About half the city of Moscow was without power for about five hours today. I had class at nine this morning and when I finished at eleven, I was going to go straight home, but decided to try and go shopping instead. When I got to Auchan however, the lights were off and they were making some kind of announcement to everyone. It still took me a while to figure out the power was off everywhere, not just at Auchan. When I got back to my apartment of course the elevator was out, and I didn't know how to ask to use the stairs--Guess I should explain that to use the stairs in my building you have to go outside the main entrance, around to the side and re-enter through the garbage room. Nice huh?-- My next plan was to just go hang out at EF for most of the day, but when they heard my plight, Tanya came back to my building with me and arranged to let me take the stairs up to my apartment. Thank god I live on the 7th floor and not the 25th.
Once home I took a cold shower in a dark bathroom. It was all very Catholic. What was decidedly un-catholic was me then hanging out naked on my bed, drinking Coke and watching the season finale of 24 on my laptop.
It was not bad as powerless afternoons go. Certainly I had a lot easier time of things this time than when I was in New York two summers ago. The short version of that story is that I arrived in NY during the great blackout of 2003. I got to Penn Station at 11pm and then could do nothing except wander around mid-town Manhattan for the next several hours. I was interviewed during the night by both CBS and AP radio, spent part of the night in front of the Time building at Rockefeller plaza, saw the back of Matt Lauer's head during the Today Show broadcast, and took an afternoon nap in Central Park. Shortly after I finally arrived at my friends place the lights came back on, and the rest of my visit was excellent. The coda to this piece is that one year to the day later Kristen, the friend I was visiting had a baby girl.
I was going to put some pictures of my New York misadventure here, but they all suck. So instead I'll post this one of Yoko Ono that I took two days later in Central Park, near Strawberry Fields.
Once home I took a cold shower in a dark bathroom. It was all very Catholic. What was decidedly un-catholic was me then hanging out naked on my bed, drinking Coke and watching the season finale of 24 on my laptop.
It was not bad as powerless afternoons go. Certainly I had a lot easier time of things this time than when I was in New York two summers ago. The short version of that story is that I arrived in NY during the great blackout of 2003. I got to Penn Station at 11pm and then could do nothing except wander around mid-town Manhattan for the next several hours. I was interviewed during the night by both CBS and AP radio, spent part of the night in front of the Time building at Rockefeller plaza, saw the back of Matt Lauer's head during the Today Show broadcast, and took an afternoon nap in Central Park. Shortly after I finally arrived at my friends place the lights came back on, and the rest of my visit was excellent. The coda to this piece is that one year to the day later Kristen, the friend I was visiting had a baby girl.
I was going to put some pictures of my New York misadventure here, but they all suck. So instead I'll post this one of Yoko Ono that I took two days later in Central Park, near Strawberry Fields.
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