So at the moment I seem to be thinking in lists: to do lists, visit lists, presentation lists, plan lists… Everything is coordinated into the different categories and into hierarchies. Therefore I apologise that my next blog is, you guessed it, also a list!
What follows are four things that still baffle me about my life here in Russia:
- The Dorm staff’s working hours: Where else is it the norm to go through the different dorm rooms at 9 pm on a Sunday night to do some maintenance work on the fridge, then knock at midnight, and be up and about again walking through the halls at six?
- Class schedule: Classes for Masters students have been primarily placed in the evenings or afternoons, to work around our ‘work commitments’. While good in theory, I don’t understand how it works in practice- evening lectures start at 6pm, so anyone actually working would still have to leave early, especially when taking the metro rush hour into consideration
- Parking: Honestly, just park anywhere. I mean, there’s space. Its totally legitimate.
- Telegrams: It wasn’t until I saw the proudly displayed telegrams from 2013 in university (celebrating the tenth anniversary of the institution) that I finally realised that the telegram office at the post is not disused. Telegrams remain a valid form of communication, apparently. Now I just really want to send one!
In exciting news, this weekend there is a festival of light across the city, and I have some very important visitors!
