Foreigners in Russia quickly appropriate the word remont into their native language. Remont means, in theory, repair or restoration. In practice, it’s more of a state of being. The word remont painted on a sawhorse placed in front of an escalator should mean “under repair” but we all know it means “out of commission.”

Remont is also an excuse of workers to stand in groups talk to each other, occasionally taking breaks to pound things. They may choose very odd times to hold these gatherings.

Like Sunday morning. The roof of our building is being remonted and I have a theory that the workers have spent more time calculating what time the optimum number of people will be asleep than they have spent working. Needless to say, they only work during these times of slumber, but they just have to pound a few times before everyone (at least on our floor, the top of the building) is awake and they can go back to milling around until their next break.