I have done the unjust act of not introducing this divine creature earlier to my fellow bloggers and friends. So here goes… introducing Sifi, the most gorgeous cat alive in Russia! =) Me, my sister and a friend share the right over Sifi’s care since 4 months ago. She’s of the breed Angora, with an extremely (and I mean it in the most extreme context) playful nature- you’ll never win with her playing catch =) I don’t see her often these days for she’s living in our friend’s flat (we are not allowed to keep pets in the hostel) but whenever I do- like today- she sure will be asphyxiated from all my squeezing and hugging and kissing! I think she hates me. Hahaha.
Anyway, I love Sundays. It’s the day I was born; it’s the only holiday of the week here. Cheers everyone!
“Say: I fear, if I rebel against my Lord, the retribution of an Awful Day”- Al An’am:15
My sense of worth has been nose-diving progressively since New Year, largely owing to my lack of awareness of what’s going on out there all this while. It’s true that I tend to create this space within myself, my imaginary cloud-cuckoo-land; that I sometimes can easily zone out of civilization to enter another that makes less sense but exudes more appeal; my ‘tawaf’ around the house (I guess only family members can decipher this one); the long ‘retreat sessions’ I used to have in my ‘cave’ (nickname courtesy of my mother), so on and so forth, but somehow I had always kept my brain sentient to world events, however negligible my participation might be to advocate world peace or something.
Today I feel like a broken chip of my old self- very unacquainted, not as sharp as before, and I haven’t even reached twenty! Oh dear, this couldn’t possibly be one of the subtler signs of ageing, could it? Alright, that was pushing it... This is a crisis of resolution. My predicament might well be solved by reading the newspapers or watching the news, both of which a doubtful prospect given my shabby command of the language. I know, I can go online but my credit would all run out for other stuff before I know it (for the umpteenth time, internet here is expensive!). Ok, again my bad… and now I’m feeling all stupid and ignorant. People can go on and write intelligent stuff and I’ll just… put up pictures or something. I guess… I’ll figure this one out.
By the way, my condolences to all Chelsea fans… at least I have something to cheer about ;p
the train station at night
the only building said to have stood erected in the city after WW2
A sleigh-ride seems fun, isn't it?;)
Hurmm, this looks more fun! (wish I could get a closer snap, this is about the limit of my camera zoom from across the street, plus we were kind of in a hurry)
Alright, this wins hands down in the fun-ness factor!
paintings for sale along the walk to Volga river
beautiful strings of beads at one of the art n craft stalls
One of the huge shards of ice at the bank of Volga in our hands- had fun breaking them up and throwing them into the frozen river =)
Mother of Russia in white
ps: ABC- mission accomplished! ;D
pps: Today (23 February) is the celebration of Men's Day in Russia. So Happy Men's Day to all, er, Men!
The cold winter is dulling my senses, that’s the reason (“lamer!”- my inner conscience) for me shying away from blogging the last few days, despite having completed my exam. It went well for my part (never mind the marks, I won’t figure out the way Russians think. Haha) and now I’m ensnared in the gooey mold of post-exam blues (Yes, I know I’m annoying with all these blues-ness of mine, just humour me for the moment, alright? ;p). Anyhow, the pre-exam blues were far worse- I’d gladly take boredom over stress any time of the day =) Some of us reckoned (or hoping, more like) the temperature would plunge to -50 in time for the exam so we wouldn’t have to go out and sit for the paper. Nah… I was thinking, a blizzard sounded like a more promising prospect. So we were bordering on insanity and guess what, it was a lovely 2-degree (above 0, yes) morning the day of the exam. Ok, so a lesson learned for not talking trash or actually wanting bad things to materialise.
The yo-yo-ish weather has been an uncommon kind of experience for me- rolling over in white snow today, hopping around deep puddles of mud the next. Yesterday it was the latter, unfortunately. It snowed, but melted brusquely at the touch of my palm, making it impossible to observe the elegant patterns of exquisite snowflakes. The temperature has been hovering around some notches above zero of late, I so hope my ultimate dream of making ABC from snow outside would be realised by the end of the season. My sister: “But it’s not that clean, from the dust and all in the air” Haha… I have swallowed rain water at some points in my life (playing sessions, mostly ;p), this one is practically the same- cleaner, even. Hehe. Hmm.
For the whole of next week, I'll be gladly entitled to a series of nothing-ness. Technically speaking, I would be whiling the time away watching borrowed dated movies and TV serials (ER season 1, can you believe it?? That’s like, waaay 10 years back or something, back when Dr. Carter was still an icky third-year medical student being bullied by Dr. Benton), in between finishing my storybooks and manga. Oh, and going out, of course. Actually, I have been quite busy envying the seniors whose holidays had started way earlier than ours and thus had the privilege to visit exotic (to us traveling newbies, heh) European countries: Sweden, Greece, Austria, Finland, England, and Spain are some that I’ve heard. Quite a handful went to Egypt, and some even returned home to Malaysia. Yours truly? Hibernating underneath her covers and fabulously turning into an old maid. And no, I’m not complaining, thank you =)
