What's going on

Here I try to write a summary of what's happening in English. This is just a test for now, although more will appear.

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Right. It's the late evening of June 29th and I'm leaving tomorrow. It's hard to put in a few words the great time I've had here, so I'll try it some other time.

I've made friends here, some of who I think are for life, and I couldn't be happier about it. I've been thinking about friends: what it takes for one person to become your close friend and for another, who seems to be just as interesting, to stay a half stranger who you say hi to on the street but don't stop for a chat. Often it seems like it's just a matter of coincidence. I met my best friends here in Moscow through my roommate, who could have been a crazy and weird girl, but turned out to be a great person. She had met them by accident and ended up spending time with them. I got my own slot and we had a blast.

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It's March 24 today. I feel silly for promising to update, but apparently telling the same stuff twice and switching the language in the process has been too much for me. Well, the situation now is that I'm enjoying my student life in Moscow, but I haven't really been able to live any cultural life yet. I have a feeling it will be corrected once the weather is more consistently people-friendly. Just yesterday we had snow, and today also. I am so looking forward to April.

I have been studying more than in almost a year. It's not good, being lazy makes it so much more difficult to get a grip again. This week, though, I've made a conscious effort to get that grip, and I have a feeling it's begun to be successful. I just don't understand the people who are on the go from dawn to dusk and don't need every other day off to restore their powers. Or maybe I'm just underexerting myself.

I'm looking forward to seeing some familiar faces here in a few weeks! Or actually more like exactly in one month.

Although I have only slowly recovered from the initial shock of having to get up (!) in the mornings (when I admit that, I feel so disrespectful to people who have a regular schedule), I have made progress in quite an important skill: I'm now able to fall asleep in 20 minutes with karaoke blasting four floors beneath me. It feels like it's right below me, and if I'm really lucky, I can feel the drums resonate on my floor. So great, and such good lullabies they make.

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Feb 7th: I'm in Moscow now! I arrived here yesterday after quite an interesting trip. First I missed my train in Helsinki, because I remembered the departure time wrong. It had changed in December: now it's half an hour earlier than before. Well, I wasn't very happy about my hundred euros, but fortunately I realized I will be able to use the ticket again within 2 months.

The plan B was to try one of the minibuses running daily between Helsinki and St. Petersburg. It's clear that if there are few Finnish people in Tolstoi-train (the one from Hki to Moscow), there are even fewer in the buses. The trip was fine. We left Helsinki at 8 pm, picked up a lady in Vantaa, then were at the border at 11 pm Finnish time. Border "officialities" took an hour when the officers dug through one guy's bags. Eventually we were in St. Pete at 4.30 in the morning. Several people were taken straight to their doors on Vasili island, and I hopped off at Plostsad Vosstanya, square of rebellion, where Vova the driver finished his round. It was about time for him to get some rest, because he had been 36 hours behind the wheel... I'm glad I only heard this in St. Pete. Moscow train station was on the same square, which I didn't remember beforehand, but which made me happy.

My train left about two hours later. It was one of these high-class business trains. It took about three and half hours with no stops between the cities. This was the easy part. I had no map of Moscow with me. There was nobody meeting me, because I couldn't let the university know my exact arrival time. I was tired after having only a few hours of broken sleep in the bus and train. So, I did what every reasonable traveller would: headed for the metro entrance.

I just remembered the station Park kultury would be the closest to the dormitory. I didn't come the straightest way, and found out that the Ring line station of Park kultury was closed. I had no idea that the other Park kultury station would be open, so I took a little walk with my now extremely heavy-feeling luggage. I was so happy I hadn't packed my big suitcase full, and instead had taken a small one. Of course the pulling handle broke already in Helsinki, but I had a belt and it worked too.

I reached the dorms. I was dead. I got the key and now live on 5th floor with another Finnish girl. There's also a Korean girl living in the single room, but I haven't seen her yet. I suppose she studies a lot.

So, now off to get my propusk (dorm card) and to go to university. Moscow is big.