trying to go to class

In Russia, classes take you. They weren't kidding.

Yesterday (Tuesday) I had a meeting with some kind of astrophysics professor to discuss research options. Once I finally found Irina at a cold bus stop an hour after we were originally going to meet, we walked over to the Institute of Mechanics. The professor we met with spoke enough English that we could communicate, and he told me that I could work with him to model accretion disks on neutron stars. He showed me an intresting (but very theoretical and math-based) paper and asked me about my interests. So I told him I leaned more toward the experimental side of things, and I didn't know what kind of opportunities there were in Moscow for observational astronomy, but his project sounded somewhat interesting, because accretion disks are cool. (I did this using a very limited vocabulary, hand gestures, and a few random Russian words just for kicks.) Upshot: he's going to contact some of his colleagues at the Space Research Institute (go here if you're interested). So sometime next week I'll meet with someone from there, and he made it sound like I might be working for a PhD student, but that's fine by me so long as I get to do something interesting!!

In the middle of this adventure, Irina got a call from the Russian Studies Seminar professor informing her that he'd be late for the 3:30 class. So I had time to grab some food at the cafeteria (not particularly special) and met all the other US students in the classroom a bit after 4. (Russian Studies Seminar is the one class we all have to take.) The prof finally showed up, he was actually the same one who I'm taking Russian Language from, and we went through a powerpoint lecture of some basic information about Russia. Things like the flag, the big cities, the population, the holidays. He told us there will be a test at the beginning of each week's class covering the previous week's material...lovely. So it wasn't stellar but it wasn't bad either, and I will definitely learn stuff in that class since I know next to nothing about Russia!

That class was supposed to get over at 5:30 but it ran until nearly 6 since it started so late. Then we had to wait around for textbooks, it was rush hour so the bus was ridiculously slow, we decided to get some pasta and chicken and cook dinner as a group, and we didn't get back to the dorm until after 8. At this point I made a miraculous discovery: THEY FINISHED INSTALLING INTERNET!! Thankfully I had the good sense to go pay for service yesterday since I had a feeling they would finish installation. I paid 640 rubles for 5GB of download (I think, it was kinda vague) through the end of the month. So, hopefully I won't use all that up. :)

Anyway, we cooked dinner and ate in the girls' room up on the 17th floor, and soon it turned into a bit of a drinking party because you can get $2 vodka and one of the guys had a mini-keg. And maybe I'm just a vodka snob, but I'm sorry that $2 stuff is TERRIBLE. Plus this being Russia, the shotglasses were plastic and disposable and probably held 3 ounces.

Then a bit before midnight, David got a text message saying that the Politology class had been rescheduled and was meeting at 9am tomorrow. Great. I was planning on talking to Mike in the morning around 8 for a good hour and then sleeping in...so much for that plan. Got up at 7 and made it to the bus stop around 8:30 and happened to get on the Bus From Hell that decided to make everyone get off just after the university metro stop. So I had to wait for ANOTHER bus, and by now it was 9:15. I've figured out that I need to allow an hour to get to class, which kinda sucks. When I showed up around 9:30 I thought I'd find class in session and be the awkward one out for walking in late. I climbed the stairs up to the fifth floor, turned the corner, and found...the other three students sitting in the hallway. Not 10 seconds later, they all got text messages from Irina saying class was cancelled. What The Heck.

So, that is my story. Don't know what else I'll be doing today, I may go on an adventure to a post office (though I'm beginning to doubt such things exist) but I'm afraid to wander too far lest Irina text me saying I need to go somewhere. Tomorrow I have Thermal Physics at 10am and Russian Language at 3pm, so at least that'll keep me busy. And if Politology really did move to Wednesday, that means I have no class on Friday, which is both nice and weird.

Overall, I just want to immerse myself in classes and research and music and sometimes it feels like all I'm getting is typical American college parties - complete with drama - and standing around in the cold waiting for nothing to happen. Logistic frustrations aside, I'm really doing pretty well. I tend to oscillate between feeling completely out of place and relatively comfortable. Now that I have internet I feel a bit more connected to the world. But it's only been one week. I'm sure as soon as I'm really settled it'll be time to move to the new dorm. Then again, I signed up for an adventure, didn't I? There'll be plenty of academic stress back at Mudd senior year. My horoscope for today put it well: "even if you can't change the world, you can change your attitude." That's becoming my motto.

Oh yeah - and happy valentine's day! It's a bit refreshing to be somewhere where valentine's day isn't a big thing. I bought myself a dark chocolate bar yesterday, and it's pretty tasty. That's all for now.