Rain!

Last night we were treated to a lovely thunder and lightning storm, from about eleven on. It started with big rolling crashes, and then proceeded to pour water in sheets, and then came the lightning. It wasn't a terribly active storm, with a flash and a boom every few minutes, but the clouds were low and even, and the lightning terribly bright, so that when it flashed- even if you couldn't see the actual bolt- the whole sky lit up a milky silver color and seemed to glow for a second before it faded. I turned out the lights, opened the window all the way and sat on the windowsill with my stuffed octopus, just breathing the clean rain-smelling air and watching the sky flash. The thunder was so loud that the whole building vibrated every time it struck.

However, it slacked off enough in the wee hours that I could walk to school today without having to leap puddles. Win! Now it's fairly cool and sprinkly. The not leaping puddles is important, since when it's actively raining the puddles can be six or seven inches deep and several feet wide, and are especially bad at all crosswalks. Since there are often iron railings preventing crossing except at the crosswalk, that can be a problem. All the women in tiny high heels just sort of scamper, picking their way as best they can, and the young men hurdle the puddles. I've seen at least one suited businessman look at one of the worst puddles, steel himself, roll up his cuffs and just wade.

I generally try to jump, if I have to, but if you misjudge, this leaves you standing in the middle of a puddle, wet to the knees and feeling rather foolish.

Whenever it rains during the day, it seems, there's a car accident at the big intersection near my house. The first time, a bus and a car both tried to use the same turn lane, pinning the car against the curb. No one got hurt, but bummer. The second time, some poor schmuck in a little old sedan didn't see the giant hole in the road because it was full of water, and therefore asphalt-colored. An entire wheel sunk in the pothole, and the driver was still making phone calls when I went by, while four and a half lanes of traffic poured around him, honking.

When they finally patched the hole about a week later, they didn't close the road, either. They just put up some cones and started working, and everyone just had to figure out where to drive so as not to hit them. It was pretty interesting watching buses and cars merge, unmerge, and turn- four or five lanes, depending how you count them- while a bunch of unprotected road workrs just got on with their business in the middle of it all.


The city is full of ruined buildings. They're kind of surprising when you find them- the road goes house, house, house, house, rubble, house, house, house... At least part of this is because of the problem with house fires here, and at least part of that is because of arson by greedy developers, it's rumored. It's also interesting to see what becomes of the lots, too. Some abandoned buildings just crumble in state, some descend into a jungle of stinging nettle, trees and grass, and others become garbage dumps. It's a little bit like looking at a dead animal in the woods- here, there's little interference with the decay process, and you can look at how the roof is falling through the rafters, which start to look like half-revealed ribs.

I'm filled with envy because one of my classmates got to eat herring in a fur coat. I've only had it once, but it was damn good. Here's a recipe and some pictures.

All in all, the food here is really good. Even the buffet type place we have lunch every day is pretty good, at least to me. It's tatar and russian food, which means you have to dig to find anything related to a plant that's not cabbage or a potato, and not wrapped in meat, but it's tasty.

However, the parade of "Any why didn't you eat THIS?" last night was a little over the top.

I admit that I took advantage of my alone time to basically live on rabbit food, but even if I had been eating only what was left in the refrigerator, I don't think I could have eaten both blocks of cheese. Or the soup AND the chicken. Gar. And now 'something has happened' at the dacha, so I'll be alone for a few more days, but I've had to swear several promises that I'll eat what's in the fridge. Oh well. Also, my hostess promised we'd wash my clothes when she got back. This would be the third or possibly fourth time I've had my clothes machine washed. It's out with the tub and the handwashing detergent tonight, though. *sigh*