February 4, 2013

I had a decent night sleep and felt much better when I got out of bed at almost nine in the morning. Whatever that medication has in it, it surely works at drying my sinuses and preventing me from coughing all night. Having skipped the news entirely yesterday, I attempted to watch CNN while drinking my coffee, but they had the umpteenth rerun of the same program.

I had enough energy to do the dishes and tidied up the place in anticipation of the landlady coming by to discuss the noise level with the levels on both sides of my unit. Not that I had any faith such talking would be able to solve the situation, just to give her a chance to play the local card in this game.

Shortly after I had my muesli for breakfast, the most horrendous sound started coming from the unit being renovated. It sounded as if someone was operating an industrial-sized drill like the ones used in the States to break sidewalks or pavement. It sounded as if someone was drilling inside my head. It was time to flee the apartment once again, but not before dashing a note to Mika that was contemplating moving into a guest house if need be to get away from such infernal sound.

When I got to Lingua, I tried to speak to Gulnara to ask her for clarification regarding my post not being renewed but I think she saw it coming and blew me off saying she was heading to a meeting and would talk to me later. I didn’t see her for the rest of the day. I will not attempt to bring up the subject again as I do have my dignity after all.

While sitting at the computer, Nargiza asked me which university had been the most enjoyable to work at so far, and I selected the Kyrgyz National University because of the warmth of its teachers. Nargiza graduated from the Manas Turkish University, a private college partly funded by the Turkish government and she confirmed the administration there does not want any influence from American teachers. It only has one among its faculty members.

I called the contact person at the Bishkek Humanities University and confirmed he would have a laptop, projector and whiteboard available for me tomorrow. He requested I call him when I get to the front of the building and he would guide me to the appropriate classroom where the workshops are due to take place. I finished the photocopying of the handouts and warm-up exercise, made a few changes to the PowerPoint presentation and then left.

I headed to the Halal Kitchen for a plate of lagman noodles and was happy to find it practically deserted. The ride home was a pleasure since the #4 trolley was almost empty and I got to sit at the front in clear view of my stop and a step or two from the exit.

A woman was placing yet more construction debris on my apartment landing when I got home. I didn’t even pretend to be civil and simply ignored her. When the landlady rang the bell, she told me she had spoken to the woman in question and had been informed all work on that apartment is due to be finished this week. The older couple I had spoken to a few weeks ago is moving in then hence providing me with a note of relief that no children would be around.

Mika didn’t know the tenants on my left, the ones with the little elephants in need of Ritalin, but has a friend who will find out for her so she can go and talk to them. I feel she is overly optimistic about her chances of solving the problem, but it’s worth giving it a try for I hate the idea of having to pack up my stuff once again and move.

Once more, Mika promised to go in search of the dining room chairs tomorrow.