Giggling girls

Okay, this post has been long overdue. Since the beginning of our life here at Karabli we have had the joy of having 5 17-year old Russian girls living across the hall. When we open our door, their door is the first thing we see.

As many teenagers, especially girls, they tend to be giggly. Hence the name giggling girls. Actually I don't know how to describe them, but I'll try. Loud - yes. Giggly - yes. Friendly - yes. Young - yes.

Their speciality has been making blinis that they offer to us also. The coolest thing is that they do blinis shape the first letter of our names - it has not been only once when we have gotten blinis shape like P, P, S, L and J :) Those have been lifesavers sometime in the morning hours when crawling back to the dorm...

Giggling girls - thanks for everything. I can't say I miss you, but I'll definitely remember you :)

Random pictures

Crossing the road Russian style: running.

Petrovskiy stadium, the home of Zenit St.Petersburg

View from the balcony.
Our dormitory.
Peterhof.

Интернет работает в oбщежитие!!!!

For you who does not understand basic Russian: Internet now works also at the dormitory! Finally, it took only about 6 weeks. The problems were:

• No connection in Shevchenko dormitory. Okay, I lived there only for 3 days so not that bad.
• After moving to Karabli, my computer was still registered to Shevchenko. I went to the office and informed them that we had moved. They changed our address to Karabli.
• In Karabli, my computer was registered to wrong room so it didn't work on my room. Also, it didn't work on the room where it was supposed to work either (reason below)
• The socket in the wall where the cable is connected was broken. We had to wait for a couple of weeks until someone came to fix that.
• After changing the socket, everything was okay for my roommates, but not for me. The reason was, that when they first took my MAC-address in the office during the first week in St.Pete they took the wrong one. That address was for WLAN and not for cable which resulted that I could not use my computer.
• Yesterday I went to the office once again (I guess it was something like 4th time in that office, I've also been in other offices at least 2 times each). I showed them my MAC-address, they changed it and now it works at the dormitory.

Basically everything was went wrong with this Internet-thing: the addresses, the physical equipment and incompetence. Well, now it works at least *knocks on wood*. There is still one problem what we have to address - there is 3 persons in our room and only one place for cable (logical, huh?). So today, after school we have to go and buy a router so we can all be online at the same time. Hopefully.

Hooray for hot water

Good news, we have hot water again at the dormitory. No more cold showers in the morning. At least for now....

Living in the dormitory is so COOL

The winter is coming and you can feel it. Wind is getting colder, trees are starting to drop the leafs, it's getting dark earlier and earlier. For the last few days you have been able to feel the upcoming winter also in the dormitory. We have been without hot water now for about 48 hours straight. Okay, it's not the end of the world but still it would be quite nice to be able to take a good shower every now and then. Also, doing the dishes is a bit more easier when you don't have to freeze your hands.

To add to this situation, we window in our room seems to be leaking air. It has been quite cold in the past few mornings which really doesn't make it easier to leave your bed. And the Internet is still not working for Lauri or me in our room (4.5 weeks without a Internet in your own room, could you manage?). Seriously. I bet the next thing we are going to lose is the electricity. Stone age, here we come!