The Calm Before the Storm

I haven’t done anything particularly interesting this weekend—quite aside from the fact that I’ve needed to be working on my presentation for Thursday (more on that in a bit), the weather pretty much removes any desire I might have had to go out and find something interesting to do. After nearly a month straight of warm, sunny days, we have suddenly switched to wet, rainy, and cold. Actually, yesterday wasn’t that cold, and the rain was only a drizzle most of the time, but today it’s been actively raining all day, and it’s pretty cold—in the 50s. (Which may not sound that cold, but when just a few days before it was nearly 90…) So I’ve devoted my weekend to such domestic pursuits as sweeping and laundry.

Now doing laundry when it’s raining is actually rather problematic. It’s easy enough to wash the clothes—the rain does not inhibit my filling up a bucket with water and laundry detergent, but the clothes don’t dry. For a little while yesterday there was a break in the rain and things got drier, but then the rain started again, and even though my porch has a roof and the rain wasn’t actually blowing onto my clothes, the amount of humidity in the air meant that my clothes actually got wetter than they had been before.

I also went grocery shopping…my favorite purchase is this German milkshake-in-a-bottle thing…I was feeling the lack of dairy in my diet, and I don’t just buy milk, because milk outside of the US all tastes like whole milk (not a fan). But these milkshake things have potential…they’re pretty good and not that expensive. (In Russia I ate yogurt all the time, but yogurt is actually fairly expensive here). I’m going to try the chocolate flavor next.

Other than that…I swept my apartment yesterday. I try to do it once a week. It’s amazing how much dirt accumulates on my floor over the course of a week. I’m not quite sure where it comes from. But today I acquired something which should help—a rug! It says welcome on it. (in English).

While I was out on my way to acquiring said rug, a funny thing happened--a woman stopped me and started speaking to me in Armenian. She was clearly asking me for directions, but of course I didn't understand a word she said. So I told her in Russian that I don't understand Armenian, and so she switched to Russian and proceeded to ask me directions to some sort of store that I'd never heard of. So in the end I wasn't terribly helpful, but I just find it entertaining that I looked like I knew what I was doing enough to be asked directions! I mean it's not like I look Armenian, but it's always nice to know that you don't look clueless.

Oh--I did do one interesting thing this past week! Armine's cousin is the director of this Armenian dance ensemble, and so she got us free tickets to see their show! It was a mixture of traditional Armenian dance and modern dance...it was really good!

This weekend is kind of like the lull before the storm--next week should be pretty crazy. On Tuesday night I'm working as the photographer at this agricultural conference (nobody else could do it. Yes, I know I'm not a professional photographer.) Apparently Jacques Chirac might be there...

Then on Wednesday starts my own four day conference. October seemed so far away, but all of a sudden it's here. I will be presenting my paper on Thursday...the prospect is a bit terrifying as I have to do it in Russian. I need to write myself a script, have Nelly edit it, and then memorize it...it's the only way I'm going to be able to pull this thing off. I've started writing it, but it's hard because, well, I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to say. I really don't know how these sorts of things work. But I guess I'll find out.

And then it will be time to really get started on my research. Armine and I agree that it would be so much better if the Fulbright were a 2-year thing--the first year to get to know the country, and the second year to do the research...but oh well. (We do envy Garin who's writing a novel--he can just do whatever he wants and call it "research"!) Maybe I'll meet someone at the conference who will be helpful. You never know.

One last note--if you're interested, all of my photos are now up on facebook.