(I know that in some of my posts - incl. this one - the date in the title does not match the date in the bottom. This is simply because many of my posts are writting while my internet is down, and are therefore posted a while after they are written).
ARG!! So many new things since last! First and foremost, I have started work. But that is quite a story so I will get back to that another day. Yesterday it was 10 days since Clara and I started sharing a room. Something ng we agreed with Anastasia to do in hopes of getting to share an apartment together, instead of being separated, as was the original plan. On this 10th day I went to talk with Anastasia about something else (I’ll get back to that) and we also ended up touching the subject of the living situation. Just to refresh the situation, Clara and I was moved into the apartment of a Russian 27 year old guy, Denis, on the night between September 1st and 2nd. The organisation refers to him as our “host brother”, to me this term seems misplaced, just as it was to tell me I would live with a host family when I live with one random dude. But now that I know, it doesn’t really matter what they call it anymore. But it would have spared me a lot of frustration in Denmark to know, that when they said “host family” they used the term “family” very loosely.
Back to the point, Anastasia informed me yesterday that perhaps it could be an option to move me to the apartment Clara will be in and let me which place with one of the others. Either way Clara would have to be moved to this apartment. She did however not like the idea of moving me as well, and it would give me at least an hour more to work every day. I explained to her that I would then leave home at the same time as if I was going to school in Denmark, so it wouldn’t really be a sacrifice I wouldn’t be willing to make. Especially because it would mean I would get out of the suburbs and into Samara (near downtown). And I was “lobbying” for this option until a very important fact came to light: moving me would mean that Clara and I would be sharing a room for 9 months! The apartment Clara will be moved to will be hosting 4 girls, all volunteers, as I understand it – in only 2 rooms. Anyone who lives in that apartment shares a room. This is because of the EU decided that when EVS volunteers live with a host family they have to have their own room, but when sharing an apartment solely with other volunteers they can share a room with others. This latter option is clearly the cheapest solution for a host organisation, and it’s not uncommon for them to choose it. In the pre-camp in Denmark, we also met several former EVS volunteers who’d share rooms with other volunteers.
I won’t lie, I would personally rather die than share a room with anyone for 9 months. Whether it was my closest family, my best friend or a complete stranger makes no different. For that reason I also told Anastasia straight up I’d prefer to stay in Denis´s apartment without Clara – call me selfish, but I see no reason we should both suffer. No but this will (for now) be the end of the mysterious case of our living situation. There is a small chance Clara or some other volunteer will be moved into the third room when Denis moves next month, but that is completely uncertain!
And yes!, Denis is moving in the end of October! Already within the first few days it was very clear that Denis hates his life, and blames Russia for everything bad in his life. Granted, it’s not easy to live in Russia, but it IS perfectly durable. Denis isn't necessarily a bad person, but is he is lazy, he is pessimistic and he never takes any responsibility for himself and his life. He has been out of job for 3 years, but we are also starting to doubt he applied for any jobs in that time. For that same reason, we did not take him very serious when he said he was moving the week after our arrival. We were however quite shocked when he announce last week that he has bought a one-way plane ticket to Argentina for the end of October! He and his mother (who owns and pays for the apartment – and lives next door!) had agreed that we could continue to live here after he moved. I’m pretty sure this apartment is not for rent but bought – his mother would otherwise not be able to afford to let Denis have his own apartment, and we know that his entirely family lived here together when he was a child.
I think I can speak for all of us when we say, that by the end of the day, we’re glad to get the apartment to ourselves. Denis is not exactly good at keeping house. He does not live very hygienic, and tends not to do his own dishes or clean his own mess. He stopped buying necessary supplies since we got here (e.g. toilet paper), and lets us buy it without paying his share. Despite the fact that he gets money for his expenses for letting us live here. It does not seem fair to then push these expenses on to us – who only get money for food. He tired yesterday to trick us into paying for his internet, despite the fact that we barely have access to it at all. We have now (on my suggestion) made a deal with him, that we pay half and he pays half – and that this would also mean that half of the time, the internet is ours – a fact I made unmistakeably clear. He seemed stressed and confused that we would talk back to him, and not let him trick us, and stutteringly agreed.
Yesterday he announced in the early afternoon that he would be leaving for the next two days, and left a few hours after that. Since he left it has been 10 times nicer to live in this apartment. To not get told off for drying dishes after I wash them, or getting lectures about the wonder of keeping things tidy (what the hell does he know about this anyway!?). Since we have arrived here the apartment has gotten a 1000 times cleaner and tidier. Just last Saturday Clara and I spent nearly 4 hours nonstop cleaning our room. The further we got the more obvious it became: our room had not been cleaned since Joseph Stalin was still alive! So yeah, I can’t wait for the end of October now that I know that I'll live here for all 9 months. Neither can the others - or, in Clara’s case, could: She has just been informed she will move to the other apartment on Monday. And, as for the bad news ‘bout her sharing a with another girl for nearly 9 months? I had the doubtful pleasure of informing her, as Anastasia and the organisation did for some reason not see the reason to tell her themselves. I think Anastasia is sweet, competent, helpful and trustworthy, but as for informing us, it is the Achilles heel of both her and the organisation, and we've been feeling under-informed regularly since we had the projects approved in May. Especially Clara has been suffering under this. I have often ended up asking for the information myself or been told as I was contacting them for something else. Clara has not.
But on the bright side, I was election day yesterday! The historic election that Denmark has been waiting for all year! Clara and I have both been looking forward to this day, and hope for a government chance (for the first time in ten years). It is also the first time we have the vote for a government election. Neither of us were sure exactly when it started, so at 7ish o’clock (5ish Danish time) we went online and found DR1 online – the Danish governmental channel – where they announced that there was now 1 hour to the final results came on. Where excited and nervous we waited for the next hour. After an hour a countdown suddenly came on the screen where after a result with the opposition in power came up! Clara and I both freaked out and started jumping around over joyful. So it was one of the worst moments ever when it was suddenly announced that they were still waiting for the final results. Apparently they have started making countdowns for each new prognosis!? For the next 5 and a half hours we waiting as more and more percentage of the voted were being counted, while excitement turned into anti-climax and tiredness. But 12.30 am Clara decided to go to bed. Unlike me she had not been given the day off today. Watching all the parties meet and all the get-togethers and familiar places on the screen make me feel homesick and misplaced for the first time since I got here. Our side won in a close tie. This victory is in so many many ways a historic moment. I have myself been waiting for this moment since I was 10 years old. Literately half my life. And when it finally happens I’m not there and not even a resident in Denmark. It was a sad and lonely feeling. I couldn’t even call my mum because it is so expensive from here. For the first time I really wished myself home immediately.
But away from the sadness and politics! Clara and I are going out tonight to celebrate the election, but also to have a chill time just the two of us, and to cope with her bad news about her living situation. Last week my mentor, and her boyfriend (my semi-mentor), showed us this great Italian restaurant. It’s about an hour away, but we agreed that we should go tonight. I think we really deserved it. So as I am finishing up this I am actually next to sleeping Clara who needed a nap before we go, giving me a bit more of the free day I was promised: I was giving the day off work today because I was so run down, so with Denis gone until tomorrow, and Clara and Sabrina having to go to work I expected my own personal free day at home without obligations, the first moments alone since I’ve gotten here. But no! In some interesting coincidence Sabrina, who work the same place as I, decided that she was sick today for the first time, there goes my free moment. On top of that my mentor, who I currently feel quite a bit overrun by, also contacted me today as she had decided I was going to my work with her for some time today despite calling in sick. Luckily for me I did not hear her phone calls, and when I saw her next I decided I could not possible handle going to work today (without a mental and/or physical breakdown).
I must confess, I feel like my mentor has been trying to run my life lately. She makes agreements on my behalf with both herself and others without my consent, and considers everything I do her business. Yesterday I had to sent her a strict but polite message that I would make my own appointments with Anastasia, and call Anastasia myself. She did not answer that this message. Today was the same, when I sent my reply to another message, again a polite but not submissive reply; she just stops answering. It is sweet that she invites us for something every weekend, and wants to spend time with us, I do not have a problem with this, it's kind. But what I do have a problem with, is her trying to run my life for me, and ignoring me when I do not tell her exactly what she wants to hear. I am starting to hope not to hear from her this weekend. When we first got here, Denis told us about a previous volunteer who had had serious issues with her mentor, because the mentor was trying to run her life, but he refused to tell us who this mentor was. I start to have the feeling this volunteer and I share the same mentor.. fuck my life.
But look at the time! It’s now 5.10pm so it’s time to wake up Clara and go have some Italian food.
Cheers from Russia!
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