January 7, 2012

The tablet I took last night did the trick for I slept through the night without coughing at all. I was up at four and got up to get started on the many tasks still pending for next week. I found no water when I opened the faucet in the bathroom sink and when I tried the kitchen one, the same thing happened. It was 12F outside and the pipes must have frozen again even though I had left one of the faucets partially open to prevent it from happening again.

I heated water to be able to do the dishes, clean the bathroom and take a bath. I needed to make the apartment look exceedingly orderly and clean as the landlady was coming by to collect the rent. She hadn’t been around in three months. I started working on the presentation I’m going to be making about Washington, D.C., a city I definitely like for its walkability, diversity and cultural offerings, not to mention the best subway system in the nation. I’ll be talking to ninth graders, but have no idea whether they already know anything about it. I also worked on some grammar games for my presentation on Monday.

I tried to Skype with my brother-in-law in Florida, and although he could see and hear me, I couldn’t do either one. I texted Caroline to try and practice with her, but she hadn’t paid for her Internet service and was debating whether to go outside or not today. I could see a group of children improvising some sort of toboggan so they could slide down the icy hill leading to the street. I felt so fortunate not to have to go outside at all.

My landlady, Jamshev and another woman came in after lunch to look into every room and pepper me with questions, in Russian of course. I paid the rent and had to call Dilya to be told that the pump was damaged once again because I’m not supposed to leave it plugged in when I’m not using any water. This was news to me. The landlady seemed pleased with the look of the unit and wanted to verify how much longer I’d be staying here. She even invited me for lunch at her house next Sunday. That should be fun with two people who only share about five words in either English or Russian.

Zoir called to say he wanted to come by, but I dissuaded him from doing so alleging to be busy with my school work. It can be draining sometimes to be around him. Daroush came by to pick up his flashdrive now that I was able to do some online research on Afghani war rugs for his English class presentation.