back in internet land at last!

So I'm off to a lousy start with keeping up this blog-thing, but in my defense, I had no internet access at all for these past two weeks. Granted, if I'd really been committed to the blog, I'd've written on the comp routinely and just cut & paste it all now, but I felt it'd be anti-social to spend all my spare time on the computer writing in English about people who are sitting in the same room as me. Granted, I certainly spent time reading & playing Sim City when I wasn't entirely alone- albeit, I don't think I was ever completely alone at any point there. Seriously, the outhouse is the only place where you can reliably find some 'me-time...' until someone else needs to use it for its designed purpose...
Even so, the books & games seemed less exclusive. I forgot to bring any English-language paperbacks before I left the States, so all I have with me now are in Russian. I'm by no means covering Dostoevsky in original form, though: right now I'm about halfway through The Shawshank Redemption translated into Russian, and plan to start The Hobbit translation next. I mention this just to point out that there was nothing cryptic about what I was reading. Anybody could pick it up, read the back and know exactly what I was up to. As for Sim City, yeah it's in English, but they can also figure out the premise pretty easily.
I guess the point I'm slowly trying to make is that life in rural Buryatia (Zakamensky Region, namely) is very communal and inclusive. People aren't really accustomed to a lot of personal space, and don't mind changing clothes, bathing & the like in the company of friends & family. While it's different from what I'm used to, I didn't mind all that much- excessive modesty in a two-room house with no interior doors would be a real pain at times, I can imagine. At the same time, outhouses in public places (i.e. anywhere besides someone's house- "public outhouse" holds a far more frightening connotation than I think they really deserve there...unless someone obviously doesn't even try to aim- then it really is terrifying) often sport multiple holes in the floor, presumably to accommodate multiple squatters at once. Admittedly I was rather relieved to find that people opted to wait in line and enter the little house of horrors one at a time :-)
I crave a certain amount of alone-time, as my cultural background & upbringing has afforded me, and at times caught myself feeling irritable and curt- I can only hope it didn't show. I was on the fence about apologizing for my snappiness, explaining it wasn't their fault, and not mentioning it, in assumption that they didn't notice. I ultimately chose the latter approach, figuring it would take more time & effort for them to figure out why I was apologizing than any momentary notice of sulkiness I'd displayed previously.
I guess this post is evidence as to why maybe it's not so great to keep all these thoughts in my head and try to jot them down only later. I'll try to organize my thoughts a bit more, now that the jumbled mass is out.