November 29, 2012

The snow must have started falling shortly after midnight and then continued to fall all day long. I didn’t get out of bed until eight since everything was so quiet and there was no daylight squeezing through the bedroom’s blinds. Still in a sleepy mood, I made my coffee and proceeded to deal with emails and Facebook posts. Although Grace must have arrived from Tajikistan two days, she has made no attempts to contact me. I let her know I’d be available for lunch or dinner if that suited her plans. There was no reply from her.

                                Non-stop snow made the courtyard look like this.

My new boots fit me like a glove and I felt all cozy and warm heading to the bus stop in what felt almost like a blizzard as the snow steadily fell all around us. Since I didn’t have to deal with lamination or photocopying today, I headed straight to Lingua bypassing the underpass and found the staff attending a meeting. I got to work on a new presentation I want to offer the teachers dealing with presenting movies to examine different cultural topics.

Nargiza came by to indicate she’d like to attend my presentations but usually has to teach at the same time. I offered to email her the PDF version of them and whatever handouts she found necessary. Chinara came by to show me the changes she had made to the Forum flyer, but I still found that more changes were needed.

I ordered two samsis to take home as I had brought flat bread and cheese for my lunch not being willing to go out in that weather to visit the Halal Kitchen place. At two o’clock, Nargiza told me that the mother of a staff member had brought in a full lunch for everyone to share to celebrate the upcoming opening of the McMillan Center. We were treated to chicken noodle soup, Kyrgyz fried bread, which I’m not enamored of, dried fruit, sweets and fresh fruit. I took a pear and lemon home as I was already full. The soup was quite tasty and the cook had chopped some fresh dill to top it off at the last minute, the way it should be done.

Zarina called the hotel for me once again and had to deal with a clerk whose elevator didn’t seem to go all the way to the top and who insisted it wasn’t possible to send an electronic confirmation of my reservation so I could forward it to my supervisor. I got a number from her and a total bill of $397.00 for the five day stay. Zarina called my landlady to ask her if I could get some sort of furniture piece on which to hang my winter clothes so I don’t have to drape them over the dining room pieces. She answered that perhaps by January she’d be able to figure something out. Not exactly what I wanted to hear.

I decided to go back home by four so as to avoid the crunch of commuters that would be packing the marshrutkas on a day like today. Managed to ride standing next to the door and got off easily when my stop came up. Walking home was a piece of cake as the snow had now piled very high and there was plenty of traction. My feet felt marvelously warm and I was plain happy.

I did all the dishes piling up in the sink, made myself a cup of coffee and swept the kitchen floor. The snow continued to pile on the courtyard while some youngsters reveled in it by throwing snowballs at each other and rolling in the deep powder. I do love to see snow fall as everything turns white and clean and silent.

I got to watch the most fantastic movie about the business of making movies in Hollywood. It’s called “The Player” and boasts a lineup of the best actors in the business either portraying themselves, making cameo appearances or acting in some role. The movie was made in 1992, when I was living in Panama, and thus went under the radar for these many years. This is one of those films I’d like to see again for I certainly missed a few things the first time around.