Dog meat

We went to a Soviet Korean restaurant last night and ate dog. It was goooooood.

The exchange rate is up to 39 som to the dollar! That's 4.5 som more than when I got here. Maybe I really will buy an orange Lada this year!!

Circus this afternoon. It involves kangaroo boxing and ice skating bears. Should be amusing, and also horribly sad and wrong. Afterwards we're meeting up with a Canadian couchsurfer who's staying with our Kyrgyz friend Mirlan. Mirlan and his friends are cooking dinner tonight, so we might go there after the circus.

My student and friend Seitek and his Uzbek wife invited me over for dinner tomorrow, and she will cook plov (my most favorite Central Asian food!) for me. It should be wonderful! Seitek is studying hard for the TEOFL and the GRE, so everyday he asks me some long obscure English word that I don't know. He also really wants to help me learn Russian, so it's great fun to hang out with him- I get to learn 2 languages! Uzbekistan is the home of plov, so I'm sure that his wife is an AMAZING cook.

Weather is freezing here. I'm wearing my winter boots already, and mittens, a scarf, and jacket, and a hat. I can see my breath. I'm not ready for it to be winter yet, I was just starting to enjoy the cool crispness of fall. The internet cafe reinstalled all their operating systems to get rid of the many viruses, but Skype is no longer installed and I can't install it. So everyone should get google chat, that seems to be the only working chat service- facebook chat quits every few seconds. The internet cafe stupidly also has the heat on right now, even though it's nearly freezing outside. Idiots.

Yesterday and today have both been dismal and rainy, but we have a generator now at school and one working light in each classroom, so we no longer have to read and write by candlelight in class! The first month of classes ended. I am keeping 3 of the same classes which is great, but my 2 favorite students aren't returning next month because of scheduling conflicts, and my highest level class was cancelled because there weren't enough students. I gave my email address to the students leaving and said I would love to meet up with them if they ever want to practice their English. Next month I have classes 9:00-10:20, then 14:30-18:50. I don't have the last class of the day, so I get to mock the other teachers while I'm relaxing in the warmth of my apartment with hot chocolate (if I can find it at the store) and a movie that they'll be teaching for 80 minutes :). But unfortunately again I got shafted with Russian lessons- the only available time I can get is Wed 9-11! I don't want that at ALL, I requested 4 times and week and I would have gotten it if the office staff hadn't stupidly scheduled it right in the middle of when I teach class in the morning! (It's not that hard, there are only about 15 Russian learners to schedule...). So I'm very angry and I might join Mike and Evan's class, even though they aren't as far along as I am, once a week is no good, especially since it means I can't sleep in on Wednesdays! I'm going to look into actually taking classes somewhere else. Mike and Evan only have 2 classes a week, and I'd prefer something a bit more intensive. Ugh. How annoying.

One thing I forgot to mention- I bought a DVD at Osh Bazaar with 10 Russian movies on it- it's of course a black market DVD, but 10 movies for 50 som- what a deal! It has Night Watch and Day Watch, without English subtitles. It'll be a good way to practice my Russian! I'll have to watch the other 8 movies too, even though I'll know even less of what's going on there.