shook hands, he gave us the booklet, and sent us to get our t-shirts. afterwards we got cake and champaigne to be drank from a hollow coconut with a lole in it. and it was great.
but that was not all for the midly illegal activity that passed that evening.
we got to enjoy the splendour of a fire show (which happened after an epic snow ball battle against guys from another college at the insitute, which we epically won in a glorious spartan-like domination match. now back to the fireshow): it was basically a bunch of half-naked dudes swinging burning objects around their bodies in below freezing temperatures. it was sweet. really really sweet.
but that's not all: then followed the even less official part: dico time! it appears that one of the dorms had a night club full equipped with bar, dj, mirrored ceiling, lazor light effects and a smoke mashine (it's pretty intense for a student kept hole.) but yeah the rest of the evening (till 12 am) was then spent dancing the night anaw in any fashion as you might choose. the funniest thing that happened was this: a slow dance was just starting up, and i grabbed one of the irls i know to try to meke her follow some decent leads, but as with all other slow dances a guy had apparently se his sights on me, and he kneeled before me and beged me to dance with him. how could i say no to that? turned out, he was prolly the only other person in the room who even had the remotest thing that could qualify as leading ability, and itturned out to be quite fun. of course we also were given free beer there but after the haloween incident, i was under no desire to get drunk in the least, so i never got any, and contented myself with juice.
but yeah, that was still not the end of that: since we're all so awesome, we didn't feel like finishing up, and a bunch of us gathered together and we went outside walking and ended up building a snowMAN (it had an ass, and other parts, courtesy of one of my groupmates. yeah he's a pervert. i know.) and we stayed out till somewhere around 2 am, at which point we all happilu retreated to our warm beds.

as for plans for the next party: it's tomorrow. i'm hoping for awesomeness, since it'll be the closest i've had to a birthday party in years. so yeah. damn. i'm old... but yeah.

that's about all i have to report for now, but i assume that'll change very soon.

now that it's midnight i'm gonna go work on my physics lab, so people's please. be awae of this:
i pay the ultimate price to blog: sleep. so please: comment

3 physics labs and sore throat

omg! I fucking HATE Backstreet boys, Pink and FuCkInG hIgH sChOoL mUsIcAl In StInKiNg RuSsIaN!!!! Yeah, mu room mates listen to that stuf... and i have 3 frigging physics labs to do by tomorrow morning, and it's already half past midnight. haven't finished the first one yet. GAH I'll break someone's bone3s if the bad music continues... WHERE'S MY SHURINKEN!?!? DAmn. it's in moscow... consider yourself lucky my pawn, you shall live another day.

ps: once i sleep, i actually have somethign interesting to tell you guys about. does it involve fire, dance, alcohol, and activities of questionable legality? Yes. Yes. Yes. And YES! and much more besides. look forward to it :D

On this the night of Hollow's Eve

A hellish week has come to a very noisy and partially unpleasant end. I guess it started a little over a week ago, on Sunday when I absolutely and utterly failed my physics test. That evening in the shower I finally understood who it is that I don't understand physics here. Turns out it's a simple matter of teaching, that goes in reverse here. In America the throw formulas into your face and you have to figure out what they are about, and why and etc. here they tell you about the why and so on, and the formulas are then introduced as a matematization of previous explained concept. The result: an illusion of understanding the material while in reality nothing is clearly grasped. And that, of course, I found out AFTER I failed. Yet never fear, the next failure is sure to come soon. And sure as a computer controlled missile it came all too soon. I failed a math test, and consequently understood m second problem: I can't talk like an intelligent human being. Thus, with my second failure accomplished I looked to bright and happier things, namely Halloween. Yes. A fun night it was, or at least the part I can remember was entertaining. Yes you read correctly: the part I remember. You see, Russians drink. A lot. And considering that I count myself reasonable, I have taken to drinking on special occasions (unlike some people I know, who do it without any reason whatsoever, which results in running around the dorm half naked, breaking into a girls' room and smashing a glass bottle into tiny little pieces.) Well, anyways. 'Twas a glorious night, with pained faces absolutely absurd costumes made from blankets, trash bags, paper cups and lab coats worn like straightjackets. And all was well, we four girls split a bar of chocolate and 4 bottles of champagne, and they guys went for vodka (of course) and aside from a few flying apples, no harm was done. Then we decided to go to the graveyard…

we girls went on ahead, thinking that the guys would follow (of course, what else can they possibly do) but it turned out that they went to buy more drink, and for the heck of it one of the others ordered another bottle of champagne. while we were waiting for them to catch up, the fuzz cleared completely, and all was wonderful, however the one who had wanted the champaigne, left. thus pnce all were reunited it fell onto the other two of us to drain the monster. 'twas all great and fun, up until the point i can remember. (yes, you got that right...)

i don't have any recollection of the second half of the way back (they had to support me i heard), and i''ve no memor of returning to the room. they say i'm a very quiet drunk, which i guess is rather convenient in a way. since the alternatives would certainly result in amy man obsceneties. in any case, i woke up curled up in the bathroom sometime between 4 and 6 am, and after an unpleasant rondevous with the toilet, managed to change and climb into my bed (i sleep on top in a very shaky bunk bed, and according to my roommate who sleeps below me, i managed to do so mic more quietly and gently than i usually do, which i find very amusing.)

the next morning wasn't very fun either. i didn't exactly feel my very best, but after another round of staring into the toilet, i felt moderately adequate. the funny part: my mom was visiting me that morniing. of course, i never said anyhting, but i would be a fool to presume that she didn't have a prettty good idea of what was going on. i was acting too odd. but in ay case all is well now.


and that was only halloween, and only a few people from our group were partying. this friday, everyone will be doing this. ad it shall be entertaining. however i have no intentions of drinking that much ever again. that horrid morning-after feeling is not something anyone should ever aspire to.


------~~~------


now to some happier things:

i've no idea howcome, but miraculously m internet started working again. which is EPIC!!! and also my mom plans to go to SC next summer, and thus there is a faril decent chance of me comming to visit too!!!! soooo.... keep in touch! i may still come to haunt you yet :D


i love you all <3

a few words on common courtesy

You know those age old movies with women with big hair in pretty dresses, classical music, gentlemen, and sexist pigs, right? So. The whole idea about women having to be treated specially may not exactly be very common in the US (equality of the sexes, right?) but in Russia it's here, it's there it's everywhere. And driven to a point where it feels ridiculous. I have no issue when old men with giant mustaches and fancy hats behave according to those antique standards, but 17 year olds? Really… that's too much. Some of the stuff that's happened in the short time I've been here:

1. Women are always let though any door first. Anytime. Anywhere.
2. When standing in a group and there are seats. Women get the seats before men.
3. If there is a bag(of any weight) (or anything else weighing more than 500g, for that matter) the man must carry it.
4. When walking together (esp. if the couple is 'involved') the woman must be to the man's right.
5. When it's raining, the man holds the umbrella, and must make sure that the girl doesn't get rained on.
6. If any other unfavorable circumstances exist the man must take the woman home.

But yeah it's not that I mind people being nice, or having been taken home under an umbrella because I forgot mine, no it's great. But these are things that shouldn't happen because women are 'fragile,' but because women are human beings too. No other reason should be necessary.
And as for carrying a bag that contains 2L of milk because I'm a girl and therefore weak, well that's just plain stupid. If it really does look heavy, the sure, let's split the load, but if it's a pathetic 2 milk cartons worth of mass, then that's just laughable. (and yes, that actually did happen. And the only reason why I didn't tell the guy off was because I still lack the vocabulary to properly bash this absurdity.)

So yeah, being nice is great, but being nice because of genitals is just bla.

fwooosh

I love my little moments of revelation. Out of thin air, the answer to some unformed question, that had been troubling in the back of my mind simply materializes, and I understand both the origin of the question, the complete answer, and all past actions that had been based on that fact, thou I hadn't been aware of it at the time. But it is also in those moments when I can clearly see my life for what it is. And more often than not, during that moment of clearness, the primary question that screams out to my consciousness is: What are you doing all of this for? Is this really what you wanted? And more often than not the nagging answer that slowly but surely comes right after: Because that's what I do. I survive. No other reason. But soon enough my self preservation instinct kicks in, and conjures up the usual foggy mass that hides these things from view, so I can live somehow.
In the past few weeks I've realized that, although I can see so much clearer through people, I don't feel like myself. It's almost like an outer body experience, where the real me is watching this movie play out from a comfy couch with a bag of chips.
But the most odd thing is that. I don't actually feel any different than from when I was in SC. No different at all, which makes me wonder what human existence is like. Last week I read a book about how the brain works, and about all the chemical things and whatnot going on in there. And the general message of the book was this: "All feelings and memories are simply highly sophisticated bio-chemical processes in your brain, but that doesn't make them any less real." Maybe that has given me this sense of flatness in my life, or maybe it's just the lack of actual friends here, the lack of human closeness that's getting to me. It's odd, but I kind of feel like I'm playing a game, and watching the events unfold in real time, but they don't have any actual relation to my true life outside of it. I also have this very weird sense of timelessness: it's like I've always been here somehow, here in this spot, this moment in time, and everything else had been just a colorful fantasy. The more often I see someone the more I'm convinced that I've known these people before I met them. But at the same time they're all strangers to me, all unknown placeholders walking around me, having nothing to do with me other than taking up a certain volume of space.
It's rather surreal here. I can't really describe the way I fell about this whole affair in words. I'd need to send out a telepathic stream of consciousness composed of colors, sensations, and impressions.

PS: The sun is indecently blue here. It's beautiful.