again, the post office

the weather has gone crazy. after some warm and sunny days, it seems it hs become autumn. it is pissing rain non stop, and everyone is ill. my flatmate natalia has a hacking cough, a runny nose and a soar throat. Masha has strep and has to stay in bed for a week. oleg has a fever....and i dont feel so gat myself, but maybe that is by association.
i got up early to post some books to my supervisor in london. naturally, there is one window in one post office in this city of over 12 million from which you can post books at the special book rate. and it is staffed by one babushka. these babushka who work these jobs are amazing. they never age. the remain an indescribeable 60 or so infinately. they just go on stamping their ridiculous peices of paper and barking at people for all eternity. their bodies are formless, and the clothes uniform. they are everywhere. they make my photocopies in the library, they sell me my metro pass, and they work in the post. so it is not surprising that i went to the central post office of moscow, to the one window that sends books abroad at the special rate, only to find the exact same baba who was sitting in the exact same window over 3 years ago when i posted several hundred books from moscow to budapest. and of course she remembered me, as babas always do. and then preceeded to deliver a monologue on the lines of "what, you dont have any books in england? you have to buy all of ours?" and so on.
after 45 minutes of standing in queues and filling out the obligatory forms, the books were off to england and i headed for the library to repeat the whole process of filling out useless forms, being lectured to, and waiting. grr
after this excitement i met masyamba and ira for lunch. it was pissing rain so we went to the closest place and chatted. such a pity i cant spend my whole life just socialising....but i have exams in october and right now i really should be preparing for them....yikes!