Yesterday I was suddenly very sad. I couldn't sleep. And I stayed up until 7 am. And my mind is foggy. Here I am, it's 10 am. I slept only 3 hours!

I went to the migration office. It was empty, so I walked right in. The woman was kind, and I told her I am staying in a hotel and asked to register. She took me to another room. After a while she said I don't need to register. She wished me a good day. We chatted a bit in English and in Russian. It's quite confusing but I would just skip registering anyway.

I had diarrhea and I threw away a sandwich. I suffered a loneliness breakdown last night. I ate some yogurt.

I left the hotel. A woman ran out and gave me a registration slip. I was walking along Советская улица. There are some informal minibuses here going to different places. I couldn't find the information online. Anyway, we are going by elektrichka.

I walked into the дом культуры and I thought it was a museum. The babushka told me it was это не музей. She said it was just a hall. She was very kind, and said, "не переживай. Все нормально."

The outskirts in those cities have mostly small houses, and the city center mainly has Krushchevkas, супермаркеты, школа, дом культуры, парк Победы, музей, банк, etc.

I am back at the station. Ten trains pass from Smorgon today, five from Kaliningrad and five returning. They are going to Moscow, SPB, Chelyabinsk, and Sochi.

До свидания, Сморгонь.

To Gudogay - 1.6 Rubles.

I got off at Gudogay. There were 3 other Chinese people there. Suddenly, security guards surrounded me. "Зачем вы едете? куда?" I answered, "Путешествуете." "Потом?" (somehow "Потом" suddenly reminded me of Pushkin and I almost said "потом все думать, думать об одном. И день и ночь...") I said, "Островец." "Почему "Островец"? "Удобно через электричку, я еду туда на автобусе." "Паспорт?" They looked at my passport. "Вы въезжали через Минск?" "Да." I showed them my photos of the previous days. "У вас есть деньги?" "Да, карта ВТБ." "Возвращаю билет на самолет?" I showed them on WeChat. They let me go.

However, my countrymen seemed to be in a much worse situation as they don't speak Russian. The guards asked if we were together. "Нет, я их не знаю." They were talking to each other in Chinese, and I translated for them. The guards asked for a phone number. Then they asked if they had Belarussian Rubles. The group of Chinese showed me a cathedral or something on their maps. They were using Yandex Taxi, which doesn't work here. The guards said they knew the phone number for taxi here. The Chinese people asked me, "Aren't you a student in Belarus? How do you understand Russian?" I said, "It's a hobby. I am studying in China." Then I walked over to the bus.

I think basically it's because we are just 10 km to the Litva border. In other places you won't encounter something like this.

I went on the bus. I said, "Островец?" "Да." "Как платиться?" The driver gestured cash with his hands. "Сколько?" "0.95" I handed him 20 Rubles, and it took a while for him to give me the change.

Привет Островец.

The population here is around 15k. It's a beautiful city.

There is only one hostel here, and there are no reviews and phone numbers on Yandex Maps. I walked there and it looked abandoned. It started to rain.

I found a place on Yandex maps, but I still have to walk 1.8 km.

It's more like a house than a hotel. I called the man, he would come out in 5 minutes.

I almost forgot I only slept 3 hours. We need some sleep.

Alex did not come. I tried to go in. I called Alex again. I've been waiting for 15 minutes. A babushka came and told me Alex is coming. She came again, told me to sit down, and left.

Alex is a short, pleasant man. He called, "Olga." So I know this babushka is Olga. I went into a room, but it has 3 beds. I asked if others would be here. "Нет, только один." That's why it's 80 Ruble. I tried to pay with VTB bank, but they only accept cash. After paying I only have 40 Rubles cash left. "Здесь есть иностранцы? Китайцы?" "Нет, только белорусы." Then Alex pointed at the TV, "YouTube, телевизор, все, что показывают по телевизору." He said to me, "Вы немного знаю русский."

And there is also a news channel in this city: Островецкая правда.

And because of the diarrhea yesterday, I haven't eaten anything today - just 2 yogurts. And it's already 5 pm. Hunger solves the problem of feeling tired. I'm not very sleepy when I need food.

My Russian improved when I am in small towns. It just flows, and the words came out of my mouth faster than my thoughts.

552 Rubles in my VTB.

I bought 6 югрт, 2 воды(1.5), 2 выпечка, and 1 плитка шоколада. 14 Rubles.

To buy anything from this hotel, I have to walk 1 km to the store and 1 km back. I already walked over 3 km today, first to the hostel, then here, plus more or less 2 km in Smorgon.

The chocolate bar and chocolate yogurt was too sweet, so I threw them away.

It was just past 5 pm. For some reasons I couldn't sleep, so I stayed in bed till 8. And I am going for a walk.

I went into the main park, the one with the Lenin Statue.

I was walking in the park, and three girls were sitting on a bench. They greeted me and I walked over and talked for 20 minutes. "Работаешь или учишься?" Sasha asked. I said, "студент." I said I am from China, and they had not meet Chinese people before. I asked, "Вы тоже студентка?" "Да." They are in 9th grade. I asked if they took EGE. They were like, "Что такое ЕГЭ?" Turned out they took different exams than Russians. They asked for my Instagram, and I said I use Telegram, and they subscribed to my channel. I said it was kind of cringe, and they laughed for a while. "Как тебя зовут?" I said Дима. They are Саша, Каролина и Полина. I asked if they like music. I said I like Viktor Tsoi. I asked if they use Tiktok? They said they do. It was mostly Sasha doing the talking, and she asked if she could take a photo with me. I said, "конечно." Then I said they are very kind people. And they laughed again. I asked where to eat? Sasha said, "такси." I thought she meant going by taxi, but turned out it's a bar here. I asked about the Ланч restaurant I saw on the map. She said, "Наверное, закрывается когда ты был там." I don't know why but "Приятная встреча" popped up in my head and they said "Приятная познакомиться", and we said "До свидания".

There are many Khrushchevkas to the east of the city.

And I got 6 subscribers on my Telegram channel now.

I headed to the "Ланч" restaurant. I was the only one eating there. A 400g pizza cost 13 Rubles. The pizza is delicious.

At night it became really dark. I went back to the house to sleep.