Strategy.

Currently having my Obstetrics and Surgery cycle, and believe it or not I actually feel more tired than when I had Topan cycle. With Niko-friggin-laev. 

Throughout October, it was study topan, go for class in the morning, study for topan, get through topan class in the afternoon, don't even think of celebrating the fact that you've passed the daily mini tests because you have prepare for tomorrow's class, study topan, eat, study topan, sleep. And repeat.

While the preparation for Obs and surgery class should technically not be as hard core as topan, I'm exhausted out of my mind by the time i get home, even though class begins at 9 and ends by lunch time (as opposed to full-days during topan cycle). 

I get home, do some things to wind down - surf the internet etc for a bit, and more often than not i end up taking a nap. 

I used to be able to count the number of times i took an afternoon nap on one hand (this spanned throughout primary school until my early years in moscow). 

Even when i was studying topan 24/7 i didn't feel exhausted enough to warrant an afternoon/evening nap. (But that may be because i couldn't even afford to spare the time to nap.)

I think it probably has a lot to do with all the travelling. Obs is in Kashirskaya, and the journey takes at least 75minutes even when i'm rushing over. 

I've sort of gone off tangent with the purpose of this blogpost but we've made the big detour and come to today's topic. 

Normally I don't mind standing when i'm using the metro, but I'm just so tired (both mentally and physically) after Obs class that I take strategising to a whole new level when i travel. 

While there are only five stops on the green line before i get off, the stations are very far apart (compared to the red line which i normally frequent anyway) so any opportunity to sit is an opportunity that i'm not going to waste. But it's not too bad because the trains are never as packed as the ones on the red line anyway. I don't have to feel bad for sitting down. 

When I get to Ohodny Ryad, that's when the real strategising comes to play. It's 10 stops between Ohod and Yugo, so I definitely want to be able to sit from the get go if possible. Game on. 

First off, walk towards the head of the train because that's the exit I'll be taking at yugo. Don't go all the way to the end - all those people are most likely travelling to Yugo or Prospekt, so they'd be aiming for any vacant seats as well. Don't wait near babushkas or old people in general - no one wants to "steal" seats from 'em. Somewhere near the end of second carriage is an escalator in the middle of the platform for people who want to change metro lines. Stand somewhere there. If the passengers travel often enough, they'd know which carriage of the train has the shortest distance to those escalators. Lots of people will get off and BAM. Empty seats. Now, if you don't get a seat at Ohod, don't worry. Tons of people get off at Biblio, so your chances of getting a seat is pretty high so long as you're not travelling during peak hours. 

For some reason my tired brain decided to ramble out loud and point out my decision-making process to my companion at the time, yuenxing. She had a nice laugh over it. 

Well, when the train pulled up, sure enough, a lot of people exited from the door i decided to wait by and headed for the pirihod (underpass that connects the different metro lines). The both of us got seats. So much win. 

and then an announcement came on. 

All passengers had to disembark at Park Kultury. 

Damnit. WHYYYYYYY. 

We should have gotten off at Biblio and try taking the next train - we would have had a higher chance of getting seats, but the both of us were too lazy to get off when we had just gotten seats. Nevermind, we'd just try our luck at Park Kultury. 

A number of passengers got off at Biblio, and we deliberated if we should catch the next train at Kropotkinskaya instead, but ultimately decided not to because not many people get off at Kropot anyway - might as well just sit a little longer. 

When we got to Park Kultury, we headed towards the centre instead. Here i explained my strategy to yuenxing once more. 

We're "fighting" for seats with people heading to the terminal stations (I won't bother getting the seat off of someone who gets off somewhere in between. If i'm already standing, might as well stand all the way). Yugo, prospekt, universitet and vorob evy gory have their exits located at the terminal ends of the platform, so we moved a little toward the centre. The first carriage is always full, the second one less so, but the third one had the highest probability for us to get seats. The fourth and fifth carriages weren't any good because 1. there's an exit in the centre of the universitet hall, so there would be more people aiming for those carriages, and 2. it's a little too far from my exit for my liking. 

It was the perfect strategy. Come on, man. Admit it. It was damn good strategy. 

Unfortunately, luck wasn't on our side today. By the time the train pulled up it was already pretty full, and there were twice the amount of passengers waiting on park kultury anyway. It had been a long shot, but my reasoning and planning gave yuenxing a good laugh so i decided to share it here in case it could bring laughter to other people as well. 

Yes, my brain is weird and think about the most bizarre issues. I take way too many factors into account and plan too far ahead for something as menial and trivial as riding the metro.