November 19, 2012

The snow must have started overnight as the trees were covered in the white stuff when I got up and the wind was swirling it around the courtyard of my building. I felt worse than the day before, so stuffed up that I could barely breathe and had to reconsider going to the Lingua School. My only engagement for the day consisted of a meeting with Elvira to go over her presentation on using portfolios in the classroom, and that didn’t seem like such a pressing one.

I texted her to find out if it could be postponed to Tuesday when I’d have no choice but to go out for my workshop at the Russian Slavonic University, and she agreed. I then notified Zarina and Gulnara, both of whom asked if I needed anything and to just stay warm while recuperating. It was a great relief to be able to stay home and just watch the copious snow fall all day little by little covering the streets and sidewalks.

I got time to compose a well-thought message to my RELO regarding the use of my PAA funds and responded to an invitation for the Thanksgiving dinner at someone’s house this Thursday. When I asked Andrea if the Fulbrighters had been invited as well, she said no but asked me for their full names to see if they could be added to the list. Brice was thrilled to be going, but then Andrea balked at the idea of having all four of them and promised to check with the higher ups and get back to me.

Last year in Dushanbe, all fellows and Fulbrighters were included in this event, so I don’t understand what the big deal is since it couldn’t possibly be lack of food or space as these embassy employees tend to live in mini-mansions and get food shipped from the States. We’ll just have to wait and see how they react to hosting some compatriots with no place to go on that date.

I tried calling the IT person that Takhmina had recommended here in Bishkek, but only got a weird message in Russian. I had no luck finding him on Facebook either, so I’ll have to contact her again to see if she has an email address for him.

I got to watch two movies tonight, “My Summer of Love”, a British film that I found completely unsatisfactory except for its unexpected ending, and “Carlito’s Way”, based on a couple of books written by a Puerto Rican judge in New York. I find it hard to believe that the director couldn’t find someone of Puerto Rican, or at least of Hispanic origin, to play the main character as to hear Al Pacino trying to speak Spanish was simply risible.

The movie contained too much violence for me and the plot was somewhat predictable. On the other hand, it was great to see the recreation of a late 70s disco club playing some of the greatest hits of both Fania’s salsa hits and R&B crooners as it brought to mind my days running to New York City to dance all night at one of these places.