The Gastinets'ya/Dorm/Hotel/...

A long and complicated stream of events (none of which are bad - or really of note) led me to sleep in the gastinets'ya (aka: the dorm, the hotel, the soviet style building in the middle of nowhere that is falling down/apart both inside and out). I was planning this, and so had brought toothbrush, change of clothes, even breakfast.

White Nights lead us (Melissa and this other dude Kyle and me) up talking until about 4:30. We saw the sun "set" and "rise" again (in the span of about 30 minutes...). It was the easiest "all nighter" I've ever pulled. Around the witching hour, I curled up in the enormously uncomfortable bed (Praise be my host family!) and fell asleep. I was woken at 9am by a woman, dressed in janitorial clothes entering my room. No knock. Just door opening. I was like (in half-asleep Russian - which must be particularly unintelligible), "Dude - who are you?" She had come in to check out the broken window (through a long and complicated stream of events none of note two nights prior, the window above my temporary bed had been shattered). Seeing that I was asleep, she continued prodding me, "what was the guy's name (who broke the window)?" "What room does he live in?" etc. etc. etc. Though I had heard this long and complicated story, I had forgotten (or was never told) his name/room - and told the woman accordingly. (Remember all this while, I'm curled in bed - clearly was sleeping - and only thinking, "can you come back when I've woken up a bit? Why are we having this 10 minute discussion now?" She prodded around my (temporary) bed. She made me get out of it and move it into the center of the room so that she could inspect the window more easily (I'm meanwhile in my night clothes and on 4.5 hours of sleep.

The end result was that this extended commotion woke me up permanently and I'm now sitting in the lobby of said hotel/dorm/building that's falling apart waiting for the rest of the world to wake up. I did make some instant kashi though. Yeah for breakfast. Ah Russia.

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Today's the last weekend day in St. Pete. I've got exams on Tuesday/Wednesday - and I'm trying to convince myself that I should study at least a little bit for them. I love the feeling of being a bad student. I'll get it all out of my system now.

So what, you ask, am I doing on my last free day in St. Pete? Helping the other homestay student (remember, there's only 2 of us), move into the hotel/dorm/building that's falling apart. Apparently, here Russian mom has gone off the deep end and has become unbearable to live with. Scolding, yelling, being unreasonable etc. etc. etc. To want to move in to this place - especially with only 4 days left, things must be bad. But I offered to help, cause I know what it's like to be living in unbearable places (think France - 1st month...). So then I'll be the only one in a family. And you couldn't pay me to live in this dorm/hotel/building that's falling apart. I guess that worked out well.

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to be continued...