A few difficulties

I haven't actually written anything in a couple of weeks; I've been too busy. But a few things have happened recently.

First, I thought I'd mention the state of the train transportation. I use the train twice a week to go to Butovo, a suburb of Moscow. It takes nearly 30 minutes for me to walk to the station, and then after getting on the train it takes about twenty minutes to get to Butovo. From there I have to take a bus, so it's quite a commute--about 70 minutes if the transportation timing is good. The train is super cheap here--to go to Butovo and back it costs one dollar. But the problem with the train is that when it's crowded, it's ridiculous. Tonight I was packed into the train car's entrance, completely unable to move because of all the people. It's an unreal experience that I'd probably have to take a picture of to convey the full effect. I couldn't believe that I managed to do it. If the temperature were much higher I would probably have had some kind of a breakdown.

Also in exciting news, I noticed this morning when I took the trash out that there were apple cores littered around the trash can (under the sink). I was annoyed with myself for being so careless, but I didn't want to take the time to clean them up. Then tonight I noticed that a piece of bread I had thrown away this morning had a nice half-dollar size hole in the middle. It definitely wasn't there this morning. This, I concluded with the other evidence, meant that I must have some kind of pest living with me.

I had heard scratching and scrambling a few nights ago and my near-asleep state went directly into panic mode for a couple of minutes. I consoled myself by thinking that with all the stray cats around (generally at least ten somewhere around the front of the apartment building) there wasn't much chance that there would be any rodents. I guess I was wrong. By the way, my greatest fear is probably rats. I was originally traumatized by Lady and the Tramp and then the fear was reinforced by the novel 1984. I'm okay with them in a container or on the street if I can see them and they're not very close, but knowing or thinking that a rat might be around without being able to see it is just about the scariest thing I can imagine. Even in video games I get really tense about this (see Elder Scrolls series).

As far as I know the whatever-it-is (I'm hoping that it's a cute little mouse, since I've not actually seen it yet) hasn't left its home under the sink. I don't remember ever finding the cabinet open, and I've left food open and out in the kitchen for several days without noticing any foul play. Even so, I'm sleeping with both the kitchen door and the bedroom door closed tonight. Normally I don't bother with these doors because they're both folding and a bit of a pain to close. Actually the kitchen door isn't difficult to close--it seems to be relatively new. The bedroom door, however, is probably the original from before the apartment was renovated, as it can barely move at all, and when I do manage to stretch it across the door frame it has difficulty actually latching shut. These doors are really something else and I don't know of anything like them in America--I'll have to put up a picture sometime.

The work load for this week is intense, and I'm basically working every day from today until next Friday, maybe Saturday. So I shouldn't have written this really, but oh well.