March 4, 2012

A rainy Sunday was in order as I dragged myself back to my apartment after feeding the cats and cleaning the litter box.  I needed to organize myself for the coming week. Just on Monday, I’d have three classes to teach: one at the professional development center, another at the PedInst and then Caritas. I also needed to map out what kind of activities I’d be offering to the teachers at the PedInst beginning on Tuesday. I was able to print enough materials to last until Tuesday when I’ll be able to go to copy center and order enough copies for the rest of the month.

        The trash accumulating next to my building. Who's going to be responsible for hauling it away?

Ryan texted inviting me to lunch at his flat offering spaghetti a la Bolognese, to which I agreed since I didn’t feel like cooking anyway. He had at least eight kids in there doing the usual, which is watching TV, playing music and computer games on his IPad. I don’t why I had forgotten much I detest being surrounded by screaming kids who on top of that lack table manners. Not all was lost as another couple showed up later, she is France and working as a development worker, and he’s an English teacher at the Bactria Center. As we talked about our respective fields of work, he indicated he wish he’d known about our professional development workshops at the American Corner, but he was never notified by the embassy. I offered to make the materials I had available to him in the near future.

                    The exposed pipes that carry water to my apartment and the reason they freeze.

I returned to my flat to pick up my materials and the laptop and walked back to Marydean’s house. I forgot the cable to my laptop and could only work with it for a little while before the battery gave up. I started to read another intriguing book, “American” and went to bed relatively early.