As you can see, lately I can't be bothered to write. Anything. My workload has been reduced, but the the unpredictability of it is quite draining still. My boss tells me when I finish work on Friday to check the schedule (on the internet) before Monday. It's subject to change at any time. But on the whole I certainly have more free time. However, I use it differently than I did earlier.
Nowadays I'm more or less obsessed with history. I really enjoyed the one real history class that I took at college, but I didn't take it until my last semester so I had no opportunities to continue my study of the subject. Since then I've devoted a considerable amount of time to studying languages, and thus I have mostly felt obligated to devote the majority of my reading time to literature in a foreign language. In April of this year, though, I thought that I was going to go to Istanbul, and so I felt obligated to read up on the history of this city which looms so large in history. The book I read opened a whole world to me; perhaps it changed my life in a significant way.
So recently I've read a lot of history books, and I've also been playing a game which is kind of an alternative history game. Starting at any date in history between 1397 and 1820, you take control of any of the countries that existed during that time and alter its fate. You make your own goals to change the course of history--you could make Japan a colonial power, unite the entire Iberian peninsula in one country, keep the Byzantine empire from succumbing to the Ottoman Turks, or simply make your country of choice become an important trading hub. This is really interesting to me, and I tell stories to myself about it even outside the game, so perhaps that's satisfying my writing urges.
In (more) real life, I moved to a new flat, which for the most part has been a good thing. I've also been doing a lot more social activities. I went to a company picnic, bought some roller skates and have used them many times, visited some churches and parks in Moscow, and in general I take a lot of walks in the evening.
The weather here has been crazy. On May 7th it snowed a good bit. Five days later (I was still in my old flat at this time), the hot water was shut off. Apparently they do this every year in the summer, so I was sort of expecting it, but I was shocked that it would happen less than a week after a serious freeze. Also, this water isn't just cold--it's painful and numbingly icy, to the point where you can't keep your hands under it for more than ten seconds or so. I don't mind cool showers, but taking a shower in water of this temperature was nearly impossible. Basically I used the water that had warmed up a little from being closer to the tap, and then when it reached a stable temperature I turned it off. Fortunately it wasn't very hot that week, so I never became very sweaty.
Soon after I moved into my new flat, the temperature became extremely warm--in the nineties for most of one week. This was horrible on the train where there is almost no ventilation. Sometimes a young man will hold the doors of the train open--back to one door, foot pushing against the other door, and balancing on the other foot, with nothing to keep him from falling out except good balance. It's a remarkable sight which I'd like to take a picture of, but I feel very uncomfortable photographing strangers.
During this time I kept my window open like I did at the other flat, but this allowed mosquitoes to proliferate in my bedroom. After a few days my feet, arms, and even my face were covered with mosquito bites and I decided that I was more likely at this point to die of blood loss than of suffocation. So, I closed the window and went on a crusade against the mosquitoes, killing at least fifteen of them. It seemed strange to me that the mosquitoes were so bad, despite the fact that I was on the fourth floor of a flat in the center of a decent-sized city.
Shortly after that the weather became more temperate, and then the hot water was again turned off for a week. I figured that pretty soon I would become able to take only cold showers, and actually I did enjoy them somewhat. When you finish, everything feels like it has just come out of the dryer, so that's a plus.
Alright, I have two and a half weeks left in Russia, then I'm coming home for six weeks. My goal will be to write one more entry before I leave.
Nowadays I'm more or less obsessed with history. I really enjoyed the one real history class that I took at college, but I didn't take it until my last semester so I had no opportunities to continue my study of the subject. Since then I've devoted a considerable amount of time to studying languages, and thus I have mostly felt obligated to devote the majority of my reading time to literature in a foreign language. In April of this year, though, I thought that I was going to go to Istanbul, and so I felt obligated to read up on the history of this city which looms so large in history. The book I read opened a whole world to me; perhaps it changed my life in a significant way.
So recently I've read a lot of history books, and I've also been playing a game which is kind of an alternative history game. Starting at any date in history between 1397 and 1820, you take control of any of the countries that existed during that time and alter its fate. You make your own goals to change the course of history--you could make Japan a colonial power, unite the entire Iberian peninsula in one country, keep the Byzantine empire from succumbing to the Ottoman Turks, or simply make your country of choice become an important trading hub. This is really interesting to me, and I tell stories to myself about it even outside the game, so perhaps that's satisfying my writing urges.
In (more) real life, I moved to a new flat, which for the most part has been a good thing. I've also been doing a lot more social activities. I went to a company picnic, bought some roller skates and have used them many times, visited some churches and parks in Moscow, and in general I take a lot of walks in the evening.
The weather here has been crazy. On May 7th it snowed a good bit. Five days later (I was still in my old flat at this time), the hot water was shut off. Apparently they do this every year in the summer, so I was sort of expecting it, but I was shocked that it would happen less than a week after a serious freeze. Also, this water isn't just cold--it's painful and numbingly icy, to the point where you can't keep your hands under it for more than ten seconds or so. I don't mind cool showers, but taking a shower in water of this temperature was nearly impossible. Basically I used the water that had warmed up a little from being closer to the tap, and then when it reached a stable temperature I turned it off. Fortunately it wasn't very hot that week, so I never became very sweaty.
Soon after I moved into my new flat, the temperature became extremely warm--in the nineties for most of one week. This was horrible on the train where there is almost no ventilation. Sometimes a young man will hold the doors of the train open--back to one door, foot pushing against the other door, and balancing on the other foot, with nothing to keep him from falling out except good balance. It's a remarkable sight which I'd like to take a picture of, but I feel very uncomfortable photographing strangers.
During this time I kept my window open like I did at the other flat, but this allowed mosquitoes to proliferate in my bedroom. After a few days my feet, arms, and even my face were covered with mosquito bites and I decided that I was more likely at this point to die of blood loss than of suffocation. So, I closed the window and went on a crusade against the mosquitoes, killing at least fifteen of them. It seemed strange to me that the mosquitoes were so bad, despite the fact that I was on the fourth floor of a flat in the center of a decent-sized city.
Shortly after that the weather became more temperate, and then the hot water was again turned off for a week. I figured that pretty soon I would become able to take only cold showers, and actually I did enjoy them somewhat. When you finish, everything feels like it has just come out of the dryer, so that's a plus.
Alright, I have two and a half weeks left in Russia, then I'm coming home for six weeks. My goal will be to write one more entry before I leave.
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