I tossed and turned most of the night, as a result of jet lag. Awoke bright and early to do more paperwork. Because of the very official and beaurocratic nature of everything in this country, everything has to be signed, filled out in duplicate, returned, lost, and re-found to make it legal. It's like dealing with freakin' Vogons.
Chris met Marina at the wrong place, and we had to hunt him down. As a result, we got to eat a delicious meat pie (pasty-esque) from a kiosk while everyone else was having lunch, as we had to figure out what the hell was going on with out passport info. After everyone was corralled, we took a bus to the facultet. Bus stop=5-10 minute walk, plus a 5-10 minute bus ride. Marina says its a 15-20 minute walk to the facultet. I think she lies.
We had to go, 4 at a time (there were 10 of us) to fill out paperwork for passport control. Fun. Keep in mind Russian buildings are approx. 90 degrees inside, with no waterfountains, and no chairs hanging out around the hallways for comfort. So we did this... Chris, naturally, had forgotten his migration card, and hadn't taken any pictures, and had to return to the main building. P.S. If you study here, don't ever leave anything anywhere!
Upon returning, we all walked to the nearest metro stop... not super far. Marina did her best to explain how the system works. Its the world's most efficient metro, and I assume we'll need to make our own damn mistakes. Trial and error.
So, we walked from there to a mall. At the back of the mall was a grocery store... Ashan. I wanted to buy just toilet paper, but every single one of us ended up buying vodka. Its scary cheap here. I bought some top-shelf stuff for 300 p. Hell, Stoli was about the same price!
Alas, we all had these groceries we needed to carry home, and went outside to discover a full-blown snow storm. Ok, it might not have been a storm, per se. But it was snowing hella hard. And I could barely see in front of me. LOOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGG walk home.
So, we get home eventually. I open up my outside window, but my vodka, juice, blini (with cheese and ham), and hummus (only 19p!) on the windowsill. Then we all went to supper in the cantina. Which is a bitch not being able to ask what I'm eating. I eventually ate some mystery poultry ball, and potato salad, with чай. I swear, tea and the lack of ice my help me break my cola addicition. After fighting with my internet for about an hour, I gave up and went to the cafe, where I continued to fight with the stupid internet, but got it up long enough to get on facebook...
After this, two of the men in the group, Spencer (from Oregon, studies in PA) and Dan (a Pi Kapp from Virginia)wanted to go take pictures, and I went with them. We went up to their room to see if my camera would charge on his charging pad, but, no luck. We decided to just chill and drink. Dan and I managed to kill a bottle of vodka by ourselves. Concidering that 5 packs of cigarettes are about $8, and booze is so cheap, this country might be the death of me. I don't even smoke, but I might take it up, just so I have a small fire to huddle around.
I walked back to my room at about midnight, only to discover that the hallway connecting the side entrance (by their dorm) to my hall was locked up. I grabbed Spencer, who was still mildly sober, and we travelled 3/4 the way around the building until we found the back entrance by my room. So, I scooped more snow on my delicacies, and took a blini out to defrost on my radiator. Alas, I must leave you... Russian language test at 11am, and I need sleep!
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