October 7, 2011

My landlady showed up last night about 9:30 after I was deep in my sleep. Evidently, she wanted to make sure that I knew where to place each item she had purchased and exactly how to use it. Even though I was in my bathrobe and socks and mimed the fact that I was already asleep when she came, she went through each package, unwrapped and carried each one to its location as if it were ten o’clock in the morning. My already reduced bathroom, with zero storage capacity, was suddenly inundated with knick knacks, a rug, mop, a broom and dust pan. A plunger and dust bin were placed in the separate toilet area and other items carried to the kitchen in addition to the ironing board and a rack to dry clothes, which she insisted on assembling right then and there, but I was able to dissuade her from doing so by pretending that I knew how to do it. She then proceeded to inspect the box spring and my addition of three separate coverlets. I once again indicated everything was fine just so I could go back to sleep, but she had one more thing yet: an ugly green doormat with the word “Welcome” in Turkish. Just what my flat needed, indeed. Oh, I forgot to mention the reading lamp that could very well be placed inside a doll house for it measures a scant 16” high and the shade is only 8” across. Do they really expect a voracious reader such as myself to devour books with such scant illumination? My search through the market did not produce another lamp much bigger than this one.

                                           My miniature lamp

I finally got to unpack my bags and they are now hidden in the huge armoire. I don’t have a single hanger though and that means another trip to the store.

Met with Illana, a Fulbright fellow working at American Corner, who spent the last summer here studying Farsi and who will become quite an assets for us newcomers as she speaks the language and knows where everything is. All the EFLs were scheduled to meet with Nancy so she could provide us with her insights after two weeks of working with Tajik teachers. The American Corner was swamped with visitors and thus we retreated to coffee shop in quieter surroundings, but the macchiato was simply awful and took about half hour to be prepared.  

Since Nancy will be gone by Monday morning, Caroline suggested we have dinner tonight to celebrate my upcoming birthday. Peter recommended the only Korean restaurant in town and since most of the food we have eaten so far has been quite bland, I was hoping for some kick in the next one. It a was leisure two hour meal as the service was provided at snail pace, but we had a lighter moment when Peter discovered that the Russian beer he had been served was the non-alcoholic one as denoted by the number “0” on the bottleneck. We could never established how the server got the impression this was what he wanted, but she came back with one labeled “7” out of nine and he was pleased. My dish took forever to arrived and consisted of lots of potato chunks with some dry or smoked Pollack fish in it. Not anything I’d want to order again. The order was for two people and the restaurant would not make it smaller so I’ll have leftovers for a while.

My friends treated me to flowers from the lone vendor at the popular underpass flower market.