April 19, 2013

I couldn’t sleep the night before and got up at 2:30 am, hungry and grumpy. I drank a cup of hot milk and watched a movie, “Adrift in Manhattan”, which turned out to be quite unsatisfactory as none of the characters in it appeared believable and the acting was less than superb. I was hoping to find some information on the young actor, Victor Rasuk, who appeared to be Hispanic, but none was available online.

I then went back to bed and slept some more. I had received an email from Anna indicating she needed to cancel our 9:00 am meeting at Lingua as she needed to be at her university. She wanted to reschedule it for Monday forgetting that I’d be gone for the next three weeks. She then agreed we could collaborate online for the rest of the CATEC program design.

Once I knew I didn’t need to go to Lingua, I relaxed a bit more and set out to do the dishes, two loads of laundry and other housekeeping tasks. I also walked to the bank, withdrew the money to pay the landlady, and let her know she could come by earlier to pick it up. I stopped by the supermarket and bought a few staples along with a pair of black nylons from a street vendor.

With the temperature in the mid-40s and no heating in place, the apartment felt so chilly that I had to find my leggings and put them on again while wearing my lined sweatshirt for warmth. I truly hope temperatures rise soon.

Meka came by around one and was obviously disappointed by my firm stand in not paying for her building maintenance fee. I had my copy of the contract with me and pointed out to her that it clearly stated I was only responsible for utilities and municipal fees. I also reminded her that I could pay my rent in either dollars or soms, not just crisp dollar bills as she had demanded last month.

Elvira sent me notification that my submission to the symposium for the Association of American Studies had been accepted and now I needed to submit a paper to substantiate it. I had no idea what the format for such paper should be and replied indicating I was grateful for the selection, but needed some information on how to proceed. No answer was forthcoming.

She did help me get a reservation for Saturday night to take Willoughby out on her actual birthday at the Georgian restaurant recommended by Max.

I was able to make a sofrito to cook the beef from the plov and add some flavor to it. I sliced it into small bites and cooked it slowly in it adding the rice later for it to soften. Accompanied by the green salad I had purchased earlier that day, it turned out to be quite a feast.