October 14 - Day 27

My alarm clock went off this morning on accident, and I was so ecstatic to be able to sleep in for once, that I distinctly remember thinking, “Thank god! No construction on the roof for once!” Maybe a half a second later I thought someone was taking a buzz saw to my ceiling. I could hear Jenna scream in the next room (she has a rather amusing volume issue) and when I got up a few minutes later because apparently two Russian men felt the need to have a shouting match outside my room, Jenna was in the hall, pacing back and forth stammering “They are IN MY ROOM!” It was 7:30 in the morning, they weren’t really in our rooms but they might as well have been, and with the raging headaches everyone seemed to have from last night’s ‘Let’s bond as a group through homemade Mojitios’ party, they were an especially unwanted sight. I tried to go back to sleep with the aid of ear plugs but a few hours later I woke up with Jenna hovering over my bed and I screamed bloody hell. She had this deranged look on her face and kept saying, “Do you know day it is?” I was half asleep; of course I didn’t know what day it was. She told me to look out my window and when I did I saw that full-on snow storm had begun in Moscow. This wouldn’t be that interesting/creepy if it wasn’t for the fact that a few weeks ago when we went to see ‘The Queen of Spades’ at the Bolshoi, Marianna had told us how October 14th is a religious holiday in Moscow and gone on and on about how every year, even if for only a few minutes, it snows. We, of course, laughed it off, which is something that happens on a somewhat regular basis with Marianna (she is a lovely lady but is from Siberia and is a little out there) but when we saw the snow this morning it was the first thing anyone could talk about. And it was the beginning of my super creepy day in Russia. We decided since we were awake and it was cold and snowing/sleeting that the best way to spend the day would be to wait in line to see Lenin’s Tomb. It was freezing and by the time we got in there I was soaked, but the real chills came from seeing the almost hundred year-old body hanging out there in the glass case. I have no idea how they preserved him. I am not sure I want to know the details of such an embalming technique but all I can say is I am glad the Russians have finally decided to bury him in the ground because that was just wrong. So I figured the only way to top that would be to hang out in the creepy basement of the MXAT dorms by myself for the afternoon. I had had plans to go to the Pushkin Museum but was so cold and tired I decided to head back and beat the rush to do laundry. The laundry is in the basement down these creepy winding stairs and through a labyrinth of doors but I figured if I was going to be down there I might as well only make one trip so I hung out and read some Chekhov and had a really cozy afternoon – until I decided to explore. I had one more load so I decided to see where all the other doors lead. So many places here have weird tunnels underneath them, I got curious to see what was down there. I freaked myself out so bad! I went thru a series of corridors which lead into what must have been an old shower room. I accidentally back up against the wall and all the tiles I touched came crashing to the ground. It echoed so loud – it scared me to death. I have never bolted out of a place so fast. I think from now on I am going to stick to doing my laundry when people are around and get out my curiosity elsewhere.