Monday and Tuesday were our final two days of class. Surayyo Khanum (apparently I have been spelling that incorrectly; my bad) went over a couple new lessons with us, the final of which she said would not appear on the exam. We didn't have any excursions on either afternoon since we were preparing for exams and since our final dinner was scheduled for Wednesday night. We all expressed mixed feelings about the end of the program; we have really enjoyed classes here, and Surayyo has gone well above and beyond what we expected out of our professors here. I don't know how she finds the time to take care of her own family AND be with us everywhere we go, but she does, and I, for one, am incredibly grateful for it. I certainly have learned a great deal while being here, and a large chunk of it has been directly because of her.
Monday was my final Poetry Club for ACT. We set up for the large groups we've been getting, but ended up only having 10 people, including Jill and me. We moved to a table for a smaller setting, and had what I think was the best session yet. We'd chosen a group of translated poems by modern Tajik and Iranian poets, which we were able to listen to in Persian before reading them in English. The group really responded well to hearing the poems in their native language first, then hearing us read them. We also chose a couple American poems, and everyone was really excited about them. I'm impressed at the level of English some of the kids have there; the fact that we can talk in-depth about poetry really made me happy. (Example: Gwendolyn Brooks. Fairly simple language, but complicated concepts, and they were all over it.) Hopefully, ACT will continue the Poetry Club after we leave, and the group will continue to explore other poets and poetry in English; I can only hope.
Tuesday we got a tour of various rooms in the Hotel Tajikistan. This place is NICE. There are balconies with every room, and some of the suites are almost as big as my apartment! They also have a killer swimming pool, sauna, massage services, and a huge gym. They have a lower occupancy right now because so many visitors to Dushanbe would prefer to stay in the Hyatt and other places, which means if we get a room we'll also get a discount. On top of that, I've gotten to know some of the staff from using the WiFi in their lobby, so the discount will be even nicer. I think for the last night we will stay there because we have a 5:30am flight and don't want to bother the families at 3am to let us out, since Ramadan will be over and they'll (finally!) be sleeping at night again. I keep getting invitations from various people I've met to come visit them during Eid, and I don't think it's possible to make it to all of them. However, I am looking forward to visiting the family that day. Apparently, the party is sick.
In today's next edition, I'll be talking about going to Korvon again, gifting our family, and finding a REAL Italian restaurant in town. Oh yeah, and exams. Woo!
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