(no subject)
Ick. I’m ill. Actually, I’ve been ill all week, but this morning I had the distinct feeling that had I taken the metro (which is exceedingly hot and claustrophobic at 9am) that I may well have fainted. So, I took the day off (which makes me feel really bitter about spending all yesterday evening struggling to get all my homework done - yes, for anyone who doubts it I *have* been completing my home tasks the day they are given, though I don’t know how long this will last…) and have so far spent some time reading and some time writing a letter to Nastya (in Russian) and so feel that I have not completely wasted the day, especially since I hope Eugine will txt me with what we covered today and what the weekend’s homework is. And I will probably do some grammar after lunch as well.
I hate being ill. It is Pasha’s fault - he was ill last week (its really just a very bad cold/cough thing, but unpleasant nonetheless) and now I have it. He fusses almost as much as my babushka did last year, bless him. I have to wear his woolen socks (and considering that he has something like size 13 feet…) and scarf as there is some magic property in wool that makes you heal faster and am being fed Septolete throat drops and ‘essence of liquorish’ which has the very unpleasant (though apparently very good) property of making you cough up lots of phlegm, and has an alcohol base which is, I am pretty sure, some kind of rum. I also get tiger balm rubbed onto my chest and back morning, afternoon and evening which smells nice but makes my top stick to me. Anyway, I’m sure that rant was very interesting but I shall move on, I think.
Tonight (assuming that I feel well enough) we are going to a Zimovye zverye concert (the Russian rock group that sing the gin and tonic song that is so loved in Kitezh) which should be fun. Something different, anyway, and a chance to spend some proper time together - this last week we have both been working most of the evening so that the only time we get together (when awake and not concentrating on work) is when we have dinner (if Pasha isn’t on the phone sorting out things for school or his application to the post-graduate institute), which is annoying and unlikely to get better. Not that I’m complaining really - if I were staying in halls then I would probably almost-never even see him (or almost-never get my homework done) and he makes me coffee in the morning
What else did I want to say? Oh yes, BLOODY RUSSIANS! Apparently, despite the fact that I spent a fortune taking out medical insurance in England which is in theory valid in Russia, it seems that no Russian clinic would actually accept it. Wonderful country this! Anyway, I had to get a medical certificate in order to be admitted onto the course, and the University needs me to have valid medical insurance, although mine doesn’t apparently count for this. Therefore I needed to spend out over 100 pounds (Ah! No pound-sign on this computer!) to buy their special insurance, which will work. Yesterday, we all went to get this medical certificate. That was fun! First they took blood-pressure and listened to the heart and lungs, then we had nasty Russian lady stab us in the arm (otherwise called a blood-test - she was *really* mean, though. I dropped the cotton wool and was about to put it back on when she grabbed my wrist and wrapped -very tightly and roughly - some itchy gauze around my arm instead. I swear it was her vindictive form of punishment) and then a chest x-ray. All this took the best part of 4 hours. Well, the waiting took about 3 hours 45 mins…
So now I have a nasty purple bruise about 2 inches long on the inside of my elbow and for the whole of yesterday evening I couldn’t straighten out my arm completely without pain. I know, I know, I shall stop whining now…
Can’t say that I’ve been up to much else - most of my day I am at classes (from 10-3 plus an hour on the metro there and back) and doing homework or double-checking homeworks for Pasha. But I am still enjoying myself nevertheless though I don’t expect my enthusiasm to study will be quite so intense in a couple of weeks…
Right, well, I suppose that this is long and uninteresting enough for now and will endeavour to babble less in future.
Let me know how you’re all getting on…
Ali xx
I hate being ill. It is Pasha’s fault - he was ill last week (its really just a very bad cold/cough thing, but unpleasant nonetheless) and now I have it. He fusses almost as much as my babushka did last year, bless him. I have to wear his woolen socks (and considering that he has something like size 13 feet…) and scarf as there is some magic property in wool that makes you heal faster and am being fed Septolete throat drops and ‘essence of liquorish’ which has the very unpleasant (though apparently very good) property of making you cough up lots of phlegm, and has an alcohol base which is, I am pretty sure, some kind of rum. I also get tiger balm rubbed onto my chest and back morning, afternoon and evening which smells nice but makes my top stick to me. Anyway, I’m sure that rant was very interesting but I shall move on, I think.
Tonight (assuming that I feel well enough) we are going to a Zimovye zverye concert (the Russian rock group that sing the gin and tonic song that is so loved in Kitezh) which should be fun. Something different, anyway, and a chance to spend some proper time together - this last week we have both been working most of the evening so that the only time we get together (when awake and not concentrating on work) is when we have dinner (if Pasha isn’t on the phone sorting out things for school or his application to the post-graduate institute), which is annoying and unlikely to get better. Not that I’m complaining really - if I were staying in halls then I would probably almost-never even see him (or almost-never get my homework done) and he makes me coffee in the morning
What else did I want to say? Oh yes, BLOODY RUSSIANS! Apparently, despite the fact that I spent a fortune taking out medical insurance in England which is in theory valid in Russia, it seems that no Russian clinic would actually accept it. Wonderful country this! Anyway, I had to get a medical certificate in order to be admitted onto the course, and the University needs me to have valid medical insurance, although mine doesn’t apparently count for this. Therefore I needed to spend out over 100 pounds (Ah! No pound-sign on this computer!) to buy their special insurance, which will work. Yesterday, we all went to get this medical certificate. That was fun! First they took blood-pressure and listened to the heart and lungs, then we had nasty Russian lady stab us in the arm (otherwise called a blood-test - she was *really* mean, though. I dropped the cotton wool and was about to put it back on when she grabbed my wrist and wrapped -very tightly and roughly - some itchy gauze around my arm instead. I swear it was her vindictive form of punishment) and then a chest x-ray. All this took the best part of 4 hours. Well, the waiting took about 3 hours 45 mins…
So now I have a nasty purple bruise about 2 inches long on the inside of my elbow and for the whole of yesterday evening I couldn’t straighten out my arm completely without pain. I know, I know, I shall stop whining now…
Can’t say that I’ve been up to much else - most of my day I am at classes (from 10-3 plus an hour on the metro there and back) and doing homework or double-checking homeworks for Pasha. But I am still enjoying myself nevertheless though I don’t expect my enthusiasm to study will be quite so intense in a couple of weeks…
Right, well, I suppose that this is long and uninteresting enough for now and will endeavour to babble less in future.
Let me know how you’re all getting on…
Ali xx