Friday, August 10, 2012

Practical Classes 2.0: At some point, everyone catches The Death

We have been to so many museums and parks and restaurants and bazaars here that they are starting to run together. Wednesday we went to Korvon, a HUGE bazaar somewhere close to the outskirts of the city. We spent 3 hours walking around and buying various things, and I'm pretty sure we only went to a small section of the bazaar. I wouldn't be surprised if we spent a whole day and only saw half of it. At any rate, I picked up a host of various pieces to bring back. And they're ALL MINE. (Just kidding, Mom and Dad; I got you something.) Our teacher again dedicated a practical class to our shopping whims, helped us find what we wanted, and encouraged us to do all of the questioning, haggling, and purchasing from the store owners. I am actually really impressed at just how much time she has spent with us and has done for our class. Example: we talked last week about getting t-shirts made with our class level, our names, and chosen numbers on them. Since then, she has: taken us to a place that prints on shirts to get a price, taken us to buy the shirts, designed the logo and our names for us, used her own computer and her own time to come up with sample prints, and is taking us to get them done and make sure we get a good price next week. Also, she's been on every excursion with us except the very first one, when we hadn't met her yet. Awesome.

Anyway, it seems this week that everyone has picked up some sort of The Death. Whether it's a stomach issue, or the flu, or just a regular cold, this week has been rough on us. Yesterday, I was the only one of the three of us in Farsi 3 who made it to class, and I had a cold! Xoshruz and Nikruz were both out with tum tum problems; thankfully they made it back today.

Speaking of being sick, yesterday was my first experience going to the pharmacy in a different country. One would assume that since I'm in Tajikistan, all of the medicine would be in Tajiki, right? Haha-hahahaha-HAHAHAHAHA...no. First of all, everything was in Russian. Secondly - and perhaps more importantly - I don't know why I thought they would have the same names for medicines here, because they don't. I could not find anything remotely close to Nyquil, so I asked for help. Now, I don't know if you've tried to explain to someone in a different language that you have a cold without knowing any of the appropriate words, but it was pretty funny to me. I told him I had a cough and that I had "eaten cold" (meaning to have a cold). He asked if I wanted cold and flu medicine, and I said yes. He asked if my stomach hurt (no), if I had a headache (no), and if I had the shivers. I didn't recognize the word for shivers, so he started convulsing and I had a hard time stopping my laughter long enough to respond (no). Then he came up with a syrup and told me: "Three times a day, after food, until it stops." He made sure I understood the AFTER food part, which I appreciated. When I got home, I found spare Dayquil pills in my suitcase. Oh well; at least it was only 36C.

We went to the Buddha museum today, which was both really informative and fun. Our tour was in Tajiki, but before we went I spoke with one of the workers, who showed me a book full of pictures of various parts of Tajikistan. We chatted for a while and I learned a bunch of new words from her, which was very nice of her. Also, today was my first interaction with the Tajiki 3 professor, who is probably a genius. I am glad we came to this school for the Dushanbe portion of the program.

Yesterday we were supposed to go to the Buddha museum, but I had my first Chess Club at ACT. Chess Club was actually a hit, even though I wasn't 100%, and I am a bit disappointed I wasn't able to hold more of them. Next week will be the last Poetry Club and the last Chess Club there. ACT is really doing some pretty neat things, including plays, concerts, and other social events. I look forward to going every time.

Tomorrow we're heading to Varzob, which is another very nice respite. Everyone who talks to us asks if we've been there, so I'm looking forward to seeing if it lives up to the hype. This time is going by so quickly! I have to get pictures up as soon as I get home.

Taa pargaa!

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