Saturday 09/08/08
Yes, it’s me.
That Italian guy which Xavi was talking about really exists, and really wakes up people in the morning (*see our blog on August the 8th).
For example our cruel, unpopular working schedule assigned me this task (already for the second time) also for Monday morning.
Poor Xavi… I’m done with you. I’m afraid I’m not done with all of you, guys.
Not yet… Maybe by the end the end of our work camp the fate will give you the chance to have your cold and sweet revenge on me, waking me up someday with the help of a bucket of frozen water at 7 a.m.
But not now. Not tomorrow.

As maybe you don’t know, I joined this group only on August the 5th, coming a long way from Kyzyl, through Central Asia and Russia, as I have been spending this summer as a long term – EVS volunteer in the Russian Federation. I am working here in my 6th work camp and, as I already have learnt, every group I join makes me meet new people and face new tasks and common duties.
By the way, my delayed arrival just threw me into this project in medias res, without knowing exactly what would have been the schedule and the whole outcome of the working activities themselves. Now, after a few days working with locals and other international volunteers, I can see more clearly the whole idea of this eco-touristy project, and also the first, satisfactory outcomes of our job.

In this first week of work camp the free-time activities were also quite various, as you may have understood.
Today’s schedule, for example, foresaw a tour of the city of Dnipropetrovs’k followed by a night at the disco. Both things gave us more time to stay together and know each other: I find this group of volunteers extremely lively, various and colorful.
Everyday life never stops giving us occasions to practicing our irony and good mood.
I would say today has been the “day of records”: first, at the Historical Museum, also pressed by the delay we accumulated in the previous hours, we had to face (probably) the fastest and most hurrying guided trip ever. Over a couple of hours, our Speedy Guide machine-gunned our brains with a storm of dates, names, faces and facts.
Still amazed by the overwhelming quantity of words produced by Hurrycane (I thought this could be a good nickname for him), in the late afternoon we started thinking to the club for the night which, I have to admit, was really surprising: five floors of human flesh (basically young ladies) dancing, drinking, smoking, moving around…
Coming from a country where usually discotheques rank among the most immobile, V.I.P.pish and uncommunicative in the world, I was inevitably impressed by this… sight.

H 04:00: Closing Time, at least for us, pretty tired by the whole day around the city.
So gather up your jackets, move it to the exits… (I’m pretty sure you remember this song).
Fortunately, at Nikita’s place we found a precious roof over our heads, so that we could have a little rest before the morning come, tomorrow.
And it will come soon.
I’m sure it will.

Francesco