What Living in a Russian Dorm is Really Like

The hourly sound of a train blaring its horn

The rustle of maple leaves right outside the window

Everyone absolutely freezing, walking around in puffer jackets and scarves on autumn evenings because central heating hasn’t been turned on yet

Hanging your socks and underwear around the room after waiting the whole day for a free laundry machine

Dealing with rude commendanti (grandma receptionists that stare at you as you swipe your card to get into the dorms)

Constantly hearing the noise of flip-flops and slippers in the hallway

People banging pots and pans while cooking dinner at 12am in the morning

Hearing a constant screeching and banging of hallway doors, that echoes throughout the floor

Dealing with a drunken-men robbery on our floor (after which none of us would ever leave our room unlocked, even if we were going to shower)

Daily false fire alarms blaring at any time of day, because someone burnt something in the kitchen or was smoking in their room. You get used to it after the first five times

Walking alarm clocks, either roosters or the gardeners moving snow with metal shovels, waking you up at 5 in the morning

The permeating smell of shisha in the hallway and forbidden cigarettes on the stairwell that make it into your room through the 3cm crack in the doorframe

The neighbourhood cats climbing trees like spiders

Either getting frostbite or third-degree burns in the shower

Walking to the store every day because you don’t really know how to feed yourself

Needing to look at least semi-presentable when running to the bathroom that's 50 metres down the hall

Buying a 5-litre bottle of water because you're too lazy to buy small bottles every day, but now have to carry it home somehow through slippery ice and snow back to the dorms and up three flights of stairs

Showering in the bathroom that faces another dorm and walking paths, with no blinds and just behind a thin, tiny curtain

Feeling absolutely detached from the world. You're living in Peterhof, in Russia, in a tiny dorm room with no one to disturb you, except your own thoughts. It's an interesting, yet bordering on existential crisis time

The first few days, it's jarring.

And honestly, some days it's hard to find the motivation to walk down the 30-metre hallway to the toilet.

But day after day, you get used to this constant symphony of sounds. And when you get used to the 4am fire alarms, and when you finally accept the 2-hour train ride to the city, you start saying hello to the grannies downstairs, and it's really not so bad after all.

Being the blessed exchanger with no roommates but with a kettle, fridge, microwave and iron in the room SCORE

The pure bliss when we come home from class one day and the heating was switched on. Everyone was celebrating by wearing shorts and singlets around the dorm. Mine didn’t switch on but was fixed through friends of friends who had the same problem before, aka dorm networks

You can ask around and find someone with a printer at 11pm at night, pay them 5 roubles (10 cents), and print your flight ticket for the next day. Perf.

Hearing "nalei mne eshye vodochki" (pour me a bit more vodka please) echo through the hallway on a random Tuesday night during exam time was the most relatable thing I've ever heard

Having a supermarket that's open 24 hours is the best thing to happen to Staryi Peterhof

Hanging out with friends until the early rays of dawn

Inviting each other over for movie nights with share platters with ham, bread, fruit, drinks and atrociously salty Russian cheese

Knocking on each other's doors if you need to borrow a kettle or a frying pan, or just feel like having a rant about the crazy grandma receptionists downstairs

Having the best dorm parties in tiny rooms and trying to keep your voices quiet (and failing miserably)

Going on supermarket runs with friends and ending up buying too many garlic breads

Sitting in total darkness, plugging in the fairy lights, and staring out the window as snow falls on a silent little Russian village

Travelling to campus to study on crowded buses full of judging Russians, and lowkey dissing them between ourselves in English for giving us dirty looks

Looking out for each other on crazy nights out in the city because even through the drunken haze, you know that when the time comes to leave in the morning, you gotta shove as many people as possible into that car and share that hour-long taxi ride home.