collective consciousness

is this or is this not central europe? certainly, it has dropped 15˚C without warning. many stupefied (frozen in place) faces have emerged, over night, and were waiting with me for the morning bus. but is there no such thing as communal/societal *regional*, much less individual, memory? along with the air of surprise, new topics of conversation (i can hear my mother now: "weather!"), the proliferation of flat-out winter accoutrements has been remarkable. for my part, i'm wondering just how long it will be before i am wearing every article of clothing i've brought, not excepting the tent and carbon-feather poles, as we make our descent into zima.

at NB, we're seeing (and hearing) the tell-tale manifestation of the seasonal catapult on the weaker, ahem, younger set. to wipe, blow, or sniff through the live-long day? yes, indeed, my friends: that is the question.

mass hysteria in the form of a basketball tournament. i'd been seeing signs advertising the SCG (Srbija & Crna Gora (Montenegro)) team since i got here. the stadium where some of the games will be played is, like everything else, 4 blocks away from my house. if any of the revelry that was happening on sunday morning downtown gets over here, i will probably launch things from my 28th floor window. i've heard that pennies can do great damage; good thing i don't have any of those....

this evening was our designated Time to Clean the Apartment. it isn't that i object to this activity, as the place hasn't been scrubbed since Yugoslavia existed only in someone's mind's eye. o, wait. along with living with members of the female clan, i'm just somewhat wary of cheerful "let's do______ together" when some cleaning task is sitting uglily in the blank. efficiency drops exponentially when chatter is involved. moreover, all the endless (needless) consulting of everyone as to what should be done, how it ought to be done, makes me want to tear my hear out; i don't, simply because that would mean more to vacuum. nevertheless, i was a perfectly good sport-desu for the sake of PR, even though it meant i was up until the wee hours doing homework.

apparently, or so i've been told several times over, Serbs are very good in team sports: basketball, water polo...war.