"Boom!" went the night

Around 12.30am last night, I heard an explosion. No one else heard it so I assumed that it was just another Russian driving somewhere. A few seconds later, I heard another explosion. Well, that's not right. From our fifth-floor window, we saw our dumpsters on fire. It didn't seem like a typical cigarette fire because it was too rapid and explosive. Of course, it was terrifying that the dumpsters were so close to the building (and could be close to a gas line), but I was afraid that the firefighters wouldn't come in a timely manner. Fortunately, they arrived 10 minutes after. That was a welcomed surprise.

Smokey the bear says it's super stupid to open the window when you're above a fire.

At 12:20am, I went down to throw away some garbage (non-flammable, all organic material) and immediately went to the courtyard for a few minutes. At 12:25ish, I went back home and there was a man standing in the entrance waiting to enter. He was there without keys and he wasn't calling anyone on the callbox. Funny thing is, Diego immediately called out this guy's suspiciousness (actually, he says that about everyone). I heard the explosions after we got home. It's probably a coincidence, but who knows. It would suck if we were the ones who let the culprit enter the building. It would have sucked more if we were still at the door when the explosion happened.

Coming out of the building today, I saw boxes "blocking" the entrance. This apparently means, "Watch out, we're throwing ashes from the rooftop."

I used to complain that the trash chute in our building doesn't work.

During this event, the neighbors were also sticking their heads out of the window. I couldn't make out what they were shouting to each other (I don't like inhaling ashes so I kept my window closed), but I was scared they were blaming the foreigners living in the building. Strange night.